A strange game with a great concept..

I would like to ask the administration, if it’s not difficult, to change the name of the blog for this game, or create a new, more complete one, called Winter voices. Because Those who have no name this is only one of several episodes of this game, and not even the first… that’s what’s strange. Yes, it has a proud name Number One, but this is still the second episode of the first season of the game, the first is the Prologue – Avalanche. It is impossible to play this episode without completing the Prologue; the game will not let you. These are such confusing things..

Winter voices currently has several episodes of the first season and a demo version. About their release dates and what they say a little later.

The journey is just beginning
WV is an interesting game with a difficult fate, which, as they say, “didn’t work out”. The genre of this game is not easy to define. This is a kind of mixture of furious tactical (turn-based, in the style of, for example, Final Tactics) combat from JPRG with a melancholic adventure, but almost without hidden objects. “Winter Voices” is in some places similar to Siberia, the game is similar to the work of Benoit Sokal due to its winter palette. And common French origin.

To develop and publish this game, an independent studio “Beyondthepillars” was created in Paris in 2008, which began working on the game universe it invented.
According to the creators, this studio was created not only to develop a new intellectual role-playing game, but also to conduct some research in the field of multiplayer online games.
Therefore, initially the team of creators of the game Winter Voices gathered around the MMO project. The developers chose AIR as the game’s programming language, which was gaining popularity at the time. But this decision turned out to be a mistake and led to a long debugging of the game in order to rid it of the bugs that plagued it. Or the programmers were too inexperienced?
But thanks to the choice of this programming language, the game easily supports mods. Apart from the menu, everything in the game can be moderated if you have a text or graphics editor.

And on October 29, 2010, the prologue of Winter Voices: Avalanche (Avalanche) is released on Steam.

After a brief introduction of the heroine and the scene, the player chooses the appearance, initial characteristics and profession of the heroine. The game begins with the death of the heroine’s father in a tiny village somewhere in the snowy mountains, followed by his funeral burning at the stake. The heroine collects the ashes of her father and, walking around the village, in conversations with fellow villagers, slightly reveals the previous story and their attitude towards themselves and their father. Then in a dream she passes through Seid – the other world of shadows and fears. After several more conversations and fights in some half-mystical, half-real world for her prudence, our heroine, taking the raven with her (or not taking it) leaves her native village.

On November 19, 2010, the first main episode of Winter Voices: Those who have no name was released.

The heroine leaves the village, having experienced hardships along the way and struggling with her phobias and memories, travels across the tundra to a neighboring settlement, or rather a small roadside inn, where she meets other travelers and encounters the remnants of the past.

On December 18, 2010, the second episode of Winter Voices: Nothing for Me was released. (I’m somewhere? Nowhere of me).

In this episode, the heroine travels through the tundra, partly through the mountains, from a roadside inn to a mountain village. On the way she meets a lot of ruins that remind her of her home. Here, in some ruins, she meets her second companion – the hunter Ven.

On January 5, 2011, the Winter Voices update was released, in which some changes were made to the game mechanics.

Also at the beginning of the year, it became known about the release of an add-on to the game “Secrets of the Norns”, which should become available in the Steam Summer Camp (summer sale) 2011. It adds a side quest that goes from the beginning of the first episode, “Those Who Have No Names,” to the end of the third episode, “Like a Crow on a Wire,” and one steam achievement.

On March 14, 2011, the third episode of Winter Voices: Like a Crow on a Wire was released.

Having reached a mountain village, the heroine rests there and earns money with labor, depending on her specialization, for supplies for the trip. Then, after going through the Burning Ceremony, she sets off across the mountains. Having passed them, she goes down to the river. At the end of this episode there is a very difficult battle consisting of several fights. Very difficult battles begin here, when you complete them you forget the boredom of the battles of the first episodes.

On May 27, 2011, the fourth episode of Winter Voices: Amethyst Rivers was released.

Going out to the river, the heroine and her companions, while away the time in monotonous battles, wait for a large boat for several days. The companions load onto it and sail to the capital. Along the way, they help the crew in their efforts with cargo and passengers. The heroine can start an affair with one of the crew members, or continue romantic flirtations with her companion, the hunter Venom.

In the 2011 Steam Summer Camp, players https://nogamstop-casinos.co.uk/review/lucki-casino/ who purchased the first episodes of the game received the “Secrets of the Norns” add-on, but only after some corrections and explanations, they could play it. It is no longer available. Perhaps it will be added to the assembly of the seven-episode first season?

On June 24, 2011, the Winter Voices demo was released.

It is not so voluminous, it takes up a small part of the game’s prologue and only lifts the curtain on the game’s history. It’s better to play Prologue right away.

When the first episodes of the game were released, opinions about it were radically divided, many critics were dissatisfied with the game, its external incomprehensibility and initial buggyness and gave it rather low ratings on Metacritic, but some players fell in love with this unusual art-house game, despite the strange story of the unusual heroine, and the frequent crashes and bugs of the game. Subsequently, the developers corrected many errors, but the initial impression of the game was already spoiled.

Sales of the game were low, sales of the game on Steam were discontinued. The “Beyondthepillars” studio itself faced financial problems and was unable to continue working on the game. Finding money to develop an unusual game by a small unknown company was a difficult task.

Beyondthepillars creative director Kevin Leenaff and about twenty others; artists, game designers and sound engineers, scriptwriters continued to work on the game for free for several months, trying to improve the terrible state of affairs.

In October 2011 On its official website, the studio “Beyondthepillars” announced its bankruptcy and termination of work on the game. All studio property and game rights were sold. And the game page has been removed from Steam.

