Samantha Lienhard
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Writing For
MonsterVine
KeenGamerLatest Reviews
The story is pretty straightforward. It has a few twists along the way, although it didn’t delve as deeply into the moral quandaries surrounding AI as I expected it to. This was a little disappointing, since it left the world and story with unexplored potential. Despite taking place in a...
The World Next Door
However, although the plot veered in some interesting directions, the end of my playthrough left major plot points untouched. Since it had only taken a few hours to complete, I started a second playthrough. The developers said The World Next Door had multiple endings, so I picked different dialogue options...
Fate/Extella Link
Fate/Extella Link was pitched as a side story focused on Charlemagne, with a full sequel to The Umbral Star also planned. With that in mind, it accomplishes its task well and introduces many excellent features that I hope to see carried over to the next game.
Although much of your 4-5 hours will be spent with this puzzle-platformer gameplay, The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince really focuses on its storytelling. After a lengthy opening cutscene, additional scenes come every few levels as the two characters continue their journey and grow closer to one another. The...
Nairi: Tower of Shirin
Apparently NAIRI: Tower of Shirin is only the first part of the story. It ended just as things really started to pick up, leaving the majority of its questions unanswered. I assume the developers intend to make a sequel, but the lack of resolution left me disappointed in what was...
Gris
According to the official description, Gris is about a journey through sorrow as the main character deals with a painful experience. I didn’t read that before I played, so I interpreted the game in a much more literal way. But I think both interpretations work. Whether you see Gris as...
Satisfying puzzles, an intense atmosphere achieved through dark environments and unsettling audio, and heartfelt storytelling come together to make The Missing a worthwhile experience if you’re looking for a game that combines serious issues with more than a touch of the macabre.
My Memory of Us
If there’s one aspect of the story I’m conflicted about, it’s the robots. Making the Nazis emotionless machines runs the risk of implying that humans would never do these things. On the other hand, the idea of two children tricking evil robots contributes to the sense that this is a...
The Gardens Between
Every two or three islands are clustered together, and when you complete a cluster, you get to see the specific memory those fragments came from. They’re brief and contain no dialogue, but the text-free narrative in The Gardens Between does a good job of showing Arina and Frendt’s friendship. The...
Lamplight City
The progression of the overarching narrative held my interest even more. Bill’s role is delightful just for how it factors into the gameplay—investigating every object in the room is much more entertaining when you get commentary from a sarcastic ghost—but it’s also critical to the story. Miles dealing with the...
However, since each story follows the next, your customer satisfaction bar freezes until you resolve the current chapter. The rest of the customers have fairly generic dialogue, with no interaction between them. And since your dragon’s growth–and therefore your exploration–is also gated by story progress, you’ll often find yourself with...
