Signs of the Sojourner (2020)

way I played it: punchy and effective communication of an idea; the things you learn away from home change you, but home doesn't change; or, rather, home changes on different timescales; "change" means something else on the road; travelers and homebodies may experience the same upheavals, but they are experienced differently. like an inverse the world's end, you can't go home again, not because home is different, but because it's where you're from and not where you're going. all communicated with simple conversation-tree-slash-deckbuilding gameplay, where everybody speaks with certain types of cards, and to speak with them you need compatible cards, and the only way to collect one town's cards is by discarding those that work in other towns. and, on the road, the town you least need to stay conversant in is home.

makes this point in a tight 4 hours, bing bang boomgoink.

now, others have definitely played it otherly. it lends itself to being replayed. there were towns I never visited, subplots I blew by attempting them before I had the requisite parlance, mysteries only partially uncovered. and, on replays, I'm sure you can strategize, learn to balance your deck, know which cards to always keep hold of so you can talk to people back home, which runs along the route should focus on which towns so you can prep, specialize, and then discard in time to get back. this is a loop-game, where an individual game involves multiple "runs" (here: months where you travel with a caravan along a trade route), but also one that invites you to play again and again, that has more than can be experienced in a single round, even a perfectly-played one.

I don't think I'll be doing that. I got it the first time! and I've done a few of these already - most obviously roadwarden, but there's also 80 days, dreams in the witch house after a fashion (hell, I even made one) - and this one intrigued me with its message but less so with its world. I do not need to travel these roads again. the characters, setting, milieu, they all worked (for me) as supplements to a theme. and that theme was communicated, rather effectively, in a single run. I imagine more would be teased out by repeats, but I find none of the characters/settings/milieus compelling enough to take another look.

and that's fine! it's a good game, brent. if it clicks with you, you might wanna go round again. roadwarden, I wanted another go. dreams in the witch house, I gave it two. (technically three if you count the one where I went mad and died.) 80 days? several! signs of the sojourner... I got it in one.

Signs of the Sojourner is so ludonarratively harmonious. One of the best examples of all time, an absolutely brilliant design. I'm replaying it for the first time since maybe 2020, 2021, somewhere in there, and it still slaps. It's a story about how interacting with other people and the world changes a person, and the gameplay reflects that in the most comprehensive, thought-provoking, and beautiful way.

Signs of the Sojourner is up there with Outer Wilds as one of the greatest games of all time.

I got this in the Itch.io Racial Justice bundle https://itch.io/b/520/bundle-for-racial-justice-and-equality but HOLY SHIT is this worth getting on its own!

The visuals are simple and charming. The score is evocative and fitting. The writing is top-notch. The characters are interesting. The gameplay is simple to understand. But what makes it so special is how everything blends together so seamlessly to make a wholly unique experience!

To explain why this game works requires more than learning to play the actual game. It is about communication almost like CRPGS but instead of being purely stat and RNG driven it is loosely a "deck builder".

You have a limited deck/vocabulary to use to "talk" using a hand of 5 cards to a wide range of people and you must always add or subtract cards. You can never build a perfect deck. Besides debuffs you acrue from fatigue, you will find yourself unable to express yourself in every situation.

This is the most realistic representation of the flow and frustration of talking I have ever seen in a videogame! Another way to describe it is, if you have ever had a fight with someone you care about where you want to be understood but nothing you say is working and understanding is something you cannot reach in the moment... that is this whole game!

There are no meaningless interactions, everything matters! Every conversation can be innocuous but also every conversation can feel like a boss battle. Because you HAVE TO pick up a new card and drop one in your deck with every conversation, every chat matters! It never got overbearing but the game is FULL of tension while I played.

Anyway, there is a bunch of replayability because if you want to see everyone's story you need to focus on different "cards". My first playthrough was about 5 hours but it can be much shorter I just happened to be "on the road" as long as possible the first time.

Anyway, my favourite videogame I have played in a LONG time!