A long period of silence and uncertainty followed for the players. Somewhere, in January 2012, an appeal from the author of Winter Voices to gamers appeared. In which he announced his purchase of the rights to the game, the creation of a new studio and the resumption of work on the game. Winter Voices is currently being developed by Inner seas, a small French company based in Paris. Founded by the author of “Winter Voices”, Kevin Lehénaff, this company continues the work of the Beyond the Pillars studio on the universe it invented.

Then it was promised that a couple more episodes would be released with a break of six months to finish the first season of the game and a large patch that would fix bugs. A second season was also planned with an improved engine and new skills and game mechanics, and new heroes. It will mark the end of the heroine’s long journey. Depending on the sales of the first season, the second season should be either a game or a book.

One of the team’s goals is to release a book version of each season. But there are also two projects in the distant future: the first, codenamed "Autumn Voices", which will be the story of another heroine in the Republic of Rosa Gallica. The identity of this heroine will be revealed in the second season of WV. Secondly, this is an MMO based on the Winter Voices universe with an unusual idea that distinguishes it from other MMO games.

The developers’ idea is grandiose; in the invented MMO game world there should be three states – the Principality of Three Rivers, in which Winter Voices takes place, the Republic of Rosa Gallica and the nomadic tribes of the Arénites.)

On November 1, 2012, the fifth episode of Winter Voices: Overflow was released.

The heroine walks along the river along green lawns to the sound of streams. She meets the third possible member of her team. And, it seems, he is beginning to unravel the tangle of long-standing history, to restore it. In her battle dreams, the heroine has to fight in the desert, in a special “Desalting” mode.

And now, almost a year later, presumably in September 2013, a new episode of the game is expected – Falls.

Sun and fog… You have reached the city, this is the first real city and what kind of city is it. Your true journey is about to begin, this is where the road to Sapphire Bay truly begins. There are so many things to prepare, so many things to do before you can leave the fog. The doors open to the sound of the nearby roar of water. What and who will you choose? What will your life be like, where will you want to go and how will you live?? Questions and answers, and even more questions.

This will end the first season of the game. It is unclear whether the heroine’s journey will end; it is possible that we will continue to play for her or it will be another hero (heroine).

A little analysis of the game
What made the game fail??
In my opinion, firstly, the game genre is strange, mixing different paces of history and tactical battles. A unique tactical role-playing game with a leisurely story and slow gameplay. And due to this lack of understanding among critics and players, the developers from the “Beyond the Pillars” studio should not have experimented so much with the canons of the genre.

Secondly, the game is unfinished and initially buggy (possibly due to the wrong choice of language??).

The concept of the game was great, but alienated from the interests of the majority of players. He’s weird. The combination of a leisurely journey, a story about it, and a furious pace of action in battles in the world of dreams, a mystical story and the path of development of the heroine did not suit experienced gamers and people involved in the gaming industry.

The development team prioritized story and atmosphere over gameplay. The depression, the feeling of lethargy that envelops you in a game, is sometimes so strong that you feel submerged in a slight depression. On the other hand, during battles you need to act quickly and sharply, if this is applicable in turn-based battles. You need to clearly know all the skills you have chosen, what and how to use when.

The game begins with choosing her appearance, profession, and determining her initial statistics. Instead of the usual RPG stats, you have access to abilities such as Memory, Fortitude and Insight. Each ability represents a part of the emotional “field” of the main character, while simultaneously serving as a mathematical basis for the role-playing component of the game.

The game has a lot of text and dialogue, you will have to spend a lot of time talking with people you meet along the way. The dialogue options available to you are based on the different emotions that a lonely grieving person has at such a time; from complaints and tears in the eyes to angry grumbling, and even sarcasm. From all conversations you receive experience points.

The heroine does not remain alone on her journey, she can have up to three traveling companions who can be found and joined in her campaign (raven, hunter Wen and fisherman Chichi), but their help is more likely to come down to a little support, basically the heroine fights alone.

Although the analysis of the good and bad sides of the game was carried out in the next topic, but still..
Advantages of the game:
1) Unusual gameplay. If you’re looking for a game based on emotion, an interesting character and a slowly told story, this will not disappoint you.
2) Interesting skill tree, in which you can choose the appropriate skill for your method of completing battles.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the game is its combat system. Most games give you weapons and shields to fight enemies. In Voices of Winter, your only weapon is “spells” – some mystical spiritual skills. There are no shields as such in the game; there are defensive skills that mitigate damage from enemies, or help to evade them, push them away from you. There is also an option to simply run away from them.

3) Great music and beautiful design set a well-chosen, but somewhat oppressive atmosphere. The mood in the game is presented as melancholy and cold. But this is rather not a peaceful and happy calm and cold, but a proactive feeling that there are a lot of secrets in the game world. Passages of poetry and revelations are poetic and mysterious.

Disadvantages of the game:

The main drawback of the game for me is the discrepancy between the pacing of the main story and the battles.

1) The battles in the game at the beginning of the game are very sluggish and uninteresting, monotonous, sometimes you have to wait a long time for the enemies to respond to end your turn, and it becomes boring. The pace of the game is a little slow, which suits the story well, but when you leave a location or explore the countryside, you get tired of waiting for the character to walk the entire screen.

1a) And vice versa, in the middle and end of the game, at times the battles are overly difficult, of course, they can be completed without 100% success, this is allowed, but then interest in the game is lost.
Could it be a bad balance??

2) The reading passages of the poem in the game, while bright and poetic and well suited to the atmosphere of the game, are at times too pretentious and incomprehensible.

3) There are still small bugs that sometimes require you to restart the game. It is advisable to periodically update Adobe AIR.

The post was written, or rather, collected from a couple of my own translations and posts, to popularize the game.