Forgotten Fields

[h3]Could have been a Postcard[/h3] A pretty postcard mind you, but 3 hours later all of the really good scenes are spoiled by a rather flat ending. A lot of this game feels incomplete, because it has it's moments where either the story is interesting, or the graphics are telling the story very well. And that's why I don't think Forgotten Fields lives up to it's name, it's a story about memories, but it's also a story about futures. It just cannot make it's mind up what it is. Forgotten fields has a nice soundtrack mind you, but game sound effects were zero budget. [h3]Minor issues[/h3] As game mechanics go, it's very simple, not un-intuitive, but it never does anything with the game mechanics beyond the simple WASD and Q to jump. The character often gets stuck trying to navigate past furniture, sometimes placed un-necessarily. Some accomodations for this do exist, but I had to save and restart the game 3 times when the mouse just stopped responding at various points. [h3]Cool Moments[/h3] There are many cool areas in the game and fun parts, at least one of them which had me asking, [i]that's cool but what was the purpose of adding that to the game[/i]? Which is the reason I say the game feels unfinished, some really nice parts to the game, and some parts that feel they got rushed. The game lacks story arc, it tries to create one by having this underlying story inside the story, but since their arcs do not mirror at all, it merely confuses the player. 3 hours of clicking through dialog that would take 4 hours to read, basically destroyed all immersion the game could have had. If you did like this review, and liked the far better game they wrote called Rainswept, go play that instead. But if you already enjoyed Rainswept, then check out one of these games https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41773079-EmpathyGames/list/90678

年轻的作家失去了灵感。 在他的想象中，自己的下一本书应该围绕女主的旅程展开。 女主踏上旅程的原因呢？因为发生了某种矛盾？还是...？ 对，因为女主失去了自己的魔法，要去找回它。 灵感又断了。作家起身，想起今天还要去母亲家里探访。 母亲准备把旧房卖了，这是最后一天。自己要和母亲、好友们一起在旧房里聚餐。 回家路上，作家遇见了自己的好友们，谈起近况与共同的回忆，感叹时间易逝，朋友关系也日渐难以维持。 有点像《林中之夜》，感觉其他人都在前进，自己却被困在原地。 聚餐后的当天夜里，作家继续写着自己的故事，并作出了某种决断。 大概就是这样一个简单的故事。 你一边扮演灵感枯竭的不安作家，在回头与前行之间挣扎，另一边则扮演作家想象中的女主，踏上冒险旅程。 两条线的主题，很明显，是类似的。 流程约2.5-3小时。 画面很风格化，感觉和制作组之前的<Rainswept>很像。 可惜技术力不太行，很多地方不能细看。做成2D或许更好。 有一些不错的台词。 音乐不错。 操作有些问题，不过在可接受范围内。 总体而言，适合不太年轻但又不够老的人。 以上，摸了。

