Разработчик: Afterthought Studios
Описание
She is the lone passenger of a slowly dying train station. As a practical young adult, she doesn’t see why her family couldn’t have just moved closer to the high school she is attending. She is rather embarrassed by the whole situation and the attention it garners her. She just wants to graduate and go to a university in the big city.
However, life in the sticks isn’t all that it seems. While riding the train home, Mariko ends up at an unexpected stop, which changes her life forever.
Поддерживаемые языки: english, russian
Системные требования
Windows
- OS *: Windows XP or above
- Processor: 1.0 Ghz or above
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: Any DirectX 9.0 supported card
- Storage: 400 MB available space
- Sound Card: Any
Mac
- OS: 10.6+
- Processor: Any 64 bit processor
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: OpenGL compatible card
- Storage: 410 MB available space
Linux
- OS: x86/x86_64
- Processor: 1.2 GHz Pentium 4
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: OpenGL compatible card
- Storage: 400 MB available space
Отзывы пользователей
The good: good artwork, background and illustrations. Does feature voice acting, and in English for those that do not understand Japanese and want to actually understand what characters say.
The bad: the story is rather short. The engine used to run the game is terrible. Auto mode does not work, and many features are there but hidden behind keyboard shortcuts.
The story: rather linear, with two endings that are to be honest not too different from each other; plus some extra content after completion. Although trains might be proeminently displayed on the store page, they are mostly background, as the novel delves into spiritual folklore.
The verdict: very expensive at base price. Do wait for a sale if interested. 6/10.
I like this visual novel and its nice that it had voice acting. The story is quite unique and very well put.
However, some of the voice acting doesn't match the text or it has been fast track ahead the text that comes on. It very enjoyable even though of that error.
I have played it and the achievement do come up in the actual game but steam hasn't recognised that I have earned the achievement, which is a shame. Maybe I'm not hitting the right choice for the achievement but I will experiment and see.
I would like to see more games like this one. Not with the same story of course but with the traditional Japanese character designs. I will like to play it again.
Fantastic artwork and some wel done voice acting I especially like Hachiko's voice and a story that I certainly enjoyed 'reading' along and very lovely music. Kind of short but was worth the price as i will be back to go again for the art and music. Only a couple of choices to make but it is a visual novel not a choose your own adventure story .
Charming. Delightful. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey!
“When our journey ends” is a fantasy Visual Novel about a girl that rides a train (where she is the sole rider due to the remoteness of that brings her to a station called “Midway” that lies in between the human world and the spirit world. And here is where I’m going to stop talking about the story as I don’t want to throw out any spoilers. There is a lot I want to discuss concerning the storyline and this time I will purposefully leave it as my 2nd to last category so there are no spoilers (Music and Audio will come last as it will refer to the story segment).
Art - Backgrounds
The backgrounds are really beautiful, they seem to be hand painted with poster paint and they are fabulous. Clearly a lot of love and attention has been put there and the color scheme really gives a fantastic feel of a mix between nostalgia and fantasy. I really loved how the backgrounds were animated with things like snow falling, water moving and leaves being blown by the wind. I also liked the scenes in the train a lot, fantastic use of movement to give each scene a feeling.
Art – Sprites
I liked the people sprites, I think not having the typical anime style helped with the feel of the VN a lot. I liked how they had this mix of traditional feel but the fabrics looked very much like fabrics. Very nice touch. The “spirit” sprites I liked less, they were kind of freaky and rubbed against the feel of the VN. I think “fantastical” looking humans may have been better but I’m sure it will be split opinions on this one.
Duration and Gameplay
I went with I think was probably the most basic arc. Now I’ve read the (current) other review out and apparently there are other hidden tracks. I read a bit of the “aftermath” bit and that felt like a whole chapter in itself (incidentally you can’t save during that bit so I recommend that maybe the dev fix that, I’m sure the segment is short but sometimes people like me read VN’s when we’re in the airport and sometimes have to close our computers at a moment’s notice). The VN was short following the most basic arc, around an hour and ten or so. Don’t trust what it says above my review as I had to step out to cook my dinner and left the VN on so that tacked on at least 20 minutes to the game time. Not a lot of choices so I do wonder to an extent where these hidden tracks are, or perhaps each choice leads to a completely different arc. I somehow doubt it as my arc felt like I was getting everything right and that other arcs lead here too, but who knows? I may give this game another play through if I have time. But going back to what I was saying about the choices, it does feel a bit like it’s a kinetic novel and that the choices just give you different levels of information, but don’t quote me on that one and give all choices a go if you have time.
