A beautiful narrative card game that explores interpersonal relationships and shows us that we cannot always win.
Narrative adventures are one of the most biased genres in digital entertainment because they challenge the classic precepts that accompany the classic concept of the game: new definitions of what it means to win or lose, or how to reward player skill. Far from limiting all interaction with dialogue options, we've played titles that have taken active narrative further. Dontnod showed us how decisions have unpredictable consequences. The Phoenix Wright saga, for example, is characterized by adding a penalizing element to the visual novel to force us to make our deductions without falling into the random choice of answers. Elsinore, of the independent studio Golden Glitch, had a main mechanics based on the management of intrigue; the wise use of information received and shared could change the course of the Hamlet tragedy.
Signs of the Sojourner is the debut (available for Nintendo Switch, PC Windows and Mac) of the Californian studio Echodog Games, a narrative adventure in which we will build our communication strategies through a peculiar game of cards. And it is through this same system that the leitmotif of the game is transmitted to the player: we cannot all like it and we cannot always get away with it. In the tutorial itself we are already warned of this, and we accept rules that challenge the concept of reward for good plays.
Playing card communication
Our avatar is a young merchant, of an unknown gender, who must take care of his late mother's store and keep the business alive in an inhospitable and arid world. To do this, you must join the route of a caravan that goes from town to town and thus get goods that make the place prosper, as well as keep the town on the caravan's list of destinations. Along the way, we will meet other people with whom we will build relationships according to how we literally play our cards.
Personality traits are represented through simple symbols: square, triangle, etc., which are reflected on the edges of our cards and on the cards of each of the characters with whom we will interact. In each conversation, we must take turns making a row of letters, chained by the symbols drawn on their sides. This is how the connection is created based on the look that we give to our words: from empathy, curiosity or logic, the complicity of another person will be woven through the letters connected through symbols. We will also have special cards in our hands that represent other communication strategies, such as clarification of a previous point, accommodation to the wishes of our interlocutor, etc.
On the other hand, we will find situations in which we will see that the meeting is doomed from the first moment: there will be characters whose personality collides head-on with us, with symbols that we will not find in our hands and with whom the conversation will have a clearly unsuccessful destiny. This type of exchange will be frustrating, while authentically reflecting the inevitable situation that we have experienced numerous times in real life: the inability to come to an understanding with another person. And, as in analog reality, not being able to like everyone is not our fault or that of others. Neither a certain number of failures will mean the end of the game, nor the obtaining of a sad end as punishment.
Each conversation will have an effect on our merchant, embodied in a peculiar mechanics: after each meeting, we must keep a letter from our interlocutor and discard one of ours, In this way, we will build a deck forged by the learning obtained from the experiences lived and that it can sometimes serve to connect with people with whom, otherwise, we could not establish the minimum approach.
Introspective journey on emotional maturity
As for our trip to collect goods for our store, we can go along with the caravan from town to town following their calendar and, from a certain point in the game, venture on our own to new locations. We will feel at all times the uncertainty about the future and our mother's store, whose fate we will have to solve in a short month that includes 3-4 hours of play. Despite everything, in future games we can try to establish new links with other different people, and look for new destinations. As for the texts, at the moment they are only available in English, so if we do not know the language we will miss the entire core of Signs of the Sojourner.
Along the way, we will encounter random encounters that will have an effect on our deck, both positive and negative: either obtaining a special feature for one of our cards or losing one of them. After each locality visited, a fatigue letter will be added to our deck, representing emotional exhaustion that will not be able to connect with any other letter from our interlocutors and will settle any conversation negatively. Such letters will be removed when we return home and unload the groceries obtained from our store.
Signs of the Sojourner, in addition, stands out for its way of portraying a ray of light within a world that presents itself as harsh and inhospitable. With a delicious, intimate and relaxing soundtrack; and a colorful artistic section and a drawing that evokes a children's tale, we are in perfect harmony with a fable about emotional maturity and acceptance of our virtues and limitations. Likewise, we are presented with a diverse world, in which characters with interesting and varied plots have a place. We will see thin, thick people of different ages and genders, some of them with physical disabilities; And all this will make each of these characters unique and leave their impact on both us and our merchant.
However, even though Signs of the Sojourner is about failing to meet all goals and succeeding in all situations, we will not miss out on a certain freedom of action. Even accepting that we will not be able to establish ties with everyone, we will wish at all times to have some maneuver in certain situations or more opportunities to make our deck more varied. All in all, the hopeful messages transmitted by a game where there are no victories or defeats leave us with a good taste: a conflict with someone we love is not a definitive rupture and, if our goals are not met, we can find new dreams that will make us vibrate with renewed hopes.
This game has been analyzed in its version for Windows PC.
CONCLUSION
Signs of the Sojourner is a narrative card adventure in which through a peculiar card game we establish connections with other people to achieve our goal of making our deceased mother's store prosper. With a proposal that defies the classic concepts of victory and defeat, we will be conveyed the accepted frustration that not everyone can be liked, while remembering that a conflict with someone you love does not mean the final break. And, even if we miss a certain freedom of action when building our deck, we will conclude our game with a good taste in the mouth.
THE BEST
- Beautiful artistic section.
- His optimism within an inhospitable world.
- An excellent allegory on communication and interpersonal relationships.
WORST
- English only.
- Certain lack of freedom of action
Good
It meets the expectations of what is a good game, it has quality and does not have serious flaws, although it lacks elements that could have taken it to higher levels.