[quote] A delightful insight into a writer’s creative process. Despite some issues with glitches and controls, the game has incredible art, soundtrack and a story that’s bound to be relatable to those of us who exercise our creativity. Video review at the end! [/quote] For some of us, creativity is like a candle. You light it up, and the flame burns bright, lighting the entire room around it. You revel in said light - I mean, how could you not? - and you feel motivated to do everything there is to be done… up until the moment the light burns out, and you’re left in the dark, trying everything you can to light the candle again. This is a tale as old as time, one that is unfortunately all too familiar for quite a few of us who actively exercise our creativity, including me. Perhaps this is why I was drawn to Forgotten Fields and its slice-of-life tale about a writer that has a severe case of writer’s block. —--------------------------------------------------------------- [b] Before I go any further, let me be clear: this review is spoiler-free! [/b] The steam store page description for the game says “Sid is a writer struggling with writer’s block, attempting to recapture the feelings of inspiration he felt when he was younger”, and I feel like this sentence captures a lot of what is special about Forgotten Fields. [b] Its story and writing are good, but nothing outstanding [/b] - yet, as a guy who loves to write and has not been able to do so for years, yearning for my teenage creativity that pumped out dozens of chapters for many different stories, [b] this story hits very close to home.[/b] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2849084259 Since publishing his first book, Sid has been unable to even write a story summary for his second book. This shouldn’t be a problem, but unfortunately, writing is Sid’s job, and our capitalist society demands him to pay his bills, so he has to submit a new idea in order to receive a new grant and continue writing full time. The kicker? It is the day of the deadline, and Sid still can’t bring himself to write anything. While he struggles with this problem, his friend drops by and passes along a message from Sid’s mom, who wants to have one final dinner with Sid and his friends before selling the house the very next day. Despite being reluctant to go due to his deadline, the protagonist decides to go anyway, embarking on a nostalgic adventure home. [b]I think it’s clear to all reading this at this point, but I found the storyline to be very relatable. [/b] The writing does try too hard to be philosophical at times, but it brought me some new insight into an issue that has plagued me and countless others for a long time. The issues, struggles, fears and hopes that Sid has are mostly shared with me, and I could clearly notice that the developer’s own heart was poured into this game. It really feels like a personal experience, an insight into his mind, which provides a very unique opportunity for introspection. While Sid is on his trip to his mother’s house, he meets up with his old friends, and manages to slowly develop the story he has been stuck on for ages. Basically, [b]every time the protagonist gets a new idea, you are thrown into a fairytale world, controlling Sid’s character, Cyradil, and playing through the new idea yourself.[/b] These story developments are both a narrative and gameplay device, acting as a very interesting way to develop Sid’s tale. These story developments work as a narrative device because there are plenty of parallels to be drawn from Sid’s story and Cyradil’s story. The fairytale world develops in direct response to Sid’s real life experiences, often mirroring things and dilemmas you just played through as Sid. In turn, watching things unravel in the fairytale world allows us an unfiltered insight into the protagonist’s mind and innermost thoughts. As for the gameplay device, it comes in the form of the occasional switch between the “real” world and Sid’s imagination. The fairytale world also has a bit more liberty in terms of themes and gameplay, as demonstrated by a basic stealth section and even a 2d section. Story aside, the game also excels in two other very important departments: the art style and soundtrack. [b]The game is a delight to see, and the art perfectly complemented the theme the game was going for at any given moment. The same can be said for the soundtrack. [/b] At one point, we have the warm colors of a sunset and the sounds of waves crashing against a beach, giving us a sense of relaxation and a feeling that everything would be alright, while Sid himself had a moment of introspection. At another point, the game used blues, whites, purples and yellow colors to convey the feeling of magic and safety in a certain location, with the ambient sound of birds and crickets to further collaborate in the construction of the environment. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2849083949 So the story is good, the soundtrack and artstyle are awesome… but what about the gameplay? [b]In the game, you walk around and interact with objects, usually from an isometric perspective that allows you to rotate and zoom the camera. [/b] There are some deviations from this, such as segments in which you play in first person, but those are unfortunately not very common. [b]While the game is very dialogue heavy, with plenty of reading to be had, the game does a good job of breaking it up with the occasional minigame or problem solving sections.[/b] I take good care to not call them puzzles because really, you are told what to do and you basically have to go and do what you’re told. The minigames aren’t too great either, mostly revolving around quick time events or specific movements (like flicking the mouse to throw a rock), but they do serve to stop the game from being dialogue after dialogue. The main problem with the gameplay, though, are the [b]at times janky controls.[/b] There were a few sections in the game that genuinely made me frustrated, as I was unable to properly do what the game wanted me to. The main offender here was the rock throwing minigame: for some reason, I could never get it to throw properly, instead either barely moving the rock from the ground or just yeeting it off camera, with no middle ground. And while we’re on the topic of issues… [b]The game is, unfortunately, quite glitchy.[/b] There were two main issues that I found. One of them, that you can easily replicate, is related to the space bar. If you press space, you skip your current text. However, if you press space bar while the game is controlling your camera angle (for example, when the camera focuses on the shower when you’re showering in the beginning of the game), you can move your character, but the camera angle gets stuck in the wrong angle and is unable to be fixed except by reloading an earlier save. The second one was that my character just… refused to move properly at some point. He basically walked in one direction till I paused the game, then unpaused and quickly pressed another direction, which would prompt Sid to eternally walk in that direction. If you run into this second issue, just open the clothing menu and it fixes the problem. [b]Aside from these bugs, there were no performance issues.[/b] Overall, I was glad to have played this game. It made me think about a lot of things, but I think the main takeaway I had was that maybe, just maybe, trying to re-light the same candle that was put out in the intro to this review is not the way to go. Perhaps what I should instead be doing is lighting new candles, and looking forward to the future. [quote] On that note: I have released my first youtube review (of this very game)! Please check it out if you want a video review instead of text! If you have any feedback about it, or this written review, feel free to message me! [/quote] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JYqMG1sBFY

