Walkerman

[h1]OVERVIEW[/h1] Walkerman: Act 1: Welcome to Midgard is the first chapter in a new fantasy horror visual novel from developer ScalemaiL and published by Sekai Project: a name that will be familiar to many anime VN game fans. The Prologue is available as a free demo download, and the newly released Act 1 is the first of five paid chapters, the rest of which are still in development. In Walkerman, you play Jorgen, a young man following the footsteps of his father into the ranks of the Walkermen: socially outcast monster hunters who patrol the streets after dark, keeping civilised folk safe. The world in which you find yourself is a strange one, with these monstrous inhabitants each restricted by certain rules. Through clever application of these rules, often by using seemingly worthless nick-knacks, the monsters can be manipulated and eventually defeated. [h1]Graphics[/h1] The graphical presentation in Walkerman is typical of the VN genre, with most of the story presented as text in semi-transparent boxes over static hand-drawn backgrounds. Characters are overlaid on the backgrounds and occasionally drawn in different postures, depending on the context. There's very little small-scale animation, but characters do appear and move about in a limited fashion. The backgrounds are mostly well drawn, with some interesting environments and a much more natural look to most anime VNs. The characters, too, are mostly well drawn and attractive, though they tend more towards the anime look than the environments, so can look out of place sometimes. Walkerman also introduces a tactical grid map style during the battle sections of the story. This certainly isn't a necessary addition to the game, and you still don't have any direct control over anything that's going on, but it does help to break up the monotony, and seeing some locations from multiple perspectives is a nice touch. As is also typical of the genre, the apparently very busy streets that are supposed to be thronging with people are only ever drawn empty. This annoys me in many VNs, so certainly isn't a Walkerman-only failing. Weirdly for a VN, the gallery starts already unlocked with all scenes available. There are no graphics options. [h1]Sound[/h1] Walkerman features a number of classical-style musical tracks that I'd label as light orchestral, if I had to place them in a genre. One track sounds like a mellow version of one of the more quirky musical scores from Ghostbusters, while others are eerie and even dramatic, in the case of the battle music. The heavy-metal style 'Walkerman' song at the end of each chapter is dreadful and completely out of sync with the rest of the game. Sound effects are few and far between, playing only at trigger points in the story. They're well done and, for the most part, sound like they should for the atmosphere they try to portray. There are no voices. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Visual novels, particularly those that don't go in for gratuitous softcore hentai boobage, have to rely on the story and art to entice players and hold their attention, and I've already covered the art, above. From looking at the Steam store page for Walkerman, it's actually hard to tell it's target audience, with Sexual Content and Nudity as two of the game's tags, and a warning from the developer about adult themes, including those of a sexual nature. Let me say straight up that if you're interested in reading 'that sort' of visual novel, you should hold off on Walkerman for now, since this comes direct from the developer in the Steam discussions: "While the Walkerman series will contain 18+ content, this is not featured in Act 1. We are marking the game with the tags 'Nudity' and 'Sexual Content' regardless, because purchasers need to be aware that this game has that kind of material. However, this only begins starting in Act 2." The store page also implies that the game is an adventure game, but I'm afraid I just can't see it. You have an inventory, yes, but the actual use of that inventory amounts to nothing more than some very limited branching-story choices of the type that exists in all VNs. There's no real freedom beyond the relatively small number of branch points. To my mind, it's no more an adventure game than any other VN I've played. So that leaves us with the story, ignoring the game's Steam tags. In this, Walkerman tries very hard, but doesn't really succeed. The story alternates between overly flowery prose with strong religious and political themes running through it, and overly informal modern-slang style dialogue, which really feels out of place when read alongside the prose. This is especially jarring because the story is told from Jorgen's perspective, and the gulf between the style of the prose