Abbess Otilia's Life and Death

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Average Rating: Number of Ratings: 14 Write a review

- verityvirtue (London), September 28, 2023

- bryn_gc, May 28, 2020

- Bartlebooth, January 11, 2020

- Molly (USA), March 2, 2019

- Thomas Insel, December 29, 2018

- Greg Frost (Seattle, Washington), December 21, 2018

- ProtossProbe, December 20, 2018

The first thing you notice when you start Abbess Otilia's Life and Death is the stunningly beautiful first few screens - the cover and beginning pages of a book from the middle ages. This art design is consistent throughout the game, and it makes you feel like you're writing out a medieval manuscript while selecting the choices that define the story of Abbess Otilia's life. The comparison with last year's third-place IFComp game Harmonia is obvious, right down to the marginalia. In Abbess Otilia, though, the marginalia is illegible. Clicking it makes it readable.

The game uses a medieval-style font (the final page of the game tells you exactly the name of it). At first I thought the font was visually appealing. Then, after a while, I thought, "This is actually kind of hard to read." Then I got used to reading it and went back to appreciating its aesthetic.

I played through two times to see how the game changes with different choices. What I found is that the same basic choices were given to me in both playthroughs, with some subchoices changing. In a couple of places I think the game kept track of some choices and my success at attempting later actions depended on earlier choices that I had made. But this was only in two places; overall I found the gameplay to be fairly linear.

At the very end the book you're writing summarizes and comments on the abbess's life. While playing I tried to choose actions that would represent my worldview (within the constraints of the game), and the book's summary successfully reflected this. For my second playthrough, I tried to choose the opposite sorts of actions, and I ended up with appropriately different commentary on how the abbess's life had gone. So, while, the gameplay is fairly linear, all of your choices do end up affecting more than just the text while you're reading: In aggregate, they create the summary of the abbess's life. It's kind of like how I imagine it would be to hear a short eulogy given at your funeral by someone who knows you well.

An aesthetically-pleasing and satisfying experience.

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- E.K., November 20, 2018

- AKheon (Finland), November 20, 2018

- maxltj, November 19, 2018

McT's Interactive Fiction Reviews

I love the colors, the covers, the fact that there is integrated imagery. The font, with its large illuminated capitals looks wonderful on the page. The fact that there’s music. But it’s a case, I think, of the author’s desire to produce a beautiful artifact overcoming a common sense approach to creating a usable game.
But as a game? It actually works very well, font aside. We are, effectively, guiding the career of the titular nun, and can make choices as she goes through her life – these choices, presented at each stage as binary options, do have an effect on the later sections of the game. In particular, the ending is a reflection on the choices we’ve made throughout.

IFComprehensive

The work’s charming central conceit of being a medieval document is emphasized throughout, with period-appropriate illustrations, font choices, vocabulary, and even a song included in the game. Playing the game really does feel like reading a recovering medieval document, complete with snide commentary in the marginalia. It’s a choice-based game with about ten decision points, and the choices I made did feel like they mattered. The conclusion of the game, for example, summarizes the choices you made and both how they influenced the world and how they affected other characters’ impressions of the abbess. It’s a nice touch that brings together the story as a coherent narrative rather than an indepedent series of choices.

Kirjallinen suunnistaja

Abbess Otilia's Life and Death on melko kompakti ja sellaisena kevyt ja hauskakin, vaikka sinänsä asetelma ja aiheet ovat vakavia. Kirjoittajan loppusanoissa mainitaan inspiraation lähteenä lukuisia todellisia arkistoja, ja voinee olettaa, että tarina antaa jopa realistisen kuvan keskiaikaisen abbedissan osasta. Luostarin arki ei ole yksinomaan pyhää, vaan se on taloudellisesti sidoksissa alueeseen, jolla se sijaitsee, ja samalla maan omistajiin. Kulkutaudit vievät monia nuoria ihmisiä ennen aikojaan hautaan. Kirkolliset juhlapyhät rytmittävät vuotta, ja musiikki ilahduttaa nunnankin elämää.

These Heterogenous Tasks

I really admire what this was trying to do. I think it made some bad design decisions along the way, but on the other hand, this a concept that’s inherently very demanding of several different skills. I think it’s laudable to try difficult things, and what’s here represents a really substantial effort; alas, it falls short of what it’s trying to accomplish. So this is a 5, I think.

- Karl Ove Hufthammer (Bergen, Norway), November 16, 2018

This game is lavish, with a medieval-looking font and scattered illustrations and capitals.

Presented like a book, interactivity is done by either turning the page or by selecting between binary choices.

There are quite a few paths in this game that you can take, and I found it overall impressive. My 3 stars is because I didn't feel an emotional involvement in the game, being put more at a distance by the elaborate presentation. I also didn't feel an inclination to play again, due to the energy required in poring through the text.

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- Nomad, October 14, 2018

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