Earthquake: Margarita School - Definitive Edition

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There's a lot of genuinely good stuff here. The game's atmosphere is great, the graphics and textures are decent and the story is intriguing. And for a single person making this, it's certainly impressive! That being said, there are some issues that need to be fixed. This is, according to it's description, a 1,5 hour long game. But it took me almost 5 hours, over three seperate runs, to complete simply because a needed key early during the game did not spawn in correctly. The puzzles where alright for the most part, though difficult and confusing at times. The game also suffers from certain soundeffects being overtly loud. The Jumpscares feel random and most of them have no proper build-up. Depending on you, they may actually come off as comedic. The Monster(s)... they are barely used? I like what they do with the [Spoiler] "Bookhead Monster"[/spoiler] , but there's another entity that only appears once - with seemingly no connection to the story or explaination whatsoever - and is never seen again after. Likewise, the story isn't really complete. It's incoherent at best and there's a lot of questions remaining unanswered, especially about the actual ongoings we're supposed to investigate. I feel like I only barely know and understand more than before starting our investigation... The Developer certainly has potential, but the issues I came across - both, in writing and with the game itself - can not be denied. I'd like to encourage the dev to continue making games and practicing their skills while warning those who wish to try this game for themselves of some of the issues I had to deal with. EDIT : I came back to this game for the Halloween content Update and I was positively surprised! The game improved vastly with this update, making the story far more cohesive and fixing many of the game's bugs and issues, including the gamebreaking bug I mentioned In my original review. There is, however, a major issue with the saving function not working which.. I've learned the hard way! Still, this is impressive for a solo developer and the passion can be felt throughout. I'm actually really glad the Dev came back to improve this game rather than move on to the next project, which only further highlights their passion and care behind this. The game is a fair bit shorter now, but I honestly dont really mind. The story is far more cohesive now, the 'other' monsters, who previously felt disconnected from the story, have been removed (For the better) and the interactables are a lot less frustrating! The graphics and atmosphere improved aswell, though those were already good to begin with! Overall, this update shows the Dev's dedication and passion for this project while improving it immensely! Well done! I'd highly recommend anyone who already played this game to give it another go after this update, as the game truly has vastly improved and offers a far better experience now.