Gameplay: Nothing felt too difficult or obvious. The puzzles were fun and I'm not usually a fan of puzzles in horror games - these didn't feel frustrating. I like that this game made me /want/ to make the 'wrong' choices, just to see what would happen - and it was worth it. I appreciated the generous save system as it encouraged you to experiment more with your choices because you knew you weren't going to be punished for it with a lot of backtracking. 

Story: I thought it made use of classic 80s horror tropes in nostalgic and endearing ways, but also had some nice twists that were personal to Alesa. Mr. Bob was especially unique, as it was kind of unclear the whole time whether he was a supernatural entity or a figment of Alesa's mind. The way her house call was explained away at the end felt believable and thought out. 

Horror: Playing this in the pitch dark was a thrilling experience! The jump scares were sudden, the sound design and music kept me tense throughout, and the 8bit gore and grainy filters made for a very creepy visual experience. I love this kind of lofi/retro art style in horror especially. 

Theme: As someone with family trauma, I feel a sort of extra pull to these games. There's a kind of catharsis with engaging with these sorts of themes in horror. For the same reasons I like films like Hereditary, I like the themes of twisted family dynamics in this game. I like how vague Alesa's past is - it makes you wonder how she grew up. What made her decide to do this sort of work in the first place? Why did Mr. Bob find her so early? What were her parents really like? And Greta was a very interesting addition of the family. You kind of feel bad for her, and I actually liked the Greta ending - it's a sobering, perhaps more realistic outcome and gives a very tragic pang to the heart. 

Gameplay:

I thought the gameplay was really strong, I liked all the different puzzles and I liked that there was a variety between that and chases. I did think the chases here were a little weaker than in "There is Something in the Anderghast Mine", I think just because that game had more of a focus on chases so those chases tended to be a little longer and were more unique from one another, that's how I feel anyways. But I enjoyed the puzzles more in this one!

The one thing I didn't like so much was how large the spaces were, within one room or hallway wasn't too bad but because you have to backtrack through a lot of areas I found it a little tedious to do all that walking, especially near the end when I was trying to get the different endings. I would have appreciated some unlockable shortcuts, or just having the maps be a bit smaller if there isn't another reason for them to be so large. I think this style is fine though for other types of games where you don't backtrack as much, just here it was much more noticeable.

Story:

I liked the story, it was pretty cheesy, but that's pretty fitting for the 80s horror vibe.

Presentation:

Presentation I felt like was very good! I appreciated all the little effects like the CRT filter and other effects. My favorite has to be the mural that looks at you when you're turned away, that was pretty awesome.

Creativity:

This game is certainly pretty creative. I think certain puzzles were similar to ones I'd seen before, but I still enjoyed them so I didn't mind too much.

Horror:

Horror was pretty decent, I definitely had more than enough different death animations to choose from! I think, not a horror problem exactly but because you backtrack so much in this game I was wondering if there might be more effects in some of the hallways like how you see at the beginning- lights turning off, things falling over, people chasing you, etc. Like maybe if you receive a certain item, it unlocks something somewhere so that when you travel to an area to use that item you receive a new scare you didn't have before, or something like that. 

I only bring it up because I saw a lot of these littler scares early on in the game, but the more I explored the less and less they showed up. By the end of the game, the house felt weirdly empty because of this.

Theme:

There is a family, and they have some secrets! I think I would have liked if the game was a bit more clear on which secrets were explicitly secrets or not, if that makes sense. Like, the family does scary things, but for most of the game they're pretty open about it.

Overall:

I was a little frustrated at the beginning because of how often I died and because I wasn't always sure what to do, but once I got into the groove of it and memorized more of the house it became a pretty enjoyable game, especially once I got to more of the puzzle sections. Thanks for making it!

My only question is- what is the code on the mirror for?? I was never able to figure it out...

Alright, after reading your last blog post, I've decided to add some further thoughts on this game aside from was already said in my review.

So, here it is:

SPOILERS:

I have to admit, I *did* get somewhat uncomfortable playing the game and with the way the characters looked. Especially with the scene where Alesa lost her tongue and when she was running around in her underwear after being thrown into the dungeon.

Thing is, with the VHS filter and such, it reminded me of all those PS1-style games that aim to recreate the feel of trashy old slasher-horror films and are very popular. Puppet Combo is known for making a lot of those kinds of games, for example Night Ripper and I see this game as the RPG Maker equivalent of that. I've played your previous games with female protagonists, so I knew that this wasn't your usual style.

I do think you could've toned it down a bit though, and I can see where the critics come from as I had similar thoughts while playing the game. I just don't think it's that much of an issue and does in some way contribute to the horror-style you've attempted to emulate, even if the execution could be better.

The shower scenes in particular were probably a bit too much, especially the one where Alesa showers together with Greta. You also have to watch the shower scenes multiple times if you go for the different endings and there's no real point to them. If there's a shower scene in an old slasher movie, generally it's something that happens while or right before the killer/monster attacks.

So, maybe there could've just been the one shower scene in the Greta ending. Alesa goes to take a shower alone and has Greta wait outside until she's done. But then while Alesa showers, Greta suddenly bursts in with the knife and kills her. That would've been a nice homage to old horror movies and made the scene feel less gratuitous.