and Jorgen's speech is very wide, indeed. To complete the Prologue and Act 1 took me a little over three hours, and that was including pausing to take screenshots and notes for this review. So it's pretty short. To make matters worse, even that short time felt too long for what actually happened in the story. I often became bored with the largely irrelevant philosophy that characters insisted on discussing over and over again in their abbreviated styles. There's only a small number of choices to be made in the story proper, with a handful more in the final scene. Readers shouldn't expect a convoluted branching plot. There are quite a few characters to meet in such a short story, though, and at least some of them are moderately likeable. Others, however, like Jorgen himself, seem to have mastered the art of being annoying. The writing quality is okay, with most basic grammar being correct, but there are a number of errors, many of them repeated. In particular the author needs to learn the difference between lie and lay, and how they are conjugated. And please cut some of those sentences down! But at least the semicolons were mostly correct, which is unusual anywhere these days. After the first 10 minutes of reading I felt the manuscript really could have done with some attention from an irritable editor with a good red pen. As well as the dialogue being completely inconsistent with the prose, it's often difficult to work out who is saying what, particularly in some of the longer discussions. And whatever happened to quotation marks to delineate speech!? Those dashes at the start of lines containing dialogue don't do the job well enough. [h1]PROS AND CONS[/h1] Pros: + Some nice character art and backgrounds + The grid scenes for combat are a nice idea + Steam Achievements and Trading Cards Cons: - Completely inconsistent prose and dialogue styles - Needs some serious editing for grammar and readability - Very few choices throughout the story - Potentially misleading Steam tags - Expensive for what's available [h1]CONCLUSION[/h1] With some major editing, Walkerman Act 1 could be a much better VN at half the length it is now, and it's already too short. Only recommended for die-hard VN fans, and even then, you could probably find something better for the price. Autosave Save Save for Later [h1]Pause[/h1] Quit Rage Quit Note: I received this game for free for review purposes. This did not influence my review. [code]For more game reviews, visit [url=http://saveorquit.com/]Save or Quit[/url].[/code]

It's a fairly interesting visual novel with some trial-and-error puzzle solving. The characters are believable, especially the main character since he clearly struggles with internal moral dilemma and his current profession. He's not brave nor particularly skilled in combat but at least he recognizes his weakness and tries to overcomes them. The other side characters are also acceptable though the game clearly focuses on the main character a lot more. The game handles expositions neatly, through the main character wanting a refresher on his religion/beliefs from a Cultist (real world equivalent to a priest) and discussing politics and philosophy with a foreigner. It's explained just enough that players won't get overwhelmed with new information and lore. It's a pain in the *ss to read all of them but it's an attempt at world building so it's fine, I guess. One thing I really didn't like however was determining who's talking in a conversation. There's no name on the text box to indicate who's currently talking at the moment. The only way to tell someone's talking is by looking at their mouths, the one's talking is the one with their mouth open. The change in character portrait is limited in facial expressions only. Which is a bit disappointing but understandable. It conveys the character's emotion well enough but I would've prefer more varied poses and body languages. Also, the music sometimes goes silent in a specific conversation. Sometimes the background only showed a black image. It helps me to focus on reading but I can't help but feel it's kinda out of place whenever it happens. The puzzle is satisfactory but the solution for it are always the same, making some items really not necessary to obtain. One of them is the crossbow. Perhaps it may have an impact in the later acts but in this particular act, it's doesn't do anything useful. Like all visual novel, it has branching paths however there's only one major decision in the 1st act and it'll come in full effect in the next act, which will probably take some time to be released. Other minor choices also barely changes anything since any item you get from that decision doesn't really change the solution of the puzzle. This means the game barely have any replay value.

