Absolutely loved it. The art, the atmosphere, most of the characters (that is to say, nobody was bad but some remained pretty basic), the music, the dialogues between Tiabata and Ava, the mystery and the setting were amazing. It's built on the shoulders of giants, and it's a great craft.
I would love to play more from you!
The only complaint I have is that I would have liked some chances to voice my guess on the whole thing Tiabata unveils in the end. I admit that a bunch I did not see coming, even though the hints are there out in the open, but there were things I did guess and it would've been nice to be able to say that. I'm thinking of how in the old games Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express and Evil Under the Sun one of the options is to have Poirot do most of the work but have the player answer some key questions as Antoinette or Hastings.
The mystery is also a little reliant on remarks that are in a bit of introductory dialogue that you can never review or read through again (and introductions tend to be info dumps). Some details I did forget even with the relative short length of the game.
Thank you for the feedback! I wanted a proper Agatha Christie-style denouement and couldn’t think of a way to give the player agency without ruining the surprises. I think giving away any of Tiabata’s deductions earlier would set off a chain reaction where you could suddenly guess most of it before the finale. But I suppose letting you make guesses during the final scene just before Tiabata reveals something would be a way to go - the non-interactivity of the final monologue has been a frequent complaint.
I wasn’t aware of the Agatha Christie games you mention, I’ll check them out!
They're both published by The Adventure Company. They're old and not exactly great but Antoinette is a charming protagonist and you can make Poirot do slightly silly things in Evil Under the Sun - in-universe you're actually playing Hastings playing Poirot - everything to preserve the great Hercule Poirot's dignity!