Dordogne

This game is a mixed bag for me. Okay, first. Dordogne is beautiful, the scenarios have an oil painting style that felt very unique, since i never played a game that looks like this one. And the nature sounds can help towards the relaxing/nostalgic vibe the game goes for. Unfortunately, while the visuals are amazing, the gameplay is bad, really bad. Most of the time, you will be walking at a snail's pace, you can only run at certain spots and even then, the game can force you to walk while the character reflects about something. A sprint button which les you run whenever you want would be nice. You also have minigames that you have to do in order to execute a few tasks. They're mostly just a minor incovenience unless you're playing on a controller, when they're an actual pain. The story gave me a "Studio Ghibli" vibe. It's a simple plot, way too simple and with a few unnecessary or poorly explored details. There's this character, [spoiler] Renaud, who is, apparently, mistreated by his parents. This plot is introduced and developed in a few letters from Mimi's Grandfather, Édouard. The thing is, no one knows what's happening for real. Édouard saw bruises on Renaud once and was upset with his religious parents who were trying to homeschool the child, he then connected everything and accuses them of child abuse. Both points are weak, since Renaud could have got the bruises from his adventures in the forest or from a cave which is his secret hideout, and his parents could just be worried that Renaud wasn't getting proper education at his school.[/spoiler] [spoiler]Then this plot starts to fall apart. Once we meet Renaud for the first time, we can see him stealing materials and food from local vendors in a market, he clearly doesn't need to steal, since he has a house, as reveled by a map he give us later on, his parents are probably alive and he whistles as he steal. Later on, we can talk to him and he reveals he plans to repay the he stole from after finding a treasure. Then we discover the character's grandmother doesn't like Renaud, because she thinks he stole a watch from her husband, but he probably didn't as briefly hinted towards in a letter. And all of this leads to nothing. The game ends on Renaud being... adopted? By grandma, and then this plot simply dissapears. There's something going on with Renaud, but the game doesn't explore this properly, which is a huge shame.[/spoiler] [spoiler]Renaud should be removed from the game and all his screen time should revolve around Nora, Édouard and Mimi's father, to flesh out their story better, which is also poorly done and IS important to the story being told and would add more depth to it, unlike Renaud's character, who is a huge pile of wasted potential.[/spoiler] Not recommended because this game's gameplay ain't gameplaying that gameplaily good and the story could be so much better if it was focused in the family.

Not really a game. The soundtrack is very nice, as is the artwork. Obtaining achievements is a chore and the story isn't very engaging for a visual novel.