Vidar

What I played: Vidar. What I expected: Undertale. What I got: emotional investment and so much more. TL;DR Somber version of Undertale except instead of bullet hell, you get a hell of a Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask experience in 2D format. High replayability, unexpect the expected. Wonderful music. When you read Vidar's hook of a one-liner description: an RPG Puzzler where everyone dies, the opposite may come to mind, Undertale: a traditional role-playing game where no one has to get hurt. That's what I thought at least. However, if Undertale was a rollercoaster ride that kept me guessing. Vidar is a rollercoaster ride without the rails. How Vidar plays out is like a JRPG, except of random encounter battles you have purposefully encountered puzzles that are randomly generated for each cave you enter. Dungeon crawler, check, however there is no leveling up, just important story driven NPCs dying everyday. Didn't see that one coming, did ya? Like the party game Mafia, you're stuck with a group of people - people in the town of Vidar - and each new day one is RANDOMLY selected and killed by "The Beast". Your job is to prevent the townspeople from dying and figure out what this beast is, in hope of getting out - how many can you keep alive? Once you begin playing, the initial start screen reminds you that this IS a very somber and serious game. No jokes to be had here. If Undertale was the unexpected heart feels experience that struck a chord in your heart, Vidar is one that strikes your heart, and wrings it out in the opposite direction. Alongside the beautifully sorrowful music and tense soundtrack, the tone is the only foreshadowing you'll get besides grief, death, sadness, frustration and sometimes strength. That's the beauty of Vidar. Although stuck in a snow covered town, with an atmosphere of being frozen in place, feeling helpless, the performances of the townsfolk felt incredibly real whether they felt fearless or helpless alongside you. How you perform in game affects the townsfolk of Vidar and how they act. They may give you a much needed item to further help you along your way if you're able to solve problems and save others as best and early as you can. The hard part is deciding who you can help and whom to help first before their quest requests get crossed out upon death. This could be problematic depending on who dies, unable to complete quests, but beneficial in opening up new ones or gaining items to complete others. So is the nature of the game. Thanks to the new take of the game's mechanics, this game is designed where you can NOT know what is about to happen next (even if you've played through before) since puzzles change on each play through and since character deaths are completely random which fit perfectly well within the game's plot. As you go day by day, wishing a particular character you need isn't killed by the Beast, there is no foreshadowing or predefined plot to figure out who would die next. You just won't know who the Beast will kill next. What you can determine is gender. Upon starting a new game when I saw the options: Male or Female, I was a bit miffed. There was no "Other" field and immediately expected a "Let Them Assume My Gender" option as a joke or gag. I would've liked to see the 3rd option as eventually the townspeople only label you as "Stranger" in the actual game - making assumptions and labeling you as such not to get to know your name. My immediate thought went from "The Stranger" as atkin to "The Lone Wonderer" or "The Courier" from the RPG Fallout series by Bestheda. I would've liked to have seen the cliche RPG 'name your character' option pop up for added immersion. If the "Other" option is ever incorporated, maybe randomize the player sprite used and how townsfolk label you, but that's just an added perk to an already ambitious and groundbreaking game. My only gripe is that there could've been more character development. The game is extremely unique. Since an important townsperson dies everyday, each new day the dialogue of the remaining townsfolk changes dependent on who dies. Even though as you speak with characters day after surviving day, although dialogue does change, the draw back is that after they say something new they seem to repeat some things over and over again like other conventional RPGs. If you've had an experience with Undertale major character dialogue, you've seen it setup to continue providing new dialogue when interacted with over and over again, developing the feeling that they're real. Vidar does a good job of handling character dialogue with it's random kill and respond system. Although more advanced then any other RPG I've seen, I feel there was a missed opportunity to develop more background history with providing more dialogue revelations instead of repeating phrases. This would create more development and attachment in players, rewarding them rather then having them mash the accept button. Keep in mind, this is an early access game so anything could be changed. What is current could be a place holder for so much more. Game crashes, although few - based on the massive undertaking of variable random scenarios working together in the background - were acceptable because they were the only things that kept reminding me that this was an early access game to begin with considering this felt like the full deal. Hard to believe that according to the game's version number this full-like deal is in Alpha testing. You can expect more. Since it is an Early Access game I did encounter a bug that prevented me from continuing my success forward except to continue day by day, with absolute dread of feeling completely powerless to do anything about it. The jarring experience however was greatly welcomed, whether intentional, showed just how much the game's influence had over me. The spawn points for items to be found in the cave dungeon are randomized, including locations to complete quest goals, such as finding ghosts and returning to their graves. And there are a lot of graves. Even the graves have something different written when you start a new game. Further guaranteeing that each play through will never to be the same game twice. The replayability is limitless because you can never expect what's coming next. Just as I saw the death of characters I grew fond of surviving to the bitter end unexpected. It's unknown how much time any townsperson has in Vidar. When I relied too long on the aid of a certain character, the moment they died unexpectedly, I was crushed. I was angry, I was bitter, I was frustrated. That's when it hit me. I was acting like one of its characters. I realized that I was emotionally invested. Although heavy in tone, Vidar is a game where everybody dies, where people get hurt, and I wanted to do something about it. I wanted to lift their burdens and solve their problems so that they wouldn't get hurt. Like completing puzzle quests in Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, you are racing against the clock in Vidar before the night end falls and death takes its toll. It's dark in a way where as Link in theory can only go back in time and save a handful of people in one specific timeline, in Vidar as the Stranger you can only save how many people in one play through. You can't save them all. Time ticking, limited time to do everything you want to do, atkin to real life, this is what makes the game feel so alive, although focused on death. In real life you can't tell exactly when someone dies and that's how real Vidar is to me. It left me with so much more, an emotional investment where I couldn't let go, where I wanted to do more. Only a few people can say that about certain games except about games from childhood, even if the graphics are 8-bit.

