I must say I was highly impressed, this game was something out of this world (similar to Amanita Design games i'd say) - I absolutely love the songs and the stories in the game!!
The fact that you made it using RPG Maker is even better, it truly shows that RPG Maker is very-very capable of high quality games and it depends mostly on dev themselves whether the game will be high quality or low quality.
10/10, hope you keep making these type of games, or any other genre, I played through one sitting and it was super interesting to see who was behind next painting
I love the use of AI generated art! Along with the eerie, psychedelic (and very diverse) soundtrack it creates a surreal, otherworldly atmosphere. Combined with the beautiful narrative of helping trapped souls move on, it's an amazing and unforgettable experience. Also the dialogues with Charon are so fun and well written!
Honestly a damn masterpiece I loved this game so much so much effort into the story im honestly honored to have got to play it im flabbergasted i loved it the story had so much to it im honestly thankful for this game and how much hard work you put into it for us
loved the lore part when (spoiler)
(the part where I found out he was the one who made the note)
A literal masterpiece. I enjoyed this game so much; I am the kind of person that starts games but never finishes them. I finished this game in one sitting. The music changes in every zone you enter. It really feels like youre transported to another´s world. I love all the mixed emotions all the apparations give you: sympathy, hate, anger, and saddness. I think everyone should play this game at least once. It is a masterpiece. Thank you creators.
Wow, man. Normally I don't feel a lot from games, or really anything anymore. I felt something while playing this and that was really kind of beautiful. Thank you.
I'm pretty new to itch.io, and made an account just to say how much this game means to me. Came to me at such a perfect time, I had a wonderful experience playing last night. Got the OST on bandcamp immediately once I heard the song in the maze, bout to start Cohabitation now! Thanks for making this!!
so so so well written and god this game was so enjoyable and the music was absolutely amazing!!!! i hope everyone gets a chance to play this because it's truly wonderful. thank you to everyone who worked on it
Wow, this was so cool and unique... I loved it. Very much. Gonna play it again in the future definitely. I liked the stories being unusual and kind of disturbing even. Great experience.
This is an excellent game and I like the style of it, It reminded me of Everywhere at the end of time and Gorbino's quest. It gives a bigger 'picture vibe', and I really like it. Also having it as a horror game makes an unsettling vibe.
This game was a trip, in a good way. The changing volume in the music, the change in music, all of the sound design really was perfect and really did an excellent job of setting the tone and making the player feel exactly what they should be feeling based off of their actions.
The story of Charon is vague, but based on the hints in his dialogue, his name, and a quick google search, it is not hard to figure out that he is symbolizing a guide for lost souls stuck in limbo. I really liked his character.
In my opinion, the first story with the maze was the least impactful and least memorable. I will admit that it was the first level and I did not go back and talk to the husband after helping the wife move on, so I did miss some story, but a man just disliking his wife to the point of tormenting her just didn't leave as much an impression on me. His motivation for doing it felt weak and he seemed like pure evil, so it was very easy to make the choice to go against him. Now do not get me wrong, the story of the husband and wife was still good, just not as good in my humble opinion.
The story of the boy and his mother is what really sold me to the game as I played. Hell, I made this itch.io account solely to rate this game and talk about it and the soldier level. I got the first riddle right first try and the second riddle right on the second try. The buildup to the reveal about the mother is excellent by the way, I got the first riddle of the second room wrong so I have no idea what the answer was, but the two riddles I did get right had "mother" as the answer and wow did that set the tone perfectly. It was beautiful foreshadowing and I sincerely applaud you all for that, devs. The shift in music in the third and fourth rooms was incredible and the fact that the boys style of speech (writing style I guess) shifted from energetic and almost naive with more upbeat music to more of a desperate plea to leave him be with no music at all (I think, not the best memory so I may be wrong about some stuff) left me feeling very concerned and empathetic for the boy. Seeing how loneliness destroyed the child and hearing his story left me thinking "Damn, he didn't deserve this...". In regards to the boy's story, I interpreted it as follows (may be wrong about stuff so take it with salt): the boy's father is rarely home, leaving the father-son relationship very poor and causing the boy to develop a very close bond with his mother. The mother eventually grows sick of the loneliness with the father never around, so she cheats on him and is eventually caught. The father kills both the mother and the man the mother was cheating with. The father then decides the boy is next and drowns him. I may be wrong, but if I got even some of that right then that is a powerful story to be told by a character that is supposed to be a child. His story was excellent and I honestly have no criticisms of how his story concluded (for me anyway, I think there may be multiple endings).
