Now, most of this review is going to be the critiques I have. This may not seem nice or fun, but its because those 4 stars are basically the experience that's marketed. This game is what it says on the tin. If you enjoy the vibes and stories of the Myst franchise, this will be your bread and butter. It has mystery, exploration, puzzles (even if they are narrative) and by the end of it you will feel like you have written a journal out of one of the Myst games. I specifically found myself thinking about the journal from Exile, which by the end actually is the way to solve the final puzzle.

But what I'm really trying to say is that, if a solo journaling game inspired by Myst is what you want, there is no reason for you not to get it.

But the reason it's a 4 star instead of a 5 are the things you should be aware of going in. Not that they'll ruin your game or make it less fun, but partially they are things you should prepare for, partially this is somewhat actual feedback for the creator to think about in future works. Part of this is a critique of the Carta SRD system, so I don't know how it compares to others of the system.

First, a small narrative critique: When I personally get into journaling games, I like to have a bit more boundaries in my sandbox, especially in a setting that is more fantastical. This game basically just gives you the fact that the B'ni were rabbits and the island is falling apart. The game has the tension of Riven but with the "I don't really know anything" aspect of the first Myst where you're just dropped in the world.  This is very much a personal preference, but I just wish I had a bit more rope to hold onto at the beginning.

Second, the Abstraction vs the Narrative: This is very much not a strong complaint, just the bit of whiplash I had playing this game and comparing the rules to the story I was writing. 

To be blunt about my game, I did the King story for my first game, and I was lucky enough to find all four of the cards I needed on (thanks to bonus hours from other cards) having 10 hours left on my second day. On my first day I had fully explored two of the side islands, and though I had not written out the Openers solving the Obstacles, I had more than enough to technically win. Mathematically, I made my way back to the tower with 8 hours left in the second day and had technically won. Narratively I have to go solve the puzzles. Mechanically I simply have to match the pairs and I'm good to go.

I have mathed it out and, given my narrative concepts to solve the puzzles I can go where I need to and solve the puzzles and escape with the puzzles solved with four hours left on the third day, but even then the mechanical level doesn't require that. It's reasonable that making you run around the island to narratively explain the puzzles more thoroughly would take too much time, but it's still odd that, with my game, I could have just stayed on that last King and solved the puzzles in my journal.

Also I made narrative excuses but running out of hours on a world that no longer has a day/night cycle ends up coming off funny, especially when you teleport back to the tower at the end of the day. I played it off as tiredness finally hitting but not wanting to sleep near some Club card omens, but a day ending in a world without days is a little funny.

As for the third thing, the thing which honestly hurt my experience despite it being so important to the game: The combination of drawing and writing as important to the prompt.

I consider myself a competent writer and a great storyteller. Despite my complaints in point two I had fun piecing together how these things fit together and how my character solved them and felt about things.

However my handwriting is chickenscratch and I am a very poor sketch artist. I have told my more visual artistic friends that I would love to draw, but given the choice between starting out below novice on art or continuing to hone my craft as a wordsmith, I'd rather become a masterful writer some day by focusing on that now than grind my way through poor sketching.

I know that this is my game I can play in my way. I did not have to sketch if I didn't want to. Ziggy Fox isn't going to come to my house and beat me with a sack of hammers if I chose to do this purely as a writing game. But the sketching is in the spirit of the game, and I wanted to embrace that, especially given the rules state you have to.

By the end of this story, it's not that I have a lovely narrative that has small drawings associated with it. I've got a journal written in an excellent font that tells a story... With the pages marred by my crappy pen drawings in this blank journal I have.

Petty and self deprecating? Maybe. But I am still looking at my as of yet unfinished google doc of a journal with this story, and glancing over at the actual hand drawn pages and going "Ugh, I'll have to put these crappy sketches in my story in the spirit of the game" and it pains me.

But that's the story of this game, and for all those seemingly large complaints I think it's a must get for those who love Myst and other such adventure games and want to tell a story of exploration and desperation.

As I said, my journal is unfinished, and I haven't attached the pictures yet, and will probably do that tomorrow. I got to the end state of the game and decided it's 1 AM as I write this and I should probably go to sleep before I finish the story. The link is below and the review box wasn't very nice about letting me change the text so it'll be just a funky link, but hopefully this will give you a view of the game and show you what this story can be.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E0jTW6sOu9Kaz-JC5AH1ksAcjDNkZWkDwiR5-4Xsl6k/...