Ok, so the first third of the game, the 'question arc' where you got trapped in a Golden Age Mystery mansion with a group of colourful characters to be picked out one by one, is bit too self-aware and too pre-emptively defensive in a meta way. There's no need for this. The art is GOOD, the moment-to-moment writing is solid. We are here with you, devs. don't worry this is very good. Now, the middle part is where things shine. Once you realised that you are in a temporal loop and get to live through these three days again and again and again classic When They Cry style , it gets a lot better. At first it might seem that they won't explain everything. But no, they did. Things fit surprisingly well and you do get an explanation for just about everything up until the end of this part. e.g. the question arc might seem a bit suspiciously open-ended with anybody potentially being the killer and the 'hints' the killer left all seem really unsensible and random. You might have already had to bash your head save scum your way to even enter the second part. This is, however, fully explained within the story, since the one leaving these hints, the killer playing the game with you, is a revived little girl backed by a ghost witch who died in 1912. Neither of them had a good idea how anything works now so they were really, and I mean really bad at giving hints. The 'detective' in the story also struggled HARD to understand what she meant. So much so that they were also bashing their heads to get it right by essentially also doing save scumming in-story with the time loop. If there is an example of 'Ludonarrative Harmony', this is one. You experience the temporal loop yourself by save scamming with the characters. Another interesting bit is that half way through the story it seems that the 'narrative trick' is really badly handled. Some characters, through whose POV chapter we have already seen their internal monologues to be innocent, were suddenly revealed to be actual killers or someone else in disguise. It really seemed that the story just lied to our face and tried to get away with it. But no, this is not a badly executed Yukito Ayatsuji story but a well-ish done G. R. R. Martin trick, where 'consecutive chapters might not have taken place consecutively in a temporal sense'. What we saw in early chapters was round 4, when the killer was an extra 'eighth person' and everybody WAS innocent. What we saw later was round 600 or something then 6700 and then 7777, so yes, everything does add up. Is this new? No? Is this too common too tropy...eh, no? In this economy, this is a plus alright. The last third is where everything fell apart. Now, the first third is the question arc where we see the three days played out, the second third is the 'moving the goal pole' part where we realise that this is a temporal loop story and at the end of this everything seems to be falling apart. The temporal loop happens in a dream, created by the ghost of that Witch who died in 1912, and her strength is running out. She'll disappear quite soon but still cannot figure out this whole '七人杀阵' or 'seal created by seven sacrifices' to free herself. In the meantime, the main cast, are dying by brain death since they were locked in the dream by the witch and cannot wake up. The revived girl tried everything and nothing is working. So this is, in a three-act structure, the lowest point by the end of act two, right? After the false hope of victory when we figured out the whole 'this is a temporal loop in a dream' and begin getting it right, we realise that it does not matter. Time is running out and the seal is still here so everybody is royally done. A third act is coming and we'll see everybody finally join together to work things out, right? Right? RIGHT? This is where temporal loop stories usually shine. Humanity versus eternity. In Higurashi When They Cry there's a moving story there. 'The key to find the one outcome that works for everybody in this sea of endless possibilities is to trust each other. And I have faith in you to be able to find this trust. I will wait for an eternity and we can literally monkey-typewriter this thing out. I believe.' In Umineko When They Cry, it is 'the dead are dead the living must move on. You can try to find peace by endlessly trying to create a narrative for the great tragedy where everybody looks nice, but in the end, make peace and move on. The past can't be changed.' Even in Rail of Mobius, another Chinese title, there's a moving story about 'I will literally endure eternity just because you are by my side, our love is so strong I endured eternity for something to change'. Here? Nope. Nothing. They deus ex machina-ed this thing. Apparently a (never appeared before except in special episodes after the end) Chinese folklore deity just ringed a (never appeared before suddenly inserted overpowered) character and they went to the site and kicked the witch out of her dream by (literally) one punch her into near death??? What? What? Literally What? This is not 'Raging Loop's coward's way out, this is Homeric level of deus ex machina. 'Oh, nice job you did trapping the silver-tonged Odysseus. But Athena told me to go do this and that because reasons.' This is literally Athena coming done to tell someone overpowered to do something to resolve the whole plot. Why??? And you know what can make this worse?? The reason why the gods care is because, apparently, in her attempt to undo the seal, the witch made an golem or homuculus with dirt and stone. This is the department of Chinese creation goddess Nvwa and apparently doing so without LOICENSE is against the rule so they sent somebody to check things out. This is literally the meme where somebody trapped on an island escaped by getting Disney to sue them for copyright. I cannot even... And they did not even fully explain how this seal of 'seven sacrifices' work. If the main character survived is reserved for future titles. The nerve. Production value: 8 Plot/lore: 4.5 Core game play: 7 So a 6.5. I guess this is still 'recommend' since steam only has 'recommend' and 'not recommend' and I cannot justify giving it much lower a score than I did Raging Loop, '山·临界幸存者', Return to the Shironagasu Island, or Burried Stars. This is still a very smooth, very well paced game until the last third and the art is nice. Be aware that there's no voice acting but otherwise, a solid 4h experience. You won't regret it, even if this is no 'Life is Strange' or 'Umineko When They Cry'.