Posted on: June 30, 2020
kanamor392
Verified ownerGames: Reviews: 60
Very light visual novel gamified
This review is based on the "Prologue" version, which is basically a demo. You inherited a store from your late mother; now you have to travel to neighboring towns to get items to sell. Along the way you learn more about her from friends and acquaintances. This is sort of a very light visual novel based on a matching card-based mechanic that represents conversations. A successful conversation means you get the items you want or background info; a failed conversation means you were a jerk and leave empty-handed. Each conversation is represented as a sequence of rounds; the conversation ends after you reach a predetermined number of successes or failures, which need not be the same. To successfully clear a round you must create a "chain" of matching cards, similar to a very basic dominoes game: cards have two sides, each side with a symbol. The round starts with a card on table; you place another next to it. If the adjacent sides match, your interlocutor places his own card next to yours and so on, until you reach a predetermined chain length and the round ends. Easier conversations require shorter chain lengths. This mechanic gets interesting because some cards have extra abilities but mostly because at the end you are forced to replace a card in your deck with one of the cards you were presented. This is cool because it's an organic way of improving your deck but also presents some challenges because your deck is quite small. I wish the consequences of some conversations were clearer; sometimes you'll get the same answers regardless of failing or finishing a round, or the whole conversation. You can fail a conversation on purpose, but othertimes you simply won't have the needed cards. Starting a doomed conversation (you can see a person's symbols beforehand) is still worthwhile since it lets you acquire the new cards you need. Overall I like it -the matching game is not interesting enough by itself, but the VN and exploration aspects close the deal.
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