Winter voices (new indie turn based rpg)

[zeitgeist]

Has anyone tried this game?

There's this LP here.

 

[DalekFlay]

This now has a "complete edition" on Steam and such, so I assume the game is done now. Any further thoughts?

 

[Correct_Carlo]

I played through the entirety of the prologue a couple months ago and liked it enough to want to check out the rest, but I've been waiting for the entire series to be done before I bothered investing time in the rest (the company went bankrupt and they announced they weren't making anymore, but then the series' main writer got the rights and released the last 2 episodes on his own...so I was never sure if he'd finish or not). Anyhow, now that it's all done it's probably the next thing I'll play.

Just from playing the prologue, though, it's kind of a hard game to recommend. Not because it's awful or anything, but just because it's so unlike anything else out there (and not always in a good way) so it's really the sort of game that you kind of have to try for yourself in order to tell if you'll like it or not. All combat is defensive, battles are more puzzle like than most RPGs (i.e. they all involve finding a way to survive for X number of turns rather than killing anything), and the game is very, very, slow (they sped up battles with a previous patch, but the engine's still kind of sluggish and your character walks slowly. The whole thing runs on Adobe Air so expect frequent crashes). There's very little C&C (at least in the prologue) and most of your game time is spent just talking to people (which gives you the bulk of your experience). Plus, translations are pretty bad, which doesn't serve some of the more poetic writing in the game very well (I don't speak French, so I have no basis for comparison, but it often comes off as word salad at times, bad emo creative writing at others. Although the basic translations of straight dialogue are mostly fine).

All that said, though, it has kind of a strange funeral tone that's so unlike any other RPG I've ever played that it kind of drew me in. Plus, I actually enjoyed the character building (the stats and skill "snowflake" are kind of awesome) and battles and I liked the general concept behind the game enough to forgive it its many flaws. It's strange enough that I want to finish it just to see where the hell it's going, anyway. I'll try to remember to post my thoughts on the later episodes when I'm done.

At anyrate, I actually think the demo is a pretty good representation of what the game is. So if you can make it through the demo, it's probably worth a try.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

The combat while not spectacular, is TB and your focus is to survive or run. And the skills. Oh man you can be a summoner, slash your health to up DR...lots of cool shit to try out.

Spoiler

I played the prologue it already has themes of lesbianism and child abuse, obfuscated in artsy poetry.

This is not for people who expect to mondblut their builds and butcher everything in thier way.

In the mechancis side, i really liked the memory stat. you pump more points into it, the more exp you get (and hence levels) but the mroe damage you take. And it is actually much easier ot survive in combat with low memory (and consequently lower levels).

 

[Overboard]

This is not for people who expect to mondblut their builds and butcher everything in thier way.

Thank you for killing my boner.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

I finished the second episode and was much less impressed with it. It's mostly just random fights while traveling. Story and dialogue are nill and the few conversations that are there are poorly translated and mostly uninteresting (most conversation in the episode consists of clicking on people to read a non-sequitor that doesn't always make sense due to translation). Battles are still kind of interesting, but my build seems to be uber overpowered. I haven't added any skills in 5 level ups and I breezed through the whole episode easily.

Anyhow, this episode is 99% padding. I don't know what happened, if the first one sold so poorly that they thought they had to rush the next one out, but it's pretty inconsequential.

I'm not the sort who gives up on games so I'll keep playing to see if it gets better.

 

[VioletShadow]

The combat while not spectacular, is TB and your focus is to survive or run. And the skills. Oh man you can be a summoner, slash your health to up DR...lots of cool shit to try out.

Spoiler

I played the prologue it already has themes of lesbianism and child abuse, obfuscated in artsy poetry.

This is not for people who expect to mondblut their builds and butcher everything in thier way.

In the mechancis side, i really liked the memory stat. you pump more points into it, the more exp you get (and hence levels) but the mroe damage you take. And it is actually much easier ot survive in combat with low memory (and consequently lower levels).

Hmm maybe I should get it on Steam.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

So I'm halfway through the 4th episode and it gets way better starting with episode 3. The plot picks up, the writing gets better, and combat gets fun/challenging again. I know some people hate achievements, but "Winter Voice's" are generally well done in that they usually involve a challenge/harder way of beating a specific battle. I have like 13 skill points stored up which I've been using to try different builds for the achievements, then I try to make it through the battles without using those skills so I can horde my points until later. Most people probably wouldn't have the patience, but I get off on absurd challenges like that. Some of the achievement battles are really puzzle like and can get really hard.

Plus, you start offensive battles in episode 3. I won't blow it, but the part where you can suddenly turn on the projections and start burning them down is a pretty neat dramatic moment.

 

[thesheeep]

Hmm, I totally forgot about this. Now that the season is complete, I'll sure try it.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

The combat while not spectacular, is TB and your focus is to survive or run. And the skills. Oh man you can be a summoner, slash your health to up DR...lots of cool shit to try out.

Spoiler

I played the prologue it already has themes of lesbianism and child abuse, obfuscated in artsy poetry.

This is not for people who expect to mondblut their builds and butcher everything in thier way.

In the mechancis side, i really liked the memory stat. you pump more points into it, the more exp you get (and hence levels) but the mroe damage you take. And it is actually much easier ot survive in combat with low memory (and consequently lower levels).

Hmm maybe I should get it on Steam.

Definitely worth trying the prologue. Although it gets better with the later episodes

 

[VioletShadow]

I ended up getting it and I'm enjoying it so far. Only played for a couple hours but it's pretty interesting. Quite imaginative and I like the story.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

I kinda like its pretentious freudian/lacanian plot about dad,

Spoiler

rape and repression.

And I even manage to bare uber-boring coward style of combat.
But damned game is buggy as hell. Sometimes it gets absolutely unplayable.
I wasn't able to finish it. Stuck in Ep.5.