The Ghost and the Golem

This IF is exceptionally educational and offers a fascinating window into Jewish society. The setting and story include some heavy, emotional scenes. My first playthrough took about 5.5 hours, and I know I only scratched the surface of all the branching paths. I mean just look at that list of achievements! The romance was a lovely surprise, I didn't expect it to be this sweet. Also, you can choose your own name suffix, so naturally, I went full weeb with "-chan". :D

I've already completed 2 playthroughs (one alone and one with a friend) and about to start a 3rd. I cannot recommend this enough for fans of historical light fantasy. You can probably finish one playthrough in an afternoon. The story is both grounded and fantastical and your choices actually affect the final outcome of the story. The research that has gone into depicting both the historical setting and cultures involved makes you feel like you are part of the shtetl and care about it's fate. Do you want to be the rebellious daughter fascinated with the supernatural who longs to make her mark on the world or the dutiful son who is driven by a sense of community whose goal is to protect those he loves or something in between? You can pretty much do it all. [spoiler] Also, DOVID WHY WON'T YOU MARRY ME ;_; [/spoiler]

When I went into this, I expected to do one, maybe two playthroughs and then put it down. I'm now coming up on 10+ playthroughs and I’m still going. Part of this is me being an Achievement hunter, but that alone wouldn't hold my attention; it's the perfectly realised setting and consistently delightful writing that keeps me here. If you've ever read a Sholem Aleichem or Isaac Bashevis Singer translation then you'll be enchanted by how well Benjamin Rosenbaum has captured their very specific style. The narration is laugh-out-loud funny at points and then brutal or spine-tingling at others. The historical details I recognised made me grin and the ones I didn't made me want to go down a research rabbit hole; which the game enables you to do by coming with a built-in bibliography! Speaking as someone who's already semi-immersed in this historical setting / literature tradition, I have no idea if the sheer amount of details would be alienating or a good jumping-off point for someone who isn't. However, the option to dial up or down the amount of untranslated Yiddish plus the inclusion of a glossary shows that some effort has been put in to make the history accessible to newcomers. Som…

[i]The Ghost and the Golem[/i] is a simple text adventure but it manages to create a real sense of immersion in the time and culture of the setting. The narrator has a quirky and distinctive voice that really sets the tone (for example the first achievement says "Fine, so you delivered a dress; what do you want, a medal?") Although I have only played it through once so far, there seems to be a lot of potential avenues to explore and I definitely intend to return sometime. In my opinion the Nebula nomination was well deserved.

after 2 playthroughs i can say this is a great little game, definetly my favorite text–based/multiple choice rpg. the characters and story really pulled me in and the game made me rediscover my love of saying Nu in every situation. it's also quite intense, as it warns in the beginning, so i have played enough for now. but someday I will come back to get the gay happy ending!

Oy, there's some learning in this game.