Rain City
Rain City: a city where rain always pours. This puzzle game features warm, picture book-like graphics and a story with lifelike animals.
The game begins with the main character, a cat, who embarks to Rain City to find his sister. The story is both bizarre and exciting making players get lost in a mushroom field, search for a secret passage, and run experiments in a laboratory. The reason rain continues in Rain City is uncovered when players find his missing sister…
Players control the main character to look for his sister in the city. The story moves along while meeting various characters, gathering information, solving puzzles, and clearing minigames. There are elements that test skills including memory and observation, and the many items that appear add to its appeal to the game.
The picture book-like graphics and story about animals who live like humans will draw you in to the world of Rain City.
Steam User 42
Rain City has about 3 hours of content and a nice aesthetic for such a low price, but there are some problems with puzzle logic and interface. I noticed that 'Cotton Game' is not listed as the developer, so I wonder if they were involved with this project on the creative level - I would expect more polish from them if they were. Overall, the puzzles are very similar to the previous games, and they can be somewhat challenging if not a little heavy on the moon logic. I also had a few problems with the atmosphere when it comes to the soundtrack. In my opinion, there are too many rooms that don't have any music, that being said, I think most of the songs are enjoyable. While I understand that devs were trying to use the silence strategically, it was just too much and made the game feel empty. Additionally, the game is a bit glitchy, but I only had to reset the game one time when my character got stuck in the animation. Some of the interface problems are more frequent, there are all kinds of issues involving pixel hunting.
I found it difficult to immerse myself into the world because the dialogue didn't feel natural, almost like the characters were aware that I was solving the puzzles. There are some cute and funny moments, I just feel like the narrative was only there to get me from point A to point B - maybe the game would benefit if the characters had more to say. Going back to the 'Cotton Game' question, I know these devs can make a good narrative, "One Way: The Elevator" is a good example, so if they were involved with Big Pineapple, it's a bit unorthodox to make those mistakes. As far the artwork, I mean you can see it yourself, it's very good and there are many locations to explore.
Pros:
+ low price for about 3 hours of content
+ enjoyable art style, especially the backgrounds
+ while puzzles have problems, many were very creative
+ some optional achievement support
Feedback:
Interface - overall the UI is not consistent. Sometimes the character can't use the item if he is standing on something, but he can do it on the ground. Whenever you combine items you have to hover directly over the item, there is no effective area around it, it has to be right on the pixels. Also, I had a hard time noticing some of the doors when they are offscreen. Sometimes the hotspots are just too small and you have to click several times to get them.
Puzzle Logic - several puzzles don't make a lot of sense. I think the one with the mushrooms and the crane can be pretty funky - you can have a correct thought process and still get it wrong. I felt like maybe 20% of the puzzles had the 'game logic' where realistically it should not work, or the puzzle itself was not necessary.
Music - too much silence in the game. Even if you make the argument that it can be atmospheric, there are some puzzles that could take several minutes, in rooms with no music. It's kinda odd, I don't agree with it. In my opinion, if you have 5 rooms and 3 of them are silent, just reuse the 2 songs, personally, I would rather have music in 99% of the game, instead of like 60% (at least it felt like it).
Glitches - the one I encountered the most was the mouse pointer animation flicker, it will constantly switch between arrow and hand. One time my character got stuck walking near the statue after you drain the water. There are various other glitches I don't care to remember at this point.
Overall Thoughts: 6/10
I think the game is really good, but when you combine glitches, UI problems, and puzzle issues, it creates a bigger problem where you can't trust the game to be intuitive with the mechanics. Speaking in terms of narrative and atmosphere, I felt like the game was disconnected, even though it had all the right pieces to make it work. Still a good price, just needs a few patches (hopefully).
Review By:
Steam User 3
I liked this game a lot! Took me a few hours to complete fully the first time. I needed a bit of help for passing the security guards but eventually got through it. Definitely recommending this to other people. I enjoyed everything from learning about NCP backgrounds to the art style/execution, PUZZLES, and plot line/execution. Excited to gain the other achievements in my next go arounds. Really cool that this is available in many languages!!!
Steam User 2
Most cutest game ever. Rainy atmosphere, lots of cool characters - nice story.
Steam User 0
Very good game
Steam User 1
I am somewhere in the middle of giving this game positive or negative review. I really liked the concept and cute graphics, but I feel like it could be better, some puzzles and actions are clunky, that pipes level drove me crazy until I did it randomly.
Steam User 0
Such beautiful artistry in this game. I love how you can see the details of the watercolor in all the various scenes as well :) 8/10 I would recommend, only because...perhaps I'm just slow but their were some portions in the game that I was left confused on what to do next and had to watch a walkthrough video haha. Besides that again a EPIK game indeed.