The Girl of Glass: A Summer Bird's Tale

This was a perfect game for me, I really enjoyed the mix of point-and-click, visual novel, and turn-based combat. That last one was a bit tough to figure out, but once you get started it's easy to pick up. This is a game with a lot of deep cuts and social commentary - it's a game that makes you think. All-in-all, I would recommend because I personally enjoyed this game, and I think there's something here for everyone to relate to.

This game popped up after skipping hundreds of games on my Discovery Queues. And it was worth it. First of all, I think we can all agree this game looks beautiful, from the character art to the backgrounds. Even people that reviewed it negatively said so. Then it combines two genres that I've been waiting forever for someone to finally do it: Point and Click Adventure + Visual Novel. And with a game looking this pretty, you never tire of that. As for the cons... I wish all characters were voiced, Then, regarding combat, I wish the higher difficulties were made in a fun way and not just basically "you have less HP". I didn't find combat slow as other people did, I enjoyed that you got to play as a lot of characters, and different versions of those characters. Finally I loved the story, the game's message, the characters and the protagonist. Highly recommended!

Kinda loved this one, especially the ending! Incredibly beautiful backgrounds and animation. Makes me a little sad so much of the genre is stuck in the low res styles of the past. Story and characters are fantastic, puzzles are solid and well-thought out, never so challenging than I got stuck (which is good, because the game is criminally under-documented.) If there are flaws, it's that the turn-based combat sections sometimes overstay their welcome, and the system of elemental strengths and weaknesses meant to be core to those battles is quite obtuse. There's too many elements and in many cases it is not even obvious which elements are being used by which characters, let alone which is weak to the other. But this is all minor. Anyway, yes. Loved it! Also I appear to be the only person in the world to have gotten the coexist ending. So go me apparently!

[This is a first impression review. I will update it after spending more time with the game.] I assume you already know about the most important feature of The Girl of Glass, i.e. combining point-and-click gameplay with turn-based battles, so I'll skip this part. Let me emphasize the other values of the game. First of all, the [b]writing is very good[/b]. Humour and melancholy are mixed in dialogue in equal parts, and they are mixed tastefully. Beautiful art of locations also adds to this effect, as well as the pleasant voice of the narrator. At this point puzzles seem to be logical and not overly difficult. I'm curious what fate lies ahead of Kristal and the rest of the colourful cast of characters. [b]I strongly recommend giving The Girl of Glass a try to any point-and-click lover.[/b]

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Phew, that's a tough one. Pro: [list] [*] The narrative comes with some twists, is quite multi-layered and delivers a refreshing mundane but at the same time unconventional story. Some reviewers critizied how heavily it jumps between light-hearted story telling appropriate for children, and a gloomy presentation of topics which are definitely unsuitable. I actually liked that, and it made sense in hindsight. [*] For JPRG-ish turn-based combat the system quite complex, multidimensional and innovative. [*] The Point&Click parts are fairly easy and even come with an well-made hint system. [*] The game is oozing passion from every pore. [/list] Con: [list] [*] Some of the twists can be foreseen from miles away. Many topics are presented heavy-handed or quite bluntly, or even both. And hell, it's sooo incredibly cheesy! The game even makes some ironical remarks about that, which is fine, but doesn't make it any less cheesy. Dispite the different art-style I think it's for people who are into animes: Lenghty monologes full of self-exposition, edginess in every dialog (with combats full of them), a cheesy ending wth some corny music - you've got it all covered here. [*] Do yourself a favor and turn down the combat difficulty to easy. It's completely borked and feels more like a mixture of gambling and strategic game theory - always expect the enemies to counter what you're doing, and plan the counter-actions for THAT in advance. For some battles that isn't enough and you've got to go through the combat (filled to the brim with unskippable dialogs) multiple times and learn the patterns so you can anticipate them at your next attempt. It doesn't help that there's quite an elaborate rock paper scissors system of strengths and weaknesses, but often you can't really tell by color or art which kind of element applies, and even if you would, you'ld require a pokemonical table to keep track of what beats what (example: is a treemonster strong or weak against an earth attack?). [*] The Point&Click parts consist mostly of pixel-hunting (to make things worse there are hotspots which only appear later) and convoluted, unrealistic moon-logic puzzles. Example: [spoiler]You want to sneak in somewhere to steal something. So what's the first thing to do? Right, you've gotta fix that lawnmower next to the backdoor and even use it, so it breaks and gives you the next item you need. Yeah ... we all remember the lengthy lawn-mowing section in the Thief series.[/spoiler] [/list] In the end, it's hard not to recommend it. It's unconventional in many ways, it's ambitious in many ways, and while it also falls flat in many ways, it would feel wrong to judge it too hard for that. It leaves a remaining impression, and even the cardboard characters with their ham-fisted exposition grow dear to you heart somehow - that's more than, say, Life is Strange accomplishes.

The Girl of Glass: A Summer Bird's Tale is a one-of-a-kind game, for better and worse, but while it has its rough spots its various parts all add up into something special that I'm very glad I played, and that's stuck with me ever since I finished. It's a hybrid of point-and-click adventure and turn-based tactical battler, and while those two genres have rarely (if ever) mixed gracefully before now, the combination mostly works here. Kristal, the main character, is made of glass--in her daily life she is fragile, unable to defend herself and forced to use her wits to stay hidden from danger, though laying low is at odds with her outsize personality, passion for life, and strong sense of right and wrong. In her dreams she confronts threats as an avenging-angel figure in a vivid fantasy landscape, summoning imaginary companions to help her face down the fears that plague her in the waking world. The two gameplay styles--light-hearted point-and-click puzzle solving and aggressive fantasy combat--don't always mesh perfectly, but for this story, at least, they make sense together. The combat is *hard*, and sometimes frustrating, but if you stick with it it's absolutely beatable; you can also adjust the difficulty if you'd rather move through it quickly. Still, the game's inventive character design really shines during the combat sections, with a whole array of fantastical creatures from golems to elementals to floating eyeballs alternately opposing and aiding Kristal in each battle. The hand-drawn art is fantastic across the board, with scenes often looking like something out of an animated film, and the soundtrack is beautiful; the story is moving and the characters, especially Kristal, are memorable. The lack of voice acting (aside from the wonderful narrator) detracts a bit from the immersion factor, but not enough to be a dealbreaker. All in all it's a sweet, lovely game that I'd recommend to anyone who can handle a more experimental approach, and who doesn't mind puzzling and combat served side-by-side.