South of the Circle

I wasn't entirely sure what to think of this game up until the finale, which for me turned this middling experience really sour. South of the Circle is a very short visual novel with great voice acting and rather crude graphics. The story's delivery is quite interesting, but it's fraught with endlessly navigating vague dialogue cues for often incogruent responses and tediously navigating the lumbering Peter. Becasue of its adherence to the classical unities of drama, brevity and a lack of additional reading, pretty much the only meaningful characters to empathise with were Peter and Clara. Ultimately, the finale renders each and every decision you've made invalid, finishing the plot in a very underwhelming way. The lingering moral message is also fairly bland, admitting the obvious about how cold war paranoia and sexism are bad. Overall I found it a fairly unremarkable and too short a VN with an unsatisfactory ending and little to remember it for. There sure are better visual novels out there!

It's got a very interesting mechanic for the choices. I'm glad they made the achievements achieveable in a single playthrough bc this is very linear. I think it's a story that's not easily forgettable so overall a nice game to get on sale!

Beautiful! You can't except 'gameplay', but beautifull and kind of moving.

A lovely if not mildly confusing and human story about people, nation states and politics. The primary questions asked of you feel well trodden (feminism, authoritarianism and imperialism) but they are approached in a smart way and so don't feel tacky if you already have experience with the subject unlike some similar projects. The gameplay is great for this style of game, I loved the pseudo-QTE approach but with masked inputs, making you rely more on vibes than explicit dialogue boxes. Additionally, the way the game transitions through its scenes works wonderfully and really utilises the medium of "video gaming" rather than forced cutscenes, flashbacks and (again) dialogue pauses. My only issue (and why I'd say to treat this as a linear narrative rather than an interactive one) is that the story the developers wish to tell (outside of "themes") seems written in a way that you shouldn't have taken the options with modern sensibilities, which could be, but sadly isn't, very interesting commentary on the state of things; as it stands it harms the feeling of interactivity by having you play an unreliable narrator seemingly unintentionally. Still very much enjoyed my time with the …

Did you enjoy Firewatch? If you did, you'll enjoy South of the Circle.

Absolutely spectacular game. It took a bit for me to get used to the dialogue choice system, but once I did I was hooked. Art, VO, and music were especially great. You should absolutely play this.