Recent reviews by Emlin

I saw many people saying such good things about The Ghost and the Golem, but ultimately I was left somewhat unsatisfied.

The plot may have had a lot of potential, but it also lacked substance and was over just as it was picking up speed. This ended up being another example of the lack of care put into characters. I didn't learn much about any of the people my character surrounded themselves with, and I use the term "surround" loosely because none of them really had much screen time at all. Meeting romance options for the first time and then having to decide then and there if my character is in love with them, and five minutes later if I want to spend the rest of my life with them is just so underwhelming. This, of course, isn't the first time a novel has pushed such an empty romance onto the player but I can never understand the decision to do so; is it just because romance options are expected in these types of interactive fiction books? I honestly couldn't say. All I know is, that even at the end, I still didn't know much about any of the characters - none are going to be memorable for me.

The story, although interesting in theory, left a lot of things unanswered. Am I expected to poke through the story in a different way to find out why certain things happened? If so, then my first playthrough didn't leave me interested in doing so. I also couldn't get a solid grasp on roughly how old my character was supposed to be. Some of the bickering made me feel like they should probably be just a child but that would be rather inappropriate for this kind of tale; then again, how the entire town acted upon finding a corpse was also jarring to the point where I had to shrug and go with it.

I can appreciate the layout of this novel - having a narrator guide and speak to you throughout was an interesting quirk and something I haven't fully experienced before. The downside of this is that it somewhat felt like I was being told a bedtime story where grandma was pretending I was the princess in a fairytale. I didn't feel any strong emotions throughout but a lot of people are stating otherwise. Why did I not connect with the story and characters at all if others did on a deeper level? Again, I don't know. Maybe I've just become a fussy reader over time.

Having said all of that, I do recognise the effort that went into certain aspects; because this game is about a Jewish character and their community, there is an option for Yiddish with a glossary on the stat page. If flicking back and forth deciphering things isn't your cup of tea, you can turn the Yiddish off at the start of the game while conversing with the narrator. It's definitely a neat little touch.

Now don't get me wrong, these are just my personal opinions of the novel and I'm glad that everyone else appears to have enjoyed the story and characters - I guess for whatever reason, it just didn't satisfy me like it did for others.

Free, cute and very festive!
The music is pleasant, the art is pretty and the game isn't super easy to find everything quickly.

Short, yet very sweet. I adored every second of this VN!
I'm insanely impressed by how good the voice acting was for a free game. Absolutely nailed it!

TCM is a surprising mix of wholesome, raunchy and excitement, all with a side of an excellent soundtrack and interesting plot. It's still in early development with only two chapters per route currently but shows promise. I'm quite surprised it's a free title and am looking forward to future updates.

Overall I'm glad I stumbled onto this title!

- Does the job of keeping you entertained for a few minutes.
- Cats disappear after being found making it very easy.
- As always with this dev, you don't need to buy DLC to get 100% achievements.
- It's free! What's not to like?

While I don't personally have an issue playing a gender-locked MC, I know that some people hate it. I don't think that is a good reason to avoid a story that sounds interesting to you, nor do I think it should be given a negative review because of it. Some people have clearly been spoiled a little too much and feel some sense of entitlement because of it, I suppose.

Alas, that aside, that isn't why I disliked These Thieving Hearts.

Being an avid fan of interactive fiction I'm constantly on the lookout for something new, something exciting, something different (there is only so much high school drama and/or 'you've just learnt of the supernatural world - ah scawy' a person can handle). I say this to imply that I believe my standards are higher than the average person.

Sadly These Thieving Hearts didn't resonate with me how I hoped it would. The story starts with our MC arriving at his new client's house to be briefed, although vaguely, on the potential job. They call it 'The Thieves Demise'. It is basically a legend for the thief community and is said to be the hardest trials any thief will have to encounter. Managing to get even one of the items on the list will shower that person with recognition (as much as one can receive in a job done in the shadows at least). Upon agreeing you are sent off to meet your team, some of whom you already know and have worked with previously. A short debriefing later that, once again, offers next to no insight and you are being sent off to claim the first item, which is apparently in a vault in some random rich guy's house.

