Holy heck, you explained my frustrations with the puzzles perfectly. I literally came back to this page becaues I'VE BEEN STUCK FOR AN HOUR trying to figure stuff out. Thought I was glitched, exited to main menu, continued & somehow triggered a voiceline that didn't happen before so maybe I was glitched at that time. Still can't solve this though. In my opinion, for a story game, this ruins immersion based on how frustrating getting stuck for this long is. I usually don't mind taking a few minutes to examine thing...but no progress for 20+ minutes (so far 60+ minutes for me) is so disheartening for a game that was so amazing up until this point.
For me, a "filter" (if you will) has been pulled over my eyes from the many games I've played on here. That filter being to ignore typos, because many games I've personally come across have them (even this game, later on in the game where I think the term "no loner" is used instead of "no longer").
*Possible spoilers for the metal box puzzle below*
I originally thought, I had to click the buttons in a certain order.
I wish there was some sort of indicator letting me know I had a key. Like one of the slots highlighting when clicking a button. I was stuck for about 80 minutes until I found out by randomly clicking the screen that, clicking a button gives you a key while on that puzzle, and that the holes at the top are the key slots. I thought those holes were normal and from my characters POV, they were just seeing the inside of the safe because of the depth/way the light shines.
I had to stop at the multiple staircase/holes-in-the-floors parts, but I think over all the game/graphics/atmosphere are pretty good. It's just a few UI/HUD things in the puzzles would help.
Thanks for the game :)