This is a good, down-to-earth, visual novel that is beleiveable.
I must warn you that this is not an anime-visual novel that's abundant out there. This visual novel has a decent believeable plot with none of cliche characters based on an alternative colonial era.

I feel this visual novel is for mostly adults or mature teen.

You have no powerful heroes here; just human beings trying to make their lives work in a way or another.

Which is what a drama is all about.

A strong game held back by a weak, confusing opening.

This game has a lot of strong points. The graphics and 3D style are fantastic. Beautiful and unique. I've never played anything that looks and feels quite like it. The soundtrack is fantastic, and is nicely integrated into the main story.

The only negative thing I have to say about it is that it really does flub the opening. The game opens with a confusing sequence that doesn't really offer you anything to grab on to, and once that ends, you're dumped into a sequence that hints that the entire game will be some sort of a dry, retconed, alternate history that projects modern progressive values back onto the year 1851. Making progress past all that feels like a bit of a slog, and doesn't give the player much reason to assume the entire game won't be more of the same. But when the story finally gets moving, it REALLY gets moving. You can actually feel the first moment when something interesting happens, because it's so striking. "Wait, what? Does that mean what I think it means?" From then on out, the game is SOLID.

In fact, from then on out, the game moves so smoothly that the next thing you'll think to complain about is the cliffhanger at the end, as we wait for the conclusion.

In summary, you should absolutely play this if you're a fan of point & click adventure games with a strong story. Just be prepared to give this one a very generous chance to get moving. It will, if you let it.

It seems that, in Herald, I am everyman and every woman. The script draws us in to experience the motives & thoughts of each character. The narrative, characterizations, art, & voice acting are incredibly well done.

Gameplay Mechanics:
The game plays out via simple p&c mechanics, where you use a mouse click to move through the ship. Controller options have recently been patched in, and are still being tweaked. The narrative is revealed in textboxes, where in parts it is just dialogue advanced by clicks, interspersed with sets of choices. Dialog is followed by cutscenes that are enjoyable and advance the story. I never got bored even after multiple games. The save system is convenient, making it possible to reload the chapter if you feel you made bad choices.

Graphics & Sound:
The soundtrack is lovely! One particularly haunting tune that appears in the theme is played on the piano by a character in one scene, who sings the words. This means a soundtrack would definitely be a plus.
Even with a good machine, the framerate never went above 30 fps for me. I felt like this was intentional, as it creates a not quite slow-mo effect, lending a dramatic flair to each scene. If lower framerates bother you, this may not be the game for you.
Most of the animations were done well, if simply. Most character movements seem true. There is one point where a character walks through a door, and then the irritating movements of the doctor helping a patient. Almost comical, the doc’s eyebrow moves side to side in one conversation. But, in most other scenes, it is almost entrancing to see that simple can be elegant.

Where Herald Succeeds & Fails with Choices:

Mystery/ Foreshadowing Herald is a mystery in its whole. At this point, only the 1st 2 books are released, so there is much to work with here and the writers seem to have taken full advantage of that, succeeding in every account.
✔ There is a revealer in the final scene of the 2nd book that changes what you thought you knew in very early scenes. This leaves you with a cliff hanger of sorts.
✔ Even multiple play-throughs add to and expand your opinions of different characters. Some things are never answered for us, but we are left to form our own opinions.
✔ Some apparent mysteries are left open at the end, hinted at only by shadows and shapes in the artwork.
✔ Ultimately, characters are left to being human with various interpretations of their behavior still being available after several replays.

