convergent evolution or something

sheng jian bao (crispy, fresh-from-the-street-vendor hot, with sesame seeds sprinkled on top), turnip cakes, barbecue pork and custard bao. one of those korean seafood pancakes (classically it should be chong you bing, but i do what i want!!) savory douhua (a relatively simple preparation, with soy sauce and green onions) and a cool glass of sweet soy milk.

and then-- the tamale benedict i used to order from common bond in houston; french toast with whipped cream, berries, and maple syrup; a chocolate croissant; all with a tall glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice.

tangle tower - investigatory vn/point-and-click adventure game hybrid about solving a murder in a mansion full of eclectic weirdoes. i was so charmed by basically every aspect of this game -- the art style and animation, the full-featured voice acting, the environmental and character design, the modernization of a genre i have a lot of nostalgic attachment to. the puzzles were enjoyable, and there were innovations on the ace attorney style "question suspects and present evidence" gameplay that i thought worked well. i had so much fun playing this game that it's almost enough to make me overlook the fact that it's a mystery game that fails to stick the landing.

without spoiling too much about the ending, this feels like an obvious case of the devs biting off more than they could chew: they had a very ambitious plot with lots of twists and turns, the scope of which clearly exceeded their small indie house's capabilities, and so in the interest of getting the game out in anything approaching a timely fashion, they shoved the entire second act of said plot into a series of expository monologues at the very end of the game. the ending felt rushed and unsatisfactory, which makes me sad because it really didn't have to be this way. there are more than enough puzzles and tiny sub-mysteries and endearing character moments in tangle tower to justify a full game. i understand wanting to get the full story out there, but i think it would have served the game better to tell a small mystery well instead of a large mystery incompletely. i hope the devs will take that into account for future installments of this series.

but like i said, i did really enjoy this game overall! it's currently 3.99 in the steam summer sale, and i would absolutely recommend it for that price; it was a really fun way to kill a few hours.

i liked it. i liked it a lot! i liked programming my constructs to plant, water, and harvest magical herbs and flowers; i liked exploring and foraging the four different biomes; i liked meeting all the characters and doing their friendship quests (which are nothing crazy, but the devs did manage to put a variety of enjoyable scaffolding on what essentially amounted to different variations of fetch quests); i liked gathering plants for magical rituals to open new areas and (eventually) bring the main plot to a conclusion.

but at the end of 40 hours . . . i've set up an automatic loop to harvest every type of plant i can plant and every type of crystal i can extract, i've cleared the main quest and everyone's three character quests, and i've fully expanded and decorated my house. in other words, i've reached the effective limits of this game. there's nothing left for me to do. it's probably not fair of me to wish for more -- a crafting or potionmaking system, a wider variety of shops, some kind of extra mechanical layer that would let me justify spending another 100 hours in this world (i namedropped stardew valley for a reason!) it was everything i wanted in this type of game, except for how quickly it ended.

. . . i will wish for four-directional furniture rotation and the ability to put items on rugs, though. these are must-haves in decorating games!!!!