NOSTALGIC TRAIN

The most beautiful game i ever played. More like a relaxing trip to a rural Japanese town in the 1960s. Plus a train driving simulator. It is difficult finding the right words. Right now there is only the Japanese version released, but an English translation is planned. So right now you definitely miss the best part of the game if you can't read Japanese. The story mode is more than just a story, it is somewhere between poetry and memories of the past. But even if you don't speak Japanese and always dreamed to have a time machine and go to a small Japanese village in the 1960s this is the closest you'll ever get. I had been traveling to Japan like 15 times and even though pulsating cities like Tokyo fascinate me i have a place in my heart for the tiniest Japanese villages - some even today still look like in the game, just that the vending machines, cars and shops were modernized a bit. The feeling to walk along the Bamboo groves, hear the cicadas and the sound of the train crossing warning signal - the plants weeping in the breeze - it is just incredible how the author of this game captured all this. This is not a "game" like a shooting game or RPG - it is more like a simulation of a small Japanese town, complete with shops, temple, river, seaside, train station and everything. This will be your small world and you will not really be "playing" it like a classic game, you will hang out, walk along the sea side or just take a ride in the train and watch the landscape outside. Ah and yes - you can actually "drive" the train. Not as complex as the "Densha de Go" series, but if you enjoy being a train driver then this is loads of fun. Do I recommend this? Yes definitely. If you don't speak any Japanese you will unfortunately miss a beautiful story where you discover memories in a beautiful writing. But even if you just come over to the town sometimes to relax, watch the ocean or walk along the riverside you will not regret getting this game. If you get nervous when you don't have a gun or can not talk to people then this is not for you. But most people will love to spend a few relaxing hours admiring the beautiful scenery dreaming of distant Japan for a while. After all games are not about getting highscores or shooting as many bullets as possible but the big headline over a game is spending quality time - and this is what you do. If relaxation is more valuable to you then action then this is a must-have. I enjoyed"Everybodys gone to the rapture" and paid much more for it - and afterwards even though EGTTR features a much bigger play area it is dull and lacks the passion and poetry of this game.

ストーリーモードに期待するのではなく、3Dのレトロな日本を歩き回る、という点に重きを置いて購入しました。 結論としてはそれは大、大失敗で3Dの世界を歩き回るのであれば相互作用を当然期待していたもののそれは全くありませんでした。 見えない壁で区切られた非常に狭いエリアの中で、 息遣いを感じられるのは入門用プラレールみたいなオーバルコースをぐるぐる回っているだけの電車だけ。 調べられるのはフレーバーテキストを呼び起こす光る玉が点々とあるだけでした。

[h3][Note: I played the game in Japanese and my review is based on gameplay in that language. I have no experience with the Chinese translation or the English fan-translation mod.][/h3] I'm ambivalent about this game. This game is both a walking simulator and a visual novel. You play as a man who finds himself lost in an empty Japanese village which he has no memories of but finds it familiar. You have to find the light orbs (memory triggers) scattered around the map to proceed in the story. This game has a lot of potential. I really like its setting in the summer in a quaint Shouwa-era Japanese seaside village. The atmosphere in this game is quite unique. I've played many walking simulators that can be described as relaxing, which this game certainly is, but this is the only one that triggered a bittersweet feeling and nostalgia which is intriguing since I don't have any real-life experiences with Japanese villages. In contrast to what you may think when you see the screenshots from this game, the story is quite sombre in tone. The whole game reminds me of the 2000 visual novel AIR by Key (or its 2004 anime adaptation) because of its summer setting, dreamy atmosphere and story that revolves around friendships and reincarnations. Everyone who has played/watched AIR will know what I mean :) However, this game has many issues: [olist] [*]No key remapping. [*]Insufficient controller support. You can't run when using a controller and the camera control on the controller is weird. [*]You cannot change graphics resolution. [*]For a open-world walking simulator, the map is quite small. [*]The ambient sound effects, especially of the insects, are loud and irritating. [*]The whole gameplay consists of finding light orbs which is exactly as boring as it sounds. Worse, some of them are hard to see in the blinding sunlight, and some are hidden in tall bushes. Not only is the search process frustrating, it actually affects the flow of the story which is fatal for a visual novel like this. [*]The storytelling is awkward. I don't know how to explain this, but it doesn't blend well with the gameplay. It's as if the author wrote some part of the story just to force you to go to some certain places in the game. [*]Readability issues: (a) The text font looks too comical for a serious story like this; (b) the font size is too small; and (c) because of the lack of text border or shadow, the text is hard to read when the background is bright. [*]The novel aspect of the game isn't much better than the gameplay either. The writing is too amateurish, as if written by a secondary school student. I often had to read the text more than once to understand who was speaking or who was doing a particular action (in Japanese, the implied subject is usually left out from a sentence, which adds to this confusion). Some of the sentences were so confusing, after spending minutes ruminating over them I still had no idea what the author was trying to say. This game desperately needs an editor to fix the writing. [*]The story mode lasts for 3 to 4 hours, which doesn't sound too long, but halfway through I was begging for it to end because the gameplay was so painful! [/olist] I'm rambling a lot but I'm just disappointed at the wasted potential of this game. I still think it is a good walking simulator. Those who like to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of a Japanese village forgotten by time and those who are interested in Japanese history and culture, like me, will find this game interesting. As long as you are willing to overlook the feeble storytelling and other issues, please give it a try, but I recommend only buying it when it's on sale. One last thing I'd like to mention: The story jumps through different periods in history including the Classical/Medieval period, Russo-Japanese War and Taishou era. The time periods are only hinted throughout the story, and the time jumps may be confusing to people who aren't familiar with the history of Japan. If you want to play this game, it helps to have some background knowledge in Japanese history.

