Little Goody Two Shoes
I came to this after playing Pocket Mirror and it's pretty jarring how different it is tonally. But after experiencing the ending, I'd actually recommend going through Pocket Mirror first before because this game provides so much extra depth to what Pocket Mirror is and it also makes you appreciate what this title does more.
When it comes to the moment to moment, I actually think it's less engaging than Pocket Mirror. The general gameplay loop is way too forgiving, wherein you're given three meters to manage but the items to replenish all of them are often given to you for free or in high abundance to the point the monetary economy feels almost redundant. I think it actually have would made the gameplay more interesting if all of your resources came from your shopping but it's also a thing that the only thing you can buy is... food that replenishes your hunger and health. Sometimes you might need food replenishment between times of the day, but even with that the game is generous given that it gives you a ton of free food. Your sanity meter only triggers on one thing and it's also on something you don't need to activate for any purpose other than flavor, so you can genuinely not even bother with that mechanic the whole game. The witch meter is something you do have to be considerate of but it's very funny how it only becomes an issue in one scene in which you can avoid it entirely with the proper dialog choices within that moment. All of this makes me think that the meter management exists more as a novelty than a real thought out mechanic. Structurally it's actually not that far off from a Persona game but with a much tighter time scale and much less to actually do. You only have 3 social links and the game will railroad you into a very repetitive schedule every day that was honestly starting to wear out its welcome on me which is salvaged by being relatively short. Pocket Mirror I thought was better paced and offered more variety in the moment to moment from its setpieces to better utilization of its riddles. LGTS sits on a very dull, repetitive gameplay loop that can't maintain interest on its own outside of its narrative context.
But I'm willing to look past that because I recognize this isn't the game's core focus and it's not intrusive on what it puts its value on.
The values in this case are twofold - mixing cozy, small town slice of life interactions with witch trial horror. A big crux of Elise's motivation is that she feels mostly alienated by the townspeople and her desires of grandeur stem from how dismissive she is of them. So it makes sense that the vast majority of the townsfolk are very one-note in their characterization and you get a lot out of the social links she does. The redundancy of the gameplay, you could also argue, sells Elise's motivation, because you personally experience how dull the drudgery of her life really is. The crux of what makes this land is that Elise never really understands what she actually wants by the end. She wishes for wealth, but she does not think wealth is great in of itself as much as it is an *escape* from her personal life. That just simply being trapped in your social upbringing is a horror in and of itself, even if that social environment isn't wholly hostile to you or evil. Just the fact you're stuck in a limbo of an unfulfilling life is something I think speaks a lot to many people's lived experiences, and I love how this is tied up to how we find social connection within that despite our anxiety and personal dissatisfaction.
There isn't much of a narrative arc in any of these social links as much as they kinda flow with the main plot and play off of that. They're playfully sapphic, conveying warmth in connection rather than dealing with a character's underlying conflict as you would in a Persona game. I think they're interesting in the sense that social links are less about meeting new people and learning what they are as individuals, since here Elise already is close to and has a strong established relationship with all of her social links. In this sense, she's very closed off from her own community and these social links convey how much value these few people have to her; despite her haughty and standoffish personality, she still has people who bring meaning to her life. In a typical Persona-like game with social links, it's the MC who shifts the character's life around and gives them new meaning. Here it's the opposite. These social links are what motivate Elise, and is fundamentally what fuels the narrative's tragedy.
The horror stuff is similar to what Pocket Mirror offered but with much less riddles and more emphasis on reading the environments for its puzzles. I think they at least avoid moon logic because the game does a good job of always providing contextual clues, but I feel the solutions are usually too one-note to be interesting and even then they don't really attempt any challenge until the late game. But I think they're at least good enough to provide a distraction, even if most witching hour segments are kinda not that interesting compared to the more tightly paced stuff in Pocket Mirror.
Within the run time I admit I was starting to not think much of the game... until I hit its endings. It's then I understood everything that this game was trying to achieve. What the purpose of its structure is and why its vibe is so jarringly light-hearted. I adore the multi-level framing of these endings - one in which it ties into Pocket Mirror and thus must justify that canon, but also using other incongruous endings to emphasize what made the lead-up to Pocket Mirror tragic to begin with. The good endings are tepid on their own but when put in context of the wish, Pocket Mirror's canon, and the actual tragedy of the canon ending, it's effectively heartbreaking. It's fascinating to see a writer use multiple endings to elevate the canonical ending and I view it as effectively amalgamating both titles in something that's cohesively effective holistically. I wish the other endings had more weight to them beyond Rozenmarine and I feel much of the narrative pins her as the most important love interest, but I still like the other options insofar as they add a bit of flavour to Claire's life. Feels very weird that Rozenmarine is also forgotten in the other endings, given her presence in the main plot. But I feel the endings hit the right mood effectively nonetheless.
There are some narrative beats that I think the game skimps on sometimes and loose ends get forgotten about depending on the ending you go for, but I feel as the emotional bridge to Pocket Mirror, this is very effective. I think its tonal contrast elevates the overall tragedy of the series, as it shows that there is a world that does have happiness in spite of the trauma and it reminds us that for tragedy to have meaning, there needs to be something to be happy for. That tragedy comes when we take for granted our own status quo and don't realize its value. It's rough as a holistic package, but I've come to adore what it is holistically in spite of its rough patches, because what it means to convey about human connection and our sense of belonging is poignant, and it's something that sticks in my mind heavily.
