The Diary

Pros and cons for this game: The art style and sound design is absolutely gorgeous. It is a beautiful game, and a well written story. The first chapter genuinely unsettled me while playing, though I won't get into spoilers. It catches the attention and holds interest, it really does. It's beautiful and it's a great story telling experience. However, unfortunately, I wouldn't really call anything in the game an actual puzzle. Dragging and dropping information from one place to the other, a few extremely simple math questions. There's nothing I would consider difficult or engaging when it comes to the puzzles. It is also extremely short. My play through was less than two hours from beginning to end. At the end of the day, it's a wonderful story and concept, and it's gorgeous. But I think it's too simple, and too short for the price. I bought it on sale and still feel like it was a little too expensive for what it is. If you can get it on sale, it's a good experience!

Ignore the negative comments about the small bugs on the UI, those are sometimes annoying at best, but nothing frustrating. The art, interaction, plot and character writing is amazing! Would absolutely recommend this cozy, mystery solving from different povs setting.

This game is very well made. The story is suspenseful and does hit some sensitive topics, but that's what made it so emotional while I played. !!Spoilers ahead!!! I'm well educated when it comes to things like murder mysteries and stalking cases cause those are things I watch documentaries and listen to podcasts as well. I wasn't expecting the final ending, and as sad as it was it was a very well told plotline. I enjoyed the little mini games and putting the puzzle pieces together to solve the case. I'm glad Ashley didn't just let it go, and that she solved the case.

The art and gameplay is gorgeous. I love this idea of putting scraps of paper in the correct order in a diary, super cozy aesthetic. The problem is that the story is sh*t. [spoiler] Why did Cedric get bullied for "Ooooh you and so-and-so like each other" but the female MC wasn't bullied for it? And then when the female MC finds out what her fiance did, she didn't call off the wedding. And in the end, it's very unclear if the bullies were ever punished for what they did years ago. [/spoiler] Not a well written plot at all.

I was HOOKED!! the art, mystery and characters were chef's kiss! the puzzles were pretty easy, but it did not take away from the fantastic experience I had playing this!

Personally, I loved this game. Yes, the puzzles aren't hard, but they are in my eyes still enjoyable to do - a very good mix of coziness and good storytelling mixed with crime and mystery in my eyes. Personally, I've experienced absolutely no performance issues either.