I had never played a horror RPG game before this, but deciding to play Paper Lily Chaper 1 was well worth it. I wonder if its right to call it a horror RPG though, since it seems to involve a lot of elements from different genres. You can find it on (Itch.io) and (Steam). In this post, I want to talk about some of my favourite parts of the game and what I think it does right.
- Pacing: The pacing is well done and for a chapter in a series, I didn't feel like it was too short or long.
- Difficulty: The game difficulty is well done. Although I found myself dying often, I believe that this is intended with so many intentional bad endings. The idea of having multiple ways to solve the puzzles means that you probably won't get stuck on a puzzle. The explanation of controls and rules is also good and never too vague.
- Soundtrack: The soundtrack is very well made and always accompanies what is happening in the game. I daresay the music is on par with Undertale's soundtrack.
- Art: The art is stunningly done. There is no doubt that the colourscheme they chose is good, but I love when the game uses black and white imagery in the explanatory cutscenes. I also adore the combined use of pixel art and higher resolution digital art. The art style is really cute for a horror game but it adds a sort of warmth that made me interested in the game in the first place.
- Gameplay Mechanics: The gameplay is good, and the main mechanic of puzzle solving is well done. The objectives system is helpful, but sometimes I would forget that in order to use an item, I had to select it from the inventory. Maybe if I had played the prequel first, it would have been more clear to me. I loved the sections where there was an evident shift in gameplay mechanic, like the sections which shifted to a top-down sokoban puzzle. More notably, the encounter with Miss Knives which used a top-down 2d grid based movement and required dodging attacks reminded me of Helltaker's final battles or of Undertale's unique battling system.
- Plot: The plot was very engaging and made me interested in seeing the game to the end. The game introduces a lot of questions, and as a player, I felt like there was sufficient motivation to keep playing from the suspense it creates.
- Characters: This game doesn't have too many characters, but all of them have a charm to them. I love the character designs with respect to art and personality.
Overall, I recommend this game to anyone who is even mildly interested! I look forward to the release of chapter 2 and have shown my support by purchasing the (Supporter Pack).