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Name: 12 Labors
Status: Complete
Site: https://sulcata.itch.io/12-labors
Pairing: None
Description: Wave your mouse over pixel moss as the MC mediates on substance abuse fallout
Controller score: n/a
This is not really a visual novel, just a kinetic novel with a mildly interactive element involving waving your mouse over statues to get some moss off. The story is ambiguous. Your grandpa is dying. Your mom is texting you updates and reminding you how much she loves you, and you are out in your grandpa's garden cleaning off his statues and ruminating on the nature of mistakes, bad deeds, forgiveness, etc. It seems like your grandpa was a rich guy who fucked over the workers or the public or something, which came out shortly before his passing, and you drank too much and burned bridges in the process. I honestly don't remember too much about the player's circumstances because I played this game in two sittings spaced out by about a week, and by the second sitting I didn't quite remember what was going on in the first. I do know that everything was vague. What you or your grandpa actually did isn't specified outside the fact that it was bad and you don't expect anyone to forgive any of you, but every time you're done wiping off a statue you get some text of the narrator ruminating broadly on what to do when you fuck up.
This is a sweet little thing, but doesn't hit very hard because the content is vague, making everyone feel kind of like an abstraction, and the gameplay is essentially non-existent and reads like an excuse to get the player to read a relatively basic essay. After cleaning the moss off of a statue the scene lets you click on some information bubbles, but after doing it a couple times I stopped and just skipped forward, because the musings that they triggered were also sort of just generic side thoughts.
The pixel art is ok though.
If this had been properly labeled a kinetic novel I wouldn't have played and having done so I can't say I recommend it with any enthusiasm. If you like quiet and short kinetic novels with a nice tone this is that. It just feels a little mealy mouthed to me.