[h1] The Final Edit: [/h1]
[b] TL;DR: Still lacks polish and has some issues in dialogue, but devs have been quick to try to fix any issues that are mentioned that actually block progress. If you want to experience a neat surreal story and support that kind of stuff on the platform and possibly seeing this game get the polish it needs, pick it up. [/b]
So I just beat the game, and as you can see I've changed my review to positive, and I do feel bad for being as critical as I was of it. While some grammar issues and portrait issues are still present you only need to be slightly competent in context clues to figure out who is actually speaking. The way the story progressed definitely subverted my expectations, as did the ending, but having now seen the ending I believe it puts the rest of the game into a decent perspective. While I still feel the game needs polish in some areas, and there are still a couple items I'm not entirely sure how to use or if they have a use at all, I overall left this game not feeling disappointed. If anything I find myself hoping to see more updates to the game so that I can play through it again and possible experience in it's final form. I would like to formally apologize for being the only review on here for some time (I honestly thought there would be other reviews also going up around the same time) and I wish you all the best.
Secondary edit: So I solved the puzzle, but only because I tried something else. The puzzle is sorting water and person posters. One poster said DRP, which I would assume would be DROP, but no it was person related for some reason. Anyways, moved on to the next puzzle and it turns out I just somehow broke the puzzle the first time and cleared it this time. So I have made it farther into the story, and the rest of the game also lacks polish. Between grammar, mismatched portraits to dialogue making the conversations confusing, or just the story seeming to jump around, I struggle to get attached to these my character, especially as she goes from brightly saying "Hello!" to one person and yelling at another. I truly wish I could just give a mixed recommendation because there's something here, the surrealism is becoming more apparent and is actually kind of neat now, but it doesn't benefit the puzzles. When a doctor poster gives me a bottle opener, and there is a giant cola bottle in the background, why am I giving the bottle opener to a billboard about a mystery person instead of using it on the bottle? I really want to like this game, and I'm trying, but I've hit another brick wall in the story and am just going to spend my time walking through all the areas in hopes that I just missed something, despite the fact that there was no indication that I did. I expect one final update/edit to this review, which will be when/if I finish the story.
EDIT: Okay, so that puzzle I mentioned? Still didn't solve it. The answer just popped up on the puzzle and I used that to progress. The puzzles that I have encountered have either been incredibly simple or have been made with such a specific solution in mind that there is little chance of solving it unless you designed the game. The puzzle I was currently working on was meant to be surreal, and I kind of found it interesting, until I hit a button that made a glowing light appear and was stuck, unsure if the light indicated I did something right or not as I could find nothing else to progress the puzzle. This game is EXTREMELY rough around the edges and it feels like I paid to be QA for this game. Dev, I'm incredibly sorry as I truly wanted to like this game and be able to give it a good review, but this was not in any way ready for release. The least you could have done is mark it as early access, so I didn't feel like I was taken advantage of for wanting to buy this game when it came out instead of waiting for other reviews.
Hate to do this and put a negative review, but I can not recommend the game in it's current state. The dialogue mistakes are not that big of an issue for me, though there are multiple incorrect words, poor grammar, the dialogue choice also being written into the speech box of the character that was speaking to you, and dialogue where the pictures of the people talking are swapped so it looks like one is saying something that the other is. The real issue is that I am currently stuck, as far as I can tell. There is a puzzle that just popped into existence after talking to someone. The puzzle has no explanation, seemingly no clue for how to solve it, or anything, and the other quest I found is likely connected to this puzzle as there only seems to be two locations I can go to.
A few other minor bugs of note: the journal briefly showing all of the stuff that will be added to it through the game, including photos of characters that are suspects The menu suddenly opens on screen, but you can not interact with the options until you hit escape to bring up the real menu which you can then interact with. The Background audio slider seems to be completely silent until near the top of the slide, with it then being far too loud at the top, and opening the options menu automatically put all the sliders down to the bottom, muting the game.
Those bugs are something I can look past, but the puzzle design feels extremely strange to the point that I am unsure if I am just very stupid and am unable to solve the puzzle or if there is some bug with it.
All I can say for certain is that I will change my review and recommendation should I either realize how dumb I am and solve the puzzle or, if the puzzle is actually bugged or broken, or just missing something, it is fixed.
Again, sorry for the negative review, devs, but I can't in good conscience let people spend their money on this in it's current state and would hate for more negative reviews to flood in that don't actually explain the issues. I wish you all the best, and am very excited to get further into the game as I've been interested in it ever since Next Fest.
