Gameplay and concept-wise, this game is absolutely fantastic. Obviously at its core one could compare it to Obra Dinn, what with you using deductive reasoning to establish who people in a scene are and how and why somebody died, but the bite-sized episodic presentation of Golden Idol feels like a completely different take on the genre. The variations in how to approach a situation and even what you need to find out are really quite impressive from level to level, with the latter levels in particular really standing out in terms of how varied the gameplay can get.
But there's a bit of an elephant in the room here... the game is fugly. The characters look weird as hell; I had warmed to the bizarre presentation a bit by the end, but I never grew to like it. And it's not just the art style that can be overwhelming, the flashing dots all over the screen to indicate places of interest give the game an extremely cluttered feel at times. But even this isn't necessarily a downside; Golden Idol uses this clutteredness and information overload to make each scenario appear extremely indimidating at first glance, which makes it that much more satisfying to piece together what the hell is going on. It's also packed full of twists and turns, and each one feels very good to finally figure out.
To list a few more concrete negatives, I would say the difficulty curve is all over the place. There was a massive difficulty wall for me at around the level 3/4 mark; a lot of this was just implied difficulty set up by the game's smoke and mirrors, but I can totally get why someone would bounce off the game at this point. And in the last few levels, it felt like the game got extremely easy again; possibly because I had more of a grasp on the overarcing story, possibly because I was more used to the tricks Golden Idol liked to use to hide its solutions, but these were some of the most interesting levels so it was a bit disappointing to breeze through them so easily.
I also think the game could have done with some kind of framing device, no matter how flimsy. You never get a feeling for who /you/ are supposed to be besides some omniscient outside observer, which can be a perfectly fine way to frame a puzzle game, but it does feel very abrupt to start up the game and immediately be thrown into the first scene without any indication as to what you're supposed to do or why.
But these are just kinda nitpicks. In the end, this really is an innovative and thoroughly satisfying game. Sure there are a few rough edges, even some of the dialogue is poorly translated at times, but on the whole I feel these kind of add a rough charm to the experience. Definitely worth your time, definitely recommended.
But there's a bit of an elephant in the room here... the game is fugly. The characters look weird as hell; I had warmed to the bizarre presentation a bit by the end, but I never grew to like it. And it's not just the art style that can be overwhelming, the flashing dots all over the screen to indicate places of interest give the game an extremely cluttered feel at times. But even this isn't necessarily a downside; Golden Idol uses this clutteredness and information overload to make each scenario appear extremely indimidating at first glance, which makes it that much more satisfying to piece together what the hell is going on. It's also packed full of twists and turns, and each one feels very good to finally figure out.
To list a few more concrete negatives, I would say the difficulty curve is all over the place. There was a massive difficulty wall for me at around the level 3/4 mark; a lot of this was just implied difficulty set up by the game's smoke and mirrors, but I can totally get why someone would bounce off the game at this point. And in the last few levels, it felt like the game got extremely easy again; possibly because I had more of a grasp on the overarcing story, possibly because I was more used to the tricks Golden Idol liked to use to hide its solutions, but these were some of the most interesting levels so it was a bit disappointing to breeze through them so easily.
I also think the game could have done with some kind of framing device, no matter how flimsy. You never get a feeling for who /you/ are supposed to be besides some omniscient outside observer, which can be a perfectly fine way to frame a puzzle game, but it does feel very abrupt to start up the game and immediately be thrown into the first scene without any indication as to what you're supposed to do or why.
But these are just kinda nitpicks. In the end, this really is an innovative and thoroughly satisfying game. Sure there are a few rough edges, even some of the dialogue is poorly translated at times, but on the whole I feel these kind of add a rough charm to the experience. Definitely worth your time, definitely recommended.