Meeting the Parents

by manonamora profile

Romance
2021

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Meeting the Parents, December 20, 2022

This is an interactive fiction game written on Twine format, which follows one of the most nerve wracking events in one's life in the most exaggeratingly humorous narrative humanly possible: Meeting with the Parents of your sparky girlfriend who's either about to fan the flames of your love further or light up the pyre for your relationship. Depending on your choices, you could kiss her goodbye forever :]

Storywise

CAUTION! Don't use your common sense and logic when you read the story. Exaggeration and ridiculous humor is sprinkled throughout the game which is essentially a tragic comedy of the main character's situation.

1. Narrative POV: The writer makes use of the second person POV
2. Characters:
a)The main character is the "fool-in-love" type still in the honeymoon phase of their 6-month-old relationship with their girlfriend(every time they think of her, it's her image and some anime-like flowery background). Has a habit of overthinking and worrying too much over doing something wrong and upsetting her. Still a university student.
b) Kelsie Spark, aka the girlfriend, who sparked a fire in the main characters life, aka you, the protagonist, from the first moment you saw them at the bar. Understanding her as a character is only possible through the dialogue and not through MC's description of her (they are an unreliable and biased "narrator" of sorts). To me she sounded like an assertive, driven woman who will not take crap from anyone. Is very protective of her family so keep that in mind when you pick options.
c) The parents: (Spoiler - click to show) spoiler because they are the main actors in the main event
3. Romantic scenes were very sweet but at the same time I couldn't stop my bursts of laughter (sorry to the author). There were some lines which sounded kind of... awkward though (maybe it's just me)
4. I appreciate the usage of flower language and symbolism and it playing an integral part in the success or failure of the meeting (oops! spoiler!)
5. Impeccable humor sprinkled with sarcasm: Read the story and you'll understand what I'm talking about
6. Detailed and descriptive writing: This can be a hit or miss for most readers. Some may like to "headcanon"/use their imagination more, some skip through the descriptions when they read, some others need clear and detailed description to visualize things in their head while some others simply like this style of writing. I belong to the second-last case.

Gameplay

1. Replayability: Different choices lead to different outcomes
2. UI: Starts off like a movie with the author's name and logo and then directs you towards the starting page. Has paid attention to details: from the settings widget to the calming color picks. It's user-friendly.
3.Accessibility: Two theme options: Dark and Light (you can make the difference between them if you look at the way the title "Meeting the Parents" is written (backwards like AMBULANCE on an actual ambulance vehicle or normally). You can also switch on the numbers you need to press on your keyboard if you are planning to play by using the key-binding feature.
4. Key-binding is a self explanatory feature: You can use only keys on a keyboard to play
5. Languages: The story is available in both the English and French. You can switch the language on the Settings Widgets
6. I enjoyed the phone chat image at almost the beginning of the game. It was cute and made the reading feel even more personal.
7. A little but nice detail was enabling the player to input their preferred food along with being able to add the name, but not requiring to pick a gender or pronouns. I was able to enjoy the story without worrying if a bug would mess up my chosen gender and pronouns.
8. Can be played on itch.io both on computer/PC and on a mobile phone.

Ending(s)

There are in total 10 endings/outcomes depending on your choices. From ending the game early to a happy ending, you can find a huge variety of outcomes where only 1 of them is about not going to the meeting at all since you left early.
After you unlock the first ending, the endings link is unlocked and is updated every time you unlock an ending. You can see there which endings you have and have not unlocked.

Would I replay the game again? Yes, I would if not for the comedy, for the replayability since I'm a fan of it.

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manonamora, December 20, 2022 - Reply
Thank you for the lovely and very detailed review! (and also the first one here! <3)
I am really glad you enjoyed it!
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