Goetia (2015)

[tozka]

Goetia (2015) is a point-and-click gothic puzzle mystery that I bought because a) it was $0.99 at the time and b) I like gothic mysteries and c) I like to pretend I enjoy puzzle games.

Unfortunately, the Nintendo Switch port has HORRIBLE game mechanics that ruin the overall design of the game and make it basically unplayable.

But first, good stuff: the artwork and overall puzzle/story design are really good, the sound design is great, and the CONCEPT is fascinating.

The story is you're a ghost (who died in the 1890s) trying to solve the mystery of wtf happened to your family in the 1940s; there are demons and magic, and the only clues you have are letters and notes your family left behind in the course of using magic to summon those demons. The storyline is what kept me playing despite the other frustrations. I REALLY wanted to know what happened to the family.

And finally, there's a journal feature which helps keep track of which mysteries were solved, and gives hints on which direction to go next. That came in handy.

Now for the bad: the game mechanics.
1. You have to click on stuff to trigger the clues/puzzles. To click, you have to use the left joystick to drag the cursor over to the clickable item. The cursor is slow.
1a. Sometimes that items is only a few pixels big, and you have to get the cursor on it EXACTLY.

2. You can view where you need to click by pressing the (-) button. This is above the left joystick and not super easy to reach without changing your grip on the entire left side of the Switch, and you have to keep hitting it over and over because it's not obvious where you need to click. If this were a computer, I'd just click everything willy-nilly. As this is a Switch, I have to drag the dang cursor over everything which was honestly felt like walking through molasses.

3. You can possess an object and carry it somewhere to complete a puzzle. However, if you need to go check the map while possessing an object, exiting the map also exits your ghost body from the object-- both functions are the B button. Stupid.
3a. Some button function in the documents menu also kept kicking me OUT of the menu, making it almost impossible to re-read documents.

4. The text is tiny, with no zoom function. The text is SO tiny that I had a hard time reading it, and got a headache. Don't even try playing this on the TV, because the text is incomprehensible from a distance greater than 4 inches.
4a. There are no accessibility options besides making the background a bit brighter. If you can't read the tiny text, you're shit out of luck. There are no voice-overs.
4b. To solve the puzzles, you have to re-check the documents you find. I didn't feel much inspired to do that when I could barely read them the first time, so I ended up using a walkthrough for the majority of the game.

5. The maps are unlabeled. The mansion has, like, 25 rooms. I'm supposed to remember where the billiard room is in a house with 25 rooms??

6. Some of the puzzles have solutions that make no sense, or don't actually work with the clues that were given.

7. You can stumble across another branch of mysteries at any time, but you won't be able to solve them without having certain objects/abilities from a previous branch. This isn't obvious, and there are no hints about how to backtrack and find what you need.

8. You'll need items from earlier mysteries to solve later mysteries. Don't remember which room you dropped the tiny 3-pixel screwdriver in? Good luck ever finding it again.

It took me roughly 5-6 hours to work my way through with the help of the walkthrough. If I didn't have the walkthrough, I would've given up because playing the game was so fucking frustrating.

Price: Steam is $15, Switch store is $9.99. I wouldn't pay any more than $0.99 for this for the Switch-- actually, don't buy it for the Switch at all. The PC version would be fine to pick up on sale, especially if you enjoy text-based puzzles with a spooky atmosphere.

Content notes: Dead children, parental abuse.

Originally posted at my personal journal.