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Clocks & cooking!
TheRpgmakerAddict- 03/13/2021 03:37 PM
- 2037 views
Sweet Middleground is a cute slice of life visual novel in a contemporary and absolutely normal setting, made by Zorga. It's the first of a series so I decided to try this one first and I recommend to do the same.
The game starts with a brief prologue that also acts as a tutorial in which we play a ten years old girl named Antigone, she is a little genious that is crafting a clock with her father's help. Then we start the real game, set twelve years after the prologue, in which we play as the protagonist, Vincent: he's a student, and he is totally hopeless when he comes to craft and fix things! But then he meets someone that is exactly his opposite, and guess who is this? Antigone from the prologue!
What follows is a classic student "adventure" about friendship and... uhm love? We will see in the next chapters!
WAIT! That is a vase! Also, it took me a bit to realize that father is that grey shape on the left... oh sorry!
This Sweet Middleground review is titled "clocks & cooking" because 80% of the activities (besides walking around of course) will consist in fixing clocks and preparing dishes (or coffee). No well, ok you also have to fix a fence and talk to people, but yeah, that's it! Not slaying dragons or even solving difficult riddles, on the contrary, most of the time you have a clear, simple task to complete, in order to onluck the next scene and dialogues. Yeah, it's pretty linear but also well done.
The only real puzzle is the hilarius part where you are in the crowded library and have to push people around in order to create a path for Antigone... then push HER all the way to the stairs! Really funny version of the classic crate puzzles, not too difficult but still a good addition despite the weird premise.
Hey I wished there were some more little games like this one but hm, ok!
Graphicslly the game uses the same style I noticed in the Severed Waters episode of the Repent Loci series (also by Zorga, and it even has a puzzle similar to the one mentioned before), with pretty custom made portraits from the main characters (Antigone, Victor, his friends and the professor) and dark shapes that represent the secondary extras. This is useful because it lets you focus immediately on the important things, mapping is also pretty good and mantains a certain distinct style (what i did not like was the use of what I think are patch of grass to represent rugs and doormats! Nah, just no! These are ugly and look deformed). I also liked how there is a map of the area in Victor's room, it's pretty useful.
Oh, and I forgot: the soundtrack is good, very very good!
Yeah he means those people. And Antigone too!!!
FINAL VERDICT
This game takes about one hour to complete (maybe I spent a lot of time talking to useless random characters?) and was a short but pretty enjoyable adventure. What I did not like then? Well aside from the ugly doormats (removing them would have been better!), I found some odd choices, like making the professor an important character and Antigone's father one a anonymous dark shaped shadow: I mean, the professor has almost no interactions, while you have to interact with father in the prologue and this is one of the first task, so I am pretty sure that other players may look for the relative a lot until figuring out that he's that immobile grey shape!
Another issue is that the map indicates every location except the row of apartments where Antigone lives. Uh, ok, the place is small and you will probably find it by yourself, still it would have been nice to have those apartments mentioned along with the other points of interest.
Finally, the story isn't original at all, instead it's well written but pretty predictable and I am sure that you will figure out what is going to happen just from the plot I mentioned above. Or maybe I watched too many high school movies, who knows? Anyway these are all the things I could see as flaws. I liked a lot some aspect, and I liked a bit less some others... anyway it is a good start for the series, and I wonder what will happen in next episodes.
I can see this as a good game especially for people that wants to play a short visual novel or those who are not used to rpgmaker games and want so start out with an easy adventure. Pretty good, promising start of a series indeed.
Gets 3.5/5 for idea and style especially.
The game starts with a brief prologue that also acts as a tutorial in which we play a ten years old girl named Antigone, she is a little genious that is crafting a clock with her father's help. Then we start the real game, set twelve years after the prologue, in which we play as the protagonist, Vincent: he's a student, and he is totally hopeless when he comes to craft and fix things! But then he meets someone that is exactly his opposite, and guess who is this? Antigone from the prologue!
