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Review
PSaD does a lot of things right without being spectacular. The author mentioned they were rushing at the end just to have something presentable, and indeed they got that. Apparently a few bugs made it into the comp, but even with them, the mid-pack placing seems fair. It's a relatively tidy game with fairy elements that shouldn't be too overwhelming, barring a few minor parser fights. It's pretty clear what to do, but the parser doesn't always cooperate. Fortunately there are only so many things to guess, so it isn't too bad.
And the tutorial is very good to start. It leans nicely into the story. While many tutorials do the job, telling you to X THIS or TAKE THAT, this focuses on you, the princess, working with your friend the dragon who helped you escape the castle and the prince you don't want to marry, to get something you can eat. It needs to be cooked. As you'd guess, the dragon plays a role. It's not clear how you are saving the dragon later, but a cut-scene reveals this.
In the meantime you go about kissing a frog and finding fairy dust and building a golem. The game pushes a lot of buttons of a classic fairy story, but they're mixed up quite well, and it definitely keeps the map (which you can refer to at any time by clicking MAP in the header -- a nice touch) manageable at just ten rooms.
There's enough to do there, with pedestals and crystals and fairy dust and so forth, and it's pretty clear what to insert into what. There's a cut-scene and then a final fight, which you can win one of two ways, which I liked.
From the author's comments in the feedback section, it looks like the graphics are AI generated pixel art that they modified. That's all okay--the author wasn't trying to do too much with it--but often the graphic takes up too much of the screen, even if it's wider than it is tall, so you need to refresh a lot.
Overall it's a very solid game, and it has a strong sense of economy that leaves it feeling like time well spent despite some parser wangling. I enjoyed the NPC interactions, especially with the dragon, though there's a fairy as well. You may wonder if it is trying for any great subversion with the title, and there isn't a huge one, but it also doesn't do anything crazy or disbelievable. The character arc that develops as you find stuff and meet odd creatures works well.
