The Dead Tree of Ranchiuna

The last walking sim released before the pandemic? Just realised that this I'd skipped while I'd played 7 walking sims by Mr. Bodur, all released after [b]Drizzlepath: Deja Vu[/b]. [b]The Dead Tree of Ranchiuna[/b] is on par with the rest: beautifully done sim with long walks and great accompanying music. To tell you the truth while I liked the usual narration (with the exception of the toilet used as a metaphor for life) throughout gameplay, I didn't really like the 3 ghosts appearing from time-to-time that, if I'm not mistaken, are meant to be the antagonists in the story. I noticed this can be played from the 3rd person perspective and also running can be toggled. You can just "sit back" and let your character walk or run while you change directions with the mouse. There are some puzzles that stop you while en route. An annoying one was the one in the cave where a pallet needed to be dropped. I ran around in circles and eventually it happened but I don't recall interacting with anything. There is also a house that cannot be entered but when the front door is approached, we see a key popping up. Not sure if this means no entry or that a key is lying around. I just continued t…

Alright. [i]The Dead Tree of Ranchiuna[/i] is done and dusted. I actually thought I'd played this before, but turns out I hadn't, so no better time than now to remedy that. And it was another stellar walking simulator by [i]Tonguç Bodur[/i], who has more or less mastered the genre. This is, as is the case with his other games, very story-centric, set alongside the backdrop of a lush outdoors and mountain setting. This is also one of his lengthier walking sims, weighing in at about two hours plus another half hour or so to wrap up postgame content (which helps fill out some story points). The remaining hour of my time is me forgetting to close the game, lol. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3271655558 The story was interesting IMO. Well written as always, and with an interesting dynamic where the main story is more of a set dressing used to convey a sub story. Both focused on envy and betrayal ultimately. By my mind, the only sympathetic character in the game was Danielle, who was basically treated as a possession or distraction by literally all the other characters. Who were, by and large unlikable, and IMO, intentionally written that way. You have the presu…

great game with great music

The Dead Tree of Ranchiuna is a narrative-focused exploration game developed and published by Tonguç Bodur. It is designed less around conventional action and more around atmosphere, discovery, and the gradual reconstruction of a mysterious past. The story follows a university graduate who returns to the village where he spent his childhood, expecting a familiar homecoming but instead finding an unsettlingly deserted place. As he travels through Ranchiuna and the surrounding countryside, strange visions begin revealing events that happened during his absence. What starts as a quiet return home consequently develops into a reflective journey involving memory, human behavior, injustice, and the consequences of choices made by others. The storytelling relies heavily on environmental exploration and fragmented scenes rather than straightforward exposition. Past events appear through visions, while narration and character dialogue provide additional context. This structure asks players to interpret what they encounter instead of simply following a continuous sequence of cutscenes. Fantasy and symbolic elements are mixed with more realistic situations, giving some moments an intentional…

Two hours of holding W while being subject to the most awkwardly written and voiced pseudo-philosophical babble imaginable.

Some parts of the environment are pretty, but aside from that I can't say much. The few-and-far-between spoken segments mostly seemed like semi-incoherent rambling. The voice acting sounded like it was being read; the tone almost never fit what was being said.