Reviews by manonamora
ectocomp
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A good try at horror, November 10, 2023Tiptoeing the other-wordly aspect of horror, this short game shines in its pacing, starting slow before picking up fast enough to hold your breath until the end. The writing does a good job at hinting during the first half of the game of something not being quite right, while still keeping the stake low, keeping it subtle enough to leave you confused until the reveal - though it can be easy to guess the kind of twist the story has.
I could have seen the ending going a different route than is currently there, where you don't make it out, pushing the horror aspect even further.
Spooky shenanigans? check!, November 10, 2023Moody abandoned church? check! Two kids with not enough fear to know better? check! Spooky shenanigans? check, check, check!
The game plays like one of those horror movie, where dumb kids do something they shouldn't, stumble on a weird thing that definitely means them harm, and try they best to escape - hopefully in one piece...
The writing is quite moody and creepy, and with the quick page, it gives little space to breathe (you have to act now or else...). The reluctance of your PC towards your sister/more-than-friend/acquaintance's wish to explore without care is understandable, from the uneasy descriptions of the abandoned church (and all the horror warnings of not breaking off ranks). Endings can come quite fast, depending on the choices, with some leaving you with a sense of dread for what happened.
As is it quite easy to pick the "wrong" choice, and reach a bad end, the game gives you the opportunity to "rewind" to the last choice made, and try something else. While there are many ways to fail the game, it is also a short one - so getting back on track doesn't take too long.
Another interesting bit of this game, was how the text/ending was affected from the first choice: what relationship you have with the other girl. Different tactics are required for different relationships...
Anyway, going back to hunt the last of the achievements~
Whiplash ending., November 8, 2023The theme of the game is made clear from the start that this is about having social anxiety and how it affects you. You are described or you experience situations where you are forced to interact with others, which makes you uncomfortable due to the awkwardness or embarrassment you take from it. Navigating the world is difficult, and the game doesn't shy away from telling you that.
Still, even with this disorder plaguing your life, you find yourself going to a haunted house, to win some cash... if you manage to stay inside during the allotted time. So you can go about, explore some rooms, meet some long-forgotten acquaintances (and be embarrassing), maybe help someone and get a treat in return... trying your best to stay collected to get that prize. The scenes in the haunted house brings some needed tension and unsease, as you'd expect from this kind of place
However, the game suddenly threw me off, changing the scenery without warning, before ending quite abruptly*. Felt like a whiplash...
It leaves quite a few threads behind and brings more questions than it answered.
*so I have a whole theory about it [in spoiler]
(Spoiler - click to show)My theory about the abrupt switch is that, you were not really going to a haunted house to win some cash but actually going to a clinic to get the help you need for your social anxiety. But, your brain tricks you, making up this whole weird spoopy scenario to actually get you there. Because, for some reason, you can't get yourself to go to therapy or something...
When the side-quest goes a bit weird..., November 8, 2023This was a fun short parser, mixing some surreal elements with the horror tropes. Late at night, you find yourself back at work to fix one darn bug that's been bugging you for a while, and mess with your colleague. Of course, because you're in an empty building, in the middle of the night, completely by yourself, you hear some strange noises that prompt you to investigate, as they get weirder.
The writing is pretty fun, and plays on horror tropes to give a very eerie vibe, to the point that you question whether what you are experiencing is real or you are hallucinating. I also quite enjoyed the in-game commentary ( * ) while playing, and even typed the command even when there weren't any indicators (there are no hidden one, but the response is funny).
I've only had to use the walkthrough once, for the middle puzzle (yay for in-game walkthroughs!), as the rest was pretty intuitive.
This was a fun time!
Confusing ramblings, November 8, 2023This was a short VN, a sort of sequel to wretched star, where, during a resurrection of a loved(?) one, you ramble to them about your past and your motivation for this resurrection, like a madman would. There seemed to be multiple actors at play, but it was not always clear who was talking when (or which sprite represented who); as well as some required background/knowledge was required to understand what was going on (and since I found the other linked game super confusing, I didn't end up with much when I was done with this game). The prose here is very cryptic, bordering at times on nonsensical, which is very much the author's style.
