I do not enjoy this game as much as others in the same genre. It's not a bad game, but I would recommend waiting until there is a comprehensive and detailed walkthrough available. Because if you play blindly, there are lots of things you would miss, and you'll experience many boring rewinds.
The biggest issue is that the game relies more on in-game knowledge than player knowledge. By player knowledge, I mean the information you gain as a player and carry into future playthroughs. For example, after finishing a game once, you might understand the consequences of your choices, recognize important hints, and make better decisions in a second playthrough. The player learns the truth, starts a new save file, and can choose the better path immediately.
In this game, many of the best choices are hidden during your second playthrough. It forces you to use the in-game time rewind to a state from maybe as long as 45 mins ago, then new options become available. But then, you have to play the game for 45 mins of literally the same content just to wonder if there are new dialog options (maybe there is, maybe not, but only after an hour of grind can you realize there's nothing new available, or maybe your stats level is still not high enough, You'd never know, And keep grinding the same content to see if there could be any changes)
For example, in another game of the genre, you might have three choices: A, B, and C. During your first playthrough, you choose without knowing the truth. After finishing the game, you learn that C was the correct answer. On your second playthrough, you can immediately choose C because you, the player, now have that knowledge.
In this game, however, you can not choose option C because option C is hidden. You may or may not know if another possible option is a thing if you rewind now. Even if you already know C is the correct choice, you cannot select it until you have leveled up enough and unlocked the required dialogue option. The game decides when you are allowed to make the right choice, instead of rewarding you for already having learned the situation. And then further down the game, you will upgrade even more. So when you do the time rewind, you sometimes find that there is now an option D that wasn't available before.
The rewind mechanic sounds interesting in theory, but the problem becomes clear when each rewind can require replaying content that could be as long as 45 mins. Sometimes you may need to rewind multiple times just to check whether something can change. It's just like going back and playing for another 45 mins of exactly the same content.
From what I described, it may seem like that's no big deal. But when you play the game and feel like it's such a grind every time you choose to rewind, it really is not that fun. The problem is not really the rewind. The problem is the grind. After each time you choose to rewind, there’s no consistent way to level up player stats. Maybe choosing one dialog will increase your wisdom by a little bit, but then you exhaust your ability to level up your wisdom. So you have to do time rewind and hit the same exact dialog to just progress your wisdom level requirement a little bit more. Such a grind.
Going in completely blind can be frustrating because the game does not always explain whether you should rewind, whether another option exists, or whether you missed something. My suggestion is to NOT play this game until there is a comprehensive walkthrough that explains every grainy details where if other options are available. Then play normally on your first run and use rewind when you personally want to. Then, on a second playthrough, follow a complete guide if you want the best outcome.
When you play blindly, the rewinding does not always guarantee new content. Sometimes it unlocks new events or dialogue options, but sometimes nothing changes. When that happens, is your level too low? Did the game not account for that possibility? Or have you already discovered everything available? Waiting for a guide is probably a better choice here.
The aesthetics, characters, UI design, sound design, and overall production quality are top notch. They blend very well and compliment each other.
I don't play visual novels at all but have been playing this for the last 14hrs straight. This isn't lore or plot heavy but but very simple to read through and make sense of it or skip entirely as this is a very much kingdom management game with numbers and stats. But they are very easy to manage. You equip and send your quirky knights (agents) on quests around the map based on the stats.
The only few issues I have is the game could've been a bit more serious and mature (like why are we enlisting a wolf as a knight?). It takes some time to have most of the contents open up (14hrs in and still haven't gotten the first screenshot above) which would've been fine but it gets really repetitive and tedious the more things you unlock. It could also use some QoL improvements like back buttons or rmb for back since you click the same buttons every day (for example kitchen) which serves very little purpose. Needs an auto assign feature as well for the knights and hyperlinked buttons. And a lot of the things aren't clear with tooltips and whatnot for people who want perfectly execute it. Additionally, the progression is 80% scripted which is I guess not that bad.
Either way, the game is well produced. Some Qol improvements would make it perfect.
