A Rock's Tale

I feel like I should have a clever and witty when reviewing a game like this, where you're a talking rock who just sits there and talks to people in a forest as they go by. Alas, I don't. Alas, I do not, so I will go with the mechanics. They are straightforward enough, and the game's engaging that you never really worry about how a rock can talk in the first place, or whether you, if given a choice, would be able to walk or talk, but not both. Based on this effort, though, I'd play a game by this author that featured a mute rock-monster running about a forest.

You first have to wait for random people to come by. The main hub choice has this, as well as seven dark "you cannot call this character" links. These links become clickable once you hit it off with people who stop by. You can even be a bit of a jerk, too, saying "Sounds pretty boring, not gonna lie." As someone who loathes "not gonna lie," because it implies the speaker lies a lot, I found this well-used. (You get a chance to apologize afterwards. The game lives up to its "heartwarming" promise on the blurb.)

Whom you see is all pretty random, though you start off with a miner who doesn't have much to say. Interacting (in)correctly with them offers up the possibility of two of twenty endings, with basic actions. The ending list is cute. You can ask for hints, and I went to them early, even though I was enjoying the story. The people's lives intertwine if you make certain choices, though there are also some fun interludes. There's a king who asks you to kneel, but you're a rock. There's a sentient stump, too, and a running gag about cats and dogs that worked for me.

At least half of the endings are pretty straightforward or can be stumbled onto by accident or by clicking through sensibly. There's a bard who forgot a song they composed, but someone else remembers the words even though they didn't want to. Two characters have a crush on one character, who has a crush back on one of them. A circus ringleader, and the circus freak she fired, stop by, too. There's a sad kid who calls you "Rockinator" once you befriend him, and a lazy cobbler, too. Bringing them together correctly or incorrectly gets you different endings.

As does failing and disappointing them. Some of these endings are very funny, but I spun out on the hints after fifteen or so. You see, some conversations block certain endings, so you have to restart the game. This allows for interesting strategy, although it would be nice to have something in the hints saying a certain ending was not achievable. or the option to list it as such.They all make sense on their own. For instance, in the love triangle, if A and B are together, the game rejects you trying to tell C "tell A about your crush," unless you click RESTART, which means you need to find everyone again. So it sort of forces you to know and not know that A and B would be happy together. Schrodinger's Rock. And it's emotionally hard to do this after helping other people figure things out.

(This criticism may not apply to future versions. The author mentioned in the subforum they wanted to fix this.) Having to restart to wipe all the links to call people is more than an inconvenience. You have to wait for them to come by again. You'll face the miner, whom you can't do much with, dropping by a lot. There will always be one person straggling, due to coupon problem-like randomness. Hopefully you won't need them if you replay through, though from my own experience, ignoring certain people walking by didn't stop them from dropping by soon after (If it does, author, let me know! But it might help soften any bad RNG.) It would be nice for the reader to have the option to zone people out if you were totally done with them, but that's nontrivial coding.

So there is a small damper for completionists on the quick fun you can just enjoy, since the characters you meet are likeable. Especially since there is no direct indication you (likely) need to restart to get all endings. But that's my biggest complaint. Also the endings sprawl a bit, so non-spoiler guidance might be nice. But it's tricky. Still, it's something you'll want to do, because the fuzzy text at the bottom made me REALLY want to see who the last guest was. And when I look back on my time as a rock, it's much easier to focus on that. I wound up poking through longer than I expected after getting the Big Good Great Ending. And I sort of missed the people I'd encountered, even the miner who showed up too much.