Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches

i love mysterious games

“Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches” is a traditional point-and-click adventure that I found myself enjoying quite a bit. It’s use of a contemporary setting grounds it a bit in reality despite being a supernatural story. Usually these types of games require finding and using/combining objects that don’t always seem to be the most effective things, however, I liked how this game justified it by using the items as symbols to represent the connected items to the overall story. The story itself is pretty interesting, though not unique. I thought it was fleshed out pretty well and the various documents and environmental clues helped to keep ones interest. The controls are a little clunky, however, especially with moving around. In some areas, you have to go through some extra clicks in order to access an item or area that’s clearly accessible from where the character stands. The inventory could have been better designed, at least in regards to navigating through it. Moving left and right through the inventory bar is slow and is made more frustrating when there are a ton of items. In my opinion, it would’ve been better to have the inventory as a drop-down box instead of the bar at the top of the screen. The music is reserved only for story scenes, but what is available is well-made. It has a haunting quality which fits well with the supernatural theme of the game. One little bit of advice: the Space bar skips the opening animations. I was so frustrated at having to wait about a minute every time I started the game in order to start playing. The usual use of ESC, Enter, or clicking the mouse doesn’t advance the opening animations, but the Space bar does! This is not indicated until the ending credits, however… Overall, I enjoyed this game and recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of traditional point-and-click adventure games.

[h1]A spooky point-and-click adventure puzzle-solving game. I'm pretty proud of myself getting through Chapter 1 on my own. Minus figuring out what the stupid computer password was, since there's literally so many words you encounter and nothing that actually hints to where you should be looking. From Chapter 2 on I basically relied on a walkthrough/guide which kind of took the fun out of it, especially since the game runs in like 1200x800 resolution so going back and forth was annoying. But my biggest gripe with this game is that you don't keep items when you first encounter them. You need to trigger something in-game THEN have to go all the way back and research EVERYTHING to pick up/keep an item needed for your "current" quest. So there's a lot of memorizing involved. Also so much reading, like WHY is there SO MUCH F*CKING TEXT TO READ! Guess I'm just to Low-IQ for this stuff. Nevertheless the game is pretty interesting, and if you like puzzle mystery solving games, check it out! 6/10[/h1]

The story is really nice, the way they put it together is horrible. It's not scary. It might have been a great book though. The area is great, not so big so you don't get lost. I like the cultural things. The gameplay isn't good. 99% of the items are already there, you need to figure out which one to take. The map system is according to the interactions you find, not the actual location. Luckily you have a notebook but it doesn't always cross the tasks you complete. Graphics are calling for the 90's. I like the game is retro point and click adventure but that's pretty much it.

I hate to give this a thumbs down, because the aesthetic and feel of the game are cool. Very 90s if you liked that era of gaming. However, the gameplay itself is tedious. The puzzles presented aren't even really difficult, but they might feel difficult or take up a lot of time because they're all dependent on knowing when and where to pick up objects found around the game. I used a walkthrough for several portions because it wasn't even like I couldn't "figure it out," it was just too annoying keeping track of a bunch of items I had seen several times but wasn't able to pick up until that one specific moment. It only made me more scatterbrained and confused when I was confronted with new information. I could see this being cool to watch someone else play, but playing it myself ended up being a little grating.

Rather than a video game I consider it a work of art. It perfectly recreates the feeling of a glorious niche genre, with all its strengths and weaknesses (the movement system is as awkward as it was in those old games, and some puzzles are not very logical). The story, even if it is not very credible, is integrated with cultural themes (medieval Welsh mythology) that pushed me to delve deeper. Thanks guys, there should be many more projects like this. For those interested, here is an article about it: https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/18193

I love finding weird little adventure games, and Rhiannon is definitely a weird little adventure game. It's not as towering as its contemporaries (certainly if we're comparing it to a game like Scratches it pales in comparison), but it manages to stand on its own two little legs with enough confidence and creativity to be worth your time if you're an enthusiast about this sort of game like I am. Puzzles are mostly fair and logical with mostly some pixel hunting in some places that act as sources of frustration. The story is a little simple and I think the game reveals the mystery of what's going on far too early, but its use of Welsh folklore and mythology gives it a unique identity, and it's clear the creators were passionate about the subject during development. I'd give this a solid 7.5 out of 10, if you were to ask me for a numbered rating. I should be transparent and say I did consult a guide at some points for this game, but I solved most of it on my own, and even puzzles I did have explained to me I've evaluated based on how much the solution makes sense even without having come to it organically.

Well I have mixed feelings about this game after finishing it. It has a pretty good story and it's compelling and interesting enough to keep playing it, but gameplay wise it's rough around the edges. The puzzles are very cryptic for the most part, and confusing, since sometimes the most obvious way it's not the correct way to solve things. And the "notepad" it has to keep track of tasks, sometimes adds to the confusion more than helping. The navigation controls and the way to interact with the inventory are not the best either. But that being said, it also has some pretty unique features and atmosphere that makes it for a good experience. So if you truly love adventure games, and you're up to a real challenge and to struggle with it's defects then you have a fairly decent horror adventure game to play. But I wouldn't recommend it to new players getting into the adventure game genre though cause it's very tough (I had to use a guide a few times to get myself unstuck of pretty crappy parts). So I guess in the end it all depends on the amount of patience and experience you have, and the amount of time you're willing to put into this game.