The third painting was why I clicked on the game to begin with. I saw this game was tagged horror, so I clicked on it and 20 minutes later I was finally at the scary part. The locker mechanic was very interesting and the fact that the lockers no longer worked after I "killed" the soldier was a neat touch. Anyway, the slow movement in the dark was somewhat annoying, but it made sense in order to build suspense and let the creepiness and the destruction of the place really seep into you. I have no idea what the building was supposed to be, my two theories are a hospital and a pizzeria. The scream when the power was turned on was pretty good and it left me wondering if I should exit at all. Unfortunately, once I did exit the "creature" or whatever it was was right there and it killed me after a second after, fast enough I had no chance of making it to the locker to flee. Scared the hell out of me though and I got a good chuckle out of it. Now that I was officially scared I pent the next few minutes getting the keys and periodically exiting to save after getting 2 keys as I was scared if losing progress. I eventually made it through the door and met the soldier. His story was incredibly compelling as it truly seemed like he felt guilty for what he did. As the player you have no idea if the war was justified, where it was, what nation he was fighting for or against. Personally, my mind immediately went to him being an American soldier in the middle east so that I would have a better way to imagine what he was saying. Hearing him want to die and finally move on after everything he did really left me thinking. "Did this man, most certainly a war criminal, who took his own life when he finally realized how evil his actions and those of his "friends truly were, really deserve such a merciful ending?" I decided that he deserved to finally move on, and disabled his life support. I noticed in those winding hallways between the soldier's room and the hospital/pizzeria had a somber BGM going in and a much happier soundtrack afterwards, making me feel like I had truly done the right thing putting him to rest. When the creature showed up again it said something about how the other half of him had died before it disappeared itself. A personified form of the "part of me reveled in their pain" part of him. Makes me wonder what would have happened had I spared him... Overall, it was an excellent story and definitely made an impression on me.
The final paining, when I first saw the player character in the game I got very excited. "Who am I? Why am I helping these people instead of being in a painting myself? How did I die? Was Charon right when he said I was a detective or a puzzle solver? Or was that the devs' way of breaking the fourth wall to make fun of the player?" and so on, but the game ends once you interact with it. maybe I am missing something, but the game was so captivating and then it just ends like that. Kind of anticlimactic in my opinion.
Anyways, thats all I had to say. Great game and it was certainly a hell of a journey. The end kind of disappointed me, but the stories throughout the game were phenomenal and will stick with me for a while. Hopefully everything I said is readable and makes sense as I am writing this only half awake. Great game, peace.
Your analysis is spot on! We made the ending in that way to imply that the entire game up to that point was the main character's way of moving on, in his own way :)
It's okay, if a little pretentious. The walk-backs are a pain, and on the second room there is no way to back from entering the thing in the panel it seems. It takes you back and it's slightly bleh, same with taking the run button from you.
this game an absolute work of art i just played this game in in school suspention and i felt actual emotion for the people in the story love this game with it was longer 10/10 :))))
The plot, the aesthetics, and the music was awesome. Wish it was longer....
The bgms are soo good. The bgm that plays at the menu and the bgm for the young boy were my fav!!! When unlocking the first 2 doors for the second painting the music made me felt a longing for someone just like the boy would have been feeling.
I made the sweet old lady move on and then told the old man that she hadn't moved on. Now he will enjoy his own plight.
if it can help, Charon is the one who guide to the "Hell" in the ancient greek mythology, and it's not the hell like in the bible, it's just the place where dead people rest, no matter what they did on earth
Just Wow. Honestly this is a great game, rarely do i find a game that makes me wish it was longer... the art-work reminds me of zdzislaw beksinskis sureal art. this game is art.
one of my favorite psychological horror games, mind blowing this is actually the first one you made, you deserve a bigger audience. keep going, you're amazing!
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I must say I was highly impressed, this game was something out of this world (similar to Amanita Design games i'd say) - I absolutely love the songs and the stories in the game!!
The fact that you made it using RPG Maker is even better, it truly shows that RPG Maker is very-very capable of high quality games and it depends mostly on dev themselves whether the game will be high quality or low quality.
10/10, hope you keep making these type of games, or any other genre, I played through one sitting and it was super interesting to see who was behind next painting
Thank you so much! You may be interested in Cohabitation, its another RPG Maker horrror game that I made after this one :)
I don't know anything about monster trucks...whatever do you mean?
I love the use of AI generated art! Along with the eerie, psychedelic (and very diverse) soundtrack it creates a surreal, otherworldly atmosphere. Combined with the beautiful narrative of helping trapped souls move on, it's an amazing and unforgettable experience. Also the dialogues with Charon are so fun and well written!
Honestly a damn masterpiece I loved this game so much so much effort into the story im honestly honored to have got to play it im flabbergasted i loved it the story had so much to it
im honestly thankful for this game and how much hard work you put into it for us
loved the lore part when
(spoiler)
(the part where I found out he was the one who made the note)
A literal masterpiece. I enjoyed this game so much; I am the kind of person that starts games but never finishes them. I finished this game in one sitting. The music changes in every zone you enter. It really feels like youre transported to another´s world. I love all the mixed emotions all the apparations give you: sympathy, hate, anger, and saddness. I think everyone should play this game at least once. It is a masterpiece. Thank you creators.
