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The vaguery continues well into the game...

  • pianotm
  • 05/11/2015 07:17 AM
  • 1637 views
Name: Her Dreams of Fire

By: Liberty!

Story: I'm going to be just straight-forward about this. This game is about depression, and it is depressing. There's also a few stabs at existentialism going on in this game. Speaking as someone who never got over the sudden and terrifying death of his wife, you will want to get into your happy place before you touch this game. This game goes to a very dark place. This game is very short, as it was made for a timed event, so there's not much in the way of story. It's about the dreams of a suicidal woman who was abused as a child.

Writing: Difficult to follow. It's disjointed and ephemeral. Really, there's a whole dreamlike quality to everything. There's a mess of disassociated ideas throughout that are relatively loosely tied together. The character waxes on about a certain amount of philosophy that takes you away from the disjointed narrative. It's all in the vein of depression. While it takes you away from the abuse from time to time, it never ventures away from the psychology of depression. What is death? Does life matter? What happens when we die? Does it matter if we die? This addresses gameplay, but it really contributes to writing so I'm putting it here: you have points at which the character becomes disillusioned and disassociated with what's going on, and it gets to the point in which you wonder if the developer accidentally inserted an infinite loop. Such as the choice whether to jump or live. You have two actions you can take; jump off the building and die, or go through the door, neither of which the character will perform. She just keeps jumping back from either choice repeating "You should jump." Eventually, you can force her to jump. If you do, you die. If you don't, the building disappears beneath your feet and the game continues. Neither of these seem to be incorrect choices as in both cases, you clearly complete the game and get an ending. This feels like the kind of defeatist, broken record mood that a person who feels like life isn't worth living gets into from time to time. Finally, if you're looking for a happy ending, don't. While there is a good ending, there doesn't seem to be a very enthusiastic ending.


Gameplay: This, frankly, is not a game. It's a visual novel. You have choices that you can make but there are no wrong answers. Your gameplay consists of moving from event to event simply to trigger the next part of the story. Some choices take you down different paths, but there are no wrong answers.

Graphics and music: The whole point of the event was to use the basic RTP exclusively, so there isn't much to say, but come on; this is Liberty we're talking about. You know her maps are going to be the shit.

Conclusion: If you don't want to have to think about the game you're playing, then this game is not for you. Overall, it's a difficult game to quantify in overall presentation. The player that fails to understand the subject matter will only see a menagerie of loosely associated ideas, presented in a haphazard fashion. Understanding requires not just the ability, but more importantly, the desire to find the interweaving thread that ties everything together. More importantly, you have to be able relate to what the game is trying to say. Fun, no. Compelling, yes. Interesting, definitely. An insightful look into a broken psyche. Difficult to get into. Disturbing to the core, and you do not leave the experience feeling good about it. I was initially going to give this a 3.5, but the more I organized my thoughts about it, the more I realized that this piece deserves a good deal more consideration. What seems disjointed in the beginning becomes disturbingly clear all too soon. I feel comfortable giving it a good, solid 4.

Posts

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Let me just direct you here in rebuttal: http://rpgmaker.net/games/7691/ploxexplane/

I appreciate the review and I'm glad to see you frustrated because that was part of the emotion I was hoping to foster - the feeling of hopeless frustration that Era feels with her life as it is. She wants to move forward, wants to live, but she can't move on yet - she has to deal with these memories and dreams that drag her down into a pit of depression. She actively seeks help because she knows she needs it. She wants to live! She has no desire to commit suicide (you murderer, you!) and actively tries to fight against it.

This is not a game about suicide. There is one scene of suicide and it is the worst ending, which - from the sounds of it - you never got to see. The building jump was you, the player, and her self-hatred (the voice) forcing her to jump.

There are choices and the ones you pick matter. There is ONE choice in the whole game that doesn't matter and that is the very first one with the ellipses. All other ones matter and there is NEVER only one choice to make. Even if it seems so.

You can cancel a choice event. Juuuuust an FYI. Not sure why so many people don't realise this, honestly. Those 'only one choice' parts? Nope. Two choices. Always two or more.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but visual novels are games too, especially when you have choices.

Anyway, I do thank you for the review. I appreciate it, even if I don't agree with some of the points. Cheers!
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
You can cancel a choice event. Juuuuust an FYI. Not sure why so many people don't realise this, honestly.


I'll generally say because it's not within convention that if you cancel a choice, something different will happen. Generally, "cancel" has been conditioned for the player to believe it will... well... cancel. In games, pressing cancel will sometimes activate an event you did not want to activate. Thus, cancelling has a negative connotation to it, unless the option you are being forced to do is solely negative, which you have done here.

Also, for those less experienced in RPG Maker games, cancelling will be an entirely foreign concept to them. Especially for players who are not necessarily developers, and do not know how conditional branches even work, this may be a perplexing concept to them.

I only assumed that cancelling would affect choices because you mentioned it in the podcast.
I can understand that. I made an assumption that people would know and welp! That kinda backfired a tad. I've plans to release a fixed version in a day or so with a mention about cancelling choices after the endings - I figure they'll play through, get the jump end (most seem to have got that first) and then see the cancel mention and try it out, mess up (because not all cancels are good things~) and then try again and maybe get the good end.

Thanks for sharing your reactions, though, and sorry it was so hidden about the choices. >.<;
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
It's OK, I wasn't bothered by it because I already knew cancelling was part of the dealio.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
I guess I wasn't clear. I said the game was about depression, which it basically is. When I said it's about the dreams of a suicidal woman, I'm not saying the games about suicide, but there is a scene of suicide and in this scene, this is pretty much what suicidal tendencies look like. You can't really control how a game like this is interpreted; the story is too subjective. Artists complain all the time: "Those stupid critics! None of them understand my work!" Actually, it's the other way around. The artist doesn't understand the full impact of his or her work. It's a thing that becomes alive. This is unless the artist is complaining about Roger Ebert. If you call Roger Ebert clueless, I can't really argue with that. Anyway, I've defamed the dead enough.

As for choices: I believe I said, "You have choices that you can make but there are no wrong answers." And I repeat myself there (proofreading would definitely help...). I'm not assuming all choices are the same at all. I'm simply of the opinion that they tell a different story, each no less valid or insightful than the other branches of story. Getting the bad endings isn't a bad thing. They all have something to say. Yeah, there are numerous choices that are only ellipses, but I never assumed they were just meh.
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