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Mind the Flowers, Please
Sviel- 06/06/2014 02:06 AM
- 393 views
Part I
tl;dr This is a really short game that is pretty hilarious. It will take you no longer to play than it takes to read this review, as in, ~10 minutes if you know what to do and maybe twice that otherwise. It's amusing enough that it's worth the time investment, despite some flaws.
The first part of this review will be spoiler free, while part contains the notes I took while playing and will contain rampant and unapologetic spoilers. Grading will be on Gameplay, Story and Presentation.
GAMEPLAY: There wasn't much that I saw, but a fifteen minute game doesn't need a ton. I didn't miss it. In fact, I think all of it was in one puzzle at the end, unless you count a few messenger quests. The puzzle itself was alright, though the penalty of Game Over for getting it wrong was much too harsh.
(5/10)
STORY: It's more of a setting than a story, but it's definitely rich. Every NPC is worth talking to and many elicit laughter. The world is constructed through their banter and supported by the PRESENTATION. There isn't much progression despite what looked like a bit of set-up, but running through town was usually its own reward. The only issue is that, due to lack of direction, the NPCs get stretched thin as you end up talking to them repeatedly in hopes that they are The One you need to interact with next.
(35/45)
PRESENTATION: There are a few mapping errors, but nothing debilitating. Everything is quite minimalistic, but since it's consistent, it works. Just about everything is interactive and has more interesting flavor text than the baseline. The game doesn't try to do much here so it doesn't feel like it's failed...and since the draw is almost totally in the setting, I found myself being very forgiving of the barebones mapping.
On the other hand, the game needs to do a much better job of directing the player from place to place. My go-to method for progression was talking to every NPC in existence w/e I needed something. This is made extra counter-intuitive by some NPCs repeating one line for ever and ever until they're needed, which makes the player want to discount them from the list of people to check.
(20/45
OVERALL: The game works because it's short. Also, the flaws that it has don't really inhibit its strengths. So, when all is said and done, it's an entertaining experience. It's a good starting point in that it comes across as fun, but the dev needs to internalize a few lessons (like when not to give a game over and how to give direction to the player) before trying to tackle a larger project. The setting and NPC banter, though, is solid. Obviously, it'd have more nuance in a larger game, but in this outing it carries the show.
(60/100)
Part II
-Apparently this game is MOM TESTED. I approve.
-I start off as a BUNNY in a cheery room. The NULL area is WHITE rather than BLACK; a good choice in order to craft the aesthetic I think the game is shooting for.
-I'm able to wander off into the NULL area at the bottom, though. Just a bit, as if there was a door there before.
-The text color is a light pink. It's a bit hard to see on the white background, but not terribly so.
-Pretty much everything in the room is interactive in some interesting way.
-My room exits directly into the kitchen, which is the only other room in the house. My MOTHER is there washing dishes. There are sound effects that tell me as such, which is pretty COOL. She tells me to go play with my sister in the TREEHOUSE and that there is money on the table. I assume that my sister is a jerk who charges admission to said TREEHOUSE.
-I can walk through the right half of the table, but not the left. I imagine that this is because the money was on the right half and has its event priority set to Below Characters rather than Same As Characters. At least, VX ACE doesn't check the passability of the tile underneath the event.
-I walk outside. Everything is PINK. I take a step to my RIGHT and end up back in the house.
-I walk around a bit and find a PRETTY FLOWER.
-There are plenty of other BUNNIES running about with more interesting than usual things to say. Usually, they tell give me some info about the world or such.
-One says I should be more like my SISTER. My SISTER IRL agrees. :V
-I meet a CONFUSED BUN in a house. While I'm laughing at him, the GHO--FOREST SPIRIT wedges itself into the doorway and blocks off my escape.
-I fear the WORST.
-But I eventually ESCAPE.
-FLOWER BUN has TREES in their house. TREES.
-So do OTHER BUNS.
-I find a SHOP on the STANKY BEACH. The SHOP ITEMS have pretty hilarious descriptions, but I am a POOR BUN and must leave empty handed.
-I'm pretty sure BUNS die if they eat ICE CREAM.
