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Anirone
Anirone
Found all the pages but 6, and having trouble seeing what to do with them, so I could use a hint if you're willing. I feel like that puzzle, and the previous one like it, might be more manageable if the ragged edges of the paper were visible and the answer could be pieced together that way, but maybe it's just me having trouble with it.
As for the rest of the game so far:
As for the rest of the game so far:
I'm really enjoying the puzzles. I've seen "saving and loading are actually happening in-universe, so the protagonist needs to learn through dying" done before, but it's a fun device that makes learn-by-dying gameplay less frustrating and more enjoyable, so I'm liking it here. The gold dust puzzle was great - it was difficult to figure out, but all of the clues were there. There were a few bugs, which I don't remember in perfect detail, but which I could report back on after a second playthrough, if you'd be interested.
However, it feels like you were much more interested in making the puzzles than doing any of the other parts of the game. The characters, settings, story, etc seems like they're mostly there to contain the puzzles. That's okay, but some of the subject matter felt a bit discordant with the way it was presented. I'm not going to say that people should never write about rape, or even that people should never write about rape unless they're willing to devote the work at large to exploring the topic, but it feels out of place in an excuse plot. If all you want to do is make puzzles, then joining up with an existing team that wants a puzzle guy might work out better for you - plenty of games where the developers obviously cared about the story/characters/settings/art have absolutely dire puzzles, and could use someone with your skills.
However, it feels like you were much more interested in making the puzzles than doing any of the other parts of the game. The characters, settings, story, etc seems like they're mostly there to contain the puzzles. That's okay, but some of the subject matter felt a bit discordant with the way it was presented. I'm not going to say that people should never write about rape, or even that people should never write about rape unless they're willing to devote the work at large to exploring the topic, but it feels out of place in an excuse plot. If all you want to do is make puzzles, then joining up with an existing team that wants a puzzle guy might work out better for you - plenty of games where the developers obviously cared about the story/characters/settings/art have absolutely dire puzzles, and could use someone with your skills.
All Bears Love Honey
Matryona's Last Night
Matryona's Last Night
Hmmm. SIN wasn't very good at telling the story it wanted to tell, since the end of the game came out of nowhere and the emotional revelations of the story fell flat because they didn't seem particularly connected to anything at all, but it was okay apart from the pacing issues, and the story could've been enjoyable if it had been told in a way that made more sense. It also gave you a fairly interesting environment to explore and had a decent amount of enjoyable things to do. Meanwhile, Matryona did a better job of telling the story it wanted to tell, but there was really nothing interesting to do along the way, and I also couldn't take the premise itself very seriously.
I'm also a little annoyed that I was able to immediately guess the twist from the first little bit of introduction, especially because that sort of very conveniently circumvents any potential prejudice within the audience?
I don't think it would be fair for me to leave a review, so I'm not going to, but I do think it's fair to leave a comment.
This sort of thing HAS happened a few times, but in all of those cases I've heard of, the child has either been isolated from society, or society has condoned the child being treated this way. It made no sense that these people were allowed to adopt a child, because prospective adoptive parents are screened. It made even less sense that Matryona was somehow going to school. Students who are legally male and WANT to dress femininely, whether they're transgender or just feminine, have difficulty enough being allowed to do so. I know what it's like for parents to try to force their children to try to become the children the parents want instead of the children that they are, even when it's completely impossible (I'm disabled, and it's happened to me along those lines), but the logistics of this setup make no sense at all.
I'm also a little annoyed that I was able to immediately guess the twist from the first little bit of introduction, especially because that sort of very conveniently circumvents any potential prejudice within the audience?
I knew it wasn't going to be about a girl who didn't want to be feminine, not because there were any obvious cues that Matryona wasn't a girl, but because people don't write stories where being forced to be feminine even if you really don't want to be feminine is damaging to girls. Similarly, I didn't think Matryona would be any sort of transgender person, because those kinds of stories aren't generally written.
