HomeNews
Windy Meadow, out now, is a delightful smalltown fable from the world of RoadwardenExperience a single village through the eyes of several characters
Experience a single village through the eyes of several characters
Image credit:Assemble Entertainment
Image credit:Assemble Entertainment
Moral Anxiety’sWindy Meadow- which actually dates back to before development of Roadwarden, but has been substantially remastered since the latter’s release - essentially narrows the focus to one of those villages. Out today, it’s a quietly gorgeous visual novel in which you follow several characters in different timeframes, building up a layered understanding of one and the same setting, with scene transitions plotted on a beautiful pixelart map screen.Windy Meadow - A Roadwarden Tale | Release TrailerWatch on YouTube
Windy Meadow - A Roadwarden Tale | Release TrailerWatch on YouTube
Windy Meadow - A Roadwarden Tale | Release Trailer
I’ve played through two chapters - one stars a young huntress who is weighing up whether to travel to the big city, while another is the story of a disabled man who is training to be a bard - and am having a wonderful time. The absence of Roadwarden’s RPG elements is deflating at first, but there’s a similar wit to the execution of certain visual novel mechanics. Each character gets their own version of the codex, for instance, which can be accessed using rollover tool-tips for highlighted text in dialogue. There’s no one-size-fits-all description of every last person or place in Windy Meadow. As in Roadwarden, it depends who you’re talking to.
How do you want to handle your sister’s back-biting - in silence or with harsh words of your own? Should you indulge in small-talk with a candle-maker you’re helping out, or ask more personal questions that might offend him? And then there are conversations that offer windows on the game’s wider setting, Viaticum. I’m especially enjoying learning to be a bard. What kinds of story do I want to tell, as a professional lore peddler, and where should I seek them out?
The new version of Windy Meadow isavailable now on Steam. There’s a demo, if your curiosity has been piqued.
