Ever since Luna’s Fall from Grace, Frozen Synapse has been one of my favorite developers on this site, but this game is easily my least favorite. I went in wanting to love it. The premise hooked me right away: Diatima, a “powerless” anomaly in a matriarchal society where your worth is determined by ability, is trying to prove herself. She’s one step away from being dumped into the worst “job” imaginable. There’s political intrigue, a looming war, and the promise of a hero’s journey with a twist. On paper, it’s fantastic.
But then you actually start playing. And... ugh. The so-called “sandbox” is just a time sink. Instead of meaningful exploration and choices, you’re stuck clicking around empty locations until you trigger the next scene. There’s rarely more than one thing worth doing at any given time, so it pretends to give you freedom while actually just stalling the plot. Pacing suffers badly, even the big story beats get buried under repetitive “watch TV” or “go to bed” loops.
It ends up feeling like you’re just clicking for the sake of clicking. No real choices, no resource management, nothing to make the “sandbox” feel like part of the story. Half the time, nothing happens, you just end up back home, at school, or in some other familiar loop.
The story itself moves at a crawl. You get tiny snippets of plot surrounded by piles of filler, and it’s easy to lose interest. I reached a point where I didn’t even know what I was supposed to do next, not because the game is challenging, but because there’s simply nothing engaging left to do. The “too much text, too few scenes” criticism I’ve seen from others is spot-on, especially when so much of that text doesn’t move the story forward.
A few positives: Dia is a likable MC, some characters are memorable, and the renders are decent. But I didn’t like Dia’s design, not here, and not even in Luna Reloaded. Ultimately, the decent visuals aren’t enough to save the mind-numbing gameplay.
There’s a great visual novel buried in here somewhere, but it’s lost under endless clicking and filler. I wish this had been a straight VN without the sandbox fluff, because the premise deserved so much better. As it is, it’s more chore than game, and that’s a shame.
But then you actually start playing. And... ugh. The so-called “sandbox” is just a time sink. Instead of meaningful exploration and choices, you’re stuck clicking around empty locations until you trigger the next scene. There’s rarely more than one thing worth doing at any given time, so it pretends to give you freedom while actually just stalling the plot. Pacing suffers badly, even the big story beats get buried under repetitive “watch TV” or “go to bed” loops.
It ends up feeling like you’re just clicking for the sake of clicking. No real choices, no resource management, nothing to make the “sandbox” feel like part of the story. Half the time, nothing happens, you just end up back home, at school, or in some other familiar loop.
The story itself moves at a crawl. You get tiny snippets of plot surrounded by piles of filler, and it’s easy to lose interest. I reached a point where I didn’t even know what I was supposed to do next, not because the game is challenging, but because there’s simply nothing engaging left to do. The “too much text, too few scenes” criticism I’ve seen from others is spot-on, especially when so much of that text doesn’t move the story forward.
A few positives: Dia is a likable MC, some characters are memorable, and the renders are decent. But I didn’t like Dia’s design, not here, and not even in Luna Reloaded. Ultimately, the decent visuals aren’t enough to save the mind-numbing gameplay.
There’s a great visual novel buried in here somewhere, but it’s lost under endless clicking and filler. I wish this had been a straight VN without the sandbox fluff, because the premise deserved so much better. As it is, it’s more chore than game, and that’s a shame.
