Inspire

Hello.
And... uh ok, some time ago I said that I played one of the shortest game ever... well I think I may have been wrong, since *this* is probably the shortest game I've ever found (I guess you can complete it in five minutes). Inspire! Inspire is an extremely short but complete game made by Xmk11 in 2013, and it's also one of the few gamer in which we can play as a dead hero, Silas. Silas has lost his life and also his memories, but apparently his spirit survives, and someone is talking to him... who is this entity and what's its aim?

This game is rather original since it's a sort of visual novel that takes place during the aftermath of a huge battle against e big bad named the Unborn, after an assorted party ofheroes (from different places and social backgrounds) assembled and lived the greatest adventure of their lives. Apparently the good guys won, but Silas had to sacrifice himself... why? Play and see!

Aside for the cutscenes, the game just takes place on a couple of maps: you just have to interact with the blinking points of interests, collecting memories and witnessing what happened before. After, when everything will be explained, Silas will have to make a difficult choice... a choice that will determine the ending that you will get. Not that will make a huge difference, anyway I warn you so you will save before or after repairing the amulet so you can see... well read both!
The game has a single save point on the first map. but it's true that you don't need it since can save anytime, also on the last two maps.


The game is basically a series of flashbacks about the hero's past adventures.

Game uses Rtps, not badly even if only the first, main map is somewhat realistic and well done, the rest are some single rooms where the cutscenes took place and an astral plane that looks rather... empy? Abstract?

I do not mind the shortness since the purpouse is to tell a story, and this part is basically well planned, pity for a couple of issues: the first are the typos, there are some that could have been corrected, the second and more important issue is that during the later parts there are flashbacks that are just dialogues. WHY? The cutscenes that presented the characters were pretty cool so it could have been better to show rather then tell what happened next! Pity, a bit more could have turned this in something better.

Final Verdict
Let's start with the good things: Inspire has no bugs, Rtps are used well (see the pics above, how the charset of the defeated guy was chosen well, the sepia effect for the flashback effect... these are small but nice details!) and in my opinion the base idea was absolutely cool. But it could have been a lot better, and I am not referring to modifying the gameplay, I'm perfectly fine with the idea of the visual novel set in the aftermath of a great battle. I simply think that this could have been treated a bit differently, maybe making the cutscenes a bit more interactive, creating small environments where Silas could have spoken with his friends that are just summarily described (to flesh out the backgrounds and characters and add ten-fifteen minutes more of game and story, nothing else). Maybe adding a bit more on the later parts to flesh out what has been and the character themselves instead of limiting to some text without even a background (except the black). I mean, the first map was well done and made interesting with the rain at night first and later the sunrise, then all becomes more and more rarefied, evanescent... well maybe it was the idea. Maybe.
Anyway for me, 3/5 but no less. There were some great ideas and nice characters hidden somewhere, anyway I wonder why (spoiler alert) .