Game: The Scorchfarer
Genre: Visual Novel, Point-and-click
System: Steam (Windows)
Developers|Publishers: Michiyuki Project
Price: (US Free | UK Free | EU Free)
Release Date: April 15th, 2022
Review code used, with many thanks to Martin Firbacher.
Ever wonder what it would be like to live on a mainly inhospitable planet where fire reigned and few safe havens remained? To live among the ruins of a once lively world? This is the reality of the world of The Scorchfarer, a place where magic is just managing to keep the remainder of a planet’s population alive.
Synopsis
The player follows Yukiharu and Mikaela, two young magicians, known as Terramagus, who live on a post-apocalyptic planet in the land of Uzu. The pair have been waiting with bated breath to find out whether they would be allowed to help terraform their planet, reclaiming a portion of the scorched land that had been destroyed in the “fire rain” years earlier. When a late-night transmission comes through, the pair are swept up in the bigger machinations and politics of Uzu and the continent of Zuhaar as they uncover the secrets of their world.
The player follows this pair, carefully exploring the world around them and learning about lore, characters, and the incident that threw the world into chaos along the way. As the world is delved into, people with various agendas – good, bad, and neutral – have an eye out for the heroes.
Restoring Balance
The driving force behind the story is that Terramagus are helping to restore the balance that was tipped in the anti-magi/nature’s favor with the fire rain. These magic-users wish to heal their planet so that they and future generations can have improved lives. Traveling and completing missions as assigned to test Yuki and Michi.
The gameplay is largely typical VN fair, though it plays more like a kinetic novel. As such, they’re little choices, at least for the first episode since the game has more coming out. There is a point-and-click element in a seeing eye and magnifying glass that reveals sparkles. These sparkles reveal lore about the characters and world and are fun secret items to hunt for in each chapter.
Audiovisuals
The visuals here are interesting. While the characters’ sprites style is not my cup of tea, they’re not bad and are visually striking. No one character looks the same. The backgrounds are lovely and the depiction of the anti-magi circle hits just the right balance of beautifully ominous. The UI draws the player’s eye and plays around with some typical VN presentations with an eye in a corner and a clock and cogs in the opposite one. The dialogue box could get clogged with some redundant prose, but otherwise suited the UI. I loved the journal on the main menu because it has you click on objects to learn about characters. I truly enjoyed that concept!
Audio-wise, the music is good. It suits the pacing, setting, and characters. However, the main theme could get a little repetitive. I would’ve liked some more variety of tracks, but otherwise, it was solid. More sound effects would be appreciated as well.
Overall Opinion
This game has a decent start. There are quite a few mysteries to investigate by the end of episode one. There’s a chunk of intriguing characters with their own machinations towards the two leads going on in the background. While there’s some drag with each action being depicted on screen, there was enough action to keep it engaging at least half the time.
I’m not quite sure if I will be checking them out because post-apocalyptic settings are not my jam and this game hasn’t changed that. However, if this story sounds like it could be your jam, keep an eye out for the upcoming episodes on Steam!
Conclusion
The Scorchfarer is a nice visual novel that implements some interesting UI and story elements. It’s not for me, but I do think it’s worth a spin. I recommend it for the lovers of end of the world stories and those focused on character interactions.
Final Verdict: I Like it. 