I slide in hours before the end of the festival with a last minute review thread! I have played and made notes on a fair few games, but alas did not have time to expand them from rambly dot points to proper paragraphs. So here are some very short overviews, look for longer ones on IFDB in a month probably.
The Little Match Girl Approaches the Golden Firmament
A very fun experience! The goal is to explore an enemy spaceship to find and free a prisoner. Throughout the game you can read the rather inept team of villains’ chat messages as they try to stop you, which are an absolute delight, and the game made me laugh out loud several times. There is a timer ticking down which added a sense of urgency, but I’m not sure if it matters much? On IFDB I see my playtime is 30min longer than the average, but I never ran into issues with time running out.
Radiance Inviolate
Despite the short length the characters are interesting and distinct, the story is compelling. I enjoyed the alternating between Lysander’s present dilemma and flashbacks to give more info on world and his history. The design and colour choices are excellent, the colours getting lighter as the dawn neared is a nice touch. It’s rare that I notice satisfying colour combinations, but the background and text colour pairings are really good.
Cut the Sky
An atmospheric limited parser game about a lone wanderer in a dystopian landscale. The writing is beautiful and melancholy, each vignette described evocatively, slowly revealing the history of this world leading to an epic ending.
Chronicles of the Moorwakker
A complex dark fantasy RPG. There is an impressive turn-based combat system: the protagonist can summon animal spectres with a wide variety of powers to attack or influence the field, enemies have unique traits that affect their attack style. I don’t usually like combat though, and took regular advantage of the very appreciated option to skip combat encounters. So I’m evaluating this game based on the story and exploration aspects, which are luckily still great! The central story revolves around investigating your mother’s suspicious death, chasing leads around the map and slowly undercovering a deeper conspiracy. I enjoyed the opressive atmosphere (including excellent background music), the compelling story and characters.
Wayfarers
The writing is a standout here, I copied so many quotes. Playing through different games-within-the-game as your character recovers from serious injury is an interesting concept. I enjoyed the conversations with ADA, (probably) a fellow soldier, and the slowly emerging commentary on war and what’s going on behind the scenes. A most linear game with most choices being inconsequential until the very end (including some strange parts where the game presents multiple options but only one is clickable?)
idle phone simulator
This was so much fun. You play as a student getting ready for the day, assisted by a your sentient smartphone who is at once helpful and judgemental. Short, not much here in terms of plot or impactful choices, but makes up for it in how charming it is. The cute graphics, the funny dialogue, the puns! I love the puns. A delightful way to spend 10min of my afternoon