Charon almost made me cry.
-Made a Video.
"What a game! I honestly did not expect it to be this good. And also the pacing, the atmosphere, and the music in this game is just great."LITERAL MASTERPIECE
Wow, man. Normally I don't feel a lot from games, or really anything anymore. I felt something while playing this and that was really kind of beautiful. Thank you.
getting killed by demon thing + Fall out Boy = fun
why is there no backspace backspace is important
escape or right click should work! Sorry, rpg maker doesn't have a backspace button :(
I'm pretty new to itch.io, and made an account just to say how much this game means to me. Came to me at such a perfect time, I had a wonderful experience playing last night. Got the OST on bandcamp immediately once I heard the song in the maze, bout to start Cohabitation now! Thanks for making this!!
Glad to hear it! That means a lot, and monom appreciates the bandcamp purchase!
The use of AI art to make the character art was so cool!! very fitting
Very cool use of AI generated art. This is a genuinely interesting use of the wild stuff AI will output, especially when it comes to human figures.
so so so well written and god this game was so enjoyable and the music was absolutely amazing!!!! i hope everyone gets a chance to play this because it's truly wonderful. thank you to everyone who worked on it
Definitely not what I was expecting. Great game with great storytelling, I'll always find a time to replay it.
Wow, this was so cool and unique... I loved it. Very much. Gonna play it again in the future definitely. I liked the stories being unusual and kind of disturbing even. Great experience.
the visuals and stories. I am in love. This was an experience and I live for it.
best fucking game pure gem
buenardo el juego 11/10
The second story/painting made me cry like a bitch what the hell---
Anyway, this is such a great game <3
oh man this was a great game !! very interesting and the atmosphere is amazing
This is an excellent game and I like the style of it, It reminded me of Everywhere at the end of time and Gorbino's quest. It gives a bigger 'picture vibe', and I really like it. Also having it as a horror game makes an unsettling vibe.
btw you can go into settings and turn off lighting effects for the third painting :)
What a beautiful experience
This game was a trip, in a good way. The changing volume in the music, the change in music, all of the sound design really was perfect and really did an excellent job of setting the tone and making the player feel exactly what they should be feeling based off of their actions.
The story of Charon is vague, but based on the hints in his dialogue, his name, and a quick google search, it is not hard to figure out that he is symbolizing a guide for lost souls stuck in limbo. I really liked his character.
In my opinion, the first story with the maze was the least impactful and least memorable. I will admit that it was the first level and I did not go back and talk to the husband after helping the wife move on, so I did miss some story, but a man just disliking his wife to the point of tormenting her just didn't leave as much an impression on me. His motivation for doing it felt weak and he seemed like pure evil, so it was very easy to make the choice to go against him. Now do not get me wrong, the story of the husband and wife was still good, just not as good in my humble opinion.
The story of the boy and his mother is what really sold me to the game as I played. Hell, I made this itch.io account solely to rate this game and talk about it and the soldier level. I got the first riddle right first try and the second riddle right on the second try. The buildup to the reveal about the mother is excellent by the way, I got the first riddle of the second room wrong so I have no idea what the answer was, but the two riddles I did get right had "mother" as the answer and wow did that set the tone perfectly. It was beautiful foreshadowing and I sincerely applaud you all for that, devs. The shift in music in the third and fourth rooms was incredible and the fact that the boys style of speech (writing style I guess) shifted from energetic and almost naive with more upbeat music to more of a desperate plea to leave him be with no music at all (I think, not the best memory so I may be wrong about some stuff) left me feeling very concerned and empathetic for the boy. Seeing how loneliness destroyed the child and hearing his story left me thinking "Damn, he didn't deserve this...". In regards to the boy's story, I interpreted it as follows (may be wrong about stuff so take it with salt): the boy's father is rarely home, leaving the father-son relationship very poor and causing the boy to develop a very close bond with his mother. The mother eventually grows sick of the loneliness with the father never around, so she cheats on him and is eventually caught. The father kills both the mother and the man the mother was cheating with. The father then decides the boy is next and drowns him. I may be wrong, but if I got even some of that right then that is a powerful story to be told by a character that is supposed to be a child. His story was excellent and I honestly have no criticisms of how his story concluded (for me anyway, I think there may be multiple endings).
