As the title says.
content warning: jeerings toward a certain insular country just offshore the european continent (an Italian national sport since 1930s…), bias toward manned floating things (sea or space), cruelty toward english language. 
Later for the first reviews !
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
Heh.
Just prior of starting the first IF to be reviewed, a pair of words about RoE:
I’ll play the stories from the shorter to longer, parser first then choice (thanks to the well-designed ordering) using my unilateral and capricious whim instead of shuffling.
(incidentally, this should allow hitting the judgement quota in few hours…) and I will never say the actual vote aside counting the bonus from some rather obvious influencing factors:
Big Floating Things (aka “Boatiness Factor”): obviously, a story/narrative involving a ship and/or Navy, sea, space or air, will get the substantial appreciation (read: bonus) of this Naval historian…
Britannia blind: personally, I’m worried that the questionable decision of his majesty’s governments will impact the results, because the technical difficulties for judges living in britannia will reduce the number of judges (and votes) for those stories [1], so stories and narrative penalised by the questionable decision above will get a bonus to the vote.
Made in Italy: for obvious reasons, games from Italian authors will get an undisclosed but substantial, bonus (and, yes, IS my revenge for the incident of last year…)
Now, let’s press onward !
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
[1] Is a serious point, and if one want to discuss it, I require that should be debated elsewhere, outside my review thread
Of the four 15-minute parser games, I decided to look first to:
Fascism-off topic because the title seems pointing to a too well-known current event… but no, seems, a slice-of life history.
aside the terse language, is very reminescent, setting included, of an earlier IF I can’t remember the title (but said earlier IF was much more verbose, and its setting was the Paris metro, IIRC); Aside the “read author’s mind” verb seemingly findable only by the hint seems that the PC can’t interact much with the environent, aside examining and listening; I’m under the impression that is intentional, delivering another aspect of the fascism, that the individuals feel that they can’t do much, and perhaps the regime isn’t bad (minor note, I noted that the story has a moves limit, and out of curiosity, I counted said moves: always the same number, which for an Italian is unintentionally reminescent of a well-known myth of the original fascism.. not enough for a brownie point, sorry, but gives a broad enough smirk. Thanks !
one done, 84 to go… onward !
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio
next is an Italian-made story, one touching current event in a very direct manner:
The Olive Tree
[IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I’m Italian AND Hebrew]
I haven’t advanced much into the narrative, because of the resource-management mini-game, which I personally feel that distract from the more important (and serious) narrative, albeit the usage of a different font for the narrative helps in following the narrative, which seems interesting up to where I have reached; I hope that said narrative follows Primo Levi’s lesson on distinguishing between Hebrews and Israelians (on which today must be added distinguishing between Israelians and Israelian leadership…)
Personally, I feel that the story can be narrated the same without the resource-management minigame, perhaps with a stronger impact, because a plant can only watch without means of helping, which is the international, not only Italian, popular feelings on that actual war. But i can’t dismiss the parallel between the plant’s struggle and the Palestinian farmers’s struggles.
oh, and the english is good, (and I noted the absence of CREDITS, which perhaps imply that he also has got zero ßtest interest…)
If Francesco has played First Contact he surely has noted that I have tackled this very same issue, thinly veiled thru the setting’s history. another reason for a really high grading by me.
Britannia blind: +2
Made in Italy: bonus given.
Now is dinner time… later for the last pair of 15min. parser IF !
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
next is the one which get my head scratched:
My Creation
well, I’m not hypocrite as the average anglo-saxon, but I admit that the author is another non-english-mothertongue (from Netherlands, seems) but seems to me that the story and narration is so rough that in comparision Creative Cooking seems a very polished work of IF. And has more or less the same array of issues, included lack of answer to EXAMINE, if not stock answer, e.g.
>x me
As good-looking as ever.
But in the mud lies a pearl, albeit a bit cracked, which is the ending (i think is it, because ends with, textual, (the end)) which explain very well the narrative (no spoilers, but suffice to say that is an elegant answer to the well-known problem of addressing the human condition which was debated a pair or so of years ago) and the justapoxition of a specific book draw a rather interesting parallel.