The reason being the wolf is not really an animal. It is a human being cursed into wolf form. You might need to use the in-game rewind mode to learn the truth, and sometimes it triggers in Act Three; sometimes it doesn't, depending on if your player stats are high enough and whether you always choose the option that favors magic and not slaying magical animals in the previous two acts. There are lots of things where you just don’t know it was important. And then you have to do the time rewind and then replay a big portion of the game just to remedy the choice you made an hour ago and hit another option, And maybe you still don't have the necessary player stats. So then you're still locked from that option. It becomes lots of boring grind.
The biggest issue is that the game relies more on in-game knowledge than player knowledge. By player knowledge, I mean the information you gain as a player and carry into future playthroughs. For example, after finishing a game once, you might understand the consequences of your choices, recognize important hints, and make better decisions in a second playthrough. The player learns the truth, starts a new save file, and can choose the better path immediately.
In this game, many of the best choices are hidden during your second playthrough. It forces you to use the in-game time rewind to a state from maybe as long as 45 mins ago, then new options become available. But then, you have to play the game for 45 mins of literally the same content just to wonder if there are new dialog options (maybe there is, maybe not, but only after an hour of grind can you realize there's nothing new available, or maybe your stats level is still not high enough, You'd never know, And keep grinding the same content to see if there could be any changes)
For example, in another game of the genre, you might have three choices: A, B, and C. During your first playthrough, you choose without knowing the truth. After finishing the game, you learn that C was the correct answer. On your second playthrough, you can immediately choose C because you, the player, now have that knowledge.
In this game, however, you can not choose option C because option C is hidden. You may or may not know if another possible option is a thing if you rewind now. Even if you already know C is the correct choice, you cannot select it until you have leveled up enough and unlocked the required dialogue option. The game decides when you are allowed to make the right choice, instead of rewarding you for already having learned the situation. And then further down the game, you will upgrade even more. So when you do the time rewind, you sometimes find that there is now an option D that wasn't available before.
The rewind mechanic sounds interesting in theory, but the problem becomes clear when each rewind can require replaying content that could be as long as 45 mins. Sometimes you may need to rewind multiple times just to check whether something can change. It's just like going back and playing for another 45 mins of exactly the same content.
From what I described, it may seem like that's no big deal. But when you play the game and feel like it's such a grind every time you choose to rewind, it really is not that fun. The problem is not really the rewind. The problem is the grind. After each time you choose to rewind, there’s no consistent way to level up player stats. Maybe choosing one dialog will increase your wisdom by a little bit, but then you exhaust your ability to level up your wisdom. So you have to do time rewind and hit the same exact dialog to just progress your wisdom level requirement a little bit more. Such a grind.
Going in completely blind can be frustrating because the game does not always explain whether you should rewind, whether another option exists, or whether you missed something. My suggestion is to NOT play this game until there is a comprehensive walkthrough that explains every grainy details where if other options are available. Then play normally on your first run and use rewind when you personally want to. Then, on a second playthrough, follow a complete guide if you want the best outcome.
When you play blindly, the rewinding does not always guarantee new content. Sometimes it unlocks new events or dialogue options, but sometimes nothing changes. When that happens, is your level too low? Did the game not account for that possibility? Or have you already discovered everything available? Waiting for a guide is probably a better choice here.
The aesthetics, characters, UI design, sound design, and overall production quality are top notch. They blend very well and compliment each other.
I don't play visual novels at all but have been playing this for the last 14hrs straight. This isn't lore or plot heavy but but very simple to read through and make sense of it or skip entirely as this is a very much kingdom management game with numbers and stats. But they are very easy to manage. You equip and send your quirky knights (agents) on quests around the map based on the stats.
The only few issues I have is the game could've been a bit more serious and mature (like why are we enlisting a wolf as a knight?). It takes some time to have most of the contents open up (14hrs in and still haven't gotten the first screenshot above) which would've been fine but it gets really repetitive and tedious the more things you unlock. It could also use some QoL improvements like back buttons or rmb for back since you click the same buttons every day (for example kitchen) which serves very little purpose. Needs an auto assign feature as well for the knights and hyperlinked buttons. And a lot of the things aren't clear with tooltips and whatnot for people who want perfectly execute it. Additionally, the progression is 80% scripted which is I guess not that bad.
Either way, the game is well produced. Some Qol improvements would make it perfect.
Dibs on Ursula. She's bae.