We were on the verge of greatness, we were this close.
A trainer game. Classic. Since the first trainer game was invented, this word "trainer" explains 99% of what there is in the game.
No matter the character, no matter the plot, you know what is going to happen.
You know how are things going to develop.
You know the game mechanics.
You know what to expect and what not to expect.
This is the blessing and the curse of the trainer games. Anyone willing to create one has to understand there is already a concrete set of rules one cannot break, and after the character for the game is chosen, everything else has to be assembled according to the genre.
But this is theory, how does this game manage to do this? What things has it accomplished and what hasn't? Let us find out.
The setting:
In order to create even a mediocre trainer game, the author is required to have a deepest knowledge of the main character's lore, the worldbuilding, the setting of the original. Because who is the target audience of such games? Those are the fans of the original creation. Those, who, inspired by the character, want more. And they find this game.
So, after the short explanation above on why exactly is this so important, I will briefly discuss what the author has managed to accomplish.
And it is a lot. Not only the author has managed to transfer the clothing from the games into own game, but also some characters from the books only, their look according to the books, their story etc.
There are flaws and mistakes in this of course, nothing this fundamental could be made perfectly. For example, Ciri wears the jeweled belt she acquires only after becoming the empress of Nilfgaardian empire. Also, the sword "Zireael" is depicted not how it looks according to canon, only a close resemblance. But such flaws are minor. Overall, a job well done.
The plot:
I cannot really trace every aspect of the plot, but I think it is mostly based on the later acts of The Witcher: Wild Hunt game, with some of the events pulled from the booke to compensate for the absence of such events in the present which could be useful to the game I am reviewing.
Some of the events make no sense canonically, but they are filling the gaps left by putting those events which do, so this can be tolerated. The story is split in 5 acts, each featuring one event.
The characters:
Now let us discuss the characters. There are 2 main characters - the protagonist, further in the text - MC, and the target of the "training".
I have mixed feelings about the MC, as his choice as being a doppler was rather wise, however I cannot see the character development and motivation behind the actions he performs. Could be better, could be worse.
Cirilla:
As the target of all attention of the players, her character is required to be meticulously crafter, which is also forced by the rules of such genre. And I am surprised how well has the developer managed to create it. Almost every event looks believable, the character arc is present and the development of such character is logical.
Secondary characters:
Here is where the quality couldn't keep up anymore. The secondary characters are mediocre at best, their intentions look strange and their actions out of place. A large part of what these characters do is never explained, and so is almost everything of why they do something.
I understand the game has to have someone else to base the story on, but this doesn't mean that such characters deserve no attention. This is where I am dissatisfied. They do not feel like characters, but more like anchor points to move the story further, and this shouldn't be so.
The art:
I can divied the art in 3 categories.
First being the backgrounds and the sprites. They are very good. Facial expressions are sometimes rather off, but mostly it looks rather satisfactory. The sprites are very well made, however I wouldn't have minded if they had done more variety of such sprites. Sometimes it was noticable how the artist had to pick from a limited amount of poses and face expressions, none of which really fit the setting.
Second part being animations. There are very few of them, but every single one is a masterpiece. I know how hard it is to make a believable animation with moving parts of 2DCG art, where one has to avoid clippings and carefully organise the layers so it feels natural. Here it was done perfect.
The third is the monolith 1-image sex scenes. Those only appear in chapters 4 and 5, contain only 1 layer and their quality is absolutely atrocious. I cannot believe how such incredibly disgusting art can coexist with those insanely good pieces I have discussed earlier. I have but a single question? Why did one do this? Just, why? What was the reason behind even considering doing so when 2/3rds of the game were already over?
The gameplay and game mechanics:
I do understand that building a "trainer" game requires to dedicate a large portion of gameplay to stat grinding and performing repetitive activities in order to gain money, resources, etc. This is what the genre requires and the game would be too short without such things.
However, what is not expected, but a pleasant surprise is a battle system. Easy in memorising, the encounters provide a fresh experience unlike anything else present. They do not require a lot of time and commitment to master, but they allow the game to fit in the setting more.
However, Gwint (Cwunt in the game) does not. I do not understand the point of even including it in the game. I do not understand why is it shoved in the player's face as agressively as it is by the developers in the chapter where it first appears. The Cwunt game is of course not as complex as the original, but still very very complex and large, and I fail to understand what was so special in this game that would be worth putting so much time into. Why not to just make some more renders instead?
Finally, the technical stuff. It is RenPy game, so some of the things are there by default. But... they don't work. For some reason rollback is disabled entirely. Next, many of the events prevent from saving in them, which is rather stupid, as there is nothing to be worried of, really. Why disable it?
Furthermore, the "hard saves". I applaude such system existing, but not in the finished game. Why haven't it been removed entirely upon release as it's only purpose was to keep saves between updates. It's not like after release the game had 10+ more updates to require this feature.
Finally, the music choice is not ideal. RenPy allows to set a background music which plays on a loop. But the music chosen is not suitable for such feature. It features one significant element which is recognisable every time it plays out. To simplify, imagine every 10 seconds in the game a bell rings once. This is nothing but unnecessary annoyance and distraction, even after considering how much music is there to chose from, literally hours and hours of it. But no, for some reason the game sticks to this one.
The summary:
In most of the aspects this game is incredibly good. There are some minor flaws that are not critical for not able to enjoy the game. But, there are also some pieces of immesurably bad art, some questionable game mechanics and some leftover beta content left in release.
Overall, a good game - 4/5. But I would wish it was excellent. So little can be changed to significantly improve the game. But it is completed, so we have to stick with what it is.
This game was on a verge of greatness, all that was required was to make one last step.
