Wolves on the Westwind is the latest chapter of the fantasy rpg The Dark Eye. Developed by 'Owned by Gravity and published by 'Ulisses Spiele'.
I'd never heard of The Dark Eye before this game, but apparently it's a big deal in Germany, with over 200 books, tabletop RPGs and digital games released over the last 40 years.
You play the part of either Alrik a warrior， or Nedime a mage as you adventure though the northernmost regions of Aventuria in the customers quest of delivering the lands from a mysterious evil.
While "fantasy" and "RPG" are used a lot, I must make it perfectly clear this is essentially a Visual Novel.
If you're old enough to remember those Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone Fighting Fantasy books, it's pretty much lots of that. (But without leaving your fingers in the previous page in case of unfavorable decision outcomes).
The game is delivered with character cutouts bring brought in and out of backgrounds as dialogue is delivered.
It's extremely text heavy and nothing is voiced.
The art is nice and varies on location but assets start to be noticably reused repeatedly very early on.
The story is very well written and it's pretty engaging from the outset, but frequently punctuated by a lot of pointless dialogue options.
Overall it's a decent visual novel if you want to chill out and read for a while, but definitely more one for the Steam Deck or streaming app.
If you're looking for action, turn based strategy or character progression, this is not the game for you.
Wolves on the Westwind is available now on Steam.
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