The Mirror Lied

[Anonymous]

Spoiler: Some spoilers.

Copypasteing from irc because I'm too lazy to paraphrase things I've just said. It's a little (very) blunt, since I was talking about you rather than to you but you've taken a lot of criticism pretty well so I'd feel a bit condecending if I sugarcoated it like I usually do. To make it even, though, I'll not correct my spelling mistakes so I look like an idiot. I hope that comforts you somehow if you take offense.

<Wumpi> And I was playing it with the sound off
<Wumpi> So I had no idea what that stupid fucking timer was
<Wumpi> Until I checked the phone by chance when it was going
<Wumpi> As a game, the atmosphere was good but the gameplay was lacking
<Wumpi> As an interactive story, the atmosphere was good, it looked good (Though Leah had bushy eyebrows because he didn't erase the face properly on the sideviews)
<Wumpi> And it was actually interesting
<Wumpi> But no questions were ansewred and lots were asked
<Wumpi> On the bright side my running commentary to Holly was somewhat amusing
<Wumpi> 'I'm kicking a bear around, should I wear a red dress' 'There something in the toilet...eww' 'I'm watering this flower' 'WHAT IS WITH THE FUCKING TIMERS' 'hey the house is on fire'
<Wumpi> Also I spent like 5 minutes trying to put out the fires with buckets of water
<Wumpi> It seemed to be a much more sensible course of action than GOING TO SLEEP IN A BURNING HOUSE
<Wumpi> Also I didn't trust the voice on the phone because the last time I listeded to his advice he BURNED MY FUCKING HOUSE THAT WANKER

 

[Erichermit]

Spoiler

"<Wumpi> Also I didn't trust the voice on the phone because the last time I listeded to his advice he BURNED MY FUCKING HOUSE THAT WANKER"

Haha, that made me laugh. That was a most humorous commentary, Wumpi =P

 

[Reives]

@Jirby:
The facelessness is just a nod to the ambiguity, so that was not exactly what I intended with the title. D:

@Wumpi:
Eh, no offense taken or what so ever. The only thing that was "hurtful" was the fact that you played with sound off. :p WHYYYYY?!

Good stuff, enjoyed reading it. You know, that putting out the fire with water thing is actually a good idea for an alternate ending trigger, I've been considering that for the future. (I don't think logical sense necessarily applies in this setting though, heheh.) And ah, thanks for the heads up on that unerased brows; totally missed that.

Thanks for playing and the feedback!

 

[Tenken]

2-4 Days worth of work and you still come out with an amazing game, even if it didn't have a point to iy.
Honestly, I don't know what to say, It was sorta confusing. The ending was weird with the whole vanishing  thing and the girl being a killer (I think) who uses a bird as her cover.

Now thanks to you and your pointlessness(?) that song is stuck in my head!

 

[gRaViJa]

It wasn't pointless in my opinion. It didn't had a clear story, but it had a "hidden" message, wich fits the the game a lot more. The fact that playing this game makes people think about some philosophical issues is an amazing accomplishment. I really enjoyed playing it and the tune wille be stuck in my head for a long time :p
Best rmxp game i ever played!  And oh, it took me about an hour to complete

btw, this would be cool if it's some kind of prequel. And that the hidden message in this game is slowely explained in a full game. Nvm :p

 

[Mr.Poofy]

i loved this game took me 40minutes xD
i would really like to see all the files u used
looks like so little for a great game.

 

[seven]

You mean leech? :P

 

[Demosthenes2k8]

more likely than not

 

[Mr.Poofy]

well he put un-encrypted so i thought that meant we could look through xD
i really like that tileset of the house.

 

[Avgen]

Honestly, Kinda reminds me about Elfen Lied.
Cause of the girl, her haircolor and the title ^^ And the feeling.

I love Elfen lied though :P Im a fan!

 

[Reives]

Many thanks for playing and the feedback, guys! c: Sorry for my lack of response, I've just been a bit swarmed lately. Glad that it was enjoyable in some ways. And no worries; the posted estimated playtime of "15-20 minutes" is an exaggeration toward the short end, to give people more of an excuse to download for it being short. :p

As for the unencrypted version, I believe it's posted on the page before this one (or the one before that). I haven't linked it in the first post because some would likely to download that instead of the real version. I have censored the tilesets in the unencrypted one, though, as I do not have distribution rights to them. They are mainly just from Zanyzora's resources - a quick google search will get ya there. :smile:

@Avgen:
I am an Elfen Lied fan as well. I haven't watched many animes or shows of any genre, but EL is pretty much my favourite show. While my main project, Quintessence, does have inspirations from it, I didn't actually have any conscious inspirations from that in this one. However, a few days after I finished the this, someone was like "hey that looks like Lucy", and I was like "ooo". Cool coincidence, with the name too. c:

 

[GalaxyGames]

Omg....That was the best game I ever played in my whole life! wow....that was awesome.....I dont get why we had to kill the birdy....arg...so confusing....but it was awesome!