UI
Very nice UI, loved the whole train theme. I don’t know if the text box taking over the whole window was necessary during narration as narrated lines rarely took up more than half the textbox (in narration mode) but in general very nice UI. Perhaps the font could be a tad bigger but I’m really pulling at straws for that one.
Story
Time for the big one, if you don’t want spoilers please stop reading now.
So clearly this is heavily inspired by Studio Ghibli’s “Spirited Away”, the devs clearly don’t deny this as it is the name of the first achievement. Now I feel like the inspiration for this is from the third act of “Spirited Away” where Chihiro takes a train to go and see Yubaba. The train scene is one of my favorite scenes in all of cinema and one almost feels like there could have been a whole movie in itself about that train and it’s many fantastic destinations. I get the impression that this was the springboard from where the devs took this story. This is not a criticism, if anything it is one of the things that excited me most about this VN and I was really expecting it to somehow take off from there, which it did… to an extent.
I don’t mind when media takes inspiration from other media and builds on it. True “originality” doesn’t really exist as we must always pull inspiration from other art and build on it. When I started reading this VN I knew that they would pull heavily from “Spirited Away” but I didn’t mind at all as I wanted that universe expanded on and in general I felt they did a pretty good job. The writing is solid and I actually really liked the concept a lot.
The first and third acts are good. The first act set up the story and got me really excited for the adventure the MC would go on. The third act was a nice resolution and I must say it did give me a warm feeling inside. The middle, unfortunately felt very rushed and a bit formulaic. As I said earlier, it would have been nice to have some choices there or at least been given a chance to answer the riddles (they were quite obvious anyway).
Music
Very nice music. The quality of the music production is really good! I can tell that the director for this game asked the composer for it to take inspiration from the musical score of “Spirited Away” (by Jose Hisaishi). I feel for one or two of the tracks it gets a bit too close to the soundtrack of “Spirited Away” to be just inspiration. As for the rest of the soundtrack, very nice melodic tunes that really set the scenes really well. I do feel that there should have been music in the final emotional scene (you will know what I mean when you get there). Oddly enough that bit was silent and that I found quite odd. I love the fact that some of the tracks hero the clarinet, an instrument that really has not seen the limelight much with the current trend in film/game scoring. I tip my hat to the composer for that!
Conclusion
I’m sure the developer is reading this so I have a message for you. You’ve made a really beautiful game, well done! You should be really proud of yourself! I only write long reviews like this for games that I feel have potential to be really great and only have a few small flaws stopping them getting there. If a game is crap, I don’t bother writing a review like this. You’ve made a work of art and I can see all the effort and love you’ve put into this! Again, well done!
TL:DR Recommended even at full price, beautiful game.
I really loved this VN and the story its loosely based on.
On her way home from school, Mariko who spends her train rides alone (as she is the only passenger), gets transported to a magical world in-between the spirit world and human world. What's not to love?
Pros
- Beautiful art
- Engaging story
- Fun characters
- Animated backgrounds
Cons
- Kinda short
- The extra stories were 'hard' to find (not really, but I wasn't aware of them and found them by accident)
Conclusion:
If this visual novel only had its main story to offer, I would have been a little disappointed. For its quality, it would still be well worth its price, but I felt the main story could have had some more user input, or at least a little bit more story to offer.
The extras really give this visual novel a well-rounded story and while everything combined is still kind of short, I greatly enjoyed how this 'Journey Ended'.
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Дополнительная информация
| Разработчик | Afterthought Studios |
| Платформы | Windows, Mac, Linux |
| Ограничение возраста | Нет |
| Дата релиза | 02.02.2025 |
| Отзывы пользователей | 100% положительных (6) |