Viola: The Heroine's Melody

[h1] See You, Violin Girl! Someday, Somewhere [/h1] Viola is a hybrid mix of turn-based JRPG-style combat, platforming, and rhythm game focused on the fairytale adventure of the titular Viola - a young girl and struggling musician who finds herself sucked into a magical, musical world inside of her violin. I want to immediately note that Viola is an Early Access title. Essentially, that means only about the first hour of the game is currently complete. In other words, what you’re purchasing now is a glorified demo and a “pre-order,” so to speak, of the finished game. So, keep that in mind when purchasing or considering this game. With that said, I think that there’s enough of a feature-complete, albeit still unfinished, game to share my initial impressions. This is usually the type of game that I attempt to avoid or outright ignore. The turn-based JRPG style of game is one that I feel we’ve aged out of - it was necessary for its time, but the progress of technology has allowed game developers to move into more actively engaging styles of gameplay. While I understand there is plenty of nostalgia around this type of game and it affords smaller, independent developers the opportunity to craft some elaborate games, in most of these cases, I find its implementation boring, lazy, and often uninspired; however, what intrigued me about Viola is how it seemingly mixes multiple forms of gameplay into a seamless experience. Viola offers players some light platforming with a blend of turn-based, rhythm game focused combat. Going into the game, I had a few initial apprehensions, the first being the aforementioned musical combat. [b] Exciting, Musical Combat [/b] My major concern with the rhythm-based combat - and by extension most of this game - was that it would be a clunky experience, too simplistic and easy, or a combination of both of those issues. Fortunately, Viola’s combat works well and even manages to offer a mildly challenging, fun experience. Most impressive is how well the concept of music and the musical gameplay is implemented into the game’s world. Combat in Viola requires the player to match a sequence of buttons as they appear. Attention, reaction, and timing are all crucial. Everything from normal attacks to more impressive “crescendo” attacks require short segments such as this to both increase the actions damage and ensure its success. If you screw up and miss or hit the incorrect button during, say, the casting of a spell, it will fail. This makes the combat more than the standard fare, click a box, click an enemy, rinse and repeat gameplay old-school JRPGs (and their modern homages) rely upon. In a larger sense, the musical gameplay is carried over into gameplay segments outside of combat. Players must learn songs in order to active campfires, which act as save points throughout the game. Additionally, music and musical aspirations are an inherent theme within the game’s plot and world - both in the story told and in its aesthetics. Overall, this is something that’s very well done. Now, one area I was also apprehensive about was the platforming. Aside from rhythmic centered combat, Viola boasts platforming and exploration. Again, I was initially worried this would fall short. While the platforming and light exploration in the game so far are serviceable, they’re far from challenging. [b] Less Exciting Platform Action [/b] The platforming in Viola does its job, but currently, it can feel clunky at times. For example, jumping can feel unresponsive and whether Viola will execute a double or triple jump feels hit or miss. Additionally, I never felt challenged by any of the level designs. By and large, the platforming is straightforward and requires little thought, planning, or precision. But, for the most part, platforming is there and it works. I don’t imagine players will come into this game expecting groundbreaking platform leaping, edge of your seat wall scaling gameplay. Regardless, though, it would be nice to see more challenging level design as the game progresses in development. [b] Gorgeous Sprites, Colorful Palettes, and Friendship For All [/b] Visually, Viola is a beautiful game. Most sprite animations are fluid and the backgrounds are gorgeous. The color palette is bright, cheerful, and compliments the tone of the game well. There is little else to say about it besides it’s a visually cohesive and well-executed experience. The last part of the game to focus on is its story. As far as the story and the game world are concerned, it’s so far very much a cheery, lets-all-be-friends-and-work-together coming of age tale. The game’s creator, Jelle van Doorne, clearly has a love for these types of lighter-toned, JRPGs. While some of the game’s dialogue can feel a little overly sentimental or too hammy, it still has its charm. Almost every character seems to only have Viola’s best interests in mind and are willing to tag right along on her adventure of confidence-building self-discovery. Can it be a bit much at times? Sure. But conversely, not every game has to be bleak, dark, or a deeply nihilistic experience that requires the player to question their own morality. Sometimes it's nice to enjoy a happy-go-lucky tale of friendship. So, I'm willing to give it a pass. Overall, Viola is much more than I thought it would be and I’m looking forward to seeing its progress unfold. If JRPGs are your cup of tea, for $10, I think you’ll find something to enjoy in this game.

