[b]TL; DR[/b] This game is not as fantastic as [i]Roadwarden[/i], but it has its own appeal and does its own thing. [i]Windy Meadow[/i] is an underappreciated visual novel about a rustic little village and the trouble and trauma that ails its people, it makes me feel things and is therefore easy to recommend.
[b]Note[/b] features terrible parents, but also a few parental figures that are actually supportive.
[h1]Story[/h1]
Windy Meadow is a little village out in the wilderness, they face the sort of issues that are normal in this world, starvation, mysterious diseases, wild animals, and bandits, but right now they are preparing for a wedding.
For a couple of days, we get to tag along three villagers as they go about their lives, and see how they grapple with their past trauma, the nebulous future, and a village that can feel suffocating.
Stories of normal people doing normal things is something I find quite appealing, so enter [i]Windy Meadow[/i] a story of three villagers with “humble” aspirations living in a small village, of course it would pique my interest.
Throughout the story we get a sense of what their days are like: Vena joins her father for hunts, suffers anxiety inducing family dinners and gets drunk with her friends; Fabel studies stories, dreams of becoming a bard, and of having legs again; Iudicia is getting married! Do not ask about her parents, do not ask about her parents, do not ask about her parents.
So, all is not well in Windy Meadow, familial trauma is a running theme, Vena’s dad is overbearing, and does not trust her, and her sister cannot go a moment without berating her, Fabel had good parents, and do not ask about Iudicia’s parents.
We are only given a vertical slice of their lives, but there is a sense that they have history with one another, and that their lives will continue after the tale has finished. Perhaps they will process their past, forgive their tormentors, or give up on their dreams and bemoan what could have been. However, that is not something we are privy to, that is up to them in the unwritten future.
I for one find Windy Meadow suffocating, at least from certain perspectives, being surrounded by people who do not care what you want, who do not respect your choices, and who do not listen to you is exhausting. Good intentions are all fine and well, but if you are a parent, you have a responsibility, your failures do not entitle you to forgiveness.
On a lighter note, what helps immerse you in [i]Windy Meadow[/i] are the tooltips. They are used to build backstories, it tells you of character relations, how the person you are following views their neighbours, and how that view changes over the course of the story.
A change in perspective gives you a new view of every character, not just how they act [i]now[/i], but how they have acted before the story began, and that helps make them three-dimensional. It is a really neat addition, and something that takes a lot of work. Systems like this can only ever shine in creations like [i]Windy Meadow[/i], short enough that the effort is visible and defensible but with enough characters and events to make things grand.
[h1]Presentation[/h1]
I am not a massive fan of [i]Windy Meadow[/i]’s visuals, I prefer the more minimalist approach of [i]Roadwarden[/i] as it stimulates my imagination more, however, it does have its advantages.
At certain points the menu will fade away and reveal a normal, cozy scene of rustic village life, two sisters sitting on a plinth, an old herbalist waiting for her apprentice to finish dinner, a retired Roadwarden having a talk with the boy he rescued, all framed by a slight drizzling rain.
These scenes are beautiful, the best that [i]Windy Meadow[/i] has to offer, it does something that [i]Roadwarden[/i] could never do with its approach, and that makes the choice to depart from that style worthwhile.
There is no OST as far as I understand, since [i]Windy Meadow[/i] uses songs by [i]Doctor Turtle[/i] under a Creative Commons license, I like the songs and think they are used appropriately, however, I do wish we could have had something unique, songs made with the characters, and the game in mind.
