Reviver

I enjoy puzzle games, but found this one in particular pretty frustrating. At times, there are translation errors or puzzles that don't appear to make sense. There's also no easy way to reference notes without going back and forth- I don't mind keeping paper notes or references, but in some cases the puzzles felt disconnected and I had to find a tutorial to figure out what I was missing. Even tutorials I found had players going through multiple iterations of a puzzle to find a solution, clicking endlessly to try and figure out what the game was asking them to do. The unevenness of guidance within the game itself created a higher level of frustration as there are moments where the game will hold your hand and then others where you're left to click endlessly to try and figure something; out. Simple indicators, like knowing what can and can't be moved within a puzzle, would help immensely.

It's a good story, even with some translation errors. The art is beautiful. It's not a bad game. But in its current state, I can't recommend it.

Reviver is a beautifully crafted interactive visual novel filled with puzzles that embrace the themes of love, fate and time.

The Story & Gameplay

Reviver is a story rich game blended with a myriad of puzzles that tells the tale of love that takes place over a lifetime between Felicia and Carlos. In the game you play from both perspectives.

The gameplay is mainly gathering items and at times combining them. You can switch between Felicia and Carlos’ viewpoint at any time and both share the same inventory. Progression can be controlled by changing the years in the game (the bottom of the screen lets you adjust the time period for both characters simultaneously). Some chapters only have one or two years you can change but as the story progresses you will unlock more time periods to go between.

What you do in one time period changes incidents that occur in future and past events. When you're not sure what to do next and you feel stuck there is a hint system where white butterflies appear over new items to be found.

Settings & Features

Settings include; language, hints on or off, audio controls, contact info and resolution options.

* You can go back to the prologue or any chapter to replay it once completed

Overall Experience

This game is very puzzle heavy, and some are quite challenging but thankfully there are guides if you get stuck. The story was very interesting and it did not go as I expected but ended up with a happy ending. Carlos and Felicia certainly lived very interesting lives. I was excited to see how their story played out in the end.

I did find some puzzles frustrating as you can not skip all puzzles (only some) and well some were challenging or just not as fun. The story was much longer than I expected, although I am happy with how it ended. It did drag in some parts as a lot of puzzles do make you go back and forth quite a bit between the two characters and the timelines to figure out the clues.

All in all an interesting game but really made for puzzle lovers first and foremost. 🦋

Otome Lovers wishes to thank Cotton Game for providing a free review copy for this game.

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* If the game shows I refunded it, that is because I purchased it before our group got a key for review! Weird timing too, I bought it about an hour before getting a review copy.

I absolutely adore this game and it has to be one of my favourites at this point. The art style is very cute, I rellay like the music a lot and the way you progress in the story by solving puzzles that not only affect the present but also the future of the storyline is something I haven't experienced like this before. The only thing I wish for the game to have is an option to receice hints as some of the puzzles were more difficult for me to figure out than others which led me to get stuck a few times. 🤍