[b]Why can’t my violin take me to another world?[/b] We all have had at least one blah day where no matter what you do, you just can’t get yourself to do anything. Despite wanting or needing to, you can’t seem to get your creative juices flowing or just not feeling it. It can be even worse when you know what to do, but everything just seems to be going wrong. This is exactly the type of day Viola’s protagonist Viola is having. We join Viola in the middle of one her violin practices. She’s trying to play along with a Bach piece, but despite knowing which notes she should hit Viola can’t seem to keep up. After trying a few times, the frustration that must have been building way before we joined overflows. The many times she failed has chipped away at her and Viola gives up. Little does Viola know, her violin has something else in mind. Before Viola can put up her violin for good, it unexpectedly opens up a portal that sucks Viola in. This portal leaves her at the end of a cave and it doesn’t take long for Viola to run into danger. Luckily, she wasn’t the only one present in the cave as she is soon joined by a wolf-man named Fenrys. At first, Viola doesn’t exactly accept his help, but after seeing how he didn’t leave her behind and that she doesn’t know this new world, she welcomes it. It turns out that this world, aptly named Vylna, revolves around music. It seems like every resident plays an instrument and some situations call for a certain song to be played. Even the trees are shaped as violins (which I can also imagine is great for making instruments). Viola is quickly joined by Fenyrs’ friend Niko the cat, who might have some insight on what’s going on, and later on Soleil the knight and the harpy Momo (who actually just got added in). Together they’ll figure out how to get Viola back home. Viola mixes together side-scrolling platforming, turn-based RPG battles, and rhythm based combat. The platforming is, obviously, used to explore the world around you and it blends well. This aspect won’t give you much trouble other than needing to know when a certain platform calls for a double, or triple, jump. There are also springs and cannons around to help you explore every inch of a level. As you’re opening chests, you’ll find various potions and gems that boost stats in exchange of lowering one when equipped. If you’re someone that hates random encounters, no need to worry here! Each enemy encounter is represented by an enemy hanging out. If you’re not feeling like fighting, the levels are designed in a way that you can go around some of them. When you do get into combat, you’ll quickly find that it’s rhythm based. Regular attacks will have you match two buttons to increase your attacks power. The more accurate you are, the more you’ll hit your enemy. It’s a little different when you use magic. Each character has their own set of spells and seemingly specializes in an element (which an enemy can be weak to). In addition, there’s two different types of spells, regular Magic that uses up AP and Crescendos which uses up CP. Interestingly, while you can restore AP with a potion, CP is gained when a character takes damage. Anyway, when you cast a spell you’ll have a series of prompts that you’ll have to input. In addition to pressing the buttons on time, you’ll also may have to mash or hold it to correctly cast. However, if you miss a prompt the spell will fail. Luckily, AP and CP isn’t used unless you successfully cast it, but it does waste a turn. As I mentioned before, the world of Vylna revolves around music. Along Viola’s journey, she’ll learn essential songs that have their own effect. After she learns them, you can then go into her songbook to play anytime or open it at areas that require them if you don’t remember the song. So far, only a few situations call for a song. Some doors and a magical fire (aka a Wishfire) require a specific song to be played. The Wishfire in particular is a temporary camp that protects you from enemies and heals wounds. This also lets you talk with your teammates to get to know them better or talk about the current situation. This increases your bond level, which is rewarded with a new spell, so I wouldn’t recommend skipping these. In a recent update, a new song was added with a hint of why you should use it. This new song basically summons a bird so you can fast travel to previous levels. Sadly, this seems to have a chance of sending you to a black screen right now. Nonetheless, a hint of why you will use it was included in the new level. The emerald cavern has a broken shrine that has its emerald shards hidden around Vylna as well ass introducing us to another cat named Robin who owns a shop in the sky. With Viola being a recently released early access game, I don’t doubt that there are concerns over how often updates will come along. So far, it does seem like regular updates are planned. So far, three updates have gone through with one being a major update (i.e. adding in a new level). Once you get to the end of the current build, it even shows the estimated time when Viola’s adventure will continue (which I believe means the next major update). This brings up to the next question. After any updates, will you be able to continue where you left off or will progress be reset? Well, the plan is that you’ll be able to continue where you left off. However, once you do reach the end of the current build, you won't be able to go back and explore more unless you restart. [h1]Verdict[/h1] A good sign of an Early Access game is that it makes you want more and Viola does just that. The whole time I was playing I was having fun as I explored and fought the various enemies scattered around. I loved how the other characters are supportive and want Viola to be more confident in her violin playing. It also helps that I do relate to Viola in some way. Not just in the fact that I also play violin, but I’m not all that confident. While Viola still has some ways to go, it is worth picking up. It’s a very promising early access title and I honestly can’t wait to see what’s in store for Viola and her little gang. [code] [url=http://saveorquit.com/author/ripwitch/] 💜 Check out my other reviews at SaveorQuit! 💜 [/url][/code]

