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It goes woosh! And it was dark.

  • Kylaila
  • 09/29/2016 01:01 PM
  • 1804 views
The Crimson Mind is a 10 minute or shorter story-driven game about domestic abuse. You fetch a few items and talk to people.
It is very compact and focuses on a turning point of sorts. But while it seems to portray the whole family situation rather lifelike at first, this turn sadly happens under forced circumstances and simplifies the story and makes it rather dull and predictable. I will hint at general story pace and explain spoilers in detail in spoiler tags.

It does feature a characters introduced and known through other games, so it may make more sense having played those. I did not and will review this as a standalone package for the story it features.

Well, what if you could simply kill the mean person without any consequences whatsoever! Yay..


The aesthetics are simple and pretty. There are some calm foreboding and moody tracks, which are all well-chose and suit the mood.
Maps are done similarily well, with only a few places to visit, including your own house. I like the maps and it is very easy to traverse, you won't get lost and you know where you are.

Gameplay wise it is really fairly simple - you talk to your family and a new neighbor, and you go pick up groceries.
Now the grocery part is actually tricky. For one, you go buy them in a gas station which had me confused. Then, you do not know what exactly or how much you even need. I spent a while checking a few things and having no signs of anything working or happening, so I went outside to eventually go there again and check every single shelf tile (since there was no other building where you could possibly buy anything). All tiles are counted separately, when often two or so are forming one isle.
A glow or sparkle really would do wonders here. There is no visual representation of anything, you do not even know what you are supposed to buy, and checking everything is frankly an annoying chore. It seemed rather silly when it is part of your supposed daily routine as well.

That said, the game works more with its story, and I found the general atmosphere to be very believable, oppressing and uneasy. May it be in part to my family upringing or general compassion, I found it quite heartwrenching to see and it quite frankly made me sad to play. Whether that be a good thing or not, it definitely works as it is intended.


Look, a metaphor!

It's quite straightforward as there are only few monologues and fewer descriptions, but the dialogue does a good job of being very concise and giving a perfect snapshot of where each character is at. What role they feel themselves in, and what they plan to do with it. However, I would suggest to at least involve a little bit of a personal life beyond this though, as characters seem to be seen only in their roles as victim, perpetrator or similar and not really .. a full character.
The only free-spirited character in this mix would be the neighbor as he is outside of those workings, but that's where a little bit of fantasy is mixed in and it breaks that layer of realism quite a bit to force an ending.
I much rather would have wanted to see the story continue working with the real situation. It seemed both outlandish, and extremely predictable (for gaming tropes) at the same time to just force something to happen and then leave you with it.
I didn't find the ending satisfying, nor do I feel it shows anything of how the future will be like, either.
It leaves too many logic and plot holes and doesn't really answer anything.

So you have an abusive father, specifically sexual abuse and violence against his daughter with the son (the protagonist) feeling powerless and guilty for not stepping up. Daughter getting punished for son's mistakes to keep them both in place.

Now, firstly, the antagonist aka father seems to be a simplified thing. There is no humanity whatsoever shown and there is no reason for him to be the way he is other than "Of course he is! He is evil!"
Is he a control freak and wants absolute rules? Is he taking out the anger and stress of work or similar out on them? Is he believing he is doing the right thing as that's how families or how his religious belief work?
Worse, he just somehow is good friends with the entire police department and there is no way to bring in any legal actions ..? There are many more reasons to not involve the police even if you could. Why not work with those? Why not work with the fact they might not even believe them because they dress and eat well? (and maybe their father is just a friend and they wouldn't believe that about him, it is shown as though the father was controlling the police .. for no reason .. which just seemed really forced)
Maybe they are scared of the consequences, maybe they don't have any possibilities of getting income, education or home.

Similarily, characters are little more than just the victims, and yes, it's a horrible situation and they are sick of it and try to find a way to endure (Lea, sister), and to change it (Rilris, brother). But since it is about finding ways to break out of the situation, anything for it would be appreciated.

