Perfect Tides

复古点击叙事游戏 剧情上：十分细腻的心理描写，把青春期的复杂心理和小镇生活的孤立感刻画得淋漓尽致，沉浸感很足； 游戏性：像素图案实际判定区域很小有点坑，细节藏得非常多，比较刚需地毯式搜索，没看攻略一口气推完导致漏了大量支线有点可惜，这款游戏其实更适合慢品。

Before starting this review I want to warn that this will contain some minor spoilers. This is a point and click adventure game, as such story and puzzle solving is the main focus of the game, talking about the game without spoiling at least some of that is impossible. If you are fine with that, continue reading. Perfect Tides is a game about Mara Whitefish who lives on a small island called "Paradise Tides". That island is a popular vacation spot during summer but mostly uninteresting for the reminder of the year. Mara has to go to school and shop on the mainland which is also her only real way to socialize with others. On the island she has only two friends, Lily, a girl who also lives on the island and goes to school with her, and Simon, a young man who owns a large mansion on the island but usually lazes around. Mara has trouble with socializing with other people, mainly because of her isolation on the island. This led to her developing an inferiority complex and thinks she isn't popular with others simply because she is ugly and uncool. We learn that this isn't true as the game goes on and there are multiple people actually interested in Mara. The game is set over an entire year with each season being framed as their own section of Maras life. Each season has you see the world through Maras eyes, her daily struggle with her family, her school and her attempts to get to know people and become popular. These are the typical struggles of a teenager and anyone can associate with it. Mara also likes to hang out on the internet where she is fond of a writing forum in which she has some personal contacts. You will have to do some basic tasks, go to school, talk to people, do some house chores. It isn't always clear what the game wants from you, so you have to talk to everyone and click on anything to get further. Now, my problem with the game isn't that it's bad, my problem is that it's boring. This is often worse because a bad game can be made fun of and you at least have something to talk about. A boring game on the other hand does not even have that. Why is the game boring? Because the story doesn't go anywhere. The overarching story is, like mentioned above, Maras struggle to socialize but nothing ever comes of that, in fact it even gets worse as the story goes on and she risks losing the few friends she has. And this is my biggest issue with the game, the protagonist. She is incredibly insufferable. Mara likes to paint herself as a victim whenever she can. Her own inferiority complex makes her think she is unlovable and whenver something bad happens to her, no matter how little, she sees that as proof. It is clear she has mental issues and normally that does make an interesting character but in this case it's really badly designed. Mara constantly lashes out at others, especially her family. She burns every bridge she has just so she does not have to face the fact she is responsible for her own problems. Other characters in the game try really hard to reach out to her but Mara does not have it, everything looks to her like a plot to sabotage her. If the goal was to make an absolutely unlikeable character than the dev was succesful. Because the game is just us following a year in Maras footsteps, there is also never any goal or anything which you expect in an adventure game. There are several subplots you can follow but most of those are optional, worse, the game does not even make it appear like you are following a narrative. For example, early on you are given some peas in the game and the player has the chance to plant different vegetables throughout the year and even take part in a harvest contest. But besides some comment in the beginning it isn't entirely clear to you that you can do that or how to do that. You have to find some soil (good luck on an island fuill of sand), a book that describes how to plant seeds and then find various seeds through the game. There are multiple such side quests you can follow but some are so obscure that you will only find them by checking a walkthrough or by clicking every pixel. There is one example that's really bad where you can find a disk in the sand and the only clue you get is a tiny line of red pixels. I find some of the side characters have much more interesting stories to tell than Mara and I would have rather played a game about them. For example Simon, Maras other friend on the island. He is depressed because his boyfriend Mitch lives on the mainland, rarely visits and is a much more succesful writer than he himself is. This leads to a big fight between the two and them breaking up towards the end. You only see pieces of this when Mara intrudes on his home which she frequently does (if the player allows so). But there are some good aspects about the game. Mainly the graphics. The game uses a pixelated cartoon style and characters outside of cutscenes have this chibified artstyle with short body proportians and eyes that are far too large for their tiny heads. It is somewhat endearing. I also liked the classic gameplqay design of a point and click adventure with multiple actions like "look", "use" and "walk". But this game also shows why this style of adventure games is a dying breed, it's frustrating to cycle through your actions to chek for every interaction and find out if something works, the different interaction symbols all have different sizes and shapes, good luck to find the tiny pixel of your interaction icon that interacts with the tiny pixel of the object you want to click on. I had numerous moment in the game when I tried to click on something and Mara would just say "no" because I didn't click at the exact point I needed to click. Overall the game is pretty average and boring to play through. If you look for a classic adventure game, maybe look for something else. Or wait for a sale if you are really desperate. But hey, maybe you like th egame more than I did.