[h1]Walkerman is a beautifully illustrated fantasy visual novel with adventure game elements. It features an intricately detailed world with its own politics, religion, and social structures, a cast of interesting characters that serve as more than just “villager one” or “guard A”, and unique battle system. The game is slow to start, but the writing will keep you engaged until you actually start Walking.[/h1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixt7uTnF_L4 Keep in mind, however, that this purchase includes the first chapter of the game alone with the second planned to release fall of 2017. [i]”Take my hand.”[/i] The abominations you hunt as a Walkerman - an individual who patrols the streets at night fighting off the evil that lurks there - shouldn’t be able to speak, but the one that pursues you in the game’s opening arc keeps not only repeating that phrase--It knows your name. [i]”Jorgen. Take my hand.”[/i] You’re thrown directly into the fray in game and out of it. Jorgen is brand new to the Walkerman scene and as such you’re learning the best way to deal with these creatures right alongside him. The first few hours of the game are spent talking to the people and setting up the universe. , as it were; establishing a believable, breathing world with residents who are interconnected by the events that unfold. The writing is a bit heavy handed in terms of new names and vocabulary to learn, so those who aren’t intrigued by the political climate may find themselves skipping forward to Jorgen’s third or fourth day on the job when you start making decisions. Decisions boil down to one of two situations: social ones which will change the way a character or characters view you and Walkerman related decisions which will affect how you proceed in terms of investigating monsters and the objects you’ll have at your disposal when fighting them. Investigating your quarry to figure out the rules it follows is a matter of trial and error due to the nature of the game’s objects. All objects in this world have different properties that monsters will respond to based on the rules they follow. For example: if a monster follows the rule that it must face all coins tails side up, then throwing a handful of coins could serve as a lure or a distraction because no matter what, the monster will turn over any coin facing the wrong way. Every monster will respond differently to different objects, so if you’re in danger, chucking one might mean the difference between life and death. As a VN on Steam, Walkerman has some of the better writing I’ve encountered. It sets up background and details character interactions well, though it could benefit from a glossary of terms because it relies heavily on context and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the paragraphs of exposition. The art style is detailed and colorful and characters change expression and position accordingly. Characters stand before static backdrops and any change is indicated via text. The story is unfinished, however, and what you get here is the first of five chapters. Discussions in the forum suggest that the entire story will be completed within the next two years, so if you're unwilling to wait an undefined amount of time between chapters, it may be best to follow the game page and wait for a hopeful season pass once everything is said and done. I recommend this game based on the quality of the writing and my subsequent willingness to purchase upcoming chapters. They will cost 2.99 USD a pop so that the game as a whole will cost around $20 retail. .Pros. [list][*]The writing is great, creating a web of intrigue that encompasses an entirely made up world with its own rules, history, and political/economic climate. [*]The art is nice to look at and the characters expressions change according to the situation. [*]The action-adventure aspect where you use items and rules is unique and interesting. Save often, though, because you can get a premature game over if you slip up. [*]Your choices matter. When you're facing off against a creature of the night, one wrong move means a messy death. [*]This is subjective, but the adult themes really do it for me. This is a world that's falling apart--not because of supernatural forces or some great cataclysm--due to human vice.[/list] .Cons. [list][*]Subsequent chapters will be released as they are completed. Realistically speaking, this means there are no promises that the game will even be finished as we've seen with like styled releases. [*]Some of the decisions you make don't seem to have an immediate effect. I'm not sure if this means it will change things in subsequent chapters.