Veritas Tales: Witch of the Dark Castle

Blurb on the store page says 'handcrafted over six years by a 30-year veteran from Vanillaware.' It's very true because this jank ass game design is straight from 1996. Screenshots implied Hex/Grid crawl mechanics and resource management, but this seems full Choose Your Own Adventure book. Unfortunately this game manages to implement the absolute worst 'feature' of choose your own adventure books, you'll be given multiple options, no context, none of the options seems better than any other, and all but one will lead to death - I'm not talking about difficult encounters - I'm talking literal scripted death and reload. I don't really have any patience for games that waste the player's time with dead end options, and even with limited playtime there were multiple instances where once you finally find the right option the game explains exactly why the option was right. Whoever wrote this nonsense couldn't have figured out how to give the needed context before the decision and/or cut out the dead end options completely? Interface is also 1996 bootleg H-game era. No volume controls, no resolution options, nada. Game blasted out my eardrums right out the gate.

这个评价我只给出我个人的体验和看法。实话实说，感觉这不太像是一个游戏，最起码不像是2026年的游戏。由于只能给好评或者差评，出于对制作人辛苦制作六年的尊重，我可以给到好评。 优点： 1. 画面部分确实很有个人的风格，我也是因为这个风格选择购买的，仁者见仁智者见智，可能有人觉得好有人觉得坏。 2. 没有非常影响体验的bug。 3. 游戏的底子其实很好，战斗和剧情都有待扩充。 缺点：1. 一些现代游戏最基本的设置我并没有在游戏里面找到，比如全屏，更改分辨率，更改字体大小，手动存档，更改语言，键盘快捷键等等。有些可以在steam设置里面修改，有些可以查看制作人的公告，有些可能压根就没有。玩家购买了游戏，却连最基本的游戏设置都无法在游戏内部找到。这让我很难相信这是制作了六年的游戏。我可以出于对前香草社员工的尊重，出于对努力六年的制作人的尊重，忽略这些问题。但实话实话，我没有感受到这个所谓的游戏对于玩家的尊重。 2. 剧情方面其实还可以，毕竟一千个人有一千个哈姆雷特。但很多角色都有点浅尝辄止，描写和刻画不太出众，没有任何印象没有任何深度，比如某个挡了一箭的骑士以及冲锋的那位骑士团长，大部分角色都是跑龙套。这可能和游戏类型有关，大部分的人物只能从文字描写中感受，十个骑士冲锋，一百个骑士冲锋，对于玩家来说没啥直观感受，只是停留在了文字上，或许将某些情节加入战斗部分会更好？ 3. 自由度并没有想象中的高，重重选择可能只是：选a错误回档，选b错误回档，选c成功了第一步，然后继续选。看似可以选各种选项，但很多都意义不大，有些选项没有任何提示，也没有任何解释。而且选项只出现一次，返回后再来也没有。举个例子，有个故事是去探索废墟遇到的，如果我选择寻找脚印，那失败。如果我选择追上去，还需要进行掷骰子，然后再经历各种选择后才能和她说上话，但到这还没有完，有些选项可能需要一些物品，但那个是在别的地方才能获取的，而且这个故事在废墟我只有第一次才遇到，后面再来就没有这些了。也就是说，你必须按照一些特定的顺序或者流畅才可以体验游戏，但又没有提示，还不能手动存档，还需要过很多骰子判定。感觉大部分的玩家真的很有耐心且宽容。 4. 游戏机制有严重问题，骰子过于随机了，甚至会减少此类游戏的代入感。试想一下，如果一个小孩子扔骰子扔到6，他就能够举起重物了吗。如果一个肌肉健硕的男子扔到1，那他废了。这个问题其实隐含的是每个骰子的概率问题，力量不同或者因素不同的时候，骰子扔出1或者6的概率是一样的，小孩子和大力士也是一样的。正常的游戏判定，比如博德之门，比如一些跑团游戏，都会有基本的力量智慧敏捷数值，在判定是否成功的时候，会先基于人物的各种数值，给出基本成功概率，再引入骰子随机。但这款游戏是真的有些过于随机了，攻击命中虽然引入了等级这个概念，但游戏过程中基本大差不差，就导致战斗过程真的大部分时候是两个人在用4个骰子比大小。而在剧情中，追击人物，躲避战斗等也都需要扔骰子随机，但一个战士和一个魔法师在遇到这个情况时，没有任何差异，在某种意义上来说真的很绝对公平，聪明的法师未必过的了智力类的检测，身手敏捷的战士也无法翻越墙壁。所以有时候，我在玩这个游戏的时候，真的会很想笑。这也是为什么很多故事情节和人物根本无法让玩家有代入感的原因。 5. 价格有些怪异。我不是质疑制作人花费的时间和生活成本，但这个定价有些过高了。前香草社制作人的噱头成分真的很高，高到我虽然觉得不值这个价，但还是买下来体验一下。但结果想必也看到了。 综合来讲，就算前面我说的都是废话，都没有任何意义，这些都是个人的主观感受和体验。 但结合实际来看，这个游戏并没有给予玩家任何感受，无论是爽感，成就感，故事中的艰难高兴悲伤喜悦都没有。玩家根本只是像完成任务一样在玩这款游戏，玩完这款游戏的最大感受就是没有任何感受。1. 战斗系统的简陋使得玩家在与强敌战斗后，没有翻越大山的成就感。2. 骰子的过于随机导致很多时候玩家无法代入进这位战士角色或者法师。3. 大部分角色过于跑龙套，虽然有些角色真的很壮烈，但真的很难感受到。4. 基本游戏工具和设置的缺失导致玩家需要花费过多额外的时间和精力。5. 很多情节，看着选项很多，但真的只是在凑选项，这个问题其他玩家好像也提到过。这些问题导致自由度看似很高，名头很大，但都太过虚假了。如果你让我列举，我可以列举出很多很多非常优秀的跑团游戏，剧情小说类游戏，传统rpg游戏，自由度很高的游戏，有的比这个还便宜。 如果制作人真的是用心制作了六年这款游戏的话，那这个好评仅仅是对制作人这一路艰难困苦的认可，而不是对于这个“游戏”的认可。我知道一个人做游戏很不容易，也知道众口难调。但包括制作人，包括玩家在内，都不会想在花费如此大量的时间和精力后，得到的是nothing，得到的只是一个“还不错的小品”。我说的已经很委婉了，如果不是考虑到制作人有可能是真的努力六年的成果的话，我可能会用“欺骗”这个词了。游戏的底子其实很好，但每个方面都差点意思。

