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Sacred Reviews: Listen
thesacredlobo- 10/05/2023 04:03 AM
- 72 views
Intro
"Listen" is a visual novel/puzzle game developed by a team of five developers using RPG Maker XP that was created for the 2014 Indie Game Maker Contest. Sadly this game has become a lot harder to get a hold of over the years since the original hosting site the team was using went belly up at some point. As a result you'll either have to sleuth around online archives or hope you can find someone in the community that still has a copy of this game on their computer. And I'm one of those members for the curious. Albeit I have an older version of the game that while complete still contains a few bugs. In fact, I think it might be the contest version that I never got around to deleting off of my computer for one reason or another.
Though if you don't want to be a cyber sleuth you can find a functional download for the last known build of this game over on RMArchiv. And for the exceptionally lazy I'll include a direct link to the game's page. Though, I suppose that version is better beyond the fact includes fixes for some of the bugs. It also comes with support for playing the game in the following languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. Albeit the game does make switching between these languages after you've selected one more of a pain in the butt than I like. This is because the game will remember your original selection. So if you wish to change the game's language you'll need to modify the lang.rxdata file in the game's folder.
Though, I suppose I should spend less time on explaining on how to get this game or an older version of it. And instead focus on what I think of this project developed by Alexis Hiemis, Crazy_Leen, Denna, Evrey, and Pilzchen. And the best place to start with that is the story in my opinion.
Story
Summary
In this game we follow the adventures of a girl and her ghostly friend Tom Tom. Both of them are lonely one because she has been isolated because she is very sick and on the cusp of dying in the near future. As a result she's largely constrained to her bed with very little she can do while Tom Tom being a ghost is only visible to those that are dying who are so focused on their own desires that they don't have time to interact with Tom Tom before they die, but can these two lonely hearts save each other or damn each other for all of eternity. I suppose the only way to know is to play the game and find out.
Greatest Strength/Weakness
"Listen" is a very story driven game and one that manages to tug on the player's heart strings. So it's hard to not cry a bit when playing this game. On the other hand this game is kind of depressing since were playing a girl whose time is quickly running out. And watching a young child pass away isn't particularly pleasant in my opinion and this is made worse by just how slow the story is told at times. This is especially bad during cut scenes where the player can lose control of the character from minutes at a time.
Gameplay
The game largely consists of exploring areas and solving rather basic puzzles. In fact, the most difficult puzzle is probably the first one your given since you need to switch between command options by pressing the shift key to determine if interacting with the toy horses in this puzzle will move them around like a block or allow you to use them as a climbing platform. Outside of this initial puzzle the rest of the game's puzzles are rather easy. After all, this one places a lot more emphasis on it's story than on it's gameplay. As a result this game has a lot in common with "To The Moon" or the Sweet Middleground series.
Graphics & Sound
The presentation for this game is top notch and a major contributor to why playing this game almost always seems to make me cry even if the characters are just a collection of pixels. About the only thing in this category that does hold this game back is that weird messages sometimes pop up about language errors.
Albeit these issues don't actually cause the game to a crash and may only be present in older versions of the game.
Conclusion
"Listen" is a very solid game that knows how to tug on the player's heart strings. And hopefully this game manages to avoid being lost so like many older games have been over the years. After all, quality games like this one really should be around for future gamers.
"Listen" is a visual novel/puzzle game developed by a team of five developers using RPG Maker XP that was created for the 2014 Indie Game Maker Contest. Sadly this game has become a lot harder to get a hold of over the years since the original hosting site the team was using went belly up at some point. As a result you'll either have to sleuth around online archives or hope you can find someone in the community that still has a copy of this game on their computer. And I'm one of those members for the curious. Albeit I have an older version of the game that while complete still contains a few bugs. In fact, I think it might be the contest version that I never got around to deleting off of my computer for one reason or another.
Though if you don't want to be a cyber sleuth you can find a functional download for the last known build of this game over on RMArchiv. And for the exceptionally lazy I'll include a direct link to the game's page. Though, I suppose that version is better beyond the fact includes fixes for some of the bugs. It also comes with support for playing the game in the following languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. Albeit the game does make switching between these languages after you've selected one more of a pain in the butt than I like. This is because the game will remember your original selection. So if you wish to change the game's language you'll need to modify the lang.rxdata file in the game's folder.
Though, I suppose I should spend less time on explaining on how to get this game or an older version of it. And instead focus on what I think of this project developed by Alexis Hiemis, Crazy_Leen, Denna, Evrey, and Pilzchen. And the best place to start with that is the story in my opinion.
Story
Summary
In this game we follow the adventures of a girl and her ghostly friend Tom Tom. Both of them are lonely one because she has been isolated because she is very sick and on the cusp of dying in the near future. As a result she's largely constrained to her bed with very little she can do while Tom Tom being a ghost is only visible to those that are dying who are so focused on their own desires that they don't have time to interact with Tom Tom before they die, but can these two lonely hearts save each other or damn each other for all of eternity. I suppose the only way to know is to play the game and find out.
Greatest Strength/Weakness
"Listen" is a very story driven game and one that manages to tug on the player's heart strings. So it's hard to not cry a bit when playing this game. On the other hand this game is kind of depressing since were playing a girl whose time is quickly running out. And watching a young child pass away isn't particularly pleasant in my opinion and this is made worse by just how slow the story is told at times. This is especially bad during cut scenes where the player can lose control of the character from minutes at a time.
Gameplay
The game largely consists of exploring areas and solving rather basic puzzles. In fact, the most difficult puzzle is probably the first one your given since you need to switch between command options by pressing the shift key to determine if interacting with the toy horses in this puzzle will move them around like a block or allow you to use them as a climbing platform. Outside of this initial puzzle the rest of the game's puzzles are rather easy. After all, this one places a lot more emphasis on it's story than on it's gameplay. As a result this game has a lot in common with "To The Moon" or the Sweet Middleground series.
Graphics & Sound
The presentation for this game is top notch and a major contributor to why playing this game almost always seems to make me cry even if the characters are just a collection of pixels. About the only thing in this category that does hold this game back is that weird messages sometimes pop up about language errors.
Albeit these issues don't actually cause the game to a crash and may only be present in older versions of the game.
Conclusion
"Listen" is a very solid game that knows how to tug on the player's heart strings. And hopefully this game manages to avoid being lost so like many older games have been over the years. After all, quality games like this one really should be around for future gamers.
