Post by Qba23 in Shards of God comments

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I rarely comment here (this may very well be my first comment on the site), but this one really calls for it. The game is amazing.

The story is so well thought through it could be made into a detective novel. There are a few moments when things "click" and make me wonder, why didn't I think of it myself? The world is coherent, the characters have personalities and the lore leaves you with some good dilemmas to think about after you're done playing.

The playthrough is uncomplicated, but reading the dialogs and typical point-and-click trial-and-error does take its time (although the logic-to-guesswork ratio isn't bad). For such a short game the author put their heart and soul into it and the resulting quality is stunning.

Apart from the game shortness, the only thing I can complain about is the unsatisfying ending (the very ending).

Honza Vávra1 year ago

Thank you very much, honored to have inspired your first post :)! I'm really happy that the detective elements work, it was important to me to get the genre right.

Now, SPOILERS

By the very ending you mean the epilogue text, and the fact that neither of the two outcomes is exactly positive? Because there is also a third, hidden ending, and you may find that one a bit more satisfying :).

Qba231 year ago (1 edit) (+1)

Ooooh, I'll be sure to look for it in some free moment! Regarding the ending,

I actually liked that neither of the two was the objectively "correct" choice, that's why the dilemma was so thought provoking and took me several minutes to consider. The thing is, and I knew it even then, the game was about to end regardless and my choice was kind of pointless. Those few lines of epilogue didn't feel rewarding enough. Perhaps I'd be happier if the game ended right after my choice with no epilogue at all, leaving it to my imagination (though admittedly, were I in your position, I wouldn't take such a game-design risk -- for many it'd be even worse).

Still, that somewhat disappointing epilogue didn't break the experience for me.

Honza Vávra1 year ago (1 edit)

Following up on the SPOILERS...

Well, in my mind the epilogue isn’t that important, the real ending is the conclusion to the case and the fact that Ava gets to make a choice using the bloody shard. Leaving it completely open was actually the first option I thought of, but I was told people would find it disappointing and I have to agree - I'm sure there would be a lot of complaints had I left it that way ;). Still, to me, the actual story ends with the fadeout on the scales.

itch.io

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