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You Can't Save Her

by Sarah Mak profile

2024
Science fantasy
Twine

(based on 16 ratings)
4 reviews19 members have played this game.

About the Story

You have three seconds to kill your former friend.

The nuns and sacred algorithms have willed it.

And no matter how much you want to save her, you can't.

***

A 12-minute interactive story, featuring music by Falling Islands.

Content warning: Violence and blood

Awards

Ratings and Reviews

5 star:
(3)
4 star:
(9)
3 star:
(2)
2 star:
(2)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating: based on 16 ratings
Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 4
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3 Most Helpful Member Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
A cohesive and inspiring short game, September 11, 2024

It’s not easy to make an impact with such a short game, but I was moved by this cameo of two friends who’ve grown apart, who live in different worlds, who can’t turn back time. The writing is minimalist yet expressive, and all the design choices felt intentional and meaningful: not just the audiovisual ones, but using a choice-based format to explore the limitations of our choices, using timed text to highlight the malleability of time, using cycling links to evoke hesitation or indecision. You Can’t Save Her surprised and transported me, and I’ll come back to it as an example of how beautiful and complete a short game can be.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Short, dark science fantasy, September 6, 2024
by Cerfeuil (*Teleports Behind You* Nothing Personnel, Kid)
Related reviews: IF Comp 2024

The pale desert of this moon curves towards an empty horizon.

...

Clouds of gray dust swirl in your wake.

The wind is howling a language that you do not understand.

...

Moonlight is shining through the stained glass window, painting a rose of rainbows on the floor.

She is still waiting.


What I liked: Music + headphones is great. Styling and writing is on point. Aesthetics are gold. Really love the image of the one girl leaving the monastery as it's frozen in time, opening the gates which stand still like an "open ribcage". And other imagery like the selection of weapons the first girl can choose from, which are revealed to be (Spoiler - click to show)the same as the second girl's selection of weapons, in a stunning symmetry. One girl has antlers, an odd detail which is never explained, but combined with the antler-shaped chapter transitions I think it becomes charming.

It's been a while since I played any of Porpentine's games, so while I could vaguely appreciate the resemblance, what I really thought of was Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Elden Ring. The dark fantasy landscape with moonlight and angel blades and scarred women and crumbling cathedrals evoked that for me. Cool stuff.

What I didn't like: I think it might be too aestheticized. There's a lack of specificity that nags at me--little is explained about these characters or the greater world they inhabit. And the evil nuns and monastery feel a bit too on-the-nose, maybe? I think more details about the setting would help flesh it out more, and flesh out the characters, by extension. Speaking of the characters - without a richer background world to ground them in, their interactions feel too simple. They grow apart because of the book, they leave each other, they have a final encounter that ends, depending on the retelling, in bloodshed or a final conversation or nothing. That's all.

That's another thing: I'm not sure how I feel about the "multiple versions of their final encounter" structure. On the one hand, it's nice to see variations on how things might have played out, but I feel like they confuse the overall story. Especially that section where one actually kills the other, guided by "sacred algorithms". The inability to change your choices there was a nice touch, but it felt out of place since it didn't add much to the story as a whole.

What I'd change: My favorite moment came towards the end. It was where the first girl, the one who stays, reveals that she stayed more out of fear than faith--that she learned the gods view them as "punctuation", nothing more, and can no longer believe in anything. I felt like this revelation added a lot to her character, and wish it was explored more, or referenced more in different ways across the various chapters. Without it, she becomes a more two-dimensional "the original god is the best god and you are a heretic so I must kill you" character, which I can't find sympathy for. With it, I found her much more compelling, and it adds a lot to the world as well, knowing that these gods with so many devotees don't care about them in any way.

I really wish there was more built on that, about losing your faith and entire foundations of your worldview. About the gods and how their presence or lack thereof has influenced this strange desert world with its crumbling golems and cathedrals. But the way the story is told, passing quickly through time via small vignettes, tends towards summarizing and simplifying what must have been complex revelations for its characters in the moment. If we really saw more of the characters grappling with their faiths (or lack thereof) and with themselves, I think that'd add a lot.

Personally, I would remove the extraneous endings that don't seem to contribute to the overall story and the dynamic of the main characters (especially the "sacred algorithms" one where one girl kills another). Then I would expand on the particular dynamic between the two main characters that is described in the last ending, especially the first girl's realization that the gods don't care about mortal specks of dust. So instead of "good deity vs. bad deity", it becomes "a deity you can believe in vs. the inability to believe in any faith".

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Short Twine game about two women in hopeless love, September 21, 2024

I had a moment in the middle of this game where I thought, 'This reminds me a lot of Porpentine, especially *their angelical understanding*. But I thought, 'No, come on, there are a lot of other twine authors and not every game is a Porpentine reference'.

But at the end it included a list of references to Porpentine, including lines borrowed wholesale (and credited). So that makes sense, it really does have a similar feel!

This is a love story of sorts between two women, raised in a monastery, trained in swords, devoted (or not) to gods. One woman was rebellious and was cast out; the other, a coward, stayed behind.

Gameplay focuses a lot on time: one second, two seconds, etcs. There are prophecies and visions, so that events happen and will happen and have happened, making time confusing. I think I saw an Adventure Time reference, too?

Overall, the writing hit a lot of what made Porpentine good, references to bones and gods and change and colors that are left unexplained but all can be seen as symbols of change or transition or other metaphors.

The game has consistent imagery and theming, even when restarting, which I appreciated.

Pretty neat game!

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See All 4 Member Reviews

1 Off-Site Review

Final Arc
You Can't Save Her But You Can At Least Fight Her
Without giving spoilers, You Can't Save Her explores a broken friendship by manipulating time itself. Throughout the game you find yourself at various points of the characters' shared history. From split-second attacks to navigating childhood memories, you’ll eventually realize that time means nothing. Each click of your mouse advances a second in the tale, but the order of what you're shown doesn't actually matter. It's the convergence of events that make the story. Time doesn't matter when you love (or loved) someone, a fitting message for a piece of interactive fiction (IF).
See the full review

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You Can't Save Her on IFDB

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Games featuring music by Karl Ove Hufthammer
I have always thought that music has a huge potential for enhancing IF, more so than graphics has. So what are the best examples of IF games that use music? Note that this poll does not include games with only sound effects; they have to...

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