I am too stupid to get to the ending and I don't want to do the whole thing all over again please post lets play

It takes forever to load but it's worth the wait, the only thing is that I got stuck and have no clue how to solve one room, providing some walktrough/clues would be really helpful!
Apart from that i love the artstyle and approach to the theme and the whole thing gives me some Nonary Games vibes (in a good sense). Great job!

Very cute!! For a 3 day game it's intresting and has potential, loved the mistery vibes and the medic bits around it... would have worded some things differently, some are hard to get even with the clues you gave, and the ending is a bit rushed, even for the implication it has. Still a lovely game to play! Good job!!

I really suck at puzzles but ho boy is that a pretty game! and the audio is sweet as well

Very cool art style and a really polished game. I'm just to stupid to solve it!

really impressed by how much y'all got done - it's pretty polished and there's loads to it! The music and sound design especially struck me as cool.

I died a whole bunch of time by relying on my real world knowledge with one of the early puzzles instead of what the game told me, if that's not too spoilerific. I wonder if other folks had the same problem.

Beat the game! Puzzles were interesting, some comments:

- Sometimes the text skipped too fast, I missed some text
- Also, I pressed enter too fast and totally missed the ending picture and restarted
- Some of the puzzles were not very fair imo. For example, the first puzzle depends on your answer, and if you didn't remember, you wouldn't be able to answer with the existing clues. Also, the answer wasn't a leap year.
- You need to remember past answers for the 4 locks, and there wasn't any way to backtrack. Also, some of the wording was clever, but others I felt was quite vague.
- It might be better not to have a heart system and let the player guess multiple times instead of restarting the whole game.

[Spoiler for 4 locks](https://5-90-131-2168)

Impressive work for a game made in 3 days :) It was very atomospheric and the art and audio help sell the short story ^^
It's a detail but I felt like the ending was a bit brutal (when you are cut by the credits). Maybe you could just make a button to get to the end and the credits instead of cutting to the credits right when you press the image, or at least write a little text to explain that it is the end (just a small detail, but I had to redo the game to make sure of what was in the image at the end x) )

Thanks for the game !

Nice game! The puzzles were pretty hard, but satisfying to solve. I'm still not really sure of what happened in the story? Things were so vague it was hard to really understand, but I got the gist. Cute art. Keep up the good work.

I loved the game, the art is nice, the music is ambient perfection, the puzzles are just up my alley and the fact that I can't rate this game is a stab at my chest but the mystery still mystifies me, so I'm sharing a few thoughts below in the hope that we can find secret or maybe unlock more of the game. I know this is just a ludum dare game but still, I'm hopeful and I enjoy excessive theorizing, so...

[HEAVY SPOILERS BELOW]

I thought I finished the game, but I feel I'm missing something, based on some things: why is there is a connection from the second to the fifth that is never used?


Is the design above the final door that resembles the layout possibly hinting at secret rooms?


What is the cylinder-like thing beside the calendar in the first room that appears to be interactable? Why does the game reset and quickly puts you in a hard-lock state where Shara's dialogue changes? Who did Rune save with a defibrilator?

Thinking that the game title "Isochronism" could be a hint, I tried inputting a year in the first puzzle that would be congruent with the current date Shara's claim that she's 22 and the Rune is 24 and the current date (April, 2020, a calendar page of April even appears on the first room and could imply that Shara already celebrated her birthday the current year) - so Rune's birthday would be 1996 and Shara's would be 1998. I thought I was on to something, considering Shara's new dialogue and the fact that the player can define Rune's birthday, which looks kinda unnecessary at first, but inputting those years led to the same ending.

Current theories:
a) I am guessing from ARASH's name meaning that it is a system that simulates a virtual reality on Rune's mind while he is in stasis to aid in him healing whatever put him in a disabled state. The Shara we see in the game is part of this system but this Shara doesn't want Rune to heal and leave her so she hates ARASH, the part of the system that wants to Rune to get better.
There are a few things that corroborate this: ARASH is a anagram for SHARA; Shara's image gets progressively distorted when she gets more stressed; the ending's image; the fact Rune is related to the medical area and electrical engineering means he is able to build such machine; and probably more texts I missed.

I imagine there is a real Shara in the real world and she and Rune are married, one of the scenes heavily hints at that. I think that either Rune saved Shara from mercury poisoning and they fell in love and Shara is alive in real life OR... Rune accidentally poisoned Shara with mercury and she died then Rune built ARASH out of regret, the machine makes Rune forget he did that and he had used it before, but whenever he remembers the truth he ends up wanting to come back to it. The scenes' titles could kind of hint at that (Entry, Disorder, Wilderness, How soon is now, Dead souls, Rebirth). Also, mercury poisoning can cause cardiac dysrhythmia which might require the use of a defibrillator.