An item that is supposed to be nearly impossible to steal... is just there... in some guy's house.

And granted, it is as easy to steal as it sounds.

Arriving at your destination, most of the interactions will be descriptions of the location, hardly anything in detail, and then you are given options. Play to your strengths via your stats will grant you a way forward and this will repeat for another few steps before you claim your prize. Fail your stat check at any point and one of your teammates will pick up your slack before the same outcome occurs. None of this makes for an exciting read. It isn't thrilling, it isn't nail-biting and it isn't inspired.

However, I carried on reading anyway with the hope that things would pick up a bit on the second mission. They did not.

After retrieving the first item from the thieves demise list you and your team are stuffed into a private jet to your next location. Yet again, the details about the item are vague at best. The very same night you are sent out to hunt down the second object. This time to a place that had been sunk underwater and harbours a few 'deadly' traps. Yet again, play to your strengths and walk through the whole place as if it were a calming stroll through the park on a tranquil day.

Honestly, at this point, I wondered what the point was of having a team. Doing things correctly basically sees you conquering these so-called 'tough trials' on your own. Both of these missions were over in a span of a few pages.

Retiring for the night was the most pointless thing I have ever read. It was already established that you and your team would be staying at a hotel that night, and yet, for some reason, filler text about a lightning storm grounding your plane was added. You get the option to speak to one of your teammates that night, barely exchanging much dialogue before going to sleep. This would have been a great opportunity to get to know who you are working with. Just because the MC knows two of the three other members, we as readers know nothing. Heck, it would have been a great time to explain why the MC is so sought after for this job and why everyone claims him to be the best since this information has failed to be provided to us so far.

By this point, chapter four is about to start and I've had enough. Each chapter is so short and feels rushed and unfulfilling. Most other stories are still establishing key points, introducing characters and setting up the world by this word count. I did not feel immersed, excited, or willing to continue from here.

I'm sure this will be to some people's tastes, it was just not for me.

-Pretty solid for early access.
-Didn't come across any huge bugs myself.
-Audio dialogue sometimes cuts off.
-Audio dialogue sometimes keeps going even after you leave that area.
-Dialogue and subtitles don't match (mainly a word here and there but it occurred a lot).
-The overall balance seemed a little off to me. Got really far with the sword (even had a clear) and struggled to leave first chapter with other weapons. Granted I haven't played much to give credibility to this and could have just been lucky/unlucky during my runs.

I absolutely love the art style though and had fun from what I have played so far.

What I was really hoping would be a cute little cat game for me to explore is actually a buggy mess. Not even 20 minutes into the game and I've already experienced the camera no longer being able to be rotated and an infinite loading issue with the first room of the second act, meaning I can't progress. Very disappointed. I'll assume since this game was released in 2020 that the devs have zero interest in fixing it.

That aside, the narrator is also annoyingly impatient; stop to look around to check you aren't missing any of the collectables and expect to be scorned for it!

Really nice looking game that is let down by all the forced backtracking and stupid fart sounds everywhere! Was that really even funny back in 2017?

Honestly, I think the game is very interesting, but it would really benefit from another proof-read. There are so many issues with the text that it's gotten to the point that every time it just breaks immersion for me. Missing words are numerous, then there are incorrect words. Lowercase letters at the start of a sentence are a bit rarer but still there and occasionally the text will exceed the space of the textbox and spew out under it.

I read a few of the other reviews and no one anyone else has mentioned this so I thought I'd be the one to inform everyone. After all, this is a visual novel and is highly text-dependent.

EDIT: I've seen how hard Miss Xero is working to improve the quality of the game with updates to correct the issues that were mentioned. Because of this I am more than happy to change my review to a positive one now. I'll leave my previous comments here for the time being just in case anyone wishes to know about potential text issues while they are being cleaned up.