The Moonlit Tower

by Yoon Ha Lee

Eastern
2002

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Number of Reviews: 10
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Would recommend, June 11, 2013

Personally, this is the type of narrative that I prefer from an IF. A narrative that reveals itself gradually with each item and room you explore. For me, it promotes the interactivity aspect to have the story only told if you take the time to look around and interact with your surroundings, rather than having large chunks of exposition thrown at you. It also helps that the writing of Moonlit Tower has a poetic simplicity about it. The details of the narrative aren't necessarily explained to you outright. Rather hints are scattered here and there and tidbits are provided for the player to piece together.

As for the gameplay, it requires you to make sure you pore over each little detail in the rooms you occupy. Certain interactions will give you a response that hints at what move to make next. I'll mention that in order to move certain items, you would have to say "take items" or "take item with ___" rather than the usual "move" items. Also, in the HELP menu it will tell you some of the game-specific verbs you will want to know. If necessary, there is a hint system that will give you a lead as to where to go but won't tell you precisely what to do. However, if you are patient and meticulous enough, you should not need the hints too often (in my first playthrough I think I only needed them to figure out (Spoiler - click to show)how to find the thing that got dislodged by the kite). A cute feature after the game ends is the option to see a list of amusing things to try in the game for your next playthrough. Also I should mention it's fairly short. A little over one hour for my first playthrough, and I think I got most of the puzzles.

Overall a sort of melancholic atmosphere, and an emphasis on exploring and interacting with every detail in order to both piece together the narrative, and to continue further through the game.

(On a personal note: I was only able to find two endings to the game. If anyone knows of more endings maybe you could message me? I read through the ClubFloyd transcript but they only found the same two endings I'd already discovered.)

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