Half visible novel, half sports activities administration sport, Curler Drama has plenty of enjoyable and fascinating concepts at its basis. Sadly, only a few of the ideas are executed to their full potential.
Visually, the sport begins brilliantly. It has a definite artwork fashion that fits the subject of the sport. The character designs all have plenty of character to them, providing a variation of physique shapes, backgrounds and aesthetic kinds throughout the crew. Every character appears equally highly effective of their triumphant poses, and convincingly dejected after they lose a match. The settings across the character have a enjoyable cartoony fashion, complimented by funky music.
Curler Drama begins with a light-hearted warning that you simply’re prone to come throughout some darkish humour on this sport. This prepares you solely a bit of bit for the form of story that awaits you.
The gameplay largely takes the type of a visible novel. You play because the coach of the curler derby crew, residing in an enormous shared home with the women on the crew. You start by exploring the home and checking in on every of them, attending to know a bit of bit about them, and constructing the beginnings of your relationship. Each interplay you’ve gotten contributes to your connection to the crew as an entire and to every lady individually. You can too generate connections between the women by successfully facilitating their bonds as buddies.
The story is punctuated by curler derby matches in opposition to different native groups. You start on the backside of the leaderboard and work your means up with every match you win.
These minigames require you to strategise, however don’t really feel absolutely realised. There are alternatives so that you can inform the women how a lot vitality to make use of, instruct them in particular strikes and to make use of boosts that you simply accumulate all through the narrative. However the precise gameplay doesn’t have the pace and aggression you’d anticipate for a sport designed to emulate curler derby. As a substitute, the motion feels gradual and clunky. The birds-eye view of the match removes you from the motion, and never in a means that essentially places you within the footwear of the coach.
Between every spherical, you select phrases of encouragement to inspire the women. That is concerning the extent of the sports activities administration ingredient of the sport, and the choices for what you would possibly say are the identical each time. You possibly can combine and match totally different approaches, however except you’re enjoying a wildly inconsistent character, you’ll seemingly use the identical ones so much.
Equally, after the matches, you host a debrief again on the home. Right here, your dialogue choices are the identical each time. Some dynamic choices right here which might be generated by the alternatives you’ve made earlier than within the story would make this ingredient simpler. Notably as different options of sports activities administration video games (corresponding to managing your crew’s coaching, weight-reduction plan, journey, and many others.) don’t consider a lot in any respect.
The chapters between every match make for one more side of the sport that’s constructed on nice concepts beneath the floor however feels incomplete. The chapters appear distant from one another, and introduce components of the world that don’t fairly match collectively.
They tease a way more fascinating story than you’re concerned in, together with supernatural components in a mysterious dystopian world that takes a again seat to the curler derby minigames. Plenty of probably the most thrilling motion – together with stealing from law enforcement officials and conducting a jailbreak – occurs off-screen. You navigate the dialogue required to plan the heist after which the following dialog after a match is about the way it went off and not using a hitch. It feels such as you’re lacking out on the very best bits.
The true disgrace is that I actually like this idea. The concept that there are thrilling, terrifying, exhilarating issues occurring on the earth round you, however that your precedence is your sports activities sport, feels prefer it may very well be actually enjoyable and will even provide penetrating social commentary. The story is pieced collectively out of clues you decide up by yourself when you’re busy coaching for a match. However for that to be actually efficient, it will require the narrative and the sports activities ingredient to gel much more easily than they do in Curler Drama.
Plenty of creativeness, humour and creativity has gone into the idea behind this sport. Sadly, I don’t suppose the ultimate product lives as much as that potential. I really like the various characters named after Shakespearean heroines, however I wish to really feel a lot extra concerned of their story than this sport permits.