When it comes to the moment to moment, I actually think it's less engaging than Pocket Mirror. The general gameplay loop is way too forgiving, wherein you're given three meters to manage but the items to replenish all of them are often given to you for free or in high abundance to the point the monetary economy feels almost redundant. I think it actually have would made the gameplay more interesting if all of your resources came from your shopping but it's also a thing that the only thing you can buy is... food that replenishes your hunger and health. Sometimes you might need food replenishment between times of the day, but even with that the game is generous given that it gives you a ton of free food. Your sanity meter only triggers on one thing and it's also on something you don't need to activate for any purpose other than flavor, so you can genuinely not even bother with that mechanic the whole game. The witch meter is something you do have to be considerate of but it's very funny how it only becomes an issue in one scene in which you can avoid it entirely with the proper dialog choices within that moment. All of this makes me think that the meter management exists more as a novelty than a real thought out mechanic. Structurally it's actually not that far off from a Persona game but with a much tighter time scale and much less to actually do. You only have 3 social links and the game will railroad you into a very repetitive schedule every day that was honestly starting to wear out its welcome on me which is salvaged by being relatively short. Pocket Mirror I thought was better paced and offered more variety in the moment to moment from its setpieces to better utilization of its riddles. LGTS sits on a very dull, repetitive gameplay loop that can't maintain interest on its own outside of its narrative context.
But I'm willing to look past that because I recognize this isn't the game's core focus and it's not intrusive on what it puts its value on.
The values in this case are twofold - mixing cozy, small town slice of life interactions with witch trial horror. A big crux of Elise's motivation is that she feels mostly alienated by the townspeople and her desires of grandeur stem from how dismissive she is of them. So it makes sense that the vast majority of the townsfolk are very one-note in their characterization and you get a lot out of the social links she does. The redundancy of the gameplay, you could also argue, sells Elise's motivation, because you personally experience how dull the drudgery of her life really is. The crux of what makes this land is that Elise never really understands what she actually wants by the end. She wishes for wealth, but she does not think wealth is great in of itself as much as it is an *escape* from her personal life. That just simply being trapped in your social upbringing is a horror in and of itself, even if that social environment isn't wholly hostile to you or evil. Just the fact you're stuck in a limbo of an unfulfilling life is something I think speaks a lot to many people's lived experiences, and I love how this is tied up to how we find social connection within that despite our anxiety and personal dissatisfaction.
There isn't much of a narrative arc in any of these social links as much as they kinda flow with the main plot and play off of that. They're playfully sapphic, conveying warmth in connection rather than dealing with a character's underlying conflict as you would in a Persona game. I think they're interesting in the sense that social links are less about meeting new people and learning what they are as individuals, since here Elise already is close to and has a strong established relationship with all of her social links. In this sense, she's very closed off from her own community and these social links convey how much value these few people have to her; despite her haughty and standoffish personality, she still has people who bring meaning to her life. In a typical Persona-like game with social links, it's the MC who shifts the character's life around and gives them new meaning. Here it's the opposite. These social links are what motivate Elise, and is fundamentally what fuels the narrative's tragedy.
The horror stuff is similar to what Pocket Mirror offered but with much less riddles and more emphasis on reading the environments for its puzzles. I think they at least avoid moon logic because the game does a good job of always providing contextual clues, but I feel the solutions are usually too one-note to be interesting and even then they don't really attempt any challenge until the late game. But I think they're at least good enough to provide a distraction, even if most witching hour segments are kinda not that interesting compared to the more tightly paced stuff in Pocket Mirror.
Within the run time I admit I was starting to not think much of the game... until I hit its endings. It's then I understood everything that this game was trying to achieve. What the purpose of its structure is and why its vibe is so jarringly light-hearted. I adore the multi-level framing of these endings - one in which it ties into Pocket Mirror and thus must justify that canon, but also using other incongruous endings to emphasize what made the lead-up to Pocket Mirror tragic to begin with. The good endings are tepid on their own but when put in context of the wish, Pocket Mirror's canon, and the actual tragedy of the canon ending, it's effectively heartbreaking. It's fascinating to see a writer use multiple endings to elevate the canonical ending and I view it as effectively amalgamating both titles in something that's cohesively effective holistically. I wish the other endings had more weight to them beyond Rozenmarine and I feel much of the narrative pins her as the most important love interest, but I still like the other options insofar as they add a bit of flavour to Claire's life. Feels very weird that Rozenmarine is also forgotten in the other endings, given her presence in the main plot. But I feel the endings hit the right mood effectively nonetheless.
There are some narrative beats that I think the game skimps on sometimes and loose ends get forgotten about depending on the ending you go for, but I feel as the emotional bridge to Pocket Mirror, this is very effective. I think its tonal contrast elevates the overall tragedy of the series, as it shows that there is a world that does have happiness in spite of the trauma and it reminds us that for tragedy to have meaning, there needs to be something to be happy for. That tragedy comes when we take for granted our own status quo and don't realize its value. It's rough as a holistic package, but I've come to adore what it is holistically in spite of its rough patches, because what it means to convey about human connection and our sense of belonging is poignant, and it's something that sticks in my mind heavily.
Mini Review: I came to this after playing Pocket Mirror and it's pretty jarring how different it is tonally. But after experiencing the ending, I'd actually recommend going through Pocket Mirror first before because this game provides so much extra depth to what Pocket Mirror is and it also makes you appreciate what this title does more. When it comes to the moment to moment, I actually think it's less engaging than Pocket Mirror. The general gameplay loop...
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