A tedious and boring game. I give a thumbs up for the very nice hand drawn scenes of the game. That has obviously had a lot of work put into it.
A pity that the game mechanics, the story and reliability of the game was not.
It's not clear when the next chapter is or if you've even completed it. Riddles, on the second play through, had disappeared.
I was even hoping I'd get to the end of this dragging story but I just lost all patience on it.
Nothing but hollow and superficial dialogue and fights with a gang, over and over and over again.
Nice pictures, shame about the game.

I am fine with dark themes and villainous characters, but the writing was lazy (being offensive as possible to signpost who the bad guys were) and the game play mechanics were never explained and made very little sense, not intuitive at all.

Project Pastorate had some cool ideas and themes that just need a lil but more love to be truly amazing.

Pros:
- Unique card system for interactions
- Decent Story
- Nice Art

Cons:
- Ran into a couple boot up issues that seemed odd
- The battle system is not necessarily consistent
- no real tutorial for some of the mechanics.

It's not a bad game and once the battle system is finessed I look forward to investing more time in the game. I give it 3/5 card reactions.

I wish there was a middle ground between a thumbs-up and a thumbs-down, but my verdict would lean towards not recommending it at least for now.

The story has a lot of potential, and have lots of parallels to the real world, The problem is the presentation could've been a lot better. The game is essentially a visual novel with a turn-based card game combat, yet it's both below par, A compelling narrative still needs an exciting style if not gameplay for it to work. I hope this get addressed in the next episodes if it's still in development.

Project Pastorate is a bit of a wasted potential.
I like the art style and the "religious dystopia" setting the devs are aiming for is something I find appealing. The audio fits the scenes perfectly and the writing is mostly fine, with only minor errors here and there. Unfortunatelly, the game suffers from its (supposedly) episodic nature.
The characters are quite shallow and even though they do have hints of personalities, they aren't given enough space to properly express themselves and some of their dialogues feel forced (like that time Vinnie talks about his marriage). The story starts off well enough and shows us that there's something much bigger going on in the background, but it doesn't take the time to go deeper, to explore the plot twists and show us more of the world. And then the ending makes it feel like we just barely scratched the surface.

That's the problem with episodic games. You just don't get the full experience until all the episodes are out (and it doesn't look like we're getting another episode of Project Pastorate anytime soon). Chances are that if this was a full-fledged game with a deeper, finished story, I'd be writing a positive review right now.

There is no real in-game menu to speak of and pressing ESC quits to desktop. This is something I'm personally becoming quite allergic to. Menu screens, please! An option to adjust the text speed would be convenient, too. There are separate sliders for music volume and SFX volume though, which I appreciate.
Then there is the combat. Good idea, not-so-good execution. The combat is a minigame where an enemy plays a card, then you have to play the correct card in response. Sometimes, it's intuitive: for example, the enemy plays a "Hostage" card, you play a "Negotiation" card. Other times, you just have to guess what the developer had in mind, like when the enemy plays a "Chain Whip" card and you're supposed to know that the correct answer is "Hold the Line". You can only make one mistake during this minigame, the second mistake means you're dead (note that the minigames can be skipped).

Also, I have a problem with some of the features listed on the store page:
Lifelike dialogue? Close, but not quite.
Enthralling battle system? Depends, but the word "enthralling" might be too strong.
Unique puzzles? No. There are four completely irrelevant riddles that you can (but don't have to) solve and that are in no way related to what is going on in the game.
Multiple endings depending on your moral choices? No. The only "choice" you can make is whether you want to be rude or friendly on two occasions. This doesn't affect anything, there are no consequences and no multiple endings.

All in all, Project Pastorate isn't something you should avoid like the plague, but do keep in mind that the game isn't what it seems from the store page, and that there might never be more episodes.

This review was brought to you on behalf of Abyssal Ascent Reviews in collaboration with its developer(s). If you liked it, please Follow the Curator and Join its group. Thanks!

Project Pastorate is an interesting little point & click mystery/almost movie-style game where you must figure out who murdered a high ranking clergyman. The idea is that everything and everyone is subservient to the Pastorate guy at the top. One of his top guys got knocked off, so it's your job, along with your "corrupt" boss and partner in the mystery, to figure out the mess, and where the culprit is. The story is pretty good so far overall, as it will be episodic, or have some future releases.

So far, the development of the story has been pretty well done. I felt as though it was like a film in a way. Very thrilling dialogue, albeit super "colorful" language - warning to those who are not into graphic wordings! You *will* see some very disgusting dialogue, so not for the faint of heart in that area. It's got a nice little story though. You have these scenes during the storyline where you have to enter combat. The battle scenes are really interesting!