[/list] .Bottom Line. If you're willing to wait for subsequent chapters to be released, Walkerman is an easy recommendation to VN enthusiasts and those who love losing themselves in the lore of a fantasy world. Just bear in mind that it could take any number of months before you'll see how this story ends. The game offers something different in terms of action adventure gameplay where you use the properties of items and trial and error to outsmart the creature that's hunting you. The combination results in a heart-pounding situation despite not having any direct control over your character and you'll sit at the edge of your seat as the battle unfolds based on what you've chosen as a result of your investigative work prior to the showdown. More casual VN fans who like to get straight to the nitty gritty may not enjoy this title as much as there's a lot of build up and exposition before you actually start getting your hands dirty. [code]If you found this review helpful, please give it a thumbs-up. For more reviews like this one follow the [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/gamingwithNtK/curation]NeedtoKnow Gaming Curator[/url] page <3[/code]

Walkerman is a thrilling supernatural fantasy visual novel developed by ScalemaiL and published by Sekai Project. Walkermen are people who patrol the streets of various towns and cities at night and use their knowledge of the supernatural to hunt down and defeat monsters of all types. This is based on the fact that each of these creatures obey a particular set of rules that can be used by a skilled person to determine that beasts weaknesses and predelictions in order to defeat them. As Jorgen, a young farm boy, you are looking forward to embarking on your new career as a Walkerman and quite eager to take on your first assignment as you travel to the bustling port city of Midgard. What sort of harrowing adventures and blood curling terrors lay in wait for Jorgen...turn the page? Visually, this is one of if not the most beautifully illustrated visual novels that I have read to date on Steam. The artstyle used in this title is just breathtakingly eyecatching with superb colors, gorgeous shading and fantastic effects. Everything from the people, monsters, buildings and backgrounds are of the upmost quality in presentation and just a pleasure to peruse as you read through the compelling story. With me I don't really care about the art being poor if the narrative in the visual novel is good but if the artwork also happens to be terrific then that is just icing on the cake and in this aspect Walkerman does not dissapoint. With that said, usually there is no gameplay involved in your typical visual novels but that is not so with this title. Whenever you confront a creature the V.N. switches to an isometric view like a turn-based title and offers various choices for you to make as you attempt to win the battle or just try to stay alive. There is definitely some gameplay as well as lite puzzle solving involved which is a nice addition to the story progression of this V.N.. I've been starting to notice more and more visual novels include some form of gameplay in their narratives and for me this is a very welcome trend that I hope continues? The aural presentation is of the upmost quality as the title is peppered with ambient sounds which really help with immersion as you progress through the storyline. Also, the soundtrack is very well orchestrated and blends in nicely with the entertaining narrative. In summary, this novel's visual and aural presentation is of the highest quality and should set the benchmark for V.N.'s on Steam. Walkerman was a highly enjoyable read for me from the beginning to the very end...well I shouldn't say end because my current read included only the prologue and Act 1 which are the only parts available but there are multiple acts to follow in the coming months and I for one can't wait for the future installments to release. The title presented an intriguing storyline that was just a pleasure to read while illustrating it with phenomenal artwork and amazing sound quality. And as I mentioned before, there were even some gameplay elements incorporated which doesn't happen very often with visual novels so when it does it is quite special. Add to that some puzzle solving and you have a wonderful visual novel experience in this package. Replayability is quite high as there are a number of choices to make in the branching storyline. As options go, there are a selection of Steam Achievements to hunt down and Steam Trading Cards to collect as well. Also available are the basic visual novel options for sound/volume control and text speed alongside a C.G. gallery included for various illustrations that you unlock as the narrative progresses. Last but certainly not least is a music room for the titles wonderful soundtrack for you to listen to at your leisure. In conclusion, with this visual novel's excellent supernatural laced storyline and very pleasing illustrations, Walkerman would make a fantastic addition to your Steam V.N. collection so this title is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to fans of the genre as well as to casual gamers one and all.