ハイクオリティな日本の風景の中で、重く切ないストーリーが語られる…。といったゲームです。 最大のウリである風景は非常に素晴らしく、ストーリーの本筋についても個人的にはある程度アリだと感じました。ただ、ストーリーの語り口や登場人物の口調については少々くどく感じてしまったのと、語りに合わせた風景の変化がほぼ一切ないことが非常に残念でした。 また、ストーリー攻略の際、次のチェックポイントを表示させるため頻繁にマウス右クリックをする必要があるのですが、右クリックのたびに画面が白むのがかなり厄介で、天候の目まぐるしい変化も相まって景色を楽しむ暇があまりありません。 これからプレイされる方は、 - グラフィック設定がデフォルトでは「最高」ではなく「高」になっているので、真っ先に変更すること - 「Ｗ」キーとともに「Ａ」キーまたは「Ｄ」キーを押して移動する、斜め移動が非常に速いこと - 酔いやすい方は酔い止めを事前に服用しておくこと この3点を押さえておけば、比較的良質な体験を得られると思います。

I had to refund it after ten minutes of walking around and not even knowing what to click on...Plus you need a special code to launch the game. The creator should probably try to make this VR compatible too.

ストーリーモードを完走済み [h3]2023/11/25現在のアップデート対応事項まとめ[/h3] 過去の皆様のレビュー時点から改善された点が多いのでご参考まで。 ●チャプターモード追加(ストーリーモードをクリア後に解放) ●設定関連 [list] [*]カメラ感度 [*]カメラXY軸の反転ON/OFF [*]音量調整 以下、フリーモード限定 [*]電車の停車時間 [*]昼夜の変更 [*]天候の変更(昼のみ) [*]天候の変動周期 [/list] [h3]良い点[/h3] [list] [*]美麗なグラフィックやサウンドは期待通り。懐かしさを覚える夏の雰囲気に没入できる。これが全てです。 [/list] [h3]気になった点[/h3] [list] [*]探索モードで白いモヤに触れることでストーリーが進みますが、 　①(導入部分？)一言二言のみで次のモヤへ誘導される 　②(メイン部分？)文章量が多く移動・カメラ操作が不可 の2種類が存在します。モヤに触れるまで①②の区別が一切つかないため、探索を続けたいのに強制的に長文を読まされるケースがしばしば起こります。 さらに①のモヤもしくはオブジェクトの説明テキストを表示させたまま別のテキスト発生地点へ移動すると表示が重なり、背景の暗さが増していく。3回ほど繰り返すと真っ暗闇の世界が誕生。初見で操作方法に慣れていない時に発生したので焦りました。 [*]ストーリーの内容は賛否が分かれそう。序盤から田舎の陰鬱な側面をこれでもかと見せつけられるので、ほのぼのとした探検気分を期待していると面食らいます。それらを乗り越えると終盤で話が繋がっていく様子を見られるのですが…。 テキストは全体的にもったいぶった言い回しや説明口調が多く、くどさを感じる時がありました。 [*]探索モードの必要性が疑問。起動するたびに視界が白ばんだエフェクトがかかり、目の負担的によろしくないです。それでもモヤを追う際にほぼ必須なため何十回と起動する羽目になるので、本機能を廃してモヤは常時表示でよかったのではと思います。 [*]明るさの変化の作り込みが甘く、不自然な部分があります。トンネル内のある地点で極端に明るくなる、夜に照明からある程度離れるとガクッと暗くなる、など。 [*]しゃがむ操作っていつ使えばいいんですか？ [/list] [h3]総評[/h3] 探索ゲームの皮を被ったノベルゲーム。プレイヤーが期待する探索や景観を備えつつ、横からノベル要素が割り込むような惜しい作品だと感じました。痒い部分に手が届かないもどかしさはありますが、景観の美しさだけでお釣りが来るレベルだと思います。 現在の定価は1200円とお手頃になっていますので、ノスタルジックな気分に浸りたい方は是非手に取ってみてください。

