Tales of Aravorn: Seasons Of The Wolf

This game is a turn-based tactical story-driven RPG . I believe people too often think about this as a sequel to Loren, the Amazon Princess. It is Not. But it is similar in gameplay in many ways. ToA really deserves it`s own place in your game library. What do you get if you choose to play ToA, Seasons of the Wolf ? 1. A nice fantasy story, with surprising twists and turns .At times disturbing.At times beautiful. 2. Turn-based tactical combat , easy to learn, fun to play, difficult at times, especially on hard - which is a must difficulty setting throughout the game, if you want all achievements . (But hard is not impossible - take it from me, I managed to do it, and I am a huge fan of normal in most games ). Go for "nightmare", if you truly want a challenge. -about difficulty options ; You can change them in-game whenever you like ( if you choose to ignore the achievements - or you already have them ! ) 3. Great skill management system ! 4. Romance options . ToA has "nudity" as one of it`s tags. The nudity here ( and in other Winter Wolves games, like Loren ) , is very decent and respectfully made - absolutely no need to make that a reason not to play this. Unless you are a totally non-nudes-anywhere-in-any-form person. Even if so, it isn`t a reason , because romancing is just an option, and you do not have to play those parts at all. But it`s fun, so I hope you will :) 5. A huge variety of weapons, armors, and items to buy or/and find. ( I`m a girl, so naturally I love shopping ! Oh Yeah !) Weapons, armors and items choices is very important in ToA ! And money isn`t always easy to come by.So choose your buys carefully. 6. Choose between two main characters to play, snow elves, Althea and Shea - sister and brother . 7. Eight different playable characters in total ( and eight different classes ), each with their own stories. 8. Replay-ability - thumbs up ! ( Almost a must ! I liked the game in my first playthrough - but fell in love in my second ! ) At the beginning of my third now, because I want to do it before I start the DLC . Which is not necessary, that`s just me wanting to . ) 9. Choices matters. 10. Nice music - sometimes lovely. 11. Nice voice acting. 12. When conversation get`s boring, because you`ve already played the game and know it all - just skip through it . Easy. 13. ToA has cards and Steam achievements ! :) 14. Like someone in the forum said ; This is not a game about heroes saving the World. It is a game about "ordinary" "people" saving "ordinary" "people". Which I think is beautiful . I love saving the World-games - but ToA is a really nice difference to those. I choose to add this to show you the gameplay ( thank you for making it, "rmp792" ) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh97WUA_His Anything I don`t like ? No, not really. But I have a couple of heartfelt sighs ; Well, I really wish Winter Wolves would make an official guide . Would be great for when you want to replay the game, and want to get it all, and for all achievements. ( But you will find several nice hints and tips in the discussion forum - especially when it comes to secret places ;) ) What`s my other sigh ? I really would have liked a more masculine hetero romance option ( obviously I prefer romance according to my own preferences ) for Althea, than Jariel . He is ... a bit too boyish . And for Shea , the only hetero option is Krimm - who is a bit scary ( though still really cute !) - - - I feel she might crush him ... might say a bit more about Shea than Krimm , actually ;) It is the same for same sex romances, only one alternative. But I am truly sad about Chalassa : [spoiler] She is only a romance option for Althea. and it is the only way to save her [spoiler]

After playing Loren, I was super excited to play the other games that exist within the same universe. However... I didn't even have to finish this game to decide that it definitely isn't a game worth playing, nevertheless recommending to someone. I put eleven hours into it, hoping beyond hope that it would get interesting- that the game would actually [i]start[/i]. When I reached Act II, I decided to throw in the towel. Obviously, I wasn't playing some long-winded prologue and was, in fact, experiencing the actual plot (or lack of there of). When I hit Riley's backstory chapter, I decided to just stop playing if I was going to have to go through needless sideplots, that I honestly wasn't interested in. Perhaps I would be more intrigued by the filler chapters and side quests if the characters were interesting. They're not, unfortunately, and are very unappealing compared to the large cast of companions that Loren provided. A huge disappointment, in my opinion. Everyone is bland looking (aside from the Mysterious Assassin- and I could only see half of his face [i]and[/i] he wasn't even a major character), and the only one who seems to have a personality at all is Riley, who looks like he could be the player-character's father... [i]If[/i] I can even call the twins' the "player-character" since you can't really control or shape their personality in [i]any[/i] way. This was yet another aspect that made this game more boring when compared to Loren. In Loren, you could choose a personality for your chosen character, which made up for the fact that you couldn't name/customize them to make them your own personal creation. I honestly felt like I was playing a game with my character on the frontline. In SotW, I feel like the twins are just background characters instead of the main ones, and that I'm simply reading a book rather than playing a game. Which brings me to my final point: this game is simply over-written. It's great that it is much more in-depth than Loren, but it is simply [i]too[/i] much so. It's the main reason I probably won't ever be finishing this game, and why I won't be recommending it to other people. Hopefully the most recent installment to the Aravorn games won't be such a let down.

