Cabernet

Beautiful beautiful beautiful game, with so much unexpected depth in its story and characters. I truly enjoyed every bittersweet second of it.

Simply delightful darling.

the art, the music, the story, the lore... *chef's kiss* obsessed and definitely will rerun it multiple times

Great narrative, very deep story!

Cabernet was really interesting. It's a slow-paced rpg where you're a young 19th-century polish woman that gets turned into a vampire and kind of turned loose to live her unlife in a small village. You spend a lot of time walking around, talking to people, running errands, and coming to terms with your new existence. The story seems to have the potential to diverge a lot based on your actions and choices: characters live or die, events turn out differently, there seem to be a number of romance possibilities, etc. I took a very humanist approach; I might play through again at some point with a more cynical style and see how different things turn out. There's a day cycle where you basically have time to perform 3 "significant" actions per night, then you have to retreat to your sanctuary and wait out the day. This can cause scheduling pressure when multiple time-sensitive things land on one day, but it's pretty manageable overall. The overall tone of the game is very thoughtful and contemplative. There's no combat, and although there are a few timed events here and there, they're mostly pretty chill. Except for the final chapter or two, where there is suddenly a series of them with strict timing where you need to reload if you fail. I really enjoyed Cabernet overall, and I will probably replay it at some point in the future.

I adore this game! The art, story, mechanics. They are done very well and never fail to make me feel cozy on a spooky fall night. I wish it was longer! The characters are great and the multitude of quests you complete for them feel satisfying. I personally love time management games and this incorporates great elements from that! Not too much management where you have to plan everything strategically but enough where you have to be intentional in what you do and who you meet. Saying that, I do have some complaints. The camera along with the characters movements is annoying. The camera will follow our main character and the movement are jarring. When she walks it clips a bit. Luckily not too much as to be extremely bothersome and unplayable, but just enough to be annoying. This game also suffers from what a lot of "choices matter" games often do... which is your choices, don't actually matter. With the overarching story that is. In this game your choices affect the characters and their endings, but doesn't at all affect the main games story. I mean I wasn't expecting a detroit become human, but I was hoping going down another path would... take me down another path! I was quite disappointed that when I accepted the countesses offer it just flashed me forward for a scene and that was it. That was the whole epilogue. In truth this is a minor complaint. The original story is good enough where I don't mind, but still it was a tad bit disappointed. This is also super minor but I wish you could do more things with your lovers, or something to happen when you're with more then one. I accepted all the people who confessed to me (I had four lovers by the end), which great fun! Felt like a ♥♥♥♥♥. Idk just wished there was something more. Again very very minor. I liked the romance system in general. Overall great game, can't wait to replay it!