Just streamed my first playthrough of this game and have had a lot of fun!
My only complaint is there are times where dialogue can feel a bit misplaced, to avoid any spoilers- I notice it most with a certain character in white. This may just be due to the nature of a game where you could be coming at events from any order, though. And that aside- I really enjoy the retrace mechanic! It makes this game one where completionists will be rewarded by virtue of the games design.
The art for this game is absolutely wonderful, all of the talk sprites and the animation put behind some of them is really eye-catching. The digitally painted style is wonderful for them! And the pixel sprites help each character stand out too :)
I haven't completed the game as of writing, but it's definitely piqued my interest~!
Hehe, thank you so much for the comment and feedback! There are definitely parts with that character that I wish I'd written differently now ... ah, hindsight. Glad you're enjoying it, though!
Absolutely amazing game. I love the retrace mechanic. I love the characters and the story and the puzzles and the art and honestly everything. I had so much fun getting all the endings. Definitely a game I will recommend to friends <3
i played this game a couple of years ago and i still think about it. one of the few games I wish I could enjoy again for the first time. excellent gameplay and intriguing story.
I started this game a couple days ago, and for the next several hours, I was completely glued to my screen. It's rare I sit down and play a game for that long all at once these days, but I could not stop playing Retrace. Having to learn from past mistakes and deaths to progress is such a fantastic concept for a game. And here, it's executed so well.
I found the characters compelling enough that I genuinely cared about them and wanted to see them survive. The story was interesting and always made me want to see what would happen next. I loved the game's art style and character sprites. Even the soundtrack was great; I enjoyed each track and never found myself growing tired of one. And "Falling Snow" is such a beautiful, lovely theme song.
I wanted to see all that I possibly could in this game, and for the most part, I did. I believe I missed one bad end, but saw all of the other endings and many of the different variations. After spending that time with Retrace, I can safely say I absolutely loved it. This is a great game and I'll definitely be recommending it to other people. I'm also very excited to see what you make in the future!
I can see why so many people have recommended this game, as it's very interesting and ambitious, but I'm having a lot of trouble with the flags and save states. I'm very regularly picking up items I've already picked up after I've used them, I can't seem to properly trigger new events or clear progress when switching to new books, and a lot of weird triggers keep coming up like getting dialogue for being alone in Mia's book after going back down with Mia.
Ah, yeah, "ambitious" is definitely the word when it comes to the flags. It's odd that you're getting that level of repetition though - I suspect something's gone wrong that's caused a knock-on effect.
If you like, you can email contact@spiderlilystudios.com with the "retrace.save" file you'll find in your install directory (usually C:/Users/[your name]/AppData/retrace) and I can attempt to repair the save file for you, otherwise, judicious use of "New Game" and the fast forward function may be in order. I'm really sorry about this! It's been a year and a half since release and I'm still finding new ways the variables can interact to break everything. Even so, I'm glad you're finding it interesting!
I really enjoyed it! Quick question, what are the achievements in the bottom row? One for all the special deaths, but what about the others? I could have sworn I had the first one at some point, but my latest save shows none of the final row lit up.
Incidentally, if I've beaten the game, do I lose progress by starting from the beginning? Right now "continue" only takes me to the final area, so I can't get the named deaths anymore.
The achievements can be a little bit finicky! One is for seeing all the special bad ends, one's for "retracing to the beginning" (I believe that's the one that's most likely to break), and then the two endings.
Unfortunately, yes, starting again means losing progress. At least there's text fast-forward...? ^^;
Thank you! I guess the only achievement I didn't actually get was the special deaths one then, since the other two are the White and Gold ends? Those never lit up for me, because "continue" would simply take me to that final area just before I got the ending. Not a big deal, I did get to see (just about) all the content.
I'll definitely be recommending this game to friends! :)
Gah! after I let it sit for so long and I'm so glad I finally picked this up!
I love the big and small things about this game; like how every item has it's own quirky little description (even they change too depending on what route you're on ie: sunflowers) I'm a really big fan of the ENDs system -- having access to information from another timeline might just save a life or two.
I read some threads on the teams twitter and oh boy was I swept of my feet ; The scrapped princess chair puzzle was really clever! But I think the one in the game works wayyy better in the end. There were other great ideas that didn't get into the game, but I hope they show up in any future puzzle games you write!
I really love the characters they all have their own problems that I'm sooo eager to explore; it's like it's own mystery in itself! In another comment you said there may be some future projects with them -- safe to say I'll be sticking around <3
;A; thank you so much! This really means a lot, I really appreciate you writing such a lovely comment. I'll be sure to make something amazing for you in the future...!
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Just streamed my first playthrough of this game and have had a lot of fun!
