Dark Notes

Coming from Paper Bride developers, this Point&Click adventure game is filled with challenging puzzles. You play with two protagonists from different timelines, traveling back and forth through time to solve the mystery of the Wellbeing Mall. A boy's crying is heard, and many have reported the sighting of a ghost in red. Liszt and Caroline will communicate through a mysterious notebook and help each other to save a young child who's been missing. I don't want to say much not to spoil the horror aspect of this game. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3330273695 It has five chapters and plays like Escape Room games. I enjoyed the puzzles, which were challenging. I had to seek a guide for a couple of them because I didn't know what to do next. There is a hinting system, but it affects one of the achievements once it is used. Each item you collect has information and a hint of what it could be used for. The journal collects all the information you find through the chapters, which are all very important; you can also use your phone to search for extra details. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3286275879 The voice-over wasn't bad; you can choose either English or Chinese. I loved the artwork; it is so beautiful and dark. Once you finish a chapter, an artwork and information page will be unlocked in the main menu; the artists did an excellent job. The game saves automatically when you quit it. I also enjoyed the soundtracks; they fit the atmosphere nicely. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3330283289 There was one fighting sequence in the game, which was tough; I had to retry it multiple times to win it. You could skip it as it has three phases, but if you enjoy a challenge, you'll have it. Pros: +Interesting story. +Beautiful artwork and area design. +Fitting music. +Variety of puzzles. +Good journal. +Voice overs. +Hinting system. +Automatic save. +Steam achievements. Cons: - When you return to play the game, the main menu keeps giving you an error. Wait a couple of minutes until it loads, then click 'Start' to return to where you left your game. When you finish the game, wait for the credits to end to watch the final cutscene. It is very interesting and adds to the story. [quote]𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑐𝘩𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝑚𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑒 [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/32399565/]𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑛𝑎'𝑠 𝐶𝘩𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒[/url][/quote] [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] Follow [b]IndieGems[/b] [/url] for more reviews like this one. [/quote]

For the most part, I enjoyed this game. Illustrations were nice and the majority of puzzles ranged from easy to average. A few had me scratching my head for a while and a couple were really obscure and didn't make much sense to me (using the mascara and lipstick for instance). They were satisfying to solve though and it was nice to see the ability to switch between characters in the last chapter. I wasn't keen on the timed based puzzle with the tentacle boss towards the end and I think the difficulty could do with lowering on that. I only made it past the first part and decided to skip it. I encountered a single bug with one of the assets not showing, so I couldn't complete that puzzle which was a shame. The menu could do with a translated language button on the start page as the options are in Chinese by default, so I had to go through and guess where to change it. A minor detail but could put off us lazy westerners. 6/10

I really enjoyed this point and click adventure after having played through the Famicom Detective Club series on Nintendo systems! This adventure was very satisfyingly dark with some absolutely beautiful artwork to accompany the story. The game starts in Chinese but you can navigate to the settings on the home menu and change it to English. Same for dubbing language. I bought this game during the summer sale along with the Paper Bride series just because of the artwork alone. It's so hard to find some good horror visual novels. Never heard of it before now and I'm glad I gave it a chance! It had some interesting puzzles, though I'll admit I solved some of them through process of elimination (such as when and how to use the beauty products). The final boss gauntlet was awesome! That drawing puzzle stumped me for a good while there. The timer gives some leeway for mistakes but not much. It makes for learning the patterns a little difficult for those that are short term memory challenged like me, but I ended up pushing through in the end! Love all the unlockable extras! I definitely recommend this game to those that are looking for a short and sweet spooky adventure maybe around Halloween or whenever the need for a little scare arises. Hopefully there is a sequel for this game. The characters and story are too good to just leave to a one shot!