Anchored Hearts: A Tale of Destiny

[h1]”That's a sturdy mast.. or are you just pleased to see me?”[/h1] [i]Anchored Hearts[/i], at its core, is a visual novel, but solely in terms of playing time, it may qualify primarily as a top-down simple strategy battle-at-sea shooter. [h1]Story[/h1] Let's look at the game as a visual novel in the first instance. We take on the role of pirate Nova (changeable) Ramos, female captain of the ship “Lady Vengeance”; who finds herself thrown in jail, accused of sinking a number of Republic ships, having been widely seen as the last person to have been aboard all of the lost vessels; and who therefore stands as number one suspect for a grievous act which has broken a 300 year truce between the Arcomare Alliance (the aforementioned republic of four states) and the pirates of Libertown. To begin, she needs to escape jail (done by progressing the story talking with other people). Whenever someone is available for conversation, their portrait appears with a large exclamation mark alongside it. Clicking on the portrait begins an exchange and also presents that character's full sprite, as seen below: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3298551146 Upon reaching Libertown, the story kicks into gear properly, with Miss Ramos having to prove her innocence by undertaking a thorough investigation in order to establish the real culprit. She is aided/hindered by a number of others, two of whom also have the chance to become romantic interests – her first mate, and perhaps surprisingly, a high-ranking official from one of the republic states. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] In between each visual novel section of the game, our MC must set sail for clues, and this brings us to the overhead “shooting” section. In this, two ships line up side by side, and we must take the opposing vessel out of action before our own hull becomes too damaged to continue. Should our heroine be defeated, she will be carted off back to jail, forcibly conceding any gained loot to the jailer in the process. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3298550757 These sections are not complicated, and there is a thorough tutorial on handling them to get started – but an understanding alone will not see you make a successful escape at first time of asking. Each sailing has several clashes to deal with before safety, and damage taken from one battle is carried forward to the next, so you will probably suffer defeat by the final hurdle - at least until you have started to acquire pirate boons (through reputation) or ship improvements bought with looted coin. There is a menu option to give you easier ship battles, and I'd highly recommend that you set this to begin with, and take it off once you have gotten the hang of it if you want the later battles to be more engaging. Note though, that even if you manage to win your way right through at an initial attempt, you will find yourself back in jail as there are some important story-setting conversations to be had in the cells before you win your freedom! I struggled quite badly with these battles to begin with, but once I hit upon a reliable winning strategy they became, for want of a less corny expression, “plain sailing”. Back in the novel sections, there are regular 3-choice options provided (sometimes these also appear in one of the on-deck stages). These mostly provide colour/narrative variation, though there are occasions where your selection will make a bigger difference, initially in the sequence that the story plays out, and later, in deciding which of the love interests you wish to pursue. [h1]Sound, graphics and UI[/h1] Menu options include full screen/windowed (although I found the windowed option made the viewing area slightly bigger than my laptop screen and I couldn't find a way to reduce it, so had to settle for full); text speed/auto, and volume controls for both overall levels and individually for music, effects, and UI. The supporting music is fine, not especially piratey, but jolly enough and doesn't detract from the overall, which is good enough. Appropriate effects include ambient town life, cannons firing and swords clashing, although I would have liked the latter to be a little louder. Character sprites look nice. In keeping with the backdrops, fine details have been dispensed with, so they're quite simplistic at a glance, yet also both bright and busy enough to grab and hold your attention. There are also a couple of very nice kissing CGs to be found. You'll have to play the game yourself if you want to reveal those! The UI is also very stripped down. There are buttons for step back, step forward, and autoplay. And that's it. The text can be reversed or forwarded [i]very[/i] quickly with a slide on the trackpad, or, presumably, a mouse wheel. Be warned that the fast forward is exactly that. It is not a “skip” button in the familiar sense. I advise not forwarding on during your first play. The game remembers where you've got to at all times. There is NO manual save facility. You end a session at any point, and when you return, select the continue button. I know reading such a revelation can often be an instant off-put, and I'd be among the first to think “no thanks” as a rule when I discover this from a review – but hold on. The truth is that, the way the game plays out, you will not NEED a saved game … until you want to select your love interest, which is near the conclusion. [h1]Experience and verdict[/h1] I found the story to be more in-depth than I expected and this ensured I had a longer first play through than anticipated. Certainly the ultimately-repetitive nature of the ship battles contributed to this, and there is no escaping that, although they are not a long-drawn-out grind and do through the earlier stages provide a break from reading; they also become somewhat monotonous after you've been through 50+ virtually identical battles just to progress the story a little more. However, despite eventually developing a “not again!” attitude to another run of shoot-and-wait, my enjoyment of the narrative, development of the lead characters, and curiosity over who the guilty party was, remained undiminished until the end; which in itself was well thought out and entirely satisfactory. Although presented as part of the main story, romance scenes could be viewed as epilogues, and as such, they are fully fleshed out and leave a contented feeling for the reader. My only real gripe about the whole experience, ultimately does revolve around that absence of a save option. The final decision upon who you want to romance comes very late, and if you want to see both romantic endings – unless the developer responds to this review with information to the contrary – then you are going to have to play RIGHT THROUGH twice. My first run – including the early ship battle struggles – lasted 10.6 hours, and then, using the fast forward option as much as possible, my second one added a further 3.7 hours, which felt like a lot of effort for what is effectively an alternative epilogue. (I know this doesn't equal the total hours played – the extra bit was nipping back for review purposes). Overall though, this was a fun experience. For me personally, a pirate visual novel with a female captain – big cheer! Whether pirates are your thing or not though shouldn't really impact your decision to look at this game – it's a well crafted story with supportable characters and some variation in gameplay, so if you like visual novels that are not solely restricted to reading and making choices, then this is certainly a worthy option for your consideration. Otome Lovers wishes to thank Studio Witchstar for providing a free review copy for this game. [quote]Please follow our curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/4680120/]Otome Lovers[/url], if you'd like to see more reviews like this one! [/quote]

