Ohhhh I didnt' want to assume it was connected lore-wise to the Naiko's room universe until the game itself confirms it haha!
Beautifully made, I'm absolutely loving the way it designed and the kindness in it (which also fits the theme of the game woah!). I don't know if the bugging out part is part of it, but if it is well done~ Perhaps make it a bit more clear to know if it is part of the game or genuinely a bug haha.
i'm genuinely kinda speechless, like... how do you even do this? how can you make something this absorbing, this well-written, this atmospheric, this visually stunning, this interesting, this... friggin good???
i don't think i could talk about everything i loved about this game, but i'll try to cover the important stuff haha.
the presentation!! the presentation. thepres entation. phe tresentation. tneh sreatopt tien. uhhhhhhhhh i don't know if everything here was done by you or not but yeah no this is some of the best use of visuals and audio i've ever seen in a jam game. knew from the moment the title screen music played in the beginning and that one note aligned perfectly with the beautifully made title that this game would go hard as shit with its presentation, and it did not disappoint for one second. the music? fcking flawless. so ethereal and magical and sorrowful and absorbing. the violin going crazy when you get close to the correct path never sounded out of place with the music a single time. the tileset? again, i don't know if you made it yourself or not, but it's INCREDIBLE. extremely detailed and conveyed the darkness of this world really well. i feel like it could've looked a bit more "broken" so it could give the feeling of a decaying world even better, but again i don't know if you made it or not, or if that feeling was even the intention. looks phenomenal either way; took a screenshot of the cliff where you find the second note cause it was just that beautiful. the art/cutscenes? this artstyle is so good UUUUGGH. the main character's design is so great and we don't even see their face. the sprites are so good too, i love how the darkness of the forest part makes it hard to decipher what are the creatures that follow you (trees? spiders? mangle from fnaf?). i love how detailed the clover field looks. the sliding/fading pictures in the cutscenes were the cherry on top. oh! and i loved the blurry pixelated filter! really gives off the sense that this story is really old haha. overall i'd give this game's presentation 7 stars if i could. just outstanding :>
the plot... ok i'm ngl i didn't understand a thing but i'm guessing that's because i haven't played this "clock game" haha. but the actual writing was SPECTACULAR. every piece of narration was so eloquent and poetic and beautiful, it genuinely transfixed me. i loved the word choice of so so many parts ("rests on restless shoulders" is my personal fav, along with the jump from 7th to 7 billionth haha), and i felt like i was being told a story by the world itself, it that makes sense? like this universe was actually telling this tale. the writing here is really something special.
the GLITCH MOMENT!!!!! i'm giving it its own section haha. it was honestly so so cool, totally unexpected and the way the screen turns into a mishmash of colors and a ringing sound plays was pitch perfect. i love how you made it look like an actual rpg maker error lol.
if i had to criticize anything, i think the forest part was pretty frustrating. the area was too big and trying to remember which path took where became more annoying that challenging, even with the light from the second time you play. and it's not really clear if i got the two endings or not; the game glitched the first time i beat it, and it glitched again the second time, and i'm not really sure if i have to beat it a third time or find a secret or something like that.
there's a thousand more things i could talk about: the way the font changes when the... creature? devil? speaks, the way it interrupts your walk through the building as "you do not give into temptation" repeats, the way the shovel spins in place before you grab it, the way the lights from the candles expand...
i thought it was illegal to make jam games this good. thank you for making it! :D
Thank you so much for the long comment, a banger oxymoron review as always!!
The music and most of the tileset aren't made by me, but I'm glad you enjoyed their implementation!! For the forest section, I wanted to replicate the feeling of a dark confusing maze, which seemingly worked to the worst extend --' will keep that in mind for any future game.
Also, the game is not supposed to glitch twice so I'm not sure what's up with that. If you obtained the shovel early the second time, I don't see why it wouldn't work... (looked into it, the switch for it doesn't kept its value ;; Gonna patch it now, but you can also try to not get caught by the forest enemies or the sky storm). Oh man, I sure had problems with this one second ending in particular...
Other than that, thank you so much for playing, and thank you so much for the kind words!
man, i am just so floored by your writing skills. genuinely out of this world haha. you managed to make what's esentially 10 minutes of two monologues and not only is it not boring for a single second, but it made me feel despair, fear, peace and hope when i couldn't even understand most of the plot. love how "you do not give into temptation" turns into "do not give into temptation", like it's an order now and it's unclear if you'll actually do it; or when the character starts walking on their own, finally being responsible of their own path for once.
giving my (very uninformed) interpretation of the plot... i think this deity that we see at the beginning is trying to prevent this entity, who is pretty much death personified, from destroying the world. but they're doing so by bringing someone back from the dead to do their bidding. and every time this corpse tries to kill the entity... well, the glitch pretty much shows how well that goes lol. so the deity restores time, bringing the corpse to life again and again, as a desperate attempt to save this world, which gets more broken after each restoring. finally, the dead stops following their orders, and the deity accepts that this world will die, vowing to make a new one with compassion.
(you don't have to tell me how accurate that was if you don't want to, i'm just giving my thougths haha :>)
just unbelievable stuff, alz. let us meet again under the bright blue sky.
Solid RPGmaker game, love me some clock game lore sprinkled in, nice simple puzzles and a few mechanics that I rather not disclose because the game is more fun when you don't know, this visuals are insane, Alz artist era may be too strong.
