The Sekimeiya: Spun Glass

I would only rec this game to people who don't mind a couple things: 1. clunky, dry, and verbose writing. It's grammatically correct, but very robotic and unnatural sounding. Things that took 3 run on sentences to explain could've taken 2 simple sentences. I felt like the writer liked to whip out a thesaurus every now and then, as usually the vocab was simple but they'd use obfuscate, calling an imaginary friend intangible(??? who says that), or referring to a destroyed floor as devastated. Should've been run through like 2 editors. I wanted to pay attention and read closely, but the writing was annoying so I took to skimming the text. It's unfortunate since yeah how am I gonna catch all the clues if I skim. The pacing could've been better. Chapter 1 was very long, exacerbated by the verbose writing tbh. Chapter 3 was very boring. This is a plot focused vn, so the characters were mostly there to spout off theories/test out logic. Can't say I enjoyed reading someone thinking it through, but I'm sure others do. 2. This is more on the logic puzzle side. Sure there is an enjoyable mystery, but it's more so a very complicated logic puzzle. If you enjoy that, great! I still kind of enjoyed it and personally didn't really try with the quizzes or note taking. Some minor critiques: given it's a visual novel it would've been nice to have more visuals. There are the basic character portraits and the occasional cg. But like when they're referring to blood on the floor they could put a little picture to show it. The setting was odd. I was taken aback when it was definitively revealed to be Japan. The names are like vaguely Japanese and the town cgs were obviously not Japan. just because there's an anime aesthetic, doesn't mean the setting has to be Japan..... I did kind of enjoy it, but it wasn't what I expected. The music was good for setting the mood and the art was nice. For me the biggest hang up was the writing, but again if it's not something you'd mind it's a fun mystery/puzzle vn.

This game is for a very specific type of mystery lover and I unfortunately don't fit that mold. There is very little character writing and I just couldn't make myself care about what was happening without it. I did tough it out and finish but by the end I was completely checked out.

非常非常硬核的推理游戏，在我玩过所有推理游戏里可能仅次于 诡计×逻辑。 不对，也许更硬核？从某种意义上来讲， 硬核程度超过我认知内的所有推理相关的作品， 都不需要加上游戏的前缀。充分但也许没那么必要地传达了卡尔说的推理是这个世界上最伟大的智力游戏。 对于时间线的设定非常严谨， 从某种意义上是逻辑和奎因在新时代还能熠熠闪光的标志，也有的时候让我感觉是某种程度的过于庞大的时刻表推理。但是很遗憾的是阅读体验只能说是灾难，首先游戏的篇幅实在过于冗长，到第五章真正需要推理的时候已经丢失了大量的记忆。其次是写作的风格让人很容易不知道到底在说啥。不知道是因为英文写作本身的原因，还是因为中文翻译的风格问题。感觉非常的混乱。。尤其是本作的设定本身就容易让人感到混乱，加上写作，那就是乱上加乱。。总体的感受和我十年前读《地狱之缘》差不多，都是精妙的作品+痛苦的阅读。 总结的话就是， 这部作品从某种意义上讲像庞大，复杂但又精密的仪器，可远观但真的很难亵玩。尤其是如果我真的要耗费这么多灰质细胞的话，我有的时候会感觉宁愿去读paper， 至少paper 逻辑缜密不至于这么难读，其次我读paper至少真有用，但是这个只能感觉到庞大的时刻表..

Tl;dr Play this game if you're a fan of mystery/time loop games. The biggest strength of this game is the story and the time loop aspects, but it turns into a double-edged sword later in the game. I suggest going into this game blind and atleast completing Chapter 1, which is long, but push through it. I'll start off with the game's positives. The story and time travel elements are incredibly well thought out. Kudos to the author for creating an extremely well thought time travel mechanics. You realise when you play Chapter 5 how much thought and effort must've went into it. The music was also good. Now for the negatives, oh boy.... First off, the game's pacing is a mess. Chapter 1 takes almost 5 hours to complete and no wonder only 44% who played the game made it that far, going by the number of people who unlocked the 1st achievement which is completing Ch1. The game actually starts of great, you and your friend are trapped in a tower along with some others and time travelling hijinks ensue. But the time travelling comes with a twist in that you're not the only one time travelling. And "time travelling" is not the only thing you need to worry about. But due to this, the entire later part of the game becomes a complete mess. Lets consider 3 people- X,Y and Z. The entire game devolves into the following- X went here, Y went here, Z went here, Y was at this place at this time, X and Z went here, an incident happened where X was, but somehow Y is there, Z is missing but was found here later and so on. It's a complete nightmare to track what's going on. The game has a Notes system that's somehow supposed to help? You do understand some of the stuff that's happening and you do manage to connect some dots if you're paying attention to the events. But there's so much stuff going on that at some point you just give up. There's a flowchart that unlocks AFTER the game that would've been useful if it had atleast become accessible in Chapter 5. Oh, and chapter 5 turns into a Q&A session where you have to answer all the mysteries, like I'm supposed to remember everything. There's no penalty or anything, even if you give the wrong answer, the game continues with the right answer. But atleast if you had the flowchart it would've helped solving some of those. If I mentioned so many negatives, then why do I recommend this game? Because it's a good mystery. I mentioned about Chapter 5, after completing the game I played through part of it again this time with the help of the flowchart and you realise how much stuff is going on and how much you missed. The ability to go back and look through events again and making the connections made me give this a recommended. I initially played this game a few years back and dropped it, but glad I gave it a second chance.