Complexity of Choice
I rate the choice in Herald a solid 8 out of 10. I played Choice of Robots, an excellent choice game that was totally text-based. I would rate that as a perfect 10, because your choices changed everything. The choice web was intricate, creating literally hundreds of outcomes. But, games like Firewatch, which I also loved but would rate a 5, presented only cosmetic changes with the choices. The players were all drawn back into the original plot line at collection points, so that ultimately your choices did not really change the story in Firewatch.
✔ In Herald, there is one story. The narrative rules as a mystery which you will reveal over the course of not only these current 2 books, but future books. But, your choices can affect the interplay of characters, and the outcome of scenes, and the appearance of different dialog trains. Information which you have not revealed is not later available in a conversation.
✘ Many decisions often affect only that immediate tier, and sometimes only in the emotional feel of the dialog. For example, whether you offer to do Ian's job for him or not, you get to do it. Regardless of how you respond to the Rani in the prologue, the results are the same. And, with the captain, navigator, & senator, I was accused of taking so long whether I stalled or took the direct text options.
✔ Numerous choices can change whether a character lives, dies, or is in the brig. Some characters can appear earlier in a scene, or in the place of another character, if your responses change. Interestingly, if you choose to start at the scripted start of the 2nd book, instead of in the 1st, I discovered that the script goes with the option of no characters being dead.
✘ No choice seems to have an effect beyond its immediate scene, with the exception of whether certain players exist or not. Because of this & the save system, it is possible to exit to the menu and restart a book multiple times, to get multiple achievies at once. Basically, some crucial decisions will pop one of 3 different achievements. No achievement requires more than one scene’s set of responses to resolve, with the possible exception of Mad Discourtesy, which requires probably 2 scene’s answers.

Replayability
✔ Despite the save/ reload ability, multiple playthroughs will probably be needed to get all achievements. Also, you won’t get all info in the mystery without at least 3 plays. My 1st play took about 8 hours, with reading everything, even the letters that are unlocked at the end and the credits. The 2nd play took 4 hours, still reading choices and popping some achievements. After that, additional plays took about a half hour per book with skipping dialog & quick choices. So, after experiencing everything the story has to offer thus far… in every nuance, I have almost 16 hours.

Dev Support
✔ The dev team has made the art available in the trading card collectables.
✔ A large collection of concept art was made available free in earlier release notes. They don’t seem to be attempting to monetize every bit of data, as many devs are doing.
✔ They are responding quickly to comments and or email.

Suggestions for Improvement:
1. The log is helpful in-game, but access to what you’ve accumulated after the game would be a great addition to the menu.
2. Voice acting could be added for the letter collections in the menu. (Only half of them seem to pop after these first two books.)
3. Having musical options & even a musical library in the menu, as with the letter archive, would be even better. Alternately, a soundtrack would be a plus.


UPDATE:
I contacted Wispfire with some questions, & got a detailed response from the writer, Roy van der Schilden. I wanted to pass along a few of those details here.
• Lady Tabatha’s song, Vows, was composed by Bart Delissen. He composed all Herald’s music, as well as music for other games like Verdun. The writer wrote the lyrics for Vows, as well as directing the voice-over work.
• Herald is an indie title. This is the writer & artist’s 1st commercial game, though they have done a number of theatre productions.
• The plan is to release books III & IV as a bundle, but that could change.
• The target framerate is 30fps, to create an overall cinematic experience, as well as being a bit lighter on hardware.
• Composer Bart Delissen’s game music can be sampled here.[bartdelissen.com]
• Aida de Ridder gives more info on the art here.[heraldgame.tumblr.com]

While a fun, thrilling and interactive choices-matter visual matter which has well developed characters and an intriguing plot...the game is incomplete and ends without warning. The game was released in 2017 and has not been updated since 2021 - nor are there any news of upcoming changes. Thus, a tad disappointing for the price for a game that is not fully complete and barely finished within 2 hours.

No manual save, no save on exit.
So, either you only ever exit immediately after reaching a checkpoint (apparently, at the end of each sub-chapter?.. so at any point of time you have no idea how far it is), or you play through all dialogues again, which is ridiculous and not fun at all.
Too bad, seemed promising.

This review is for Book 1 & 2, as Book 3 & 4 have yet to be released.

