Vidar

Nice game, but terribly frustrating.

I spent hours figuring out the puzzles and the world is fascinating and well developed. It has good characterization and it's thought provoking. I was actually going to favorite this, but I changed my mind.

Where my issue lies and what ultimately is causing me to rage quit and never even want to look at this again is in the ending. If you fail, not only do you have to restart the difficult endgame puzzles but you have to go all the way back to the day before that and redo the last boulder cave puzzle before you can retrigger the climax. Hours of time just freaking lost with nothing to show for it.


They also throw some bizarre mirror light puzzle at you in the endgame that the game no prior experience with and no explanation. it appeared that I was supposed to use them to reflect on the switch, but I could move some of them, couldn't move others, couldn't figure out how to flip the mirrors and had only ten minutes. Since I still don't know what to do, I have no idea how to go about solving it, even if I replayed through the five puzzles that i would have to redo to get back to that point.

I couldn't figure it out and I no longer want to.

I already redid the boulder puzzle once. I genuinely wanted to get to the ending (If you look at my time, I've logged about 40 hours on this) but it's become too tedious. I did originally give this a not recommended, but after I cooled down a little, I changed it to recommended. With reservations.

This game had a lot of care put into it and it was overall a positive experience. But it needs a better checkpoint system or manual saves, or just a way of lowering the difficulty. (however cheating this may seem.)

Other annoyances: The character moves as slow as molasses at times and the game crashes on you if you try to interact with the boulders from the ground after you move them onto the geysers.

I had high hopes for Vidar, but my excitement quickly turned to disappointment upon encountering the numerous problems and crashes that plague this game. Even the most dedicated fans of puzzle games should approach Vidar with caution, as it suffers from various design flaws and technical issues. Allow me to elaborate on the key problems I experienced during my time with the game.

Technical Difficulties:

First and foremost, Vidar is prone to crashes, which makes for a frustrating and disheartening experience. In addition to these crashes, I also encountered issues with the game loading in the lower-right corner of my screen, rendering it nearly impossible to play. This is a serious problem that has yet to be addressed by the developers.

Character Movement and Dialogue Woes:

Continuing a saved game often resulted in my character moving at a painfully slow pace, with frequent pauses that hindered my progress through the game. The characters themselves suffer from repetitive dialogue that quickly becomes tedious, such as one character repeatedly saying "Flies on Horse Sh*t."

Timed Puzzles and Unreliable Save System:

Every puzzle in Vidar is timed, which makes it difficult to enjoy the process of solving them, as players are constantly rushed to find a solution. Another issue lies within the game's save system, which is only accessible when starting the game, making it nearly impossible to save progress while playing. Given that the auto-save feature is unreliable (as demonstrated by my progress being reset to the tutorial after reaching the ice cave on day 1), the save system is in dire need of an overhaul.

Interface and Control Shortcomings:

The game's interface is clunky, frustrating and without mouse support, requiring players to constantly press the escape key to access the main menu for essential features like inventory, journal, or map. The lack of shortcut keys for these functions is a significant oversight that detracts from the overall gameplay experience. In addition to this, players must repeatedly press the Enter key to close messages like "Locked Door," which only adds to the interface's cumbersome nature.

Storyline Inconsistencies and Lack of Polish:

The world of Vidar is fraught with inconsistencies that detract from its overall coherence and immersiveness. For instance, a church nun with a cross around her neck inexplicably worships polytheistic gods, leaving players confused and disillusioned. The presence of the "Star of David" symbol on graves in the cave is equally confounding.

Verdict:

Vidar is a poorly designed game that suffers from various technical issues and bugs that have yet to be addressed by the developers. From its unreliable save system to its frustrating interface, this game is a disappointing experience that should have been labeled as "Early Access" to warn players of its many shortcomings. As it stands, I cannot recommend Vidar to anyone seeking a polished and enjoyable puzzle game. It would be best to look elsewhere until these issues have been adequately resolved.

