itch.io

I agree, the puzzle is very fine as it is, I wouldn't make it more obvious. My remark has to do with how sharp a turn it takes from the rest of the game. After act 2, the game almost only require you to think about following the characters from one room to the other. Only the very end have you think about how the curse really works. I do prefer this kind of logic and I wouldn't want it to be easier, but it's pretty unsettling when a game require you to change your way of thinking out of the blue.

That's why I think a few easier puzzles that lead you to think about the deeper narrative instead of just the character movements would make the ending a lot less frustrating. Without making the last puzzle easier. You can even make it harder as long as the player knows that the game's logic runs deeper that "follow the characters to next or previous scene".

I had to check some of the comments to figure out what the game expected me to do. Admittedly, I think I could have found it on my own after a while, but it was late and I didn't want to experience the epilogue separately from the ending. If I had known of the sudden increase in difficulty I would have paused to figure it out by myself. I was convinced I had missed an obvious clue or that the game was being unfair, not that I had to take such a big step back to consider what was already in front of me.

That was an excellent game, the story is mysterious then absolutely spine-chilling!

I do have a remark about the last puzzle though ; as others have said, it's a brutal step in difficulty, even if the logic required is completely sound and achievable. The difficulty is fine in itself, it's just that most of the game does not require you to approach it with this kind of logic. After understanding the filename pattern, all you have to do is figure out who goes where and when, and piece the timeline together. Finding the last hidden scenes requires taking a big step back and change your way of thinking.

That last puzzle is great by itself, but it could be made more approachable by ramping up the difficulty a little in the last acts, so that the player understands what kind of logic the game expects from them.