Autumn's Journey
Oct. 28th, 2022 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingAutumn’s Journey is an indie visual novel that takes about two hours to finish. You play as Auralee, the teenage daughter of a famous (but now retired) lady knight who aspires to become a knight herself. Auralee’s earnest efforts are complicated by her friendship with Kerr and Ilmari, two dragons who have temporarily taken the form of teenage boys.
This game was originally released in 2014 on Itchio, but it just came out for Nintendo Switch last year. It always seems to be on sale for $5 or less, so I finally decided to play it. After all, who doesn’t want to become a knight and romance a dragon?
Unfortunately, there is almost no romance involved. Even though Auralee often finds herself in romantic situations, she is totally clueless, and the game is 100% sexless. I suppose you could say that the characters are in a three-way romantic friendship, but what this game really feels like is a “dating sim” for ten-year-old girls.
Outside of the dating sim elements, the plot is very basic, and the characters are anime tropes. Auralee is the heroine of any given shōjo sports manga, Ilmari is the gentle “childhood friend” archetype who is clearly gay but not yet out of the closet, and Kerr is Inuyasha. In the larger world, the Knight Academy is financed by the corrupt Merchant’s Guild, which I suppose would put Auralee in something of a bind if the game took its plot seriously. Meanwhile, the two dragons are playing hooky from some sort of dragon school, but we never get much idea of what their world and society are like.
The writing is meant for young readers, and it’s fairly solid for what it is. The character art is limited but polished, and the background art is actually quite nice. The music and voice acting are perfunctory, and I turned the sound off within the first ten minutes.
The Nintendo Switch port was published by Ratalaika Games, which consistently creates problems with basic features. In Autumn’s Journey, the main problem is with the save menu, which was inconsistently bugged. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t. The game is short, so I guess it’s not a big deal that you can’t always save. On top of this, there’s an issue with the background music not looping properly, but there’s no real reason to listen to the music anyway. That being said, I feel like the developers’ work deserves better than a shoddy and haphazard port.
The best way to describe Autumn’s Journey is “wholesome,” mainly because it’s for children. I’m not the target audience, obviously, and I found the game pleasant but not particularly engaging. Still, Autumn’s Journey is a sweet little game with lovely art that might be exactly what you need if you’re in a nostalgic mood for a simple and seasonally-themed shōjo story.
This game was originally released in 2014 on Itchio, but it just came out for Nintendo Switch last year. It always seems to be on sale for $5 or less, so I finally decided to play it. After all, who doesn’t want to become a knight and romance a dragon?
Unfortunately, there is almost no romance involved. Even though Auralee often finds herself in romantic situations, she is totally clueless, and the game is 100% sexless. I suppose you could say that the characters are in a three-way romantic friendship, but what this game really feels like is a “dating sim” for ten-year-old girls.
Outside of the dating sim elements, the plot is very basic, and the characters are anime tropes. Auralee is the heroine of any given shōjo sports manga, Ilmari is the gentle “childhood friend” archetype who is clearly gay but not yet out of the closet, and Kerr is Inuyasha. In the larger world, the Knight Academy is financed by the corrupt Merchant’s Guild, which I suppose would put Auralee in something of a bind if the game took its plot seriously. Meanwhile, the two dragons are playing hooky from some sort of dragon school, but we never get much idea of what their world and society are like.
The writing is meant for young readers, and it’s fairly solid for what it is. The character art is limited but polished, and the background art is actually quite nice. The music and voice acting are perfunctory, and I turned the sound off within the first ten minutes.
The Nintendo Switch port was published by Ratalaika Games, which consistently creates problems with basic features. In Autumn’s Journey, the main problem is with the save menu, which was inconsistently bugged. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t. The game is short, so I guess it’s not a big deal that you can’t always save. On top of this, there’s an issue with the background music not looping properly, but there’s no real reason to listen to the music anyway. That being said, I feel like the developers’ work deserves better than a shoddy and haphazard port.
The best way to describe Autumn’s Journey is “wholesome,” mainly because it’s for children. I’m not the target audience, obviously, and I found the game pleasant but not particularly engaging. Still, Autumn’s Journey is a sweet little game with lovely art that might be exactly what you need if you’re in a nostalgic mood for a simple and seasonally-themed shōjo story.
