the lore and worldbuilding is grounded in a hyperreal, new age mysticism that is abstracted away from any real history and esotericism of witchcraft, tarot, etc., presenting an admittedly charming pastiche of these things instead. on the one hand, this produces a wonderful aesthetic, with the character designs being a particular standout. i vibed with it; it was fun and whimsical when not taken too seriously, and the card designer, tarot reading, and canvassing were novel and enjoyable mechanics, although they did feel somewhat underdeveloped.

however, this grounding also lends itself to some mawkish writing and convoluted explain-aways. when it came to points of commentary or emotional depth, the dialogue often became noticeably more awkward, jarring and inconsistent. a decontextualised mysticism is inevitably going to be limited on topics of gender, friendship, politics and power i suppose

the core gameplay isn’t particularly distinct from your run-of-the-mill point-and-click mystery game and does become tedious when playing for awhile. however, the story is super compelling and well-constructed without taking itself too seriously—a whimsical exploration of aristocratic control, desire, paranoia, and ruthlessness borne out by the enigmatic power of the titular idol. there was an incredible moment of clarity between the final level and epilogue that will stay with me long-term. loved the grimey and exaggerated aesthetic too

the most nothing game i have ever played. it took me a grand total of 5 minutes. adding it to igdb took longer. there was a typo on the very first screen, which is nothing but text ("scool"). there is nothing in the game about the characters being queer. the characters are cute but sketchy and janky looking. every dialogue box has a weird delay before it appears. the dialogue feels stilted and unnatural. i took a chance on this on sale for $2 since it sounded cute. i would be insulted if i had paid the full $10 asking price.