A Storied Life: Tabitha

Is it cozy? Yes. Do I recommend it? Yes. BUT NOT FOR THE PRICE. I paid 50% off at $~7.50, GET IT FOR LESS. Not even 4 hours of content in the initial playthrough (I'm not the type to replay.) It is very wholesome and well told imo, I got really sentimental throwing things away T_T & felt like I got to know Tabitha through taking care of her things, I really like this idea through other characters, the Devs could even turn this into a mystery/detective type game with some of the elements of items found. I'd play another from them, but again, consider the price.

Played the first round on Cozy (limited resources, more stress) and the folllowing rounds on Relaxed. I'm playing through to read the multiple different stories but also because my brain enjoys the puzzle of packing things. PROS: slow paced, very low stress on relaxed mode, fun reading the various stories. CONS: I didn't realize that we're meant to be packing theme-specific items so during my first run, I very seriously thought about what someone's daughter would want to keep and what would be useful. So I failed the first round. It's a litle grindy/repetitive going through the relaxed levels just to change the items I pack. It'd be more fun if I didn't have to keep moving the furniture and could just restart the levels with all the items there to choose between packing/selling/recycling. Overall, a fun game and worth its price!

This is the best medium to tell a story of your choosing. Unboxing, but reverse, as you're going through memories of another person. The spirit of A little to the left for organization and fitting things together. And mad libs! Forming a story and there's MANY paths than just one. If you like all these things, you should give Tabitha a try!

Schrodinger's Grandma: The Game! What an interesting reversal of unpacking/packing games this is! You play as a girl/young woman cleaning out the house of a recently deceased friend. Each chapter is a different room, and over the course of the game, you go through each of them deciding what to keep, what to throw, and what to donate. You can only take one box of things with you, and you're limited in how much you can donate, which means most things will have to be trashed. It's melancholic, and surprisingly painful, especially on the first playthrough. The weight restrictions make it feel even worse, as the box of things to keep will inevitably get too heavy before you can fill it. I ended up switching to the easier mode eventually, because that first playthrough had me AGONIZING. Subsequent playthroughs do feel a bit more rote (for one thing, you have a better idea of what you're looking for and what ending you have in mind), and depending on what items you pick, you may have to fudge some of the words in the mad libs part later, but these things are largely forgivable (ymmv). So: You're picking through and choosing what pieces of this dead woman's life are worth keeping. The things you keep influence what words you can use to fill out her damaged memoir, and they're mostly themed around the different endgame grandma flavours you can end up with. The metaphor of how we imbue the items in our lives with meaning (even just through everyday use!) is solid, and I love how it works here. (Okay, look, the existence of all these items does make the mutually exclusive endings a bit of a paradox, but sometimes you do have to let details go for the sake of the overall idea of a game.) But there's an interesting metatextual/frame narrative here, too. Tabitha isn't making choices about what to keep or throw - that's you, the player, making judgement calls flavoured by your own tastes and values. Within the text of the game, the person making the choices is the young woman tasked with clearing out the house. This woman is shaped by what you/she chooses to keep, too, and although [spoiler]she is only really a [i]character[/i] in the epilogue,[/spoiler] her presence and character is always implied through the gameplay. It's an interesting dynamic! Overall, while it has some flaws, I definitely recommend giving this game a look if you like the theme and/or puzzle games in general.

I am enjoying A Storied Life: Tabitha, it is very engaging and I will probably try to 100% it. However, I did feel it was lacking in instruction at the start as I didn't realise you had to theme the manuscripts to make them make sense. Also having the ability to click on an object and go straight to the staging area would be so handy.

I really liked the art style of the game and felt the UI is really well animated. We want more games with this vibe!

Не плохая история с хорошим потенциалом переигрывания, в котором надо выбирая вещи собрать историю жизни одного человека. Можно с удовольствием зачилить на один вечер или посидеть попробовать посоставлять разные варианты.

