I feel VERY bad about writing this review, because I initially bought this game to support the dev because I saw one of their devlogs. It had potential, but its flaws outweigh its strengths.
This is a horror themed mystery adventure game with some RPG elements. A voice guides you deeper into the darkness to defeat evil creatures, collect their essence, and eventually break the spell of eternal night.
Let's start with the pros:
-Very cool looking horror themed pixel art. Some particular set pieces made me pause so I could soak in the sights.
-You discover clues to piece together a narrative. Kind of cool at first, but...well you'll have to read the cons list.
-Some cool mechanics during fights that I have not seen before.
-The final boss battle...is actually very cool. In my original review I called it "A war of attrition" and lamented how long it took, but a kind fellow steam user showed me the mechanics of the boss battle and how to actually beat it.
Basically, you have two options: "Persist" and "Hold On". What you're supposed to do is Hold On repeatedly, as not only does it heal you, it also raises your defense and Max HP. Once you've maxed out both, you persist repeatedly, as each time you do it, the damage you deal increases (I did not realize this in my original review, so I kept holding on to heal instead of attacking). After employing this strategy, I was able to beat the boss first try.
There is still one attack pattern that seems too fast to actually dodge, but I still beat the boss regardless. If anyone knows how to dodge the pattern with the nine spaces and the eight spikes that pop out of the ground every second, let me know.
And now, the cons:
-[b]The story is EXTREMELY vague.[/b] Frustratingly so. You can gather that the main character had two friends, and something bad happened between them. That's ... basically it. You can theory craft to your heart's content, but there is little substance here.
-[b]The puzzles are...meh.[/b] Nice and brisk, which fits the game, but these "key and lock" puzzles are the meat of the game, and don't really advance in terms of complexity or intrigue. Some puzzles tie into the bare bones plot, which ends up being unsatisfying.
-[b]The spelling errors.[/b] Goodness gracious. The dev somehow used "apart" when they meant to say "a part" four times (at least) and they used "it's" once when they meant to use "its". There were more errors, too. It may sound petty to pick this apart...until you realize this is a full game being sold on Steam for real money. It deserves to have some polish. After seeing the credits sequence, I was SHOCKED how many playtesters this game had. Did they not see the errors, or did the developer know and decided to not bother to fix them?
-[b]The writing is amateurish.[/b] A prime example of this is the stammering. Any time anything spooky or scary is being described (which is more than HALF of the game, mind you), the main character will st-st-st-stammer b-because it is s-s-so s-scary a-and spooky. No. That is not an exaggeration. In the later half of the game, most of the main character's sentences will be stammered out like that. Which is WEIRD, because isn't he just thinking to himself? It gets old real fast and it makes important sentences hard to read.
Conclusion: This is a cool attempt for a first game, but it needed more time in the oven.
The puzzles are nothing to write home about, the writing is weak. Even after beating the final boss, the story remains vague. You don't know what happened to the characters, what the main protagonist did that they cannot forgive themselves for, or even if anyone died. It tries hard to be emotional, but it comes off flat.
As weird as it sounds, I am glad I tried this game out. I hope the dev works on more games in the future, as they have clear creative direction and potential.
I just wish they put more time into making this game something fantastic.
