Amazing game, lots of other people have gone into detail about exactly why that is so I don't have to! One thing I will specifically praise though is the mystery crafting- I liked that there was a good balance of things I could guess through observation/deduction + things that had to be "revealed" to me. A lot of mysteries struggle to walk the line between obtuse and obvious but this nailed the balance.

And even though the main story gets wrapped up in a neat bow at the end, I liked that (this is too vague to be a spoiler really) the exact natures of a few of the phenomena/characters were left somewhat ambiguous. Another hallmark of a good mystery is knowing when to stop answering questions and leave it to the imagination!

This was a neat game! I've always been into paranormal stuff so I gave it a chance blind and it exceeded my expectations, great detective story that kept me going until the end. It's fairly linear but I did like that I was able to make it through the whole game without looking up any hints (except the "true ending" but the creators admitted that they let that be obtuse because they expected people to search a guide) and I was able to piece together a lot of the mystery myself while still getting blindsided at points. Nice character moments too.

Loved the intrigue of the different curse bearers and their conditions, it was such an interesting hook that felt like it could have carried a full series on its own. The urban legend aspect was actually really compelling in general, the origins of the curses and their associated tales were well-written.

Some of the "meta" stuff the game asks you to do is a bit... forced, but they don't shove it down your throat too much so I'll give it a pass. Mixed feelings on the way the secret ending reflects upon the events of the game but it's not bad or anything like that, similar feelings towards the red herrings.

The Mocking Bird stickers were cute as hell.

Been a minute since I played one of the Midnight Scenes games but the description of this one intrigued me so I picked it up, and it was a pleasant way to spend an hour.

This is more of a note for the series as a whole but the games go for a sort of "Twilight Zone" vibe and I think they nail the aesthetic but don't quite pack the same punch as the real article because the stories... don't really say anything. They're just kind of "hey wouldn't it be fucked up if-" type stories, which I actually enjoy because low-stakes spooky tales are fun every now and then! And this dev team is very good at making those.

But the penny dreadful approach fell flat on this entry in particular because "Safe Place" is, for most of its run time, a pretty cutting examination of the loneliness and self-destruction that arises from anxiety, so the rug pull felt kinda out of place. It fell into this weird middle ground tonally where it's kind of a character study of a young man with anxiety but also kind of a horror game about a man trapped in his room being tortured by shadow figures, and both aspects feel a bit strapped for space.

All that being said, for the hour and a half that it took me to play this game I did feel like I was sitting in this cold, sleepy small town, so I can't say that it wasn't effective in that regard. For all of the missed potential it was still a very creepy little tale that kept me clicking, and I'm gonna have to go check out some of the other Midnight Scenes I've missed.