I draw blank.

 I did make a video about it, but I also thought. Those of you who don't want to listen to any text to speech, should get the story too. I should mention that I won't do as deep a look at the story here, as I do in the video.

So we're talking about a visual novella made by Eraser.exe on Itch.io.

And this game is so beautiful. It has so much ambiance and soul. I mean you're creeped out from you start till you end this game. But it is sadly just not enough.

Now, I want to talk a little about the game mechanics, which caused me to eventually rage quit.

There are some weird benchmarks in the game where it saves, so if you die. And I died many, many times over. It takes you back to that benchmark. But it also mean you gotta sit through all that dialogue again. It's not like you're just taken back to where the action sequence started. And that grinds you down, man.

Now if you're further in the game, you don't want to just opt out, because if you do. You gotta play if from the very beginning. 

I hate this feature. 

And I know the dev said it's meant to be played in an hour. I spent more than an hour just making it outside the damn house. And that is clearly me who suck monkey ass, okay. But still, the hints and mission descriptions are so vague, they are basically non existent.

And because there's so much fluff around the actual message, it's impossible to figure out what you're supposed to do.

Had I not rage quit because of a missing marker, then I would most definitely have rage quit because of the insane benchmarks. Dude, tenth time you die. You really don't want to sit through and click 'E' and 'F' at seemingly random for fifteen minutes. Seriously you don't.

The controls are absolutely nonsensical to me, and I kept getting them wrong. The major culprits being 'right click' and 'J'. 

So if you click J to hear your objective again, you sort of expect like a little text on the screen or something. You know like 'find the exit' or whatever. But no, you get a full on unskippable repeat of the vague damn hint. 

Like in the start he kept saying  'knife, el pertito, bones'. - as if I knew what he talked about. And I do mean the beginning, you have no fucking clue about anything.  I had to google what el pertito was on my phone, and it means little saint... I didn't find any saints. 

Listen, objectives are supposed to help people move along, not make them feel dumb and belittled.

And there there's 'pulse', I had no clue what that was.

So pulse is the combat system. And no one told me that, at all.

You can see in the corner there, you have a controller and a keyboard graphics. Thing is there something flashing in that corner all the time, and you just don't see it. 

The top left corner says 'energy' I didn't know what that was about either, not until I actually saw my own recording. I realised it's how many times I can use the pulse. You run out, you die. If you miss too many times, you die. If you get close to make sure you hit, you die.

The monsters which are sometimes called shadows, sometimes echoes. They drain your energy, and i had simply never noticed before I saw my own recording.

The music is really loud and intense, there are sound clues to enemies, and on top of that - your screen is distorting and flashing red. 

It's in general very unpleasant, and something you just want over with.  And you know if you die, you have to sit through that fucking 15 minutes of dialogue again or aimless walking/riding.

I never did understand why I sometimes killed those enemies, and other times not. There doesn't seem to be any reason, because it's neither your aim or your proximity.. not really. 

screenshot from https://www.youtube.com/@RheiaGaming

Now the reason I rage quit, was because I had to find a basement. I never found the basement. I looked all over for around 30 minutes. Then I left the game and went to find a video online. I found this, and there's clearly this american like cellar door. 

So I went back in and played all the way through, and died like a hundred times more. I swear to you every time I booted that game it was like 3 hours to get to the halfway point. I guess I am dumb, but fuck me, I don't understand this game, I just don't. 

And then I couldn't find the fucking door. I searched around and died. 

I never found out why I died, there's not supposed to be more enemies when you are trying to find the cellar, but I suppose there is, like the ruins themselves or something? since your attack option in the right bottom is gone, but the energy bar is there.  

I tried a couple of times more, but because I only had 5% energy I couldn't search those ruins for long. And after an hour of that fun and games. I gave up, I just uninstalled the file and felt stupid.

This game really makes me feel dumb for some reason.

And when I am saying I think it's because of the 5% that I kept dying in the ruins... I don't know if it's true at all, it could be I wandered too far from the ruins? or whatever.

At no point did I understand what I was supposed to do, at no point did I understand why 'grandpa needs to look inside you Antonio' was a thing. And at no point did I understand why there was a magical hut in the forest.

And did Anfiloquio eat the kid or not? 

I don't understand it.

I know the points i bring here are technical, or perhaps just me bitching. But if you want to hear why I didn't understand the story, you'll have to deal with the tts, because it's a novel on it's own. Also it's a little easier when I can show you, instead of describing.