Frank and Drake

[b]Frank and Drake[/b] é mais um daqueles jogos em que o trailer vende uma proposta interessante até você jogá-lo e perceber a sua má execução e seu potencial desperdiçado. Não fica muito claro pelos trailers, mas o jogo é um visual novel point and click, com foco na narrativa de uma história de mistérios com elementos sobrenaturais. E aí que começam seus problemas. A começar pela sua jogabilidade que é totalmente truncada. Você vai sendo apresentados a cenas estáticas – no melhor estilo Ren'Py – onde você poderá interagir com determinados objetos, sendo a maioria das interações bem [i]scriptadas[/i], e a cada interação você lê um texto e segue para a próxima tela (ou volta para a tela anterior). Ambos os personagens possuem uma espécie de diário que só é acessível em determinados momentos (geralmente nos finais dos dias), o que torna ele um tanto inútil, pois ele guarda diversas informações sobre o que ambos estão fazendo e investigando, e uma consulta a ele seria útil em determinados puzzles. Os puzzles são bem “meh” e também são “truncados”, ao ponto de, quando você começar um, você vai ficar nele até resolvê-lo ou sair do jogo, muitas vezes retornando para várias cenas anteriores, visto que seu único save automático não é muito coerente. Os gráficos são no máximo bons e não possuem nada de diferente de outros indies semelhantes. O “visual único em rotoscopia” no qual o jogo se vende estão presentes e até são bem feitos, mas são bem minimalistas e se resumem ao personagem fazer movimentos simples e em looping, iguais aos GIFs na página da loja. Para piorar, na tentativa de dar algum dinamismo em algumas cenas, o jogo te obriga a mover o personagem “rotoscopado” de um lado para o outro da tela, e só. Seria mais útil ou permitir a movimentação livre do personagem pelos cenários ou manter a cena como uma cutscene. É entediante ter que mover os dedos para o WASD apenas para apertar uma tecla só para fazê-los atravessarem a tela. Também não achei nada de especial com a trilha sonora. A história do jogo é bastante confusa e cheia de elementos que supostamente deveriam te ajudar na investigação, mas como eu disse anteriormente, como o acesso ao diário é restrito a determinados momentos, ou você memoriza tudo o que ler ou então é melhor fazer o seu próprio diário no bloco de notas. Mesmo tendo diversas ramificações que levam a 6 finais diferentes, a história não me cativou para tentar outros finais. Para ser sincero, me soou um pouco forçada e clichê, principalmente em seu “plot-twist” no desfecho, que me pareceu mais um [i]Deus ex machina[/i] mesmo. Talvez se os devs tivessem desenvolvido este jogo usando o Ren'Py ele teria um pouco mais de dinamismo, mas mesmo assim não sei se o produto final seria salvo. Por isso não recomendo este jogo. O preço regional de R$ 41,99 do Brasil é surreal. Se você quer um jogo interessante feito com rotoscopia eu recomendo o [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/549860/One_Night_Stand/][i]One Night Stand[/i][/url], que possui uma proposta bem mais interessante, mais variações nas animações por rotoscopia, diversos finais, maior dinamismo e custa 1/4 do valor.

Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly but with paranormal events. It's charming, intriguing and kinda scary. I'm just 2 hours in and I already know I will be replaying the game, because I need to know what this all means. Just wow. How does this game have so few reviews? It's criminal how underrated this is. A tasty treat hardly anyone knows about. Edit: After 10+ hours, I do want to point out that if you're going for all achievements, it will be acutely painful, because you can't skip puzzles you've already solved, dialogue you've already read, and cut scenes you've already seen. So, you'll be doing a lot of stuff over and over and over. It will wear on you. Also, the more you play to get those different endings, the more flaws in the writing, story and game design will become apparent. The game probably should have had maybe two or three endings tops, with a much tighter storyline and something more than just several days of living in an apartment with a roommate you never see. It's kinda wild that Frank's fate (like literally whether he lives or dies) lies in whether or not he cleaned a room properly for his roommate, for example. Lmao. Harsh. Feelsbadman.

I recently completed my first playthrough of Frank and Drake, and I have mixed feelings, though the experience was generally positive. The absolute highlight for me is the visual presentation. The rotoscoped animation is stunning and gives the game a very unique, almost dreamlike atmosphere that sets it apart from other narrative adventures. It’s clear that a lot of heart went into the artistic direction of Oriole City. Regarding the gameplay, it took me some time to get used to the very specific rhythm. The pacing is quite slow, and the way you switch between Frank during the day and Drake at night creates an unusual flow that requires some patience. However, once I adapted to this 'quiet' pulse, I found the investigative aspect and the communication via sticky notes quite charming and entertaining for a first run. My main critique lies with the story. While the setup and the supernatural mystery are intriguing at first, I felt that the narrative became rather far-fetched toward the end. The conclusion felt a bit forced, which unfortunately dampened my interest in exploring the other branching paths or multiple endings. In summary: I don't think I will play it a second time, but for the few hours it lasted, I felt well-entertained. If you enjoy unique art styles and don't mind a slower, more surreal narrative, it’s definitely worth playing through at least once.