I didn't really get it...
Rhyme but no reason..., November 8, 2023This was my introduction to Andrew's rhyme game series, Prime Pro-Rhyme Row, and it took me a while to "get" it - as in, I went to download the walkthrough because I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. Like other games in this series (which I have not played as of the writing of this review), the gist of the game is to... make rhymes. Word plays is at the centre of it all, with commands having to match the name of the room to progress, rather than your run-of-the-mill parser commands (examine, take, etc...).
On top of the quirky gameplay, the premise of the game is very silly, which makes sense considering the commands you need to input to solve the "puzzles" and progress through the game. The writing, in the rooms and the responses to commands, is pretty funny as well!
Though quite difficult*, the alliterations are pretty fun - see the title of the game for an example. And if you love rhymes and puns, this is probably a joy to go through. If you are not good at those, or if English is your second language, it will not be a simple walk in the park.
*cries in ESL, it was so freakin' hard.
Since it was done in such short amount of time, the only help you will find will be in the external walkthrough (if you don't want to keep guessing forever). Though, I did run into an issue where a command would not work, blocking the trigger for the next "event" to clear.
Final score: 14+1/23
An eerie walk through the woods..., November 8, 2023This was a fairly short light-horror interactive poem about walking in the woods, with a bit of a Romantic vibe to the style. I found the different lengths of the lines making the cadence while reading them a bit wrong, which adds to the horror setting. Since the stanzas are consistent, it kinda makes things a bit uneasy to read through.
Through your walk, you are given different choices, which will lead you to the different endings. Depending not just on your choices but their order, you may or may not find your path out of the forest... or be corrupted forever. It took me a handful of tries before I could reach a different ending to my first playthrough (I even questioned whether there were other endings at all).
I thought that having a fear meter in the on the main page felt a bit distracting, as the poem holds on its own just fine. Keeping it only in the stats panel would have been better.
Build-a-bear but make it monster, November 7, 2023A little bit Frankenstein, a little bit Build-a-bear, a little bit of making the body your own. It is both creepy and strangely soothing, ans you get to pick and choose how you want your body to look like. Kind of like any character creators, but a bit more spooky and personal.
Though the underline is fairly sad and a bit depressing, the responses of your choices are still quite playful and with lots of charm. It's pretty fun to reload the game and try a new body, getting as close as possible to becoming a specific kind of “monster”, or mix-and-matching the different parts given. The stats at the end sort of taunt you to min-max them, which is fun!
While part of me wishes it was longer (control yourself with this new body and interact with other people), it is also quite perfect the way it is now.
I'll get those darn adventurers next time!, November 7, 2023Now, that was something different! Instead of going through a dungeon, fighting your way through waves of monsters, and solving crazy puzzles, all for a measly reward... you shape up the maze and fix up some traps to stop some annoying adventurers from desecrating your place of work (and avoid loosing your job).
This is the kind of game that is deceptively small (and so darn hard!), the kind you could spend hours trying out different combinations of maze formation and traps location, to stop adventurers from getting to the treasure. It is both a great brain-picker and a time-waster...
How this was done in only 4h is a mystery. Even with freely available extensions, which were mostly made by the author, the amount of content and writing within the game is impressive, and honestly insane. Do you have access to some time-wrap or something? Can you share?
Anyway, I'm going back to try to foil the adventurer's plans again...
Creepy escape, if you manage to, that is.., November 7, 2023This is a short but a bit of an obtuse parser (definitely not beginner friendly), working as a survival entry in a creepy cult-like village. It took me restarting a few times to manage reaching the end (the first time, I managed to move about, exiting blocked spots and maze, by chance more than anything, before finding myself stuck again).
The lack of hints or walkthrough made some puzzle a bit convoluted to solve. Some actions require specific words, whose usual synonyms were not implemented (e.g. drink for glass), and it feels like there was supposed to be more places to explore or more puzzles to solve? As a whole, story-wise, your escape relies quite a bit on luck...
But if you look at everything, explore every room, and take everything you can find, you may be able to reach the end... somewhat unscathed.
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