Initially captivating in its expressive possibilities, Elsinore stumbles in its second act by spinning off into a time loop metatext that neither interrogates the themes of Hamlet nor the non-linear detective systems in meaningful ways. The first dozen or so loops are riveting in their constant diversions, new wrinkles in the mechanics revealing themselves along with alternate paths through a familiar work, but once the larger structure takes form it's clear Elsinore is actually a fairly ordinary time loop mystery using the cast of Hamlet as props more than easily recognizable characters (and then there's still half a game to get through).

The insertion of explicit conversations about identity politics stand out as rather silly in their naivety, positioning Hamlet and Ophelia as #allies while having no bearing on the rest of the atomized character interactions. It was quite disappointing to discover just how little this game is interested in exploring Hamlet the text, taking its basic plot structure along with so many liberties that centuries of interpretations are washed away in favor of fanfic queries like "what if Ophelia was a gay pirate?" It's fine in a sense that all adaptations are works of translation and revisionism, but this is so invested in capital-H Hamlet that I wanted and expected something more substantial.

A lot of fun to poke around with despite its second act disappointments. I'd love to see this format applied to other plays, considering I'll likely never get to see Sleep No More and this is the next best thing.

Content warnings: suicide, confinement, dismemberment, torture, death by fire

A charming country life-sim that jettisons most of the small business economic simulations that usually come along, focusing on being a child running around doing kid shit. I have a vague familiarity with the Boku no Natsuyasumi series but this is the first Kaz Ayabe game I've actually played and it's as delightful as I'd have hoped. Catching bugs, fishing, doing odd errands for town folk all rule in a zero-stakes, to-do list kind of way. Helps that the backdrops are astoundingly pretty and really make a case for prerenders in 2023 (I don't love the stiff animations and some of the character design decisions, but they're far from offensive).

I do wish this was 2-3 hours shorter than it is. Not a long game at 8 hours (give or take), but starts to run out of steam at the end as most of the objectives are completed, there's little left to explore in the town, and you're mostly just waiting for days to pass to trigger the next story beat. The story segments broadly are a bit disappointing, being very linear and existing outside the normal flow of the game (the closest we get is being asked to run from one point to the next to trigger a cutscene). Also, this is Shin-chan, so the humor is...bad. Nothing horrifying, but the pun heavy jokes rarely land in the translation, and hinging the end of the game on getting a date with a college student is definitely a choice. It all washed off me from habitual anime poisoning, but stands out more harshly against the otherwise blissful countryside.

Very excited that this potentially opens the door for future Millennium Kitchen games to get localized (the only other one to make it over being Attack of the Friday Monsters, literally a decade ago). Also, open invitation for indie devs to copy this instead of Stardew Valley.