Half visible novel, half sports activities administration sport, Curler Drama has numerous enjoyable and fascinating concepts at its basis. Sadly, only a few of the ideas are executed to their full potential.
Visually, the sport begins brilliantly. It has a definite artwork fashion that fits the subject of the sport. The character designs all have numerous character to them, providing a variation of physique shapes, backgrounds and aesthetic types throughout the group. Every character seems equally highly effective of their triumphant poses, and convincingly dejected after they lose a match. The settings across the character have a enjoyable cartoony fashion, complimented by funky music.
Curler Drama begins with a light-hearted warning that you simply’re prone to come throughout some darkish humour on this sport. This prepares you solely a little bit bit for the type of story that awaits you.
The gameplay principally takes the type of a visible novel. You play because the coach of the curler derby group, residing in a giant shared home with the ladies on the group. You start by exploring the home and checking in on every of them, attending to know a little bit bit about them, and constructing the beginnings of your relationship. Each interplay you’ve got contributes to your connection to the group as an entire and to every woman individually. You may as well generate connections between the ladies by successfully facilitating their bonds as mates.
The story is punctuated by curler derby matches towards different native groups. You start on the backside of the leaderboard and work your means up with every match you win.
These minigames require you to strategise, however don’t really feel totally realised. There are alternatives so that you can inform the ladies how a lot vitality to make use of, instruct them in particular strikes and to make use of boosts that you simply accumulate all through the narrative. However the precise gameplay doesn’t have the pace and aggression you’d anticipate for a sport designed to emulate curler derby. As an alternative, the motion feels gradual and clunky. The birds-eye view of the match removes you from the motion, and never in a means that essentially places you within the footwear of the coach.
Between every spherical, you select phrases of encouragement to encourage the ladies. That is in regards to the extent of the sports activities administration ingredient of the sport, and the choices for what you may say are the identical each time. You may combine and match totally different approaches, however until you’re taking part in a wildly inconsistent character, you’ll possible use the identical ones so much.
Equally, after the matches, you host a debrief again on the home. Right here, your dialogue choices are the identical each time. Some dynamic choices right here which might be generated by the alternatives you’ve made earlier than within the story would make this ingredient simpler. Notably as different options of sports activities administration video games (similar to managing your group’s coaching, weight loss program, journey, and many others.) don’t think about a lot in any respect.
The chapters between every match make for an additional facet of the sport that’s constructed on nice concepts underneath the floor however feels incomplete. The chapters appear distant from one another, and introduce components of the world that don’t fairly match collectively.
They tease a way more fascinating story than you’re concerned in, together with supernatural components in a mysterious dystopian world that takes a again seat to the curler derby minigames. A number of essentially the most thrilling motion – together with stealing from cops and conducting a jailbreak – occurs off-screen. You navigate the dialogue required to plan the heist after which the subsequent dialog after a match is about the way it went off with out a hitch. It feels such as you’re lacking out on the perfect bits.
The true disgrace is that I actually like this idea. The concept there are thrilling, terrifying, exhilarating issues occurring on this planet round you, however that your precedence is your sports activities sport, feels prefer it may very well be actually enjoyable and will even provide penetrating social commentary. The story is pieced collectively out of clues you decide up by yourself whilst you’re busy coaching for a match. However for that to be really efficient, it might require the narrative and the sports activities ingredient to gel much more easily than they do in Curler Drama.
A number of creativeness, humour and creativity has gone into the idea behind this sport. Sadly, I don’t assume the ultimate product lives as much as that potential. I really like the varied characters named after Shakespearean heroines, however I wish to really feel a lot extra concerned of their story than this sport permits.