In the real world, most children forced to present as a certain gender unwillingly are transgender children forced to present as their birth sex, most children forced to be feminine had the doctor say "it's a girl" when they were born, and most children who are bullied for gender-nonconforming behavior are engaging in that behavior because they want to, not because someone else is forcing them. Yet in fiction, situations like Matryona's are the only situations where doing these things to children is portrayed as genuinely horrific, because that's what goes along with the prejudices that most societies already have. Preventing children from being normal is monstrous; forcing children to be normal is business as usual. You could play this game and feel that Matryona was terribly wronged, but still come out believing that if Matryona had different genitals, everything his parents did to him would be okay.
Of course, it isn't any game's responsibility to comment on a social issue, but it's firmly within any player's right to be annoyed at a game for depicting something that's this close to a way real people are treated badly, but about people everyone agrees shouldn't be treated like that. And ignoring the general issue of people being treated like that at all.
In the real world, most children forced to present as a certain gender unwillingly are transgender children forced to present as their birth sex, most children forced to be feminine had the doctor say "it's a girl" when they were born, and most children who are bullied for gender-nonconforming behavior are engaging in that behavior because they want to, not because someone else is forcing them. Yet in fiction, situations like Matryona's are the only situations where doing these things to children is portrayed as genuinely horrific, because that's what goes along with the prejudices that most societies already have. Preventing children from being normal is monstrous; forcing children to be normal is business as usual. You could play this game and feel that Matryona was terribly wronged, but still come out believing that if Matryona had different genitals, everything his parents did to him would be okay.
Of course, it isn't any game's responsibility to comment on a social issue, but it's firmly within any player's right to be annoyed at a game for depicting something that's this close to a way real people are treated badly, but about people everyone agrees shouldn't be treated like that. And ignoring the general issue of people being treated like that at all.
I don't think it would be fair for me to leave a review, so I'm not going to, but I do think it's fair to leave a comment.
Changing Designs
I liked the gender ambiguity before (and didn't think they were a boy), but to be honest, it was really hard to look at the previous design and not see Chara from Undertale, and that's a little immersion-breaking to me. It's not as if Undertale has a monopoly on medium-short brown hair and green sweaters, so I know that's a little unfair, especially because I doubt you did that on purpose at all. Still, my own reaction to the original design was the Undertale association, and with this new cutie I'm much less likely to attempt certain types of in-game behavior for shits and giggles.
While this design is a bit more feminine, it still doesn't seem like the MC is necessarily a girl - especially if they're Native, since it's more common for some Native boys and men to wear braids, so the braid codes less feminine in context (though if that's something you have in mind, it's probably a good idea to make sure that matches up with the specific cultural background you have in mind for this character, even if you never go into specifics in-game.) I also feel like the colors on the pixel sprite come across more gender-neutral than the colors on the full sketch, and also look a bit more appealing? It's a colorful but subdued look, and that gives off a lot of personality to me.
While this design is a bit more feminine, it still doesn't seem like the MC is necessarily a girl - especially if they're Native, since it's more common for some Native boys and men to wear braids, so the braid codes less feminine in context (though if that's something you have in mind, it's probably a good idea to make sure that matches up with the specific cultural background you have in mind for this character, even if you never go into specifics in-game.) I also feel like the colors on the pixel sprite come across more gender-neutral than the colors on the full sketch, and also look a bit more appealing? It's a colorful but subdued look, and that gives off a lot of personality to me.
copy Review
I didn't end up finishing this game myself because my computer is junk and it played incredibly slowly on it. Once I reached a bad end, I didn't particularly feel like continuing, though I may have felt differently if I'd been playing it at the proper speed.
I don't feel like games necessarily need to be "fun", as long as they're "interesting", and I've enjoyed a lot of games that could be described as Tumblr-esque (and didn't particularly like OFF's gameplay). I was happy to play some weird, mellow game about holding hands and picking between the different types of people you could be. You could get some really interesting situations like that - are the traits that inspire you to protect certain copies more than others traits you'd be willing to take into yourself? What kind of person switches between the most beneficial companion whenever they want, even if that means leaving people who depend on them behind? What kind of person sticks with the same companion through thick and thin, even it becomes more and more obvious that this companion isn't the best influence? What does it mean if they're not really real or separate people? How does the way we sometimes treat the self like a separate sort of "character" - behaving in certain ways because it's desirable to be the sort of person who behaves like that, defining ourselves in ways that suit the stories we tell about our lives, seeing ourselves as good people who deserve better or bad people who deserve worse - encourage or inhibit growth? What sorts of traits do we really value in ourselves when it comes down to it?
