Road to Karatl

As an experimental title to practice development this is a fine experience. However this is being sold and treated like an actual game so I am going to treat it like one. *Spoilers Below" Before we start I need to know... why I am being charged for this? This is nowhere near long enough to get past the 2 hour refund cutoff. One of my fellow reviewers Squido claims it took him 24 minutes to get through this game for the first time and it took me even less. If you want more people to review and share their thoughts, it should be free and if you want to make money off this it needs to be much longer. But whatever lets actually talk about the game. You are thrown right into the game and this is probably the biggest issue. The person you play as obviously has more context but from your perspective, you are simply on a journey to a city you don't know anything about anything. Despite this all these characters keep speaking as if we are having a grand discussion on philosophy and they pretend to have a grasp on your character as they tell you what to think. For example I told a man asking about my journey, that I am just passing through and he essentially says "Nuh Uh you stupid ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, that's not what the game is about. You are on your way to Karatl". This kind of thing keeps happening, wacky and strange characters show up to speak AT you and info dump their life story because they want this game to be deep and rich with world building (I mean I think they do. I'm confident because they cited FromSoftware as one of their main inspirations, but I am assuming) You know what doesn't work? Making definitive statements about my character when all I know about it, is that I am walking somewhere. You know what especially doesn't work? Giving me the illusion of a choice. Now in my opinion there are two ways to play this game. Once or many times to get the achievement. We just talked about the first time now lets talk about the rest of them (If you want the achievement, don't say anything when asked what the gift is) I don't believe this is intentional but if you play this way you naturally start engaging with it on a deeper level to figure out what and where the riddle is and how to figure it out. You think about what characters tell you and think about the themes and maybe they relate to it. maybe there IS more to this game and I just didn't engage enough with it. What if I figure it out and It fundamentally shifts this experience? I personally found that you aren't wowed by the ideas or themes but you aren't inherently dismissive of them anymore. The problem being that while the riddle solution is kinda cool. It's not nearly as impactful as I was hoping for. I think it could have been a great opportunity to make you really look at the game. Now this IS only a steam review, its inherently kinda shallow. I don't want to come across as if I am super smart and these are the only things you need to know about this game or as if these problems I have discussed wouldn't work with more polish or thought. like come on, throwing me straight into something? Plenty of games do that. If there is anything you truly need to know it's that they should be commended for making something and putting themselves out there. Something that so many armchair internet critics like myself don't have the balls to do. Like I said as a game, not the best. But as practice for the future? It's very exciting.

WTF is this garbage? High level of rubbish; utter trash. Human generated slop. Anti-creativity. Idiotic reddit writing authored by the impressionable mind of your typical fear & hunger dark soulser fan of FromShitware games, accompanied by weird collages of misplaced "historic" stuff from random "real world cultures" Developer, where are your parents?

[h3]短く/果てしない 巡礼の道行[/h3] 聖地”カラトル”への巡礼の道中、人や、人ならざる存在たちと出会い言葉を交わす、一周20分程のごく短いノベルゲーム。 神と精霊と魔人をつぎはぎにコラージュしたような、強烈な見た目の彼らはあなたに何を与えるだろう？小さなお守りと、庇護、問い、呪い、あるいはただ通り過ぎるだけ。 素朴なゲーム性と独特なアートスタイルが奇妙に調和したオリエンタリズム的怪作！ [h3]良かったところ[/h3] [list] [*]日本語で遊べる！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！ [*]音楽。雰囲気にバチバチにあっていて良い。ゲーム体験を格段に向上させている。 [*]キャラクターデザイン。ギョッとする強烈さがある。実際に現実にある物のコラージュなのかな？だったら少し冒涜的にも思うけど。 [*]会話。啓示的であり、まあ、他人事でもある。旅の最中に出会う人との会話～って感じの温度感がちょっと面白いね。 [/list] [h3]あまり良くなかったところ[/h3] [list] [*]ビジュアル。黒一色のアートは目に焼きつきすぎて正直見づらい。キャラクター以外の背景は少し薄くするとかしてくれると見やすかったかな。アートが素晴らしいがゆえに、もったいなく感じた。 [*][spoiler] 結末。説明がなさすぎて、間違ったルートで終わってしまったのかと思った。もうすこしなにか、答えがほしい。自分が何者かについて少し明かされるとか…。せめて、クリア実績とかがとれれば終わりだってわかりやすいよね。[/spoiler] [*]ボリューム。出会う者たちとの会話は面白いので、もう少し長く遊びたかった。[spoiler] ストーリー分岐はなく選択肢による応対テキストの差だけなので、よけいにボリュームが少なく感じるかも。[/spoiler] [/list] 総評。粗削りだが、独特の魅力が輝く意欲作だと思う。作者さんはこれが初めてのゲーム作品っぽいので、これからの制作活動にも期待したい！ 実績のヒント……[spoiler] HUNTER×HUNTERすき？ドキドキ二択クイズの答えは？[/spoiler]

