Saccharine Echo

Mirror mirror on the wall…hello there?!

Gameplay & Settings

After a painful breakup Alice buys a vintage mirror while doing some retail therapy. Soon after she starts hearing strange sounds in her apartment to realize there is a being known as Dinah trapped in her new mirror.

The gameplay is a meshing of pixel art and illustrations. The actual illustrations and character art are very well done. I normally do not go for the more psychological dark stories but the premise mixed with the gorgeous illustrations pulled me into this one.

🌶️ Spice Level - High. A dark, psychological thriller made for a more mature audience. It does not show any nudity but alludes to sexual themes and violence. There is no way to avoid these elements so it is best avoided if you do not prefer a darker themed story.

Settings & extras include; display options, text speed, auto delay speed, skip mode speed, language, vibration (on or off), and audio controls.

Graphics & Audio

As stated above the illustrations are gorgeous in this game, as well as the sprites. I am not a fan of the pixel art parts of the story. I feel that those moments take you out of the story and for me did not mesh well together.

There is some minimal voice acting like the whispers and some laughter for Dinah which is very well done, as well as some ambient sounds such as a clock ticking or a door creaking.

✨I would have loved to share some screen captures but sadly you can not hide the hud and I do not wish to spoil any of the story’s text in a capture.

Overall Experience

This is a shorter read with two interesting endings. The cg’s you unlock for both endings are beautifully illustrated. All the achievements except for the two for the different endings are earnable by just playing the game. It is a short enough experience that you can skip the dialogue in a second play-through (stopping at the choices) to get the second ending fairly easily.

I highly enjoyed the illustrations and wish they were viewable without the text overlay. An in-game gallery would be delightful for this novel. The price point is also very reasonable given the length of the story.

An enjoyable, short read with a darker tone that leaves you with a few questions at the end. The character of Dinah is compelling and I would enjoy learning more about them in future stories.🖤

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hot sexy trauma demon save me

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on a more serious note, this was a lovely experience and I appreciate the depth of the story. There are a few typos and misattributed dialogue lines here and there, but I'm certain those will be worked out with time. The story is enticing on both a direct look and a more thematic narrative viewpoint. In a way I am guilty myself of hiding from trauma with the sweet, saccharine feeling of passion. I liked what the game has to say about it.

The illustrations are beautiful and the story choices are relatively straightforward. I enjoyed both endings and was pleasantly surprised by both in different ways. I am not sure I could fully understand what Dinah themself is supposed to be in a literal sense (though I think this is the intended effect), but from a narrative perspective it's quite clear. Kudos.

Beautiful drawings!! I'm really glad I discovered the game through the demo category. the gorgeous illustrations instantly caught my eye.
Even though it's a short experience, it offers enough depth to truly appreciate the story and its characters,The atmosphere, combined with the art style, makes it memorable and engaging.

I’d love to see more of these two characters again, whether in future illustrations or perhaps even in another game.
Congratulations to both of you developers for your hard work!