Note: I have backed the kickstarter. Walkerman is a fantasy visual novel with an interesting added twist to it; it ends in a hunt for a supernatural enemy and figuring out how to defeat it by using items and information collected during the novel sections. It is a fantasy setting, but at many points it feels like a pastiche of tropes and cultures you frequently find in other media. It doesn't feel original, but at the same time there are nods here and there that the novel is self-aware. The strongest element is the main protagonist who is somewhat different than the typical VN everyman you see - while you do make choices as you would expect, Jorgen the Walkerman has a clearly defined character and frequently provides intimate thoughts and observations, not just for exposition and context but for growth as well. All of the characters you meet overall seem to be at least decent, even memorable at times. Some are frankly caricatures, but this might be the intent. It is difficult to talk about the characters at this point since only the first act is available, but it is obvious the main theme of the game is being set up, and it's - rather surprisingly - social norms. There is plenty of discussion about the way Walkerman's fantasy society is structured and its history with no visible payoff - yet. While the hunt for the supernatural entity is framed as its own thing, it is difficult to pull parallels with the main story since we don't have the full story yet. The only worry I have for now is how romance will be handled in later chapters - Walkerman doesn't seem like the type of story or setting that would need plotlines centered around a romantic interest, especially not in the way visual novels tend to do. There's definitely a selection of future waifus to be found in Act 1, but no clear route layed out for any of them yet. If this is handled well in the future, without pandering or fanservice material, then this might be a strong, but not main, element of the novel - but I have the feeling it might backfire. Speaking of the hunt itself, during the course of the first act you meet characters, have several choices to pick and follow up on certain leads depending on how you decide to act. It is important to take into account everything you know about the quarry, since it is, thankfully, possible to make a mistake. Rather than shoehorn you into a completely linear solution for the hunt, there are many ways to strike the last blow. Most of it depends on which items you have at the time of the hunt, and how you use them - in what order, when, how, etc. The entities you hunt depend on "rules" that don't necessarily make logical sense, and it's up to you to figure them out and abuse them for your own gain. It's an interesting mechanic and well suited for the visual novel approach. The hunt itself is presented as an isometric top-down gameboard, with Jorgen as a piece on the board. Sometimes you are able to interact with other pieces on the board as well. Visually, the art is quite nice, particularly the characters and their expressions. It has a more western, stylised comic book feel to it rather than the typical weeb animoo look, so it's really refreshing to see. Sound effects are good as well, with the music being nothing memorable but nothing too bad either. There are no bugs or glitches to speak of, with some typos and inconsistencies already having been fixed by the developer as soon as they had been noticed. Work is progressing on the second act's assets (the writing is completely done) which should come fairly quickly. In short, since this is not a finished VN yet, I would recommend it only to those who enjoy both visual novels with interesting gimmicks and fantasy settings like the Witcher series. There's definitely potential for something great.

TL;DR: A VN with flowery prose, an unusual protagonist, lots of world building and an interesting take on what combat in a VN can look like. If you are here for boobs or voice acting, you have been misled. Stuff to read: This is a review of the Prologue and first Act of Walkerman. Walkerman does not really deliver what its store page suggests. While in the Steam Store it currently looks like this is a sex, horror and combat filled visual novel with a dark tone, the actual game reads much more like a young man's struggle to retain his very religious values in a society which seems to have abandoned the tennants of its faith. This is not to say, that that is the only thing that happens in Walkerman, but it undoubtedly takes the largest chunk of the currently 4 hours of gameplay, with the horror/detective elements making up the second largest bit. You see, the titular walkermen hunt things that go bump in the night and our protagonist has decided to take up the mantle of his father, move to the city and become a walkerman himself. However, in this world, scary creatures can't simply be hunted with an exceptionally sharp silver sword, but must be tricked to be slain. For some otherworld reason, all creatures in Walkerman must obey certain rules, all unique to their monsters. Because of this, our protagonist must research his opponent and gather material to use in his confrontation. This focus on the details suits the visual novel format surprisingly well, as the reader is already expected to pay attention to the massive amount of text being deluged on the screen. Once the walkerman finally goes out to hunt, the player is