What's the difference between a video game with artistic qualities and one that is a true work of art? Well, by very definition, art is subject to personal interpretation, but I'm fairly certain that there has to be some requirements that we can all agree on. Personally, I believe a video game can, at the very least, be considered a work of art if it takes the extra effort to bridge the gap between the player and the player character. If you have a strong atmosphere, well-written characters, and a deep story, but lack the feeling of playing as those characters, then I feel that the project is merely a game with artistic qualities.

Her Dreams of Fire, Liberty's entry for Golden Week of 2k3, falls into an unfortunate third category of, "A game that tries to be art, but falls just short."

Disclaimer: Due to it's length, talking about the game in any detail will result in spoilers. Plus, there is one scene that I will analyze SUPER IN DEPTH. As such, there will obviously be spoilers in this review, both minor and major. I will also refrain from showing

Because of this, I'm just going to go ahead and say this: Despite the score, and despite my numerous complaints, I do recommend this game. Now then, read the rest of the review at your own risk.
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When you start the game, you are given a quote from Buddha. Afterwards, you are plopped down into a room to explore at your own will. No backstory, no context, nothing. Already I have a bit of a problem, and no, it's not the lack of context. My problem lies with the main character. Specifically, the sprite chosen for the main character. The (what I assume to be) RTP actor sprite is pretty jarring considering every other NPC is a normal looking person. It's especially jarring consider the Buddha quote, instantly cementing the game's modern setting.



Either I'm actually a Samurai, or something is wrong here.

I know, I know. It's RTP. It's not like you can go grab a modern tileset to use. But all that's needed is to make the sprite look more like an NPC, and it'll be perfect.

The biggest thing that turned me off to this game was the lack of interactivity from the player's perspective. I don't like how your "route" through the game consists of dialogue options when you could use the gameplay to convey the message instead. A prime example of this would be a scene in which you light a match. I can't for the life of me understand why this was relegated to a one choice dialog box. All you had to do to convey this message better is simply make this scene playable. Place your character on a map, give the character the match as an item, and allow the player to move over to the area to light and then strike the match. If you were trying to convey the idea that you're being forced into these actions, it would feel much more genuine if I was actually, you know, DOING these actions.

I wouldn't rag on this so hard if it weren't for the messages at the endings which all say the equivalent of, "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT," to me. The player.


What other option do I have?

No, game. This is not my fault. All I did was move through the dialogue and select the one choice I was given. I only worked with what you gave me. I didn't actually light that match. I didn't actually decide to wake up. I didn't actually have the choice to leave the house when prompted. There was only one instance that I played where it really was my fault, but only one.

That's not to say they were all bad. I'm perfectly fine with dialogue choices as long as they were used well. There were plenty of moments where I felt the dialogue choices were appropriate. Such as the scene where the main character had to answer some questions about her parents. Again, without spoiling too much, I think those scenes were pretty well done. However, I just wish that there was something I could do to make my actions, good or ill, feel like they have meaning. I wanted to feel like I was accomplishing something. As it is, I felt like the character was accomplishing these things on her own, and my input, as a player, was unnecessary.


By now, you may be thinking, "Nova, why are you being so hard on this game for it's design? It was clearly meant to be heavy on the dialogue boxes! It's not fair that you're judging this entire game based on ONE design choice just because you didn't like it!"

Well... you would be correct. I could totally understand the game's style and decision and not harp on it at all... if it weren't for one particular scene. I'm going to talk about it in serious detail here. If you don't want to read it, then move on.

I. Love. This. Scene.



This scene is as close to perfection as it can get. All the actions were my own. The scene where she explodes at me for letting her die is perfectly justified. It was all my fault, and I felt like crap. If the rest of the game had this sort of interactive design, then it would have been a 4/5 game at least. As it is, the rest of the game merely makes you watch and your only input is to press space when singular choices appear.


On the technical side of things:

It looked great. The use of screen tints and character flashes were very well done. The aforementioned rooftop scene was a prime example of using parallaxes, tints, and tiles to invoke a sense of tension and desperation. The rest of the game displays similar levels of visual prowess. While I'm not the best judge of how well RTP was used, I do think that the game uses it's assets well.

Well... except for one scene. Without spoiling too much, there is a moment in which a character gets savagely beaten. It's a pretty hardcore scene that really sheds light on the reason for the main character's depression. However, once the attack animations on the beating victim started playing, the scene suddenly became comical, and over the top, which I KNOW was not intentional. I know they were meant to convey that the person was getting beaten, but the animations made me think that I was watching an episode of Tom and Jerry. What would have fixed the problem is just take out the animations and play just sound effects instead. The characters on screen could then convey the scene by having the victim being launched back a square for every hit and perhaps flash red.

Glitch wise, the presentation was solid. There were no game-breaking bugs that I came across. However, there were a few instances of glitches or logic errors that enabled me to move when I felt like I shouldn't. For example, when I was looking at my parents, I was still able to move before the dialogue box showed up, leading me to a scene where I was a head poking out of a wall during another heavy scene involving a child.

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To be honest, I don't feel very comfortable giving Her Dreams of Fire a star rating, mostly because a game like this can have such a varied interpretation from person to person, with none being truly correct or incorrect. However, I will give this game the rating it has because a) more Makerscore should be earned for a work like this than a measly 15, and b) this was what I, personally, got out of this project.

I sincerely hope that no one is deterred from playing this game because of this review.