PREVIEW : The Girl of Glass (PC)
The Girl of Glass: A Summer Bird’s Tale is an upcoming game that combines three genres: point-and-click adventure gameplay, visual novel storytelling, and turn-based combat. A free demo is available now, providing players with a slice of the game’s beginning, although it mentions ahead of time that this is not necessarily the way the full game will begin. Nevertheless, it gives us an idea of what the gameplay and story will be like.
The demo begins at a circus where Kristal, a girl made of glass, works for the performers despite longing to leave. The circus itself has fallen on hard times and is in the risk of being shut down, in part due to the strict reign of the tyrannical hawk who rules the land. A boy arrives at the circus and says he was looking for Kristal, offering to take her with him when he goes. Kristal asks for some time to think about whether or not she should accept, and then the game begins.
Much of it plays like a traditional point-and-click adventure game. You click on a spot to have Kristal walk there, inspect objects in the environment and talk to other characters, and solve inventory-based puzzles with items you find. Narration provides a glimpse into Kristal’s thoughts in a visual novel style approach, and conversation with other characters frequently gives you dialogue choices.
Right now, it’s hard to say what tone the story is going for. Some parts feel serious, such as when you learn about the Resistance fighting back against the eagle, but there is a strange sense of humour present throughout the demo as well. When Kristal encounters a cat trying to kill a pigeon, the narration comments that of course cats can’t talk, but if they could, this is probably what the conversation would sound like, after which point the cat’s dialogue is given like any other character’s. After an argument between Kristal and the cat, the first tutorial battle begins.
The combat system itself has some interesting ideas, especially as more features are introduced in the demo’s later battles. In addition to your basic attack and defend commands, you also have a “focus” option that lets you attack twice on the next turn. Each character also has an energy meter. If you’re hit by an attack you’re weak to, you lose energy in addition to health. When your energy runs out, you spend a turn unable to move and vulnerable to critical attacks. Of course, the same also applies to enemies, so you want to exploit their weaknesses while defending your own. Another layer of strategy is added when you have multiple characters in your party since you can switch places from the front row to the back and use regular or ranged attacks accordingly.
Finally, the last battle of the demo introduces the most interesting aspect of combat. Kristal finds herself up against an opponent she has no hope of beating, so she uses her “power” to negotiate with him. Between each turn, you’re given a dialogue choice, and you need to pick the correct options to make the enemy stand down. Since this is supposed to be Kristal’s special ability, hope it’s used in a variety of interesting ways in the full game.
The Girl of Glass has an intriguing story premise and interesting gameplay ideas, but if there’s one problem it has right now, it’s that everything feels slow. Kristal walks slowly from place to place, with no way to quickly move to a new area. Combat is slow even for a turn-based RPG, and the frequent pauses for dialogue between turns drag everything out longer. However, that might be because all of the battles in the demo are tutorials, so here’s hoping the pace is a little faster in the rest of the game.
The demo for The Girl of Glass: A Summer Bird’s Tale will leave you curious about the story and interested in how it will make the most of its hybrid gameplay mechanics. The full game is set to be released this summer.
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