Everyone says it so it feels so unoriginal to repeat it, but I gotta. Roadwarden is a better Witcher than the Witcher is. The setting, narrative, the characters. It's all very good low fantasy with critters and swords and quests and lore. Roadwarden's quality is astonishing for a Ren'py game. It's well designed, it's pretty, it's engaging. It's a fantastic visual novel-RPG experience.

It's hard to say much without giving things away. But it's as well written as any fantasy novel I've ever read, it's as engaging as an RPG I've ever played. It's well worth a playthrough or two for any fan of either genre.

Roadwarden is a surprisingly well written text adventure that felt to me like experiencing a visual novel (A genre I have not explored too much yet), the prose striked a great balance, easy to read but complex enough and added great depth to descriptions and was (as should be in a game like this) one of the main reasons the game is as inmersive as it is.

Exploring the unnamed peninsula for the first time is a such a captivating experience, in this fantasy-like yet grounded world that forces you to plan your days ahead if you hope to achieve a good ending for your character. I found myself submerged by the incredible soundtrack and intrigued by the many mysteries of this ruthless region.

I have only played once, and my ending wasn't all that great, but I know there is a lot that I've missed and suspect that the game has a good deal of replayability.

Each place felt unique and had a different story, interesting tasks and many different characters. Conversations felt natural and it felt good to earn the trust of the village leaders.

I will keep the OST in my personal playlist , and hope to come back to unsolve the riddles I left unriddled and get a better ending for the roadwarden.

(https://youtu.be/jbL7C3Ucg_A?si=rgOpJBzWh-UtKcGc)

Roadwarden reminds me a lot of the best parts of what I loved about Disco Elysium and Citizen Sleeper. The richness and diversity of characterizations in all three games makes their comparatively small game worlds feel deep and alive, filled with tons of uniquely memorable characters, and also notably empathetic without needing to be soft or cozy. Amazingly, Roadwarden pulls this off without even giving visual depictions of its characters, relying entirely on thoughtfully written text instead of the notably cool character portraits that Disco and Sleeper have.

Like those other two games, Roadwarden asks you to read a lot, but I’m glad to read as much in any game with similarly evocative detail and a selective word count; nothing ever feels like filler I’m tempted to skip through.

Beyond its great writing, the sparse acoustic soundtrack is beautiful in many different moods; I particularly loved the emotional impact of hearing an area’s background song change after one of the few transformational plot events occurs. The pixel graphic landscapes are just as smart as the writing in what they choose to include, and I love how exploration offers unfolding blankness as choices are made.