The neighbor seems to be completely out of that loop hole. He offers his help as a kind and observative person, but that "help" of a friendly and presumably healthy person becomes "Hey, you go kill your father! You like that, right?"
He also turns out to be a demon with magical powers and weapons .. just .. because..
So you either have the option to kill your father, or to let your father run in fear so he can be killed by that demon without you knowing.
This change also completely flips the perception you have of the protagonist. It seems as though he genuinly hated his father, but that he also is trying to find a way to protect his sister and live a better life. Now he just suddenly becomes a happy murderer the moment he is given a knife.. what exactly are we supposed to think of him? Is he a caring person or just a psychopath in the making?

And the neighbor/demon can just let corpses disappear and calm the police .. How would the neighbors not notice someone suddenly gone mysteriously missing?
Because .. magic? Demon power? It literally makes zero sense. It even is explained in-game as just a game, power play and fun time for that demon. There simply is no reason for this course of action!
(that's a bad reason. honestly)
The only reason maybe being wanting the protagonist to be consumed by a dangerous magical weapon. And even then, the demon is never heard of again!
The game ends with the siblings finally being at peace (completely ignoring the recovery process of traumatic events and abuse) and being glad they can move on and live a happy healthy life now that the father is gone, maybe.
If you let the father go alive your sister is a little happier and glad you did the right thing. And wondering if it was really necessary if you do kill him.
The result is the same. How does the protagonist feel? Is there no remorse, does the weapon take him over or not since its bloodlust is hinted at here and there?

If the abuser is gone, that doesn't mean the situation is already over and done with. That's not how it works. Those patterns and roles need time and the recovery process would have been so interesting to portray or even hint at.
They are not even crying or in utter relief or disbelief over the sudden change.
There are no dreams for the future, no planning or wondering, it is just a "Well, that's done now! NICE!"

I can't really understand the intent behind this. It seems like a very videogame-y approach to drama. Kill the bad guy, the world is now safe. Which is as detached from reality as demons moving in to your neighborhood are.

As a small typo notice, just before you reenter the house with the knife you can talk to Ray again.
The dialogue window keeps displaying Ray's name even as Rilris is speaking.


It relies on the cruelty of the situation and the compassion you feel for it as the main drive of this game. You feel. And it's not pleasant.

I suppose it looks and is paced alright. A lot of people would find it interesting or griping to play, but I am disappointed by how little of reality remains by the end of the game.

Posts

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To be fair, this project was made in literally a day and was intended to give me confidence to post my future projects, which it perfectly accomplished at the time, even when I had no idea about character development, motivations, story flow, all those pretty things. It could've been more fleshed out, that's true, but I didn't have the skills(nor the patience) at the time sadly.

However as much as I really like the idea of resolving the plot in a realistic setting, it couldn't be done due to the need to introduce Ray as an entity for future games. I understand if the ending broke your immersion though, when you're lead through a realistic setting the entire time and the game just goes "nope" on you, that can throw some people off.


As for the ending itself...
I intend to tie the the resolution and the effects of these events on the characters into the main game this miniseries is leading into. A lot of the holes you pointed out (for example around the father's influence on the police) are valid and completely escaped me when I made the game though. Maybe I'll remake it at some point in time for a better experience.
It definitely is a decent effort, and considering that especially so : ) I think it still does that job.
It is something I find important for myself particularily, especially as it is a very real theme and I love seeing those incorporated and especially in a more proactive light or way. Consider it my pet peeve haha.
I haven't played other games of you yet, so I could only consider it as the standalone package. Ah, I didn't mention that in the review for others. I will add that in.

And I am glad even in that context you can take something from it. Keep making those games~
author=Kylaila
It definitely is a decent effort, and considering that especially so : ) I think it still does that job.
It is something I find important for myself particularily, especially as it is a very real theme and I love seeing those incorporated and especially in a more proactive light or way. Consider it my pet peeve haha.
I haven't played other games of you yet, so I could only consider it as the standalone package. Ah, I didn't mention that in the review for others. I will add that in.

And I am glad even in that context you can take something from it. Keep making those games~

I take any feedback I can get, and feedback like this, definitely helps narrow down what needs to be improved :D
Thanks for playing it!
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