caralho.
An excellent little game, assuming that you are okay with there being nothing more than simply the process of slowly unravelling a tangled web of social connections and secrets. The central mystery is engagingly doled out and surprisingly well-written, with a few compelling twists here and there, and a delightfully melancholy atmosphere. The game is ultimately about a town haunted by the compounding mistakes of its residents, all of whom are portrayed with a sympathetic edge that keeps them all compelling and likable.
It's far from a perfect game, however. If you're paying attention, you'll figure out who the killer is fairly easily (for me, it was at roughly the halfway mark, possibly 2/3 of the way through), and at $20 USD, it's a little overpriced with very little replay value. My first playthrough had a completion rate of 97%, and I can't say that I would go through the 97% again for the remaining 3%. By the time I was hoovering up the last few puzzle pieces (and had a fair idea who the killer was), I was beginning to worry it would outstay its welcome, but I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly it wrapped up from that point. The final ending sequence, however, is definitely ambitious but almost completely derailed the tone for me. Then, just before the credits, they thought it would be a good idea to have the primary message and themes of the story made completely explicit for you in a way that refuses to credit the player with any of the intelligence that they would have required to get through the game to see the screen. This was awful, and I'd almost recommend turning the game off once you've finished the final sequence if it weren't so amusingly goofy in its immense hamfistedness.
If you're intrigued as I was by the idea of a adventure game murder mystery with no other major gameplay elements than piecing together a puzzle that takes place over several years, I'd definitely recommend it. Get it on sale, set yourself aside a nice comfortable afternoon/evening to sit down and play through it, and enjoy.
It's far from a perfect game, however. If you're paying attention, you'll figure out who the killer is fairly easily (for me, it was at roughly the halfway mark, possibly 2/3 of the way through), and at $20 USD, it's a little overpriced with very little replay value. My first playthrough had a completion rate of 97%, and I can't say that I would go through the 97% again for the remaining 3%. By the time I was hoovering up the last few puzzle pieces (and had a fair idea who the killer was), I was beginning to worry it would outstay its welcome, but I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly it wrapped up from that point. The final ending sequence, however, is definitely ambitious but almost completely derailed the tone for me. Then, just before the credits, they thought it would be a good idea to have the primary message and themes of the story made completely explicit for you in a way that refuses to credit the player with any of the intelligence that they would have required to get through the game to see the screen. This was awful, and I'd almost recommend turning the game off once you've finished the final sequence if it weren't so amusingly goofy in its immense hamfistedness.
If you're intrigued as I was by the idea of a adventure game murder mystery with no other major gameplay elements than piecing together a puzzle that takes place over several years, I'd definitely recommend it. Get it on sale, set yourself aside a nice comfortable afternoon/evening to sit down and play through it, and enjoy.