I've seen some complaints about being "railroaded" or certain goals being unachievable or too many characters. I disagree with these. You're a character in a fleshed-out world, obviously you can't totally change everything through sheer force of will. I imagine some events always happen to one degree or another, but it makes sense. Other characters exist with their own motivations and decisions and that plays out. You have some ability to influence it, but that all depends on how far you're willing to go and what sacrifices you're willing to make. Which brings me to some goals being unachievable. You can do certain things, but you need to make sacrifices to get them. Yeah, you can't be besties with your lowborn sister and take her side in everything while simultaneously appeasing your stodgy grandfather and older brother and become a high ranking noble. You have to pick sides and commit to things for which there will be consequences. Your choices matter and you can't do everything perfectly, which is precisely the point of the game. The game even tells you outright at the beginning, you won't be able to do everything you want and you will have to deal with consequences of your actions. It feels like a real life. As for too many characters, I noticed there were more than a few that I had little no to no interaction with and they didn't play a part in my story even though I thought they would (one in particular comes to mind where the consequence literally said: "She will remember you" and I never saw her again), but I've only played through this game once so far and as far as I can tell there are many different paths you can take after adolescence. Depending on decisions you make you will have less/more interactions with certain characters. I look forward to another playthrough to see what the other paths look like. I do have a few quibbles: don't love the save function, would like more voice acting, typos in text. Overall though I thought it was very enjoyable.
I'm so glad I found this game. I don't know if it's up everyone's alley, but if you're in the mood for a retro-style text-based game with an amazing soundtrack give it a try. Personally I think it's got great world building. It won't blow you away, but it doesn't really need to. It's trope-y enough to be familiar (fun fantasy setting), but with enough personal flavor to still seem unique and interesting. It's got replayability too. I've gone through about 3 times I'd say and there's different ways of handling the story. Your choices matter and feel like they matter. I also loved that it's primarily text-based. I have a soft spot in my heart for text-based games. They were mostly being phased out when I first started playing video games, but there's still some nostalgia there. The characters aren't terribly complex, but there's definitely some pathos. The "mysteries" of the story were also fairly satisfying. It was fun unraveling the past of the world you're in. There are some puzzles and they aren't terribly difficult, although there were a couple times when I just couldn't seem to find the right command or keyword and I had to look something up. And finally I absolutely LOVE the soundtrack. Super chill. Great vibe. Adds a wonderful ambience to the game. End of the day, it's probably not for everyone, but if you're even remotely interested in the genre, I'd give it a go. It's one of those games I'm really glad I discovered and played. I wish more people have played it so I could talk about it with them. And it's stayed with me, I bought and beat it about a year ago, but found myself randomly thinking about it (and started listening to the soundtrack) and decided to write a review.
