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Help me help you., December 12, 2023~~ Updated Review from the 2022 IFComp bc I replayed it recently ~~
Thanatophobia is a relatively short horror chat-like parser in which you play a therapist trying to uncover what is scaring Madeline, your patient. There are two elements to uncover, before you can make progress and reach the end.
I remember enjoying this game quite a bit when I first played this game, mainly because this is a parser where you could type complete nonsense and still get a coherent response out of the chatbot. Even if there are hints on the page, to guide your psychological session, their vagueness didn't make you feel cheated for solving the puzzle. My stance on the game has somewhat evolved since.
As with my first playthrough the game, I enjoyed the psychological horror aspect of the story. From the start, there is something quite wrong with the person answering your questions - questions often left somewhat unanswered. Madeline only reveals the truth when your force it out of her, probing her mind until she gives in - which at times requires quite a bit of walking around the bush, as she is not the most forthcoming person, deflecting any element that is a bit too hard to deal with.
Replaying it so long after, I had honestly forgotten about the twist that came with the final beat of the game. Until the absolute last moment, I even was doubting who the strange figure was truly (something I had caught early on the first time around). Still, that moment brings everything into context, showing how much Madeline struggles with her issues and how it affected her. It is incredibly sad, yet ends on a hopeful note.
The horror aspect of this game doesn't just stem from the setting itself, and the story as a whole, but the gameplay as well. Unlike the majority of parsers, this one is not bound by rigid commands to advance the plot. Instead, the system will still respond to the most strange commands given (even complete and utter nonsense). It is incredibly eerie how the "AI" answer your questions, even striking back in frustration when you are not making any substantial progress with the session.
But this system is not without friction. As it is a chat-experience, Madeline does not say more than a few sentences at a time, forcing you to time a command during monologues - which at times broke if the command resembled a bit too much one for another bit of the story. I think I would have rather gotten a larger block of text, or multiple messages in a row.
In the same vein, getting information out of Madeline is sometimes pretty frustrating, even if you can mark it out as 'the patient being a bit difficult in sessions because it is a heavy topic'.
Overall, this was an interesting game. One I do not wish to revisit any time soon.
Turns out, I have thanatophobia too :/