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Table for four
- nhubi
- 09/17/2014 05:48 AM
- 511 views
There are one act plays, one horse towns, one hit wonders. This is a one map game. Etna's Little House is a fairly descriptive title for the game in its entirety, as all action takes place within its four walls in this short simple game. The developer calls it 'experimental;' and I suppose that is as accurate a description as any.
Etna is a lively young woman, you'd have thought with a name like that she'd be a little explosive, but she is relatively calm and peaceable. She spends her days indoors, reading, playing and relaxing though it is to be assumed she does occasionally venture out as on this day she is determined to prepare a meal for her august dinner guests, her little sister, the Handsome Prince and the Duchess.
Everything in this game is little.
The majority of the game play is a series of interlinked fetch quests, albeit of limited distance as Etna gathers the ingredients necessary to host her little soirée. There are puzzles in the form of questions posed by a series of books the solving of which rewards Etna with more of her home to explore and gather the resources she requires.
One rather odd design choice, if that is what it is, is the lack of background music, there are sounds, knocking on doors, opening books, water running etc but for the vast majority of the game there is no music playing. It's a little off-putting in such a simple and cheerful tale to be without musical accompaniment. Indeed I believe it may not be a design choice but a glitch as there is a number of music tracks in the folder available, just none of them play.
Almost everything within the game is interactive and some of them are remarkably charming. For example Etna collects dolls and displays them in an upstairs hallway, each of these dolls is poseable and you can interact with them and set them in a variety of positions, I don’t believe the poses have any influence of the game itself it's just a added extra to provide a little more variety and insight into Etna's character. In addition there are a plethora of costume changes available, from a staid and respectable ball gown all the way to a somewhat risqué red bunny girl outfit, hardly something appropriate for dinner with a Prince and Duchess, but if you can't wear a bunny girl outfit in your own home, where can you wear it?
Not in that outfit she's not.
However you'd best make sure you've chosen your dinner attire before you accept the gift from the Prince, as for some reason that locks all your wardrobes. Oddly enough even though his gift is a beautiful music box, opening it does not suddenly replace the silence with a new tune, in fact in order to hear any music at all, you need to turn off the silence and then select a tune to play.
The game itself can be completed in around 10 minutes, perhaps a little longer if you go to the trouble of reading all the books, taking a bath and planting a garden, none of which are required in order to find the ingredients for your dinner party, but like the dolls and costumes do add to the charm. For what it was Etna's Little House succeeded, a simple game that allowed the developer to experiment with the engine and Celianna's tile-sets . If it wasn't for the obvious glitch with the music I would be hard pressed to find anything wrong with it.