Full disclosure: I went to law school with the developer for this game, Dean, and I have had the opportunity to participate in playtesting it for some time now in spurts. A lot of love has gone into this game and I'm happy that more members of the Steam community will have the opportunity to contribute to its development. The core of this game is the random story generation. Every time you play through it, different characters die in a different order. Every death has different consequences, so no two play-throughs will ever be identical. The graphics are nostalgia personified. The direct influence of the great JRPGs of the '90s is evident throughout. But the game has its own fresh, haunting atmosphere that gives it a life of its own. Congratulations to Dean, and congratulations to the Steam community for getting an early look at his creation.

Nice game, but terribly frustrating. I spent hours figuring out the puzzles and the world is fascinating and well developed. It has good characterization and it's thought provoking. I was actually going to favorite this, but I changed my mind. Where my issue lies and what ultimately is causing me to rage quit and never even want to look at this again is in the ending. If you fail, not only do you have to restart the difficult endgame puzzles but you have to go all the way back to the day before that and redo the last boulder cave puzzle before you can retrigger the climax. Hours of time just freaking lost with nothing to show for it. They also throw some bizarre mirror light puzzle at you in the endgame that the game no prior experience with and no explanation. it appeared that I was supposed to use them to reflect on the switch, but I could move some of them, couldn't move others, couldn't figure out how to flip the mirrors and had only ten minutes. Since I still don't know what to do, I have no idea how to go about solving it, even if I replayed through the five puzzles that i would have to redo to get back to that point. I couldn't figure it out and I no longer want to. I already redid the boulder puzzle once. I genuinely wanted to get to the ending (If you look at my time, I've logged about 40 hours on this) but it's become too tedious. I did originally give this a not recommended, but after I cooled down a little, I changed it to recommended. With reservations. This game had a lot of care put into it and it was overall a positive experience. But it needs a better checkpoint system or manual saves, or just a way of lowering the difficulty. (however cheating this may seem.) Other annoyances: The character moves as slow as molasses at times and the game crashes on you if you try to interact with the boulders from the ground after you move them onto the geysers.

This game has broken my brain in the most wonderful way. I love the puzzles, each one indroduces a subtle and clever new take on the last. Every time I enter the cave, I learn something new. Dialogue is well written, and character interactions feel genuine. The dark desporation of figuring out the stranger and Vidar have enthralled me. The timed events create a real sense of dread every time you delve under the town.

This one is definitely worth picking up. It's an entertaining puzzle game with a really interesting narrative that changes with each play. The story has surprising depth, which you might not expect at first glance.