Very short with empty branching. A first playthrough will take you 15 minutes, repeat playthroughs less than half of that. The story itself does not have much of a 'physical' layer (you are a pilgrim on a journey, others are expected to give you alms but mostly they just vent to you) so it's likely expected that we analyze it on a 'symbolic' layer. The most common theme in the story is [spoiler]about whether life is truly in your own hands or if it's all in the hands of the gods, a decent theme for a pilgrimage and likely tied into the empty branching.[/spoiler] If the 'physical' layer had been meatier, then maybe it would be more satisfying. As is, it's hollow and feels like you're just nodding along. Without meaningful encounters or branching, Road to Karatl fails to distinguish why it [i]needed[/i] to be a game rather than a short animation or a short story in a collection. It's interactive fiction, sure, but the interaction is all just for show

road to karatal promises to knock your socks off, change your world view, quite frankly it's not sure that you're ready for it. At that point you play it, it is charming, but it lacks so much. It is a completetly linear game, the only choice you have is dialouge, while that is fun for the first few playthoughs, it quickly wares thin. The artstyle is also somewhat charming, however i feel like alot of it is just "exotic" artefacts and whatnot, it doesn't feel like the developer has taken time to understand what they art they are choosing to use. i'd give it a 4/10, the sound desgien is great, and I enjoyed the animation while walking, however it, like the game itself, wears thin after a while.

面白かったです。音楽からフォントからビジュアルから、全てがこの世界観を構成するのにベストマッチしていて、短いながらも没入感が半端なかったです。最後のあのサイケデリック？なシーケンスはランダムということでしたが、せっかくなら選択結果が反映されてくれたらもっと趣深い旅の終わりになるのかな、と思いました。 出会う人出合う人みんな癖が強くて会話が楽しかったので、次回作はもっとたくさんルートがあるといいな。 あと、日本語翻訳がとてもしっかりしていてこのゲームの良さを最大限に発揮していました。翻訳担当の方お疲れさまでした。テキストベースのゲームなのでしっかりした翻訳はありがたいです。

Bu.... Enteresan bir deneyimdi. Hızlı bir okuyucuysanız car cart okuyup bitirebilirsiniz. Müzikler ve görseller gerçekten insanı atmosfere sokarken hakiki bir hacı gibi, yolda varılan yerden ziyade oraya gidiş yolculuğu bana bir şeyler öğretti. Çok enteresan karşılaşmalar vardı. Diğer yandan, bunun bir oyun olduğunu düşünmüyorum. Seçenekler herhangi bir şeye etki ediyor gibi görünmüyor ve hikayenin sonu hiçbir yere varmıyor. Gene de, indirimle aldığım fiyata değdiğini düşünüyor ve iade etmiyorum. Müzikleri satsalar alırdım.

内容上：这个游戏关于朝圣，不管你作为一个旅行者是有清晰的目标，又或是不知道自己何去何从，都能从其中找到一些反思，心灵的启迪，和审判，不管如何，路就在脚下，卡拉特圣殿就在那里，去一趟又何妨 但是对作者，我想说，内容太短了，新意有但是不太多，美工还好，但是不值这个钱

Incredible thematic and storytelling beats, pared down through minimal visual design and ambience that begs to be expounded upon. An excellent micro-journey.

Un visual novel bien étrange et sympathique, j'ai beaucoup aimé faire ce voyage. Bravo au studio pour ce premier jeu, qui plus est en de nombreuses langues ce qui est louable.