It's set up like cards, and you have the one attack from the fighter who comes after you. After seeing it, you have five choices to make and you grab a card from those five, and move it to the center below the attacker card. Either it matches up and works, or it does not. Depending on which way it goes, either you take damage, or your assailant does. There seems to be one right choice for each type of attack. You have to get used to it and figure it out through trial and error. If you mess up twice, death and a repeat of the scene, until figuring it out or getting the right flow of cards to win the fight overall. Usually there are about three battles, each taking more rounds of dropping appropriate cards to finish off as you defeat one attacker and move to the next.

It was engaging, and there were only two spots with choices, I believe. I didn't replay it to see if the other choices would change anything, but you also have to answer a riddle at one point if you see this gold puzzle piece appear around a certain scene. I must have missed one, since the achievement didn't pop, but it added another small layer of interest into the game.



The music felt like it fit the mood. There were also some nice sound effects during the battle scenes. Little things like that made the game better than it would've been, so the attention to detail impressed me.

Battle system was unique and fun for me. I liked trying to figure out matching various attacks from the angry mobs with my own counterattack/defense cards out of the five to choose from each time.

Story-driven. Very very nicely done. I like where this is going! Hats off to the development on all their efforts here. I played it all in one run, basically.

The graphics are unique and I enjoyed all the various scenes. Some were repeated, like for certain battles, but all in all it was very cool!



My quick load went to Russian after changing it to English at first... so maybe something to fix there, or simply a glitch I ran into the only time I tried loading.

It has a lot of text, so those who don't like this kind of thing may want to avoid it.

It can be repetitive, since the battle system is very similar, and you will repeat it over and over as you continue the story.

I don't really know if any choices mattered, but it would have been nice to see some slight variations!

I ended up losing a lot during the battles. It was hard to figure out certain combinations, and then remembering what I had or hadn't tried.

I don't believe I used a controller for the game. Adding that feature would be nice I think. Not super necessary, but I always enjoy extra options.

Like I mentioned with choices, it's linear, but it's still very interesting as you continue through the completion of the first episode.



My final thoughts? A word of caution in that it's very word-heavy, so be prepared to read some! If you want total action, not the best game for you. Still, the story was quite entertaining, I felt. This is a really decent work in progress. I am looking forward to seeing more!

For the price of $2.99 I think it's pretty fair overall. On sale a definite steal that's worth looking at for those interested in a slightly different take than the usual point & click or novelesque style of game. If you like mysteries, and the combat system seems like it would be fun for you to try out, I highly recommend trying this. I was surprised more than I thought I'd be. It's a good game!

This kinetic visual novel with mystery and thriller by PsyRob features a pair of Devoters Leonard Pinterro and Vinnie Boyd in the fictitious province of Phlox. Phlox is part of a secluded island nation of The League that is ruled by The Pastor. The Devoters are special investigators tasked with investigating serious crimes that might be beyond the abilities of the guards.

Amidst the backdrop of a restive mining community, psylos addiction and seemingly unconcerned goverment officials in Phlox, the murder of the Prefect of Phlox at the slums has led Leonard and Vinnie to be called to investigate the murder by the guard. As Leonard and Vinnie investigate the reasons behind the murder, they will battle multiple groups of gangsters and agitated miners, and also befriend Pin, a psylos junkie as an informant.

As an episodic visual novel, the first episode of this visual novel features a Velvet book that describes more about the various terms and locations used in the game to provide more immersion into the story. It also has card battles and puzzles that are both optional and can be skipped.

In terms of achievements, it requires winning every card battle without skipping and solving 4 different riddles and IQ puzzles. The card battle is difficult at first, as it can be difficult to figure out or to guess an appropriate card to counter an opponent's card initially. Then it becomes repetitive with the same artwork portrait of the same enemies as there are only two types of enemies and they use almost similar cards throughout. Thankfully, the background music during the card battle is sufficiently stirring enough to try and play through all card battles until the Brawler achievement is unlocked.

The first episode ends at a major plot twist and an unfinished ending where Leonard and Vinnie make a startling discovery and they decide to take a different approach in their investigation. Although this game only has the first episode for now, I would still recommend this game when it is at discount as the first episode with all achievements can be completed in around a couple of hours and the game has nice artwork. Hope this game will have Steam trading cards and a next episode in future.

Игра была получена по программе взаимодействия с кураторами. Чтобы видеть больше наших обзоров, подпишитесь: True Reviews

Плюсы:
- приятная картинка и звук;
- история довольно занятная.