Some people would find a game like that enjoyable. Others wouldn't. Maybe Copy does do more interesting things with its premise after I stopped playing, but while I loved the atmosphere, I didn't feel much of a connection to anyone or anything in the story, and if it was trying to communicate "disconnectedness", I wish it had done so a little more overtly. But I don't think the issue was that it wasn't exciting, or that it was too Tumblr, and I don't think focusing on those things really communicates whether it's a worthwhile game to people who enjoy more mellow experiences.
I don't feel like games necessarily need to be "fun", as long as they're "interesting", and I've enjoyed a lot of games that could be described as Tumblr-esque (and didn't particularly like OFF's gameplay). I was happy to play some weird, mellow game about holding hands and picking between the different types of people you could be. You could get some really interesting situations like that - are the traits that inspire you to protect certain copies more than others traits you'd be willing to take into yourself? What kind of person switches between the most beneficial companion whenever they want, even if that means leaving people who depend on them behind? What kind of person sticks with the same companion through thick and thin, even it becomes more and more obvious that this companion isn't the best influence? What does it mean if they're not really real or separate people? How does the way we sometimes treat the self like a separate sort of "character" - behaving in certain ways because it's desirable to be the sort of person who behaves like that, defining ourselves in ways that suit the stories we tell about our lives, seeing ourselves as good people who deserve better or bad people who deserve worse - encourage or inhibit growth? What sorts of traits do we really value in ourselves when it comes down to it?
Some people would find a game like that enjoyable. Others wouldn't. Maybe Copy does do more interesting things with its premise after I stopped playing, but while I loved the atmosphere, I didn't feel much of a connection to anyone or anything in the story, and if it was trying to communicate "disconnectedness", I wish it had done so a little more overtly. But I don't think the issue was that it wasn't exciting, or that it was too Tumblr, and I don't think focusing on those things really communicates whether it's a worthwhile game to people who enjoy more mellow experiences.
Null Regrets Review
I'm still working on that last battle, so if there are any last minute twists, I'm probably going to be extremely wrong about them. However...
I agree with you 100% on how the technology was presented. I loved how one of the first things we learned about this technology was that it had legitimate medical applications (something that always gets forgotten in stories where there's a new technology that lets people erase memories.) I loved how the doctor with the protagonist actually cared about his consent, and gave him multiple opportunities to back out or have someone else do it for him.
However, while I appreciate that the game didn't go in the "black-hearted harpy" direction, I think it went too far the other way. We know that she was saintly, that she took an interest in the protagonist despite him not seeming to have that much to offer at that point, we know she helped him get out of the hole he was in, and we know she decided she didn't want to be in a romantic relationship with him (though she was happy to still be friends.) We don't know anything about who she is as a person, and we can't even begin to guess what the issue in her relationship with the protagonist even was. I'm not sure if he was intentionally written as putting her on a pedestal too much, but either way, it was a little uncomfortable that the only woman in the story was... like that.
I'm still enjoying the game quite a bit, though.
I agree with you 100% on how the technology was presented. I loved how one of the first things we learned about this technology was that it had legitimate medical applications (something that always gets forgotten in stories where there's a new technology that lets people erase memories.) I loved how the doctor with the protagonist actually cared about his consent, and gave him multiple opportunities to back out or have someone else do it for him.
However, while I appreciate that the game didn't go in the "black-hearted harpy" direction, I think it went too far the other way. We know that she was saintly, that she took an interest in the protagonist despite him not seeming to have that much to offer at that point, we know she helped him get out of the hole he was in, and we know she decided she didn't want to be in a romantic relationship with him (though she was happy to still be friends.) We don't know anything about who she is as a person, and we can't even begin to guess what the issue in her relationship with the protagonist even was. I'm not sure if he was intentionally written as putting her on a pedestal too much, but either way, it was a little uncomfortable that the only woman in the story was... like that.
I'm still enjoying the game quite a bit, though.
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