My only complaint is there are times where dialogue can feel a bit misplaced, to avoid any spoilers- I notice it most with a certain character in white. This may just be due to the nature of a game where you could be coming at events from any order, though. And that aside- I really enjoy the retrace mechanic! It makes this game one where completionists will be rewarded by virtue of the games design.
The art for this game is absolutely wonderful, all of the talk sprites and the animation put behind some of them is really eye-catching. The digitally painted style is wonderful for them! And the pixel sprites help each character stand out too :)
I haven't completed the game as of writing, but it's definitely piqued my interest~!
Hehe, thank you so much for the comment and feedback! There are definitely parts with that character that I wish I'd written differently now ... ah, hindsight. Glad you're enjoying it, though!
Absolutely amazing game. I love the retrace mechanic. I love the characters and the story and the puzzles and the art and honestly everything. I had so much fun getting all the endings. Definitely a game I will recommend to friends <3
i played this game a couple of years ago and i still think about it. one of the few games I wish I could enjoy again for the first time. excellent gameplay and intriguing story.
Is there a guide for this? I'm having trouble finding "joy" in the first puzzle
There is! You can find it here on Steam.
I started this game a couple days ago, and for the next several hours, I was completely glued to my screen. It's rare I sit down and play a game for that long all at once these days, but I could not stop playing Retrace. Having to learn from past mistakes and deaths to progress is such a fantastic concept for a game. And here, it's executed so well.
I found the characters compelling enough that I genuinely cared about them and wanted to see them survive. The story was interesting and always made me want to see what would happen next. I loved the game's art style and character sprites. Even the soundtrack was great; I enjoyed each track and never found myself growing tired of one. And "Falling Snow" is such a beautiful, lovely theme song.
I wanted to see all that I possibly could in this game, and for the most part, I did. I believe I missed one bad end, but saw all of the other endings and many of the different variations. After spending that time with Retrace, I can safely say I absolutely loved it. This is a great game and I'll definitely be recommending it to other people. I'm also very excited to see what you make in the future!
I can see why so many people have recommended this game, as it's very interesting and ambitious, but I'm having a lot of trouble with the flags and save states. I'm very regularly picking up items I've already picked up after I've used them, I can't seem to properly trigger new events or clear progress when switching to new books, and a lot of weird triggers keep coming up like getting dialogue for being alone in Mia's book after going back down with Mia.
Ah, yeah, "ambitious" is definitely the word when it comes to the flags. It's odd that you're getting that level of repetition though - I suspect something's gone wrong that's caused a knock-on effect.
If you like, you can email contact@spiderlilystudios.com with the "retrace.save" file you'll find in your install directory (usually C:/Users/[your name]/AppData/retrace) and I can attempt to repair the save file for you, otherwise, judicious use of "New Game" and the fast forward function may be in order. I'm really sorry about this! It's been a year and a half since release and I'm still finding new ways the variables can interact to break everything. Even so, I'm glad you're finding it interesting!
I really enjoyed it! Quick question, what are the achievements in the bottom row? One for all the special deaths, but what about the others? I could have sworn I had the first one at some point, but my latest save shows none of the final row lit up.
Incidentally, if I've beaten the game, do I lose progress by starting from the beginning? Right now "continue" only takes me to the final area, so I can't get the named deaths anymore.
The achievements can be a little bit finicky! One is for seeing all the special bad ends, one's for "retracing to the beginning" (I believe that's the one that's most likely to break), and then the two endings.
Unfortunately, yes, starting again means losing progress. At least there's text fast-forward...? ^^;
I'm really glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you! I guess the only achievement I didn't actually get was the special deaths one then, since the other two are the White and Gold ends? Those never lit up for me, because "continue" would simply take me to that final area just before I got the ending. Not a big deal, I did get to see (just about) all the content.
I'll definitely be recommending this game to friends! :)
Great game! Totally recommend!!
Gah! after I let it sit for so long and I'm so glad I finally picked this up!
I love the big and small things about this game; like how every item has it's own quirky little description (even they change too depending on what route you're on ie: sunflowers) I'm a really big fan of the ENDs system -- having access to information from another timeline might just save a life or two.
I read some threads on the teams twitter and oh boy was I swept of my feet ; The scrapped princess chair puzzle was really clever! But I think the one in the game works wayyy better in the end. There were other great ideas that didn't get into the game, but I hope they show up in any future puzzle games you write!
I really love the characters they all have their own problems that I'm sooo eager to explore; it's like it's own mystery in itself! In another comment you said there may be some future projects with them -- safe to say I'll be sticking around <3
;A; thank you so much! This really means a lot, I really appreciate you writing such a lovely comment. I'll be sure to make something amazing for you in the future...!