-They also DIE if they get WET, making the beach a risky prospect. :3
-RAPPER BUN...needs to get his LIFE together. He cannot RAP. LOL.
-Also, he's walking ALL OVER the FLOWERS.
-COOL BUN says telling someone you are FOND of them is 'SCARRIER' than running out of CEREAL. I think the extra 'R' is the real issue, but so far, that's the only spelling error I've seen, which is nice.
-CUTIE BUN gives me some GHOST REPELLENT. She heard I'm going to some SCARY PLACE, though I did not know this, which makes the whole situation all the SCARIER. Also, they're FOREST SPIRITS. Not GHOSTS. Jerk.
-Apparently, there are SPOOKS to the north. I realize that I should probably actually find my SISTER.
-I try to talk to all of the TREES. No luck. I wonder where my TREEHOUSE is. My MOTHER still says the same thing when I talk to her.
-After exiting a house, I can step UP and walk on the walls.
-I can't seem to find her q_q? Perhaps she has been EATEN. Or transformed into a CINNA-BUN.
-I buy the DOUGHNUTS, in case that helps. It DOESN'T.
-Since I have HUGGED all of the TREES and MAIL-BOXES, I'm all out of ideas on how to proceed.
-After talking to the DEV briefly, I learn that I should be able to enter the forest after completing all of the 'tasks.' My sister is, reportedly, somewhere in/beyond there.
-I have no clue what the tasks are so I just talk to EVERYBUN again. The MEDIUM BUNNY asks me to trade my GHOST REPELLENT for a flashlight, then asks for some pie.
However, I don't recall there being any indication that my GHOST REPELLENT was not going to allow me to enter the forest like they said it would or that I needed to talk to this STRANGE BUN to move the game along. Perhaps I missed it? But in that case, a reminder within the 'CANNOT ENTER FOREST' message would have been helpful.
-The MEDIUM BUN asks me for some BUMBLEBERRY PIE. It costs 70G, but I don't know of any way to make money.
-It occurs to me that I'm wearing 'lightweight leather armor meant for soldiers.' Oh dear.
-Since I'm talking to EVERYBUN again, I talk to CUTIE BUN and she repeat her MUFFINS blurb and gives me more GHOST REPELLENT. She mentions that it's still too dark to wonder around in the forest, but does not give me any hints as to where to get a lightsource, which is what I had been stuck on.
-I find a GENEROUS BUN who gives me 10G to buy some donuts. Still 60G short of PIE, though.
-All MEDIUM BUN says now is 'hint hint HINT' which is not much of a hint at all. If I were to forget that I needed this PIE for him/her, I would be totally lost.
-I set about talking to EVERYBUN...again. Eventually, I talk to my MOTHER, who has been saying the same thing all game up to this point...and it works, sort of. She says to come back later for the PIE.
-I walk out of the house and walk back in. The PIE is ready. Not sure what the point of that was.
-I give the PIE to MEDIUM BUN, who actually gives me the FLASHLIGHT this time. I'm told I can actually enter the forest this time.
-I DO. The game begins spitting out MESSAGE BOXES, as in Windows Message Boxes. They say 'Not Implemented' and continue spamming themselves until the program runs out of memory and CRASHES.
-That BUG gets fixed and I continue.
-Or, rather, I try to. Now, despite having the flash light, I'm still told that I can't enter the forest due to the spooks.
-I talk to EVERYBUN again, to no avail.
-I start a NEW GAME and spend 5 minutes getting back to where I was, now that I know which BUNS to talk to.
-I find some SPOOKS, as promised. I must figure out which one loves CHOCOLATE MILK, despite their propensity to tell UNTRUTHS.
-I guess incorrectly and get a GAME OVER.
-Was that really necessary? At worst, the player should be teleported out of the forest...forcing them to reload the game, assuming they have a recent save, presents the alluring temptation to just not keep playing it.
-It's a shame, because the SPOOKS puzzle is entertaining and amusing...but the GAME OVER penalty makes the overall experience frustrating instead.
-Once passed, there is a long path to the treehouse where SISTER talks for a while and then the game abruptly ends. There's no resolution to the tension built up by everyone liking Pip (SISTER) more than Pin (PLAYER CHARACTER).