rewarded with a tense combat puzzle. This approach to combat seems oddly native to the visual novel format. Since there are really no balancing issues to be considered, you end up with a fight that leaves you feeling like you got through it by the skin of your teeth, which is a feeling you don't really expect to get from a visual novel. I have to note however that the imprecise translating of the visual novel style choices into the characters actions becomes incredibly jarring once you are in a situation in which any wrong move could potentially kill you. A more precise description of what exactly the character will do once you choose a certain action seems like something that would greatly relieve this issue. In comparision to the combat, the story portrays a very different sort of struggle. In an unexpected turn, it turns out that the protagonist has quite the personality in contrast with the usual visual novel faire. In fact, it is that very personality that will net him a lot of disdain from the reader. As it turns out our main character is in fact very religious and also very, very racist. This will turn a lot of people off and I can't even imagine many people liking the guy even if they end up reading this visual novel anyway. It is nonetheless incredibly interesting to follow his thought process, especially because his ideology runs so contrary to the norm. To be fair, his views are far more representable of the world he inhabits, but it does really seem like it was the intention of the writers to create a character that one can at once sympathize and disagree with. After all, we do help him fight for his life. This is where I have to push some worries however. The game is as of yet unfinished, but it does seem to promise that there will be romance in the future of this dear racist douchebag. This poses a tonal problem however, as most of the romantic interests that have appeared so far are explicitly of a different race, all of which our protagonist is very dismissive of. Considering how strongly he holds to his views in the current part of the story, I worry about how hard the character shift from monogamous, no-sex-until-marriage and locally-sourced-broads to gotta-catch'em-all is going to be. To be sure, nothing has happened yet, but the threat of this 180 on the horizon is truly what is keeping me from being overly enthusiastic about this visual novel at this point. Some more technical notes before I conclude: The art is great, but you can see that for yourself. Sadly, you stay in the city most often and the character portraits - aside from the women - are rather bland. There is no voice work. The writing on a technical level tries the age old trick of typing out thick accents to give certain characters - well ... - character to varying levels of success. There are also no tags to help you distinguish characters in the dialogue box, though I personally did not find that problematic. The sound is pleasant enough to leave running for the duration of your stay, but nothing to buy an OST over as of yet. In conclusion I would note that Walkerman does a lot of things well that set it apart from the pack. It however strangely has problems with the things that are all too common with visual novels anyway - namely text formatting and romantic plots. If you have an interest in original worlds and lore, characters with differing viewpoints from your own and tense combat puzzles with a long preparation phase then you will probably get a kick out of this. If you want great voice work, lots of schmalzy romance, wholly inoffensive characters and hours upon hours of reading material then you are currently out of luck.

*NOTE: Please understand this is an episodic game, and currently all content is not out. If you have a problem with the story cutting off early and waiting, dont buy this game now. I am not generally a fan of Visual Novels, but this one really got me. The story and world is interesting, and the concept of learning about the creatures and trying to fighting them off is pretty well done, though it looks like its going to get even better soon so thats good. Its pretty cheap and I recommend it with the above caveat.

A while back, I played a demo, as I often do, of a game in development, and was blown away by the potential. But it seemed too ambitious to see fruition, so I thought little of it. So many projects die unfulfilled. Now, after a successful kickstarter and a reasonable period of development, ScalemaiL have reminded us that not every great idea dies early. The first episode took what was a cool premise and fulfilled it entirely, with only more to come. