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OK: What follows is a diary of my activities in Retour. Quick recap of our game objectives for those not in the know: both Angelique and Rosalia have been given a continent to run. They are to "cultivate" their respective continents by directing the Guardians to send their powers over the elements of the universe (Wind, Earth, Green for vegetation, etc.) to make their lands more habitable, thus encouraging the development of settlements. You can ask a Guardian to send only so much power per day, though - you can either ask one Guardian to send a lot of his power, or two to send a little respectively. When one candidate fully develops her continent, the test is over.
...That candidate may not necessarily have won, however, since the winner is determined by a vote of the Guardians - and they vote completely at their own discretion. You may find favor with some just because you're doing well on the exam - but many will simply throw in with whomever they like better, making Angelique, depressingly, perhaps the most accurate workplace sim ever produced. Therefore, the real key to success is finding favor among the Guardians - by asking for their power and thereby flattering them; by chatting them up in their offices (which consumes the "action points" you would normally expend on cultivation); and by arranging to meet them in personal circumstances i.e., by going out on dates. If a Guardian becomes excessively fond of you, however, he may fall in love with you and suggest you get together with him instead of becoming Queen - which, this being in great part a dating sim, is of course another way to end the game.
Oh, and you can also blow your cultivation "action points" on other non-cultivation activities like getting early stat reports or casting spells to improve the relationships between certain characters, but we'll get into those later.
Since I am deeply invested in the welfare of little virtual people, I will not be using obstruction (where you use a Guardian's Sacrea powers to destroy your opponent's settlements instead of cultivating your own). This is a 100% pacifist run! Here we go:( Cut )
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...That candidate may not necessarily have won, however, since the winner is determined by a vote of the Guardians - and they vote completely at their own discretion. You may find favor with some just because you're doing well on the exam - but many will simply throw in with whomever they like better, making Angelique, depressingly, perhaps the most accurate workplace sim ever produced. Therefore, the real key to success is finding favor among the Guardians - by asking for their power and thereby flattering them; by chatting them up in their offices (which consumes the "action points" you would normally expend on cultivation); and by arranging to meet them in personal circumstances i.e., by going out on dates. If a Guardian becomes excessively fond of you, however, he may fall in love with you and suggest you get together with him instead of becoming Queen - which, this being in great part a dating sim, is of course another way to end the game.
Oh, and you can also blow your cultivation "action points" on other non-cultivation activities like getting early stat reports or casting spells to improve the relationships between certain characters, but we'll get into those later.
Since I am deeply invested in the welfare of little virtual people, I will not be using obstruction (where you use a Guardian's Sacrea powers to destroy your opponent's settlements instead of cultivating your own). This is a 100% pacifist run! Here we go:( Cut )
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Before we dive in here, a caveat. I bought the PSP version of Retour; I don't have a Vita, and there's literally nothing exclusive to the Vita library that interests me. I had planned for a slew of screenshots to accompany my reflections here, but upon reading through the manual, I discovered...that the PSP version of Retour doesn't have a screenshot function. I'd thought that this was now a standard feature with visual novels (which Retour is, basically), considering that Maren included it four years ago, but apparently not! Built-in screenshot functions on platforms like the Vita have led to the phasing out of game-internal screenshot functions, it seems. The lack of accompanying screenshot doesn't matter as much with Retour, I suppose, as this is largely a story with which the audience for Retour thoughts is going to be familiar, and promo screens showing expressions, environments, etc. have been all over the place. Still, it's a disappointment.
Also, I believe I've been spoiled in regards to the truth about Brian. There was a screenshot collection on Tumblr that incidentally mentioned a small but crucial piece of information - just one word, and it's a very deep cut; the OP may not have even realized the significance of the term. But the picture it paints, let us say, seems to fit with the info that's already been leaked about Brian and make it make sense. I'm actually quite interested in how they're gonna do Brian's story if what's being indicated here is correct. (I'm still gritting my teeth a little about being probably spoiled, though. It wasn't as if that post needed that information, dang it.)( Read more... )
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Also, I believe I've been spoiled in regards to the truth about Brian. There was a screenshot collection on Tumblr that incidentally mentioned a small but crucial piece of information - just one word, and it's a very deep cut; the OP may not have even realized the significance of the term. But the picture it paints, let us say, seems to fit with the info that's already been leaked about Brian and make it make sense. I'm actually quite interested in how they're gonna do Brian's story if what's being indicated here is correct. (I'm still gritting my teeth a little about being probably spoiled, though. It wasn't as if that post needed that information, dang it.)( Read more... )
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