Elsinore

Tragedy explored in every facet. The antagonist in this game is like a monster I've never quite seen before. It's very original.

There's SO MUCH packed into Elsinore, it's hard to summarize this time-loop take on Hamlet. It's also important to mention that Hamlet is QUITE the emo jerk in this iteration (maybe that was always the case). Anyways: Imagine a much more inclusive version of Hamlet with a time-loop structure and delightful, meta-level Easter Eggs everywhere. The writer of the game Katie Chironis is such an absolute genius, here on top of her craft. There'd be other details I'd love to reveal, but I'd love to spare you from spoilers and instead invite you to enjoy Ophelia's whirlwind adventure through Hamlet again and again and again.

too ambitious for its execution to manage but playing around Hamlet in a time loop is a ton of fun

A hidden gem, and I don't even enjoy Shakespeare.

As much as I truly love the story being told here, the wonderful list of characters, and how it adapts the Hamlet narrative... this is really only cult classic tier. It is a visual novel that clearly focuses on the characters, but is extremely open, almost too open - leaving the confusing experience of navigating the world for you to figure out for yourself. There is a lot of polish missing that would make this a more appealing and easy game to pick up. It's hard to identify the characters of interest, Polonius, Hamlet and Laertes get in the way when they're really not relevant to the first required part of Ophelia's plot, half of Quince's "hints" point the wrong ways (in fact, the only interesting thing is sending people to Bernardo), and it takes effort to track down people on the map who aren't actively in an event. I think it really would have benefitted from either a dedicated tutorial sequence or act so that you can see how your actions influence the world, and that you complete it once before setting out into the main story. As it is, there are a few explanations of the interface, but very little to help you start picking up on the patterns of what it is you are doing each time you interact with a character. Speaking of that, the interface is functional, but also feels like wading through mud and chewing gravel. You have to click through everything (so I hope you brought an autoclicker or mouse macro from those idle games), popups after every conversation getting in the way, there's no fastforward. The timeline's missing gridlines and only seems to recount the past - extremely predictable events that almost always happen on every cycle are not marked in advance, so I might as just well keep my own notes. It can also be hard to guess how much time it takes to run between each location and then when you get there, the characters will still be coming from another location and then pop into existence. The hotkeys for opening the various panels are nice, but the T key can be a bit awkward and I found myself consulting it basically all the time trying to figure out where I needed to be next. There's also just a lot of text in the idea-sharing panel - almost too much detail. I think some icons or simplification would have helped a lot here (eg taking "The Royal Family" down to "Royals", "Otherworldly Occurances" down to "Occult" and otherwise slimming down each section into a single word, easier to read and understand at a glance). In dialogue, this is especially a problem because not everyone wants to talk about everything, and it's hard to differentiate between all the options -- some you can never say, some you might have already said, some that are conditional, and some that you could say now; there are many states available. Overall, the UX just feels quite underbaked for an experience that almost totally involves managing information all the time. Overall - it is a fascinating experience with great characters, but truly something you need to be prepared to wrestle with and dive into before going in. If you think you can get through the opening bits to catch the spy or obtain the keys, I'd say you would have a good handle on the game. If not, you might stumble trying to figure out how to get through the start and lose interest.

I love this game, it was really detailed with the level of clues to uncover. And potential endings to explore.

Shakespeare would quiver at today's fanfiction

I've only done one ending so far but can't wait to go back and play again after some time has passed so it all feels fresh again! I really like how quickly things can change depending on the choices you make. A wonderful timeloop puzzle that, even after a full playthrough, still left me feeling like there was so much more to discover!

It took me literal years to be in the right mood and mindset to sit down and play this game in any real capacity, and even though I have completed a full story line (well several but actually committed to one and got the credits rolling) I ultimately didn't end up unlocking EVERY possible ending to pick one. The tale of Hamlet is meant to be a tragedy wherein everyone will always suffer for making choices true to themselves even if there are technically better choices on the table. Elsinore captures this perfectly. The timeloop mechanic is extremely good in a way that means its kind of annoying. It is a very well executed mechanic that pushes you to engage with the narrative by doing entire loops simply to get info to use the time around. They do provide an option to make text appear immediately as well as a handy reset button so that the moment you get the info you need in one loop you can just jump to the next loop with the information available to utilise next go around and perhaps if I had used that more liberally I wouldn't have burned out with only 3 more possible endings to unlock. If you are in the mood for a rich narrative and can tolerate the inherent repetition of a time loop you should absolutely play this game. Just remember to hold shift to see all the stuff you can click on in a space and click everything and you'll soon have your pick of possible futures. Also keep in mind what I said up top about Elsinore perfectly capturing the idea of tragedy.

I didn't expect it at first, but surprisingly enough, I liked this game. The premise of exploring the world in a time loop, finding clues that will help you advance in the next iteration, reminded me of the Outer Wilds, which I consider one of the best games of all time. My advice for new players: at first, don't try to do too much stuff in 1 loop; better focus on a single idea, since it will be harder to determine the consequences of each of your actions, as they tend to interfere with each other. What I didn't like is that the gameplay feels somewhat clunky and is missing a number of QoL features: - You have to watch as you run to the place of the event (which, by the way, you can miss because that can take a considerable time depending on the location) - You need to confirm all notifications about things you've learned each time you do that (even if it's the 20th time you do it) - There's no option to skip cutscenes and dialogues that you've already seen a dozen times