This review was originally written on 10/01/2018.

Technical Information

Developer: vm.cabello
Publisher: vm.cabello
Release Date: March 15, 2018

Lucie is a game made in RPG Maker whose objective is to explore the scenarios and try to escape from within a dream (which is actually a nightmare).

Final Thoughts – Analyzing the Game as a Whole

Graphics and UI

The graphics are not ugly or anything, they’re just not original and instead use assets from free directories. I was bothered by the difference in art style between the packaging/screen initial and some scenes that appear during the game. The art style is quite different and I thought it spoiled the game. 🙁

The UI and HUD have the default pattern from RPG Maker.

Soundtrack and Sounds Effects

Even though the sounds also come from free directories, they are well implemented. Your footsteps make different sounds depending on the ground you walk on, which I liked because of the attention to detail.
The jump scares were well-worked, quite cool because it proves that you don’t need realistic graphics to give you a scare or make you feel uneasy.

Gameplay

The gameplay is extremely simple. The game is purely exploratory, so it doesn’t require you to be agile to attack. I didn’t understand the reason for the protagonist having HP even though there are no battles and no moment where you can take damage without instantly dying.
The game has a save system, which makes it much easier to discover another ending or start over from scratch if you die.

Personally, I didn’t think the story was anything special, but I think it’s worth playing to see what happens at the end (or better, one of the three endings).

There are some fatal traps, where you’ll just interact with something to see if you can discover something and end up dying.
The puzzles are easy, don’t require a lot of thinking time, and the game is short, so you can finish it calmly in about an hour and a half.

The game’s atmosphere reminds me a lot of Mad Father, who likes this type of game will probably enjoy Lucie. The only thing I didn’t like was that there are things that are exactly the same as in Mad Father, such as its save point being a crow. I thought that was kind of disappointing. :/

I recommend playing with headphones, not just because it improves the immersion, but also makes the jump scares more fun! hehehe

Replayability and Game Retention

I think the story is pretty mediocre, nothing special.
I didn’t see any trigger that would encourage you to discover more things, so replaying only has value for seeing the other endings.