Played quite a bit of Chains of Satinav which is a title that really cries out for a less literal translation.
This is a point and click adventure game set in the German D&D world of The Dark Eye. One where streets are muddy and the poor are downtrodden.
You play a birdcatcher called Geron blessed with an ominous prophecy, a reputation for bad luck and the magical ability to smash fragile things at a distant. Which is as good as it sounds.
The story of someone at the bottom of society, who struggles to get a break and his haunted mentor who is heading to a horrific, vengeful death is all good gothic fantasy.
However it is really the arrival of the second protagonist a faerie called Nuri that really brings the game alive. Nuri wants to experience the world but initially is trapped by her connection to the faerie realm.
Her desire to experience the world and the peril she faces from those who want to use her innate magic is quickly the more sympathetic storyline.
The voice acting while committed never sounds like people are having a conversation. Energy levels are all over the shop and some things that sound definitive fail to finish conversations.
Gameplay wise I've already had to cheat once, the puzzles are not necessarily hard but there is too much pixel hunting, even on easy. The error lines also fail to give you sufficient guidance as to what might work.
Since all puzzles are about either combining items in the inventory or using things on the environment its no using having error messages like "Why would I want to do that?"; the answer is simply because one of these combinations is the answer and I've lost interest in trying to reason what the combination might be.
The trial and error element here also robs the game of a lot of dramatic tension, while there are moments in the game when time seems to matter in truth it never does as you try to find the right order and combination to satisfy the game and move on.
However the difficulty does make me feel satisfied when I do figure out a problem.