Let's take a look at the team behind Amort. They're the next generation of RM creators. Superstroke previously released two super slick and super interesting games. Esby is stealing attention from Blindmind with his screenshots and maps. Cashmere Cat's Account Mu is still widely awaited after a warm reception of the demo. And zDS is a shining star of two highly regarded games. They're here to leave old giants of RMN and their phantasy cliche phantasies in dust. The team-up promises a lot. Does it deliver? Let's find out.

Story
It's good. Not perfect. But it does a lot of things right. The world building is great and I was captured in its interesting environment of weird characters and hostile weather. The problem here is habbits related. Maps are rooms or arenas. And your goal is to escape them. They're not connected. It makes it harder to build a feeling of continuity around it. It's not a journey, an epic. It's a bunch of psalms. Folk songs about your adventure. I'm not sure if it was better the other way. It would be easier to accept. Maybe I'm just too used to continuity from other games. Amort definitely uses cut in a more consistent fashion than Firewatch.
The second problem I got with the story springs from that. It tells too much. I liked the writing itself, it's very catchy and has a mysterious vibe. But I'd knew the twist since the prophecy was mentioned for the first time and it was partly because there wasn't anything to distract me from it. It doesn't make the game worse and I'm not sure if there is a way to avoid it. It just makes it predictable. On the other hand the twist isn't so groundbreaking or crazy to be unspoilable and I think that many players don't suspect it at all. And it creates a myth. I love that the story works as a circle and not as a linear line.


A cozy cavern.

Gameplay
Very polished. Fun. You have well-written dialogues, P is for perception on Maps and clever battles. I mentioned earlier that the game is made as a serie of escape the room levels. You got a compact environment and you need to overcome an opponent to get further. You can't just attack. One is too big and can crush you with a single blow, another has its family with him. You need to take a look around first and use perception. Areas are quite simple puzzles. Just react with everything what is highlighted and something happens eventually. And while simple, the execution is good and the puzzles use environment in logical ways.
The battle itself is another puzzle. It's simplified to a bare minimum. That doesn't mean you can't die. I did usually. You need to use a good amount of wit to figure some of them out. I'm bold enough to say that I liked battles in Amort more than battles in Three Roses. The game is weaved around them and it works very very welly.

Graphics
The game uses 1-bit esthetics and it looks nice doing it. They're not your usual retro black and white graphics as black is the highlighting colour in Amort. It looks more like ink and paper than really old games. Or like something for Macintosh. I noticed that this style in multiple games recently. Funny strategy/sim Royals use it and so does Lukas Pope's new game. Games with ZD's touch are more than anything else on RMN an Itch ready material with their serious dose of dope.
The game is not entirely 1-bit, tho. When you use 'shins' (It's called perception here), everything fades out and we're confronted with 50 shades of gray.
Tiles are consistent and sprites look good. I was slightly surprised by bigger charas of two certain characters at first. They definitely stand out. I found out later that they make graphics more memorable as battlers and normal charas fade away from your memory.
Maps need a very special mention too. They're nice.


Does Misao for best bettles exist?

Sound
However they can't outshine the music. For some reason Steve Reich crossed my mind often when listening to them (for example Atonal). Then an ambient band called The Orb. The Lighthouse is stolen from To The Moon, isn't it? The music's one of my favorite things about Amort. It's simple yet captivating. It sounds lo-fi but not very retro or nostalgic. Another good thing is that songs are location specific. Loops are short but they manage to stay fresh thanks to circulation. I like how it all culminates with chorals in Prophecy and Fatal. It made me to hold my breath, while playing through the finale. That's some Kubrick effect right there.
I found other sounds little problematic as they're not consistent with music. Some of them like wind are modern and sound newer than the music. The rest is chippy and sounds cheesier than the OST. Luckily, this isn't any deal breaker and probably wouldn't be in any release.

Conclusion
Lycia's care for her dying husband turned out better than it should have. So did the game, which is probably one of the best on RMN. It has it's microscopic flaws and I can see its creators coming with even better games than this small gem. The score is pretty damn close to perfection. But that would be a creative death, wouldn't it?