Then again, I consider that whole Greta ending the worst written one in the game. I think there should've been another choice atleast. To take Greta home (which would end badly) or to take her to the police and have her institutionalized/see a psychiatrist. Alesa is a social worker, she should know how to handle cases like hers. Of course, Greta is maybe-supernatural, so it might not have ended well either way, but it would be nice to have that option.

Though with the current story, an ending like that would've resulted in Mr. Bob coming over to get Alesa anyway, which is why I didn't mention it in my review. It is a game jam game after all, so things like that are to be expected. To make a hypothetical choice like that more meaningful, it would probably also require another ending variation where you can reach Mr. Bob without Greta dying. Then you could have a potential bad ending even when you manage to defeat Mr. Bob if you choose to take Greta home with Alesa.

One other nitpick about the story I didn't mention since it was a game jam game... a medical examiner would be able to determine if someone else cut out Alesa's tongue or not, so unless they are absolutely incompetent or in on it with Mr. Bob, they probably wouldn't dismiss her story outright like that (atleast in the ending variation where she loses her tongue). She was responding to a call serious enough that her boss wanted her to come together with a cop, so those circumstances would most likely make them treat it somewhat more seriously as well. I know that the "authorities don't believe the protagonist for ridiculous reasons" is a staple of the horror genre, but it doesn't add much to this story.

A more "realistic" outcome would probably be that they believe her that she was indeed attacked and her stories about the house and the monstrous family are just a distorted account of her attackers who probably fled the scene, while Alesa is in shock and in need of therapy. They could've also managed to trace the phonecall with the allegations Alesa was responding to to the house/wherever Mr. Bob called from (even if he called from "another dimenstion" they could determine that there was something strange about the phone call). They could also check who the owners of the house were (if there were any records at all, which would also be strange if there weren't).

This could lead them to conclude that there's something weird going on with the house, but there's no real further leads, so the investigation isn't likely to really result in anything substantial. As such, it would still essentially lead to the same outcome while feeling less dismissive.

Anyway, these are my thoughts regarding this. Another idea for you to consider... maybe you could do a game with a male protagonist next time? Could be a nice change of pace after this game and your previous few ones.

Alright, I've played the game all the way through and saw all of the endings (I think anyway).

So, here's my review, SPOILERS:

Gameplay:

It's mostly a somewhat traditional RPG Maker Horror Game, starts off fairly linear (with one early branching path that leads to an early ending). Then it opens up and there's a lot of different endings to archieve, even if half of them aren't that much different in outcome.

One thing that would be easily fixeable are the character transfer events. Lots of people do it the same way as you, where they teleport the player to the same tile with the transfer event, so if they immediately want to go back, they have to move away from it and back on it again. I think it's a mistake to do it like this. It's better to either teleport the player in front of the transfer tile or just have the actual transfer event in a wall and set it up so that it activates on event/player touch (I think you need to set up Priority to Same as Player for that).

I would've probably rated it 1 Star more if there were less "gotcha" moments. Ideally, with every death you should have the player be able to look back at it later and says: "Oh wait, that actually makes sense, it was 100% my fault, what was I thinking!"

So, final rating for Gameplay is 3 Stars.

Story:

It was overall great! Truly a great horror story! You do well to avoid explaining everything in a horror game, but there were certain parts that could benefit from more of an explanation. Such as why the antagonist waited 18 years to hunt Alesa again (even as something like "time flows differently in his realm" would've sufficed) and why he let Alesa go the first time. Maybe there was some explanation for that and I missed it.

One particularly disappoiting part was the videotape. It's just Alesa standing in front of her house with one line about how she wants a new house and family because her parents are always fighting. It would be better if we saw or atleast heard her parents fighting for a moment before Alesa went outside and said that. And maybe have Alesa talk some more about what life with her parents was like. Maybe even have it be a reason why she became a Social Worker, so that she can help kids in the same situation she was in.

Still, it was a great story for a game jam game, so: 4 Stars

Presentation:

Ok, I have no real complaints here. Everything was great and truly horrifying. The music especially fit so well. There's one scene where a sound effect seems to be missing (the one where Alesa falls from the window), but that's honestly not a big deal.

5 Stars!

Creativity:

Well, there were was great creativity in the visual style and with the situations the player character can find herself in. Overall, I'd say it scores highly in this category.

4 Stars!

Horror:

I think the game nailed this category perfectly.

5 Stars!

Theme:

The theme was Family Secret, you implemented all of the bonus challenges as well. It had a family with plenty horrific secrets. That said, it could've focused more on that in the main story, the horrific family seemed more like a sideshow to the main story between Alesa and Mr. Bob at times.

So, 4 Stars.

Overall, I'm not sure if this or There's Something in the Anderghast Mine is your best game yet. I think it's tied. Looking forward to what game you'll create next!

There was a game-breaking bug when I entered the room near the pictures of all the family members.

Failed to load:

img/characters/!%24The%20twins.png

Seems to be a file missing. This was on the web version btw.

I'd suggest you play through it some more to catch any more bugs. The game was certainly horrifying so far!

One thing, you get the option to turn the CRT filter off once at the start of the game, but it really should be in the options menu to allow the player to turn it on and off during the game.

I think that theres some plugins that allow you do add additional menu options, though I'm not sure how compatible they are with the ones you are already using.

Worst case scenario, you could add some useable key item in the inventory that will allow the player to turn it on and off.