I think I may revisit this later, because I 100%-ed it just now, because I don't think I quite understood what was the game trying to tell (I have some theories based on name significance, mythological references etc, but many things don't quite ring a bell with the overarching conclusion... or lack thereof).

And that's while I quite literally tried to use every single word in every single interactible thing just to get all pieces of information available in the game (I had to backup my save a couple of times, because it's very easy to miss permanently some things depending of the order you go with). Even had to reset the game since it was still early enough to do so lol

Regardless of the many loose ends this may have had in my personal experience with it, i do think this was a very artistically compelling game with a pretty interesting approach to point-and-click storytelling and plot progression.

In terms of being a worthwhile unique experience, this game is most definitely one not to be missed, very interesting little game. I do not recommend any completionist to try 100% it without a guide though, every time I greyed-out a word and realized that I had missed an achievement after searching for it in the achievement list (all of which are combinations for possible interactions), I had to restart from my previous back-up (I first started doing resets, and then I started backing-up, as there's no chapter selection or separate saves in this one).

Phoenix Springs review 🌴 Ashes to ashes
🔹 EXPECTATIONS: a point & click/conversational adventure where a detective investigates her brother's disappearance.
🔹 REALITY: a point & click game with a twist on inventory mechanic, great art and very fragmented story.

POSITIVES:
🙂 + inventory
😄 +
😍 + visual design

NEGATIVES:
🙁 - ambiguous ending
😠 -
😡 -

🔶 SCORE: MoMA/10
🔹 MY SHORT OPINION: https://youtube.com/shorts/v0Fw1EDya4I

I'm a big fan of point and click games, but this one just wasn't doing it for me. It was way too deadpan, it wasn't exciting at all and the "puzzles" weren't intuitive. Once I got past the desert part I realized that I just didn't care about the game anymore. Only thing I liked about the game was the art style, but unfortunately it's not enough to keep me playing.