Recent reviews by Morton Koopa Jr.

Wow, this was an absolutely incredible experience. As other reviews say, don't look anything up beyond what you see here. Beyond the deckbuilding roguelike aspect, it touches on a few things that are up my alley: found footage horror, video game nostalgia, psychological ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, etc. The store description said it's a love letter to video games which I didn't quite understand until around a 1/3 of the way there. And the thing is...it'd be very easy for an indie game to tap on all these tropes. Get ppl with the gimmicks.

But from start to finish, I could see that's not what was happening here. The gameplay is polished...both of them, all three of them, sorta, from what I can tell, the game can probably play out in 3 or 4 different ways for the final act. And even though there's a lot of vague worldbuilding, it never feels forced or random. Not even with the goofy meta humor at times. It feels like there's a lot of deliberate attention here.

I've seen some comments that have complained about the second act. Quite frankly, there's where I had my most fun. Without spoiling anything, at that point, the game dials back on the roguelike aspect and dives into the card game aspect. (I wouldn't be surprised if this game originated with the card game first, but...it's kinda hard to get mainstream players to invest in something like that right?). [Also, I feel like it's a love letter to card/board game players as well, and you'll see that in time.]

As a roguelike, the game isn't particularly challenging, but it's fun, retains interest, and it doesn't ever feel like you're really grinding the way it's presented. Grinding is fine for a roguelike, but I prefer without that feeling. Like you could do really well regardless. And I think it's super creative that the game uses a roguelike system to teach the player the game, and then when you get to act 2, you can really experiment with the game's tools. And it only took like maybe 4-6 hours to get there? (Better than FF13's 20+ hour tutorial lmao).

And the final act is a narrative crescendo. I'm not really sure what went on here. I think ppl mentioned there's some connections to the dev's other games. I'm def gonna be tracking the dev after this one.

I got this way back when it was first released, excited to play the sequel to Amnesia. However, upon realizing that there was no inventory, no light system, the inability to pick up everything, or even open everything...I was rather disappointed. I meant to keep playing, but as it seemed to be strictly a walking simulator without the physics based puzzles of the original, I could never motivate myself to keep going. (And that was just from like, the first half hour or so, before you even realized how much of a walking simulator it was.)

But now, fastforward a few years, and I've played a few walking simulator spectrum games that I've enjoyed (namely the free game Fingerbones, and the other two adventure games by the same dev). They were all short (under an hour) but really entertaining experiences.

I even went and played Soma since, so it's been a while. So, I've finally found myself back to this game. And frankly, I'm pleasantly surprised. Without the expectations I had from Amnesia (which is fair really, given the name lol), it was an excellent journey. The music, the atmosphere, the story and the way it developed...

You get a reasonably diverse range of environments, lots of nice scares, and an unsettling feel throughout, which increasingly intensifies over the course of the game as things get weirder (there's a few design and aesthetic choices that I thought were excellent) and you learn a bit more about what the protagonist has forgotten.

I do recommend it; I think it's an excellent game as long as you realize what it's going for. This isn't quite Amnesia 2.0, and as long as you're not expecting crazy puzzles or neverending cat+mouse situations in the latter half of the game, I think you'll find it to be a fun and engaging experience.

Short, simple, but utterly fascinating.

Give it a try, can't really say more than that. At worst, you'll have only wasted a few minutes and a few megabytes.

I'd been meaning to replay this game a second time before submitting a review, mainly because of some plot developments that really demand a second viewing in order to contextualize properly the things that are happening in the game.

I did play the devs' previous games multiple times, but I have to admit, part of the reason why I'd taken so long here was because AWIA SCARES me. People may differ on what they conceive as horror, but for me, this is a horror game. Yes, it continues the sort of exploratory and puzzle style with focus on narration and story from the dev's previous games, but it is terrifying to me.

It begins with some text that appears straightforward, but then gets increasingly intense as the text screens progress, accompanied by some very aptly ominous music. And that's just the prologue before the game begins. You awaken to find yourself in a bright, oversaturated, and mesmerizing arboreal environment. And things seem pleasant again. Yeah, you're locked in a shed, but you easily get out, and you're able to communicate with your mom. But as you begin to explore your surroundings, things get more unnerving, and you find yourself feeling more vulnerable.

That's much as I can really describe of the setting without spoiling anything. The story in AWIA is a bit vague and unclear at first (and even a little after a second viewing), but it's not a disservice to the game. It's a very surreal experience, and the game does an excellent job of slowly giving more information to the player about who you are and what is going on. It's actually done very well, and adds to why the game is so scary to me. I can't really say much, but just the little bits of flavor text when you pick up certain items, or enter certain areas help to convey, although not so subtly, very organically, bits and pieces of your character (like why you can only carry one item at a time).

Speaking of flavor text, the dev mentioned to me in a previous comment how one of the things he added in The Music Machine, was a larger variety of objects in the world to interact with because he felt that it added immersion. I definitely agree, and it was one of the things I liked in TMM versus The Moon Sliver. It gets even better in this game. When you attempt to use certain objects to deal with certain puzzles, there's actually unique text describing why your item doesn't work, instead of a generic “this item does not work here”. It's great, and I could be wrong, but I think there are also different ways to solve some of the different puzzles. All this just adds to the immersion, that you really are a little girl just fumbling around trying to figure stuff out.

And as you try to figure stuff out, the game may seem a bit slow at the beginning (at least it was for me, because I could not figure out many of the puzzles without quite a bit of roaming about because the...trigger points aren't as obvious), but it's quite rewarding, and like many good horror films...it gets increasingly disturbing as you progress, until you get to the final sequence and it's just snowballing in your face.