So the game resetting and not progressing is just to insinuate that Rune is repeating this cycle or he just decided to be stuck with virtual Shara forever and that's all there is to the game. Still doesn't explain the unused pathway, the useless interactables or the symbol above the door.
This makes sense with the theme of the game jam: Rune built ARASH trying to keep Shara alive somehow, and the virtual Shara is trying to keep him alive by protecting his soul from the harsh truth.

b) Shara is a hottie
the fact she says she "doesn't like cold stuff" could be a hint.

Any ideas?

Excellent game. Simple yet stylish design and graphics, functioning point and click gameplay, tough puzzle design, and an excellent story, even if it's somewhat unfinished due to lack of time.
I really liked finding out more about what was even going on, and who these people were.The puzzles at the end made me feel smart, which is definitely something that doesn't happen often.

Music is excellent as always, sasuga juneji.

I know that it wasn't fleshed out because of time, but it's hard not to feel cucked by the ending, especially since you just went through a gauntlet of big brain moments to get there in the first place, and because if you pressed any key (like you would be if you were expecting some dialogue) you straight up just skip the ending entirely.

Very impressive. Well written story, well done art, and the whole tone throughout the whole thing was pulled off pretty dang good. I get some big Danganronpa vibes, which is a big plus from me...

A couple of puzzles struck me as odd though, most notably in scene 5 and a couple locks (due to wording). Minor bug but there was a few times when the first word or two would be missing from text boxes as well. Overall though it was very enjoyable.

Very impressive. Well written story, well done art, and the whole tone throughout the whole thing was pulled off pretty dang good. I get some big Danganronpa vibes, which is a big plus from me...

A couple of puzzles struck me as odd though, most notably in scene 5 and a couple locks (due to wording). Minor bug but there was a few times when the first word or two would be missing from text boxes as well. Overall though it was very enjoyable.

Very impressive. Well written story, well done art, and the whole tone throughout the whole thing was pulled off pretty dang good. I get some big Danganronpa vibes, which is a big plus from me...

A couple of puzzles struck me as odd though, most notably in scene 5 and a couple locks (due to wording). Minor bug but there was a few times when the first word or two would be missing from text boxes as well. Overall though it was very enjoyable.

Why did it post 3 times tho... :laughing:

The art and 3D environments were amaazing! Grat job on that front!

I wasn't able to figure out the defibrillator puzzle unfortunately. The graphics are excellent though and the atmosphere is wonderful! It really reminds me of odd PS1 games, everything from the music to the perspective of the room. I really did like the game, I just tried multiple times at the same puzzle and couldn't figure it out. Maybe I'm too dumb lol

Takes a lot of time to load, but I'm glad that I waited. I don't know what to call the genre of the game, but I liked it, never saw something like this before. Music reminds of Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne.

Any reason for the intro not having any sound and it starting only after the intro? It would add to the mood and feeling.

Most problems that I had with the game have already been mentioned - the weird menu music delay thing, being able to click on items immediately after a textbox disappears (or one line before), the textbox opening didn't really have a reason to be that drawn out (and, in general, the text effects were a bit drawn out. I faced a similar issue in my entry, but I'm just pointing it out, especially because I had experience with it). The puzzles were, given, the Jam, pretty succinct and yielded a good balance of confusion and discovery, but any larger and they would have been a little linear. I appreciated the story and hinting at the MC's relationship to the rooms a lot, and the sound effects and visuals were really on point. I'm surprised that nobody has compared this thing's mood to a Danganronpa game! It really reminded me of one. Maybe make it easier to restart after losing; it seemed to freeze or lock restarting when I game over-ed on the first of my two attempts. Perhaps give different alternative hints if people continuously click the same element. I know that that's a tall order given the time-scale, but now I'm referring to the game as a whole.

I love when games make me pull out my notepad. Maybe that's why I didn't have too much trouble with the final puzzle since kept notes on everything. The only room I got stuck for a while was the defibrillator room and only because I completely missed an obvious thing I could click on. Puzzles were pretty fair, nothing too hard and nothing too easy, I found them enjoyable. The story was both sweet and dark which I like. The ending was a bit abrupt perhaps but maybe that just adds to what you can read into the story. Art and music is top notch as well. Good job!

Loving the Killer 7 aesthetic on this one.

I'm extremely impressed at the quality of this one. Unfortunately I only got to Scene 3 before I died and ran out of time, but it was quite an interesting adventure nonetheless.

