Blind geek, fanfiction lover (Harry Potter and MLP)

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain

    Penny Larceny is by the same author who brought us Arcade Spirits, my favourite visual novel of all time. This one is almost as good! My review will, however, contain some marked spoilers.

    The writing and humour in this game are just as sharp, funny, and on-point as the author's other two games. The soundtrack is thematic and lovely to listen to, and the visual descriptions are excellent and well written. As I've come to expect from any Fiction Factory Games title, you won't find any accessibility issues here. Also, while the game is short, it has enough decision points to allow for quite a bit of replay value.

    The reason I say "almost as good" is twofold. First off, I really felt the lack of the stats system from the Arcade Spirits games. It wasn't always obvious when I was making a roleplaying choice, and when the choice was effecting the game, or in what ways. I think Fiction Factory has just spoiled me in their other two games; the same kind of stats system wouldn't work for this game, and I do understand why it wasn't present.

    But it only compounds my second issue with the game:

    spoiler

    you're not the main character. Instead, you're a voice in Penny's head, offering her directions and advice. This caused a couple issues. First off, it makes the pronouns system feel both forced and unfortunate. Why do I, the voice in Penny's head that she got because of some kind of nano-injection, get to decide her pronouns? I'd much rather be telling her mine! But at the point when the game asks me, it was unclear that I was the voice in Penny's head, not Penny herself. Voices in your head deciding your pronouns sounds like the made-up nightmare Fox News is pretending is reality. Second-off, sometimes Penny will use the pronouns I set, and sometimes she or other characters will just ignore them and use she/her. Throughout my first playthrough, I felt like I'd just given her a case of gender dysphoria. Sorry, Penny! Being the voice in Penny's head also served to distance me from her a little bit. Maybe if I had access to a stats system she was totally unaware of, and could know how my advice might effect her if she takes it, it would have actually drawn me closer to her; I could have been more useful to her, rather than just guessing the effects of my advice. Or, of course, I could have been intentionally cruel, and convinced her to do things that only I knew would take her down what she thinks of as an undesirable path. But then, that's not what this story is about; introducing a mechanic like that would make the game about something else, rather than being about the things the author actually wanted to say.

    However, none of these issues take away from the fact that "almost as good" still makes this a top-tear, fun, well-written, and thoroughly enjoyable game. In the case of Fiction Factory, "almost as good" is still a five star game. I'd just advise you to make the pronouns she/her when you're asked; if you don't want spoilers, you'll just have to trust me. Or don't. It's not like it ruins the game or anything.


  • So for the elbow thing, the idea is, as stated, for it to feel natural. However, if there's a large height mismatch between you and your guide, the shoulder may be a better option. In the few occasions in my adult life where I was being guided by a child, I've opted for the shoulder; taking a small 10-year-old's elbow just might not be possible for you. Similarly, young children will generally take an adult sighted guide by the hand, because taking them by the elbow would mean reaching up so far for them that it's not effective or comfortable. As well, if you're walking in narrow or uneven spaces (like a hiking trail along a cliff), sometimes getting directly behind your guide and holding her shoulder is preferable, both because you're now directly behind rather than off to the side, and you will be better able to notice sudden changes in incline.

    Edit to add: in general, I recommend making life choices that allow you to avoid having a child sighted guide. Just in case that wasn't obvious LOL. But sometimes things happen.



  • No worries! By the way, Steam is really good about issuing refunds. If you purchased the game in the last week, and played for less than two hours, they'll refund without issue. I've mentioned accessibility and never been denied. You do it via help.steampowered.com on the web. Just select your recent purchase, and there's an "I want a refund" option. Note that while you can press enter on all of the options during that process, they're not all marked as links.

    I purchased the game around noon, checked it out, and had the money back in my account by around 2 PM.