What follows is a classic student "adventure" about friendship and... uhm love? We will see in the next chapters!
WAIT! That is a vase! Also, it took me a bit to realize that father is that grey shape on the left... oh sorry!
This Sweet Middleground review is titled "clocks & cooking" because 80% of the activities (besides walking around of course) will consist in fixing clocks and preparing dishes (or coffee). No well, ok you also have to fix a fence and talk to people, but yeah, that's it! Not slaying dragons or even solving difficult riddles, on the contrary, most of the time you have a clear, simple task to complete, in order to onluck the next scene and dialogues. Yeah, it's pretty linear but also well done.
The only real puzzle is the hilarius part where you are in the crowded library and have to push people around in order to create a path for Antigone... then push HER all the way to the stairs! Really funny version of the classic crate puzzles, not too difficult but still a good addition despite the weird premise.
Hey I wished there were some more little games like this one but hm, ok!
Graphicslly the game uses the same style I noticed in the Severed Waters episode of the Repent Loci series (also by Zorga, and it even has a puzzle similar to the one mentioned before), with pretty custom made portraits from the main characters (Antigone, Victor, his friends and the professor) and dark shapes that represent the secondary extras. This is useful because it lets you focus immediately on the important things, mapping is also pretty good and mantains a certain distinct style (what i did not like was the use of what I think are patch of grass to represent rugs and doormats! Nah, just no! These are ugly and look deformed). I also liked how there is a map of the area in Victor's room, it's pretty useful.
Oh, and I forgot: the soundtrack is good, very very good!
Yeah he means those people. And Antigone too!!!
FINAL VERDICT
This game takes about one hour to complete (maybe I spent a lot of time talking to useless random characters?) and was a short but pretty enjoyable adventure. What I did not like then? Well aside from the ugly doormats (removing them would have been better!), I found some odd choices, like making the professor an important character and Antigone's father one a anonymous dark shaped shadow: I mean, the professor has almost no interactions, while you have to interact with father in the prologue and this is one of the first task, so I am pretty sure that other players may look for the relative a lot until figuring out that he's that immobile grey shape!
Another issue is that the map indicates every location except the row of apartments where Antigone lives. Uh, ok, the place is small and you will probably find it by yourself, still it would have been nice to have those apartments mentioned along with the other points of interest.
Finally, the story isn't original at all, instead it's well written but pretty predictable and I am sure that you will figure out what is going to happen just from the plot I mentioned above. Or maybe I watched too many high school movies, who knows? Anyway these are all the things I could see as flaws. I liked a lot some aspect, and I liked a bit less some others... anyway it is a good start for the series, and I wonder what will happen in next episodes.
I can see this as a good game especially for people that wants to play a short visual novel or those who are not used to rpgmaker games and want so start out with an easy adventure. Pretty good, promising start of a series indeed.
Gets 3.5/5 for idea and style especially.
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Zorga
7345
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CloseIt was my very first game, I think it shows...
You're the first one resenting the carpets, but not the first one who didn't notice the dad, or found the "gameplay" lacking. The only thing I'll fight with my teeth is the idea that predictability is a flaw, that's just preposterous; other than that, you're not only fair, but strangely nice about it.
I'm flattered you took the time to go through the whole thing, and even more so that you liked the music; unfortunately, I can't or won't justify the rest, nor will I try to argue there's improvement later. I'll just thank you for playing this one, this is more than enough for me.
You're the first one resenting the carpets, but not the first one who didn't notice the dad, or found the "gameplay" lacking. The only thing I'll fight with my teeth is the idea that predictability is a flaw, that's just preposterous; other than that, you're not only fair, but strangely nice about it.
I'm flattered you took the time to go through the whole thing, and even more so that you liked the music; unfortunately, I can't or won't justify the rest, nor will I try to argue there's improvement later. I'll just thank you for playing this one, this is more than enough for me.