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] This is a narrative game that ultimately revolves around a puzzle. How does this creature work, and how are you going to kill it before it kills you? A simple premise, but one built upon in great layers. It makes you think, makes you choose, and then rewards your choices at the end with a logical and consistant but unforgiving and ultimately rewarding finale. [h1]Story[/h1] And yet this is just the framework. The story of the game weaves in so much more. Themes of growth are common in media, the country boy in a big city is a cliché of decades past. But rarely is it done in a way that feels so believable, with so little false pretense, and which still does more than such stories usually do. This one shows the mindset of a religious person, self-alienating into fundamentalism, and yet does so without being preachy or dogmatic, only conveying a realistic scenario despite the fantasy setting. Protagonist believability may not be the norm for visual novels, but it's present here. All of the characters, in fact, never once felt unrealistic or trite, but the protagonist is even more so. He's not a walking power fantasy – in fact he's kind of pathetic in a lot of ways – but he also doesn't make stupid choices for no reason, simply to further the story or introduce conflict. He does make some poor decisions, but his emotional reasons are always clear, and so rather than being annoyed by his choices, I was left thinking he did pretty well given his emotional state. But it is still a fantasy setting. As much as the interpersonal relations feel as though they could be contemporary, and the geopolitics feel medieval, huge parts of the game revolve around mystical antagonists, and what relationship the protagonist might or might not have with a particularly irregular one. You'll find no answer to that yet though – this is an episodic series and not all of it is released yet. Because this is mostly a written game, I should also comment on the prose style as with a novel. First of all, the vocabulary is pretty extensive. I found this pleasant, but for a child or for someone who learned English as a second language, it might be frustrating depending on reading level. It's also written with a lot of stylization. Major characters each have their own unique way of speaking, and some of them, also, might be a bit tough if you're not familiar with colloquial English. Even if you're entirely fluent, there's one stylistic choice that might make certain bits a bit tough. The story is told entirely from within the mind of the protagonist, and this is reflected in format; though spoken word is denoted by a m-dash (—) it is often mixed with the protagonist's thoughts on it and not separated using quotation marks. I'm very skilled in English (in fact I've taught it) but although the words are normally laid out in an intuitive way, I found myself needing to reread some lines of dialogue nonetheless. While I think most of the choices in the prose reinforce the tone and portray the setting in a lively way, this last bit is one where I think too much is sacrificed for too little. It's an episodic game, by the way, and I'm writing this with only one of five chapters out, but the first one has a satisfactory ending. Even though there's still major story threads left open, it doesn't leave you on a cliffhanger. [h1]Art[/h1] First of all, format: The whole thing is in traditional VN-style 2D aside from the fight scenes, which are isometric on a grid. There are some stunning visual set-pieces which are works of art in their own right, but for the most part, landscapes and areas are content to remain backgrounds, and although they're beautiful if you take the time to study them, you probably won't do that much. The character art, on the other hand, uses clear lines and bright colors to contrast well with the backdrops, adapting Franco-Belgian cartooning techniques to more complex medium in order to put your eye where it should be. This art doesn't particularly stand out among VNs, though it is relatively good among those that don't use an anime style. As for the isometric battle views, they're entirely functional and do a solid job of displaying the action, but they feel a bit lackluster compared to the rest of the art. I think that the fights could have used their own illustrations specific to some key events and actions, but alas, the kickstarter didn't go high enough for that kind of stretch goal. Lastly, the UI is functionally pretty typical to a game made in Ren'Py, but aesthetically it (like the rest of this game) is unusually polished and pleasing. [h1]Sound[/h1] Overall, the music is much like the background art: Pleasing, suitable to the context, and unobtrusive. Sound effects are also well used, where they're present: Appropriate, and the correct level of obtrusiveness. But there's not a ton of them. This VN isn't voiced at all in any language; in my opinion that's a good thing given the quality of VA that games (and especially small games) tend to get. [h1]Overview[/h1] • A simple mechanic of information gathering based on choices to discern a mystery becomes rewarding through the details • Characters and story are incredibly believably written. Fleshed-out world does a decent job at portraying the real world. • Prose might be a bit of an obstacle for those with limited proficiency in reading English. • Some dialogue is difficult to differentiate from the protagonist's thoughts. • Not a lot of choices, but the ones present matter more than you'd normally expect this early in a story. • All options seem viable one way or another, except when in a life or death situation, when anything that makes sense is viable. • Art is overall quite pretty, fightscene bits are serviceable. Sound does its job and nothing more. [h1]Bottom Line[/h1] A beautiful work of fantasy, enjoyable and mentally stimulating. Thematically more mature than many VNs on Steam. Tough prose if you don't read English well, but worth it. I'm eagerly awaiting the next chapter.

This series feels really new and fresh. The world building is top notch. Characters, including the protagonist are flawed and interesting. Art is different and unique. I'd reccomend it.