The Archipelago

Lovely hand-drawn visuals and the makings of a good story. As it is, this VN ends rather abruptly leaving me with more questions than answers about the lore and the world. It focuses much more on getting to know the characters and feels more like a prologue than a full game. For a free little VN, this isn't enough reason to discourage anyone from spending an hour or so with these characters. If the creators ever decide to fully develop this story, I'll be ready.

[h3]A dialog not a Game[/h3] I forgot to save my draft in notepad, so I'm writing this review all over again. It's still a negative, but now I am more certain. As to why. 2 things: 1. It's not a game it's a very short dialog. You do not really get "choices" that matter, the choices are not really polar. 2. The teas combinations are endless, you can make thousands of different ones but you only get to choose 3, so learning what they do before the game becomes boring is impossible. It's just text based, which in itself is not bad, but the writing does not flow smoothly, mainly because it relies too heavily on you making sense of rather confusing events in the game. [h3]Social Commentary[/h3] You are basically a barista, but you make different teas, you choose the tea for each day. The dialog is all about how people drift apart. [h3]Floating Islands and floating events[/h3] Much like the way the islands in "The Archipelago", the dialog floats and often fractures or splits. It left me hanging a bit often, and I have to say is still a good commentary on real life. The only thing that bring us together are disaster events in our lives, things that touch all of us. Those events bring u…

The Archipelago is a free, dialogue-heavy visual novel. The story unravels as you get to know the inhabitants of the Archipelago over several play-throughs. 1 play-through takes roughly 1 hour (less afterwards as you skip through familiar conversations). The game has a cozy, hand-drawn art style and an atmospheric, moody and rainy soundscape. I enjoyed the calming sceneries. The illustrations are simple and a lot is left to the imagination. The story is interesting with sad undertones and a sense of heaviness. By the end of the 1st play-through (and due to the abrupt ending) I felt invested enough to find out what more there is to the story, even though I don't usually enjoy replaying games. The game might've not been what I expected (not as cozy, heartwarming or focused on tea, more so melancholic), but the story is surprisingly deep and compelling. The only interactive parts are choices, picking tea ingredients and moving them into a teacup. The choices, other than tea, don't seem to change answers. There are unfortunately no achievements. [code] ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ Looking for your next favorite cozy game? ☕✨ Follow my Steam Curat…

A short and simple game with very limited gameplay (you make a couple of non-impactful dialogue choices and brew a couple pots of tea). If you are here for the gameplay, then move along; even by visual novel standards, there is very little for you to do. However, if you are here for worldbuilding and story then this little free game has a lot of surprising depth. I thought that this was going to be an unambiguously cozy game, but there was a dark undertone to the whole experience. There was also a lot of value in replaying it as what tea you choose each day has a big impact on what characters' stories you will hear. It does feel like the game only covered the tip of the iceberg of the story--as if they were releasing a prologue to a bigger game. But for the total price of $0, this is well worth an hour or two of your time.

<3

This is a game for nosy, gossipy little eavesdroppers, and I love it for that. I love being a fly on the wall trying to piece together the lives and story arcs of all the characters in the world, and letting the worldbuilding naturally unfold around them. It's cozy with the right amount of edge to keep it from being saccharine or milquetoast, and I find myself endlessly fascinated with the dynamics and subtle differences in conversations and arcs, depending on who talked to who when, if ever. It's a quick game if you only intend to play it once, and it's still quick per round if you want to dig into the different characters, which I think is very worthwhile.