Sunday, November 2, 2025
Genre – Horror, RPG Maker Play Time – 10 hours Developer – AstralShift Steam
Hold That Gold Tight
Releasing
at the tail end of the golden era of RPG Maker horror, the
original Pocket Mirror captured the best quality of games from that
time and brought them together into a well presented package. Seven
years later AstralShift released a remaster of Pocket Mirror named
GoldenerTraum which touches up the visuals and adds some new content
in order to bring it to a wider audience. It maintains the excellent
atmosphere and creeping dread alongside the characters’ riveting
journey which made the original so memorable. Those characters are
dealt with separately and given the space they need to shine and
inspire fear. Creating a visual and audio space filled with tension
and beauty was already something the original did well so the new
touches help elevate it to a new level. However, GoldenerTraum does
not solve any of the flaws of the original from unclear choices to
uneven pacing while adding in many of its own with its new content
not meshing with the old. Is this enough to undermine this classic
RPG Maker horror game? Let’s get lost in a kaleidoscopic maze of
terror and find out.
Into Fear And Loneliness – Narrative and Themes
The
one element a RPG Maker horror game needs to be successful is a
strong atmosphere with a backbone of dread since it cannot rely on
its visuals in the direct way other style of horror are able to.
Pocket Mirror takes notes from its predecessors in order to embody
their best traits while avoiding some of their common pitfalls. Dread
is used as a subtle tool with the off nature of puzzles and
interactions carrying a lot of the tonal weight. Often this manifests
in moments where characters will have the protagonist do things that
are twisted or not be upfront about the consequences of what they
want only to turn round and be confused at the protagonist’s fear. An abnormal sense of normality is
pervasive throughout as the items and scenery of a young girl’s
life take on strange forms and even in the quiet moments the player
cannot shake the feeling of wrongness. This encroachment becomes more
pronounced as the game goes on and the characters become more
openly hostile to the protagonist and this makes for suitable pacing
curve to prevent the horror from becoming too stale and predictable.
Its
characters’ journeys and how the relate to and influence the
protagonist is the main narrative driving force.
Their
unforgettable personalities and the way they can turn on the
protagonist at any moment helps make each new encounter with them
feel like a meaningful look into their minds. When combined with the
player’s ability to decide their individual fates through choices
made
along the way, it makes for a compelling motivation to push through
the fear and see the outcome of this story.
One
area Pocket Mirror is careful to not overuse is the chase sequence.
Many of its peers have a tendency to overuse this mechanic due to the
lack of other ways to directly threaten the player which might be
exciting at first but eventually results in fatigue due to the player
wanting to just get on with the game. Here
Pocket Mirror understands the need for palpable danger but uses the
chases as a means to emphasise a specific narrative beat or to shake
up the player’s expectations after a long period of their absence.
By
holding back it can get the most out of this mechanic without it and
avoid it wearing out its welcome.
A similar approach can be seen in its more
selective use of dead ends compared
to other RPG Maker horror titles. Rather
than just killing the protagonist at every minor mistake, it instead
makes its dead ending narratively appropriate and clear
telegraphs the imminent danger to
build up and pay off the tense situation. Using its tools when they are
called for a general use of subtly and implication are Pocket
Mirror’s greatest strengths and are the basis of its fear.
 |
| Be careful not to fall |
GoldenerTraum
is an odd release when it comes to Pocket Mirror’s narrative and
tone since it makes a lot of changes and additions which undermine
the strengths of the original while also failing to fix the issues it
has inherited. By far the most problematic addition is the new ending
which exemplifies the issues with the changes made by GoldenerTraum.
It is says the quiet part out load. This ending covers something
which was never the focus of the original story and was vaguely
implied through subtle clues. It is not an important element of the
story and not expanding on it did not hurt the original work. By
spelling it out for the player it removes a layer of subtly which was
the game’s greatest strength in exchange for an ending lacking in
meaningful substance. To top it all off it is also a bad ending so
lacks any proper sense of resolution and feels like it exists to
punish the player despite another bad ending already existing to
fulfil this purpose.
Beyond the ending, the other changes all roughly
follow this pattern of stripping away subtly and are damaging to
various extents. For example, the endings all now have little
illustrations which pop up after they have been completed. While they
should be a nice touch which adds another layer to presentation, they
are instead highly destructive since they spell out how the player
should interpret them. Ambiguous endings are now made black and white
removing any need for the player to engage with narrative and
undermining the horror brought about by that lack of certainty. Then
there are the problems also present in the original which the new release does
nothing to resolve. Chief among these is the imbalanced lengths of
the sections given to each character with the first one, Fleta, being
noticeable longer when compared to the others. In the original this
was likely caused by the opening hours being the first to be
developed meaning they got the most revisions and additions before
the final release. However, GoldenerTraum does nothing to address how
lopsided this can make the experience of playing the game and seems
to not be interested in fixing issues so much as making unnecessary
add-ons.
