Ghostdream

Quirky puzzle game that looks like a point and click adventure: Positives: +As with all ArkHouse titles, great artwork and a good OST +Compactly designed levels: each area is a small set of screens that serve as both dialogue between characters and clues for this section's puzzle, with no needless backtracking between locations: once a puzzle is completed, the game moves on to a new location, without the possibility to go back. +Absurd dialogue and character reasoning are quirky and even funny to some extent, giving the cast a pretty unique feel. It is fully voiced in a strange way, but due to not being very understandable, is more like "sound effect talking" while you read the dialogue. +Brutal puzzle design: while there is an art- and guidebook that you can look at & download from the storepage, the game is otherwise not afraid to just make you sit in front of its puzzles and figure them out youself. All of the solutions feel like things you could reach with your own observation and reasoning abilities (which doesn't prevent them from being really difficult - I personally give myself 30-90 minutes to figure out a puzzle in video games before looking at a guide, and did need to refer to one with 3 of them, which is about a third of the game). Negatives: - The aforementioned brutal puzzles: if you are not a fan of trying to think about certain kinds of puzzles (in this case [spoiler] symbolic solutions, code translating or recognizing maps and using them for pin-point pixelhunting - the latter was great in terms of idea, but executed quite poorly unfortunately [/spoiler]) for long stretches of time, then this is highly likely not the game for you. At the very least, one never feels like one doesn't know where the puzzle begins or ends - due to the compact design one is always aware of where all of the clues are. - While humorous, a certain part of the latter levels' fluff comments feels a bit out of place: [spoiler] the dev remarks upon and jokes about the budget limitations of the game in about 3 locations, which is alright I suppose, but the sudden jump to meta-jokes felt, well, kind of obtrusive [/spoiler] All-in-all more recommendable to puzzle fans than point and click adventure fans, but I think both can get something out of it. ... Normally I'd write a more in-depth review here about all elements, but the game is fairly compact, so instead here's some additional comments on other elements that are hard to score as good or bad: Story: I didn't mention the story above; it's about beings which, as far as they know, have always been ghosts in a world of only ghosts (and mysterious related entities called demons). The protagonist of the game has a dream of wanting to visit the rumored other side, which apparently has so-called "physical beings", whatever those might be. As this games' characters all have fairly incohesive goals of their own, the story is moved along mostly through dialogue interactions and puzzle-solving and the quest of the main protagonist, given that the others are not really interested in his goals. This works out fairly well; the progression from scene to scene feels organic and directed, despite the haphazardly meandering characters - very likely due to each character focusing on their own ideas and goals, as this fleshes them out in a credible manner. Due to this quirky approach I didn't add this above as a positive or negative, as this can be very hit-or-miss for people. That being said, the setting feels very interesting and mysterious, though only scratching the surface of something larger. Likely due to the setting having originally been constructed for an RPG world. Shallowly wading into something with the potential to be deep, if it makes sense. This has its own appeal. Animations: As with all Arkhouse games, due to his unique way of making animations, and this being the first game he released, the animations can feel strangely clunky but organic. It's pleasantly strange imo, but you can definitely see here that the dev was still struggling with the method (something that has been much improved from Mirage of Dragon onwards). Voicework: I mentioned it briefly, but I have seen other users complain about the incomprehensibly slurred and garbled voice acting. Part of this is intentional design - successfully evoking an otherworldly atmosphere and helping color the intangible realm of the ghosts. But a large part is also unintentional and showing definite inexperience with voice acting and using english: while there are no major flaws in grammer or pronunciation, there are strange intonations and inflections all over the place. The narrative voice-style being implemented, on the other hand, works well, but oftentimes meanders around, like an old man talking to himself as he lounges on a couch with a book, perhaps with a drink or two above his limit. Personally I enjoyed it, but I definitely treated it as sound effects for the written dialogue, rather than the written dialogue as "subtitles" for the voicework - 5-10% of it is easily incomprehensible if one were to only listen to the speech. Game-time: This is always important for me: given how the game is set up into clearly defined sections, one can sit down and complete a segment in a good and easy 60-120 minutes, save, and return to the game whenever. The game is overall fairly short, and should be completable in about ~5-6 hours, depending on how good you are with puzzles. In conclusion... ...there are other quirky things here and there that I'll leave out, but especially for the price, I think connoisseurs of "weird" games or puzzle games in general should get a lot out of it. Point and Click adventure fans need to think about what it is that they enjoy about such games before picking this one up, as it is much more slanted towards puzzles than any kind of item collection or experiencing an adventurous narrative - the game here and there does resemble the feel of very old adventure games with a humorous twist, but it seems unintentional and more due to the absurd characters than anything else. It's definitely an adventure and you point and click at things, but the entire structure of the game feels like its own thing. Kind of how "myst-likes" don't really resemble the feel of something like Day of the Tentacle, Gabriel Knight, Whispers of a Machine or Dropsy. That can be a plus or a minus, depending on what you are looking for.

I love the art style

A Seinfeld-style comedy with wonderful art and weird puzzles (the solutions are in the manual except an infamous pixel hunt that you can find the solution in YouTube videos). It is worth it, even if it is to appreciate these beautiful arts.

нет

Schon anders komisch das Game

very unique art style, so cool!

Ок

A cool looking point & click adventure game that embodies Arkhouse's weirdness but very charming style. There was one tough pixel hunting spot but the rest of the puzzles were fine and i enjoyed the dialogues and voice acting. Highly recommended if you want a surreal experience.

救济性好评，不推荐。we need chinese, Ach. 202304，steam，steam掉卡抵扣，t a o宝，支付宝红包，humble，indie gala，daily indie game，fanatical，杉果，它处自定义包入的本体约4元。爱人如己，目前就这，看以后追评。兄弟萌，强烈建议不要第三方平台的小店买y u额，通过饰品等挂steam市场转的，高概率red信乃至封号，且行且珍惜。

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