The Silent Huntress

嗯....有点平淡，玩过以后印象不深刻，故事搭配美术有种绘本的感觉，体量说是52k words并不算长，但可能因为包含一些不常见生词，读起来耗时更长一些，喜欢美术入的话也不算亏。以下是模糊记忆下写得测评，和实际可能有出入：选项其实好像没太大作用，分支只有dead end和故事结局。哑女被老猎人收留长大猎杀巨狼复仇的冒险故事，一路上遇到各种山精，会说话的动物，湘西赶尸人（划掉）和亡灵对话。有两个LI，女LI先登场，她是精怪和人类的孩子，故事内容较多，角色刻画比男LI用心一点。男LI被诅咒需要女主去拯救，但不知道是我个人喜好导致的偏见还是作者叙事有问题，显得有点捞。两人可以都谈，等猎杀结束后都回来找女主要她二选一。后期在一个城堡探索的部分建议多存档，挺容易死的。 仔细一看测评写了和没写一样（流汗），实在是记不清内容了，等哪天把故事全忘了说不定会再玩一遍再来更新评价。

I love the story and the art. The choices are also thought out well and the consequences are often unexpected, which I personally often miss in similar games.

I like the premise of a silent protagonist in this type of game, since it gives you more chances to immerse yourself into the story instead of just feeling with the main character, but everything else is [h3]boring bu[b][/b]llsh[b][/b]it.[/h3] It's not horrendeously written, but also not engaging; instead it's painfully mediocre. Everything feels dragged out; I think they wanted to go for a certain atmosphere, but they failed and instead the story is just bland and boring. Not only is it exhausting to read through, it also reminds me more of an e-book than of a choose-your-own-adventure story, which sucks, because the trailer boasts about meaningful choices, but 1) the choices are few and far between... ... and 2) they don't have a clearly discernible impact on the story. I played through the first part several times trying different decisions to see whether the choices are actually meaningful, but the changes arising from them were inconsequential in the best case (if they were noticeable at all), and consisted only of marginally different answers from the NPCs. To be fair and precise: The immediate effects were noticeable - it's just that the overall outcome remained remarkably similar. If my decisions lead to more or less the same outcome, just on a different path, then it doesn't feel like my choices matter at all. That's what broke Mass Effect's neck and believe me: No one wants their story to be compared to Mass Effect's after ME3. If there were at least some signs that our choices actually matter like a visual representation of our relationship in a menu with an NPC that changes after an important choice... But no, all that happens is that "relationship with X changed" is displayed in the corner, but it doesn't specify in what way, which left me even more in the dark about whether what I was doing was getting me anywhere, since the consequences of my choices failed to do so. Several replays confirmed that most of those allegedly "meaningful choices" are full of sh[b][/b]it. If you look just at screenshots, it reminds one of a Telltale game mechanically, but with 2D slideshow graphics. If you play it, however, you'll see that it feels like perusing the obituaries. You're slowly slogging through a story as captivating as a dry day in the park three hours before it rains, which is somewhat foreboding, but anything but interesting or immersive. The game doesn't even describe the NPC's reaction to give me an impression of what I did was good or bad (although I think the writer could've been able to do that well, if he/she tried). If the character models displayed their mood and/or reaction to convey anything, that would've been nice, but no... all you get are poorly drawn, still images that look as if the artist was the winner of an art contest held in an elementary school - not totally bad, but certainly not good, either. Combined with the lackluster story and the meaningless choices, the lackluster graphics only contribute to the game's boringness that [b]made me fall asleep during two of my playthroughs - [u]not joking[/u], that actually happened[/b]. Maybe it wouldn't have happened that easily, if I hadn't been tired already, but can't repeat often enough: [h3]I actually fell asleep for real while "playing" this "game" and that tells you everything you need to know about Silent Huntress.[/h3] Luckily, I woke up before the 2-hour mark and before it was too late to refund this boring, meaningless snore-fest... Sorry, stormnebulae, I see the effort, but I also see that you failed: It could be worse, but it's just not good enough, and mediocre doesn't cut it. You're wasting the potential that I think you have. Back to the drawing board.

Чудова гра, але іноді виникає відчуття, що чогось не вистачає, тому 8.5\10 <3

Візуальна новела, події якої відбуваються в тому ж всесвіті що і "Unroaded". Ми маємо можливість дізнатися більше деталей про трагічні події минулого. Якщо порівнювати дві новели, то "The Silent Huntress" є довшою, в ній більше різноманіття персонажів та локацій. Дуже гарний візуальний стиль, музика і звукові ефекти, які допомагають проникнутися тим, що відбувається в той чи інший момент. Відчувається дух казки, темної, але все ж казки. Та й взагалі, зважаючи на імена ключових героїв, - Герда та Кай - можна зрозуміти, що це, в тому числі, певна інтерпретація відомої казки "Снігова королева", але в інших умовах, з іншого ракурсу. У цій новелі втрата Кая залишила на Герді глибокий слід, породила внутрішній конфлікт і неспокій. І вже від наших рішень буде залежати, як цей конфлікт вирішиться. Мені дуже сподобалося, з радістю пограв би ще щось схоже. Чи то ще одну історію в цьому всесвіті, чи взагалі щось нове) Тому бажаю гарних ідей, успіхів! Дякую за гру!

The Silent Huntress is a dark fairy tale about how grief can consume an entire life if left unchallenged. It follows a girl who continues pursuing revenge against a mysterious magical beast for many years. The player is invited to question, alongside the protagonist, whether this kind of persistence is strength at all. I definitely felt like it was draining and destructive and yet she continued. In retrospect, the game frames it less as resilience and more as a way to avoid the pain of letting go. The theme of grief carries over into one of the romance options. The lesbian route with Agna is the only one that feels emotionally coherent: the two spend almost two days together. Agna’s parallel struggle with grief reinforces the story’s central themes while offering a foundation for their romance to blossom. By contrast, the heterosexual option for romance with Nathan is underdeveloped to the point of absurdity. Much of the player’s time with him is spent while he is cursed into silence as a scarecrow, leaving little foundation for intimacy once he regains his human form. The romance feels less like a natural emotional outcome and more like a checkbox. As in, if you have one female romance, you must have a male romance to appeal to the audience whether it fits the narrative or not. I recommend reading for the story. The sounds and music were good, the art grew on me. The romance is an afterthought, narratively, while the grief takes center stage. Considering there was a theme about wars between nations taking and taking and leaving nothing but grief in its wake, it does make me think about the author being Ukrainian and the war they’ve had to be aware of this last 4–5 years. I wish your country would have more luck in the future, dear author. It took me 3 ish hours to read. Died a couple times, reloaded to select a couple different ending options.

I can't believe that it took me a year to complete this story! Not because it's boring or anything - not at all, at first it caught all my attention but then the heartbreaking moment happened [spoiler]- and after discovering the truth about Kai I wasn't able to continue just as Gerda wasn't able to speak![/spoiler] The world, the story, the interface of the game, the art - everything is so atmospheric and beautiful, full of love and soul of the creator! And the story really responds to your choises, some parts are even like a dnd quests! You should definitely at least touch this mesmerizing story, and I'm sure it will capture your attention!