Really cool, really weird little game. This is a game that really benefits from you knowing as little as you possibly can before you play it, so this is the chance to click off if you're curious even though I don't really spoil anything at all in my review.
So with that out of the way here's more of my critiques/thoughts. I'm a little bummed that the face mechanic didn't feature as much as I thought it would--I somehow managed to get like 5 or 6 cards before I ever wound up in the interrogation room. There are a few endings that rely on the faces you pick, but it doesn't ever end up feeling like a "core mechanic" of the game to me in the way that the point and click or the ARG stuff does. Speaking of the ARG elements, at first I thought they were pretty cool since I like that sort of stuff but they did become a little taxing for me once I got further in the game.
I thought the dialogue/translation was a little wonky--there are lots of typos (which is ok, but it was a little jarring with the amount that there are) and the inclusion of tildes during serious/scary moments just kind of made me giggle, which is honestly a shame, because the game can really be genuinely freaky at times. The characters, apart from Lila herself, are sort of whatever--but the game really isn't about them, so it's easy to forgive it for its sort of middling writing of the cast beyond her. It's almost like the game called Who's Lila is about Lila. And it's incredible with posing that question to you and the world she lives in. It's an ode to meta mystery, shared consciousness, personality, and fiction. The visual direction of the game is awesome too!! Truly nothing like it.
The game reminds me of Paranoia Agent a lot. Cool experience, definitely recommend to people who like this sort of stuff. I'll be mulling over the hidden documents and who Lila is for quite some time. Also the Milk Inside a Bag of Milk reference did not go unnoticed, thank you!
So with that out of the way here's more of my critiques/thoughts. I'm a little bummed that the face mechanic didn't feature as much as I thought it would--I somehow managed to get like 5 or 6 cards before I ever wound up in the interrogation room. There are a few endings that rely on the faces you pick, but it doesn't ever end up feeling like a "core mechanic" of the game to me in the way that the point and click or the ARG stuff does. Speaking of the ARG elements, at first I thought they were pretty cool since I like that sort of stuff but they did become a little taxing for me once I got further in the game.
I thought the dialogue/translation was a little wonky--there are lots of typos (which is ok, but it was a little jarring with the amount that there are) and the inclusion of tildes during serious/scary moments just kind of made me giggle, which is honestly a shame, because the game can really be genuinely freaky at times. The characters, apart from Lila herself, are sort of whatever--but the game really isn't about them, so it's easy to forgive it for its sort of middling writing of the cast beyond her. It's almost like the game called Who's Lila is about Lila. And it's incredible with posing that question to you and the world she lives in. It's an ode to meta mystery, shared consciousness, personality, and fiction. The visual direction of the game is awesome too!! Truly nothing like it.
The game reminds me of Paranoia Agent a lot. Cool experience, definitely recommend to people who like this sort of stuff. I'll be mulling over the hidden documents and who Lila is for quite some time. Also the Milk Inside a Bag of Milk reference did not go unnoticed, thank you!