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1 Cup | Not serious entertainment |
2 Cups | A reasonable game, worth a try |
3 Cups | A good game, worth playing |
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Please understand that the main purpose of the ratings is to help potential game players find high quality, bug-free games to play. You've probably learnt a lot about AGS as a result of making your first game -- so why not use that knowledge to start afresh, and do even better with your next game!
Trilby's Notes
by Yahtzee
Windows
Short Game | Can be completed within 30 minutes |
Medium Length Game | Takes at least 30 mins to finish |
Full Length Game | As long as a Sierra / LucasArts classic |
Non-Adventure Game | Using Adventure Game Studio for something else?! |
Joke Game | You know when it fits this category ;) |
Demo | Unfinished Games / Commercial Games |
Training Game | Games made just to try out AGS |
<Category Not Set> | Not yet categorised |
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English
Public Opinion
About this game
My name is Trilby. Four years ago I was involved in the DeFoe Manor Incident. I and four other individuals were trapped inside a manor house by some kind of supernatural intelligence; a dark wraith with murder on its mind, the ghost of the original owner's youngest son. I was trapped inside DeFoe Manor for five days. I was forced to do something I can never forgive myself for. Possessed I may have been, but I was still watching through my eyes a man dying at my hands...AGS Awards Wins
Won, Best Game Created with AGS 2006
Won, Best Story 2006
Won, Best Non Player Character 2006
Won, Best Animation 2006
AGS Awards Nominations
Nominated, Best Dialogue Writing 2006
Nominated, Best Player Character 2006
Nominated, Best Gameplay 2006
Nominated, Best Puzzles 2006
Nominated, Best Use of Sound 2006
Nominated, Best Programming 2006
AGS Panel Review
"The best, in my opinion, of the Trilby/Days games. Very well written, and very enjoyable. Highly recommended."
35 people commented on this game (newest first):
Also has a great replay value. I have replayed this many times through the years!
On the other hand, the game is still one of my favorite adventures ever because of the flashback stories, which I adored very much. Perhaps, it is they that gave me enough stimulus to play futher, I just wanted to see them all :). Very captivating stuff.
Great stuff.
In many ways it is the true sequel to 5 Days, focusing on Trilby again and being a conclusion to the events of that more than a lead in to 7 Days. The story and immersion as always make these games. I've played through them all very quickly without breaks to fulfill my semi-disgusting obsession with the canon (heh).
However, this is is why the game play makes Trilby's Notes so frustrating. The text parser is a burden and highlights the worst parts of adventure games, trying to guess what the creator was thinking. Rather than having inspired puzzles it instead a guessing game. To make things worst, you move at a snail pace with the stupid start/stop walking. Areas like the stairwell were really obnoxious and poorly designed, making the player have to weave in and out (very slowly!), sometimes catching yourself because the staircase is slanted and you can't just go straight up.
I did really enjoy the swapping between the two worlds. However, with the player moving so slowly and me generally wanting to avoid climbing the stairs, it became a nuisance searching everywhere just to realize you needed to swap between the two worlds in the room you were already at
Trilby's notes is my personal favorite, with all the flashbacks and the story of the wood that made the idol. I had to turn off the sound in the Ethereal realm because it was really freaking me out! The music was amazing too, I found myself looking around the room to see some dark shadow.
I have only one small thing to point out: the letters in the notes were very hard to read, with all those curves, I'd prefer something more straight, like the text in the dialogues. Other than that, at first I was saddened to discover the keyboard control but it made sense considering the scenery and environment, you have much more to do with point and click - it was more straightforward this way to complete the puzzles.
Please do more games. Did I say this before? No matter. Please do!
This time instead of a mouse you use a nice text parser, which I believe gets you more involved in the story. Being that this is my first time using a text parser in a video game, it felt confortable. Another good touch to the gameplay is using the keyboard arrows which you use to move Trilby. Sure you will miss using the mouse, but you'll get the hang of the parser quickly, unless you hate typing.
The story is much more fleshed out with some great twists. However you can miss some of it if you don't talk much to the people you encounter using the parser. This is especially true in the final sequence. However the plot is so gripping that it's hard to stop playing. There is plenty of surpprises here that I won't spoil. All I can say is that it all ties up well to the previous games. When its all done, you will want more after seeing the great ending.
STORY: 9/10
The cast here is much more stronger and quite possibly deeper than the previous games, at least I think so after being somewhat disappointed by 7 Days A Skeptic. Again, make sure you use that parser to get more info about them. I must say I really like that evil character. He is the stuff of nightmares. Great villian!
