Playing Every Game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
PEGBRJE: ‘Tales from the Road’ and ‘as long as we’re together: magical girls sweet & pure’
Narrative day huh?
Tales from the Road is a ‘furry interactive fiction’ (FIF?) created by ‘iforgotmybrain’. Players will find themselves in a precarious position that many of us are all too familiar with; uncertain of what to do with their life, and questioning where they are even going.
After selecting a name, a gender, and one of the four species, players will step in to the shoes of this individual and begin their day. As with interactive fiction works, players will read through the musings of the protagonist before selecting one of the bolded words to progress the story. From here players will meet their two roommates Sasha and Jacob (yes it was confusing) who are also going about their day.
Initially the conversations are light and trivial, as one would expect small talk between roommates just passing by in the afternoon might be, but as the days and chapters go on players have the option to discuss more important matters. Many decisions are final, so aligning personal interests with narrative ones is always key.
This is all relatively typical for what many may expect from an interactive fiction, but as always it is the subject matter that drives it home the most. Burnout and a lack of direction in the world is a very common occurrence for many graduates, and I am no exception. Finding a place in the world that only grows more complex and nuanced is hard, even more so when disillusioned by the chosen place of work post-graduation.
The player’s character hated working for their company and got out after a year, but is now stuck with the opposite problem of uncertainty. There’s the allure of consistency that many may gravitate to, leading to people to stay in things just for that sake, but that does not need to be everyone.
It’s at the beginning of chapter 2 that the protagonist is given a small nugget of an idea, to travel the country and see what is out there. Whether that is possible or smart is debatable, but the brainworm is now there for the protagonist and it plans on staying.
I could continue talking about the story and its characters, but as with all interactive fiction overviews I’m inclined to leave a lot of the details vague; defeats the purpose of recommending a book if I explain the entire plot, no?
Now I can say that what makes Tales from the Road so enjoyable is in its prose; specifically how straightforward it is. Conversations flow smoothly thanks to the style of ‘protagonist just explains what they are saying, other characters are in quotations’ — there’s probably a word for that.
Some may have reservations due to it being a ‘furry interactive fiction’ but — to the surprise of no one — it doesn’t change the fact that they are just people trying to find their way in life. Picking a species has some aesthetic changes that will show up in the chapters, and being a dragon is cool, but you don’t need to be ‘in with the community’ to understand the struggles that each of the characters are going through. Give it a read and you’ll see.
PS. There’s even music! I don’t normally get music in my interactive fictions, so I’m happy.
As Long As We’re Together: magical girls sweet & pure is a short narrative created by cloverfirefly, an inie dev in the United States. Players will be following Faith, a shy girl who is also a magical girl named Sweet, as she attempts to convince her friend to stop being brainwashed. A friend who just so happens to also be a magical girl.
Players will read through the narrative to set up the conflict as Sweet finds herself fighting off her friend Pure — also known as Lucy — who appears to be controlled by an external force. To break her free, Sweet begins to reminisce on the moments that they’ve had together, from when Faith and Lucy first met to Faith remembering when she first actually saw Lucy.
Each of these memories is actually a choice for the player, as they are given three cards to choose between in order to ‘set’ the past. There are three combinations of memories total, meaning that there are dozens of combinations that can be found to showcase just how they met and what brought them together.
It’s a simple idea, and the endings sem to always be the same, but the point is to see how friends came together and what keeps them together. It’s short and sweet, barely clocking in past 10 minutes, but that is only on one run; if you want to see the others, then you’ll get to witness different ways friends can be friends. If you like soft palettes and friendship, this might be a good game to grab.
