Visible novels aren’t a kind of sport for everyone. Not solely do they require a ton of studying however some won’t take pleasure in their solely enter being the occasional dialogue alternative. This seems to be a problem that Concord: Fall of Reverie, the brand new sport from Do not Nod (recognized for Life is Unusual), seeks to deal with. At first look, Concord seems to be simply one other typical visible novel, however those that dive in will discover a branching narrative with a fascinatingly gamified technique of development and determination making that’s in contrast to another sport within the style I’ve ever performed.
In Concord, you might be put within the sneakers of a younger lady named Polly, who’s returning to her dwelling island of Atina for the primary time in years. Her mom, Ursula, has gone lacking, prompting her to rejoin her stepfather Laszlo and his granddaughter Nora within the hopes of fixing the thriller of her disappearance. Issues get just a little extra difficult, nevertheless, when Polly finds a necklace belonging to her mom that transports her to a different dimension: the magical world of Reverie. Reverie is inhabited by a gaggle of beings referred to as Aspirations, particular human feelings and ideas, comparable to Bliss, Chaos, Fact, or Energy, given a residing type. These beings inform Polly that she is an oracle that they seek advice from as Concord, and her job is to assemble a mystical power referred to as “egregore” as a way to present energy to them. Nevertheless, Reverie appears to be dying for some unknown motive, and Polly should convey the Aspirations collectively to put it aside, and by extension the true world as nicely. The thriller thickens even additional when indicators level to Mono Konzern, the company in full management of Atina, showing to be related to Reverie’s destiny as nicely. This story is nicely informed with full voice appearing for each character, and the character designs (particularly for the Aspirations) make all people memorable proper from the get go.
This story is informed within the type of a visible novel with a branching narrative that spins out through a flowchart, an in-game illustration of Polly’s newfound means to look into the longer term. Whereas it could look easy at first, this flowchart is definitely a extremely intricate collection of nodes that are available quite a lot of kinds. Some nodes are regular, merely beginning a scene with none prior necessities; some can solely be accessed when you accomplished a selected earlier node; some nodes are “inevitable,” which means you might be required to do them the moment they’re unlocked. These are just some of the many differing kinds you will encounter all through your journey. Typically accessing a node would require you to have collected a sure variety of an Aspiration’s crystals, with some nodes additionally both rewarding you with extra crystals or taking away some you might have. Gathering these crystals is vital because it not solely decides what selections you are restricted to later down the road, but it surely additionally determines which Aspiration you select to offer your egregore to on the finish of every act, which in flip will decide later occasions as nicely. The act of accumulating these crystals is a captivating means of driving the narrative ahead, as you will end up having to determine whether or not to purposely give attention to a selected Aspiration or just observe your coronary heart and see the place it takes you.
Sadly, you can not speak about Concord with out speaking about its greatest downside: loading screens. Each time the sport has to load a brand new scene or transfer to a special background the participant is handled to a loading display, one that’s typically fairly lengthy. This can be a enormous downside as typically this implies you’ll enter an space, there can be one dialogue field, and it’ll transfer to a different space which prompts one more loading display. In the beginning of the sport, this precise state of affairs repeats a number of occasions in a row. Likewise, each time you go from the flowchart into a brand new scene it has to load, and typically these scenes are two or three strains of dialogue earlier than you are thrown again to the flowchart to select the subsequent scene, at which level it has to load but once more. It actually breaks up the circulate of the sport’s storytelling to have to sit down and anticipate the subsequent half to load in each time, and whereas that ready nonetheless quantities to a handful of seconds, it begins so as to add up when it occurs a number of occasions within the span of a pair minutes. For a visible novel to have one thing that interrupts the story this typically is form of a disappointment and does begin to get grating moderately rapidly.
Concord: Fall of Reverie is a captivating and experimental train in tips on how to write a branching narrative in a means that retains the participant occupied with extra than simply the occasional binary alternative. The way in which it handles the trail the participant takes as they progress, particularly with the mechanic of gathering crystals, is like nothing else that I’ve ever performed. Whereas it’s a disgrace that the loading display points drag the expertise down a bit, for followers of narratives in video video games and the distinctive methods solely a sport can inform them, Concord is nicely price a glance.