I have looked and tried around for some time,
(discovering in the meantime an (interesting, to say the least), bug:
show phone to baby
You can only do that to something animate.
which raised my eyebrows.)
but I can’t find nothing new which advance the story, so, if I don’t have missed something, the story actually ended with the aforementioned (the end)
Granted, I’m not in position on criticising an hastened ending, having done an hastened ending to the Preview of Isekai, but I hope that noting that, granted that the stock ending message of I10 isn’t appropriate (because the PC clearly has an hard life ahead, but leaving the player wandering around aimlessly around with no objective don’t seems to me a great conclusion of an otherwise thought-provoking narrative.
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
aaand… the last of the four quarter-hour parser IF !
A winter morning
which draws an immediate analogue with another, minor, work of mine, Return to Home, that is, a simple, cosy, walking simulator (cosy if we abstract from literal shitbombing from seagulls above…) in which one can enjoy the sea, sand and reading the occasional sign here and here. And is well-thought and designed, with an excellent polish (minor nitpick: TAKE A BREATH isn’t recognised but TAKE A DEEP BREATH is)
Lastly, another nice point is the web interface, with its green-on-black retro look.
I daresay, is a little well-polished gem, deserving its high vote.
and with this, the 15-min. parser entries are DONE ! let’s start with the 15-min choice games !
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
The first of the five 15-minute choice stories happens to be
A Visit to the Human Resources Administration
which, has an interesting premise, stemming from the ancient “foreign point of view” narrative device, often, as is in our case, used for exposing social issues. and the narrative used the premise very well. honestly, seems a page from the notebook of Etuye… (scribbling notes)
Lone nitpick (and constructive criticism), the usage of the default Twine/Harlowe layout; Granted, creating at least a custom color scheme/theme can take at least a full day from the actual narrative/story coding, perhaps not worth the effort, but is a nice touch. (perhaps a green background during the “note-taking sessions” isn’t a bad idea ?)
what I liked most was the last line prior of the end, of alien researchers (three…) smiling @ each other…
I fully concur and agree with the author’s final message.
judgement: passed with flying colors !
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
Thank you very much for your review! Since it’s my second game (the other one - The Reliquary of Epiphanius - is a traditional text adventure) I wanted to experiment a different approach and so the resource-management mini-game came up! It was also a way to fight the sense of helplessness I feel in front of the tragedy we’re all witnessing.
You’re right, I didn’t beta tested my games since I don’t know many people interested in IF and only now this world is revealing to me. Next time I’ll know where to ask!
I haven’t played First Contact yet but I will!
Thanks again, anzi, GRAZIE MILLE from Italy!
Francesco
Prego, Francesco 
I can’t say even if is related or not, but I got signals that something big, if not even huge can happen in the Eastern Mediterrannean sea, and I’m carefully keeping an eye on things, so for the next few days I can be rather inactive on the IF scene, so my apologies for delays in reviewing.
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
But did you manage to overcome that problem?
Roberto, I noted that with a 3-go 1-breath cycle I can reach >50 turns, but the “shitbombing” happens anyway, apparently is a weighted random event, but I’m sure that you noted that I’m concentrating on the narrative, not the technique…
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
Grazie Piergiorgio,
what I wanted to understand was whether there were any other ending besides being bombed.
However, it seems that someone has found them.
roberto
Now I have finally some time, now that the group of boat people with low wisdom and lacking sailing knowledge are for a while in port (Tunis) I’ll fire some review, waiting for the most dangerous leg (yes, most dangerous: they want to cross water infested with dangerous people much more interested to violence, rape and pillage than panarabism (nominally, they should pass north of Pantelleria and Malta, under the aegis of the local major Navy, but we have no guarantee that they can held well the course, if they agree on the warmly suggested one) and I’ll try to relax with some reviewing…
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
ps. for mods: my vent isn’t political, is Naval matter…
now the reviewed game is:
Rain check-in
Originally I plotted planned to quetly ignore stories with AI-generated text, but the specific reason in this story is linked to a major issue I know too well. and, frankly, I don’t think that two evils make a right.