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Apparently this game is too buggy to play at the moment. I've had it crash out on me 3-4 times in the space of a couple of hours. When the game only saves at the end of each game day, that means you have to re-do the entire day.

Do you like puzzles and puzzle games? I don't. The only thing I find more annoying than (nontrivial) puzzles in a video game is TIMED puzzles that heavily penalize you for failing.

And this kind of mechanic constitutes over 3/4 of the playtime of Vidar. To give you an example, the solution to one floor I finally found after 2 hours of reloading is flipping colored levers in the following sequence: pink, yellow, red, yellow, blue, red, pink, blue & green, pink, yellow, red, yellow, blue. A mistake results in a 5 minute reload and walk back to the beginning (or, if you don't reload, the death of a character rapidly resulting in total game loss). But don't worry, this isn't a spoiler, because all puzzles are randomized for maximal masochistic pleasure.

Not all the puzzles are this hard. Protip: in the earlier levels, you can take a screenshot, pause, and figure out the solution without the timer counting down. But later, this doesn't work because a puzzle can take multiple screens worth of space. At first, when the puzzles are pretty easy, the timed aspect does add to the suspense inherent in the premise. Later, it just gets very, very irritating.

Fortunately, the novel premise, the music, the setting, the characters, and the retro Chrono Trigger-esque graphics almost make up for this colossal annoyance. Each playthrough is different because some quests only become available when certain characters are alive or dead (and the order of deaths is random), so there is theoretically a lot of replay value.

IMO, the dev could make this game way, way better by allowing varying puzzle difficulties on world generation, so people who aren't very puzzle-inclined can see the wonderful story and character interaction without as much frustration. When a programmer, like me, thinks several times through a playthrough that "it would be easier to code a finite state machine to solve this puzzle for me than to actually solve it", the puzzle difficulty is probably not honed for maximal enjoyment.

But for those weird individuals who like puzzles and RPGs, this is a must-play. For RPG fans, it's good, but take a Xanax for the frustration, you'll need it.

PS: It is fairly buggy on Linux at least. Once-an-hour crashes do not help with the frustration inherent in this game. As I write this review, I've reached the final floor of the dungeon, and the game has crashed twice on me there. It kind of spoils the mood and makes me question whether I want to bother finishing.

While Vidar started strong and the emergent narrative from random deaths definitely entertained me, a bug-riddled second half and abysmal ending killed off any goodwill I had towards this game. Avoid it until some bug fixes pop up.

Having heard about Vidar through my favourite streamer the concept of the game really intrigued me so i had to try it.

The overall story takes place in the town of Vidar, with a violent snow storm engulfing it. You play a wandering stranger (either female or male) that has stumbled across this troubled town, and it's your job to uncover it's mystery. This is where the game really impresses....

One thing is certain in Vidar, each night a villager will die! But each time you play the game it will randomise that person, so two playthrough's are never the same. It's a really unique twist that no other game has. You will want to replay the game a few times in order to have the chance to experience each villagers unique quests and dialogue, plus the conclusion to them "should" they survive the night. Each day you travel to the caves of Vidar in order to uncover the town's "mystery" and do what you can to help the villagers. Whilst in Vidar itself you have unlimted time to walk around getting to know everyone (that hasn't died) and familiarising yourself with their stories. When you travel to the caves however, you have a limited time to explore before the day ends and ultimately someone dies. Along the way you can gain new equipment that helps unlock new parts of the caves that were previously inaccessable on previous visits, and also help extend your stay in the caves themself. Though the later becomes a fine balancing act, as should you chose to remain in the caves overnight then you run the risk of losing the current quest you were on as the villager who gave you that quest has died.

The puzzles themself have that wonderful fun and frustrating feeling about them, but never enough that will make you rage quit like someother games. Think Portal 1 + 2, the answer is sometimes staring you in the face, then you get the "Eureka" moment that makes all the frustration worthwhile. The main obstical with the puzzles is not the puzzle themself, but the time-limit you have in order to complete them before the day is over. As for the overall game length, it took me around 6-7 hours to finish the game, making it an excellent for multiple playthroughs. Also do bare in mind the game is in early access, and the developer is doing a great job fixing and adding things as the game progresses, and is always available on the forum to answer any questions as they pop up.