It's a cute, simple game, and was all developed by one guy, which is pretty commendable. The characters can be charming and the story is okay, albeit predictable, and covers topics like loving yourself and such. That being said, I can't really recommend the game right now for some reasons listed below: [list] [*]The game autosaves only whenever you leave a zone, exit the overworld shop, or exit the campfire. The game doesn't save when you exit to the title menu or exit the game, meaning you'll have to exit the level (if the game lets you) to save [*]The in-game menu is pretty wonky, with some weird bugs and design choices (why is there no option for settings?) [*]No convenient way to check out a character's skills, only being able to do so in combat. Even then, it won't let you even move to the spell if you don't have enough mana [*]The game is too easy. Now the game is clearly designed to be simple, which is fine, but this feels a bit extreme [*]Several misc bugs [/list] Granted, this was a one-man job, so it isn't going to be perfect, but I feel like it should be mentioned. I'm sure that the dev will keep working on this project and fix up the game a bit, because it's still a decent game. Here's hoping.

The gameplay is nice, but while the best songs are incredibly short, the ost is okay-ish. I liked the characters and the story as well. But I cannot recommend the game. Stay away from it because it has, not only an annoying bug that forced you to press "comfirm" multiple times to register entering into a stage (otherwise the screen remains black) it also has a bug flat out locking you from beating the game because the game requires you to recruit all characters to beat the game and one is bugged where she joins the party, but she vanishes. You cannot try to repeat the circumstances to unlock her, so you're screwed and forced to restart at a CHANCE that the game won't bug again when unlocking her. Until the devs fix this (if they still care), stay away from the game that can easily become unfinishable.

The writing and characters in this game are spectacular. On the other hand, the mechanics disappointed me. Video Review: https://youtu.be/cbXT5Nswt4Y Folks have tagged this with "rhythm" but it's not a rhythm game. Combat is a series of quick-time events. Platforming is clunky and awkward. Overall, I would have enjoyed the game a lot more if it were just a walking simulator or standard JRPG - the platforming and combat mechanics only served to make the game more tedious for me. However, if you aren't bothered by less-than-amazing mechanics, it IS worth playing this game for the writing, the excellent inclusion of diverse characters, the lessons the game teaches, and the story. WARNING: If you delete your save game, the game DELETES YOUR STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS, as I discovered when I needed to get some footage from the start of the game for my video and my 100% completion just vanished. I don't know why, have never seen that happen before in a Steam game, and I'm not about to play through the whole game again to get them back. Do NOT delete your save unless you don't care about losing all the achievements.

