Okay done w it i think: good game maybe like a 8 "that seems harsh" its not harsh its good 8 is good
i see the ending is divisive... i think im in the camp of Not Really Loving It but i dont think its bad... its kind of interesting... I feel like in a murder mystery there should be a sense of "aahhh how didnt i realise that!!" when you get to the ending. i did figure out it was someone outside of the cast (this was prompted) but lol where do you go from there? im not mad about not figuring it out, i just feel like it couldve been foreshadowed slightly better BUT: the narrative style also makes it so that you miss a lot of clues by nature. so, someone smarter mightve played it and actually figured out exactly whats up
harry is fun to play with... the narrative style is obviously really unique... it does really work... i felt like i was wasting time with the replay since i did it under the impression that the ending changes BUT i do appreciate how it showcases how unreliable the narration is. my playstyle was pretty much between "whatever the fuck kim tells me to do" and "trusting the gut". it turns out BOTH of these are wrong sometimes!! that is realistic and cool
speaking of kim, best character ever. i dont know how they made him like that, so endearing... i cant pinpoint what it is... i think ever since the first esprit de corps line with him... something something you get the feeling he would die for you but you dont know why... VERY fun counterpart to harrys personality. making him slightly stricter makes it very satisfying when he smiles and gets a little silly with it... he is very dear to me...
i liked a lot of the cast members!! garte titus et cetera... klaasje stands out as one of the favorites... i love it when a woman finds her suffering a bit poetic... and she sucks a little!! iosef kind of had a point about her entertaining a fascist... AND framing ruby isnt exactly a nice thing to do... i found out i couldve talked to her after the tribunal if i never mentioned arresting her to her, missed opportunity (first time i gave her the station call, second time i brought it up but planned to not arrest her... too bad)
ruby is great but after seeing her i somehow expected to be able to talk with her properly and get a little bit more out of her... but, overall her being mostly defined by her simultaneous absence + hyper relevance is so cool that i dont even care...
anyway yes iosef... the union vs company thing made me assume that whoever the murderer is, id be able to side with them entirely (something something the point becomes "look the culprit you are supposed to catch is actually really in the right - what will you do now?") BUT that was not the case... i find it easier to reduce him to a pervert who uses the political stuff to justify his own depravity (not to say he isnt "an actual communist", these can coexist)... which, have you ever met any leftist men? so i dont hate that direction at all... its probably more interesting than what i imagined
i realise now i got LUCKY with the phasmid thing. i was doing it as a random side quest because i had to pass the time and collect exp for something else - i did not for a second actually believe in its existence. i couldve easily been doing the night club thing instead or something else... i imagine a lot of people ended up doing just that. the endings probably going to feel pretty stupid if you never rly talked to lena etc... i was initially just confused but i think its kind of cute. and kim was really happy about it so hey
i wonder if there wouldve been a way to communicate that theres actually no time restriction? i wouldve certainly done more side quests and stuff if i knew theres no urgency... but then again that wouldve made the stakes feel less serious... so i dont know how i wouldve done it either...
speaking of doing things. i did at one point wanna make a dice based rpgmaker game (like years ago) but i ended up ditching the idea because i had no clue how it would work. i thought id have to make it too luck based (as in, every check can be done only once) to be any fun OR lose the stakes by letting the player try right away... never figured it out and didnt care for the idea enough. this made playing this more interesting though because it IS such a nice way to execute it...
also, i entirely appreciate that the dialogue is basically baked into the message log. i have issues with concentrating so i often just realize i havent actually *read* any of the words on my screen ive just been reading them without internalizing any of it... i use the message history on vns a loooot... so this implementation made it a bit easier for me to follow
honorary mentions: maps are really cool i love the hand painted look + same w the portraits + blending dora and dolores dei in harrys head is so awesome yes yes yes yes nomnomom + voice actings very good for most part + even after learning that estonians made the game im assuming cunoesse speaks finnish which is fun. i know our languages are similar but all the slurs n shit the same?? rly??? + gg
ty, think ill play slay the princess next
