Recent reviews by MikeyMcMikenson

- Pros: Puzzles are fun, Excellent story, art, dialogue, voice acting, and music
- Meh: Play controls not entirely consistent, Short playtime
- Cons: No manual saves, Possible physics not obvious within physics puzzles

P.S. Avoid spoilers!!

Version patched to 1.1012808

Sure, it still crashes every day, blue screen of death, or mystery reboots your rig, but it's got a nice options menu, the HD textures add a touch of class, and there are only minor audio glitches (voice overs will sometimes repeat/skip) until it dies. Overall, it's a worthy effort and a promising game from this small developer and I hope to see more of their work in the future.

A gorgeous turn based strategy RPG that's equally a choose-your-own-adventure visual novel.

Honestly, the visual novel part sounds boring – I’m not a big fan of the genre. However, don't let that dissuade you; I was easily won over, because this really is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The story options available in the visual novel mode and the resources available in the turn based strategy mode are reciprocally affected by your choices in each. Some of the other RPG elements include character stat upgrades, shops, and loot for use in battle. There’s also some resource management mechanics with regard to time, caravan morale, and supplies.

It's all very well designed. You want to stare at these beautiful works of art. The story is extremely well paced and ramps up an atmosphere of desperate and hopeless dread that keeps you wanting to find out what happens next – think the walking dead, where people can only run, never rest, and main characters die for no good reason or cause *you* made a bad call. Your decisions matter. Additionally, there's interesting and relevant lore sprinkled throughout.

My only complaint is that it’s too short, which is almost always the mark of a good book and sometimes that mark of a good game, as it is here. Also, the game may be a tad unforgiving: I really wanted to take back my bad choices, but saves are automatic and usually only occur after the consequences are revealed.

I give it an 85% overall goodness.

This is a hidden object game - I find that terribly boring. Don't expect much else. That being said, it has an interesting plot.

I don't know why anyone wouldn't like this. It's an amazing story with choices that matter.

But, I can yunderstand not liking the autotargeting. I fixed it with the Enhanced Mod Compilation. You can find it at Nexus mods.

Balanced game design.
Finely crafted lore.
Excellent UI.
Attractive aesthetic.
Often intuitive.

The game allows for at least 3 levels of control over battle outcome using a rock/paper/scissors-like system: full auto, semi-auto, and a slightly more real-time semi-auto as you watch the battle. All of this is more than can be said of Civilization, which involves fully automated and unobservable battles. However, this extra bit of control will probably be the biggest turn-off for most people, because the battles are so gorgeous that you’ll want to get more involved - as if it were an RTS.

It's an original and interesting bit of lighthearted postmodern w4nkery that's more self-reference than substance. The fun and novelty quickly evaporated after all the backtracking to find alternate endings. I briefly considered just watching a walkthrough, but even that sounded boring. I was left with a desperate desire to read, watch, or play something with an engaging story.