| 5 star: | | (0) | | 4 star: | | (3) | | 3 star: | | (1) | | 2 star: | | (1) | | 1 star: | | (0) |
| Average Rating: 
Number of Ratings: 5
Write a review |
1-5 of 5 - Edo, November 11, 2023
3 of
3 people found the following review helpful:
Something is coming... will defeating it be enough?, June 3, 2023Starlight Shadows follows Lyra, a teenager with some sort of telepathic and prescient skills/powers, trying to figure out what to do after she gets a message that something wrong is about to happen at this (costumed?) party...
This short game is quite simple: you have one hour to gather your fighters before a fight with those strange entities is about to break out, and fight them. Unlike Autumn's other time/resource-management-gameplay games, you are able to interact with (and potentially recruit) every named individuals: your twin brother who's annoyed by you derailing his party and would only relent to help with threats, your (maybe more/less) ex who's witnessed your powers before and know you mean business, the social butterfly who's just a school acquaintance and is really into that one old book series, and the underprivilege gifted kid who is a loner. Whether you convince them is a different story...
When you have recruited your agent(s) - you need at least one - you wait until the clock strikes 8 to run fight those strange entities. Follows a turn-based beat-em-up fight against one entity, (Spoiler - click to show)revealing two endings: one failure where you are saved and told you require more training*, one winning where you realise there will be more fights ahead.
*This was an interesting ending, teasing something a bit ominous, maybe an experiment?
The game feels more of a preview of a larger one, where you'd follow Lyra as she takes on fighting different entities, and save the world (or maybe not...) (and maybe explore that past incident?). But considering it was constrained to a 4h deadline for writing and coding, it is an impressive rounded piece on its own.
Even with its limited sizes, there are a handful of Easter Eggs from Autumn's previous work: referencing A Paradox Between Worlds in the book Cy is reading or during your conversation with Cassie (she is a big fan!) (also Cassie's name feels very APBW too), the mentions of DNA-storage/archiving mechanism from The Archivist & the Revolution*... Also the recurrent theme of the main character not liking being around crowd/attending parties (very Karen from Pageant vibes).
*If the names of some of those characters are familiar, it's because they appear in documents of TA&R, making this game some sort of the latter's prequel...
Final note: only when writing this review did I realise that all characters were named after a constellation... and that is also related to the title...
- EJ, November 21, 2022
2 of
2 people found the following review helpful:
Assemble your super team and fight, November 14, 2022This is a speed-IF written in 4 hours or less. It's written using Dendry.
Basically, you're at a party and need to assemble a party of fighters to take on a coming entity. You have both telepathy and future-telling abilities. You can use your telepathy to talk to others and know what type of arguments will convince them most.
There's still some puzzle elements, despite the mind-reading, as you have to figure out how best to implement what you learn. I always liked Divination specialists in D&D and this game seems to show exactly why being skilled in information gathering would be an excellent power.
This story is brief, but has easter eggs from the author's other works, including A Paradox Between Worlds (referenced in on friends' costume and favorite book series), and The Archivist and the Revolution, referenced in encoding data in DNA.
1 of
2 people found the following review helpful:
Lyra the protoplasm slayer, November 1, 2022Gather your allies and venture forth to fight monsters... but you're also a regular teen at a Halloween party, and your allies are your family and friends. Recruitment consists of negotiating choice-based conversations with each of your friends taking into account their specific personality traits. Battle consists of turn-based RPG style combat. Well-written and intriguing lore, lots of mysteries to explore: what are these protoplasmic entities? Who exactly are you, why are you able to read minds, why can only your crew fight these creatures? And how does it relate to the "pre-war" Harry Potter-esque book series that your friends chatter about? None of these mysteries are answered though, as the game simply ends after your first fight. Appears to be a teaser for a future project and not a complete game in its current form, so would be better placed in Introcomp.
1-5 of 5 | Return to game's main page