A Kiss from Death

Solemn and enjoyable. It may not be the game for many but after playing through it several times, it really seems to fall into the perspective of the futility of fate. There are beautiful stories it carries but the limited time and fear tied with the game/lore explanation makes it bittersweet. I enjoyed it in the ups and downs. I did not expect to love the prince as much as I ended up.

This is a work that I've experienced time and time again and still enjoy coming back to. The way it handles the relationships, both temporal and final, capture me. I especially love the freedom in choices available for picking and maneuvering relationships. This is something that left me wanting to connect with more and more characters while still enjoying what the game has to offer. I can understand complaints of open-endings and "missed" opportunities, but I find them a virtue of this work.

A fantastic idea about a game as an immortal that's weighed down by its own pretentiousness. While I can't say there was much depth to most of the characters, I did enjoy filing in the blanks of my character's life and imagining what could be. This was destroyed, however, when the ending came more or less out of nowhere and began spewing pseudo intellectual, cryptic nonsense all over the place. Granted, that had always been on the sidelines of the story, but it got really bad when (slight spoilers, I guess) the protagonist gets stuck in a time loop. No matter how many times I played through it attempting to increase my attributes so I could, theoretically, get a decent ending out of it, the game said no. After several hours stuck in this loop, I realized the game is forcing you toward a very specific ending which you have no control over; not even the vaguest illusion of choice. You are, essentially, battling it out with the author himself, who wants this to end in tragedy. Which I suppose is the whole "point" of the game, but only works if you already agree with it's nihilistic point of view, or else are willing to be shamed and bullied into agreeing with the author that all life is meaningless and will ultimately end. The author seemingly can't figure out that the story only ends a specific way because he made the decision to end it that way, and wouldn't consider any other scenarios. Ultimately, the game just left me feeling disappointed and annoyed. If that's what the author was going for, then kudos, I guess? Anyway, if you're looking for a game about playing an immortal in a fun way... Given the chance to do it again, I'd pass. On the other hand, if you're looking to be railroaded through a philosophy treaties loosely disguised by vaguely interesting Cthulhu concepts, far less interesting smut, and random, not-even-trying-to-hide-it twilight rip-offs? This is the place for you.