[h1] <-- Review writen for [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35180752/] 3 Point Play [/url] --> [/h1]
Witch Loraine's Death Game is an interesting take on the classic RPG Maker titles, in the sense that it doesn't feature real combat, this is, in my opinion something worth mentioning, as I've always thought that this is better for exploiting the intrinsic core of RPG games, which is not actually the combat, but actually the whole "role-playing" part, and particularly, the storytelling aspect of this. So, for starters, keeping in mind the lack of combat, this game focuses on some light puzzles based on dying, dying, and dying all over again until you figure out what do you have to do. It's a really "trial and error" kind of game, and while it can get frustrating, it's fair and doesn't produce true frustration like other games that are actually unfair not in a mechanical sense, but over the sheer amount of errors and gamebreaking bugs that you might not notice and are ruining your attempts at success.
I have to say, however, that while I always try and be optimistic about most of my reviews (unless it's something I really hated) this game doesn't come without of own share of flaws, which if I get to pointing, I might be considered a nitpicker. Also, since the game was made in RPG Maker, I, again, consider that the storytelling aspect must really be amazing for me to actually consider it a great game, since, being completely honest, otherwise it can and will feel like an asset flip or an outright reskin of the many, many, many RPG Maker games out there. So, expect some typos, not a lot of original art, some stock tiles used here and there. The music is original I think, and that's a plus.
The game, without a need for spoiler warnings, ends in a cliffhanger, and at the time of my review, I've already completed 1 playthrough. I wonder if the interactions with the witch later on change if you've died a certain amount of deaths, or if you have died in particular ways, as a sort of meta-game (for instance, if you walk into the fireplace, she'll laugh about it, but what would she say if I didn't actually walk into it, or if I do a no-deaths run?).
All in all, I consider this game to really be a "what you see is what you get" game, a really honest game if you prefeer it that way, and I'll be on the lookout for the next title in the series. This might be the first game from this dev, and I can see some passion on it, yet, again, as I mentioned before, there's room for improvement and that remains to be seen on further releases.
