The disconnect I had between expectations and the actual game is that from the description and the early gameplay, I thought it was going to be about the hike up Hawk Peak and adventures or interactions along the way. With that in mind, when I discovered that I needed at least 7 Golden Feathers, I single-mindedly went after them - getting money to buy them, doing quests with the hope that I'd get them, figuring out how to get to prominences that had them on top so I could gather them. I explored around the park and found interesting things, but I didn't do any of them for the purpose of doing them, I did them for the purpose of collecting Golden Feathers.
When I had 10, I was ready to "start the actual game" - and was surprised to almost immediately finish it! That's when I realized that the game is not "climb Hawk Peak", the game is "mess around the park a lot and do a lot of stuff and incidentally get these Golden Feathers and when you have enough you can end the game."
The endgame is cute, though a little strange in that the actual reason why Claire is at the park and waiting for a call is a little grimmer than I had expected. And you get to glide back down and see everything from above, which is fun. But - I felt like I played it wrong, focusing on the goal and not the experience, which, okay, I guess that was the lesson it taught me :-) Though on the other hand, I sucked at fishing, I sucked at the ball game, and I sucked at racing, so I'm not sure spending enough time on those to get my rewards would have counted as enjoying the experience!
I enjoyed the often very funny conversations; it was very different for me to play a game where the conversations are (mostly) not choice-driven. I also enjoyed discovering the flower trampolines!
I found all the competition-like things frustrating. Also I got partway through the poem directing me to a site but couldn't figure out the end.
I did use a controller on elf's recommendation, which I think was the right choice.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2022-11-13 08:00 pm (UTC)When I had 10, I was ready to "start the actual game" - and was surprised to almost immediately finish it! That's when I realized that the game is not "climb Hawk Peak", the game is "mess around the park a lot and do a lot of stuff and incidentally get these Golden Feathers and when you have enough you can end the game."
The endgame is cute, though a little strange in that the actual reason why Claire is at the park and waiting for a call is a little grimmer than I had expected. And you get to glide back down and see everything from above, which is fun. But - I felt like I played it wrong, focusing on the goal and not the experience, which, okay, I guess that was the lesson it taught me :-) Though on the other hand, I sucked at fishing, I sucked at the ball game, and I sucked at racing, so I'm not sure spending enough time on those to get my rewards would have counted as enjoying the experience!
I enjoyed the often very funny conversations; it was very different for me to play a game where the conversations are (mostly) not choice-driven. I also enjoyed discovering the flower trampolines!
I found all the competition-like things frustrating. Also I got partway through the poem directing me to a site but couldn't figure out the end.
I did use a controller on