Solstice

[owlmoose]

Solstice is the latest game by MoaCube, makers of Cinders. Cinders is one of my favorite indie games, and I've been looking forward to Solstice for quite awhile -- but unlike many of my friends in Cinders fandom, I didn't take advantage of the opportunity to pre-order and get in on a beta. So I know a number of you out there have already played it. Now I can finally join the club, and I'd like to talk about it.

Like Cinders, Solstice has a number of different endings. By judicious use of saves and replaying, starting about halfway through Act Four of five, I was able to see all four of the major ending variants, although I'm missing a number of the variations within each ending (one ending, in particular has only two versions, and so far I've only managed to find one of them). The endings are set up by a fairly pretty fascinating set of twists, and the significant choices are not always the ones you think they're going to be. All of this was true of Cinders as well, but there was one key difference from Cinders: the player's relationship with the viewpoint characters. Cinders was a visual novel, but it also contained elements of an RPG, in that you built Cinders's personality through the choices you made. In contrast, Solstice has two protagonists, and their personalities are not only set from the beginning, much of their backstories and true motivations are kept hidden from you until quite late in the game. Hidden well enough that I'm looking forward to going back and replaying it from the beginning, both to discover the consequences of earlier choices and to see how differently it plays, knowing what I now know.

I'll stop here for now, so as to keep this post free of spoilers, but I'm definitely looking forward to talking more about the game, the characters, and other people's impressions.

Comments

[sarasa_cat]

This is on my too-play list for this month. Not sure when. My life is too busy but I am curious to play it.

[owlmoose]

I'll be curious to hear your thoughts when you do.

[sarasa_cat]

The art looks so pretty and Cinders was so much fun.

How long did it take you to play to the end and then use that clever save to play to some of the other ends?

[owlmoose]

Unfortunately I didn't really keep track of my complete playtime -- i played the first three acts in short bursts over a few nights. But from the key decision point at the end of act three, I'd say it took me 3-4 hours to play through the major ending variants. There's one choice there that allows you to get all four endings, but the content is different and interesting enough that I think it's worth playing all three choices out.

[lea_hazel]

When I get around to it, I'm going to put up a spoilery discussion post on my DW. I feel this game is best discussed with comment threading.

[owlmoose]

I agree, which is why I mainly posted about it here. I wonder if that's why I haven't seen much discussion of it on Tumblr yet?

[lea_hazel]

The tone and style of the game is very different, which tends to inspire a different way for fans to relate. Cinders was a very personal game, not just because it was a romance, either. Solstice is more cerebral and would appeal more to the acafen and the moral philosophers and such. At least, that's my take on it.

[owlmoose]

Hey, if you're still interested in chatting about this game, vieralynn put up a post for discussion. It's here.

[cumuluscastle]

I like it. What I find most interesting is the way there isn't necessarily any 'happy ending.' I also really enjoy all of the characters.

[owlmoose]

I felt that way about the endings, too. I started to call Final Winter the "bad" ending, but is it, really, in the long run? I like that the game makes this an interesting question.

I enjoyed the characters, although I need to play a few more games to get to know some of them better. I barely even spoke to Laura, for one. I did find myself a bit distanced from the protagonists, especially as compared to how connected I felt to Cinders.