Super awesome so far! I just played through the first day of the game and did the cave puzzles, and thought it was great. Check out my first look video below if youre interested (or get stumped by the puzzles!) https://youtu.be/N0fyfk7w0H4

Having heard about Vidar through my favourite streamer the concept of the game really intrigued me so i had to try it. The overall story takes place in the town of Vidar, with a violent snow storm engulfing it. You play a wandering stranger (either female or male) that has stumbled across this troubled town, and it's your job to uncover it's mystery. This is where the game really impresses.... One thing is certain in Vidar, each night a villager will die! But each time you play the game it will randomise that person, so two playthrough's are never the same. It's a really unique twist that no other game has. You will want to replay the game a few times in order to have the chance to experience each villagers unique quests and dialogue, plus the conclusion to them "should" they survive the night. Each day you travel to the caves of Vidar in order to uncover the town's "mystery" and do what you can to help the villagers. Whilst in Vidar itself you have unlimted time to walk around getting to know everyone (that hasn't died) and familiarising yourself with their stories. When you travel to the caves however, you have a limited time to explore before the day ends and ultimately someone dies. Along the way you can gain new equipment that helps unlock new parts of the caves that were previously inaccessable on previous visits, and also help extend your stay in the caves themself. Though the later becomes a fine balancing act, as should you chose to remain in the caves overnight then you run the risk of losing the current quest you were on as the villager who gave you that quest has died. The puzzles themself have that wonderful fun and frustrating feeling about them, but never enough that will make you rage quit like someother games. Think Portal 1 + 2, the answer is sometimes staring you in the face, then you get the "Eureka" moment that makes all the frustration worthwhile. The main obstical with the puzzles is not the puzzle themself, but the time-limit you have in order to complete them before the day is over. As for the overall game length, it took me around 6-7 hours to finish the game, making it an excellent for multiple playthroughs. Also do bare in mind the game is in early access, and the developer is doing a great job fixing and adding things as the game progresses, and is always available on the forum to answer any questions as they pop up. If you like puzzle games with a twist, great story that will keep you guessing and fixated until the death (no pun intended) then i strongly suggesting buying Vidar. Very much a hidden gem in the adventure section on Steam :)

The experience of Vidar brought me back to my early years playing 2D games. I usually don’t play 2D games anymore, but Vidar’s peculiar storyline is quite enjoyable — the thing that I like the most is the randomized aspect of it. The game as-is can be experienced only once, restart the game and you have another story, another set of events. This is really one of the strong points of the game, it generates (on me) an “etherealness” feeling. The current game won’t last forever, decision you make matter and cannot be undone or repeated. Artwork, gameplay, and music are really well crafted. The game is well worth the money. The experience is well worth the time.

Ignore the time played, I've been playing this game since the creator was posting about it on /r/rpgmaker and it's fantastic! I found myself getting attached to characters just long enough for them to get marked for death and it didn't always work out for the best. The story is really unique and the puzzles are great!

