Aether Apeiron: The Zephyra Chronicles

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Average Rating: Number of Reviews: 2 Write a review

Greeky pulp with heavy structure problems, January 6, 2017
Disclaimer: (Spoiler - click to show)Hi, this are the reviews I did in the the IFComp 2016. I’m Ruber Eaglenest. Co-author of The skyscraper and the scar, and entry of that year. The review is posted without edition, and need some context about how I reviewed and rated the games. So, apart of my bad English I hope to be constructive. I will point to the things I don't like of the game, but I hope to be helpful. The structure I follow is this: Title, one line review, two to five word; Mobile friendliness, overall, score phrased based on IF comp guidelines. I had back ache and so that’s why I played most games in Android mobile, I looked closely at how games behave on mobile and review and vote based on that.

Mobile friendly: not optimal, but pretty playable.

Overall: I liked the prose and lore of the game. In both aspects is a heavy piece, full of names of a developed lore based on the Greek myths. But at the same time, the prose it is deep in style with punchy phrases, humor and scenes that feel very pulpy, as if someone would make a superheroes stories based on the Greek gods, heroes and titans, with superlative details.

However, in the end, I didn’t like the game at all. It has a somewhat puzzle structure where the player must find the way to pass each scene. I don’t know how to name this problem, is like reading the mind author and getting the right branch. I think some branches act like actions that set a flag to win the puzzle of each scene or what. But it just don’t work. A lot of twines that I’ve played and I’ll review has the same problem: they make loops with not enough variable text and knowledge of the actions and state of the world upon the player actions. So again, in Aether Aperion, the player repeats the same passages again and again, that repeats the same bunch of text. But in this game the problem is aggravated because they are a somewhat puzzle on them, so in the end, the player is lost in the tangle of nodes and connections, clicking links at random in the hope that some branch get you out that scene.

If this game will become in a series, this needs fixing, because this a bad way of doing puzzles in Twine. And that problem makes the story not enjoyable.

Score: Recommended with reservations. Is interesting and it is funny, as it has severe problems but maybe some people would overlook them and take some joy of it.

A mythology-dense twine work with labrythine structure, May 9, 2017
This game consists of 7 chapters in a scifi setting with heavy Greek mythology references.

This game is very dense with invented words and phrases. It reminds me of To Burn in Memory from 2015; both games have text that makes subconscious sense but whose meaning is hard to grasp.

I think the issue is that none of the setting or mythology matters; the game might as well be about someone getting dressed for the morning. This is because you never need to use your knowledge about the setting to progress. Almost all links return to the previous page, and there are no opportunities for 'missed chances'. If the game made you make some tough, clearly marked irreversible choices, with delayed consequences, or used the knowledge it dispenses it dispenses.

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