I'm glad I finally got around to playing this one (after supporting its sequel, Station to Station, on Kickstarter). It took a while to get into Perfect Tides, perhaps because my teenage experiences, while similar in some respects, felt very different from Mara's, and at the beginning I found her specific brand of neediness and insecurity grating - but over time, she certainly grew on me, and her annoying side was a big part of this. What I perhaps related to more was the sense of loss and the various ways it found to express itself, and this especially is where the writing of the game shines. What I hadn't expected, though, was the format - point and click adventure, Sierra-style, and the chunky pixels of the game's VGA aesthetic - and the effect it had: not nostalgia, or not only, but transporting me back to a time and a me that was a few years older than Mara is in the game, but that could still relate to some of the specifics of her experience. Very much looking forward to playing Perfect Tides Station to Station, even if I will take a bit of a break from Mara, but I'll want to return to her story before long.

Writing a character that's that relatable and also that contemptable is like breakdancing on a tightrope. The only comparison point I have for that level of self social sabotage is Bojack Horseman or possibly myself at that age....until my mid twenties. Don't look at me!

Da New Guys called, they want their background renders back. Makes the same fatal mistake as [i]Voodoo Detective,[/i] boring the player with an uneventful opening that drags on for over an hour. Given that Fate of Atlantis is from 1992, there's really no excuse for this anymore.

I finished Perfect Tides more than an hour ago, and I'm still sitting at my computer, listening to Belle and Sebastian in the dark and thinking about what I was doing in 2000 and all the old friends I haven't talked to in literally decades. Amazing game, 10 out of 10.

Just finished it. Started it over a year ago, liked it but it didn't particularly stick. Restarted it recently (thanks to Jacob Geller reminding me over and over it exists) and this time, the story clicked and hit. Hard. It's a simple game: Explore the descriptions, vibe, and really get into Mara's head as she falls apart, stumbling emotionally colorblind from one traumatic event to the next. My adult ability to see her problems arise from a mile away did nothing to not feel with her whenever Mara reaches her breaking points. The incredibly sensitive, reflective and honest writing carries the entire experience. It's why I will remember this game for a long time. This game basically has no puzzles. I have grown up with LucasArts style adventure games. So, with a story-through-puzzles construction. However, here, all you do is following instructions or stumbling into where the story continues next. This is not a bad thing! The game still benefits from it's point and click nature: You can explore the island on different days and seasons, there are ways that scenes can diverge based on your choices, and there is quite a bunch of missable and optional content. The optional stuff might require what approximates puzzles. But, just, don't expect a puzzle game. It's a narrative game. I'm very glad it exists and I'm very glad I played it. I feel enriched in ways only great art can. If you've been a teenager that went through BIG and CONFUSING emotions because life just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks in ways you didn't quite understand... or if you are in your thirties and only recently learned you've been emotionally colorblind a big chunk of your life and have forgotten what it was like to desire that which feels impossible to have when you're young (just as a very random example) this story will likely hurt you and make you feel seen in equal measure. I recommend it.

Perfect Tides made me very emotional the whole time I was playing. I am so glad to have experienced this beautiful game.

Game got to me in a ways i didn't expect, all to reletable for me. If you want play a story that touches you in a heart string i would recommend this one. You can follow this game without a guide, it doesn't realy on moon logic. Really good time

the game rips. i finished it while reading Ben Lerner's Transcription and both works have deeply honest portrayals of their protagonists and give as much time to joy and the sublime as they do to pettiness, anxiety, and a need to be acknowledged. the locales are beautiful, the cast is really funny, there are some really good gags.