Turtle head: Unmasked

can’t play because i have a major skill issue with chase scenes, but i watched manlybadasshero play this, gj on the game. i wanted to play but i remembered my skill issue and was like “i guess i’ll stick with just watching playthroughs. but i’ll leave a comment on the game page and give some support to the creator of the remaster.”

-------[[[SPOILERS AHEAD, GO PLAY THE GAME, NOW!]]]-------

I want to leave a review, because I think this little gem, made by a small group of developers, left me some good feelings that many RPG Maker games (even well known titels such as OMORI or ONE SHOT) fail to do so. I hope that this review may help the developers to improve for other projects.

So, let's start the review.

THE GOOD:

I LOVE everythings about the characters: the way they are written, the way they are drawn  and the way they interact each other (specifically Emma, she's my favourite). The story is simple but effective and the relation between Turtle Head and the protagonists (Harriet/Emma) is really good.

THE OK:

The level-design is well made: the school is big enough that allows you to roam around and explore without feeling lost. My only nitpick is that there are too many rooms where you enter once, only to get an item for a puzzle. The main villain of the game is the classic villain that love to play with their pray before killing it. It's not very original but it works in the context of the game.

THE BAD:

There are 2 things that I found frustrating to deal with: the puzzles and the chases. Some puzzles are not clear enough to tell you how you should solve them and sometimes, after you completed one, you end up in situations where you don't know what to do next, so you have to look around the entire building and read every text possible just to find something that allows you to proceed (I know that Emma/Mason gives you hints based on the items that you possess, but sometimes their advice didn't help at all). The chases were not handled well in my opinion. The idea is that, when Turtle Head is chasing you, you need to find a spot to hide; HOWEVER after you used that spot Turtle Head will know where you hid and you have to find another hiding spot, if you want to avoid a game over. Sometimes you don't know what are the available hiding spots and so you have to guess while being chased.