Her Story

游戏玩法很有趣，推理和搜关键词的过程很惊喜，后面为了全解锁一个个试单词倒是有点麻烦，但是故事纯史 剧透：[spoiler] 俩姐妹为了一男的互相吃醋嫉妒雌竞爱得死去活来，人生目标就是谈恋爱和要孩子，为了怀孕使尽浑身解数，期间穿插流产无法生育性病等狗血玩意，一个无法生育天塌了，一个意外怀孕乐得开了花，这男的还偷偷出轨， 最后被失手打死，两姐妹为了未出世的孩子才统一战线，就。。。看腻了有关重视生育的剧情[/spoiler]

It's a short film; you have to watch the videos and search for keywords to access more videos. The only interaction you have is searching for words and playing the video. There's no route, nothing to choose, or the feeling that you've done something, like in some FMVs or even visual novels. It's a patchwork quilt that tries to make sense of just by looking at it, but I don't think it's enough to call it a game just because I installed it on my PC and typed in a few words. It's a Okay short film, you come to your own conclusion in the end, because the author chose an ambiguous ending. I think it's very difficult to recommend "this game"; it's not for everyone.

A murder suspect comes into a police interrogation carrying a guitar so just so that she can perform a song that spells out a secret she's spent her entire life hiding, then later spontaneously uses a knock code to implicate herself of another murder. And gamers and critics everywhere all practically foam at their mouths in ecstasy as they praise the brilliance of the writing. Just... what is happening here? Am I going insane? How can anyone's standards be this low?

There are two very important things to know before you buy this game. First, the UI is terrible in the sense that you can "save" clips to your session list for quick access to them but never delete or re-arrange them. There is a button called "delete session data" which you would think would let you clear that list at least but it in fact deletes your whole game. The second important thing to know is that the Developer admitted this was an issue 10 YEARS ago and promised to release a patch to correct it and never did. His complaints about being a single developer fall on deaf ears considering he has released two more games with what sounds like still terrible UI. I cannot stand developers who do not respect their customers, and have requested a refund.

I've played a lot of detective style games as of late, Roottrees, Obra Dinn, Golden Idol, TR-49, ect. When speaking to a friend they said I should check out Her Story. If you are like me and are coming from those titles...this is NOT that kind of game. It is a narrative game where the story is out of order and you have to piece it together. It may count as a detective game by definition, but it lacks something crucial: a concrete goal. While you are there to uncover the story there is nothing to check against, no specific video or key word to find, no culprit to name, no quiz at the end. I had less than half of the database restored when I felt I had a solid grasp of the story, but I wanted to check the credits requirement and there was nothing. I said yes I was done and it ended. That was it. It left me thinking I must have missed something. But nope! You play until you are satisfied with the story (or have seen all the clips), and then stop playing. How... anticlimactic. It feels like I pieced together this story for nothing. Who am I to share it to? Or verify I've gotten the story beats correct? No one, as it seems. The story itself was fine. It was an okay mystery, but I think I stumbled into the twist rather early with a well-placed keyword, and then everything that was meant to be foreshadowing or confusing I already had the answer for. It kind of took the wind out of the sails. There was more to the story, of course, and a small twist at the very end, but I really don't think it is worth it. If anything the only thing I wish I could learn at this point was if the parent's story/mystery actually ended as said, but it seems like it was more of a footnote than anything else. And then there is the achievement grind. If I felt done with the story at 50%, boy did finding the rest of the entries feel like a slog. I ended up heavily using a guide (though apparently you can cheese it pretty easily.) The premise of searching with multiple terms rarely, if ever, came up, and more often than naught new clips were found using common words. I claim the mightiest of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that 8, EIGHT clips are only found by using "yes" and "no" IN QUOTES, because without the quotes you get something else entirely. And before you ask, the entirety of those clips were just yes and no. So many clips are just utterly useless. I can only think they were added to push the important clips out of the 5 it brings up. It would also have been really nice to know which search terms were complete. That is, if a search term had more than 5 clips associated to it, it would have been very helpful to know if I had already seen the other, hidden clips from another search, instead of wondering if there was still more to blindly investigate down those avenues. In the end, I kind of feel like I just wasted my time. I didn't solve anything, I watched a short story out of order. If you like the game, I get it, the story was interesting for a while; I think it would have been better as a novella though. If you are just getting into Detective games and want a low barrier of entry, then I guess this is fine. Just know there are much, much better games in this genre.

碎片化叙事+女同性恨犯罪故事。玩到最后才明白自己扮演的不是来揭开旧案真相的侦探，而是[spoiler]尝试拼凑和理解尘封故事的女儿[/spoiler]

I guess this is my first so called "Mixed" review. Pros: 1. The actress is fantastic. Absolutely banger acting. 2. The story is actually good, especially in video game standards. A lot of twists and turns. 3. The vintage retro aesthetic really acts in its favour. 4. It has an eerie tone and even unimportant side things scared me a bit sometimes (like her reflection, iykyk). Cons: 1. Absence of structure. You just find out the truth and that's it. A sense of purpose/something to actually do, to end the game is missing. You just finish the game when you complete everything and walk away. 2. The chat function is a miss. That could have been a good ending marker but they made it inaccessible by the user by themselves. 3. The ui, especially the selected clips and its arrangement lack a lot of qol. The pros slightly outweigh the cons. And also due to the fantastic story and acting and due to the fact it is an indie game after all (and because there's no mixed review option), I'll opt for positive review. 5.1/10, buy on sale (it's dirt cheap anyway, got my money's worth ngl).

Original? Yes. Interesting? Not really. I went into Her Story expecting a true investigative experience something where I’d play as a detective piecing together evidence and interrogating suspects. Instead, the entire gameplay revolves around typing keywords and watching video clips that correspond to them. At first, I assumed this was just the introduction to a more complex mechanic that would evolve over time. Unfortunately, that never happens this is the whole game. While I can appreciate the originality of the concept and the strong performance by Viva Seifert, the overall experience feels repetitive and limited. It's certainly a innovative war of storytelling and a non linear narrative, but I found it to be more of an interactive movie than an actual game. Once the novelty wears off, there’s not much left to keep you engaged.

A wonderful unique game. I wanted to play it for so long. I couldn't get 100% database. I had a lot of fun theory crafting and thinking about what is happening in the game. I highly recommend this game.