Pytho's Mask

Whilst I am aware of Emily Short’s fairly extensive list of works, I came to Pytho’s Mask having purposely avoided seeing anything about the story in advance of playing it. I’m glad I did as the story is intriguing and thought-provoking but my view of the game completely changed over the time I spent with it.

I’m sure my wife would probably list romance and period dramas amongst my least favourite genres and, I’ll be honest, this did initially put me off a bit. Coupled with my aversion to typing “help” I was left wondering why I just couldn’t seem to make any progress. It was only when I actually did relent and type “help” that I discovered that I had missed a number of unique commands to this game that extended the conversation system to switch topics. Fool!

The story weaves a plot to kill the king, an astronomical event, history, mythology, a diverse collection of characters and, dare I say it, romance into a “whodunnit” (or more accurately a “who-is-planning-to-do-it”). It is a credit to Emily Short’s writing that this all comes together and the strange imaginary world she creates is full of intrigue, “doublespeak” and manipulations (or even just the suggestion of manipulation) that left me wanting more.

The game plot is primarily driven forward through conversations although there are a fairly small number of puzzles (some of which are optional). The conversation system works well for the most part but occasionally “breaks the spell” with either a blank response screen or the same lines being said by multiple characters.

The game gives a number of strong pointers to keep you on track in solving the mystery and this gives a satisfying ending to the story. A nice touch is that there are multiple alternative endings and I was motivated to see every one to see how each story ends.

So, after intimating that I don’t like romances I actually did really like Pytho’s Mask. And, yes, I did kiss the prince…