A wonderful little game that really does sell the old pen & paper RPG experience with both presentation and actual gameplay. There are also several heartwarming references to things stretching from Sword & Sorcery all the way to Dragon Quest (Walking Corpse zombie, my beloved). The visuals are gorgeous and you can see where the 7 YEARS HAND DRAWN marketing blurb comes from --- things like the character portraits being animated wasn't needed but it adds all the more to the game's atmosphere. The game's sound design and music are top notch as well, and do well to invoke whatever feeling the developer is trying to instill at that time. The translation is bit utilitarian at times and could've probably used a bit more polish/flourish in areas, but given the state of modern JP > ENG translations in recent years it is miles beyond what other releases are doing. Gameplay is a bit trial and error at times and combat can be a complete crapshoot of good and bad RNG but the game is generous and autosaves often so if you ever die you can easily retry the failed segment. This also leads into the fact that the game is sometimes really linear and you're sort of railroaded into some decisions at times. I had no problems with this but I can see it being a turn off for some people. Just something to keep in mind. The game's story is also a lot better than it needed to be considering the scope of the project. While it does (intentionally) lean into some generic fantasy storybeats and tropes, it also carves out its own interesting and unique setting that will unfortunately not be expanded on unless the developer hires help for his next project and this game becomes a runaway success. TL;DR: Good game. Give it a shot if you have the money to spare. Worth the asking price.

