Developer: Fluffex Studios
Publisher: Fluffex Studios
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Stitched – Review
Stitched has been made in RPG Maker, but it’s a puzzle adventure game, not an RPG. It has the classic RPG top-down view, but no gear-grinding, skills or leveling. Instead you’ll explore a dark doll factory where something terrible has happened, and gather clues and solve puzzles to get deeper into the facility and closer to the truth of what happened. Stitched has been developed and published by Fluffex Studios.
Story
The story is about a 18 year old girl named Catherine who gets into a deadly train accident, but afterwards wakes up in an unknown room, which she discovers to be located in her father’s doll factory. She quickly learns something terrible has happened at the factory; everyone is dead and murderous dolls and toys roam around.
Luckily Catherine is not all alone in the factory, she’ll meet a few helpful characters along her explorations, who help her out by selling her useful things or by giving helpful information. As she roams around solving many puzzles to get deeper into the facility with the hope of finding her dad, she discovers her father has been working on a mysterious project of questionable morality. She still want to find him to confront him, and to hear his reasons and his explanation for the bizarre experiments.
Graphics
The graphics are what you can expect from an RPG Maker game, top-down retro-looking pixel art style. Short cutscenes happen often during gameplay, and usually consist of still images accompanied with text. All dialogue is accompanied by a drawing of the characters. The characters and cut-scenes look hand-drawn, and are well-designed. They have an elegant Victorian-gothic style look, which fits the type of story really well.
The graphics are nice and dark, with a fitting color scheme to convey the mood of the game. Many levels are very dark, and lighting is often used as an interesting game mechanic to hide enemies. The use of color in the game is very nice and atmospheric.
Sound
Background music used in Stitched has a spooky style and fits the atmosphere very well. Catherine’s speech and thoughts aren’t narrated, but some sounds she makes, like little screams and a few words, have been narrated. Her voice is really nice, rather cute, and fits the character. Catherine meets a few other characters during the game, who have some short sound-bites as well.
Gameplay
Stitched is a puzzle adventure in a horror setting, with a top-down retro RPG style. This game is full of interesting and varied puzzles and a good storyline with a nice dark atmosphere. You’ll explore a lot, discover documents and solve puzzles, and sometimes need to get away from monsters by hiding or simply running until it stops chasing you.
Catherine does not have a HP bar, but a fright bar: if fright reaches 100% she’ll die of a heart attack. She is scared of almost everything you’ll encounter, so fright increases very fast and you need to keep an eye on it and watch your step. The fright bar increases by encountering scary things like corpses, but also when an enemy hits you, or simple things like stepping in a puddle of blood. You can use pills to calm your heart, and thus lower your fright bar.
You’ll explore the strange building you’ll find yourself in, and gradually discover what it is, what happened there, why you are there and how your father is involved. There are many items you’ll be able to investigate in any room or hallway, but most of these items aren’t useful or notable. All important objects which you need to interact with to continue your objectives are indicated by a glow. Sometimes you’ll learn you’ll need an item from a room you were before, and if you go back into that room, that object will glow as well.
The layout of the levels are interesting, they don’t look like a maze, but often you’ll need to navigate the rooms like a maze. There are holes in the floor everywhere, there are puddles of blood Catherine is afraid to step into, and sometimes you’ll even need to avoid noisy cracks or certain areas. There are many puzzles centered on walking through a room in a certain way, to avoid enemies following a set path, for example. There are many variants of these kind of puzzles, so they never get repetitive.
This game has a LOT of puzzles, with a lot of diversity. There are maze puzzles, puzzles where you need to figure out patterns, some basic math puzzles, combinations, logical thinking, etc. But next to the puzzles, there’s also the possibility you’ll suddenly get chased by scary monsters, and you’ll need to run and hide as quickly as possible. There are pills which make you run faster for a short while, which are really useful to survive, and later you’ll obtain running shoes. However, if you try a few locked doors too many to try to hide, or take a wrong turn, you’ll certainly die. Luckily, there are save points everywhere in the game, and it’s recommended to save each time you’ll encounter one.
As previously mentioned, light is used as an interesting game mechanic. For instance: the main character carries a lantern which sometimes malfunctions, and there are some rooms with flickering lights where you have to plan and time your path very well in order to spot the enemies. There’s a third pill which grants you a moment of clarity: you’ll see the whole area as if all lights are turned on brightly.
The three types of pills, different kinds of footwear and a few other characters in the game are the only things to help you in your adventure; you can only rely on your wits and determination to stay alive and to get to the bottom of the mystery of what happened in the toy factory.
Conclusion
If you like a game with a lot of very diverse puzzles, but also the added tension of a possible sudden attack where you’ll need to run and hide, this game is totally recommended. Stitched is a very atmospheric game in a nice horror setting with a great story.
Stitched - Review,
No Comments