Winter Voices - Demo Available

Wow, I really tried to like this, but there is WAY too much talky-talky. This isn't a game, it's a barely interactive novel. The writing is amateurish, which kinda adds insult to injury. This was a horrible waste of time, but at least it was free. I can't imagine who the target audience is for this title. If you like reading bad poetry and vapid introspection, this might be for you.

But then again, maybe I'm too harsh.
 
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Wow, I really tried to like this, but there is WAY too much talky-talky. This isn't a game, it's a barely interactive novel. The writing is amateurish, which kinda adds insult to injury. This was a horrible waste of time, but at least it was free. I can't imagine who the target audience is for this title. If you like reading bad poetry and vapid introspection, this might be for you.

But then again, maybe I'm too harsh.

sounds legit
 
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IIRC, the developer is French, which means English probably isn't their first language, so maybe that is why the writing doesn't seem good?

What IS the subject matter of this game? I looked at their site a while back and didn't find a synopsis to read.
 
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You are a girl who has returned for her estranged father's funeral. This has profound emotional and psychological impact, which they try to show through turn-based combat and really, really, bad poetry. I have no idea what their goal was with the game. My best guess is that they wanted to see if they could actually bore somebody to death using a game.
 
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You are a girl
I hate being forced to play a girl character, immediately zero immersion for me. Strike 1!

This has profound emotional and psychological impact
Sounds like a whining emo JRPG, that's not roleplaying. Strike 2!

really, really, bad poetry
And you're out!

Thanks for saving me the time crpgnut!
 
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I hate being forced to play a girl character, immediately zero immersion for me. Strike 1!

I do know at least one female gamer who just isn't playing games where she is forced to play a male character.
 
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Played through a bit of the prologue and think the criticism is a little harsh here. After playing some Torchlight and Divinity 2, I think I prefer the writing here even with the typos as it at least seems to be aiming at an adult audience. Admittedly that's apples and oranges but I'm not sure what to compare it to other than Telepath RPG.

Its combat interface definitely loses out to any major title and I hate that there is no diagonal movement. You can't actually attack as its all defense from what I've seen. Either escape to position X or survive N turns or help others survive. Anyway it feels like an indie game and is one of the better ones I've played in the past year though that is admittedly few.

It is definitely not a typical RPG and I think might be more Adventure-RPG than anything. Its general tone sort of reminds me of The Last Journey especially because of the female lead character. I'm sure I'm not going to pay full price for it anytime soon but would probably be willing to pick it up on sale when all episodes are released and steam has it for 75% off.
 
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Figment, it was like $2-3 per episode IIRC. You could hardly get any cheaper. Of course, in my opinion, it's not even worth the time it takes to download. A few review snippets:

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2010/09/24/winter-voices-avalanche-review/1

What you really need to know about Winter Voices is that it’s biggest problem is that it has a strain of literary diarrhoea which usually affects young goths. It is constantly spewing out pseudo-philosophical, pseudo-poetical nonsense in vast quantity and to very little effect, in other words. Never has there been a game more in need of a visit from the red pen.

Take the introduction, for example; it blathers on for far longer than it really needs to, repeating itself over and over again in the most roundabout way possible, the writers refusing to let you play until they’ve used every synonym they know for ‘cold’ and ‘snowy’. As lovely but low-fi art of the snow-bound village drifts across the screen you’re bombarded with ramblings which are neither clear nor succinct via the most bored sounding narrator ever. We get the point; it’s set in a small mountain town, OK? Move on, or at least tell us something about the wider world the game exists in.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/10/18/wot-i-think-winter-voices-avalanche/

The first of these jaw-droppingly ill-conceived horrorfights has you defeating a collection of small, black spirits which are sustained by a number of white flames. The white flames shoot balls of energy along the two axis where they’re located, so to defeat the black spirits you have to use your repulsion power to knock the white flames or black spirits into places where they can’t help one another. It’s a puzzle.

However, there are a lot of black spirits, and there are also a lot of white flames, and both the spirits and the flames actually move to help one another as you’re slowly trudging around the map. You move your paltry maximum of 4 tiles, you watch another 25 seconds of energy-shooting animations, and maybe one of the flames or spirits makes a move which resets all the work you’ve been doing for the last minute. It took me a full 45 minutes of anguish before I’d extinguished the last spirit.

I think this was roughly when I started running low on goodwill, meaning I was in no shape for what Avalanche throws at you next- an approach to your home that takes the form of a long gauntlet, with spirits chipping away at your energy the whole way. Believe me when I say that the layout of this particular battle is ball-wrinklingly tedious enough already. But guess what? When you win, it’s revealed that the fight is in fact a puzzle, and if you simply complete it then you have to play through it again, and again, until you figure out what in blue fuck the game wants you to do.
 
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Yeah, but also this:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/10/18/wot-i-think-winter-voices-avalanche/

Which, regarding the writing has this to say:
And if the fights in future episodes of Winter Voices pick up, then we’ll be free to enjoy everything else that’s on offer here, like great music, loveable art, and writing which, while often melodramatic and slow, never once bored me.
winter3.jpg

This sample at least, as well as what is in the trailer, I actually like. Opinions on writing and poetry are cheap, and predictibly, no one ever agrees. So I think people should form their own opinion.

In general I think the above review is more balanced than bit-tech who just enjoyed ripping this a new one - for its mistakes but also for not fitting the expectations for easy entertainment people associate with videogames.
A brave idea mired by poor execution. I haven't yet tried the demo, but I want games like this to be made. I want them to be good one day.
 
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@GBG I pray never to see another game like this, but then again I'm not a story type of crpg player. It's nice that the forums allow varying viewpoints.

I haven't played a worthy indie game in ages. I'd say Knights of the Chalice was the last good one. Eschalon Book II was okay, but to me it was a step backwards from Book I. There were some really good indie games back in the day, that just never made much money and it's too bad. Jeff Vogel's games are all rehashes, but I'm looking forward to Avadon. Nehrim was wonderful, and total conversion mods might become a tolerable replacement for indie games. Of course, you have to enjoy the engine the games are made with.
 
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To each his own. I certainly don't pray that games others might enjoy will not be made, even if I dislike them. But your ridiculous little opinion has been noted ;)
BTW, you were quite harsh on Nehrim too, IIRC. I guess thats just how you operate?
 
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Aha! I didn't say for them not to be made, just that I don't want to see them :) Yes, I'm typically critical, though I seperate it. I'll praise what I like in one post and then pick on what I don't like in another.

I praised Nehrim quite a bit. I really loved the design of the game, both world design and dungeon design. I didn't care for the main quest, because I wouldn't/didn't support the character that the game revolves around. I freed the dude, but went my own way after that. Still, as a TW conversion, I think it's the best one out there.
 
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