Absolutely lovely so far. Really great, clear characters that won me over pretty fast. Only Molly ended up a bit forgettable. The dialogue was interesting, with enough held back that I got found myself dropping into a puzzle solving mindset pretty quickly. Being able to hear their 'thoughts' added an extra dimension that was appreciated beyond the hints for the puzzles.
The puzzles themselves were very straightforward. I spent some extra time hunting through the boards for alternate words, but the words I ended up picking each go got accepted without any issues. The narrative structure around the puzzles gives them a really weird feeling - like, the player is almost definitely an impostor here, providing the answers we're allowed to provide by the board. I'm not sure what to take from that. Is it that Zarah sets up boards knowing the answer that'll be possible? Is it that we're supposed to be Eli? It was definitely intriguing. Even in the short segment, I felt a bit guilty deceiving the characters!
I didn't have any issues with running the game, and my machine is on the older side. All the transitions seemed smooth. Only technical feedback:
- The sound when you hover over a letter is harsh and unpleasant, particularly when held
- When the game window is behind another window, hovering the mouse over the locations the UI elements would be triggers their associated sounds
- The screen shake seems very wild, and the mouse-trail in particular creates a giant jagged mess that looks unintended.
Looking forward to see where this goes!