Developer: TealCrown

Name: Marinette



Story: Marinette's father has died and her family must financially cut back to survive. Moving into a new house, it appears Marinette's sister, Marion has been disowned by her mother between the time of father's funeral and moving into a new house. Marion must even secretly meet with Marinette for fear of their mother's wrath. Marion gives Marinette a doll for her birthday and Marinette, unfortunately, loses that doll exploring the attic. Attempting to retrieve the doll later, she discovers a collection of dolls that are apparently alive.



Writing: At times, wordy enough that I wonder if this game would prefer to be a visual novel, but certainly not as long-winded as many other games. Well written, it sets up the atmosphere quite well, though a bit of tightening on the dialogue could be in order. The scene in which Mother scolds Marinette for being on the porch loses my attention as does a bit of the doll introductory conversation.

Character establishment is en pointe. The relationship between Marion and Marinette is frustrating specifically because as sisters, they aren't allowed to see each other, and Marion isn't even being allowed to come to Marinette's birthday. Mother herself is frankly, awful. She seems like she could care about Marinette, but her cold indifference to Marion throws that totally into doubt. I could barely even stand to read her dialogue where she's talking about how she should care about Marion since she is her daughter. Later dialogue where she muses that there could be hope for Marion because she brought Marinette a gift just makes me despise her even more. She's completely cut out one of her daughters after the death of her husband and is trying to keep the sisters away from each other. Early dialogue between two funeral attendees doesn't make her look any better since it demonstrates that gossip and the general mean girl behavior of church alumni could well be a motivating factor in Mother tearing the remnants of her family apart.



This was over Marinette accidentally tearing her dress and trying to fix it herself, by the way. Marinette's turning eleven, but sewing is apparently too dangerous for her. Let that sink in. Sewing is too dangerous for an eleven-year-old. Carrie's (Stephen King) mother didn't come close to being as subtly reprehensible as this mother. I'd like it if we're just not seeing the real, caring her and the game's giving us a red herring by making her only seem awful, but that ship really sailed with Marion. Even if Marion comes back to true evil, there's just no way not to dismiss it as the result of a narcissistic mother that abandoned a daughter for not being perfect.

The dolls...I don't want to get too much into them because there's a lot of stuff I don't want to mess up for anyone who could be thinking of playing the game. The buildup to the dolls' reveal is quite menacing and sinister, but when you actually meet the dolls, they seem to be Marinette's salvation, and are quite sympathetic. What I like is that that could very well end up being the case with only one of the dolls, and possibly a second (the second one will be an obvious villain when you meet him.) revealing themselves afterward.



Gameplay: So far, this is an item-finding game. Find the thread for the sewing machine. Find the key for the chest. Get the cane to force the attic door open. If there's anything more complex in this game, this demo certainly doesn't reveal it, and that's a shame. The only real different bit of gameplay is a counting game where the dolls move around you in a circle and you have to "guess" which doll is behind you. Hint (highlight to see the text): There are six dolls. Just count to three. Unfortunately, this demo doesn't last very long so there's almost nothing else to do.

Also, this is MV. Why is there no mouse input? In all of the games that mouse input could be taken out of, why an item hunting game? It's so counterintuitive and this game desperately wants you to use a mouse, so why remove it?



Navigation is quite clunky and when I try to go through narrow passages, it feels like I get stuck on the individual pixels, particularly doors, and it's hard to know if you're in a position to open a door because of it, though it seems like you can open a door from anywhere close. It's an eight-directional movement system that really needs a lot of fine-tuning.

Graphics: Gorgeous. I can't really compare it to other visual styles as it doesn't really look like any of the games it brings to mind, those being Dreaming Mary and Fran Bow. I mean, you see the screencaps. Visually, the game is stunning and quite striking.

Music and Sound: Based on the credits, I'm assuming this music was purchased from multiple sources. The music sets the atmosphere very well although I feel like it could be used to queue shifts in atmosphere to better effect. I'm still not sure whether the dolls' introduction was supposed to be cheerful or sinister, although Ethan revealing himself to be the villain had a rather nice musical queue. Not enough musically is really done with the buildup to the dolls' reveal. Musical hits and stabs can be very effective when the player isn't sure what's going on. That Marinette's initial peek into the attic and the revelation that someone was moving up there didn't really leave a lasting impression on me is entirely down to how the music is used.

Sound effects are used rather sparsely. An odd creak here and a sudden drum bang there, set strategically at unexpected points where the player is supposed to be in an uneasy situation can really go a long way. The only really odd noise we have is the footsteps, and those immediately become a point of focus in the game. You do this extremely well with the graphics; the occasional shadow flitting off into the darkness while exploring the attic. Work on doing this with sound effects, too. The atmosphere to this game could have been a lot creepier. You've certainly got the music to do it. This soundtrack is fantastic.

Glitches: Sadly, this game demo has a very clear ending, and I'm not sure it's the ending the dev was hoping to give us.



Conclusion: This game has so much going for it, but so little is being done with it. Right now, there's a well-written, interesting story with beautiful art and music but little else. Music and sound are fantastic but aren't being put to the use they could be. Gameplay, as it stands, is barely there, and if that were all, I could deal with it; if this is just a visual novel, that's fine! Player control needs some fine-tuning to smooth it out. Lack of mouse input, especially in a game like this, is nothing less than baffling. It's an item hunting game in an engine that features mouse input and the mouse input has been disabled! Why? As the game sits, if completed, I'd end up rating it 3 out of 5. There's a strong desire to give this game a higher rating. It's not like what I'm seeing is bad, it's just that what I'm not seeing is really standing out.