 

[Mr.Poofy]

bird flu? thats what i thought this game was about =D
u gotta kill the birdy!

 

[Demosthenes2k8]

We had a deal.
Kill the birdie.

 

[Me(tm)]

So, yesterday I got myself to download this, now there are some things... (Oh, I never finished it).

Spoiler

- I played without BGM's on, I noticed afterwards, makes it all a lot creepier.
- I missed the first call
- I got stuck with a lot of keys that opened nothing
- I raised the plant until it got trough the roof, but nothing happened.
- I didn't hear the piano at all, but that was I think because of the NO BGM's

- I did got the house on fire
- I did manage to open the piano
- I did manage to open the locked drawers
- I did manage to open the tiny box downstairs
- I didn't find the acceskey
- I didn't find any bullets
- I did freak when things started to dissappear...
- I didn't know how to get on after you wake up again, got the keys etc,
as there was nothing in any room. I didn't get the 'make sure you drink water'...

 

[Glitchfinder]

As pretty much any comments on the game I had were already posted, I think I'll post on some of the comments. First off, does a game have to have a story? Look at some popular games like The Sims, Simcity, Tetris, and many other games in similar genres. In those games, you don't necessarily even have to make up your own story. Second, why should a game have to have any real logic to it? The best way to evoke someone's thoughts is to avoid the common threads of gaming, and break logical boundaries. Finally, the one thing that I noticed was a commong thread through nearly all of the interpretations was a world that was being destroyed, even if only in the girl's mind. Did the map really invoke such strong feelings? Was it really that powerful? As many have said, this game raises many questions, but so do people's interpretations.

 

[La Muchacha con Vida]

So how did you get a computer and a phone in the game? I'm very curious.

 

[vamp]

Very nice game, i beat it in 7 minutes, but i am use too those types of games, reminds me of clock tower 3, i beat clock tower 3 in 1 hour lol... all you need now is a guy that chasses you everywhere, too keep you on your toes, too find the puzzles :P

 

[Substant]

I'm a big RMXP newbie so believe it or not the unencrypted version helped me quite a bit. It really demystified the process of using fogs as a light source for me, so thanks for releasing it.  :smile:

Spoiler: Thoughts

I didn't get the "scary" vibe that most did, more or less a vague creepiness.

When it mentioned something in the toilet, I figured it were about to go all Silent Hill 2 on me and make me reach in to retrieve it.

It took me forever to figure out what to do in the fire, because I kept missing the phonecalls.

I too thought the teddy bear was jumping around on its own until I read the replies... I avoided the bedroom unless I absolutely had to because of that thing.  :tongue:

 

[Muramishi]

I must say, playing through this game at first really frustrated me. I was determined to beat it, but after the fire I got stuck... Thankfully I finally realized that it wasn't exactly my fault. It seems that after the fire you miss any chance of retrieving the wooden key. Sooo, after a second playthrough I finally beat the game in about 20 minutes. I can't say it left a lasting godly impression on me like most of the others but I suppose I can leave my interpretation.

Spoiler

Ok so I started off thinking of "birdie" as the girls sanity (as I was reminded of Soul Nomad & the World Eaters, a character named Trish became insane and always spoke of "birdies" later she dies/kills herself or something). However, after reading the emails it seems as if "birdie" is a flying, living, plague or something. The continents disappearing on the map first struck me as if she was moving awkwardly through time or something, this idea was brought about by the dates on the paper. I read something about global warming on this thread and thought, that may pose some significance, however I'll brush that aside since it wasn't a part of my initial interpretation. "birdie" also seemed like something Leah had created or affectionately cared/longed for, since it seems up until the end she failed to kill it. Perhaps its exactly what she wanted, considering the bizzare ending. If "birdie" <b>is</b> the end of the world, then she embraced it, probably even caused it.

Spoiler: About the game

I felt the atmosphere was fitting, and though being stuck nearly drove me to madness, I enjoyed listening to the music box. Your music is well composed and you have a solid understanding for matching music and tone/scene(I suppose those are the words I'm looking for) for the perfect atmosphere. It seemed as if somehing scary could appear at any moment, in fact, after I turned the music box on I saw the blue arrow by the catctus plant thing and almost thought it was a ghost.

Having wrote all that, I suppose I don't have anything bad to say about the game either. Being an Elfen Lied fan as well, I can't think of any "real" similarities that may be shared except the title, oh and Leah I suppose. Though because the story is left for the players interpretation I'm sure someone may be able to.