Fun
First and foremost, Roadwarden is a visual novel, most of what you're going to be doing is reading. If you can't put up with that, don't buy this game. Consequently, this will mostly be about writing. As a roadwarden your job is part hunter, trailblazer, and mailman. Your job is to keep the roads safe and prepare the peninsula for colonization by your masters in the merchant guild, go nuts. You have free reign to act (or not act) and the game itself never judges you for it. Characters rarely feel one dimensional and you really feel like you're getting tossed into the thick the intrigue from day one. Everyone of note has something they want, some kind of angle, and will try to play you, the errant spanner in the works, to do what they want done. That doesn't mean you're completely vulnerable though. Get information on something from everyone you can, compare what stories line up and don't, catch someone in a lie or fake buying it and screw over their plans at the last, worst second. No one person is solely evil, no one person completely good. Even the worst the peninsula has to offer believe in their work, or are just making decisions to get people through another winter. Even the moment to moment writing is handled with a loving care that punches above it's weight for worldbuilding and visuals. The result is writing that feels remarkably human, even realistic. Violence is also handled remarkably well, it's impactful, chaotic, and brutal. For context, my first warden was a fighter, and a damned good one, but i'll never forget the shock of him dying unceremoniously in the forest because I got complacent, or the hatred, indignation, and violation of getting beaten and tortured by a bastard goon that caught him in his sleep. The frailty of existence is front and center throughout the story. I'm not usually one to get attached to stories, but after 10-12 hours of playing, the hollow in my heart this game made damn near collapsed when the epilogue played out.
