The Desolate Hope

A pretty strange game, alternating different styles of gameplay (platforms action exploration/dungeons seen from above/RPG type fights with a tip of clicker game...), but suffering from many choices of questionable game design: some dialogues are chained by pressing down, others on enter; Some play phases are played on the keyboard, others with the mouse; When you get the bonus that allows you to pay half-price, the prices displayed remain those in full price; The improvements that can be unlocked with NPCs do not have any description (for some the name is sufficiently explicit to understand their effect, but not always); Moreover, the game is full of mechanics that are not explained in game at all, which implies to fumble for a moment before understanding the essentials (or to realise that there is a text file that acts as a record in the game folder ^_^;); A trial that is all the more frustrating as the adventure takes place in limited time, according to a cycle days/nights, which gives the impression of having ruined all its beginning of the game and makes fear of having to start everything back to zero (but we end happily finding a means of grapplting with additional days of autonomy). And yet, despite all these flaws, one attaches to this game: the visual style is rather peculiar but not bad (a little in the mind of Machinarium, the appearance less sketted), the soundtrack is nice, the story is intriguing... Special mention to the atmosphere of RPG type fights, even if these are so messy that it is difficult to follow what happens (I love the music, the small introductory animation of the members of my team, the design of the enemies, and the effects epileptic attacks).