This is what I play indie games for. This is a work of art that was made because someone had a vision, an original concept, a unique style. I'm not even remotely into horror or the gothic stories Frank and Drake is inspired by, but the demo left a real impression on me. So with the recent huge price drop, I took the chance. TL;DR: one of my highlights of the year. It's not perfect, but it's a shame that this game went almost completely under the radar. I found that the art style, animations, music, the way your characters' thoughts and impressions are presented all make for a really immersive experience. I love the whole concept, and I've found the story very interesting and engaging. I was worried it would be too tense for me, but it never quite crossed my line. It's mellow and it has creepy stuff, but I didn't find it scary or stressful. It does have several endings where [spoiler]one of your main characters dies[/spoiler] though, and at least one ending that involves a more artsy than graphic illustration of [spoiler]the Bad Guy dying[/spoiler]. The relationship system felt quite opaque - it's very unclear which result notes will lead to, and it also seems to be based on previous interactions so that things spiral both to the low and the high end quickly. In my first playthrough, everything went downhill fast. In the second one, I wasn't even sure what I did differently, but I got very different options and outcomes in general and my characters were besties in no time. It didn't feel like a big deal to me though, and the "bad" path wasn't a bad experience. The puzzles have improved since the old demo IIRC, but some are still annoying. I often found it hard to figure out where/how to drag the mouse. There are a few time-sensitive sections (though not very punishing or mandatory) and at least one sort of rhythm puzzle (which can be avoided by not choosing to go to [spoiler]Sofia's room[/spoiler]). Personally I would have preferred lighter gameplay to focus more on the story and atmosphere, but I found it well worth getting through those parts. There's still no plain text option for all of the handwriting - it's a lot easier to read than in the old demo, but for some people it might still be an accessibility issue. I experienced some continuity errors, as I'm kind of used to from narrative indie games that branch so wildly. For having 6 different endings, it's lacking replay QOL. And yet... I've finished 3 playthroughs, never managed to stop playing before reaching the end, and I still have so many questions. Like, I just made a list of questions and went through my screenshots to try and figure out more of what's going on. It's clear that a lot of thought has been put into all the different pieces of the story puzzle down to the smallest details. There are still places I haven't been to and characters I haven't met. I wish I could do another playthrough right now. Check out the updated demo that lets you play the entire first day (out of 6, I believe). If you like it, you'll probably like the full game. It's basically on a permanent discount of almost 50% after the recent price drop, and it's more than worth that money in my opinion. * * * If you like chill and story-driven games, check out my curator [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35872486]Peaceful Adventures and Stories[/url]. You're also welcome to join the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/chilladventures]group[/url].

Grafisch einzigartig, schöne Geschichte und Rätsel mit der genau richtigen Schwierigkeit. Man spielt es nicht mal eben durch. Auch mehrere Durchgänge lohnen sich auf jeden Fall, um alles zu erkunden. :)

I liked it! It's a narrative game through and through and I had a good time going over it several times. I particularly liked the sort of "flickering" art style, the soundtrack, and the overall narrative. There are these bits of "philosophy" that are strewn about that add to the overall dreamy atmosphere of its environment. There are unique puzzles throughout the game and while some of them are a head-scratcher, most are usually not that difficult to figure out. That being said I do have some criticisms for the game. -The story could have been more fleshed out. It's really intriguing, but the pacing between the actual gameplay and their respective endings is incredibly jarring. I understand that the game is meant to be played multiple times, but even then it feels half-finished. It reads more like an outline with some components developed but is mostly left skeletal. I felt this the most in terms of the side characters. This game has such a huge cast, but you don't really end up caring for any of them since they're usually confined to one "scene" [spoiler]and you don't actually interact with said character[/spoiler] and the emotional payoff the game expects you to have about them at the end just isn't there. -The relationship system is a bit unbalanced. It's a lot harder to develop a distant relationship between the two rather than a close one since translating the tones and contents of the diary excerpts to the post-it notes aren't always straightforward (and sometimes you are just relegated to one choice.) [spoiler]In general the whole relationship between Frank and Drake seems silly because the interactions they have with each other don't actually impact the story sans the ending you get. By the third playthrough, I realized that these two people could have just ignored each other the entire time and the narrative of the game would have remained the same.[/spoiler] -If you accidentally click new game, that's it, you're donezo. I'd suggest adding a confirmation window for my fellow clumsy people. All that being said, despite it's narrative faults, I do think this is overall a lovely game and am interested in seeing what the developers release in the future

Если в конце эпизода вы не можете выйти из дневника, значит вы пропустили какое-то действие. Вернуться и исправить не получается. В игре реализовано автосохранение без возможности выбора, загрузить более ранний этап игры нельзя, можно только начать игру заново.