Whispers of the village

A wonderful game for a cozy night! The story and soundtrack are very atmospheric, and the gameplay doesn't feel repetetive as you do the tea-reading mini game only 4 times for each character. Puzzling together the end scene was fun, but what really convinced was the story - this is more of a visual novel than a puzzle game imo (which I love), and you can "read" it in 2 hours tops. I had some trouble with the mouse tracking at the end, but restarting solved that easily. Since it's free, I wholeheartedly recommend!

Whispers of the Village is a free narrative & puzzle game. The player is a Fortune Teller visiting a village which is in crisis, and which is apparently heading towards a deadly event. Over four days the Fortune Teller meets the main characters who are involved somehow in the coming catastrophe and, through reading their futures in the tea leaves and talking to them, tries to piece together what sequence of actions and by whom may bring about the terrible outcome. Note that there are no achievements in the game, at least so far. This is a deep and beautiful-looking game (though the penalty for the lovely artwork is a literal hammering of the graphics processor), with excellent dialogue, sympathetic and likeable characters in spite of their weaknesses and flaws, and surprisingly tricky puzzles (pattern-matching in the tea leaves, and working out the actions and sequence of the coming climax). I was genuinely sad when it was over, and I hope that the mechanics and story-telling can be used again in a longer game which I would gladly purchase. My play time represents two partial playthroughs (when I mistakenly thought that I had messed up the game and so restarted, when in fact I just hadn't realised how to trigger its next phase i.e. attaching story elements to each scene in the prediction), and a final successful playthrough; so I guess that the game should only take between one and two hours rather than the 5 hours I spent on it. It was entirely my fault that I didn't take in the instructions about the prediction phase properly, but I would suggest a modification to the game to allow the player to display and read them again if desired. Some graphics options to reduce the strain on the GPU would also be very welcome (and would allow more players to experience this lovely game).

Great title, the story is very lighthearted and fun I had a problem with some hitboxes being slightly offsetted to the left

Sehr süß für zwischendurch, buggt bisschen tho

[h2]Story[/h2] You have four days to uncover the events which will lead to the villages downfall. Play as a fortune-teller to read tea leaves, conceive predictions and discuss events with the villagers. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] Follow designs in your guide book to decipher patterns in villagers tea cups as they come to you for insight. Use this to complete your journal of predictions to uncover the mysteries of the village and solve the puzzle. Beautiful graphics and pictures. Reminds me of old paintings, with 3D objects giving an atmospheric experience. Colours are rich, dark and eerie - and each of the characters have their own design charm. No 'copy-paste' people to be seen. Narrative is well-written and easy to follow, and even the text boxes blend perfectly with the environment. The tea leaf puzzle is intriguing, with just the right amount of difficult. If you get stuck you can always use guess work or a guide to allow you to continue through the story. About 1.5-3 hours of gameplay depending on personal pacing. A few issues mainly caused by the fantastic graphics. Pieces don't always load correctly. I had an incidence where a character was a huge white box and the text box was blank, so I couldn't follow the text or move the story along. Crashes from time to time, but the game frequently auto saves. You can close/reopen and everything seems fine. Hit box on text options is tricky, sometimes have to move the mouse until the hit box becomes a shadow to know what is selected. These issues may be worse depending on individual PC settings, but it didn't affect me finishing the game. Following the update from the students who created the game, I am sad to hear that you all have moved onto other projects. I hope you get chance to come back around to the game to execute some fixes. If the changes are implemented, this game could be even more fantastic and would be well-worth paying for. This is a brilliant game that deserves far more recognition, and I hope more people come to download and give it a try. It's great for relaxed gamers, visual novel readers or people who want to experience a little mystery. [i]Join my curator group for similar game recommendations: Group: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/deeryrecs Curator: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45660858/ [/i]

Easy to pick up VN with lots of atmosphere and intrigue.

Très bon jeu malgré quelques bugs mineurs bravo à toute l'équipe

A wonderful cozy game with amazing storytelling and puzzles, a great feat for a school project. Perfect for when you need a break. I did experience a few bugs notably when clicking on the images on the prediction page of the book but with a little persistence I made it work.