Lethe Flow Phoenix

Baf's Guide

An introspective one, with some incongruities. Alone and moody, you find yourself snatched away by supernatural forces to a small and symbolic world of magic and hallucination, dominated by a river that flows through a desert. About halfway through the game, there's a great deal of exposition, in which you learn of your destiny to - and here's the incongruous bit - fight off an alien invasion. Well-programmed, detailed environment, a few nice puzzles, some possibility of getting locked out of victory.

-- Carl Muckenhoupt

IF-Review
A Dream of Lethe
This changes later as the game's tone grows more serious (again, much like Tolkien's prose changed between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings), but the entire game is beautifully written, with funny and compelling descriptions. The world it is set in seems like a condensed version of Once and Future (which it pre-dates by several years, of course) sometimes, in that it is not a generic fantasy world but alive with strange beasts and vivid locations. (Gunther Schmidl)
See the full review

SPAG
Somehow, this combination of myth and science fiction, legend and psychological drama, science fiction and ghost story, saving the world and achieving personal fulfillment, all presented in just a few pages of text, fails to have the desired impact just because it is _too_ powerful, too all-encompassing. (Magnus Olsson)

In this game, all plot, characterisation and background is confined to the cut scenes, and the interactive portions are completely unrelated to the ostensible plot. The effect is unnerving and surreal. [...] The most curious aspect of "Lethe Flow Phoenix" is how well done the individual parts are! The puzzles are uniformly excellent and well-motivated (except for one curious action, which most players will eventually work out for lack of anything else to do). (Gareth Rees)
See the full review

Xyzzy News
Set in a refreshingly far-off, sometimes mystical environment, Lethe Flow Phoenix has a number of satisfying, not-too-difficult puzzles and some interesting NPCs. The game's highly metaphorical plot and screensful of explanatory background material, however, made it difficult for me to get really drawn into the setting. (Stuart Beach)
See the full review