Recent reviews by Minzoku Bokumetsu

Cute game I recommend playing once. More than that... not sure. If you're an achievement hunter trying for 100%, this might be incredibly frustrating, EVEN with a guide, just from the unskippable cutscenes (as cool as some of them are). Also not recommended if you hate cliffhangers, because this is Episode ONE: the "end" is a "To Be Continued" [exception: if you're reading this from THE FUTURE when all intended installments have been released]

Story: Author of a beloved but becoming less beloved children's book series, Jenny LeClue, has to write a drastically dramatically different book to pick up sales or be cancelled, so he must write in a MURDER. Jenny has to deal not only with this sudden change of tone (imagine if this happened to, say, the Berenstain Bears or Captain Underpants!) but also the murder itself, which is a case she thought she wanted but in fact learns she did not want at all.

Pros:
+ very beautifully animated!
+ easy to like Jenny, despite her inherent antagonism toward Suzie, in particular (merited, in a few instances)
+ great voice acting
+ puzzles aren't particularly difficult (other than the stuff like finding every single bonus item for the achievements)
+ CJ XD XD XD

Cons:
- aforementioned unskippable cutscenes
- controls take some adjustment to learn, even on a game controller (luckily, nothing requires a huge amount of dexterity)
- the DRAMATIC magnifying glass effect and the tap/hold animations get a bit tedious
- decisions don't really affect the game (not even the final ones)
- little confused who is the target audience, since it feels like it could be aimed at kids but Jenny swears a lot (the light swears, d*mn and h*ll)
- don't really get how the LITERAL MAZE is a "lake" but writing it off as Finklestein is a hack
- NEED PART TWO NOW PLS

tl;dr: Absolutely recommend if the whole series is done, maybe recommend if only part 1 is released, depending on how you feel

This is a solid effort at recreating the feel of the old Sierra-era adventures! Including the insufferable difficulty I still haven't worked past! To be fair, I'm at a solid 85 of 130 at the moment but horrendously stuck at the logic I'm supposed to follow to solve the next bit... in short, 100% accurate for Sierra-era adventures! (except that you don't actually die, game over, hope you saved else you lost all your progress to date... that's a major improvement from those games)

The one significant gripe I have is the number of rooms to usefully interactive areas seems a bit high, and there aren't many words in the parser (but I understand that's hard). Definite recommend if you love the challenge, "maybe" recommend if you want some nostalgia, pass if you can't beat anything without like fifty guides on hand (though I'm sure someone will write one soon enough).

Didn't want to wait to finish the game before writing the review as per usual, to show support for the developers!

Edit: Now there are more ways to play the game, including a (rather hard to find) way to win without getting hurt!

Hmm, interesting preview... I wonder what they're PLANNING

Very pretty but short mystery heavily reminiscent of the Blackwell games (*looks at Wilde* hmm, wonder why), got stuck on a few parts where I didn't think to try using new knowledge on a "dead end" or when I misread a number, but overall pretty fair as far as difficulty goes. Definitely worth a play!

VERY beautifully animated point-and-click adventure, nigh indistinguishable from a full-length cartoon! (other than the whole interactive puzzle bits, I guess) Even the opening language selection menu is more animated than some games!

About the only complaint I have is the hold-mouse button to bring up different interaction options, as this made my wrist hurt after a bit, and possibly that Zniw's eyes look strange from the back (shouldn't they have eyelids beyond a certain point?).

This game took me quite by surprise,
Trials of Hercules? Not to MY eyes.
The servants do lots,
But Hercules squats.
Those servants should all unionise.

I guess I'll leave a review because it's a cute game? Although to be honest, it takes a bit of adjustment to get the hang of the controls. I had so many problems JUST in the first screen since I couldn't figure out what to do. The game feels harder than the average platformer since almost every jump requires double-jump and so many enemies require multiple hits to kill. By this metric, it's also a very LONG game as, even though you get a LOT of lives to start with, and an extra life every 600 points (and, seems like, INFINITE continues), EVERYTHING is one-hit kill, so unless you have mastered the controls and enemy timing, etc., you'll be replaying stages until you get tired (and also there's no password or level select that I know of, so you have to do it in one sitting). Luckily, it has controller support, so if you can't manage with keyboard controls (I couldn't), that's a happier option.

A humorous and melancholy and challenging single-room adventure all at once, and while I found some of the puzzles needlessly frustrating (either constantly going back to the manual or having to draw a bunch of stuff on scrap paper I don't have as I'm TRYING to keep my desk clean), I do recommend a playthrough (or watch-through if you aren't inclined to use your brain) as it's sort of an introspective on shutting oneself away, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Very cute, stress-free game!

...well, until you move in with a group of people, and the game doesn't let you pick up after their mess, or you fail to understand what a thing is in your hands and can't figure out the game's logic of where it "should" belong (and you haven't turned off the "just let me put my stuff wherever already" option, because why would I leave nail clippers on the sink instead of putting them away in a drawer) or you're trying to brew some coffee and don't actually know how to do that IRL, much less in the game

BUT IT'S VERY CUTE AND RELAXING and tells a very subtle story and I love this and will prolly just play it to unwind even after unlocking everything =D

Fun mystery game with cute animations and great voice acting! (although the credits go by a bit fast to read, surprisingly my one complaint) Not terribly challenging, either, since most of the game is "try everything" until you get the correct answer. Unlike Tangle Tower, I was able to deduce the murderer, although I overlooked the "Suspicious/Not Suspicious" notations for each character until I looked up in a guide that that's how to get one of the achievements. Definitely recommend a try!