Some of the worst writing and dialogue I've sat through in a while. The fantasy novel....it's rough, man. Really janky gameplay too.

3hrs long. This is a story about a novelist who is having a nostalgia crisis. It's "OK". It's very wordy and almost like it's a partial life story of the developer (which isn't a bad thing - don't get me wrong), but there are sequences where you may end up just clicking through text because it's just not interesting or engaging. If you like interactive stories, go for it. If you're not one for stories, don't bother.

Forgotten Fields is a very good adventure game with a beautiful story, some nice designs and a relaxing ambiant. I highly recommend it!!! 💗💗💗

Good idea and the music is great but the gameplay simply does not work as well as the writing. I did not enjoy the first half hour of the game and let's be honest, with such a title you have like the attention of the first 15-30 minutes of the player to convince him that the game is worth the time. Not for me. Controls are confusing. UI is unclear and dialogues, writing is not engaging. Less is more.

[b]Forgotten Fields[/b] is a casual narrative game about a struggling writer named Sid and follows him on his journey to visit his family home one last time before it is sold. Players must visit old friends, relive memories and help Sid with his writer’s block! Forgotten Fields is a cosy and casual game about nostalgia and moving forwards. It offers two engaging narratives, an engaging and relatable protagonist, uniquely stylised artworks and a mesmerising and varied soundtrack. Overall, it has a lot to offer and is a great example of interactive fiction. I’d happily recommend it to fans of the genres or of Frostwood Interactive’s other works such as Unwording. [b]WANT TO KNOW MORE?[/b] My full review of this game where I go into detail about gameplay, narrative and styling is available on [url=https://indie-hive.com/forgotten-fields/]Indie Hive[/url].

I don't know what but this game offers something really unique... A unique feeling, that I haven't felt in a long-long time through video games. Somehow it made me dwell on my childhood memories... One should definitely try it out! 🎈

This is one of the most contrasted game I've played for a long time. There are abysmal flaws : a lot of technical issues, constant clipping, camera issues, framerate drops and stutter for a very basic game, very janky controls and mini games, and most of all... the "writing" part of the writing (by that I mean, the in-game book the character is writing) is so terrible that I'm suspecting it's intentional for some kind of meta humor. If not, jesus... And yet, there are a lot of qualities. The mood works really well both visually and musically for the 4 hours you will be playing, and most of the dialogues are spot on. Well, maybe because they hit extremely close from home. I mean, I too am a young writer in his early 30s where his parents house is getting sold in a very near future and where everything around him is changing fast. But aside from that, I honestly thought most of the dialogues to be very relatable and touching if you're a young adult. And you can tell it was a personal and important game for the creator, though it doesn't matter if the finished product is terrible on a lot of aspects (but not all) Anyway, I can't tell exactly why, but this still get a positive review from me. But be prepared when I say there are abysmal flaws : a lot of individual parts of the game are terrible, so it's gonna be hit or miss. Either you're in, or you'll give up pretty quick.