itch.io

Great interactive fiction game. It was descriptive, immersive, had plenty of cultural knowledge (locations, food, folklore), and intriguing. There was plenty of music for nearly every section. Characters were well-written, and at some moments had emotional weight. You rewarded the player with hidden gems when they decided to explore around. My only criticism is that I felt very uncultured and was unaware of some of the options that were being provided. This could be fixed through offering a 'lay-up' possibly when they first arrive in the country. For instance, "I could ask about the feared sea maidens 'Rusalka' or the protectors of the forests. I didn't know what Musaba was and saw it was a food dish but it turned out to be a site for art murals. The story is told from someone knowledgeable of these places/folklore/locations but most players won't know it. Another thing I wanted to mention is that the game has a tricky balance in design like having indicators of what choices will lead us to learn more about our own lineage vs exploring places. I was under the impression that each place could potentially give us breadcrumbs of our own ancestry. The spirals in the journal which matched the symbols on the dress in that one village was interesting and well placed. I wish there were more things from the diary which have clued us into which options might yield some more information about the fae or could possibly activate the necklace. With that being said you did reward us with hidden gems as we learned more about folklore from around the world which i found very intriguing. Overall it was a well developed story that provided us with many dialogue options.