[i] This Review Originally Appeared on IndieHangover at: http://www.indiehangover.com/review-vidar-by-razbury-games/ [/i] Reviewing Vidar has been a reflective experience for me. It’s a game that has grown with IndieHangover, and to see it reach release is a wonderful feeling. We covered it’s initial showing at the 2014 Boston FIG, updated our readers about it as it grew, and checked back in with developer Dean Razavi at PAXEast as the game neared it’s testing phase. However, I have avoided playing any alpha or beta versions of the game. I wanted to experience Vidar in as complete a form as possible. Now that I have played through the game in its Early Access, feature complete, form, I can safely say that Vidar does what it promised to do 3 years ago: It is a game in which you are dropped into the middle of an intricate web of relationships and given the chance to make the best of a horrible situation. In Vidar, every choice you make has incredible weight, because, in this town, it very well may be a life-or-death decision. This feeling of the importance of the choices you’re making really hits you as a player of Vidar on the third day. Day one and two serve as a sort of tutorial; you’re introduced to some important players in town, (hopefully) given some of your most important tools, and made aware of the curse of Vidar: A beast stalks and kills one person every night. One random person, and nobody is safe. I’m stressing those two words because they are the core of what make Vidar so engaging, at times, so infuriating and so very interesting every time you play it. You can’t take anything for granted in Vidar. Just finished collecting those ten mushrooms for the doctor? Sorry, He’s Dead. Figured out where that grave is? Sorry, the old lady who helps you talk to the dead just died herself, meaning you can’t talk to that ghost you need to talk to. Wanted to get an essential item? Sorry, person who gives it to you is dead. This would be an interesting mechanic in any game, but Vidar goes one step further by putting just about everything you do that affects the world on a time limit. Nearly all of the tasks and quest you need to accomplish in the game take place inside a number of caves. However you only have a certain amount of time, around 10 minutes, to act in the cave before night falls and you must return to town, only to be informed of that night’s victim. It’s tense, It’s terrifying, and it’s terrifically fun. Some will no doubt hate the randomness of the events, or feel the wind ripped out of their sails when the last step of a quest is foiled by the Beast’s actions. However, that’s the point of Vidar: You’re not in control, you’re just trying to do as much good as you can in the face of a terrible disaster. You can’t save everyone, but you might be able to save someone. One Note: We should say that Vidar does provide alternate ways to accomplish quest and get items should the quest or item giver meet a premature end at the hands of the beast. These ways are usually MUCH harder and more difficult, but they do exist. Aesthetically, Vidar is superb. There’s a nostalgic consistency throughout the game, from the gorgeous pixel sprites, to the haunting music, to the wonderful environments that makes the world feel like something you explored in a game you played growing up, yet at the same time entirely fresh and new. I was actually surprised at how expressive and emotive some of the characters ended up being. Simple movements, expressions, and even some emotion-filled pauses added a lot of life to the residents of Vidar, something that I haven’t seen in many games of the same artistic style. The caves had enough graphical variety that they didn’t get too old, though there is, by design, quite a bit of retreading old ground. You’ll get access to new tools as you progress, and have to revisit old parts of the caves in Vidar on occasion to complete quests. While the environments are very well done, there’s only so much variety that can be achieved with a cave. However, where Vidar makes up for this in the puzzles that take place inside these caves. If I have any complaints about the visual similarities of the four cave environments, they are easily dispelled by just how many different puzzles there are to figure out, and the variety of forms these puzzles take. One day, you’ll be sliding on ice, bracing against rocks to redirect yourself. The next, it will be a puzzle involving switches and levers. Then, you’ll have to trap wolves. Another day, you’ll be grappling from post to post avoiding ice-cold water. The variety of the puzzles in Vidar is only enhanced by the temporary nature of many quests and objectives (due to everyone’s impending mortality). Having so many quests to accomplish, in such a short amount of time, before the random hand of The Beast smites the quest giver is an incredibly tense experience that I absolutely adored, and with Vidar’s inherent randomness, it has incredible replay value. As Vidar enter’s early access, there is one other thing I’d like to mention as part of this review. I experienced a number of game breaking bugs during my playthroughs of Vidar in preparation for this review. The first was an issue causing Erik to return from the grave and give me another chance at his puzzle. The second was a glitch between patches that caused a save file to be corrupted. Both of these issue were fixed with lightning speed by Dean Razavi (in Patch and respectively), but I’d be remiss if I didn’t issue the caveat that this is Early Access, and there are still some issues being resolved in the game. Due to the random nature of Vidar, in my case this has meant a host of stories left unfinished. However, this did have a silver lining, as it gave me the chance to see things unfold in a myriad of different ways during my first week or so in the town of Vidar. Vidar is a game that puts you in the role of a volunteer hero in a terrible situation. The fact that you cannot save everyone make saving anyone all the more meaningful. While some might balk at the randomness of the deaths, it’s that very mechanic that makes Vidar such a special experience and imbues it with intrinsic replayability. Combined with fantastic musical and art direction, Vidar may be the game where everyone dies, but it sure makes you feel alive. [i] Check Out our Interview with Developer Dean Razavi:[/i] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWYLE76rMPY&t=1s [i] Find More Reviews, Interviews and Previews from the world of Indie Games and Indie Game Development at www.IndieHangover.com | On Twitter at [url=https://twitter.com/IndieHangover]@IndieHangover[/url][/i]