On A Journey

There's been a lot going on Chez Bhagpuss recently, one way and another so I haven't been able to put anything substantial together for a while. I don't want to miss my regular cadence so I'm going to keep tossing stuff up as I can but posts might get a little random. Fair warning. 

Also, really, would anyone have noticed if I hadn't said anything?

Today's little pleasure is a bounce off a post by Aywren about a game I hadn't heard of, called AFK Journey. That, I have to say, is not an inspiring name for any game but Aywren made it sound pretty interesting, the screenshots in her post looked pretty and it seemed like it might make a possible replacement for the recently-shuttered Noah's Heart, so I downloaded it and gave it a try.

The first thing I'd say about it is that it's absolutely gorgeous to look at. I spent more time staring at the pictures and admiring the art than I did playing the game. I don't really need to describe it because the look comes over well in screenshots and I took a few of those.

Secondly, the writing isn't at all bad. As Aywren mentioned, the plot isn't anything new but the prose is sprightly, the dialog sparkles and the characters have plenty of personality. It's a fun read, although reading is optional because all dialog is also fully voiced and the voice acting is convincing and enjoyable to listen to. I didn't skip ahead once, which is always a recommendation.

As for gameplay, I played for an hour or so, enjoying the view and the chat. Other than that, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

Most of what I saw seemed to be an extended tutorial but it didn't teach me anything much beyond how to use the virtual joystick to move. AFK Journey is a cross-platform title but it was clearly designed with Mobile in mind. Few concessions seem to have been made to convert it to a format familiar to PC players.

During the tutorial, messages kept popping up telling me to click on things so I clicked where I was told and on we went. Unfortunately, I rarely had much of an idea why I was clicking ,so when it came time to do something on my own I was often none the wiser.

Following the main storyline had me traveling through the world in three-quarter perspective, stopping mostly talk to people, which seemed straightforward enough. Coins popped into my bag occasionally for no reason I could fathom but who complains about free money? As I trotted through the delightful, if sadly fire-ravaged countryside, there were allies to gather, fires to put out (of course.) and baddies to fight (Or were they?) At no point did I feel remotely in control of any of it.

After a while, I worked out how to auto-run to the next quest objective, something I would have appreciated if I hadn't been able to see chests in the hedgerows just waiting to be opened or teleport stones just waiting to be added to my map. If I allowed the game to whisk me on to my next appointment, it ran me straight past all of them, so I kept jumping off auto-run to go grab loot or open a waystone. Then I'd get into random encounters and fights with bandits and wildlife so in the end I decided it would be easier to do my own navigating.

Fights were frequent and incomprehensible. There can be up to five of you in the team and any number of opponents and if you click some icons on the right of the screen, little pointers appear over peoples' heads. What they mean, I have no idea. Luckily, there's one button you can press that seems to make everyone sort themselves out and get on with it so I just used that every time and sat back to watch.

I'm one hundred per cent sure that's not how it's meant to work. I'm certain there are tactical elements you're supposed to be concerning yourself with, if only because the whole point of gacha games is to build teams and swap your cards in and out for maximum effect. Usually it's quite clear how you do that. Not this time. Or not to me, at any rate.

That said, the game does get off to a fairly steady and manageable start. After a while, though, the windows and prompts and suggestions begin and then it's everyone for themselves. 

Games of this kind generally have a ridiculous range of features, mini-games, rewards and gimmicks. AFK Journey is no exception. I generally do anything that's quick, easy and gives you free stuff and or that I find fun in and of itself. After that, I ignore the rest but in this case I ignored everything because once again I was having difficulty figuring out what I was supposed to do.

I realize all of that would probably work itself out over time. I've played plenty of games that confused the hell out of me to begin with but which turned out, in the end, to be much simpler than they seemed. Normally, I'd be happy to carry on for a few more sessions; see if the fog lifted; let the shape of the game make itself known.

In this case, I'm not sure I'm going to stick around that long. The game has potential but there are a lot of games with potential out there, some of them at least as pretty or well-written and many a lot more comfortable for me to play. 

Still, I have AFK Journey installed now and I don't not like it... We'll have to see how it goes from here.