If you like horror movies and platform games Lylian may be right up your alley. Even with two difficulty levels you’ll only get a couple hours of play out of it. There is a demo available; I wonder how long it is compared to the full game. Fortunately, the five-dollar price tag compensates for the length of time you’ll enjoy it. If you see it on sale, it\'s worth looking into. It\'s a little too demented for my tastes though.

I like the music in this game and the cut scenes. The music and atmosphere is very well done, but the gameplay is somewhat lacking.

Controls and attacks are simplistic, plot moves along slowly. Also, the game gets boring very quickly, as there is not a lot to do but fight, fight, fight. Combat and talking are the main highlights of the game.

For a game that runs at fullscreen, I expected the sprites and graphics to be bigger, but evidently not.

The game is certainly unique in ways. There is Lylian's companion, Bob, who is a teddy bear made out of parts of different dolls, toys, etc. Very strange. On the whole, though, typical 'mental house' stuff. Nothing like the real thing. What it is to be mad is portrayed better in the game Sanitarium, rather this this little game.

One I won't be finishing, methinks.

While Lylian is unlike anything I've experienced, it also comes with numerous technical and visual flaws. The animations on both Lylian and her enemies look dated and completely take away from the immersion in certain areas of the game. They just don't fit the lovely backdrops or sinister atmosphere at all, and feel totally out of place.

The combat is also below average - you simply walk up to bad guys and tap the attack button until they die. Annoyingly, when there are multiple baddies around, you'll sometimes find that Lylian can get 'stuck' in their animations, and die within seconds. A completely revamped fighting system is needed - especially since the majority of the game involves fighting! Hopefully we'll see this altered in future episodes.

Simple scroller with wonderful intro music. Your heroine is little girl in sanitarium, her enemies are nurses and rat master. It's very short game - 2 h are enugh to finish. Better wait for possibility to buy all episodes in one pack.

Great little game.

The plot and writing were very well done, it's worth picking up just for that.

The setting of a mental asylum leaves open opportunities to meet people of different mental persuasions, and you definitely do. Lylian's imagination state and the characters she interacts with bring a nice bit of introspection towards what is usually a pretty stale game subgenre(side scrolling).

While the writing and plot are strong, the game does stumble pretty badly in combat. As mentioned in other reviews, it gets to be a bit of a button masher. It takes some of the shine off of what would be a fantastic little game.

Worth getting, just be prepared to pound your keyboard.

One of the great things about games with psychotic lead characters is that the line between reality and their imaginations can blur. Lylian really goes all out in this regard. The line isn't smudged a bit. It's smeared all over the place. It's only right to assume that most of what happens is happening only in Lylian's head.

Even within this warped reality Lylian can further abstract it, delving into a blissful dream world which enables her to cross the otherwise impassible.

The graphics do a good job of emphasising Lylian's perceptions of the world around her, swinging from beautiful cornfields to dark, scary tunnels of death as they do.

The gameplay is a fairly simple affair. It's not without its difficulty spikes either. The checkpoints aren't very well placed which isn't a bother for the most part, but it can grate when you need to use them several times.

All in all Lylian is a good first episode in a series that, unlike so many other episodic games, we can only hope is completed one day.

The value in this platformer relies heavily on the hard work that has gone into its 3D cut scenes and voice acting as the actual game play looks and feels like budget-ware from the nineties and something that you find being distributed freely on most free game sites.

As for story and theme, it's been done too often and this time isn't with any more taste or respect for people suffering in real situations.

As a platformer, I'd rate it 2/5 but a final verdict of 3/5 seems meritable considering the work that went into FMV and acting.

First of all I have to say that the concept of Lylian greatly interested me. The game looked beautiful with good combat mechanics in the trailers. So, what about in reality?

I liked that this scrolling action game was quite plot heavy. Lylian was a very interesting character to play and to listen to. Her philosophical ramblings were totally out there, but at the same time that really endeared her to me. She has a few accomplices throughout the game, the main of whom is her stuffed bear Bob. Also a mysterious person she nicknamed Shady is helping her.

The combat on the other hand was the downfall of the game. Lylian has three basic attacks with the sleeves of her straitjacket and basically that is all. All of those attacks are uninspiring and considering how many enemies there are to kill, the gameplay quickly degenerates into senseless button mashing. Plus in order to use your imagination powers (shifting to a different world in order to complete a certain objective) you have to kill a ridiculous amount of enemies. To use an RPG term, you are level grinding for the most second part of the game. And that is another problem - the game is ridiculously short. Even tho I haven't played many scrolling sho... er, bashers, I managed to complete it in a bit above an hour.

The other problem is that it looked great in trailers, but apparently the game is in 800x600 resolution, which is becoming outdated even in visual novels. I expected much better.

However I cannot help, but think that the game has an immense potential, but not as a scrolling basher. A point'n'click adventure game would have been a right way to go.

Lylian is a beautifully done side scroller in which the character, Lylian, uses the sleeves of a straight jacket and the help of a small stuffed bear to fight off the hordes of monsters in a mental institution. The artwork in this game is really great and chilling. The controls are really simple. One key is designated for an attack which varies depending on whether Lylian is standing still or jumping or running. It should be noted that despite this being episode 1, it’s still a pretty long game. It’s also really unforgiving. It’s almost as hard as.. well.. being attempting to fight your way out of a demented mental institution.

Lylian is a disturbing and beautiful Jump & Run. Which also sets a nice tone of humour to ease up the sinister theme of the game.

Dream (Madness?) and Reality - or what is left of it - intermix with each other seemlessly.

One of the constantly reoccurring disturbingly beautiful sequences is when Lylian´s Happy-Meter fills up. Then the dark hospital corridors filled with evil real nurses turn into a warm sunset cornflower field with butterflies to catch instead.

The horror that lies in the schism of what you see and what you actually do, is not to be underestimated. This makes it a truly different experience. Rather short but with no real downers. For $5, anytime.

For Episode 2 the developer is open to gamer feedback to a large degree. So somehow the world you dream up becomes a reality for Lylian. How twisted is that.

Very fun and creative platformer, if not short and having a few issues that should not have been overlooked. The setting of the game is surreal and out of this world; you basically have no idea whether it is real or exists only in Lylian's mind. Furthermore, in Episode 1, you are allowed to transform your world into two different incarnations, creating an illusion in an already illusory world. Very weird, but very cool. The enemies are also quite creepy and they all play an integral role in helping to establish the game's dark humour.

The only two problems I have with the game are the poorly placed checkpoints, and that there's a bit of mob grinding in order to gain enough points to transform your world (called "using your imagination" in the context of the game).

Technically, the controls are smooth and the graphics are very detailed. At no point did I feel like I was playing a Flash game. Everything is presented very nicely, from the gaining of abilities to the different rooms that you'll get to explore.

There are other nitpicks, but are not severe enough to constitute to the reduction in the fun factor of the game. Combat is not bad, but not varied enough, even though the moves vary according to Lylian's imagination. The game is also very short. You can finish it in about 2 hours.

All in all, it's not bad for $3.75. Even at $5, I'd say it's still worth the money, if only to experience a unique, contorted reality of an insane patient.