Ratings and Reviews by Pseudavid

> Sunlight filters through the window, while a cool breeze brings the scent of wildflowers and stirs particles of dust into the air where they shimmer as if made of magic. But that's not all, the wind also carries the approaching sound of hooves as they strike the cobblestone road that runs close by your window.

This is the first paragraph of the game. Consider the ambiental detail transitioning to a more specific event preceding the beginning of the action. Some reviewers have pointed that the the writing is verbose and could be trimmed, but I disagree. This choice of details, told in this order, has a rhythm that a lot of interactive fiction never really gets. This is good writing.

The story is a simple folk horror tale, and perhaps stakes are not too high, but they don't need to. It totally gets the necessary tone.

Some of the interactions and choices could be better thought, but the game offers a sense that choices matter, and clearly points at the ghost paths that you didn't choose.

This is a promising game from a new author.

This is a fun game that requires some serious and enjoyable mental work. Perhaps it doesn't meet all expectations, but there's a lot of things it does very well.

Some players considered it a difficult game. I'm terrible at parser games (because I simply can't get into the 'try different verbs' mindset), and I didn't find it hard at all. The mechanic breaks standard parser expectations, which is very clever, but if you read the description text with attention, everything you need to uncover the mechanics (Spoiler - click to show)(that looking is cueing, that it has to be done one bar before the instruments enter, and that the whole sequence is quite cleanly described if you examine the score) should be quite evident after some time. Then, the puzzle is essentially solved and it's only a problem of executing the solution, which has the perfect length and is nicely described.

So this game is solid and has a lot of excellent points:

- A cool mechanic
- An unusual setting and subject
- Enjoyable writing, well tailored to the information we need
- Really good presentation, and this is very important, this game looks good and is very very readable

This is obviously an immensely fun game, and it’s clear that it’s been a great success as this. English being my second language, I’m not the best to fully appreciate all the wordplay, but I had lots of fun nonetheless.

I really liked the game’s structure, and that was unexpected. If I had read an explanation of the structure before, I would have expected it to fail. The idea of (Spoiler - click to show)taking the wrong decision > losing instantly > going back one turn and choosing something else looks quite wrong to me on paper. But it works beautifully in practice.

Perhaps it works because of the humour. (Spoiler - click to show)Losing means getting some hilarious verses, so of course everyone wants to lose and try again.

This is an excellent game and its great position in IFcomp was both expected and deserved!