TheRpgmakerAddict
59977
author=Zorga
It was my very first game, I think it shows...
You're the first one resenting the carpets, but not the first one who didn't notice the dad, or found the "gameplay" lacking. The only thing I'll fight with my teeth is the idea that predictability is a flaw, that's just preposterous; other than that, you're not only fair, but strangely nice about it.
I'm flattered you took the time to go through the whole thing, and even more so that you liked the music; unfortunately, I can't or won't justify the rest, nor will I try to argue there's improvement later. I'll just thank you for playing this one, this is more than enough for me.
Well I plan to play the others just because I wanted to play the last one but I cannot do this without starting with the first! Sincerely, in my scale this game is a 3/3.5 but I decided to go for the 3.5 due to the custom art, music, concept, and lack of bugs and errors. It's original, short but I had fun and in the end my precise though was to play a sequel just to learn what it was going to happen then (I mean, it's a bit predictable, but closes nicely as expected, and it's a good thing seeing it had some sequels).
I had very little to complain, I mean, this was like playing Severed Waters, more or less it's the same kind of narrative game with little puzzles, just with a different mood and theme (slice of life/school drama instead of mystery/horror), and I have more than one friend that like this kind of game that is quite easy (even if the library puzzle took me 3 tries) but entertaining and interesting from a narrative point of view.
I just could not stand those carpets! Lol. Ok, very minor complaint (besides the dad, that is just because it happens at first, when you do not know the aspect of the "generic" npc).
Zorga
7345
The 4th game, eh... I agree that it's better to have played all the previous ones, (it's even the reason I barred if off its event stream) but why this one in particular?
I feel like I should warn you: these are all VNs. Calling them "easy" is almost a pleonasm, none of them has any type of gameplay depth. The puzzles are all storytelling tools, in every installment.
I feel like I should warn you: these are all VNs. Calling them "easy" is almost a pleonasm, none of them has any type of gameplay depth. The puzzles are all storytelling tools, in every installment.
TheRpgmakerAddict
59977
author=Zorga
The 4th game, eh... I agree that it's better to have played all the previous ones, (it's even the reason I barred if off its event stream) but why this one in particular?
I feel like I should warn you: these are all VNs. Calling them "easy" is almost a pleonasm, none of them has any type of gameplay depth. The puzzles are all storytelling tools, in every installment.
Well this one is the first so I wanted to learn the whole story and see if they can be played separately of there are references... this is the first so I think it was obvious starting with this one, isn't it? To see the evolution not just of the story but also from a quality/depth point of view.
Yeah, I should have told "accessible" instead of "easy" but that's what I mean.
I have a friend that likes VN games and played Theia: she had no issue with combat or other aspects of the game, but you know what stopped her from complete the game? A puzzle! (the one with the escalators in the abandoned city/factory, if you played that). I fear that she could not complete a game like RepentLoci - The Orb (and I'm totally sure she could not complete Spiderweb, just to mention two games that contains puzzles) while she can probably play Severed Waters without problems. Yeah, maybe these are different game genres even if from a certain point of view they look quite similar (all these are adventures with no combat, no action but just dialogues, exploraton and puzzles).
Zorga
7345
Well to be honest, this has been a problem for me several times. People dropping a Sweet Mid game because they couldn't do a puzzle, or even a fetch quest. So yeah, I believe you, in fact I need to study this issue... But what I meant is, if you're under the impression they're puzzle games, you'll be disappointed, you know? They're just stories with playable tasks thrown in.
Also, I meant Sweet Mid 4. Why do you want to play it? Or rather, should I ask, does it look advertised as a puzzle game?
Also, I meant Sweet Mid 4. Why do you want to play it? Or rather, should I ask, does it look advertised as a puzzle game?
TheRpgmakerAddict
59977
author=Zorga
Well to be honest, this has been a problem for me several times. People dropping a Sweet Mid game because they couldn't do a puzzle, or even a fetch quest. So yeah, I believe you, in fact I need to study this issue... But what I meant is, if you're under the impression they're puzzle games, you'll be disappointed, you know? They're just stories with playable tasks thrown in.
