The Moonlit Tower

by Yoon Ha Lee

Eastern
2002

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Beautiful writing, July 26, 2010

The Moonlit Tower gets an enthusiastic 5/5 from me on writing, setting, and character, but only a 3/5 on puzzle implementation.

The writing, as other reviews have said, is stunning. Even the error messages ("you can't go that way", etc.) are beautifully in-world and you have to examine every element of the setting to piece together the back story. I really wish this had been the final chapter of a longer game -- it felt like getting a glimpse into a wonderful elaborate world that I desperately wanted to see more of.

The puzzles are where this game breaks down a little. It's possible to win without solving one of the central challenges, yet the end-text assumes the puzzle was completed, making me wonder if I did something in an order that the game hadn't expected. The puzzles themselves vary from interesting but not at all challenging to combining elements in ways that I never would have figured out without the hint system. This would have been a more effective game in my opinion if the writer had played more to her strength in writing and left the more complicated puzzles for a second run.

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Danielle, July 27, 2010 - Reply
I agree; I really enjoyed the world I was in, but didn't entirely understand the puzzles (or in some cases, stories behind the puzzles). As a result, the ending didn't make sense.
Andromache, April 11, 2013 - Reply
Could be worth playing again. The first ending that is easiest to stumble on isn't the best one. I think it is symbolic of death, but that is just me. I prefer a different path to victory.
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