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great game! one of my favourites from this jam
I think your narration is beautiful.
Beautifully made, I'm absolutely loving the way it designed and the kindness in it (which also fits the theme of the game woah!). I don't know if the bugging out part is part of it, but if it is well done~ Perhaps make it a bit more clear to know if it is part of the game or genuinely a bug haha.
oh my GOD.
(SPOILERS)
i'm genuinely kinda speechless, like... how do you even do this? how can you make something this absorbing, this well-written, this atmospheric, this visually stunning, this interesting, this... friggin good???
i don't think i could talk about everything i loved about this game, but i'll try to cover the important stuff haha.
the presentation!! the presentation. thepres entation. phe tresentation. tneh sreatopt tien. uhhhhhhhhh i don't know if everything here was done by you or not but yeah no this is some of the best use of visuals and audio i've ever seen in a jam game. knew from the moment the title screen music played in the beginning and that one note aligned perfectly with the beautifully made title that this game would go hard as shit with its presentation, and it did not disappoint for one second. the music? fcking flawless. so ethereal and magical and sorrowful and absorbing. the violin going crazy when you get close to the correct path never sounded out of place with the music a single time. the tileset? again, i don't know if you made it yourself or not, but it's INCREDIBLE. extremely detailed and conveyed the darkness of this world really well. i feel like it could've looked a bit more "broken" so it could give the feeling of a decaying world even better, but again i don't know if you made it or not, or if that feeling was even the intention. looks phenomenal either way; took a screenshot of the cliff where you find the second note cause it was just that beautiful. the art/cutscenes? this artstyle is so good UUUUGGH. the main character's design is so great and we don't even see their face. the sprites are so good too, i love how the darkness of the forest part makes it hard to decipher what are the creatures that follow you (trees? spiders? mangle from fnaf?). i love how detailed the clover field looks. the sliding/fading pictures in the cutscenes were the cherry on top. oh! and i loved the blurry pixelated filter! really gives off the sense that this story is really old haha. overall i'd give this game's presentation 7 stars if i could. just outstanding :>
the plot... ok i'm ngl i didn't understand a thing but i'm guessing that's because i haven't played this "clock game" haha. but the actual writing was SPECTACULAR. every piece of narration was so eloquent and poetic and beautiful, it genuinely transfixed me. i loved the word choice of so so many parts ("rests on restless shoulders" is my personal fav, along with the jump from 7th to 7 billionth haha), and i felt like i was being told a story by the world itself, it that makes sense? like this universe was actually telling this tale. the writing here is really something special.
the GLITCH MOMENT!!!!! i'm giving it its own section haha. it was honestly so so cool, totally unexpected and the way the screen turns into a mishmash of colors and a ringing sound plays was pitch perfect. i love how you made it look like an actual rpg maker error lol.
if i had to criticize anything, i think the forest part was pretty frustrating. the area was too big and trying to remember which path took where became more annoying that challenging, even with the light from the second time you play. and it's not really clear if i got the two endings or not; the game glitched the first time i beat it, and it glitched again the second time, and i'm not really sure if i have to beat it a third time or find a secret or something like that.
there's a thousand more things i could talk about: the way the font changes when the... creature? devil? speaks, the way it interrupts your walk through the building as "you do not give into temptation" repeats, the way the shovel spins in place before you grab it, the way the lights from the candles expand...
i thought it was illegal to make jam games this good. thank you for making it! :D
Thank you so much for the long comment, a banger oxymoron review as always!!
The music and most of the tileset aren't made by me, but I'm glad you enjoyed their implementation!! For the forest section, I wanted to replicate the feeling of a dark confusing maze, which seemingly worked to the worst extend --' will keep that in mind for any future game.
Also, the game is not supposed to glitch twice so I'm not sure what's up with that. If you obtained the shovel early the second time, I don't see why it wouldn't work... (looked into it, the switch for it doesn't kept its value ;; Gonna patch it now, but you can also try to not get caught by the forest enemies or the sky storm). Oh man, I sure had problems with this one second ending in particular...
Other than that, thank you so much for playing, and thank you so much for the kind words!
finally got to see the ending! :D
man, i am just so floored by your writing skills. genuinely out of this world haha. you managed to make what's esentially 10 minutes of two monologues and not only is it not boring for a single second, but it made me feel despair, fear, peace and hope when i couldn't even understand most of the plot. love how "you do not give into temptation" turns into "do not give into temptation", like it's an order now and it's unclear if you'll actually do it; or when the character starts walking on their own, finally being responsible of their own path for once.
giving my (very uninformed) interpretation of the plot... i think this deity that we see at the beginning is trying to prevent this entity, who is pretty much death personified, from destroying the world. but they're doing so by bringing someone back from the dead to do their bidding. and every time this corpse tries to kill the entity... well, the glitch pretty much shows how well that goes lol. so the deity restores time, bringing the corpse to life again and again, as a desperate attempt to save this world, which gets more broken after each restoring. finally, the dead stops following their orders, and the deity accepts that this world will die, vowing to make a new one with compassion.
(you don't have to tell me how accurate that was if you don't want to, i'm just giving my thougths haha :>)
just unbelievable stuff, alz. let us meet again under the bright blue sky.
Keep up the good work!
great presentation and visuals, but
spoilers!
our protagonist should've held the shovel closer to the handle to deliver maximum strike force. He never struck anyways, too bad