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(+4)

Dear Edwin is an absolutely gorgeous game if you're a fan of pixel art (as I am). The animations and cutscenes are wonderfully intricate. The music is good too and fits well with the theme. The story and dialog are good and fit the Sherlock Holmes type setting very well. 

With that said, the dialog can come off as a bit dry. I tried to stay in character to get the most out of it but that's just kind of the nature of this genre. It's supposed to be. What this game needs to really be magical is good voice acting. If I could hear out loud the witty banter, the snide remarks, the various dialects and the subtle but important emotional shifts that are really easy to miss when just reading the text, I believe it would have that final missing piece that it needs. I do understand that this is a game jam entry and concessions do have to be made in order to get it done so I certainly won't fault it for that. 

The only real negative thing I can say about Dear Edwin is the few parts where timed button presses are implemented. As a dev, I understand that no mechanics or ideas will appeal to everyone and you just have to make the best overall choices for your game. I typically won't tell anyone to change their game as I'll usually just say it's not for me or suggest what I feel would work better. But in this case, I'll be blunt. Take this out. It doesn't fit. It doesn't work. You'd be much better off just asking the player how they want to story to go. After leisurely sitting back and just absorbing the story and the visuals, getting hit with, "Quick, press these buttons in this order before the time runs out" feels so jolting and out of place. With a different theme where action elements might make more sense, this could work. Not here, though. 

But that's a very minor gripe and doesn't detract from the overall experience. I will agree with others that more choice in how the story plays out would be a good thing to add in. There is a certain element missing as you are more watching a movie than you are playing a game and more choices would add to that experience and make it more fun. But again, game jam entry ... limited time frame ... can't be overly critical all things considered. 

Dear Edwin is a very impressive title that's definitely worth checking out unless you just really don't like visual novel type games. And even then, you might want to check it out anyway just for the visuals.

Great job! 

(+1)

Thank you for you indepth feedback! 
It's super helpful and we'll make sure to improve with the next game.

It will be a joy to have more time to add in all the gameplay features we'd like, ha ha! 

(+2)

I know what you mean.