Also, Prime Junta has been through the game twice AFAIK, and replayability was supposed to be a strong factor in both why the game is so short and why there's so much hidden text; the thing that supposedly stops it being a visual novel and what makes it more of a choose your own adventure come RPG.
I think this aspect helped tarnish his view of the game because of the way the game utilises group stats in conversations, in that whatever character you choose, what's available in conversations is still the same because your companions pick up any slack anyway and there's a difference between forcing yourself to choose different paths and not having paths open to you in the first place.
I can see why people who like nothing more than weird+text would enjoy a run of this game and how any experience in this format, from "it was ok" to "I loved this" could result from just going through the motions of the 'game'(?) once, but, the main selling point of this format is to have a different experience upon replay, that's what justifies shortening the length in favour of supposed depth.
From what I'm seeing and from Junta's review, everyone is having a fairly similar experience and not too many people are rushing to replay for alternative paths. And, to be fair, if you want a quick narrative game there's lots of choice out there (if you'll excuse the pun), all of which was made for a lot less money and also charges you less at the gate. (Some examples being Tyranny, Driftmoon, Age of Decadence and the upcoming No True With The Furies, just a few off the top of my head).
It would be great if someone on the watch currently in the "I love" category could have a second game where they try their best to have a different experience and see what changes become evident, that's an area that's surprisingly lacking from any of the positive-minded sources so far and where Junta has a big one-up in authority.
Will your review include multiple play-troughs Corwin? Or is it just from the once-off?
). Hopefully it will be posted sometime this week. I liked it despite its flaws, but it definitely isn't a game for everyone!!