(I have even toyed about the idea of a gandhian approach (that is, passive resistance in form of Italian-language comp entries…) to the issue, but in the end, I enjoy reviewing…)
The blurb says “see in-game credits for more information” (on AI-generated text) but the CREDITS command is unimplemented, and in the About menu, there’s a credits entry, but says nothing about the AI-generated text.
Aside the major inconsistency, I note that albeit the country is unnamed, the behaviour of the NPC is familiar… (and I appreciated the talk menu, IMVHO the best handling of NPC convo)
in the end, litereally, a nice hint toward a sequel…
the story is interesting (side note, I fooled a bit around a similar setting in Twine and Italian…) and this counterbalance the “not judgeable” narrative so in the end, Rain check deserve the passing grade, plus, of course
Made in Italy: +2
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
Now a bit of time for a little Errand Run
This IF’s story delivers a raised eyebrow first, until the big revelation midway; the unusual story is well-narrated, and for once the usage of the default palette helps the narrative, with the default white ink during the strange normalcy part, then shifting to red ink after the big revelation, which explain the strangeness during the first part. the only criticism on the narrative delivering is the PC’s venting about the spoiled onion which, frankly, look like an experimenting/fooling around with Harlowe’s text-style: macro.
I liked the narrative and the story, and how is delivered.
Britannia blind: +1
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
next in line is The Burger Meme Personality Test’s application for judging
Now is an interesting satire, literally mocking corporate tests. And the narration is definitively consistent with the story, only slip is in the end, with the reference to a dystopian cyberpunk trope which, IMVHO weaken the satire on corporate testing & recruitment criteria in general.
Aside that, I’m actually tempted of showing it to CGIL (the major Italian Union), pointing to the usefulness as propaganda tool. and this coming from a former political cadre, IS a major appreciation.
Big Floating Thing: +1
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
Now, it’s time for a visit to the The Island Of Rhynin, and the doctor’s opinion is that is an healthy rendition of an parser IF with the choice mechanisms. The story seems a bit classical, but the twist of having a companion is very worthwhile, and the narration is good, with the bonus of visible consequences of the choices, and in my run I have done a bad initial choice of weapon, but the ending I reached, one of self-sacrifice in favor of the companion, is very satisfactory, and I think that with that ending, my PC has redeemed from its bad choices (not only the initial one…) meaning, that is truly a CYOA IF, one where the player accept the consequences of his/her/they choices, good or bad, roleplaying the PC as h/s/t makes the decisions along the story. Needless to say, the background of the PC and NPC companion led to the bonus below
In general, a simple, but solid IF, with
Big Floating Thing: +1
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
Buonasera dott. Piergiorgio.
Thank you for you sincere review!
I’m adding the AI detail in game credits, it wasn’t already there because I explained the AI use in the blurb, and the reference to the credits section is a standard text because I declared I used AI, my bad for not noticing that.
I know AI is an hot topic, and I’m also not much into some kind of generative content, but, to be honest, I really feel each text in this game as mine. I asked to help me correcting and keeping it more fluent, especially helping me to find the right term for my specific setting. I used it actually to shortened my texts and make it more effective instead of generating or expanding contents.
For the location is not specified because is a collection of details and experiences from different places i’v been (mostly, but not exclusively, in southern Europe). I think you can recognize more than one place you’ve been to!
Finally, I’m very happy you liked the conversation system, I always struggle a bit with “topic guessing”, both when playing and when writing!
Un saluto,
Zeno
Apologies for taking so long to thank you for your review! And ye gods, what an honor it would be for Burger Meme to be a tool to support the rights of Italian workers!
And as a curious aside, one of the inspirations of my little game is a burger-joint simulator created by Italian game developer Molleindustria (you can find the game here), where you more or less can’t be profitable without becoming increasingly monstrous. I think about this game often when I consider the sort of work I’d like my writing and game design to do in the world, and I thought you might find this game useful, too, in your advocacy. Best regards from the U.S.!