Tales from Windy Meadow

[got_quiet]

Name: Tales from Windy Meadow
Status: Complete 
Site: https://moral-anxiety.itch.io/windy-meadow
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Gen and M/F
Description: Small town classic fantasy.

Tales from Windy Meadow is an actual VN in the sense that it's a game that relies on simple text choices and has in what appears to be a branching narrative. The art is all pixel sprites, with a number of nicely done locations and animations as backdrops for animated scenes. It's nicely done and gives off a good fantasy RPG atmosphere. The sprite animation within each scene is good and as advertised "replaces the narration." As in, all of the text is dialogue only.

 

The story centers around three related but distinct chapters, following three citizens of the titular Windy Meadow. You can play the chapters in whichever order you wish.

Chapter one follows Vena, a skilled huntress who has been given an opportunity to work in the city.

Chapter two follows Fabel, a young man who lost his legs in a barbarian attack. He wants to become a bard.

Chapter three follows Ludicia, a young woman who appears to have many autistic traits. She's been proposed to and isn't sure about how to respond.

Each chapter is moderately long and happens in the same timeframe, so that by the end the stories converge into a single chapter that serves as the conclusion to all the stories. In the beginning the sheer number of characters your POV character interacts with can be a little overwhelming. There are a dozen or so, with no real introduction to any since they are all meant to be intimately familiar with each other as members of a small town. The game throws you a small bone by letting you hover over anyone's name, which will give you a sentence or two of description for each, but there's still quite an army of them to keep track of. Vena for example has many siblings, but I'm not sure if I was able to determine just how many. 3 I think, maybe 4.


 

There's also very little feedback about whether or not the choices you make are making a difference. There are a decent number of choices you can make, but typically it felt like one was to be polite and another was to be direct or an asshole, or your choices are all different flavors of the same mood. So it doesn't feel very important which you pick. Each of the characters have a single major decision that their chapter revolves around. Does Vena stay in town or leave? Does Fabel pursue being a bard or decide to work at the tavern instead? Does Ludicia marry or not? And you make that choice at the very end of the game without previous choices affecting your options, so it's hard to see how the choices you made previously have any significant effect. There is no meta info to track your level of "completion" or to indicate if you've seen what the game would like you to see, which means the structure of the game is opaque. I played through two times and the different choices I made did not seem to be impactful. For example, when you're on Fabel's chapter you can choose one of three different stories to read and analyze, which leads to a rather lengthy and interesting discussion of that particular story, but once that scene is over, I don't think the choice carries over into anything else.

Story wise the game focuses closely on personal stories, which I liked very much. It seems to prioritize making a small location as alive as possible rather than reaching for a grand plot. There's a threat of invading goblins but most conflicts are interpersonal. This causes a slight problem because of the in media res storytelling. For example, one of Vena's sisters is just a straight asshole towards her. She calls her a stupid drunk to her face with no apparent provocation. But she only appears in one or two scenes, there's no indication that Vena actually drinks all that much, and there was no real resolution to the issue. It feels like baffling behavior. In Ludicia's story she gets triggered at every mention of her parents, who chose to give her up to the local healer woman when she was very young because they didn't know how to deal with her behavior. When the situation comes up you can chose to have her react poorly, or you can have her sort of avoid the topic and just politely decline talking to or spending time with them. Mention is made of her having to figure out what to do with them during the wedding but this is also not something that sees any conclusion. In Fabel's chapter the past of the older woman who is teaching him is alluded to, as is her drinking problem, but if he tries to press she'll turn him down no matter what.


 

There's also a weird amount of teetotaling energy in the game. Like, constant commentary on the vice of drunkenness and the giving of alcohol to the underaged. I don't know why but it pinged me as weird that so many characters were given this "flaw." Especially since this is supposed to be some fantasy Europe of some sort.

 

Gameplay wise, there doesn't appear to be significant pathing and the branching is minimal. But the story is nice and intimate, and the characters feel alive enough. If you like more humble fantasy stories this one is decently done. Just don't expect to feel in control of anything.