Viola is a game that you should play if you just need something to cheer you up. It's a real "feel-good"-game. The story will not surprise you, but the characters will warm your heart. They are extremely diverse (including LGBT+ representation which doesn't feel forced but really natural) and their interactions with the heroine help her to become a better person. The dialogues are not too deep or long, so some things feel a little bit rushed (getting Justice to Support Level S, for example), but it fits the game - it feels like a warm, pleasant breeze, so you should be able to breeze through the game without too much effort. ;) So yeah, the game is easy, but I really didn't mind. As I already said, it really fits the overall experience. Too many challenging battles and/or platforming sections would take the wonderful lightness out of everything. I also really enjoyed the music. Actually, the musical theme was the main reason why I got interested in Viola. The soundtrack itself is nice, but what really shined for me were the 9 short songs the characters play together to open secret passages or activate fast travel. There must be several versions of these songs, because the game recognizes which characters are in your active party and only the instruments of them can be heard. That's actually one of the things which fascinated me most. xD Well anyways, the game still has some small issues. The autsaves can be bothersome, as the game only saves if you completed a zone (or exit the shop or campfire). There's no ingame menu for settings, and you can't look at the skills of your party members outside of battle. Aside from that I had just two bugs in the entire game which is really awesome if you think about it - the game was developed by only one person! So overall, I had a WONDERFUL time with Viola. It might not be for everybody, but if you just want to have fun without facing too much of a challenge, if you can connect to quirky characters quickly and just want to feel good about them (and yourself) and if you love music and instruments, this is worth your time. This game needs a lot more attention than it gets right now.

Viola is a RPG platformer with a musical background. For a single dev project, you can really tell the passion that went into it, and it is full of charm with a great attention to little details. The spritework is nice, as is the music. I am not much into the story as some people, but I can tell that the dev put a lot of work into it. As far as gameplay is concerned, it is nothing that will shock you, to be frank. The platforming is quite basic and a bit janky at times, and the RPG mechanics, while done with care, don't stand out. It was definitely fun to try out different attacks and see the animations, as some of the animations are really good. Also, there is not much challenge, and not a lot of depth to the rpg elements. No matter who you choose to be in your party, it is quite difficult to lose, and the variety in items boils down to health, magic, cure-all status recovery, and revives. Don't get me wrong, if you're looking for a nice and relaxing rpg and you just want to be along for the story and music, it's a fun 6-12hr experience. Note: There are also a few bugs, but nothing really bad enough to annoy me other than getting stuck in 2 different parts of the final level and having to reset the game (I tried to use the song to restart the level but it just softlocked the game further)

Misto de plataforma com JRPG, Viola é o produto de um desenvolvedor apenas, basicamente viola toca tão mal seu violino que acaba abrindo um portal dimensional (não estou zoando) e parte em uma incrível aventura, merecedor de lista de desejos e aquisição quando em promoção! Confira uma espiadinha no jogo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfMXy3O1gEc&t=504s

Viola is a wonderful game. The gameplay is mostly rpg battles similar to paper mario and some casual platforming. The strong point to the game is the story, every character is a joy to see on the screen and I can't think of anything in recent memory to make me cry as much as this game has. The music is wonderful and is worth the price of admission alone. There is some minor graphical issues, particularly if you don't have a standard monitor resolution, but nothing worth worrying about

Engaging storyline and likeable characters, platforming sections which are fun to navigate and turn based battles give a good variety to the gameplay. While the timing doesn't always seem to be exact, the button prompt turn based battles add a bit of spice to the occasion. There's a lot to enjoy when you play Viola. For my first impressions of Viola check out my video here: https://youtu.be/tA7LgcUX_kE