The real star of Pytho's Mask is the revolutionary conversation system evolved from the one in her previous titles, Galatea. Instead of simple responses to ASK or TELL inputs, NPCs in Pytho's Mask carry out a real conversation with you via a menu-based interface in which you pick what to say next from three-four choices at a time. One of the choices is typically the ability to backtrack to talk about something else, and the choices dynamically change as your conversation progresses. You can also quickly break the current conversation to talk to someone else, although everyone in the game has so many interesting things to say that you'll want to play the game more than once to hear it all. Thanks to Short's writing skills and eye for detail, the NPCs you can talk to in Pytho's Mask are astonishingly lifelike in their conversation, especially the mysterious "man in the dark mask" (who provides the romantic interest required in the SmoochieComp). I had so much fun talking to NPCs that I spent a lot of time restoring saved games to see what conversation "branches" I may have missed instead of focusing on the no-less interesting plot. Overall, Pytho's Mask is definitely a must-play for every IF fan, and here's hoping that more authors would utilize Short's excellent conversation system in their games in the near future. Two thumbs up, way up!