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| ©Deconstructeam All rights reserved |
Welcome to a new installment of the Chronicles team, this time a very peculiar and cozy game.
Probably the best story I have played in all 2023, maybe because the writting, at the end I was so invested on the characters that the ending hit as harder as things like Red Dead Redemption 2 or Ace Attorney
Yes, I cried, don't make me less of a man - Kazuma Kiryu - Yakuza 2 - but hey check out our review of Yakuza 0
TL;DR Section:
Chronicles Conclusion:
Highly recommended but consider the genre and long periods of only reading
Pros:
Amazing story
Great Tarot Cards Creation
Insane amount of outcomes
Beautiful and well written characters
A healthy variety of endings
The way of entering a new playthrough through the end is simply a masterpiece (in my opinion)
Abramar is a Bro
Cons:
You can alter the random nature of choices by abusing the destroy card mechanics
Some endings are less satisfying than others
Some endings let's you start again but delete your previous playthrough without a warning, losing the data and your handcrafted cards (You can still see them in a section of the main menu)
Brief Resume:
We are Fortuna, an oracle that has 100% precision on predicting the future but we are exiled of our sisters in a far away asteroid because a prediction that we made.
The Story:
We have a very peculiar context, this is a great idea, original and at the same time intense, I cannot promise that this game is for everyone but if you like the genre, oh boy you're in for a treat.
The game does a very good job making you feel relaxed in the situation that you're involved and invested in what you're doing, not pressuring you a lot but making you never forget that your choices weight and a lot.
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| Meet Abramar our freshly summoned Behemoth |
The Story:
We have an special power, we can read the future using tarot cards but we are always correct, anything that we read is bound to happen.
Eventually we predicted a destructive future for our coven and we were exiled from it for a thousand years, doomed to live on an asteroid.
We start 200 years after that, summoning a Behemoth because we are losing it and we want to make it to the end.
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| This will be your home for the next millennium |
Just making contact with a Behemoth is forbidden so imagine how much of a trouble we are in deep, anyway the Behemoth helps us build a new deck for reading into the future.
This comes with a cost and the first few minutes of the game we are presented with a lot of decisions, being the most important one the fire seal, the price of making this pact and that will follow us to the end of the game.
Every decision that you make lead somewhere, everybody has something to say and a future to read, some will be actively taking part of the story and some others will be a few lines in the mean of a conclusion for that character.
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| The game does a good job presenting how we are on this situation as a exiled witch |
We have a lot of branches, for me personally I didn't experimented every one of them because they're a lot but I diversified enough to get the grasp.
On my first playthrough I was pretty straight forward with almost everyone but at the same time on certain parts of the story I avoided a lot of traps from other witches only by reading carefully everything and not saying more than necessary.
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| Every character is unique by story, personality and style |
The first major decisions shape everything around you and the fire seal puts you on a ending that you will know beforehand but maybe you can do something about it.
That's the magic of this game, we have the power of decision on all matters in hand but we work with our hand crafted cards so the choices aren't exactly a simple choose what you like, a pretty original concept and with a excellent writting only make things better.
For example you can help be miserable or turn the life of someone around you and that come bite you in the final hours of gameplay, not exactly black or white, all are gray.
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| The handcrafted cards are a fun and immersive mechanic |
The Gameplay & Tarot:
We are on a visual novel with a branching story, the reading is the 90% of the experience and the card creation work as means to take a decision.
For example you are asked about the near future of someone and the deck draft a card about pride, support and success then the choices will be brighter than a card that has indifference and discover just for saying an example.
The game works like that, every question to the Tarot has at least 3 choices and they vary depending the card, sometimes it's a free choice meaning that you don't draft cards so you have to be specially careful always.
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| Hmm... Seems familiar |
Another little bit of this are the "perks or items" we get a couple of special perks and items depending certain choices, these unlock new choices or new dialogues than lead to a different outcome, so you have some control of the way the story will unravel.
Talking about gameplay is fairly simple, you can craft cards, read books or "interactive novels" that are stories where you decide certain things and the book ends different or study preparing for whatever you have to do, plus you can rest when there's nothing left for doing.
The story advances when we click on the window and choose what visitor we are receiving for talking, reading the future or planning something.
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| On certain point you will have a "party" |
Not on a rpg style, more as a tactical approach for something, you can send every member to do something specific for gaining something (no spoiling anything).
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| The atmosphere of some moments are tremendously dense |
You can recruit different members depending what you do across the story and after you have it then you must discover what's the perks and letdowns of every member because not everyone is good doing the same thing.
To end this section I have to say that the different options for you to choose are vast but some are just not so interesting or "bad" as the game presents them.
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| You can change locations a few times around the story, something to look forward because those situations are very unique and heavily storywise |
Strange but nothing more than your own morale affects your choices so this gave me the feeling of being walking on by the writting but those were scarse moments so nothing to worry about.
In Conclusion:
The story has a quality and heart that a lot of games should aim for, things like Super Paper Mario that works around feelings and emotions more than an epic tale (and has both).
Gameplay is fairly simple and easy to understand but the weight of your choices behind this gameplay hits way harder than you can expect.
Maybe is just subjective thinking but I have the feeling than this game if get the exposure it deserves will set a new precedent of writting quality, the game isn't that long but you will really appreciate the cast, mourn their loses and celebrate their winnings.
The ending really was a hard pill to swallow in a good way because the ending I got was heartbreaking but well it is what it is.
That's it for today, more below I will talk a little about spoilers for certain mechanics so if you want to know a little context about why I remark the way of starting a new game continue, if not please play the game and come back later.
Thanks for reading, this game gave me a little post game depression so stay tuned for more.
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| Oh boy what an experience |
Spoiler warning:
I got an end with a sad tone because some decisions I made, maybe good, maybe wrong but they were genuine so I take them but at the very end you can draft a last predict and by some story lore that I won't talk about you can change what fate awards you.
The game let's you choose an option that restarts time and you can start anew with all your info but the game starts as a fresh playthrough without any new additions only a few words that made my second playthrough way emotional.
Abramar points out how stubborn you are for doing everything again but also points out that he will be there, always... At least for all the tries you want to do and yeah that words hit me as a freaking hammer in a mix of sadness and nostalgia.
I have to point out that these words are the only thing that changes, the rest will unravel as any playthrough but made the payment of finishing it were way more special than I expected.
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| Maybe I will come around again to settle things right |
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