建议玩个demo就好了，20以上不推荐入手。 遗物收纳小游戏，我以为是有点断舍离成分在里面的，结果每个物品只有简略介绍，还得留下指定的物品才能收集金星星，我请问呢？自由发挥受限，纸质物品在箱子里不能叠放，拍卖只能拍一件，怎么一个人的闲鱼只能上架一个东西是吧？ 而且后面那个填词挺尬的。学人家unpacking抄都能抄错来，人家一个整理游戏的叙事性拿满分。你游让玩家在一关20个物品里了解一个故去的人生平故事，让玩家填空小日记。 流程很短，十分钟能玩完两张图，第一不能沉浸整理，第二格子给太少一直纠结要扔掉哪些。 如果只卖十块，我甚至会懒得退款，但它这个定价我只能说是史，不是贵，是不值。 估计得有人攻击我穷了，那我问你，大牌奢侈品永远有人在消费，那花西子79的眉笔被喷是因为贵还是因为不值？

My review is more mixed both from cozy gaming and achievement hunting standpoints, but if I had to choose, it's a soft recommend purely for the gameplay concept. (I wish there was a mixed recommend button for Steam.) PROS: - There are two modes of play: one for those who want a relaxed, cozy gameplay, and one for those who want a challenged puzzle gameplay. What I love is that the gameplay mode does not affect earning achievements. - This game makes me think about what I value the most in life. I quite like the meditative introspection I had in each chapter. Granted, at times I got incredibly whiny because valued items were pitted against each other -- I ABSOLUTELY saved the teddy bears by whatever means necessary -- but it made me think about what I can cherish in person and what I can cherish from afar. - Great life lesson: you gotta know when to hold 'em....know when to fold 'em....know when to walk away..... (ok, I'll stop now) - The graphics are soothing, like a warm blanket. - The integration of classical music -- and telling the player the title of the piece and the composer -- brings me such joy. I work in education, and I've noticed students knowing or even recognizing iconic pieces less and less. This is a nice way of keeping them relevant and weaving them into gaming. CONS: - I absolutely detest that I have to replay the story numerous times to get the numerous endings for all the achievements. There comes to a point in the game where you cannot go back and replay chapters. Once you get your endings, that's it. I've become so connected with the Tabitha I created that it feels wrong to change her story to anything else. I don't think they shouldn't have the option to get different endings, no. But I don't like that there isn't simply a "Complete Tabitha's Story" achievement that you get regardless of which ending you get. - Despite matching the dots, the mad libs many times didn't make sense. Yes, there is the direction to try and put like items together, but people classify items together for different reasons. It's why "A Little to the Left" has different acceptable solutions but doesn't punish you for thinking differently. This does, and I don't like that feeling as if me valuing certain items over others is "wrong." - I do understand the reasoning behind the ending I got. (Spoilers in other reviews, so be warned.) I do wish that instead of a publishing company for a memoir that THAT ending could have resulted in the publishers recommending the estate to rework the memoir as short stories instead (of course with the disclaimer that they are based on true story). - The painting. Still salty. No further comment. - The amount of items you can put to auction vary for each level. It wasn't until Chapter 12 (?) that I accidentally discovered that I could have put multiple items at auction. I distinctly remember not being able to do so in Chapter 1, so I never tried again, especially because it will say "Box 1 out of 1" until you try to put a second item in. I spent so much time going back to previous levels to see when I was able to start doing so. I think I went back all the way to Chapter 6 before giving up and just letting it be. (I had well earned the really nice vacation by then, so I just let it go.) Unless I missed something, the game should tell you how many auction slots are available upfront. - Hovering to read the item and, after two seconds, getting the ding and mini menu. That got annoying way too fast and didn't give me time and space to think. - I earned all the gold stars for each level, but then when I checked the book at the end, it said that I didn't. Not sure if a bug or if I actually missed items. At this time, I'm not going back to see. (See first con.)

This is a cute and relaxing point-and-click hidden object adventure of packing away objects that are used to finish a memoir. The art is well-drawn and the puzzles are easy to solve. I liked the experiences from the different endings. Its theme is interesting: you don't know a person until you've been in their shoes, yet life is subjectively viewed depending on which memories are focused on.