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About the StoryHarvesters. Game Details |
Awards
67th Place, Best in Show - The IF Short Games Showcase 2023
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Member Reviews
| Average Rating:  Number of Reviews: 2 Write a review |
A linear tale of memory wiping , January 27, 2024This is a visual novel with no choices that deals with a race of beings called Harvesters that take away people's memories.
You play as one such harvester, and you meet a young redheaded single mother who has given up her child for adoption and wants you to wipe her memories.
You end up meeting another person who is entangled in her story, and you learn his past.
That art and music worked well. The writing was interesting, but seemed off, not following the conventions of plot and morality that I'm used to. I think I started thinking how very odd it was when someone said "You didn't just banish me to the friend zone or I wouldn't have sued you". There isn't any suing in the game; it might be a translation issue but I'm not sure it makes sense in any language.
Similarly, the endgame is that (Spoiler - click to show)You wipe the memories of her and her lover and then tell her you'll become her lover, which is kind of weird ethically.
I don't think this particular game is AI generated but these issues are similar to ones I've had with AI stories like Character AI (which my son plays), where the overall thing looks good but if you poke at it a lot of stuff just doesn't make sense. My guess is that it just needs some more time and attention, as it was written for Ludum Dare which doesn't give the author much time, I think.
Didn't quite hit the mark, January 11, 2024In the format of a kinetic visual novel (there really aren't any choices), the story follows an Harvester - an otherworldly being who 'harvests' human memories - on a case: a young woman wanting to erase the memories of her former lover and the child she gave away.
I... don't know what to take from the game honestly. I can't say what the message of the story was. It seemed to be critical of one-night stands and loose morals - almost condescendingly, with pushing the almost unattainable 'pure love' - while dealing very carelessly with the situation of a child ((Spoiler - click to show)in what world was the child given away without getting the father's approval?? when the father was told about the pregnancy and birth? It seemed to hint the child was some months old?). It was as if the story put itself into a corner with having the child involved into the woman's back story and just... yeeted it away when it became too cumbersome. That was... very uncomfortable.
As for the climax of the game, the story kinda pulls the rug from under you, by having the Harvester (Spoiler - click to show)"seeing the light" and becoming a human because of what he witnessed with that case. I don't really get how *this* was the turning point for them to change this way. It felt a bit cheap?
I did like the introduction of the game, with the exposition of Harvesters and one of the humans who used their services.
I thought it could have been more interesting following *that* person after losing their memories...