I bought this after playing Loren (which I'd recommend if you haven't played it yet) thinking it'd be similar. Sadly with this one though, there's just something missing. It starts out slow, and doesn't seem to have as strong a story line or dialogue. I couldn't stay interested.

God, I was bored playing this. I kept waiting for the story to go somewhere. For soemthing to happen. The plot moved so slowly I found myself playing games on my phone to keep myself awake. This isn't like Loren. The twins really don't seem to have much of a personality, and there wasn't a lot to them. Honestly, their personalities are pretty basic. Sister-twin is naive, a typical younger-sister sort. Brother-twin is pretty cowardly (to me) and lacks any dimensions. The writing is equally basic; there is no rich plot here, no driving story to pull you in unlike Loren. Where was the story trying to go? Honestly, I have no clue. Five hours in and there's no idea or sense of purpose, except oh, hey, let's kill some things. Like polar bears, they're going extinct anyway... Not impressed. The side cast is equally unimpressive. Riley was the only one who held my interest for more than a hot minute and surrounded by a bland, 2-D cast, he just didn't hold my interest. Not to mention, of course, that if you're playing to enjoy both a VN and an RPG, this isn't a good game for it. The love interests are, well... at least for Althea's options... not interesting at all. In fact, I couldn't decide who I was even least excited about: Althea's boring male option, or her equally boring female option--ending up alone looks like a better choice. Shea at least gets Riley, who's good for a laugh. But the writing overall is pretty basic, and the characters don't stand out on their own. I have no real sense of anyone, least of all the twins, after five hours of gameplay. Loren was a different animal. Five hours and I was hooked, drawn in by a wide host of fun characters. Here... my brain fell asleep, and I just don't have any motivation to pick this game back up now that I'm walking away. As far as this game boasting better RPG fights than Loren... I think that should be edited out. NOTHING about this game was better than Loren. This game was far more tedious. Do yourself a favor and skip it, unless it's on a good sale and you're bored. Very bored.

I love Winter Wolves, I really do. I will always have a soft spot for their games and a clear bias in their favor. However, recent years have led to this bizarre tendency on their part to over-write their games to an unbearable extent. An incredibly long game does NOT equal an incredibly good one. Tales of Aravorn: Seasons of the Wolf is so completely overloaded with garbage dialogue and nonsensical side quests that the main story and everything attractive about the genre gets lost in the mess. It feels like the actual plot should take six or seven hours, but all the extra ambient dialogue drags it out to fifteen or twenty. +PROs+ Good, consistent art. Attractive, interesting love interests. Challenging combat (in higher difficulties.) -CONs- Story overloaded with ambient dialogue. The actual plot gets lost. Somewhat unfulfilling romance plotlines. Boring and unengaging, most of the time. I cannot reccommend this game at full price. I wish that Winter Wolves could go back to whatever writer they hired for Loren, because almost every game that they release these days feels like it has the same problems. :/

It's a shame : this game is underrated, deserving much more love from rpg players. It's a great rpg, but a poor vn with only one love interest if you are straight, whether you play a boy or a girl. Graphics are greats, musics are relaxing. a game less generous than loren amazon princess, but well worth enjoying nevertheless. edit : the ending is sooo disappointing that i retract my opinion, this is a trainwreck. their father is a psycho, their mother is an utter slut, and chalassa's twist is not convincing : drama for the sake of drama.

