Review - Once Upon A Hallow's Eve

So I've stumbled into a little otome game called "Once Upon A Hallow's Eve". I've been seeing it on the Play Store for quite some time now. With all those pleasant comments, I decided to give it a chance.

STORY: As one final vacation before their second-to-the-last college semester ends, 20-year-old graduating student Cara Lee and her friends decide to go to a rest house up in the mountains. However, along the way, a minor landslide knocks her unconscious, and when she wakes up, she finds herself alone in a dark and scary forest. Looking for shelter, she finds a strange and haunted-looking mansion looming up ahead. Is there really more to the mansion that it seems, or will Cara Lee uncover something sinister about the house and its inhabitants?

(Spoilers, beware!)

On the first few scenes of the game, I have been contemplating what could possibly the secret behind the story. Here are a few of my ideas:

1. The inhabitants and Cara are already dead.
2. The house is where dead people go to before they ascend to heaven (or hell lol)
3. The inhabitants and Cara are the only people left alive, the whole village was buried under the landslide.

So I realized #3 is kind of extreme ^_^ And as I finished my first route, I confirmed that one of my guesses is actually almost correct :)

Anyway, I found one thing a bit hilarious:

For the whole duration of the game, Cara has been looking for a path on the forest, and the game script kept saying THERE'S NONE. But looking at the picture, isn't that a path right there?! Wrong picture gamemaker, wrong picture. Lol.

Moving on, here are the characters and their corresponding stories:

VIKTOR - He is the oldest of the three siblings, and in my opinion, the most eye-candy of them all. Anyway, his route mostly consist of pretty normal things like talking, cleaning around the house, and other normal everyday activities. Viktor likes cooking, but in his route, he teaches you how to cook and it turns out that your meals are tastier than his! Also, half the story is just you and Vonn bickering with each other and Viktor acting as the mediator.

One important scene to note though is when Cara Lee hears tornado-like voices outside the room of Vern, calling her back. Towards the end, it is revealed that the three brothers are actually in a car accident three months ago and they didn't know whether they are still alive or not. The same goes for Cara Lee. It turns out that the voices she heard prior weeks ago was actually her family's and friends' voice begging for wake to wake up from her comatose state.

In bad end, Viktor brought Cara Lee down to the village and Cara says "You said the path to the village was hard! Are you lying to me all this time?!" or something like that. That's when the reality hit her and she realized that she was probably dead, like I've stated above... anyway, in the end, Cara woke up from her coma and she thought everything was a half-forgotten dream. Not until she heard that the patient called Viktor next to her room died did she remember everything.

In good end, the only difference was that Viktor and the others also woke up from their coma and Cara and Viktor lived happily ever after! In neutral end, Cara just accepted that she was already a ghost and it was now her new reality, the end!

So all in all, Viktor's route was fairly entertaining. Although I can't quite accept the fact that the difference with the good, neutral and bad endings were the choices "Accept" or "Decline" the deal that "Viktor sings if Cara bakes". I mean, how could life and death be decided by the simple matter of singing and baking?! Lololol. Other than that, as I said, it's entertaining.

Update: As I played Vonn's route, I learned that Viktor had a girlfriend named Lisa. I wonder what happened when he woke up from slumber... whether Lisa was still waiting for him... :(

VONN - He is the middle brother, has a very nasty mouth and nasty attitude. So, in his route, Cara discovers that he is actually a writer. Vonn doesn't want anyone to know that he writes so he was pretty frustrated when Cara accidentally(?) read one of his works. Although, as time goes by, Cara ended up being the critic and feedback-giver to his works.

I guess the turning point of the story started when Cara made a small comment that Vonn seems like a drunk person. It turned out at the end that the reason why the Deveraux brothers had an accident in the first place was because Vonn had been drunk while driving. Plus, it was a stormy night when they decided to drive up the mountain, so I guess an accident is already foreseeable.

In bad end, when Cara learned that they are all probably probably dead, she promised Vonn that she will always be at Vonn's side... and then she suddenly woke up from her coma. T^T I think that was probably most hurting to Vonn. *cries*. Right after someone promises you "forever", they disappear. Anyway, so Cara woke up. And then she overheard from the nurses that the Deveraux brothers, who are actually a part of one of the wealthiest family in the country, just died... and well, when she remembered Vonn, tears just spilled.

In another bad end, Cara learned that she was actually alive before waking up and that the brothers are already 100% they're dead. What made this worse than the previous bad end was that Cara and Vonn officially said I love you to each other. So when Cara woke up from her slumber, she was like No! No! Bring me back to my dream! I'd rather die! or something like that. T^T

I'll have to admit that the good end was sort of a disappointment. It's just like Viktor's good end. They both woke up and the end, happy ever after! Anyway, it was fun. It's probably even more fun than Viktor's route.

[Note: As of now, I am already dragging myself to play Vern's route. I honestly do not like him much. Lol. But for the purpose of finishing this review, I guess I must play it T^T]

VERN - real name Vernon, is the youngest of the group, and a year younger than Cara Lee. I said above that I almost do not want to play his route, but as I am typing now, I'm glad I did. Honestly, playing his route "feels like I'm playing with a young child rather than somebody in his late teens." Nevertheless, I do think that his route is the most heartwarming of all. And I do think I just encountered the most painful "knock knock" joke out of all.

Vern: Knock knock.
Cara: Who's there?
Vern: Vern
Cara: ...
Cara: I'll be opening the door then
Vern: Then... Vern's in your heart now
Vern: He's not going anywhere else... even if you are...

So anyway, in his bad end, it's almost the same as every bad end. Cara woke up and at the same time, Vern died T^T. As for the neutral end, I don't know if there was really none or if the walkthrough I was following was wrong. I'll just update this if I do find a neutral end. The good end is the same too. Cara woke up, as well as Vern.

But I must point out that out of all the guys in their corresponding routes, Vern is the only guy Cara kissed on the lips. Lol I see a favoritism, dear gamemakers ^_^

CONCLUSION

So, despite being short, I do admit I had fun. I guess the only problems I have were the identical endings. Like, I don't even need to play it to know that in good ends, both are alive and in bad ends, only Cara is alive. Even neutral ends are bad ends in its own way.

While I would not go out of my way to tell you that you really need to play this game, I do want to say that now, I understood why there were a lot of good comments in the game in play store.

I guess I've rambled enough.

Qiara Young, out!