要长脑子了

two big thumbs up

（全文无核心诡计剧透）通关了，先说结论：诡计非常复杂，本人已放弃思考。前期非常无聊有些地方不符合常理且基本全程看得很累。读这个作品相当于看数学逻辑题分析。[b]大家都诟病的没有什么日常描写是其次，主要是悬疑感不算很强。[/b]本人评分7/10。有剧透的评价（主要是有一些剧情上的疑点）就不在这里讨论了。 首先：为什么不符合常理？就按一开始主角在参观博物馆被熏晕说起。 如果你被熏晕，醒来后发现导游没了，你会怎么做？ A：寻找出口，先逃离这座设施。 B：坐在那里思考凶手是谁，如何做到的，目的是什么。 主角选择B。这是人吗？？ 作者不放过任何一个可以分析的机会，就连走廊里掉个钥匙，掉个手提箱都要分析一大堆，谁掉的，怎么掉的，为什么会掉，等等。 都被关里边了你会在意这个吗，你甚至还没探索设施。。游戏前期（因为鸡毛蒜皮小事就分析）不合理的地方很多，直到之后出现非自然现象后，进行分析行为才合理。 而且，前期所有分析行为都是看个乐子，因为大部分都是在情况不明时强行思考，最后没思考出什么结论不了了之。最重要的是，后面发现新的机制后，导致之前的分析全部推翻，导致看分析的我是个小丑。 你就是这么消耗我耐心的？ 设施搞得十分简洁，除了第一层基本没什么可探索的点。这些都是为了给他那数学逻辑题一般的诡计做铺垫的，设施本身不算很重要。因为逻辑题要的就是背景板简洁。 看看其他密室大作，比如极限脱出系列，E17，root double，弹丸论破系列等，哪个不是设施起了很大作用。可以说复杂的设施增加了悬疑感，探索设施能逐渐接近真相，而并非纯做题。 可以说他是密室推理系列的一股清流了。 游戏里唯一悬疑感强的部分就是第一章探索设施了，探索完之后回归经典万物皆推理阶段，气死我了。 最终解释诡计的阶段，我认为他的文字说得没有那么通俗易懂。如果能每个场景都配上图，表明每个人来自哪里就会好太多了。作者有限的表达能力限制了我对他诡计的理解，最后只能说懂了大半部分，其他细节放弃思考。 最后说说人物： 男主和2个女主竟然是三角恋，虽然在主世界一开始一个女主去世没有真正成功，但是三角恋真的有点恶趣味，白2我不想再看到了。 sai这个人是全作最恶心的人，我在最后的调查问卷里给他评分最低。他从头到尾都在捣乱，看得红温了。 Isla应该是卖萌和颜值担当，尤其是戴墨镜的时候，不错。 其他就不多谈了，纯工具人（包括sai）。（话说逻辑推理题作品哪个不是工具人）

怎么说呢，虽然这部作品对我来说好坏参半，读完所有tips后还是给了好评， 由于核心诡计过于复杂，一周目阅读是肯定无法做出推理的（真有人能在看完时间表前捋清时间脉络吗？），这个作品适合过目不忘的机器人，而不是推理爱好者，尤其是每天只能玩1-2小时的上班族推理爱好者。 对于核心诡计的设计，我个人更喜欢一针见血，比如海猫鸣泣之时的核心诡计： “[spoiler] 就算迎来了汝，这座岛也只有17人 [/spoiler]“ 一句话直接点破了1-7章所有的谜题。 现在来看看 Sekimeiya 的核心诡计： “[spoiler] Sekimeiya共有2个，通过触碰，一个可以将人送回过去，另一个可以将人送去未来。当Sekimeiya处于0℃以上时，传送的时间和波及范围会指数级增长，可通过升温手段加快这一过程。Sekimeiya将人送回过去X秒时，送回去的位置则是触碰Sekimeiya后X秒会到达的位置。Sekimeiya将人送去未来X秒时，送去的位置则是 触碰Sekimeiya前X秒所在的位置。当两个Sekimeiya全部激活时，触碰Sekimeiya会将相交范围内的人全部按顺序跳跃时间线。而处于相交范围内但位于平行世界的人会全部按逆顺序跳跃时间线。 [/spoiler]” 看出问题了么？知道的以为你在设计核心诡计，不知道的以为你在写产品说明书。 不过作者的脑洞实在够大，如此复杂的谜题却几乎没有瑕疵（不敢说完全没有，反正我是没找到）。对比ever17，同样是精彩的故事，但有很多细节经不起推敲：少年怎么上来就失忆的？为啥17年了没有一个路人发现那个位置还有生还者？还有人尽皆知的踢罐子事件。 对于男女主费了那么大劲救出[spoiler] 米亚 [/spoiler]这个人，再读完全部章节后，我真的是深感不值。

I got frightened by some of the mystery elements and bounced off the game after a while; but the concept is incredibly cool, the game is basically a pure mystery with very little dialogue fluff and lots of searching / notetaking tools to help with research. I might return to it at some point if I can muster the courage; but no one else I've talked to seems to have been frightened, so you'll probably be fine. Would recommend checking out others' reviews to hear what they think, this is an incredibly unique game and there's tons to love about it!

Never has a game demanded more brainpower than the last chapter of this visual novel. 10/10 would take the exam again. On a more serious note, this is a visual novel that encourages you to re-read past chapters and take notes in order to work out what happened. Its note-taking system is top notch and its ability to let you search and organise is designed specifically for this. I only wish I was able to search through my own notes as well as I took a lot of notes throughout the whole novel. If you are the kind of person who enjoys puzzling things out, this is *the* visual novel for you. See also: 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim.