Reflection of Mine

This review will include Spoiler free section and Spoiler one, because I want to get more into the story.

The synopsis of the story caught my interest and I was excited to get into it. However the further I got into the story, the more I realised that the Game is very stigmatizing for DID and demonise it. I am not, by any mean a specialist in the matter, however even with my limited knowledge, I am able to say, that this depiction is harmful. I will get more into it in spoiler section. Lets start with the spoiler free one.

The idea of the game is interesting from the design standpoint. In which you are controlling 2 characters in the same time. If you move left, the other character or in this case an alter also moves left. Your task is, to solve the puzzles and lead the characters to the end of the level. The game on its page mention, that it’s hard and achievement for finishing tutorial is called “Ready to suffer” and this depiction really fits well. ROM is difficult game, that is quite of a challenge. However, two base difficulties offer help, or support that will help you, if you are stuck. It’s not a type of a game made for me. There is a reason why, I don’t play games like “Dark souls” Or ”Cuphead”. The main reason why I wanted to play it, is the idea of game about DID. I was hoping, that I will be able to learn something from it. Unfortunately it wasn’t the case.

Let’s start with visuals. The visuals are very unique. They underline the mood of the game well and fit it perfectly. Levels are done with care and are full with details, that help you feel more immersed into the situation of the main Heroine(s). I really enjoyed the drawings from diary of Lily. They express her emotions and state really well and also are helping the graininess of the story.
I must applaud the attention to the detail. I like that the game is called “Reflection of mine” and the text in main menu is reflected.

I would like to also reflect on audio of the ROM. The music made by “Expecte Amour” is absolutely amazing. It makes the game more intense and enjoyable. It’s something that you can definitely enjoy on its own. The soundtrack is really well done. The audio of the story is fitting and does its job really well.

Continuing talking about the story of the game. It depicts DID in harmful and untrue way, which can lead to creating wrong idea in the head of the players, about the condition. It’s really disappointing taking into consideration the fact, that it would be possible to create very similar game, that wouldn’t be hurtful for people, that it “tries” to depict.

Now to the spoiler section. I usually try to avoid spoilers in my reviews because, well I obviously want to tell the reader, if the game/VN is worth trying for themselves. In this situation, I feel that it’s needed.

This game shows misunderstanding, to what DID is on the basic level. Which is especially upsetting taking into consideration the fact, that the developer on other of their game “Fearmonium” ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/1068360/Fearmonium/?curator_clanid=33034776 ) claims, that they have master degree in psychology. Getting into what is actually wrong. The game says, that there are alters, ( "dissociated parts of the mind that the patient experiences as separate from each other.” ) that are “Evil” which is harmful. That is what wiki of DID subreddit says: “Alters are not evil. The parts often perceived as "evil" or "dangerous" or generally disliked by other parts are typically extremely traumatized and were given a highly manipulated understanding of safety and love.” This wiki is of course based on proper scientific literature.

Another thing is that ROM claims is, that there is one actual alter, that is who the person really is. However, each alter is a part of the whole person. “Simply put, all parts are the real person. The incorrect belief that DID develops from a "core" or "original"

What is even worse is, the ending of the game. In a “good ending”, which you can achieve by finishing every stage perfectly. In it every alter agree on ending themselves, so that the “Real” part can exist by themselves. Which is wrong, not only in one way but two! To question of who is the real alter wiki answers “Simply put, all parts are the real person. The incorrect belief that DID develops from a "core" or "original" personality that is then somehow shattered is not clinically correct based on what we know so far. “ And also that you can’t “kill” your alter: “You cannot kill off a conscious part of the mind. “

The game tries to say, that there should be only one person and the other alters are the enemies, which is the opposite, to what the science says. It suggest that Integration, which is harmony between parts is the best way to help.
“Integration refers to harmony among all parts. This harmony results from the development of co-consciousness, co-acceptance, and the focus of the person shifting from the trauma to living better in the present and developing a new future perspective. Integration is not the same thing as fusion. And further “Integration is a goal of Phase 3 of the Triphasic Trauma Model of Treatment. This goal refers to an integrated understanding of the current day, present, healed self. [..]Integration is a necessary and natural part of recovery, as it involves the lessening of dissociative symptoms such as amnesia and the development of cooperative solutions “ There is also term called “Final fusion”, which is not, what the game depict. Wiki says : “Fusion is the last step of integration, where dissociative barriers have been reduced so much that parts no longer feel separate and will fuse to become one part. Fusion does not happen out of nowhere, as it requires parts to have worked on recovery enough to integrate deeply before moving forward. Final fusion refers to when all parts have fused, leaving one cohesive and integrated personality. “ , but also “Final fusion is the recovery goal of many people with DID, however it is not the only recovery goal which exists. Achieving a level of integration that serves to reduce the detrimental or problematic symptoms of dissociation such as amnesia, but retaining cooperative parts, is another recovery goal that exists for many people with DID. “ Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/DID/wiki/faq/

The main reason, why I am not willing to recommend it is the depiction of DID. The game had a potential to describe the condition properly and keep the style, that the developer wanted to create.
There is a simple way. If I can think of resolution to it on the spot, then author also could.
Instead of fighting alters, make a game of trying to integrate them.
Instead of claiming, that one part is “evil”, try to depict the complicated view of alter on what is wrong and what is not, that was caused by trauma”
Instead of having group self ending of alters, try to depict attempt of the person to achieve “final fusion” and explain, that it’s not the only resolution.

The music and visuals of the game were outstanding and great, which make me interested in other works of the developer, but it depicts the main part of the story wrong and I can’t accept that.
The rating is 35/100 only because of what I mentioned above.

[b]If you enjoyed this review, please rate it and check out my curator page! It would mean a lot to me, thank you!
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44877939-Bewitched-By-Games/

Alright so, i actually have DID. and the depiction in this game, is not very accurate, and bordering on kind of offensive. like ok-
it plays into the 'evil alter' trope, where apparently, they burned down a fucking church, which WHAT?.

also the entire premise of the game which is "finding the real one" .. doesn't make any sense? theres no "real person" in DID. were all just as real as eachother, theres an alter who just wants you to die for some reason?? what the fuck?

the only parts that are kinda accurate, is whenever its like 'i dont remember this' but its kinda hard to mess that part up.
and i suppose, "witnessing a murder" (assuming that wasn't meaning they did said thing-) is the kind of trauma that would result in DID.

also,. they referred to alters as 'personalities' which is kind of weird.

but overall the actual game itself, like gameplay wise, and whatever. wasn't too bad. but it definitely did NOT need to claim it was a representation of an actual mental disorder, that people have, and did not need to portray said people as evil / killers / whatever.

Really great puzzle/maze game.

It seems very elementary at first, but quite soon you realize that it can be tremendously challenging.

Very well-thought design and mechanics. Good story and artwork as well.

An interesting puzzle game, dealing with the topic of psychic disorders. Your task is to guide twin (and more) girls through mazes full of traps into safety, discover the truth behind their medical condition, and help them regain their sanity. As puzzle games go, this one can be a bit tricky, because the safe path is very narrow, not to mention other hazards like moving enemies. Graphics takes form of simple 2D environments with doll-like illustrated protagonists, accompanies with melodious music that fits the scenes quite well. For players that like puzzle games with an unusual storyline, this one is definitely recommended.

You play as Lilly and her many alternate identities, scavenging through her broken memories to attempt to discover what she/her other self did in an attempt to find salvation/redemption/revenge/sanity!

The mechanics are simple: you always control two (or more) of Lilly's personalities in a maze representing a fragment of her memory. Your goal is to guide them both unharmed to a mirror. Sounds simple, but it can be VERY devilish! The dev showed a lot of love for his work. New mechanics are introduced rather often, increasing the complexity of the puzzles but also linking the story to the mazes. There are 4 endings. All are interesting but the "true! one is interestingER! :P

There are 4 "worlds", each with 11 stages and a "boss". After defeating the boss, you may optionally revisit 4 puzzles, collect "keys" which will unlock further memories of Lilly and secret stages. In total, there are 71 puzzles to be solved. The puzzles can be VERY difficult but there are "easy" modes which are way less frustrating. Also, you can find the solutions online.

Achievements are great, though two of them were bugged and unlocked before the time. Linux port was bugged; but I talked to the dev, he patched the game and it now seems to work flawlessly. Thanks for supporting the penguin!!

Definitely recommended!

In short: DON'T BUY THIS GAME! It's not worth 8.00 at all, if you want my summarized synopsis-keep reading.

The puzzles are interesting enough to keep you going, the music is nice...but the development and overall depiction of DID is both irresponsible and completely tone deaf.
Not only does the game put forth a common misconception regarding DID and how people who have it handle it, it's also not properly rated. There are several triggering topics discussed in the game including but not limited to self-h@rm and telling someone outright to go k!ll themselves. There are also no warnings for photosensitive/epileptic players and we are completely blindsided by the jump scares, annoying screeching and irritating glitching effects.
The story is bland, the dialogue is dry, the character is completely out of touch with anything that's going on around her and not in the way that leans towards 'they're going on a journey'. It's more 'Lilly is so blind that everything is puppies and rainbows because Emily takes all that bs so she never sees it'.
This game is by far one of the most offensive and irresponsible portrayals of DID in a character that I've ever seen. If you ever do decide to pick up this game, TURN DOWN YOUR VOLUME and prepare to play an unforgiving puzzle game that's so edgy, my 13yr old self was soiling herself over it! There's psychological games and then there's a hot mess of tropes and nonsense that try really hard to be thrilling but ultimately falls flat.
Big fat zero/ten for me but enjoy my 8$. I'll be sure to link it in my YT video.

The portrayal of DID is awful, and some levels are downright impossible without extreme amounts of luck. Overall just bad.

At first glance, everything is simple, but all this is deceptive, not as simple as it might seem at first glance, it has a good plot and, of course, I really liked the musical accompaniment and voice acting. If you want to buy something, then I advise you to buy this gameAt first glance, everything is simple, but all this is deceptive, not as simple as it might seem at first glance, it has a good plot and, of course, I really liked the musical accompaniment and voice acting. If you want to buy something, then I advise you to buy this game

A very stylish indie adventure game. Here you have to visit Lilly's mind and control all her personality, solving various puzzles. You have to find out which of the personalities is real.
I want to say that the idea and implementation of the plot is at the highest level. Like atmosphere and soundtracks. Also, a very interesting gameplay where you have to play for two parallel characters.
In general, I recommend the game. You will receive intellectual and aesthetic pleasure from its passage.

Would be much more decent without cheap jumpscares. Seriously, why should game scream at me so loud every time i make a mistake? It makes the game look not scary, but irritating instead.
Music is ok, puzzles are nice but they tend to get a bit repetitive, the story seems a bit forced.
Not a psycological horror I was looking for, just a decent puzzle with annoying sound effects.

sorry but this was disappointing due solely to the lack of production values. The trailer made it look like it was fully voiced....its not. Everything looked to be alot more than it was on the steampage. I mean u did a good job of advertising the game lol. The game itself is a cool concept and the puzzles can be fun. Just I don't see any point given the story has spelt out that its just going to be a bunch of genericly written story developments to be pushed onwards by pretty artwork that doesn't really thrill or move past the point of being a static image that you look at for 2 seconds and move on.

I would develop the story alot more, and make the pictures and story segments have more going on. Like why am I repeating puzzles over and over to get a cutscene where i move through a town and there's only 1 on the rails intereaction with this genericly looking asset guy and he has no name or purpose other than to tell the audience where "I" am going and why i'm passing through a town...then its back to more puzzles..? Like....cmon. Its just too childish and pointless alot of the characters are, its not interesting. I think it could be a great game if there was more purpose to the game outside of just being able to do puzzles over and over again and if puzzles and story had more back and forth combination play.

First - others have said it, I need to repeat - this game is not about DID. If it didn't make such a fuss about being about DID, maybe I'd have viewed it more favourably. But, so it goes. The protagonist of this game has the version of DID that was created for horror movies decades ago, and is nothing more or less than harmful to the disorder's image.

But, moving speedily on.
Writing -
The writing in the game is either a so-so translation or just poorly written. The sentence structures are uncomfortable to read, and from the very out-set, everything is described in a super-dark, intensionally ooh-edgy way that it cringey awful. Add in that from what I can tell, the main character seems to have >no< character beyond her 'disorder' (her diary in the intro is what someone with no knowledge of young girls would stereotype young girls as, cutesy, babyish, just so that the 'dark' voice sounds darker - it too, having no personality beyond 'dark'). Maybe there's more depth to discover later on, but time spent with the characters is few enough and far enough between that I doubt there's going to be any real identity given to any of these 'identities' beyond the most shallow, surface concept (and game mechanic, of course).
Gameplay -
A fairly standard set-up - the puzzle involves a split-screen, you control both characters at the same time through non-identical arenas, using 'safe' areas for one character to maneuvre the other through danger.
Unfortunately, there is often seems to be only one way through, making this less a puzzle-solving wherein you can try different approaches until one works and more a try-and-die, unless you can stare at a screen and memorize the fifty-or-so step pathways so you can try different iterations in your head before you take a step. There doesn't seem to be a lot of leeway for creative solution-finding. As early as the fifth (ish) level, you hit what the achievements refer to as a hard level - essentially the puzzle version of a boss. By that point I hadn't been playing nearly long enough to hit stride, and the sudden steep increase in difficulty - without any warning, or knowing I was in some kind of 'boss' level - was mostly just horrifically frustrating. It was about at that time that I just gave up on the learning curve of the game. If you want to find your patience challenged as opposed to your logic, this would work pretty well. Or if you have a mind for the kind of spatial awareness involved in these, perhaps it's less frustrating.

