Reviews by manonamora

Au village de pêcheurs is a short slice-of-life parser where your goal is to purchase some fresh fish at a fishing village a few towns over. Little issue, your child decided to come along on this little trip and be a little menace. This does not go over well with the only fish stall of the village.

The current version of the game has multiple unfinishable states, which the author is aware of and has been working on fixes. It also does not include hints or walkthrough. I was able to find one for sure one confirmed fail ending.

With that in mind, it is expected to struggle with the game, find what works and what maybe should be working but isn’t. I got stuck multiple times, as well as had a full page of error messages through my trial-and-error input.

Still, I couldn’t get away until I reached the end… any end. The game is charming to boot, with its dry humour, the exasperated and exhausted parent, the menace of the Child (also in capital in game), and the no-nonsense local fisherman. I found myself chucking at the descriptions multiple times, even when there probably wasn’t a joke. And it was fun to just try things, even if nothing happened.
Even when frustrated with the parser itself, it still worked with who you’re supposed to play: a tired parent trying their best to accomplish just one task without finding the child. The game actually allows (Spoiler - click to show)you to leave without having gotten the fish or the child. Which… is the only one I actually managed to reach.

I can’t wait for the new version to be completed so I can find the other endings and be as much of a menace as the Child.

Une simulation is a tiny parser game, where you incarnate a player about to try a new virtual game: a simulation of an escape room through a VR headset. The goal is to find the three keys required to unlock the door, each hidden behind a different puzzle.

The game makes it pretty clear what must be done, but if you have a doubt, there is a manual in the starting state listing the main commands, and a downloadable walkthrough. Though it can be solved without either.

For a first attempt at a parser, it was a smooth experience. I didn’t really run into any issue. The puzzles were pretty logical and obvious enough that solving them was a breeze. Being limited to one room and a couple of objects does help - there are only so many possible interactions. Handling the plant was probably my favourite one out of all the different puzzles.

Le miroir d’Ozivior is a relatively short fantasy escape room, in which you play as the friend of Ozivior, a student at a magical academy. Locking you in his room, he challenges you to solve his riddle: find his actual room and break the mirror.

The game is pretty simple, that even beginner parser players could manage to complete. It was tightly constructed, with just enough descriptions in responses to get the gist of the puzzle and how to solve it, as well as warnings of any change.
Hints are also available, starting from general to nudge you the right way, to more concrete/obvious ones. There is also a Win the game command to get to the end quicker.
And the vocabulary required is limited: examine, take/drop, enter/open.

You can’t even fail at the game. As it lets you play on and “automatically undo”'s for you if you break the mirror in the wrong room. No need for saves, or restarts, or undos, really. It’s very beginner friendly.

The game left me frustrated in all the good ways - but that’s more because I blame myself for not paying attention properly (or because I tried to brute-force the game to let me play the way I wanted to, even if it went against the puzzle itself).
The mechanic to go from room to room was pretty cool, and pretty magical. The way the rooms are essentially the same but differ depending on what you (Spoiler - click to show)choose to carry with you really adds layers to the setting. You learn more about your friend and his room, bit by bit. It is a matter of whether you keep track of the details (which I failed at too many times, it was embarrassing for me).

All in all, the experience is very smooth and charming (pun), and it made for a fun escape puzzle.