This story takes place on a ship named The Herald, in an alternate historical timeline, during the mid-1800s. Perhaps they wanted to highlight how horrendous the British Empire was for all their means of colonization, but without directly naming Great Britain? Or perhaps it's a criticism of colonization all together, as the colonization of parts of Central America (or "New Spain") is mentioned as well. A large aspect of the story revolves around indigo trade, which was literally subsidized with slavery (of Native Americans and black people) and cheap labor (by Colonial India). Though the story doesn't name India directly, it is heavily implied that that's where the protagonist and the other main character are from. A newspaper clipping speaks of revolts in the colonies, which specifically did happen in Colonial India. Though it isn't mentioned in the story, in reality, the British government slaughtered countless people in India in order to suppress the uprising. Meanwhile, throughout the story, non-white characters deal with subtle or passive racism from their white colleagues.

As the story is yet to be finished, I don't have full thoughts developed on the story as a whole, but I did enjoy this first half of it. It also has a really interesting plot twist. I like historical fiction, so I recommend it to anyone else that does as well.

Herald is how I want more narrative-focussed games to be like. The writing is excellent, the world-building is top notch, but most prominent of all: the game is extremely well paced. No meandering, no filler gameplay, no plot-jamming characters. This gives the game a forward momentum that makes you want to finish the two episodes in one sitting.

Regarding gameplay: it is much more of a story-telling based game than, say, a point-and-click adventure. Expect to find the challenge in making decisions in the storyline (which can be quite challenging!) than within puzzles. This game is for people interested in roleplaying & interactive storytelling.

The biggest downsides are that the visual style may need some getting used to & some of the voice acting of some of the side-characters sound odd in compare to the main characters. Because the game relies on telling a story based on your choices, you may occasionally encounter a plottwist and only then realise you didn't gain the full picture before.

Besides this, I do wish to highlight some other aspects too: The feeling of the setting is communicated quite well through some really good directing and audio work. The ship feels like a ship, especially when things get a bit more tense (and things do get tense!).

An semi-obligatory disclaimer: I was a kickstarter backer and I played the DRM-free version. Back then I backed a few other games which turned into mostly disappointments (I'm rather picky with games that claim to have good stories or narratives). So while I appreciated the intention of the creators, I was a little more than sceptic when I started playing. It feels good to be proven wrong.

The game takes place in an alternate history where 1800's Europe and its colonies are unified under a single republican government, the Protectorate.

You play Devan, a young man in search of identity and adventure as you set out to sea towards the lands of the east where you born, but never got to experience. Along the way, you'll make choices that affect events not unlike recent Telltale games. Be prepared to encounter some weighty topics like colonialism, racism, feminism, and classism.

Animations are very stilted and robotic, but the hand-drawn artstyle still manages to bring everything to life. The voice acting is also top notch and gives the characters some real, well, character.

As only Books I and II are released as of this review, be prepared for a very short game with a "to be continued" ending. Books III and IV will be released at some point in the future to conclude the story.

Overall, worth the $10 I paid and I'm looking forward to the final two episodes.

A story that got more interesting just in time, as I was starting to get bored. It is a mostly linear and straight-forward point and click. The art and animations are somewhere near, if not in, the Uncanny Valley but that did not take away from enjoying and interacting with the story.

My first play-through took about 3 hours, and additional play-throughs are necessary for all achievements (if that is your thing).

A captain makes his own rules out at sea.
I have to admit that history is not one of my strong subjects. For the most part I know the series of events and the main people involved but not exact dates of everything . And when most of our questions, both multiple choice and essay, have us pinpoint an exact date it does not go well for me. Despite this I love period pieces. Especially with the amount of research that goes into it and how it shows. Hearing possible ways the world would of been if certain events did not play out as they did is even more interesting, especially since there is a history book that is dedicated to showcasing it. With Herald: An Interactive Period Drama being alternative history, I just had to play through it.