这算是一个中评。 优点是模拟桌面跑团的UI、音效和配音演出都非常有氛围感。 数值和战斗系统简直儿戏，没有可玩性层面的复杂和深度，魔法师与战士的分类也基本形同虚设。大部分时候因为缺钱物理法师有性价比得多，见不到几个魔法。骰子随机性极大，但在游戏中玩家几乎没有足够的装备/技能管理、修正或利用这些近乎无意义的失败风险。 但 它 竟 然 鼓 励 你 多 周 目 这游戏的剧情悬念、人物塑造和系统变化压根不足以支撑这种反复劳动……它似乎以为，只要玩家知道还有几个地点没去、几张CG没看（很可能十分潦草）、几个物品没拿（很可能背包压根放不下），就会自然地产生重玩的欲望。但没有取得的东西很多，不等于那些东西值得取得好吗？一个战斗、技能、物品和叙事系统都如此轻薄的游戏，为什么反而要用高随机性、不够顺滑的SL、不能跳过的对话和强制多周目，把这点本来很有限的内容拉得如此辛苦呢？ 另外就是，整体都有一种80-90年代的复古味儿，女主的立绘非常好看并且有记忆点，但是相较女主角其他人的立绘无论从设定还是画面完成度都差好几个档次……男主完全量产型，反派BOSS更是感觉从地摊白雪公主绘本里抠出来的。旧时代的男凝视角与性别分工味也有点冲，但你猜怎么着，放到今天跟别的游戏比竟然不算最不得体OOC的。时代越来越差了jpg

This is a game-book in the vein of classic Fighting Fantasy books, for better or worse. Be prepared for soft-locks, level drain, resource management and instant death traps. The fact that saving anywhere is possible slightly blunts a lot of this, making the game not actually very challenging, but on a first playthrough at least it does feel like you're using your knowledge and judgement. The writing is pretty decent, and it takes a relatively basic setup in a pretty interesting direction. The character art is fantastic, as the creators' pedigree would suggest. Overall, I'd say this is a refreshing take on the concept, and certainly held my attention better than, say, the visual novel format. Whether I keep buying these virtual game books is another matter though. That will probably depend on if they can manage to keep things interesting.

卖相有点香，吃着有点臭。 角色扮演的部分根本就没好好设计，数值和道具获取纯一坨屎，体验非常之差，所有遭遇roll点/丢钢镚/抽奖，虽然奖励不一定大，但是他惩罚也不一定小，全是负反馈。 大部分战斗几乎没有半点奖励只有经验值，但你的道具武器包括防具是有使用次数的，非得学trpg，学就学吧还弄个超简陋版拼点和装备系统，体验差且无聊，你还不如直接扒dnd用烂了的d20呢，评价为不如RPGmaker。 第一天购买的、获取的、自带的道具，剧情杀会强制全部没收，且找不回来，如果你运气不好没选对选项身上的钱也找不回来，他尼玛还安排了一个在仓库找遗失物的场景，四个选项只让你搜两个，结果SL了才发现其实是找不回来的，光这一个设计我就能给你竖中指问候你家里人了，是不是觉得自己老聪明了老会写转折了。 SL也很麻烦，不能保存在中间，只能保存在当前场景开始的位置，意味着无论如何要从当前场景开始的位置从头玩，很蠢。 虽然我没玩够仨小时，但是我也不打算退款，游戏点子不错，画的也蛮好看，买一份纯当投资未来，但是不推荐游玩。

I wishlisted Witch of the Dark Castle as soon as it was announced around 2 months ago, and it's not hard to see why. A veteran with 30 years of experience leaving his studio to strike out on his own is commendable, and i would have been interested even if the studio in question was corporate junk like Nexon, and not Vanillaware, a studio famous for it's visuals and artstyles. The anecdote about the developer living in the mountains for 6 years is hysterical. I want to support projects like this. But this... this just doesn't do anything for me. It has a combat about as simplistic as the earliest PC RPGs. This makes Bump Combat RPGs look like Revengeance. It's art is beyond ugly, most renders being quite detailed, yet lacking complex coloring and shading, giving it the distinct look of a picture left too long in the sun, with human characters bordering on melting wax figures. Don't even know why this artstyle was chosen, I know no RPG rulebook that looks like this. It's super inconsistent too, because sometimes it renders environments in an almost Dungeon Meshi style, with thick linework and warm, solid colors. The music is ok, but poorly implemented. It still has an embarassing lack of settings options. It's story is the closest thing to a redeeming elements, yet it's hampered by weak pacing, occasional translation issue, or just how little freedom the "choose your own adventure" style actually provides in this title

This is very much a 1:1 remake of that one summer you were so so bored and had one of these books and nails it. It has a big nostalgia hit for me, but the interface is just so painfully clunky. Eventually I grew tired of navigating the instant-death maze of options over and over again and accepted the "End your adventure here...?" button into my heart. And the Evil Witch in the Dark Castle lived happily ever after...