Chook & Sosig: Walk the Plank

I found this game quite frustrating. You're presented with a number of islands each with their own characters. At some point they will give you a task, or the means to progress with another task. You will pick up a few different items which will also help you progress. Items such as fire and rope, which can be used on various objects. If you have interacted and observed enough, some problems will be okay to solve! You'll have a decent idea of what you need. The problems are not always so straightforward though. The logic I had in my head often didn't give me a lead. So when you're faced with the question "what do I do now?" you either have two options: try and use every item you have in the hopes it will work, or go around the islands and hope a character has new dialogue to help you advance. Luckily, there's a third option: use the hint system. Chook will give you hints and clues when you're stuck. I used this option way too much. Partly because some things had me stumped, but also because sometimes I thought "what's the point in trying to think about this when it probably won't work?" Let me give a few examples. I'll put the spoiler tag as they contain solutions. ① There's a polar bear rug [spoiler]and something is in its mouth. Well, items have been used before to open things, maybe it needs to be pried open. Ah, you are supposed to interact with the tail which will make the bear's mouth open. Even though previously interacting with the tail did not do this.[/spoiler] That one wasn't too bad, but the next two are just ridiculous, especially as the hints didn't help. I had to look at a guide. ② You put up a mermaid poster [spoiler]in the tavern but the bartender doesn't want you to cover up his poster already on the board. This results in you having to take down the mermaid poster. Now what do you do? The poster has to go up. Chook gives you a hint that you have to be less obvious. Okay, so... distract the bartender? Put the poster up elsewhere? No, you are supposed to put the mermaid poster up and then use scissors on it to reveal some of the poster underneath. What?[/spoiler] ③ You need a hagstone [spoiler]- a rock with a hole in it - to attach to a ship's figurehead. One character tells you that rocks will be found on the sea shore. Chook says you can get any rock and put a hole in it yourself - with enough force. Where is this rock? It's not on any of the island shores. Actually, you have to go to the Adventurer's Guild and get the stone tablet off the wall. Oh, but first you have to shoot a mini cannon at it to create the hole, but only when the cannon is correctly activated to use enough force. That's when the character Hebble tells you there are two options for the cannon. None of this is mentioned previously when interacting with it, which could have been a good way to get in your head that this mini cannon could be a mini weapon.[/spoiler] There's no clear direction, no consistent way to solve problems. Do you just click on everything a tenth time for something new or do you sail around hoping a change has been made elsewhere? It's a shame because I like the art and the music is fun. The writing is decent enough (though could have been fleshed out more) yet I'm not sure why it ended so suddenly. The fact that there are two different endings should have been properly explained too. I don't like to criticise smaller developers, but this wasn't a good experience for me. Ultimately, C&S: Walk the Plank needed more structure in its story and tasks.