9 | LGG | THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL IN THE COURT OF MAAL DWEB
9 | LGG | THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL IN THE COURT OF MAAL DWEB
by: Ryan Veeder
Progress:
- I reached the end of the game after around 1h20m, needing two hints in order to be able to get through it.
Engagement with Horror Genre:
- I found the horror here to be more psychological than anything. For the majority of the game, you see only the effects/aftermath of Imrath’s attacks, so the tension grows and grows over the course of the game. You learn that even just looking at the wolf will cause these horrible effects, and right when I thought I was on my way to make goggles to save myself, the game forces you to see them and experience what their other victims have been experiencing.
Things I Appreciated:
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I went into this with zero familiarity with the story or series that this is based on, and I still found it enjoyable as a standalone entry. So I would definitely recommend this to someone who wants to play a (challenging) parser game but might hesitate due to not knowing about the series it is in.
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My first big moment of wonder was at the first teleportation when the color changed and I ended up in Texas. I was really unprepared for this (having explored the area before specifically examining any of the torches) and it was a delightful surprise. After that, I enjoyed getting to see the different locations, some of which are normal enough and some of which are delightfully strange. This was a very effective use of UI.
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I struggled a lot with this game as while wandering around, I could only find cards and nothing I could actually use for the main story. But as happens with these games, eventually I started to become familiar enough with what was going on that I started to make real progress. Except for the exceptions noted below, I thought the puzzles were pretty intuitive and I started to learn to search locations that had no clear purpose yet for solutions to things, which helped a lot. Overall, I thought this was a tough, but pretty fair game.
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The level of implementation was impressive. Pretty much every reasonable thing I tried to examine or touch had a custom response, and these responses were rich and interesting. Even when I struggled, I felt confident that the game was well-crafted and there would be a solution that I could find, whereas when games have spottier responses I get worried about softlocking myself.
Miscellaneous Comments:
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The first place I got stuck involved the grappling hook, which quickly infuriated me. When I received it, my first instinct was to try and knock the object off the top of the pole, but the game refused to allow that. That really confused me as that seemed like a logical interaction, but I proceeded regardless. I kept trying to use it in places that made sense (to climb cliffs or rocks) and would not be allowed to proceed. After a while longer, I asked for a hint for the first time and was told to use the grappling hook in a place I had already attempted to use it quite a while ago. I found this annoying because I had ruled out the grappling hook as progress there after it didn’t work, but on the plus side, this hint was well-designed because it knew exactly where I was stuck and how to phrase the command to allow me to proceed.
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The second time I got stuck, the help command told me that I needed to give “the figurine” to Archie. However, I had never seen a figurine before (but the hint seemed to assume that I had) so I retraced my steps at a few difference places. I went back to Xiccarph and just tried “take figurine” without seeing one, which worked, so I think I somehow just bypassed a puzzle completely here. I think for the game state I was in, a hint that I didn’t explore Xiccarph enough would’ve worked better than the one I got.
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In terms of the writing style, I mostly really enjoyed it, but thought the opening exposition of all the hero characters was overly dense with information. Especially since, in my playthrough, they didn’t contribute all that much to the puzzles, I wondered why so much time was devoted upfront to introducing them in such detail when they didn’t have that much plot impact. That said, I did like those characters and found them interesting. If anything, I wish they had done more. After that, the density of the text felt more relaxed, still rich, but meted out at a more reasonable pace.
What I learned about IF writing/game design:
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Something I noticed that this game did well was set limits on the scope of the room regions of the game. The game will just straight up tell you not to continue going in a certain direction and which way to go back, which is helpful for trying to keep a mental map straight.
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I thought the color-changing UI was great. It has a big impact the first time you encounter it, and then, when you are finally used to it, it changes at a climactic moment to give a big impact for a second time. It’s a great use of something ostensibly simple (changing the background color) that packs a punch.
Memorable Moment:
- I involuntarily shouted/screamed during the final violin segment because I hit return twice by accident and the rapidly changing colors jumpscared me, so that was kind of embarrassing. But I thought it was cool to experience.
DemonApologist_MaalDweb.txt (107.8 KB)