Wow, it's past midnight. I started playing and then I couldn't put the game down. This is such a good game, I honestly didn't expect for time to fly by the way it did. I feel like I have only just started. I'm enjoying the main mystery, the characters, the jokes AND I am ABSOLUTELY LOVING the ship battles. They're just so much fun! That moment when I juuuuuust squeak by and win... ahhhh it feels so satisfying. There's me shouting at the screen "LAND THAT HIT C'MON LAND IT!" Now I gotta go to bed but you bet I'll be playing this tomorrow. Thank you devs!

I'm a few hours in, and really enjoying Anchored Hearts! The characters have a real charm, and though I'm far from the end (I'm guessing I'm about a third of the way through the story) I'm genuinely invested in discovering what happens to them. The sea battles add an extra layer to the gameplay beyond the story-driven narrative, but there's an option to make combat less challenging if you'd rather focus on the romance ;-) This is the second Studio Witchstar game I've played (after The Final Farewell) and I've been hugely impressed both times. The writing, music, and art style are wonderful, and this team have such a knack of hitting emotional notes in just the right way. Well done!

Great game with sweet characters and romance. The female protagonist is one of the highlights of the story, and she's super easy to fall in love with. Recommended for the ones who just want a sweet little pirate romance to immerse themselves with.

Anchored Hearts is a nice little narrative game, with a compelling story and a lot of romance. I like pirate stories and getting into the world of the Republics, the political struggles, the love and a touch of mystery has hooked me from the very start. The characters are interesting and well written (and I bet everyone will absolutely love a specific one - no spoilers, but you'll know), and you discover more and more of them as the story unfolds between the adventures on the high seas and the life in Libertown (or some time in prison if you've been unlucky in your run). The strategic/roguelite part is on the simple side and quite enjoyable albeit at times a little repetitive. Upgrading the ship and getting the pirate boons gives a good sense of progression, though, and all in all enhance the feeling of a good swashbuckling story. I enjoyed my time with it, and I truly hope this universe will be expanded as it has a lot of potential.

before: just look at how many positive reviews are here and how many of them have gotten the product for free. This tells you anything you'd need to know. So here is my honest review (mind you: i am queer). Let's go: The devs were yapping about consent all along the story (whilst forcing a "they" into the story like hamfist was on sale) and then they went on with, and ill try to stay civil, ill really try: they were brute forcing the hetero relationship idea onto the player by asking around 5 times if "i really only want to be friends" and if i am really reaaaaally reaaaaally sure about that i dont want to get into a relationship with any of the men? All this whilst there is no other option for the player to mingle. You've really done it: You have implemented the DEI concepts to a degree were all sides can rejoice in disliking this game and by that extend the dev studio. - The left can, totally understandably, call you cowards/ pink washers etc. - The right can, totally understandably, call you [insert DEI slur here]. - The modern women can, totally understandably, call you midieval since you shoehorned them into being alone or HAVING to go with a male. - And even the cavemen can hate on you for not having a lesbo option. This is not a tale about a brave girl boss fighting the evil in the world. This is a poor excuse for a DEI grant and babies first plot hook/ plot hole. Now mix that with "today kids we are learning how to write a story, so please everybody, think of something lame just to get the creative juices going (not flowing since this could be considered,eh... who cares)" verdict: You will get bored and in the end (after around 4 hrs) you will regret it even at 50% off. I would refund it if i could. fighting guide so that everybody can get something out of this review: start by firing at the guns (middle), take damage upgrades, get bored.

wow that was actually a great game! I had no expectations, but damn, i was impressed by the plot and characters yes it has some bugs and not much background pictured, but the story is too interesting

Loving this game so far! The game play is fun and engaging and the art style is cute. Time flies whenever I play it which, in my opinion, is a sure sign that I am enjoying myself.

I got fully lost in the story and gameplay of Anchored Hearts - the ship battles give a nice break in the narrative and are a super fun mechanic. The story in this game is really well-crafted, and if you're into romantic narrative, you'll definitely have a great time. The characters are very lovable (well... the ones that are supposed to be) and the character art has a really soft, friendly feel to it - making you warm up to them even faster! I definitely didn't see the end coming and it resulted in a super satisfying conclusion to the story. The gameplay for the ship battles is very fun, and there's a setting to make these a little easier if you'd rather have a less challenging play. I enjoyed how the battles are both a nice break in between chapters, but also incorporate the story in a really solid way. Once you get more upgrades, the battles feel even more satisfying! All in all a very solid game that'll definitely keep you entertained until the end.

A fun pirate adventure! At first I was having trouble with the gameplay, I was not very good. But swapping to the easier mode actually helped a lot, started to make real progress then. So even when I'd die, I was actually making meaningful progress. Can't to untangle more of the story.