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Review
This one had me at “explore abandoned spaces”—but this isn’t your average abandoned building; rather, it’s a Howl’s Moving Castle-esque fortress, forever roaming. The second-person protagonist wakes up with only a vague grasp of who they are or why they’re here, putting the focus on what you do in the here-and-now rather than your backstory. Explore the accessible rooms; discover the few remaining inhabitants. As you do, you’ll uncover a rough idea of the purpose of this place, and what happened to bring it to its current state.
The heart of the game, though, is the creature that appears to be powering this massive, semi-organic(?) vehicle. The first room I visited happened to be the one containing them, and their description is evocatively disturbing:
“A creature perches upon the dais, clawed talons curled around the edge of the platform. Fire engulfs their body, consuming their feathered wings, but the blaze appears to spare their flesh. Other than the flutter of feathers burning and growing in perpetuity, the harpy is motionless, upright but unconscious. …No visible bindings hold them in place, yet they cannot move.”
After trying and failing to communicate with the harpy, I continued my exploration, but remained intrigued and troubled by this trapped figure. A (Spoiler - click to show)soon-discovered discarded voice box appeared to be the key to freeing them, but (Spoiler - click to show)upon returning, I didn’t see a way to give it to them. So I (Spoiler - click to show)returned to the room where I was promised deep, dreamful sleep, and so found my first ending.
Of course, (Spoiler - click to show)giving the voice box to the harpy is, indeed, what you’re meant to do, which I discovered when I played again. To get that option, you have to go to the engine room, click the “approach” button, then click the “examine” button. On my first try, I’d stopped at the “approach” level. I’m trying to decide whether I consider this a design flaw or a perhaps-intentional way to channel players toward getting the “Lotus-eater” ending first. Because on my second playthrough, having initially failed made it more exciting when I discovered that I actually could provide the harpy with the means to communicate, and then escape with them.
Stories about kindness in the face of grim circumstances will always get me. After my second playthrough, I looked up “habeas corpus” to refresh my memory, and found it a fitting title for a game where we play as the judge vested with the power to set a wrongful prisoner free.