Минусы:
- слабый геймплей, который состоит из небольших неинтерактивных текстовых отрезков и повторяющейся боевой системы. К слову, боевая система изначально выводила меня из себя (к счастью, ее можно пропустить). Помогло использование готовой инструкции;
- в углу мигает значок пазла, нажав на который, появляется загадка. Говорят, что раньше эта загадка была полноценным элементом геймплея, а затем ее убрали, так как люди сталкивались с проблемой прохождения игры из-за нее. В данный момент, она выглядит атавизмом, который следовало бы совсем убрать;
- момент перехода между сценами очень долгий, это слегка раздражает;
- сильно не хватает раскрытия бэкграунда. Лор смеси средневековья, советской и современной эстетики выглядит неплохо, но по ходу сюжета он с трудом описан.

Возможно и хотелось бы поставить положительную оценку, но когда общее впечатление на равных частях состоит из положительных и негативных моментов, это сделать затруднительно.

• Геймплей: 4
  
• Графика: 7
  
• Звук и музыка: 7
  
• Интерфейс и управление: 5
  
• Новизна: 6
  
• Рейтинг: 6

The game was given via curator connect. If you want to see more of our reviews, subscribe: True Reviews English Edition

Pros:
- nice picture and sound;
- the story is quite entertaining.

Cons:
- weak gameplay, which consists of small non-interactive text segments and a repetitive combat system. By the way, the combat system initially made me mad (fortunately, you can skip it). The use of ready-made instructions helped me to move forward;
- the puzzle icon flashes in the corner and the riddle appears by clicking on it. It was said that this riddle before was a full-fledged element of the gameplay and then it was removed, because people faced the problem of passing the game because of it. At the moment, it looks like an atavism that should be completely removed;
- the moment of transition between scenes is very long, it is slightly annoying;
- there's a lack of disclosure of the background. A lore of a mixture of medieval, Soviet and modern aesthetics looks good but in the course of the plot it was hardly described.

Possibly I would like to put a positive mark but when the overall impression on equal parts consists of positive and negative points, it's difficult to do so.

• Gameplay: 4
  
• Graphics: 7
  
• Sound and Music: 7
  
• Interface and Control: 5
  
• Novelty: 6
  
• Rating: 6

Project Pastorate is a game that caught my attention a while back, when devs were showing awesome-looking concept art and unique ideas behind the setting, early in the development. Actually playing it was a bit disappointing, but not because of the art or the fictional world presented in it were below my expectations, but rather because of the gameplay mechanics and the technical side of things.

I actually still dig the general setup (a corrupt, totalitarian state governed by a theocratic leader being the last enclave of the humanity after a global disaster) and the early-modern, Easter-European aesthetics. The main characters, who are part of the elite police force known as Devoters, are not exactly what I expected - acting more like dirty cops than religious/political police, which goes even to the extremely foul language and brutal investigation methods they use. The contrast between a cynical veteran in the force and his young, idealistic partner is a very standard trope and could be done in various different setting, but here gets additional spin through the political pressures and devoter's responsibility to protect the good name of the state. In general though, its a crime story more there anything else, at least in the already-available episode.

Putting other details aside, I think the story was fine and things like the in-game encyclopedia, full of pompous state propaganda, make the experience pretty atmospheric. Everything else is a bit more problematic - especially the card game combat system, which is somehow both basic and counter-intuitive - it's all about finding hard counters to enemy moves, but more often than not I had to find it by trial and error, dying repeatedly and having to note down the combinations after finding the right responses - and really, none of that process was fun. There's was also just too many fights - two or three could've been a nice addition and add to the immersion, but as they were implemented, they simply distracted from the narrative (I think they're all skippable though).

The game also has a slightly clunky UI, which looks mobile-oriented and lacks convenient skip or auto-play options known from Ren'Py VNs. It is still quite an interesting and unique experience and I recommend giving it a chance - and I also hope that the devs will continue this story - even with the questionable gameplay, they've created quite a promising foundation here, one that is definitely worth expanding upon.

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PS If you're interested in more quality Western VNs, check out my curator page.

There's a lot to like here. The backgrounds are particularly well done and memorable, full of atmosphere and character. I liked the running water effects a lot, and the other animated touches. The music was also pretty good. The story, once I got my bearings, has a lot of solid world-building. I think the main draw here is the steampunk-y, filthy, dystopian world.

The writing went a bit overboard with its vulgarity, to the point where it was maybe unintentionally funny, though it set a certain tone for sure.

There was clearly a lot of effort spent into putting you "in the scene" through the sound of people coughing or wolves howling in the background, which I appreciated.

The card battle gameplay had the potential to be interesting, but I didn't really understand how to counter certain cards. I usually ended up just skipping them. But, since they are skippable, it's not that big of a deal.

The riddles were a nice touch. I'm not sure what solving them did, but it was satisfying to type in the answers.

It was sort of a mixed bag for me overall, but I'm glad I played it.