Spoiler : Spoiler cut :
I have mixed feelings about this case. What it does well, it does brilliantly. What it does badly, it does badly, indeed. If I had to summarize my thoughts in three sentences: "All the virtues of Turnabout Tomorrow, but more refined. Some of the flaws of Turnabout Tomorrow, including a tendency to bully-worshipping tropes, but less extreme. Overambitious in scope, too reliant on vague metaphorical angst rather than specifics, but still a remarkable case and a solid achievement."
Edit: The ending I got was actually less satisfying than the one that most people get on their first try - mostly because I guessed a password that I wasn't supposed to guess. On doing things a little differently, I got a better ending that most people see earlier to get that password, and this was more satisfying, if still dark. I'll get the True Ending next, based on instructions from the board.
I'm revising my review upward cautiously.
Edit: Having seen the True Ending, I think this game should have quit while it was ahead in some ways. The level of darkness cross the line from depressing to hilarious. I thought all of the AU stuff was just Phoenix's paranoid fantasies, a way of exploring how grief causes us to dwell on the worst.
But nope, the tragic death really happened that way!
CT stands for Comedy Trial
And this is a shame, because Mia's scene in the True Ending was genuinely affecting, and there were any number of bits of good writing buried in the flood of insane melodrama.
Edit: The ending I got was actually less satisfying than the one that most people get on their first try - mostly because I guessed a password that I wasn't supposed to guess. On doing things a little differently, I got a better ending that most people see earlier to get that password, and this was more satisfying, if still dark. I'll get the True Ending next, based on instructions from the board.
I'm revising my review upward cautiously.
Edit: Having seen the True Ending, I think this game should have quit while it was ahead in some ways. The level of darkness cross the line from depressing to hilarious. I thought all of the AU stuff was just Phoenix's paranoid fantasies, a way of exploring how grief causes us to dwell on the worst.
But nope, the tragic death really happened that way!
CT stands for Comedy Trial
And this is a shame, because Mia's scene in the True Ending was genuinely affecting, and there were any number of bits of good writing buried in the flood of insane melodrama.