(Intro)

> This review contains spoilers <

So, I decided to check out this game after hearing so many glowing recommendations of it - with promises of excellent storytelling, it was hard to resist as an avid storyteller myself. Considering the sheer scale of this game, I’m surprised to find that there isn’t a more comprehensive review of it. Well, either way, I didn’t spend upwards of ten hours on this thing just so I could walk off without a word, so here goes. . .

(Story & Writing) 2.5 / 5

Prom Dreams is a game carried entirely by its narrative, and so I believe it should be evaluated mostly on those terms. The quality of the writing itself is a mixed bag, to say the least. From the beginning up until the halfway point, most of it is rather dry and uninteresting, unhelped by the fact that practically nobody talks like real human beings. I get that it’s supposed to present itself as a bog standard dating sim game at first, but this is a good chunk of the content we’re talking about here - I’m tempted to just call it lazy writing. In the second half, the writing sees drastic improvement, but not every facet of it. The overall quality of the dialogue improves, but most of the prevalent dialogue serves as an exploration of relatable feelings - a lot of the NPCs start to personify allegories of human woes, rather than gaining any substance as characters. Of course, it’s understandable with so many characters in the game so I’ll cut it some slack in that department. It is still a refreshing change of pace, after all.

And about those characters. . . well, they’re quite flat. The main ones. Considering how long this game is, you actually don’t get much interaction with the main cast. Each character is bound to their archetype - the feisty jock, the stuck-up prep, the mild-mannered violet - and let’s not forget the main character himself, Hero McHeroson. Given the nature of the storyline itself, there is little space for any real development and was pushed into reserve for the sake of building up the mystery and the overarching story surrounding it all. Exaggerating the personalities of the characters probably worked in its favor in the long run, but one can’t help but feel a little disconnected from these two-dimensional stand-ins for real people. Some nuance to their behavior would’ve been greatly appreciated; if there is no space in the story to give the characters depth, at least hint at it! And the main antagonist dialogues an awful lot like a pompous b-movie villain despite being a heartbroken teenage girl full of rage; there’s being dramatic, and then there’s being plain ol’ cheesy. The whole game is pretty campy to be fair, but I don’t know if that helps it more than it hurts it.

Lastly, the meat of the topic - the actual story and execution. How does that hold up? My main gripe with this, unsurprisingly, lies in the first half. It’s a slow start, certainly, but if the writing is interesting enough, it can still grip the audience. However, as it gets into the next loops, it becomes a tiresome endurance test. It has you sit through the same thing over and over again with slight differences - when used well, time repeats can be an extremely effective tool, but at this stage of the game it felt merely like a gimmick. With a dull setting and uninspired characters that were hard to get attached to, it’s easy to sense that the main body is being sacrificed for an eventual payoff somewhere along the line. Turning the backbone of your game into a repetitive chore is not a good design choice from any perspective, though the more patient ones can stomach it better than others.

As I mentioned before, this does get better in the second half. The gradual descent of your environment growing more and more deranged worked decently enough for the game’s narrative, albeit being a very double-edged a sword - I was not in for a good time reliving those days again and it was easily one of the weakest points, not to mention the fact that at that stage it just felt like I was playing a haunted house simulator. ‘Oh, something vaguely spooky happened in this room! Alright, time to leave and see what happens in the next one.’ The second half is where it really starts digging into the major themes of the game, the answers to the questions. As a result, most of the important story bits are told through flashbacks. They are there to fill the holes in the story, no more, no less - the revelations aren’t particularly potent or surprising either, so these sequences come off as a bit weak. However, the story itself is structured and paced quite nicely, when we actually get to see it.

And speaking of holes, there are some unfortunate holes in the logic of the characters as well. For example, when Neela was being blackmailed by Brooke, she could’ve easily just told Dolores the whole story and then asked her to play along with Brooke’s little scheme so as not to rouse suspicion - and if she was worried about eavesdropping, they take Spanish together so she could’ve pulled her aside right after class ended and quietly discussed matters then. Actually, that whole segment was completely unnecessary, if Brooke didn’t spill her entire plan to Neela, she would have been none the wiser. I guess that can be chalked up to her being a malevolent egomaniac, but it really only introduces a liability so it’s hard to justify. Anyway, same deal with Maggie - Brooke made herself appear to be in a power of position, but Maggie could just as easily drag her down with her by letting everyone know she tampered with her records - not exactly a risk I imagine Brooke would want to take.

The game’s strongest point is undoubtedly the endings and the sequences leading up to them - the best of the writing shines here, the last of the loose ends are tied, and overall they leave the most lasting impression, masking over all the drawn out chunky bits from earlier with some nice perfume. Ultimately, the payoff did exceed my expectations and made the game a worthwhile experience in my opinion, even if the rest of the pill was a little hard to swallow.

(Gameplay) 1 / 5

Ouch. Okay, so there’s not a whole lot of gameplay in the first place, but this is as good a place as any to vent over the fact that a staggering amount of your time will be spent walking around the campus, back and forth, over and over, occasionally getting lost and touching everything to find out where you’re supposed to go next or what you missed, talking to a bunch of irrelevant NPCs (except a select few that actually have to be talked to in order to get a hold of the true ending). It gets old. Fast.

Otherwise, the rest of the gameplay doesn’t come in until the final arc. The puzzles themselves were alright, if a bit troll-y sometimes (I’m looking at you, ‘fraction puzzle’). But moreover, they felt really shoehorned in and unconducive to the atmosphere and the themes of the game. Like in the ‘this is an rpg maker horror game so that means I have to put in puzzles that would probably show up in an rpg maker horror game’ kind of way. It’s an excuse to slap in a bunch of indie horror cheese and considering the game’s growth since the beginning, I honestly don’t believe it does the underlying story any justice.

All in all, most of the gameplay related elements were kind of a mess, though serviceable.

(Art & Music) 3.5 / 5

The use of visual resources is a bit limited and the maps are plain, utilizing tilesets from mildly clashing styles, but it didn’t really distract me or break the immersion so I’ll give it a pass. The character portraits do their job and I’m glad that they’re quite expressive, the other art like the silhouettes and framed backgrounds are all aesthetically pleasing so no complaints from me there. Almost all of the music is self-composed which is impressive, even moreso because all of it sounds really good, actually. Hats off to the soundtrack, it definitely helped bring this game to life at all the right times so keep up the good work!

(Personal Enjoyment) 3 / 5

Ah, the only score that actually matters. Is the game more than the sum of its parts? I would say yes, yes it is. For all its faults, the artistic vision of this game really comes through strong and I can easily see a lot of potential in your work. The unifying elements of the game’s storytelling gives it a unique and prominent identity, which is more than I can say for a lot of other titles that don’t go out of their way to spruce up their project with custom-everything. Still, it’s impossible for me to ignore the slog of a swamp trek that it took to get to any of the good stuff and some of the poor design choices that are scattered throughout the game. For boasting 9 - 13 hours of gameplay, a lot of that time is spent feeling wholly unproductive. In any case, if you are decently patient, I think it is safe to assume that you will appreciate what this game has to offer, and hopefully you’ll stick to it ‘til the end!