LUNIUM
This one had all my favorite things—a murder mystery, an “escape room” vibe like the author’s previous game (The Kuolema), fun foreshadowing and symbolism, and an ending that thrilled me! The vibes were suitably spooky without being horrifying to my weenie self, and I loved the art and aesthetic of the game.
Paranoid as I am about AI art these days (not a fan, personally), I started with scouring the initial pictures for telltale signs of it (especially considering the Kuolema did make use of AI art) but I couldn’t find any, so I am willing to hope that all these beautiful assets for the game were custom handmade and photoshopped like god intended. Either that or AI art has jumped in quality and undetectability and I will be a little more afraid of our overlords in the future.
The prose worked for the spooky Victorian-y aesthetic, though no phrases specifically stuck out to me as especially lyrical. The puzzles were difficult enough that they made me feel smart to solve, and I only used a hint twice–-if I’d have glanced over my objects a little further then I would have solved the game without any at all!
I’ll spoiler my discussion of the ending this time since it is a mystery after all:
I adored all the symbolism that the protagonist is a werewolf. When I picked up on the very odd detail of why the protagonist would be locked up with their own notes and cipher locks, I was able to guess that they were actually the murderer…how cliché, I thought initially! However, it was only after viewing the Lunar Almanac that things started to fully slot into place in my mind and the cliché turned exciting, as I realized just how damn much foreshadowing there was from the very beginning. From the title screen, even! I admit I have a serious soft spot for werewolves, and this game fondly reminded me of my favorite series of the flash games of yesteryear: Don't Escape, which at least has a werewolf who knows it. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to accuse the right person (me) at the end, but I was able to after all!
A really fun game. I’m still riding that high of solving it!