A Noble Circle

It’s 5:51 AM. I should be sleeping since I have to get two assignments finished for my English composition 2 class post-sleep today. But I don’t wanna. I got this game over 5 years ago, all the way back in 2016, and I’m revisiting memories of an old mobile game, memories which are slowly slipping into nothingness. Primarily due to my extreme sleep deprivation that borders on insomnia. I’m pretty sure this is a decently large health risk, but honestly I just can’t really muster the strength to care about it anymore after years of battling it. I’m just enjoying one of the few games that can pull me away from my dissociation, and within minutes I get attached to circle. I remind myself to slow down and not ADHD mash my way through everything, and quickly find myself at the end of the main story, before being asked to write a review. Which is going pretty well so far, my ADHD would have normally caused me to get distracted and give up writing less than halfway through but I’m somehow still going. Life has become stale and repetitive, and so I’ve escaped even harder to everything that isn’t the real world, but even that has become stale and repetitive. The worlds I’ve created inside my mind are running out of creativity, the characters I’ve made up are running out of scenarios to be put through, my mind is ceasing to feel anything, but this game still makes me feel something. I like it. I shall now end this incoherent 6 AM ramble of a review. Goodnight. …yknow I probably have depression I should go get that checked out

I started playing the game I think one year ago. I think I stopped somewhere before the square saga. This night my boy fell a sleep to the sound of piano by Raphael so I decided to try to play through the game as far as I could. To be honest i enjoyed and I did not enjoy the gameplay. I found some solutions which I think the developer was not having in mind and having “jump” button made some puzzles all too easy. I’m not sure if all of the puzzles, let’s call them puzzles , could be solved without jumping. I don’t feel very much motivated to go back and try again. Also, I sometimes could not execute moves precisely as my finger was covering the screen and I could not see what was happening below my finger. Maybe there was no other option to solve this or to design this in another way, but it’s just something I felt. I LOVED the story. I really do. And bonus stories are also amazing. The author really knows how to narrate and this game is story heavy (despite having an antiplot 🙃). At the end of the main arc and at the end of the game I really felt moved. I would give this game million points for the story telling (that’s 1 with ten zeros … give or take a zero) but only few points for the gameplay.

I have waited to write a review until now. I started way back with A Dark Room. Finding the world mysterious, frustrating, yet oddly satisfying and enlightening, I looked up who made that spectacular game, discovering Amirali Rajan and his games. The ensign came next. Getting through that game was significantly more difficult and took way more time and dedication to get through. The ideas surrounding those two games are extremely unique and satisfying, the best experience and thing to come out of owning a smart phone to date. That was 4 or 5 years ago, I’m not sure. When A Noble Circle came out, I was intrigued. Completely different style, extremely difficult. I went through and beat it though, loving the story and waiting for each update. This must have been a year or two ago. Tonight, I checked back and saw a new update, with a new ending. The message is awe-inspiring, deep, life changing, motivational, introspective, and truly touching. Amirali Rajan deserves the world for what he has communicated through his games and the obvious love, passion, and effort that has been conveyed. I discovered Hope many months before, and I have grown up with it thanks to this man, finally relayed my experience. Amir, if you read this, let me know how I can help continue your passion and support you through a monetary donation because you deserve more than any money-sucking impersonal game that Supercell or any other company produces. This work is truly incredible.