In all, besides solving puzzles for puzzle's sake, there doesn't seem to be much reward via story involved for how difficult the gameplay is. I can't recommend it.

Definitely not an accurate depiction of DID...this is just a demonization of mentally ill people. ngl I was already pretty done with the game when the therapist dude was like, "You burned down a church, went missing for a few weeks, burned down a hotel, witnessed a cruel murder, and escaped from an insane asylum." it sounds like something that was written by a 13 year old trying to be Edgy(tm)??

Game itself is repetitive and not compelling enough to hold my attention even if I ignore the bad writing.

And if you go to close the game you get a guilt trip message that says, "LILLY WILL DIE IN MADHOUSE IF YOU LEAVE HER. ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT IT?" like, what?? Why was that necessary???

Huge thumbs down here.

I take absolutely no joy in writing this review. I was, in fairness, risking very little by trying this game out on a President's Day sale, so this isn't any great loss for me financially. But while I found the puzzles decent enough, if a bit frustrating, two things are leading me to actively seek a refund. One, the complete lack of sound support for the game. While the game runs somewhat easy graphically, there is absolutely no sound or music coming through for reasons unknown. Given that the music was a big selling point for me initially, that was a letdown.

But the dealbreaker came when I looked over the discussion thread started by an authentic DID sufferer who rightly called the designer on much of his ignorance on her condition. The responses were, to be kind, disheartening, pushing his personal prejudices and preconceptions to, in effect, say that the OP's pain matters less than his reading about Billy Milligan. By that twisted logic, I should be able to create an authentic and compelling narrative of a DID sufferer because I read "When Rabbit Howls" two decades ago. It does make me realize what the other shortcomings of this game are in terms of story: leaning on cliches about DID that frankly are little better than rip-offs of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.

As I said, I take no joy in writing. But I must...and so I shall.

This game is awesome! Very challenging double maze type levels. I really love the theme/ design and storyline. Also has a great soundtrack :)

I know someone with DID and I can assure you this is not what its like. I'm tired of dark stories about DID in general to be honest. Also the game play is the same through out so it's extremely repetitive and I got bored right after the third level. Im not really into puzzles like this anyways so take the word on someone who pefers puzzle games similar to this. But for those who care, yah it demonizes DID and makes it sound like its a horror story and not something that actual people have to live though.

VERY HARD TO PLAY! I recommend for people who really likes puzzles, It can get a bit tiring if you give up easily like me, but over all fun

There are not many games that can manage to get someone super interested in a story about a girl with dissociative identity disorder.
Reflection of Mine totally nailed it, in my case.

The gameplay itself was super brainbreaking for me. Not really in the beginning but later on it gets more challenging.
Control more than one body at the same time - not that easy as it sounds!

For the ones, who are not really good at puzzles there is also an "easy" mode, where you don't have to think thaaaaaaat much and completely focus on the story.
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About Bugs&Stuff:

Today I have a total playtime of 11hrs and I only stumbled over 1 tiny "bug"
I asked for help in the discussion thingy on Steam and I received almost instantly help from the developer.
It was solved on the same day!
And to mention - the fact that this game was made by one single person is amazing.

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Overall - Unique and great game - I would totally buy it again. :)

I only started to play this game but it already hooked me up. Atmosphere and music are awesome. The main mechanic is interestin and what is more important, there are a lot of cool features like time wrapping or cool idea with masks. If you are a big fan of Souls serives this game is a great 2d analogue for you! You will suffer!

I highly recommend this game to people who like puzzle games (it's probably not my cup of tea; espcecially right now because I'm on a school break and I do NOT want to think) but for people who likes solving puzzles, this game is for you!

for the first few levels it doesn't require that much thinking but as it progresses it gets harder, I know shocker, but let me warn you that it gets to the point where you get tired playing because you can't solve it, but then again that could just be me, maybe you're not as stupid and lazy as I am, if so; you would absolutely like this game.