Girls With Trauma – Characters
Having
such a small cast works in Pocket Mirror’s favour since it can
spend a larger amount of time focused on their individual arc. The
game knows this is one of its strength as it is rare for there to be
more than two characters on screen to further narrow the player’s
attention. To make sure there is no competition for space each of the
main character are given their own sections of the game one after
another where they become the pivot around which the game revolves.
Their distinctive personalities and the way they offer vastly
different kind of dangers to the protagonist helps them stand out.
Felta is a bubbly and childish girl who becomes brutal and aggressive
the moment she does not get her way while Harpae is a calm and mature
person who poses a threat in the way she will smother the protagonist
in her desire to protect them. The constant tension of waiting for
the moment these characters switch and reveal their darker side
allows them a larger presence in the player’s mind and makes their
eventually resolution all the sweeter. Interacting with all these
characters is our protagonist who carefully treads the line between
the necessary vulnerability of a main character from a horror game
and the good heart needed for her actions and attitude towards others to
make sense. Pocket Mirror loves to play on her status as victim to
inspire growth in her and highlight how her unwillingness to admit
responsibility for her actions has hurt others. This makes the other
character’s a great foil to her as they are all things she is not
but wishes she could be and through their actions she is shown the
reality of how their lives are not what she imagined them to be.
 |
| Fleta is so nice until she has a tantrum |
Wonderland Of Terror – Visual, Audio and Technical
If
there was one area GoldenerTraum preforms better than its predecessor
it is in the improvements it makes to both the traditional and pixel
art. It builds upon the strong style and direction of the original to
enhance the atmosphere while bring clarity to previous muddy
elements. What this means in practice for the pixel art is that it
has a sharper resolution with more details being visible and the
movement of the characters and their expressions being easier to see.
This opens the way for a flexible use of the assets to add a layer of
control over how a scene will play out so a greater degree of visual
spectacle can be achieved during impactful moments. In terms of the
traditional artwork for the CGs and character portraits, there have
been a number of new additions throughout and many events which
previous did not have any have been given one. The overall effect of
these changes is a greater sense of immediacy to the danger and
emotion of Pocket Mirror’s world while still maintaining enough of
its mystery for these visuals to not overstay their welcome.
Improvements have also been made to the game’s soundscape primarily
through an expanded soundtrack. Since the original’s music was
already a highlight of the experience with its mix of haunting and
gentle melodies and GoldenerTraum keeps to this core identity with a
few flourishes of its own in order to add to its range of emotions.
 |
| Ever screen has a dream like quality to it |
Mechanically
Pocket Mirror is in line with its peers and does little to try and
change the gameplay formula which has worked so well for them. What
this means is, outside of the aforementioned chase sequences, a fairly inoffensive adventure game format filled with simple environmental or
inventory puzzles. This is not going to shake the boat but at the
same time it is well enough put together that the player is likely too
distracted by the story and the horror to notice the uninspired
repetition. A large mechanical issue stems from the choices where it
is regularly unclear what the player has to choose in order to get
the best endings for the cast. At times what appears to the right
option is in fact completely wrong yet the correct answers are not
consistent enough to just apply counter logic in order to find them.
This can make for a frustrating experience where the player may feel
inclined to look at a guide since they want to see the characters
they have grown to care about get the ending the deserve. On top of
this the new ending added with GoldenerTraum is only available on a
new game plus playthrough. For new players this will likely not be an
issue, but for fans who played the original and want to experience
the new content this results in two playthroughs of a game whose
content they have likely already played many times before just to get
to the stuff they paid for.
Conclusion
Embracing
the legacy of the RPG Maker horror genre places a lot of expectations on
Pocket Mirror which it comfortably meets by capturing the best of
those games. It creates an atmosphere of creeping dread where chase
sequences and jump scares are not overused while mixing in a twisted
version of a young girl’s life. Visually it takes full advantage of
its pixel art to craft a beautiful and haunting world with
GoldenerTraum further expanding it. The cast support these core
elements through their combination of vulnerability and hostility
where the player is just waiting for the other shoe to drop and each
is given the space they need to shine. However, the other changes
made by GoldenerTraum hurt the game as they undermine the subtly it
was using as part of its horror while not fixing the issues of the
original. Thankfully this damage is not severe enough to ruin what is
one of the most magical titles of its genre.
Verdict –
Captures the essence of what makes RPG Maker horror games tick
and refines it into a beautiful and unforgettable journey.
GoldenerTraum changes do muddy the waters a bit with some
questionable additions.
Pros -
+
Brings together the best aspects of the RPG Maker horror genre while
leaving behind many of its problematic elements.
+
A strong cast who invoke as much fear of them as love and this makes
for wonderfully tense interactions.
+
Beautifully haunting pixel art is accompanied by an equally powerful
soundtrack.
Cons -
-
Changes made by GoldenerTraum often result in a loss of subtly and
the horror implied by it in favour of just telling the player how
to interpret what they are seeing.
-
There are several strange design choices such a locking the new
ending behind a second playthrough and the correct choices for each
character’s good ending often being unclear.
