Ayda

Hello survivors!
This time the game is "Ayda", that is the title and also the name of a character... but first let's see: this is a RPG Maker VX Ace game made by Raikuden (the only game we have made from this developer) and released in 2016.

Ayda is a very short (10 minutes) adventure game with no battles, no chases, and no puzzles (so no health bar, and also the menu is quite minimalist) about an unnamed woman that wakes up at night inside her house. She lives locked inside her house and has to take medicines due to a mental illness that make her see terrible visions. In this short scenario we learn that Ayda is a friend, and our protagonist is determined to save her. Anyway from the interactions made inside the various rooms of the house we'll also learn some bits of informations about the state of the world and the actual situation (that seems to take place during a postapocalypse, anyway we do not experience any visiou of the outside, so it's all shrouded in mystery!


OH NO! The memes! The memes are lost forever!

The game is a simple adventure game set inside a small dark house, I think that the tasks are too easy to be considered real puzzles, but the claustrophobic environment and atmosphere is really well made. There are jumpscares due to the mental illness of the protagonist, but the game is more about suspense than horror. The game includes different endings that you can obtain and are all pretty abrupt but different and and fit the dark situation in which the protagonist moves, anyway remember that you can save anytime and anywhere, so even if there is no real menace or risk of death (and no real challenge too), you can save to try all the different outcomes without having to restart the game to see the different endings.

Visually the game uses the very pretty Pop Horror assets (that I often said are underused, probably due to the rarity of rpgmaker games with modern setting), the place that we will explore is rather small and dark but really detailed and filled with various interactions (see the pictures here, the rooms are small but full of details, items and decorations). This is the demonstration that even a small game can be made interesting with lots of details and refinement, from the flickering lights, to the immersive enviroment. The music well complements the sinister setting.


Finally we can see who's Ayda... but this is a no-spoiler review so play and see by yourself!

Final Verdict
Ok, I must say that Ayda reminds to me of those short old horror stories often found collected in book of short tales (that often were mysterious and had uncertain endings): the (sad) story is short and includes just a couple of characters, but the story is captivating and the atmosphere makes it really interesting for the player who tries it for the first time, it's not a scenario that will take you occupied for long (since there are no real challenges, and it's more like interactive story time than a real game!), so do not expect a lot from this game (that still is far better some short horror games I recently reviewed!), anyway what it does is really well done!