A beautiful little game, very atmospheric. Gameplay is a mixture of walking simulator (like Dear Esther) and visual novel. The story isn't long, but it's well told. I definitely enjoyed the game. Just don't expect any action, puzzles etc. Gameplay was about 3 hours, but i explored a lot and took screenshots, so it was a little longer for me. Both the english and the german translation are pretty good. I'd buy more games like this.

First of all, I am kind of biased towards this game, as it is something I have been longingly anticipating to happen to video games for quite some time now: the advent of the 'empty', senseless if you will, walking simulator. Or maybe even that isn't the right way to put it, as you find yourself in a place, a small village, more than actually walking along paths to experience a bunch of scripted story related events, such as in 'Dear Esther' and the likes. 'Nostalgic Train' feels more like a virtual open-air museum space, where you look at the environs and learn a bit about Japanese culture and history on the side. Personally, I love it, but it is completely understandable if someone says this wasn't a game per se. I am the kind of person who would start up an open world game every so often, only to appreciate the beauty of the world, looking around for a bit, and then turning the thing off again. Almost like looking out the window when you're sat in the boring cubicle office that is your life, only now it's digital. So if you're like me in this regard, you will derive pleasure off this game. There are things to criticize as well, sure enough. The world is a wee bit smallish - really, don't expect an open world here. I don't know.. if there was an open meadow, some more explorable buildings, things like this, that would have really helped lots in terms of elevating the general immersion. Also, the UI is a bit rough around the edges, having to press N/Y for No/Yes instead of ESC to get out of a menu, just like in the olden days. Oof. The graphics are nice to look at for a while, but not immersive enough for a game of this genre I think. I expected detailed shop interiors, banners etc. not quite on the level of such as we see in most Yakuza games, but comparable. All that being said, the game was made by only one (!) guy who went it alone, and what he came up with is impressive for a one man job. I would have bought the game just for that, to motivate him and eventually get a sequel or something later on.'Nostalgic Train' is more of a pioneering pilot to the genre for me, but definitely more than a mere tech demo at the same time.

The concept looks excellent, the Japanese level looks a little beyond my level. But I don't think the typical Japanese laptop can possibly run this game. I have a laptop with an AMD E2-9000e RADEON R2, and a 1.50 GHz CPU, and I didn't think the CPU would hold back the rest of the experience this bad but apparently it does. The game is basically unplayable on my PC. It feels like a bit of a surprise, after having played games like Dear Esther and MGSV in the past on DELL and HP laptops. I look forward to enjoying this game in the future. コンセプトはいいようなです。日本語は私より強いけど少し分かります。 でも、日本の普通コンピューターはこのゲーム出来ないと思います。このコンピューターにはAMD E2-9000e RADEON R2と 1.50 GHz プロセッサあって、このプロセッセは問題じゃなかったと思いましたが本当に問題だと思います。ざんねん、このゲームはこのパソコンはプレー出来ません。珍しいと思いますが、前はDear EstherとMSGVをDELLとHPでプレーしました。 未来にこのゲームを楽しみたいです。

ウォーキングシミュレータとビジュアルノベルが合わさった感じの作品。雰囲気重視だと思っていたのでストーリーは正直期待していなかったのですが、ちゃんとしたストーリーがありました。だいぶ暗い話でしたが個人的には好みでした。 システム的には、指定地点を通過するとストーリーが進行するようになっています。その地点はとても狭いので「海岸に行こう」などのようなテキストに従って自分で移動してもうまく通過するのは難しいかも。右クリックで地点が表示されるので毎回確認して移動したほうがよさそうです。 グラフィックもストーリーも満足でしたが、システム面では多少不満があります。バックログや文字サイズ変更、テキストが自動送りされるシーンでは速度の調整などがない点です。読み損ねたらもう一周するしかなくなってしまいます。ノベルゲーム的な機能も一通りあると嬉しいです。 あとは実績がないのがちょっと残念でした。Xbox版やPS版にはあるようなのでいつかアップデートで対応してほしいです。