It’s a game I want to play again and again, exploring all the
possible variations, behaving in different ways, experimenting with
deliberately antagonising particular characters by purposefully
playing bad hands. I want to make friends with those I lost before,
and infuriate those I previously befriended. I want to live inside it
for as long as I can, in as many ways as I can.
Signs of the Sojourner feels like life. It gets hard when you least expect it, sometimes returning home is a blessing and other times it feels like a burden. People change, life moves on and you just have to try to keep up. It takes something as impersonal as cards and creates an entire world full of personality.
I enjoyed this game a lot. When I first picked it up I thought I would maybe spend an hour with it but to my surprise, I ended up playing it all the way through. It is a really heartwarming and sad game about conversation that has some really fun mechanics. I am not usually a fan of deck building games but this one was something I really enjoyed.
The art is very cute and unique and the characters are well written which blended well with the interesting story. I am excited to play it again and see what ending I get.
Short, thoughtful games — including Signs of the Sojourner — are necessary, so it’s easy to look at a call for more with suspicion. Do the mechanics and dev-hours support the variety that a call for more locations, more characters, more stories would entail? Where does the call for more feed into the call for excessive commodification of personal projects? Despite these concerns, more Signs of the Sojourner would glorify an already compelling game. By the time its rhythms fall into place, the game is already over. Teasing out its secrets enhances its replayability, but it’s exciting to think of a future with more opportunities to jam out in Aldhurst and be a catalyst for social change.
Signs Of the Sojourner is a colorful puzzle-game, with a rich cast, fitting OST and a good story. It mixes a card system with management and narrative choices, in a chill and exotic environment.
Signs of the Sojourner is one of the most cohesive narrative games I have ever played. The interplay between mechanics and storytelling is absolutely brilliant, which makes it a shame that it misses the mark in terms of actually being enjoyable to play. The inclusion of a frustrating "fatigue" mechanic is at odds with the general laid-back design approach to deckbuilding. There is something truly beautiful here that is worth experiencing, it's just a shame that the game seems to fight itself at every turn.
There’s a lot to love here, but I don’t think the main mechanic works very well. Which is sad, because I wish it did. I want to love it, but ultimately I just found it frustrating, and watching the credits roll felt like a compromise. So be fairly warned before giving it a shot.
It's a worthwhile pickup for fans of the genre and those who go in with the expectation that it just isn't the same kind of replayable that they might otherwise become accustomed to in deckbuilding titles. It's also a beautiful story at its core, one that is accentuated by hit-or-miss drawings and a sparse, compelling world. Signs Of The Sojourner is worth your time - just don't expect it to take up too much of it.
I got this in the **** Racial Justice bundle ****/b/520/bundle-for-racial-justice-and-equality but HOLY **** is this worth getting on its own!
The visuals are simple and charming. The score is evocative and fitting. The writing is top-notch. The characters are interesting. The gameplay is simple to understand. But what makes it so special is how everything blends together so seamlessly to make a wholly unique experience!
To explain why this game works requires more than learning to play the actual game. It is about communication almost like CRPGS but instead of being purely stat and RNG driven it is loosely a "deck builder".
You have a limited deck/vocabulary to use to "talk" using a hand of 5 cards to a wide range of people and you must always add or subtract cards. You can never build a perfect deck. Besides debuffs you acrue from fatigue, you will find yourself unable to express yourself in every situation.
This is the most realistic representation of the flow and frustration of talking I have ever seen in a videogame! Another way to describe it is, if you have ever had a fight with someone you care about where you want to be understood but nothing you say is working and understanding is something you cannot reach in the moment... that is this whole game!
There are no meaningless interactions, everything matters! Every conversation can be innocuous but also every conversation can feel like a boss battle. It never got overbearing but the game is FULL of tension while I played.
Anyway, there is a bunch of replayability because if you want to see everyone's story you need to focus on different "cards". My first playthrough was about 5 hours but it can be much shorter I just happened to be "on the road" as long as possible the first time.
Anyway, my favourite videogame I have played in a LONG time!
A wonderful game about conversations and relationships, with all of the interactions determined by a deck-building card game. The game mechanics are enjoyable, but it's the writing and art that make this game feel so comforting and lovely (and melancholy at times). I finished my first playthrough at just under 4 hours, but it seems like there are other paths to take so I'll be replaying at some point.
Didn't find the story and mechanics that interesting and gripping. Purely my issue. But the UX, sound design and music are so polished, it makes the game somewhat flawless.
SummaryIn this narrative card game about relationships and communication, navigate conversations in a colorful world reminiscent of our own. Learn and grow through the cards you choose to play. Who will you become? What will you leave behind?