There's nothing positive in this review that you haven't heard before - the visuals, while taking inspiration from things like the memory sequences from Psychonauts, are memorable and unique on their own, the characters are charming and are rarely short on new dialogue that can either reveal more about themselves or other people, and the overall narrative is very good at preserving a generally comedic and/or light-hearted atmosphere while still taking measures to include the horror-tinged undertones that this game is well-known for. While the finale is sudden and even anti-climactic, the abruptness of it is softened by the open, ambiguous ending and closing credits.
However, the world we're presented with in Smile For Me almost feels too small for these characters, ESPECIALLY Dr. Habit, who (perhaps unsurprisingly) is revealed to have practically a Molotov cocktail of deep-seated psychological issues that are implied to still be lingering by the end of the game. The Habiticians themselves also have a lot of history with each other, and while I don't think all of them necessarily have to be fleshed out, there are definitely a few quest endings that only feel like temporary fixes rather than long-term solutions, due to the nature of Smile For Me being a rather short point-and-click/puzzle game. I also wouldn't recommend playing this if you're someone who likes their games to be heavy on plot, as it is very much a series of fetch quests.
Overall, I'd say it's about a 6/10. As far as I am aware, this is Limbolane's first project, and it definitely shows. That being said, they have demonstrated a remarkable talent for character writing and setting the mood, and I'd say as long as they can play up to those strengths while working on refining things like gameplay and dramatic structure, I can see them improving by leaps and bounds.
EDIT 7/24/2020: So, the epilogue came out a few weeks back. Honestly I should have written this addition back when it first dropped, but better late than never. The epilogue actually amended a lot of the complaints I had about the characters being ripe for interesting interactions with each other but never getting to have any thanks to the design of the game. Since it's using a chatroom format, the epilogue solely consists of the characters interacting with each other, and those interactions are genuinely funny and endearing and sometimes give us more insight into characters that didn't really get a lot in the game. I also think the epilogue as a whole was a pretty clever way to show off all the fanart that's amassed in the past year.
Unfortunately, my point about the original game being too short for the story it wants to tell still stands, especially when it comes to Dr. Habit - which is a shame, because I actually really dig his character concept in theory. Also unfortunately, I'm running out of room. Still a 6/10.
Smile For Me is no masterpiece...
...but it is pretty good.
There's nothing positive in this review that you haven't heard before - the visuals, while taking inspiration from things like the memory sequences from Psychonauts, are memorable and unique on their own, the characters are charming and are rarely short on new dialogue that can either reveal more about themselves or other people, and the overall narrative is very good at preserving a generally comedic and/or light-hearted atmosphere while still taking measures to include the horror-tinged undertones that this game is well-known for. While the finale is sudden and even anti-climactic, the abruptness of it is softened by the open, ambiguous ending and closing credits.
However, the world we're presented with in Smile For Me almost feels too small for these characters, ESPECIALLY Dr. Habit, who (perhaps unsurprisingly) is revealed to have practically a Molotov cocktail of deep-seated psychological issues that are implied to still be lingering by the end of the game. The Habiticians themselves also have a lot of history with each other, and while I don't think all of them necessarily have to be fleshed out, there are definitely a few quest endings that only feel like temporary fixes rather than long-term solutions, due to the nature of Smile For Me being a rather short point-and-click/puzzle game. I also wouldn't recommend playing this if you're someone who likes their games to be heavy on plot, as it is very much a series of fetch quests.
Overall, I'd say it's about a 6/10. As far as I am aware, this is Limbolane's first project, and it definitely shows. That being said, they have demonstrated a remarkable talent for character writing and setting the mood, and I'd say as long as they can play up to those strengths while working on refining things like gameplay and dramatic structure, I can see them improving by leaps and bounds.
EDIT 7/24/2020: So, the epilogue came out a few weeks back. Honestly I should have written this addition back when it first dropped, but better late than never. The epilogue actually amended a lot of the complaints I had about the characters being ripe for interesting interactions with each other but never getting to have any thanks to the design of the game. Since it's using a chatroom format, the epilogue solely consists of the characters interacting with each other, and those interactions are genuinely funny and endearing and sometimes give us more insight into characters that didn't really get a lot in the game. I also think the epilogue as a whole was a pretty clever way to show off all the fanart that's amassed in the past year.
Unfortunately, my point about the original game being too short for the story it wants to tell still stands, especially when it comes to Dr. Habit - which is a shame, because I actually really dig his character concept in theory. Also unfortunately, I'm running out of room. Still a 6/10.