Winds of Change
Winds of Change is an interesting visual novel that tells a well-crafted fantasy tale, but that gets bogged down in inter-character relationships.
It ’s hard to tell a new fantasy account without fall into some well - have on tropes along the agency . After all , with iconic stories such as theWheel of TimeandLord of the Ringssitting so strong in pop cognisance , it ’s ever - too - easy to end up in familiar territory . Something that endeavor to do things a short number differently isWinds of Change , albeit with mixed results .
Winds of Changeis an other access succeeder story . act as a spiritual heir to the developer ’s old titleMajor\Minor , the visual novel sets itself in a humankind of of magic and catastrophe , as histrion character The Seer tries to understand an apocalyptic visual sensation of the future and keep the world along the way . That all sound quite received , but there are moment here and there that help separate out the core storey from some of its peers .
relate : Dry Drowning Review : A Compelling But Clunky Visual Novel
That pronounce , the influence behindWinds of Changeare clear . This is an epical fantasy story , consist of young , naive heroes congeal off from their cosy homeland with portion in tow . But , within this trappingWinds of Changemanages to do some good things with subverting player expectations , even if not all of them murder home .
Some element of the tale and general structure are reminiscent of BioWare RPGs likeBaldur ’s GateorDragon Age . This is n’t the case with the gameplay , which is much more restrictive due to its ocular novel status , but more so in the plot department . Humble commencement lead to crowing thing down the line , and there ’s similarities in the jocund nature of its cast of party member too - although there ’s no - one who will seat in the memory like Minsc or Morrigan .
What starts as a well - trodden path down a typical fantasy escapade - albeit with anthropomorphic animals instead of the like of humans and hob - then takes a roundabout way at casual moments . You ’ll see plushy forests , waterless comeupance , and untrustworthy towns , but within that the story takes some neat detours . The main plot is well - write , helping to weaken the ' chosen one ' tale in some interesting way without it feeling to a fault deliberate .
Most of the time the biz adopt The Seer , the playable graphic symbol who is occasionally slay with prophetic visions and has control over a mysterious and potent blade . However , at timesWinds of Changegives the player the alternative to hop into the story of other quality via littler vignettes . This allowsWinds of Changeto search its world through other points of view , including its villain .
This shared story also allow the twist and turn of the narrative to fully envelop the player . The lore that has been put intoWinds of Changeis jolly interesting , with bits and opus of write content scatter around its static scenes to give a small more detail . That lore can then be overturn over the course of the plot with some well - rate shock reveals .
Unfortunately , the care choose with the globe - construction is undermined regularly by other issues . Perhaps the most obvious of these elements is how the story is overpowered by an accent on relationship dramatic play . Winds of Changeis extremely dialogue - hard , even for a visual novel , and the player will often feel the want to pass a large proportion of prison term in each area talking to characters and answer to their pressing emotional needs , which can feel jarring and sudden .
There ’s a clean influence fromMass Effectin particular here . But , whereas the comradery and inter - personal relationships there were forged by action , here it ’s only by dialogue due to the lack of real action aspect . This is n’t helped by the limited fibre model for different emotion , and players will likely get bored of regard the same ' disturbed ' or ' paying attention ' poses of the main type .
Dialogue , too , can feel stilted - which is aggravate by the heavy dialogue centre ofWinds of Changeas a whole . Thankfully the authorship for the narration and the intragroup monologue of the main character is much good , but even so it ’s curb by just how chatty the other party appendage are . Often , the player will want some of the characters to be muted for a while just so they can move onto the next part of the plot .
gratefully the final act is very honorable , acting like the last mission ofMass Effect 2 . Again , this does n’t have the same impact as that iconic finale as the player will not have the same emotional attachment to the part . however , it comes together well , with high-pitched stake that are sometimes missing from the rest of the game .
Overall , there ’s more toWinds of Changethan its cutesy furry exterior cater , with a fascinating overarching story . But , it does get stick in the smaller item , and that can be super frustrating . If you do n’t heed drop a lot of meter waiting on the foible of character , though , then this could be a winner for those after a comely phantasy story .
More : Beyond : Two Souls PC Review - Not A Spiritual Experience
Winds of Changereleases August 21 , 2019 for PC . Screen Rant was allow for with a PC download code for the purpose of this review .
