Mirages of Winter

Mirages of Winter is a slow-paced point-and-click game incorporating Chinese scenery and Chinese mythology. You explore four islands, each associated with a particular element, season and mythical creature. There is little in terms of a story or goal; the game is more about the experience. PROS: I’m honestly quite torn about this game. On the one hand, the art is gorgeous. Everything is made of Chinese watercolours that are minimalist yet vivid. The game uses elements of Chinese mythology creatively. Every object reacts with visual and sound effects when you click on it. Some of the puzzles are very cute and enjoyable. CONS: On the other hand, you have to be in the right mood and have the right amount of patience to enjoy this game. It takes a long time to do anything, and you often have to repeat the same actions over and over. Every little action triggers a cutscene or line of dialogue, adding extra time onto everything you do. You have to be relaxed and willing to take things slow. It frustrated me after a while, so I didn't finish it. During normal gameplay, you will have to move the entire camera to click on things. During cutscenes and dialogue, you will have to use your…

I thought I liked slow-paced games, but holy mother of unskippable cutscenes this one is for the very, very patient. It's certainly something special, so there's some bonus points from me. It looks quite pleasant, and for some of the time that whole "Zen" thing worked for me. The 2.5D effects are really cool. The language felt more or less like a very oversized haiku or something. The puzzles... I think most of them made some kind of sense in retrospect, but often I only got through them by randomly clicking around. A lot of elements of Chinese mythology are used but not explained, so players with previous knowledge might appreciate the game much more. I wanted to adjust mouse sensitivity after starting, but apparently the (few) settings aren't available mid-game. No settings for adjusting volume. There's no manual save, but at least the auto-save seemed decent. You can quit before finishing a chapter without losing progress. You can't quit (or pause) during cutscenes though, and there's a lot of them. Basically a lot of the game is watching things happen very slowly. I bought this game because I was looking for something with spring vibes and that turned out to be rare in ga…

I wanted to appreciate this game, but I can't. Visually it's beautiful, the chinese ink style is almost unique in video games and it works perfectly. But the gameplay is a disaster. The game seems to hesitate between exploration game and point-and-click, to finish in the second option. Using the 5 chinese elements is a good idea, but really badly used, giving so absurd riddles. Example: I clik on a shellfish, it gives me the metal element, I put this element on the otter, it dives under the water and takes the emerald, which lights the dark cave. It seems the creators didn't playtest a lot the game.

The beauty of the conception is the reason to get the game. Elements of Chinese/Japanese brush art in the scenery, but little action. It's always difficult to figure out what the player is supposed to do to advance the story, however taken an hour or so at a time the game can be rewarding. Sometimes it's not easy to interpret what is being depicted in a somewhat abstract way.

[h3]Bring Airsickness Pills[/h3] It's a game ported from iPad where it "might" have worked better in terms of game mechanics as a point and click, but not on PC. Knowing what to click on when some things do not properly fit on screen and are frankly hidden by watercolour smudges, destroys much of an otherwise beautiful looking game. The soundtrack is built using a beautiful instrument the name of which I cannot pronounce, less spell; but it's a Korean daegeum. It does sound very cool. The game is a tad long, because the character moves everywhere with cutscenes, it gets a "lot" boring if you do backtrack. There are very few points where you do have to backtrack luckily. The final cutscene-heavy chapter for example, can take as much as 20 minutes to get through. [h3]Watercolours and Chalk are Fresh[/h3] Unfortunately, as much as I do love watercolour and chalk, the art style fails in a game because when the paper is mostly white there is no backdrop to support the characters and scenery. So everything floats and you find yourself feeling ill with a vertigo like feeling, much like that first time ever you went in an aircraft and looked out of the window. For 2 hours. At one point …

Mirages of Winter Float through delicate brush strokes and interact with the five elements in this Japanese and east asian themed puzzler. There's 5 areas on the map, and each holds around 5-7 hidden paintings waiting to be discovered. ^_^ The slow pace builds tension and I found myself really wanting to keep going just to help the fishermen! (｡•́︿•̀｡) It does unfold slowly, as other reviewers mention, though for me it felt like ink drying across a masterpiece 🎨 Highly recommend, especially on sale since it’s very short. Also hoping for future updates, because I would love to explore more islands!! ✨ TIPS: Collect all the paintings before leaving the Winter Island