Also, I meant Sweet Mid 4. Why do you want to play it? Or rather, should I ask, does it look advertised as a puzzle game?
Well I know these are not strictly puzzle games and that's a good thing since I'm quite BAD at puzzles! I often have problem with enigmas and have to look at walkthroughts also in rpgs or other games that uses puzzles as a side activity so I welcomed an easy game that is meant to be completed maybe in just one sitting! But from a gameplay perspective, aside from some "fetch quests" or other activities I call them "puzzle games". There are also plenty of VN that consists just in dialogues and some choices, if I must be sincere, in most cases I find those rather boring! Maybe it's me but i like VN ony if there are soe kind of "side activities".
So yeah, that's why I want to play SM4, I also heard very good opinions about it.
Zorga
7345
I see. I believe it makes sense then, the series will be what you expect it to be. I'm not sure you're bad at puzzles though, because getting through The Orb is no small task. But there's something strange about puzzle balancing in my games that I haven't uncovered yet.
And it's not just you, pure VNs turn off quite a few people, especially slice of life ones. To a point I expect that to be the case by default. But as you say, Sweet Mid's formula is different, so I'll keep my hopes up. Waiting for your feedback on the sequels :D
And it's not just you, pure VNs turn off quite a few people, especially slice of life ones. To a point I expect that to be the case by default. But as you say, Sweet Mid's formula is different, so I'll keep my hopes up. Waiting for your feedback on the sequels :D
TheRpgmakerAddict
59977
author=Zorga
I see. I believe it makes sense then, the series will be what you expect it to be. I'm not sure you're bad at puzzles though, because getting through The Orb is no small task. But there's something strange about puzzle balancing in my games that I haven't uncovered yet.
And it's not just you, pure VNs turn off quite a few people, especially slice of life ones. To a point I expect that to be the case by default. But as you say, Sweet Mid's formula is different, so I'll keep my hopes up. Waiting for your feedback on the sequels :D
Well the Orb has no time limit, you can save halfway and it's just a matter of try and re-try... Spiderweb was harder (especially the final part), in my opinion. Most puzzles I played recently were quite easy (for example Eternity) but I assure you that there are many others that I could not finish without a walkthrough.
It's always hard reviewing the first game of a series because you never know how the sequels will turn out. And if keeping the same style is better than making a change. :)
Zorga
7345
Time limit, eh... I remember having had feedback about Apologies being hard just for that reason, for the monsters. In both cases, there are ways to circumvent being chased, but I might underestimate the pressure. Or overestimate my own patience.
Whatever, I'm more interested in story related feedback in the case of Sweet Mid anyway. As you can guess, it'll stay in that genre, and all later improvements are for the sake of the storytelling really. Comparing the episodes should be easy.
Whatever, I'm more interested in story related feedback in the case of Sweet Mid anyway. As you can guess, it'll stay in that genre, and all later improvements are for the sake of the storytelling really. Comparing the episodes should be easy.
TheRpgmakerAddict
59977
author=Zorga
Time limit, eh... I remember having had feedback about Apologies being hard just for that reason, for the monsters. In both cases, there are ways to circumvent being chased, but I might underestimate the pressure. Or overestimate my own patience.
Whatever, I'm more interested in story related feedback in the case of Sweet Mid anyway. As you can guess, it'll stay in that genre, and all later improvements are for the sake of the storytelling really. Comparing the episodes should be easy.
Yep. We will see how the story will turn out since I've read that the second episode is more "humorous" than the first, isn't it? First one was rather classical but gets a bonus for being the first ;)
Zorga
7345
That's the idea indeed. First one provides a solid basis for character development, and the following ones each have a flavor. Second one is a short comedy, third one an investigation mystery, and fourth one is... Let's say a beach episode for now.
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