Only You Can Save the Captive

What would you do to save your daughter? Rummage through someone’s house? Steal? … Kill? You may find out as you search for her. Will things go horribly wrong? Or will you and your child be able to make it out of the castle in the woods alive? Watch your back, and mind your time – only you can save Lili.

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What Is It?

A graphic novel adventure game. It is a hybrid between a comic and a choose-your-own-adventure book, plus the addition of stat tracking in the vein of an RPG. It’s a horror / mystery theme and has puzzles, riddles, and plenty of tough choices to make. The game can end if the player’s character dies (allowing them to reset), or if they manage to make it to the end safely. There is also an achievement section at the end for players to score their story.

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Who Is It For?

• 1 Player – Could work in a small group (2-3) if everyone has a copy of the book to follow along with, but it’s primarily a solo experience
• Ages 16+ – I’d definitely give this an MA rating, so that’s up to you to decide how old is mature
• Players who like horror / mystery
• Players who like small / simple puzzles and lots of exploration

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Components / Quality

The only component for this game is the book itself! I am a big fan of the exterior, it has a nice feeling. The binding seems pretty strong; it may weaken the more you play because of all the flipping, but after a few runs mine is still holding up nicely. Absolutely gorgeous artwork that really evokes the creepiness of the story at hand and really draws you into the scenes. The text is clear and important things (items, health, et cetera) are highlighted to help you identify key info quickly. There is a single character sheet included at the front of the book, but I prefer not to use it, to avoid returning to the front a lot or having to rip it out, so I do wish it came with some loose ones somehow. Personally, I just used notebook paper to track things, it’s not much so I just used one sheet per run.

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PROS

• Convenient “package” (just the book) / Easily portable
• Visually stunning
• Immersive / atmospheric
• A ton of different paths to take – can play it a bunch and see something different every time
• Can be passed on once you’re done as long as you don’t write in it
• Reasonably priced

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CONS

• Some small print secrets are very difficult for some readers to see, so they may miss things just because of poor eyesight
• Wish it came with loose character sheets
• After a death / loss you have to start from the beginning, which can be frustrating if you were on a long run; I guess I kind of wish there were certain “check points” you could re-spawn from.

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Final Thoughts

If you’re a solo gamer who likes a good story with a solid game attached to it, you have to try this one out. This is the second graphic novel adventure I’ve played and now I definitely need to try them all! There’s definitely a bit of nostalgia for me as someone who grew up on choose-your-own-adventure books, but even if you aren’t used to them, this one has a very simple system that easy to learn and easy to play; you’ll quickly become addicted to finding all the little details as you make your way through the pages.

I would definitely recommend keeping track of all the rooms you visit as you go through them because there are so many paths that it’s easy to lose track and retrace your steps time after time, even when you are not trying to. It can also be pretty time consuming if you decide you want to play until you win (because it will very likely take more than 1 run, and if it doesn’t, congrats on being amazing at making all the right choices haha), so it is also important to keep note of where you leave off if you decide to put it down and come back in a bit.

Overall a really great experience that I’m already itching to play again just to see what new panels I can find!

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*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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