Overally, I greatly recommend this if you're into the previous games by the dev. And even if you weren't, I feel like you might have a different opinion about this. The game is much more intense. The puzzles are much more interesting. And the voice acting is incredible (as I said, this game legitimately scares me. It's emotionally taxing for all sorts of reasons). The story and characters seem rich. I say seem, because again, it's a bit unclear. But as I said, it's not a bad thing, and I look forward to additional plays, and looking through internet discussions to piece together exactly what is going on between the girl and her mother.

The graphics are gorgeous, and very fitting as you'll find. The music is excellent as with the dev's previous works. And at the end of the day. It's cheap, it's a quick play (under an hour). If you're looking for a quick, immersive, horror experience but with more emotional and narrative substance, I'm not sure you can really do better than this.

I've written two sections. The second section is aimed specifically at those who have played The Moon Sliver. So potential spoilers when you get to the part.

Although it's described by players and the developer alike as a horror game, I personally don't agree. (Though obviously, genre specification is inherently a subjective thing.)

It's an exploratory, narrative-driven game. I wouldn't call it as scary as much as it's surreal, and at most, unsettling.
You're in a strange environment (in part due to the dichromatic visual style), and as you explore and proceed, the world becomes increasingly stranger. The story follows the same pattern. It starts off weird (you play as a ghost who's puppeting the body of a young girl, and looking to kill her), yet ultimately moves into even more fantastical directions that's much more vast in scope than I had expected from the start.

I enjoyed the tale immensely. Much of the tale is conveyed through the internal dialogue between the two characters (the girl and the ghost who's controlling her) and they are a rather interesting duo imo. It's a short game (1 hr average I think for a full playthrough) but the way the dialogue develops feels both natural and informative, allowing the player to learn more about them while figuring out the craziness that's happening in the game.

The pacing of the game and story is as good as the character development. The second 'half' feels like it snowballs a bit too quickly, especially near the end, but I think that's inevitable given the number of...environments that the game has. Not saying it was not enjoyable nor satisfying, and that it seemed rushed, or that the dev should have fleshed out the latter half. The pacing just caught me off guard is all.

And besides, the final sequence IS good: the one area of the game that I would call horror, and it's very effective. It's an excellent wrap up for the story, the characters, and the game as a whole (followed by a great epilogue-y sequence that I won't spoil).

So overall, I did very much like the game. The story and characters were both engaging, and the environments were all creepily alien and oh-so intriguing. I felt for their characters during my brief time with them. I felt dread whether I was exploring small claustrophobic corridors or vast, desolate fields.

Again, I treat it as narrative-driven, exploratory game. So there are only a few puzzles, and they're all very simple. But I liked that; they didn't bog down the experience of the narrative.
And relately, one small detail that I liked was the ability to pick up most miscellaneous objects. Without spoiling much, this interface IS useful for some of the 'puzzles', but what I liked was that for the most part it, such movement was useless. I know it sounds silly but that was part of the reason why I liked Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It just felt more immersive, and as enjoyable to me as the random descriptions you get when examining random objects. It adds just the right amount of interactivity to augment the player's engagement with this world.

There were even times where I was pointlessly doing X trying to figure out obstacle Y...but it didn't bother me. It felt organic; my trying to find my way through the game.

Now for those who have played The Moon Sliver. I'm sure you're wondering about its relationship to the game.

Rest assured, even though TMM functions well as a standalone game imo, it manages to, in the process, expand, clarify, and enriches the backstory of TMS. And it's very satisfying. There is one particular detail in TMS that I was disappointed was never explaineds/shown explicitly. And it's there, right smack near the end of TMM. But if you never played TMS, it wouldn't be as poignant, but it would still be relevant, and would not stick out.

Gameplaywise, it's much more of a game than TMS, and I think it's a good thing. It does so without sacrificing narrative quality. E.g. Having an inventory screen did not detract from the experience.

The way the story is conveyed is different, but I think both games are interesting in their own right, and they both kind of stem directly from the games' unique settings (conversations with a ghost versus a person looking back and reminiscing).

I think pacing is better in TMS, but I'm 90% sure that's just due to the order I happened to explore things in TMS.
As I stated in the first section of this review, there's more interaction in TMM, and that's good for it as a game. If you liked TMS, there's a high chance you'll like TMM, as a whole, if not just for the tie-ins alone.

It's twice as expensive, but I think it's twice as long (same length for me, but I got lost in TMS for like a half hour lol).

Following the dev's games from Fingerbones to TMS to TMM over the past week (lol), I'm definitely looking forward to the dev's next entry in the genre (A Wolf in Autumn, I believe is his next project). And probably outside the genre as well, just to see what sort of stuff he cooks up next.

And if not, I'll at least look at the soundtrack, cause the music has been awesome. I normally don't acknowledge music in games usually, but when I did in these titles, they were quite mesmerizing stuff.

I grabbed Fingerbones, and enjoyed it. There were a few problems I had with it, but it was free, and the developer did mention it was his first title in which he was experimenting. For what it was, I found it to be a very engaging experience, and even though there were no jump scares, I slowly began to feel more dread over time as the story began to materialize.

But obviously, I'm supposed to be reviewing The Moon Sliver, and I'm bringing that up because this game really does expand upon the style of the previous game, while being far more polished, far more interesting, and way more unsettling up until a fantastic climax. The pacing is excellent (at least, it was in the way I played it. The player DOES have freedom to explore the island in how they see fit). I did get kinda stuck near the end for a bit because what I thought was "night time", was not "night time", so I thought the game was bugged. And what I missed was kind of in plain sight actually.

But once I found it, and night finally came (and man, did it really come), I found myself moving towards a very nicely done ending that left me speechless and wide-eyed through the credits.

If you dig portal/that sort of thing, this is a great game to check out. It's a 3D exploration/puzzler, but way, way trippy. And it's like a metaphor for life, or something.