Hello players,
In the last two weeks, the percentage of negative reviews this game recieved went a lot higher than usual. Those reviews usually complain about one of the following points:
- The game has too much lore text.
- The game has jumpscares.
- The game doesn't take 40 hours to complete.
- The game makes you solve puzzles while being chased.
So, step by step, let's analize those issues:
"The game has too much lore text"
Currently, the word count of all texts in the game is 5624 word. This amount is not a lot, specially compared to other, more narrative focused games. The texts are also spread across 5 levels and yes, there are a lot of texts you can read in the levels to give you more context of what happened in the world of the game!
However, most of those texts are optional and are not required to be found or read to understand the main story. If you read them you will understand more subtle things or you can even discover the big plottwist at the end before hand, but they are not mandatory to understand either the ending or the broad strokes of what happened during the Devil's Fever pandemic in the capital.
So yes, please don't worry if the game has too much lore text. If you don't want to read them it is totally ok! The texts that are important to understand the story are also presented in such a way that are obvious they are important. That is all I can say without entering in spoiler territory.
The game has jumpscares
Yes, the game has jumpscares. That's it. If you don't like jumpscares, there are plenty of other horror games to play! In defense of the jumpscares of The Wine, I'll say I tried my best for them to not be Cheap jumpscares. I like to thing they are well crafted and integrated in the context. But yes, there are one or two really cheap jumpscares, but those are there because once they happen you won't expect any other more well crafted jumpscare or chase right after those cheap one happen... right? :)
The game doesn't take 40 hours to complete.
Yes. This is a game done by a solo developer and you bought it for 15$ or less if you bought it on a sale. Don't expect it to last 40 hours. In a normal playthough it will last you less than 10 hours. Yes, the game is short, but it is intense. It doesn't have filler levels or sections. Everything is relevant. This game respects your time :_)
The game makes you solve puzzles while being chased.
This is the big bad one! In 3 (just three, I promise) sections of this game you will be asked to solve a puzzle... while being chased by a maniac. The puzzle itself is not usually dificult, instead, what makes it difficult is the constant chasing. I understand this is not something usual in most horror games and while I love it and most players do, I understand why it can be frustrating, specially the end challenge. That's why after a lot of thinking... The game has just been updated with a new feature!
NEW FEATURES
As soon as you hit "New Game", a new disclaimer screen will pop up:
If at any time during your playtheough of the game you pause it and go to the accessibility menu, you will find the new "No Chasing and Puzzle Solving Mode". If you activate this mode, enemies in those area will disappear a minute after they appear and yes, the enemy music will stop too! You can activate this mode at any give time or during those sections. As soon as it is activated, enemies will disappear after exactly 60 seconds.
The areas where this mode takes effect are: The second sea of Wine, The end puzzle of the second level and the last challenge of the game beneath the cellar. The other chases are either very short ones or they don't require you to solve any puzzle.
So... yes! That's it!
A final message from the solo dev of this game
Just to finish this post I would like you to know I take the feedback you give me very seriously. The good feedback and the bad feedback. Everything will improve the Horror Tales Saga. However, when this feedback takes for of a negative Steam review, you may be doing something you don't realise: hurting the game and my sanity.
Because of the way the Steam Algorithm works, negative reviews can really affect the discoveravility of this game on the algorithm. This is not Resident Evil or any big horror game. In those games with 10.000 reviews per month a single review is meaningless. But in this game... it counts. A lot. Maybe more than you imagine. Currently the game only have a little bit more than 100 reviews and every negative review is a shot to the game.
I understand that if you have feedback or suggestions for the game, the review system may seem like a great place to do so, but please just bear in mind that you can also post a new discusion and I'll gladly answer. As you can see I answer everything! You don't need to post a negative Steam Review so you get my attention :) All I want to say is if you didn't like the game, please make a negative review of it! No problem at all! But if you loved everything about it except one or two features, please think twice because it can really hurt the future of the Horror Tales Saga T . T
On the other hand, if you have something positive to say, please leave a review too, of course! It doesn't matter that it is not writter in English! Actually if it is written in another language different than english it is going to be better for the discoveravility of the game in users using that language. annd... I think that's all for now.
Oh... just one little, liiiittle thing. Stay tunned for a free Halloween update :)
