So much potential but so many frustrations! – Lumino City Review

First of all, the visuals of this game is beautiful beyond doubt. And the room for users to learn more about & think more creatively about electricity within the narrative could’ve absolutely been five stars for me. But so many things frustrated me while playing, starting with the controls: I couldn’t override a previous motion with the next — meaning I had to wait until that motion was completed before I could execute the next. This is frustrating because 1. there’s always a chance you unintentionally clicked on something 2. it limits flexibility in movement while navigating through the landscape. Sometimes you remember that you actually had to go to point A before point B in the midst of walking towards point B and want to turn back — but here, you have to wait to reach point B, then go back to point A, and then back again to B — so many steps & too much waiting! Next was the inability to fast-forward to a location. Yes, the landscape is completely amazing, and I understand you’d want players to appreciate the view — but when the narrative requires the player to go back and forth from place to place, I think it’s just practical to be able to fast-forward to locations. Now the narrative: OFTEN TIMES I was confused about what to do (and all I play are puzzle games) due to lack of clarity in the requirements to move forward. //**maybe spoiler**// For example: at the Cliff, I had no idea that there was a fourth window because the house was completely different from the others — & the construction guy clearly seemed like the only reasonable 4th (since he was just right there). Even making the character say something like, “I guess he won’t help” or something that hints that this is not your guy would have been great. More dialogues from the character similar to the above are needed to help players realize that they’re missing something or not looking at the right thing. Now this could be me just being picky, but since I’m writing I’ll add that I wish there is an option to view the manual at a larger scale to read the words clearer. I understand that it probably isn’t a problem on an iPad, but it was way too small even on my iPhone Plus to read somewhat comfortably. If you put all that effort to make this elaborate manual about electricity, why not make it legible for all devices?
Review by picoloyeongeun on Lumino City.