CAST: 9/10
The puzzles are well thought out, though not too hard, save for the end sequence. I was stump for about close to 4 hours until I gave in and got a hint from the forums. Still it all flows well and there aren't questionable like the previous game.
PUZZLES: 9/10
What I like more is that it pulls you in from the from the beginning. You feel as if you are Trilby in a deranged hotel. Perhaps it's the text parser together with the great setting and excellent music. I admit it, a copule of the sudden sound effects made me jump. That is something most video games don't do to me. I always like a good scare and Trilby's Notes nailed it with the gory settlings.
IMMERSION: 9/10
The visuals are a welcoming after being a bit disappointed by 7 Days A Skeptic. Every room is a treat to look at. Great animation too makes it all a joy to the eyes. A great step up from the previous games.
VISUALS: 9/10
When all is said and done, Trilby's Note is a true classic. The plot and characters are all memorable. The difficulty was just right. Everything is top notch. Don't miss out!
OVERALL: 9/10 (Not an average of the above ratings)
The character cast is also great. Tilby, who is already described much because of the first game, gets another dimension in this one as he shows to be obsessed with getting rid of DeFoe. My favourite is The Tall Man as he just sends a creepiness through the whole game, that really pumps up the intensity and feel of the whole game. Superb adventure game, thumbs up!
I can easily say that this is one of the most atmosperhic ags-games i,ve ever played. The story sucks you right in so that you find it hard to stop playing, despite the creppy atmosphere and the horrific images. The idea to let the player play as several characters in "flashbacks" is brilliant!
It involves you even more in the plot and makes you care for and pity the victims horrible fates.
The puzzles, though, are somewhat of a letdown.
While I understand that Yahtze deliberately made them easy to let the story flow better, most of them are almost blatantly obvious and also feels unrelated to the plot. The puzzles in "5days a stranger" and "7days a skeptic" were better, but didn,t have the same involving plots as this one. (I recommend you to play those games first before playing this)
However, the great story more than enough makes up for the minimal challenge and if you want a horror-game that is actually scary, you can,t go wrong with this. Just be aware that this game has a large amount of blood and mutiliated corpses, if you have a weak stomach!
Play late at night with lights turned off.... If you dare!
MUAHAHAHAHA!!!
I played it with a friend and it scared the hell out of us. And we alreade thought that 5 Days a Stranger was good.
Still, this is not the masterpiece that 5 Days or Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous WOnderment were. The graphics are not as blatantly, pointlessly gory as 7 Days a Skeptic's are, but they do come rather close sometimes. It's kind of like a halfway-position between 5 Days and 7 Days--it has some of the nice uncomfortable suspense and intriguing storyline as 5 Days (but not all of it), and some of the ridiculously pointless violence of 7 Days (but not all of it), and as a result the value of the game is right in the middle, too. In other words, if we look at games on a continuum and 5 Days is a 10 (awesome), with 7 Days as a 1 (terrible), than Trilby's Notes is about a 5 or a 6.
The text parser in this game reminded me of the old Hugo trilogy, specifically "Hugo's House of Horrors." I feel this feature added to the puzzles (most of which seem fairly straightforward)because the player couldn't just click all over the place and hope to strike gold.
The graphics are far from realistic, but the use of story and suspense more than compensate for them.
Another quality of this game which I think goes unnoticed is the size of the download:2MB!. For us poor dial-up users, who don't have enough time to do a 50mb+
download, this is great!
I really enjoyed this game, and would highly suggest it for anyone who likes the horror genre. I did feel, however, that there might have been too much gore and blood.
Give it a try, it's free and only 2 mb
obviously great game.you must play 5 days a stranger,7 days a skeptic before it
The graphics are a great improvement and add a lot to the horror feel. There is more than just some pixelly blood here: now there is plenty of gore, mutilation and pain. Some areas could do with improving, mainly the light-filter staircases.
Scary? A lot more than the other two games (5DaS & 7DaS) put together. Along with the few obligatory nasty deaths, the game focuses more deeply on the occult, and employs various clever devices. The game requires you to explore the surroundings and become familiar with them, and then suddenly jolts you into horror scenes which makes normal play a lot more unnerving - it feels like nothing you touch is safe anymore. This is the sort of game that you shouldn't eat or drink while playing, since there are plenty of shocks to spill things over your keyboard, including a subtle trademark of 5DaS.
