A Highland Song Review (AphoticDream)
While this game is very beautiful, the music is lovely, and it has a great sense of charm.
The actual mechanics of playing are... Extremely and deeply frustrating.
This is the kind of game that begs for some kind of save system, or at the very least *multiple* saves.
There isn't one. You have an Autosave, and that's it. And it can completely screw you over.
The mechanics for identifying where you are and matching your maps to the terrain around you are unique.
But they're also extremely unforgiving. If you're slightly off, you're completely off. Even if it's by a hair.
Which can lead you to think you're completely wrong, then waste time trying to figure out *how* you're wrong. Just to realize you were right, but *just a tiny bit too far left*.
You're given 7 days to reach your destination, so you have to be concerned with how much time you spend resting and recovering. They give you a hundred places to catch your breath, but if you use ANY of them? You will not make it.
The way dialogue functions is frustrating. You're out in the middle of nowhere and if you ask a stranger the wrong question because you're curious, you're completely locked out of an actually helpful question.
The platforming is completely headache inducing. You're a 15yo girl, and physics are very real. That's fine, I enjoyed the seriousness of it. But as it gets harder and harder, the way you can and can't traverse are not really clear. Is it a platform? Is it in the background? Is that a hole? Once you go this way, can you go back? (More than once, I thought so. And then the answer was no.)
There is a story here. It's nice, simple. That's about the best it gets.
I had gotten all the way to a Mountain Peak, when it wouldn't let me turn back to the house I passed up. It looked like I could *clearly* go back, and that simply wasn't the case. So I was forced to continue. At the next peak, I had a map hinting at a shelter there. I knew where it was. I could see it. I could not interact with it unless I found it using the Mechanics of the game -- so I had to climb the peak, refer to the map, spot it, select it, ensure that the Girl understood "There is a Shelter here", then go back down to use it.
Because the mechanics are completely unforgiving, she ran out of time... Five feet from the door. Sat down, slept outside. There is nothing to prevent this. Loading a save brings you back to the only Autosave, which for me is at the peak I just looked from. So I could walk back down and get stuck in the exact same spot.
This game is charming, wonderful to look at, and tries hard to be a memorable experience.
It's just absolutely kneecapping itself for me.