Ratings and Reviews by IFforL2
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First of it's kind; sets the bar high., March 31, 2021這正是文字冒險應該要有的樣子。
This game is exactly what a text adventure should be. Even if you don't like escape rooms, you should play just to see how East Asian IF is improving on language-based interactivity.
English: You can play in English, but you may not recognize the sheer genius of the interface as it works better in Chinese than in English.* I do think this concept could work marvelously in English, but an author might need to be a native speaker.
Interface: This is a parser hybrid. Instead of typing commands, the player can obtain action and object cards. Each is stored in a separate inventory. For example, if I "examine flowers" I might consequently obtain the ability to "smell flowers." (This is not a game example or spoiler.) You grab and drag the cards to a place in the sentence.
Game play: It's an escape room. This is not a ground-breaking concept but the author made the right decision here. (S)he's introducing a completely new kind of interface to the Chinese gaming community, after all. There simply were no parser games in Chinese until now.
*One of my Chinese professors thinks Chinese learners should abandon the western concept of individual adjectives, nouns, verbs, etc. Instead, she promotes thinking in terms of "subject phrases," "attributives," "predicate clauses," "adverbial adjuncts" and other parts of speech.
Good visual novel for intermediate Chinese language learners., March 19, 2021In my experience, Chinese language visual novels are often puzzle-less electronic picture books. Many stories offer few and trivial choices. As a language learner, I prefer IF to have at least some game elements to focus my attention and motivate me to keep reading. Monochrome Impact is unique in a couple of ways. The characters are not glamorized/sexualized humanoids. The puzzles are very easy except for the endgame. But at least they do not allow the reader to simply click to the end without reading and understanding. (I actually tried and got stuck briefly, after accidentally losing my progress in the middle.) The vocabulary is quite simple; only occasional words exceed HSK level 2 or 3.
However, I took off a point for interactivity because I still felt there were too many times the game could have released control and let me make some moves. For example, it automatically moved me to a couple of locations and used inventory items when it should have let me do that.
A word about the development and publishing system, Bassavg. The first Chinese language IF community to discover the English language community is at Qiaobooks.com. Bassavg.com is probably the second. Bassavg stories are very similar to Ren’Py in appearance. Unlike Ren'Py stories, Bassavg's html output allow bookmark tools and plugins such as Mandarinspot that assist language learners. Almost all games are browser playable without needing to download.
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