The interface is perhaps the best yet from Yahtzee. This time the mouse is not needed at all (even for saving) thanks to the parser, which also cuts out much tedium. Many adventure games can be solved by brute force by systematically trying every possible combination, even using objects that aren't even recognisable. Trilby's Notes allows the player to explore the surroundings verbally as well as visually, and this time the player has to provide more detail when solving puzzles. This said, I found the parser very forgiving, recognising many verbs and possible descriptions.
The puzzles are quite unremarkable and straightforward, but not too easy. Things which were taken for granted in earlier games, such as listing conversation topics or using items, require more clarification now. While this sounds harder, it gives you more control over what you actually want to do. The use of keyboard movement reduces the amount of pointless clicking or typing, although there are some irritating problems such as constantly typing 'open door' during the course of the game (perhaps the player should be able to bind verbs to keys?). I managed to finish the game without too much trouble, and I found the difficulty to be just right. The end puzzle is very good and is both closely tied to the plot, and vindicates the use of a parser.
The music and sound are also very chilling. I'll admit that I kept the speakers quite low in case there was some sudden scream or something (though with hindsight I don't remember any). The muttering is especially good.
Overall, a fantastic game, although not for the faint of heart. Play 5DaS and 7DaS first though.
I'd give it a 9.5/10
Great puzzles though. Definelty a keeper alongside 7DAS and 5DAS.
Not only is this a technical feat, by being the first real text parser made using AGS, but it's also an achievement in storytelling and character developement.
I loved the character of Trilby In 5DaS, but he was faily two dimensional. In this game you expand his range of emotions and experiences so much that I feel genuine empathy for him.
And the story is miraculous. It clears up a lot of the questions that I was asking my self at the end of 5 Days (namely the significance of the idol).
It is also genuinely terrifying in it's constant switching between two worlds, and it's eerie music.
I know that some people may feel that it would be more scary if the graphics were more realistic, but I disagree. I this that one of the great things about video games is their ability to look stylized, much like animation If this game looked photo-realistic, it would have a completely different feel to it, and it would simply not be as fun to play.
In conclusion, there is really no reason I can think of not to play this game. You will thank yourself (and Yatzee) afterwords.
In my opinion, this game is way superior to the other two games in the trilogy in terms of story telling.
Nobody should be scared by the text parser. It's very lenient, and except for a couple times, I found obvious what the expected input was.
Yahtzee keeps maturing with every game he's released. This game has come closer to a horror than any game thus far. Yahtzee has the gift of being a awe-inspiring story-teller, once you've played this, you'd be left wondering how he even comes up with this stuff. Quit incredible.
Another factor here is the insane amount of gore put into this game, it works and I commend Yahtzee for not heeding to some fools who though 5 Days to be "exceptionally gory and violent". Yes, if you're easily scared and have a faint stomach, I sugest you stay away from this game. I guarantee though that you'd be missing something HUGE for your stupidity.
The game shows maturity and class in every one of it's aspects. The main focus is the story, which as I mentioned earlier - is awesome. The puzzles are well done, never incoherent and never out of place, and with just the right amount of difficulty to go with it. The random horror scene's and the two realms were genius in its purest form. There's just so so much on here, I can't put it into a review without giving out any spoilers.
Simply put, this is the best AGS game thus far. Screw that, this is the best FREEWARE game around. Yahtzee keeps raising the bar higher and higher everytime he makes a game.
fantastic storyline, great gameplay, great interaction. i loved it.
I give it 5 Stars!!!***** Thanks For The Hard Work You Put Into This....
The amount of gore and cute, pixelly art makes it easy to see why his games are popular in the indie adventure scene. This game might even have a higher body count that 1213, his recent platform game. The graphics have improver even more compared to his previous games, with the horrific death aninations in particular.
The story is a sequel to 5 Days a Stranger, and demands that the player is familiar with it. Ex-master thief Trilby is in search of the crude, wooden idol that is now located in a hotel. Quickly after he arrives he is transported to a shadow realm. Trilby finds out that the curse lies in the origin of the wood, and by touching objects that are historically connected to the wood he can see flashbacks. These flashbacks are in black and white, and interactive.
This is a parser game. I'm not a big promoter of parser games, in fact I find them as ridged as a mormon bouncer. However, one has to admire the effort of making such a successful parser game. There were certainly parts that I enjoyed quite much.
Which bring me to the conclusion. I'm in a dilemma. The atmosphere was thrilling, but the cute art style and brilliant MIDI music stops it from creating any permanent trauma. The puzzles were linear and abstract, yet the parser interaction made the game longer and kept it interesting.
I'll give it 8.9 out of 10. Not a giant fish in the ocean but still a giant fish in the local pond.