Summer Daze: Tilly's Tale

Welcome back to Hero U! Tilly Appleberry has her work cut out for herself. Between school, friends and a harvest festival what's a rogue to do. Tilly's conversation choices advance the story, while a time mechanic encourages replay for different outcomes. This is a game for those who love rich dialog and well developed characters. It expands upon the lore of Gloriana greatly.

The reason I'm recommending this game is that it is a perfectly fine visual novel so far. I think there have been a large amount of negative reviews stemming from fans of the Coles' other works who don't understand that 'clicking through text' is an entire game genre that a very particular audience likes. I've played enough Visual Novels to see that this one is of a very high quality, especially in terms of the voice acting. At the same time, I can 100% see why many people would just... not like visual novels, period. I don't know what to say, they chose a very, very niche genre for a game, and their RPG fans didn't care for it. It's very normal, but it doesn't mean the game is bad for a VN audience.

This game comes straight from the heart. The characters are amiable and inspired me to reflect on my own character, the one outside the game. The voice acting and artwork, top-notch. I only wish there was more of it. Please spread the word and promote these great artists!

Honestly, I wish there was a middle review button. I gave it a thumbs up because there are way more pros than cons... but I feel unsatisfied. If this was a game demo instead of a complete game - PERFECT! If this was a $5.00 game, I'd be able to give it a certain, no doubt THUMBS UP. Like many other reviewers here, I am a long time fan of the Coles - thirty plus years. I love the Quest for Glory games and play them often. I adore Hero-U! It's an amazing game that leaves me aching for more. Every time I finish playing these games, I am depressed because I'm done but happy that I have them to play in the first place. Given this fact, one can imagine how excited I was for this game. I know it's a graphic novel type and not meant to be a full game like Hero-U, but when I finished the game, I was still like WHAT? it's over already? I was surprised since the development of the game took a really long time. Fans of Hero-U and Quest for Glory waited for years. True, I know nothing of game development other than it's A LOT OF WORK, but I felt this was a let down for the amount of time it took and the amount of money it cost. Some really good full length games cost less and give more. Do I regret purchasing it? Um... a wee bit... but not entirely as I am hoping the success of this game will encourage the Coles and their amazing team to keep making games. I still love this game... just not the price and how long it took to release. PROS: Fun and dynamic story line The characters are charming and interesting. The dialogue and voice acting is top quality. The artwork is beautiful! Great sense of humour! Definitely leaves you wanting more! Many great connections to past Gloriana games. CONS: Short - approximately an hour playtime Dialogue doesn't always match up - like sometimes you feel you get a conversation that doesn't match your choices. $20 is too much SUM UP: Great game if you are spending under five dollars for it. Coles and team, keep making more games! You are so good at it!

Having played the original Quest for Glory series in the 1990s & Hero-U in more recent years, I was very much looking forward to playing another game in the same vein. But in every other dialogue between Tilly & another character, I get stuck on one line of text. If I then click on the Fast Forward button at top right, the game crashes. How can I play a game if it constantly crashes? Now I feel I've wasted good money.

Same old Coles with their adventurers and puns. Take it or leave it. I'll take it.

It's a visual novel style of play rather than an adventure/RPG, so it's not very long and I think it's meant to be aimed at a young audience as an intro to adventure games, as it's not overly complex. There are still some bugs in there but they aren't overly frustrating. The art is great as well as the voice overs. I really like that they have a fast forward feature, which is especially handy for replayability. The game actually helped me to be more confident about how to play Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, funnily enough, i.e. not worry about running out of time and that you don't have to complete everything because each character you talk to opens up different areas on the game etc., so I really appreciated that aspect of the game. It's also the fastest completionist run that I have ever done!

I really enjoyed my first day of play! This is funny & charming just like everything The Coles make. It is a time sensitive game. You won't have time to do everything. Your choices matter. P.S. I Love learning more about beloved characters from previous games!

This is one of those games where I wish I could leave a "neutral" rating instead of positive or negative, but I have to lean more negative on this one. I backed this game on Kickstarter along with Hero-U before it, because I love Corey and Lori Cole's work and I want to support every project they release. I will continue to do so as long as they keep making games. However, this is by far the weakest release I have seen from them. Pros: - Great voice acting - Charming artwork - Fun setting - Witty humor that you can expect from the Coles Cons: - Extremely short playtime (my playtime reflects a full playthrough plus watching the lengthy credits at the end) - Music and dialogue volumes need to be balanced better - Many typos in dialogue text - Needs more artwork to show activities that the main character describes herself participating in but you don't actually see happening on the screen - Very repetitive gameplay loop with the annoying headmaster constantly ending your day abruptly I am really surprised how long it took for this game to be released considering how little content there actually is here. I understand that there is supposed to be a replayability factor here, but I don't find myself desiring to play through the story again even though it was kind of fun. It's middle of the road as far as visual novels go, and it really just made me want another proper adventure game from the Coles. I understand independent game funding and development is extremely hard, but I sure hope we can see more titles from Lori and Corey that go back to their roots. This type of game from them just didn't really appeal to me quite as much as previous titles from them have.

Very short game, The games's strong suits are witty writing and voice acting. Not so much in gameplay, graphics and length. The menu buttons take away a lot from the simple yet charming art.