The third painting was why I clicked on the game to begin with. I saw this game was tagged horror, so I clicked on it and 20 minutes later I was finally at the scary part. The locker mechanic was very interesting and the fact that the lockers no longer worked after I "killed" the soldier was a neat touch. Anyway, the slow movement in the dark was somewhat annoying, but it made sense in order to build suspense and let the creepiness and the destruction of the place really seep into you. I have no idea what the building was supposed to be, my two theories are a hospital and a pizzeria. The scream when the power was turned on was pretty good and it left me wondering if I should exit at all. Unfortunately, once I did exit the "creature" or whatever it was was right there and it killed me after a second after, fast enough I had no chance of making it to the locker to flee. Scared the hell out of me though and I got a good chuckle out of it. Now that I was officially scared I pent the next few minutes getting the keys and periodically exiting to save after getting 2 keys as I was scared if losing progress. I eventually made it through the door and met the soldier. His story was incredibly compelling as it truly seemed like he felt guilty for what he did. As the player you have no idea if the war was justified, where it was, what nation he was fighting for or against. Personally, my mind immediately went to him being an American soldier in the middle east so that I would have a better way to imagine what he was saying. Hearing him want to die and finally move on after everything he did really left me thinking. "Did this man, most certainly a war criminal, who took his own life when he finally realized how evil his actions and those of his "friends truly were, really deserve such a merciful ending?" I decided that he deserved to finally move on, and disabled his life support. I noticed in those winding hallways between the soldier's room and the hospital/pizzeria had a somber BGM going in and a much happier soundtrack afterwards, making me feel like I had truly done the right thing putting him to rest. When the creature showed up again it said something about how the other half of him had died before it disappeared itself. A personified form of the "part of me reveled in their pain" part of him. Makes me wonder what would have happened had I spared him... Overall, it was an excellent story and definitely made an impression on me.
The final paining, when I first saw the player character in the game I got very excited. "Who am I? Why am I helping these people instead of being in a painting myself? How did I die? Was Charon right when he said I was a detective or a puzzle solver? Or was that the devs' way of breaking the fourth wall to make fun of the player?" and so on, but the game ends once you interact with it. maybe I am missing something, but the game was so captivating and then it just ends like that. Kind of anticlimactic in my opinion.
Anyways, thats all I had to say. Great game and it was certainly a hell of a journey. The end kind of disappointed me, but the stories throughout the game were phenomenal and will stick with me for a while. Hopefully everything I said is readable and makes sense as I am writing this only half awake. Great game, peace.
Your analysis is spot on! We made the ending in that way to imply that the entire game up to that point was the main character's way of moving on, in his own way :)
Second room first answer: hint, falls from clouds, the world would be dry without it. Not snow
Answer: rain
I reeeally liked this game, it's pretty original.
are there jumpscares? i hate jumpscares.
no, there's no jumpscares
It's okay, if a little pretentious. The walk-backs are a pain, and on the second room there is no way to back from entering the thing in the panel it seems. It takes you back and it's slightly bleh, same with taking the run button from you.
this game an absolute work of art i just played this game in in school suspention and i felt actual emotion for the people in the story love this game with it was longer 10/10 :))))
sososososoooooo good. One of my fav games now. Great job.
Unique experience! Thanks for the game. :)
this is beautiful. Thank you for putting in the time and effort.
The plot, the aesthetics, and the music was awesome. Wish it was longer....
The bgms are soo good. The bgm that plays at the menu and the bgm for the young boy were my fav!!! When unlocking the first 2 doors for the second painting the music made me felt a longing for someone just like the boy would have been feeling.
I made the sweet old lady move on and then told the old man that she hadn't moved on. Now he will enjoy his own plight.
Great work!!!
Will we ever get a sequel to this?
Maybe a backstory to Charon?
Another perspective leading to these events?
Generally felt emotion for the characters in this game, made me feel involved in the story as if I was the one doing the cleaning.
if it can help, Charon is the one who guide to the "Hell" in the ancient greek mythology, and it's not the hell like in the bible, it's just the place where dead people rest, no matter what they did on earth
Just Wow. Honestly this is a great game, rarely do i find a game that makes me wish it was longer... the art-work reminds me of zdzislaw beksinskis sureal art. this game is art.
one of my favorite psychological horror games, mind blowing this is actually the first one you made, you deserve a bigger audience. keep going, you're amazing!
PLEASE MAKE ANOTHER GAME I LOVED THIS SO MUCHHHHHHHHH
I'm actually working on another game! It's called “Cohabitation", check my twitter for updates :) https://twitter.com/algebra_falcon/status/1489663499244474369?s=20&t=REut52LYal7...
Can't wait!
can't wait to play it!
Update: my new game is now out! If you're interested, the full game is out now and available at: https://algebrafalcon.itch.io/cohabitation
playing it now!
This was fantastic. Amazing visuals. Amazing soundtrack. The length was just perfect as was the pacing and story! A really cool experience!
liked the neural blender vibe. it does something special.
amazing storytelling jesus christ this was so good
Made me think of my own life and forgiveness...thanks.