MV - The Chains That Bound Me - Demo Available

First impression from the game page alone: the art is the main reason that led me to download. It’s beautiful and I visually enjoy the earthy tones. I’m also a big sucker for darker themes, too. ‘Dad’ types and antagonists are two of my favourite character archetypes, so I’m looking forward to seeing Mark in action.

Ok! Now that I’m in, I can say my immediate reaction was that the Press space to continue prompt was a little unnecessary. I also thought the +1 red potion -1 red potion bit was unnecessary too, unfortunately. Especially because my very first instinct was to go and take the red potion anyway. I did like the art of him picking it up, however. WASD/Arrow key functionality is nice.

Funny enough, while most of the controls were intuitive, I struggled for a moment to figure out that ESC lets you go back in the menus. Sound effects were nice though! I enjoy the little string music too.

It’s a little awkward to have to reach across my keyboard to hit ESC in the menus as well.

I loved Mark’s first scene. As I thought I would. Scenery is quite lovely. I like the electrical spark details.

*”Anthony you in?” should be “Anthony, you in?”

I liked being nosy in the diary woman’s house. I’m a bit of a snoop.

In Valentina’s house, I once again don’t think it’s necessary to have to say +1 -1 every time you pick up an item. Maybe it would be more intuitive to have a picture of Grich’s toy instead?

Can’t help but wonder if there’s an overpopulation problem in Florie. Might be an interesting development that justifies constant murder and abuse of power?

I like the touch of all the kids out wandering for scraps after the miners clock in.

The way Sam’s house shakes beneath the tracks is phenomenal. I love those small details.

After meeting with Valentina in the mines for the first time and attempting to leave, it says I met my quota, but I only have 7/10 iron.

The theft mini game was interesting and fun. I tried to go without stealing, but it’s a hard knock life :( Sad that I had to take from the others, but makes sense narratively.

Stopping in on the man abusing his wife was rough. Makes sense that you were only looking for Anthony, but that was an unexpected twist on the hero scenario I thought I might get to have.

Fell in love with Arridaios. Love me a tragic, reluctant hero who only wants to keep his family safe. I'll probably keep playing the demo later on and give my thoughts as I progress.

Trying to think of more little thoughts... I liked how giving the red potion to the injured man levelled me up. Interesting little touch. I was also worried for some reason that there would be BS options that lead to an automatic death since most free indie games that I've tried like to fall into that trap. Pleasantly surprised that there were none! Might be interesting if the theft mini game was incorporated into more parts of the game. Like when you're trying to swap the bread in front of the delusional wife at the very beginning, or trying to take things in situations where it wouldn't necessarily just be given to you.

One more thing is that it's a little awkward when there's dialogue but no portrait, given the way that the dialogue kind of awkwardly sits in the middle of the screen. If that makes sense? IE; when a portrait is there to fill up the left hand side, it looks great. But when there's no portrait, there's a weird gap.

That, and there's a few strangely phrased sentences here and there. Might be worth going over and having someone proofread/restructure a few dialogue bits eventually! I think there was also a part where Valentina and Arridaios discuss the lever a second time and it's treated as a surprise to Valentina when he already told her about it? To be fair my memory is also terrible and I could be wrong so my bad if I am!!

I think that's all I have to say for now!