A Highland Song Review (satie-san)
This is a very soft recommend. To be honest I initially rather favoured the idea of leaving a negative review, but after three playthroughs (average length is between 2h if you know what you're doing and 5h if you're miserably, dismally, woefully lost as I was on my first playthrough), I think the game has really started growing on me and its positive traits finally offset the negative ones.
This being said, this is precisely because A Highland Song is designed to favour multiple playthroughs (Moira, the player character, will get to retain all her geographical knowledge as well as some items) that the first one can feel like being dropped on your own in the wild steppes with extremely unclear instructions. Personally, I am not a fan of the mechanic asking the player to climb the peaks to try to pinpoint paths that are shown on little hand-drawn maps Moira collects (and if you're off by one centimeter, too bad for you) and THEN having you go to that place to confirm whether said path actually exists. It makes for a lot of lost time, and considering the maps are randomised, it can mean that you'll get stuck in the same place for a long while without knowing where to go. I was also dubious about the raison d'être of the rhythm game although it can be charming at times. It can also be quite annoying at others, especially if you'd rather just walk instead of jumping around without knowing where you are or where you're going.
In the end, that's what the whole game comes down to: charming visuals, charming music, really charming story (definitely worth trying to arrive on time at the Lighthouse to understand what's happening), very good voice acting, etc. But very much held down by gameplay mechanics that seem to favour slowing down the player at all times (yes I know it rains in the Highlands. Do I want to have to find shelter every 3 minutes in my game though? No).
Once you've cleared most of the map you'll probably actually have fun but you need to get there first, and I know that I was about to ragequit thrice, and wouldn't be surprised if other people have actually gone through with it!
In the end, I feel like it's a testament to Inkle's high standards and commitment to quality that even the game of theirs I like the least so far is still this good on so many aspects. My two cents though, are that 80 Days is still a perfect entry-point for anyone interested in their games. It is exquisitely written and its gameplay is way more approachable (and bite-sized) while significantly less punishing than A Highland Song's.