[b]Content Warning[/b]: Slaying animals (bears, wolves, etc), exploitation of animals, slavery, abusive parent, betrayals [b]Note[/b]: While this game’s story takes place in the same universe as Loren: The Amazon Princess, you don’t need to have played it to understand this story. There are only a few minor references to Loren. (Though, I do recommend Loren over this game, so it’s up to the player, really.) Althea and Shea are used to a life of isolation with their father in a small, remote village in one of the coldest places on the continent. One day, traders from elsewhere accuse one of the twins of murder when they’re unable to deduce how one of their people ended up dead on the protagonists’ doorstep. This spirals into a long, difficult journey for the twins. [u]Information[/u] • Two protagonists, but the player only experiences one point-of-view and chooses which one at the beginning of the game. Twin snow elves: Althea and Shea. • Combat is barely graphic. Just a splatter of blood, so there’s no animation of animals dying if that’s something you’re sensitive to (like me). • The battle system is very similar to Loren. Turn-based. Portraits with minor effects. • 4 romanceable characters: 2 women, 2 men. • No sex scenes. No tiddies or genitals. • The [b]Bad Blood DLC[/b] is a direct continuation of the story, so without it, you’ll be missing part of the story. [u]Praises[/u] • Tragic sh*t happens to the protagonist and it genuinely made me feel. I didn’t really ask for feels, but eliciting emotions is always a good sign for a better quality story. • Complex plot with several loose ends coming together in the end. • Gameplay is fun. I like the use of strategy and elements in battles. Fulfilling quests is always satisfying. • Who the protagonist romances and different important choices affects the ending. • Lots of interesting mini-game events. They’re not too difficult and they change the pace of the game from constantly fighting regular battles. [u]Complaints[/u] • Bars casual players from any boss-related achievements. Must play on “Hard” difficulty or higher. Why even bother making the game more accessible if you’re going to implement elitist BS? • The protagonists are a bit dull. Not the worst I’ve seen, but they could use more personality. • Romance is significantly less focused on than in Loren. Honestly, I think I’d rather there had been no romance at all than half-a$$ed romance. • All the main characters are white, some with a tan. None have genuinely darker skin. The only black person in the game: A villain. Dude, are you [i]trying[/i] to be racist? • The ending doesn’t explain why [spoiler]Morran treated the twins so terribly. Nor does it explain why he didn’t try to save the twin that gets accused/later enslaved. I was waiting for the protagonists to come back to be like “mf, wtf was that? You just let that sh*t happen?” and tell him to go f*ck himself, but nope, they just act like that horrendous betrayal at the beginning of the story never happened.[/spoiler] I guess it’s possible this occurs in only one of the endings (that I didn’t play), but why would you do that? It doesn’t make any sense for the twins to not come back and demand answers. • Clashing art styles. (Minor complaint) Everything about this game is lesser than Loren. I’m not expecting every game like this (a VN/RPG hybrid from Winter Wolves) to be a replica of Loren or anything. It’s just that when I played Loren, I liked it so much that I didn’t even mind replaying it several times, whereas, with this game, replaying it felt like a chore. It probably doesn’t help that I have to play on Hard difficulty in order to get achievements. I have such mixed feelings about this game. The question is: Do I recommend it? Eh, I guess so. I did have some fun. The story is pretty good. [i]But[/i] if you were hoping this game had the same level of passion put toward romance as it did in Loren, you’ll be super disappointed. If you’re hoping to 100% achievements, but you’re a casual gamer, you probably won’t be able to. Thus, buy it if you think you’d like the game despite these flaws.

I throughly enjoied Loren the Amazon Princess, I've played it several times over, differnet endings, romances (even have the DLC), Love the game. And I thought I would love this game too, but sadly I don't. Its slow, but that can be forgiven. Things that should be quests aren't, but also not worth ranting about. There should in my humble opinion be more then 4 romance options, but again not why i'm here. No, I am leaving this review becuase the story of this game, the actual storyline, is, sad to say after such an amzing game before it, awful. Tales of Aravon is actually a fairly decent game, no where near Loren, but okay, at least until you hit act four.(AKA the END) And everything gose so downhill so fast you don't know which way is up. It leaves you feeling so unsafasifted. So uncomplete. The creaters for whatever reason decided to throw in drama and twists for the pure sake/shock vaule of it. (Warning: end game and DLC spoilers ahead) [spoiler] There's no boss fight, no heroism, just your supposed to be dead crazy dad, a few dark wizards, and some gaint talking animals. Plus a huge lore dump right at the end that honsetly dosen't make sense and one of your compains tries to kills to you(thats the last scene of the entire game by the way). So I got the DLC, which promised to explain things, spoiler it didn't. It only gave out more confusing lore, makes you split your party, and on top of it all you have to murder another one of your compains. fun. [/spoiler] (No more spoilers) All in all the game was fun-ish until the end, where it just left me feeling confused and kinda annoyed. There was no coulsure, no happy ending, not even a sad ending, no real ending at all, and that's the annoying part. So to both the Winter Wolves and the reader of this review go back to Loren, that was good game with an ending and storyline that will leave you feeling good in yourself, and not confused.

I should have chosen Althea as the main character. [i][b]Tales of Aravorn: Seasons Of The Wolf[/b][/i] is a VN/RPG with turn-based combat. The story follows two twins as they.. do something. The goal of the avatar (one of twins) is not clear or does not exist, neither it is possible to choose their personality, it is always NG. While there are choices, the ones available do not seem important - the PC auto-dialogues most of the time. Some of the quests can be approached differently (like in Choose-Your-Own-Adventure games), but all consequences remain within the quest and are not referenced afterwards, excluding companion quests, which have two outcomes - success or failure. The character development system is class-based. 3 classes are available for the avatar and the other twin - warrior/paladin, rogue and mage. All skills for each class are independent from each other and can be learned in any order. Combat encounters are numerous and not always fit the plot. The party members do not regenerate HP/SP between battles by themselves and it is impossible to use consumables outside of combat, thus at the beginning the game requires careful resource management. It becomes better in Act 3 - 4, because the party auto-rests after each quest. RNG'ed colour-coded loot is abundant, but mostly useless and it is hard to determine visually (without selecting), if a sword is one-handed or two-handed or what kind of damage it causes. Unique items start appearing in Act 3. The writing often does not match the visuals and the lore occasionally contradicts itself. The ending of the main game was mostly unsatisfying. There is no VA outside of combat. Sounds in combat, especially for spells, are too long and do not fit actions.

Just a very boring game with annoying characters and no good romances. Don't even bother no idea what they were thinking with this the Loren game is far better this game is just a train wreck if you are a straight guy you have 1 romance option and that option sucks to high even i hope there is no sequel to this garbage.