So, finally getting to play this game for the first time (I spent maybe five minutes on an emulator playing the original, that's it).

It's a good game, with some great atmosphere. It's also got some really, really questionable design elements.

I've spent most of my time hanging around Clock Town, discovering quests and what not. So I wind up trying to hunt down Kafei. Now, I know where Kafei is. He's wearing a Keaton mask in the Laundry Pool. He mails a letter at the start of the first day, and then sits inside 95% of the rest of the time. You can't talk to him, even if you call him out with the bell.

I know Anju is looking for him. She hangs around the lobby of the Inn, then on later days takes trips out to the Laundry Pool to cry. So I try talking to her, she acknowledges that I'm looking for Kafei, and continues to cry. Fantastic. After following her for pretty much the entire last two days, I reset and go follow her from the beginning. I talk to her and she mentions how, starting at noon, she's waiting for a letter from the Postman from Kafei. Easy enough. I wait around exploring the inn until noon. She's nowhere to be seen. Frustrated that I missed something AGAIN, I turn back time and follow her meticulously. It turns out "waiting for a letter" apparently translates to "having lunch upstairs" (which the Bomber's Notebook Journal totally contradicts, saying she's in the lobby the whole time).

So I eventually see the Postman deliver the letter, and now I get a letter to post and watch where it's delivered to so that I can hunt down Kafei. Which means I post it, then get to wait at the mailbox for several hours for the postman to come by.

Why? Why why why why why?! Why does the game force you to spend essentially an entire three day cycle following each person so that you can figure out everything that happens to them, and notice the one exact moment you can talk to them?! This game is so frustratingly restrictive about when and where it will let you go and talk to people to progress things.

Now I'm having to spend ANOTHER three day cycle waiting outside Romani Ranch to see how long it takes for the rock to be broken open so that I can go inside. Because, surprise, last time I got in on the third day, it was already too late and the ranch had already suffered some disaster.

I don't mind the repetition. I don't mind the time based events. But it's really, really annoying having to spend an entire cycle following each character and each plot event just to know what to do.

And I still have no clue how to get into the first dungeon. I followed the swamp and forest through, found a collapsed witch, but I apparently need a potion to cure her, and I have yet to find an empty bottle, so...


It's got a fantastic atmosphere, some great characterization, and the quests themselves are fun. It just has an absolutely horrid interface and does not convey things well at all.