Today we go back to an alternative 19th century in the shoes of a young man named Devan Rensburg. Opening up to him being in the hands of a mysterious woman who introduced herself as The Rani. Who, of which, also seemed to of saved him from drowning. Directing Devan to recount his story from his journal and why he is wearing the Protectorate blue captain coat. Not only paving a way for us to have an intro to the story but the structure the inner narrative will be from Devan. We do spend most of our time in Devan’s retelling. Being aboard the merchant ship HLV Herald with the help of the second officer, Aaron Ludlow, hand selecting him and eventually track down his parents when they get back on land.

As most of Devan’s surroundings is either the boat or the ocean it is not surprising we are around the same characters and slowly introduced to the different parts of the boat. Luckily the characters are strong enough to carry this weight. You get the sense of every character and you know they each have their own pasts. And with this having choices on what you can say, you also sculpt how Devan is. Is he one for change, does he become concerned, will he help others?

Not only are characters deep but they have great art and voice actors behind them. Each character had a great choice in a voice actor and I did not leave dissatisfied by any of the performances. When the characters talk a 2d drawing of them is put on screen, leaving the 3d model to do the body movement and not worry about facial expression. The art they show is great as well, with a little animation added, to show various expressions. And trust me some are hilarious.

I do like how they decided to do the conversation choices on the boat. We get the usual wording in The Rani scenes but we get more of “I decided to…” on the boat. It’s something little, but it goes in line with him recounting it to The Rani. This also goes into his narration on the various objects you can inspect. Doing it more as telling The Rani rather than thinking about what he saw. There is undoubtedly no way he can remember everything but they do balance it out somewhat with Devan’s journal. I can only assume our first tab, mostly used to tell you your objectives, would be more towards a diary deal. With the second tab just being quick notes and backstories on various subjects such as items and people, and the last tab being the map of the HLV Herald. Though the map is a tad confusing.

A huge thing with games giving you choice is how it handles them, with Telltale games commonly being brought up in this aspect. With Herald: An Interactive Period Drama, most of the decisions made have immediate, or almost immediate, consequences. Only some choices having a more long term consequence that will come into play in the last two books. And as of now they do seem like these decisions matter, especially with how the characters will probably react later on. Of course there are plot points it has to hit no matter what, but you still get some choices around those that do hold some significance. Some even are brought up as little jabs showing that characters will remember what you say.

This also focuses more on telling a story rather than the usual point and click aspect plays into the game as well. Bringing in more of a relaxed experience. Letting us look at the environment and focus on the characters and the story. There is really no challenge, other than finding your way around the boat, and most of your interactions other than with characters will be walking through the environments and giving items to various characters. The 3d world is somewhat lacking in terms of the character models, but they do try, and succeed, at filling the ship realistically. Also compensating with their soundtrack at the right times. If it was not for the 3d world we walk in, I would say this would be a visual novel.

One of the things I do wish is for the autosave to be brought to attention as I did not know if the game saved or not till I looked it up. I do totally get why as your choices seem more set in stone, but I wish it told you that it will autosave at every chapter. I do also wish we got more than three save slots. As we are eventually getting the last half, there are multiple combinations I can see happening and setting one down makes me reluctant to restart if I have all three slots filled. The replayability is there, but there are only a few save slots to use.

Even though the whole story has not been revealed to us yet, I do think the plot twist we were given at the end of book two happened too early. You can kind of tell the hints that supported it after you find out, but I think the want to know how Devan got to wearing a captain’s coat, how he ended up floating in the ocean, and other things that happened at the end of book two. With book three and four still to be announced, time will only tell how the reveal is handled and if it still seems too early.

+ Voice acting
+ Art
+ Well written plot and characters

+/- 3d models can be better
+/- Inspecting using a controller can be annoying as some items are so small one flick can go past the hit box

Herald: An Interactive Period Drama only contains the first two books out of the planned four, but even without this the experience seems like a full one. Everything is smoothly handled and nothing seems like they were trying to pad out the game with meaningless objectives or conversations. I do hope for the rest of the story to be released soon and highly recommend this.