How's Irony for You?

[amerk]

I'll start by warning you of a spoiler in this bit of rant, so if you have yet to finish it, please don't read:

So I played and completed the game, and while I enjoyed it, I can't help but feel the game suffers from a major case of confusion. It just doesn't seem to know who its target audience is.

One one side, it's adorable characters, hand-painted graphics, collecting coins, level structure, and house decorating seem to indicate this game is for a more casual audience. And yet, the difficulty in some of the battles (on settings higher than easy) and the tough-as-nails puzzles in a few areas makes this game much harder than it really needs to be.

I didn't have a problem with the battle system, per se, on easy, but the constant misses, the inability to take more than one elemental weapon at a time to a new level (for Lily) meaning her attacks would be useless on several enemies since they all have varying elemental strengths and weaknesses, and the inability to craft skills right away making some characters even more useless -- all this made the battle system very tedious and drawn out, even on easy mode, to the point that fighting monsters was no longer fun.

I've read a good portion of the reviews, and a lot of the nay-sayers comes from those who think the game is aimed at a younger audience and, dare I say, children. If only they new.

Now, I don't have a problem with darker toned games, and it's to be expected that a game is going to have some dark themes when it's dealing with the subject of nightmares. But I do believe a warning label is required for parents who may actually consider getting this game (or even playing it) for their children. The final level drops a lot of hints about sexual assault, a hint towards child molestation, and even the f-bomb is dropped in a sort of flashback sequence in which a character suggest a person make the vampire in their story f..k a girl forcefully because he is a vampire and can take or do whatever he wants.

This is why I say the game doesn't seem to know who it's marketing, because the ones who give negative reviews saying the game is too adorable and meant for somebody young obviously don't know what some of the themes this game has, and many of those giving glowing reviews probably haven't finished it.

The other problem I had with this game is the way it ended, which made no real sense, considering how everything was resolved between all the major characters and the writer. The writer realized he was hurting people and redeemed himself, somewhat, so what was the purpose of the ending twist? Was it another villain behind the scenes that we didn't know about until that moment? Is there a sequel in the works to answer these questions?

In any case, like I said, there were things I really enjoyed, but there are a lot of things I think could have been better. I'm now playing Whispers of a Rose, and while it's a prequel, I believe it was done after this game? It seems to at least follow a much better plot and have a better sense of design. You also don't have to wonder who it's targeting so much, because the darker more mature themes are expressed early on.

I'm enjoying it far more than I did SLD and it's too bad it hasn't come to Steam yet, as I think there's a good chance those who passed on or didn't like SLD would like Whispers of a Rose much more.

[An0malies]

This is the most relevant review I've ever read for this game, great job

[Lucia Silvermoon]

Thank you for the extensive review! To answer your questions/comments:

- Sweet Lily Dreams takes place at the end of Whisper of a Rose, but right before its actual ending. So SLD is sort of a sequel to WoaR. It also makes a lot more sense if you've played WoaR first. Have you encountered Christina yet in WoaR? Her background story is given at the end of SLD.

- Sweet Lily Dreams is sort of an experimental genre game. It's kinda cute, but also creepy and twisted. It's light-hearted, but also quite dark. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. The idea behind it was: "what happens if you throw elementary school cartoon characters into a horror movie?". A blend of the most innocent and darkest material. I personally love the result, but I can see how someone else would find it confusing and weird. But I do agree with you that this strange mix left me a bit at a loss as to how I could market the game properly.

- I agree with your point that a parental warning might've been a good idea, but I assumed that the text on the front page of Steam would suffice. There is actually a censor option in the game that will remove the f-bomb and certain other aspects you mentioned.

- Whisper of a Rose will definitely come to Steam. I'm currently working on an entirely new project which will be finished soon. After that I'll prepare WoaR for a release on Steam. I want to redo a large portion of WoaR's graphics, because it was made YEARS ago. But it's really lovely to hear that you're enjoying WoaR so much. I definitely went a lot darker in that game. Something also somewhat present in SLD but covered up by sugar.

- There will be a third and final Garden of Dreams game. It will pick up after SLD and our current project (Unraveled) but before the ending of WoaR. Though if you want to have answers right away...

*SPOILERS*

Lily is the daughter of "Oflas", founder of Caretech. He has implemented her with an alternative version of the iDream. A safe one that can't cause death; just to track her dream patterns and energy levels. After having her trip to Rosaria she's gained enough mental power to actually be able to use that safe iDream version. At the end in the park she subconsciously opens up a portal to the dream world and a certain antagonist grabs the chance to enter the real world.

I think that hopefully answers your questions without spoiling too much. :)

Would love to hear your reply! ^_^

[amerk]

Thanks for the update. I forgot about the censoring at the beginning of SLD and didn't notice the text on Steam before. I imagine so many others aren't paying attention either. In any case, even if it didn't mix as well as you had hoped, darker themed rpg's are a nice change of pace.