I don't know how many people mentioned this yet but when you end a dialogue, there's no delay between the end of the dialogue and being able to click on other things. For a second, I thought I was stuck in a game-breaking loop; but it turns out I was just clicking on the fridge area which kept triggering the dialogue over and over again.

Absolutely loved the aesthetic freedom you took with the art, it really helped the overall atmosphere of the game along with the music in my opinion.

Especially for 3 days, extremely impressive. Having directed a bigger team myself this jam, I can only imagine what it took to get so much done in such a short amount of time. From one dev to another, awesome job mates!

Fantastic looking game I am too dumb to complete
A walkthrough for us people wanting to check out the graphix and nothing more would be helpful.

Okay, this is one of the few entries that I actually wanted to complete.

The art is nice & Shara's expressions are adorable, but a little more polish in UI would be great. The music is cool. The story got me hooked, as there are many kind of clues as to what happened, so you spend time pondering that. Very impressive for a jam game, I would enjoy playing the full version if it's ever to be released, don't hesitate to tag me for that too!

I am really stuck in the third room, though, after Rune measures Shara's pulse. I feel like I've written down & tried every possible number in the game I've ever seen. There's some clue in the mirror about seeing a reflection, I tried counting everything in the mirror & spelling numbers backwards, but it didn't help either. Some folks from the comments did figure it out, though, so maybe I'm just being repeatedly blind..

Also if you restart the game your starting HP isn't five, but one. Refreshing the page helps, but it takes a while to load the game again.

So, anyways, I really loved the game, but I'm a bit sad I didn't get to complete it, because I'm blind.

(Dublicate post, please ignore it)

(Dublicate post, please ignore it)

Went back to check, and for some reason my post has been tripled? I guess publish button bugged out, or something.

SHARA... ARASH...




Great game! Feels like the most complete jam game I've played. I love the art style and interactions between the characters. The only thing I'd want added is either a skip through text option or a checkpoint system, since if you die you have to start from the beginning and go through everything all over again.

okay but im a complete idiot help me please

@ceuteum Double check the mirror. There is a hint there - reflected.

Just beat the 3rd room and I to write down a little criticism. To all players above, I want you all know that you are now idiot. I believe the puzzle design could be improved. I played puzzle games since 15 years ago and I am always a fan of them. I also made a few small puzzle games as a junior designer. But even then I stucked so long for the 3rd puzzle. Well I have to admit that my English vocabulary could be a blocker.

Making puzzle game is hard, especially for a 2 days work. So I understand the quality. And yes a walkthrough for us is always helpful - after all the art and story-telling is the best part of it.

See if I can beat the game tomorrow and I will post a bit more comment with a walk through. If anyone still need it.

It's pretty sad that the final ending is... not fully finished and most of the story is still in mistery... or hiding in the game for others to dig.

*[Spolier alert]*

I kind of get the direction which sukeban games is heading. A generated or imagined dimension (forgive my poor vocabulary) which Rune and Shara trapped. They are separated for some reason and Shara blamed this to Rune. The comment from @calf may have explained the story well with reliable reasons. But I wish I can see a full picture on Sukeban game's next game... as an easter egg or something.

Clearly creators want to put more stories between the last two levels, but unfortunately ran out of time - just like any other Game Jam game lol. But so glad to have a polished level 4, with two characters rely on each other and show us their love. And the last puzzle is so cool - using the previous puzzle as hint. Although yes it requires players to remember the previous answers... it is kinda not very friendly.

And it is obviously Sukeban game trying to make the replay different from the first time. It is unfortunate.

*[Walkthrough]*... if anyone still need

1. Hint: Shara is always 2 years younger than Rune, no matter what you enter at the beginning. And there is a date only occurs each four years. Because Shara's birth year is depending on your input, so her birth year may not be an actual leap year. You can check @calf 's answer and it is more obvious.
Answer: [First Year](https://-1996-) [Second Year](https://-1998-) [Month](https://-2-) [Date](https://-29-)

2. Hint: Click everything. And again. To be honest I do not fully understand what is going on but just cooking with some liquid...
Answer: [Hover here](https://-360-)

3. Hint: Set up the defibrillator and use it. Double check the mirror - they draw the CG for some reason.
Answer: [Hover here](https://-363-)

4. Hint: What is the symbol of infinity?
Answer: [Hover here](https://-8-)

5. Hint: Click everywhere. And again. Do a little math of how much gas they need.
Answer: [Gas Type](https://-91-) [gallon](https://-5-)

6. Those question are referred to the previous answers. A little poet hiding some math there. Thanks for @jusw85 , your spolier helppe me. Here I will repeat the answer from them.
Answer: [First lock](https://-5-) [Second lock](https://-90-) [Third lock](https://-131-) [Forth lock](https://-2168-)