If you like puzzle games with a twist, great story that will keep you guessing and fixated until the death (no pun intended) then i strongly suggesting buying Vidar. Very much a hidden gem in the adventure section on Steam :)

The experience of Vidar brought me back to my early years playing 2D games. I usually don’t play 2D games anymore, but Vidar’s peculiar storyline is quite enjoyable — the thing that I like the most is the randomized aspect of it. The game as-is can be experienced only once, restart the game and you have another story, another set of events. This is really one of the strong points of the game, it generates (on me) an “etherealness” feeling. The current game won’t last forever, decision you make matter and cannot be undone or repeated. Artwork, gameplay, and music are really well crafted.

The game is well worth the money. The experience is well worth the time.

It's been awhile since a game has hooked me the way Vidar does. I think the music does an amazing job of setting the mood. While I find all the character's names really hard to remember I somehow have been really getting engrossed with all of their stories. I say "somehow" because typically I find in JRPGs that walking around and talking to people to find out where you need to go next to be sort of a chore, but it is a core part of Vidar's game play and in that sense I care much more about the dialogue and getting to know the characters that Razbury Games has created for us to enjoy. I honestly did not think I would like this at first but it has really pulled me in. I highly recommend this game for anyone who likes cool puzzles, and a deep and intricate story. They have done an incredible job at building the world and telling the story of Vidar. Truthfully though, just once - JUST ONCE - I would like to prevent someone's death!

This game has broken my brain in the most wonderful way. I love the puzzles, each one indroduces a subtle and clever new take on the last. Every time I enter the cave, I learn something new. Dialogue is well written, and character interactions feel genuine. The dark desporation of figuring out the stranger and Vidar have enthralled me. The timed events create a real sense of dread every time you delve under the town.

This one is definitely worth picking up. It's an entertaining puzzle game with a really interesting narrative that changes with each play.

The story has surprising depth, which you might not expect at first glance.

This game is fantastic.

I was a little hesitant getting into it - I'm not the biggest pixel-art fan, and modern 2D RPGs reminiscent of old Gameboy titles have usually been a miss for me - they rarely live up to the nostalgia. Plus I was a little worried about the fact that it was made with RPG Maker.

However, this dev has proven yet again that any tool can be used to make a great game.

Solid and nuanced random-gen puzzles, a plethora of characters, great dialogue, and a high-stakes tale are rapidly turning this into my newest addiction. There's are enough details and alternative outcomes that I foresee myself getting several playthroughs out of it, and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface.

First time I've written this excited of a review in while. Definitely loving it.

I got this as soon as I could, and I'm glad I did! It has an amazing story and from the little gameplay I saw from other people was completely different than what my game was.

This game is different on every playthrough as well which is awesome and gives it so much replay value.

I was also streaming this game and the creator of the game actually found the stream and was there to see how I liked it and to provide help if needed. So not only is the game great so is the developer!

If you are on the fence about it definitely give it a shot.

I am thoroughly enjoying Vidar and plan on adding many more hours to my time played.

First off, the story is really well done. It's dark and mysterious and has had me coming up with several theories trying to figure out just what the heck is going on in the town of Vidar. Each night someone new dies and it's your job to complete quests for the villagers before they snuff it. Quests do help give some insight on the past of Vidar.

The music is beautiful. The graphics are great. The puzzles are difficult and fun. And the game is punishing in an "it hurts so good" kind of way.

It's one of those games that you WILL need to play multiple times before you can figure everything out, but given how enjoyable it is, I don't see that being a problem for me at all.

I highly recommend it!

Super awesome so far! I just played through the first day of the game and did the cave puzzles, and thought it was great. Check out my first look video below if youre interested (or get stumped by the puzzles!)

https://youtu.be/N0fyfk7w0H4