The Hunter's Journals - Vile Philosophy

Senscape recommends this Visual novel. + Story + Characters + Graphics + Game length + Smart game, requires a mature vocabulary. How many villagers can you save? Can you save yourself? It is all about choice The Hunter's Journals - Vile Philosophy is a rich complex story. The path you choose and ability to fend off the monsters determines your fate. You see no violence, blood or gore; combat is done by throwing the dice. You can die, but it is an easy reload and selection of a new path. I opted to die many times just to see how it would play out. This is reminiscent of Brandon Sanderson novels and his world of things that can be brought to life; it requires a lot of skill to create a world such as they have done here. This is a game you can take a break from and come back knowing where you are and what you need to do if you can’t play for a few day. The game mechanics and the world you enter are very clearly explained. Do take the time to read it all. You have the usual set-up options along with an encyclopedia of monsters. You can play in easy, intermediate, or hard mode. The game automatically saves, or you can save manually. I like having both options available.…

[i]“The crying sounded even louder out of doors. It was as if all the pain in the world had found a voice” - H G Wells[/i] [b]Grindwheel Games[/b] and the whole design/dev team have devised a thrilling second release to the Hunter's Journals CYOA series. By keeping to the same design layout of imitating a book (that's complete with the red ribbon for authenticity!) it helps breed familiarity knowing you can jump straight into the Adventure without having to adjust. The artwork grabs your attention with it's bright, lively colours and originality while the music & effects set a smooth ambience letting you focus on the tale's journey. There is more depth to the confrontation battles in the form of [i]staged combat[/i] that gives variations from the regular battles giving you the more urgent feel that should come from a [b]Boss Fight[/b]. The [i]staged combat[/i] can be the added choice of an action after a win that can either benefit or weaken the skill points depending on the choice made [u]or[/u] there will be a battle where the [b]Boss[/b] has an ability that alters the way the Die roll battles are calculated. For me, this was an excellent way to breathe life into what can be …

A wonderfully complex story that really does take me back to the choose-your-own-adventure books. Even after completing it, I'm sure there are more story lines to explore and other options I could have selected. I might even have been able to get a better ending. This idea of nontraditional storytelling is spectacular and I would love to see more of it. The only criticism I can think of is that it would be more engaging if the player were actually able to roll the dice during combat, rather than the game doing it automatically. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed playing this and will likely go through it again.

The voice-over for the Lady of Blades sounds oddly enticing. Jokes aside, this choose-your-own-adventure styled visual novel was an engaging playthrough.