As a person who had just marathon back-to-back two Southeast Asian juggernauts of a story-based game, playing Paper Ghost Stories: Third Eye Open feels like it is somewhat of an interesting change of pace for me…
As far as the story goes, this game kinda feels more like a "mini side-story" that could [i]perfectly[/i] be enjoyed as an appetiser before or even a mid-break between the two games that I've played which were: A space of the unbound and Until Then… And [i]unlike[/i] those two games, I feel like Third Eye Open is a much "smaller" and a somewhat even more "grounded" of a story; as in, there is no end of the world/out of this world/isekai plot shenanigans that forms the basis of the story... Like, for one, the story of this game is very much of an [i]actual[/i] slice-of-life where it basically revolves around a typical Malaysian Chinese family but with the themes of tiger parenting, early childhood, "imaginary" friend, and the very stereotypical, superstitious Chinese beliefs with some supernatural horror elements in it. I also love how the game properly centres itself in an actual Malaysian setting especially when the game comes with a quite unique-looking art style of using "papers" or "origamis" to depict the typical Malaysian places like in a pasar malam, a taman rumah, and kopitiams, to name a few. It even utilises Malaysian-style dialogues that imitates the way how we would speak. But, if I have to point out, I'm not [i]really[/i] sure if people overseas would even understand some of the dialogues… Tho, there are some "trivias" or "infos" below the dialogues that explains the meaning of those uniquely Malaysian words to compensate. And for what it's worth, I think I got to hand it over to them for giving the story of this game a totally unexpected bittersweet ending (at least for the "good" ending) and some few twist and turns that occurs here and there in an otherwise "small" and sweet story. [spoiler]And speaking of ending, I kinda find it funny how it's kinda very reminiscent to American Mcgee's Alice in the Wonderland's ending with the "break free from your abuser" plot point if you'd ever played that, like me… Heck, even Ting looked oddly similar to Alice with the attire that she wears near the end of the game too lmao.[/spoiler]
Granted, for a person like me who is kinda used to extreme horrors lately, I was kiiiiiinda disappointed that they didn’t really fill that niche for me aside from giving us just mere ominous places, some cheap jumpscares here and there, and the core gameplay of avoiding getting spotted while sneaking around "enemies" that doesn't really feel like a threat as even if you do get "caught" from sneaking, you can easily outrun them when they start chasing you anyways lmao. Which, is a shame but I’m guessing that this ain't that [i]kind[/i] of game... Other notable gameplay elements that I could remember on the top of my head includes a ton of game-ified everyday tasks like a bunch of discount cooking mama but with Malaysian cuisines, epic-fun-exciting gameplay of doing your finances through the use of an excel budgeting table, exhilarating gameplay of putting groceries in the fridge, tons of miscellaneous fetch quests, playing with marbles akin to playing pool, and loads of quick time events. So, hey, at least it's not that [i]dull[/i] of a gameplay in a world where gamers would willingly choose to play the same gameplay in their MOBAs and shooters over and over again as if like they're stuck in purgatory or something lmao.
That being said, I would recommend to [i]at least[/i] check this game out if you're a person who wants a glorified interactive storybook with a young Malaysian Chinese family setting that allows you to experience their culture, traditions, and the way they speak, want horror but you're kind of a wuss, and that you want to enjoy a rather "grounded" Southeast Asian story that has some minor twists and turns with a rather bittersweet ending, then this game is definitely for you! Just don't expect to [i]feel[/i] something as much as when you had finished playing Until Then and A Space for the Unbound, of course…
