A Valley Without Wind

About

"A Valley Without Wind" is a 2D procedurally-generated sidescroller that offers a variety of gameplay elements, including tactical combat, city-building, and free-roaming exploration. Players can customize their characters with unique enchants and spells, complete missions to earn new abilities, and rescue and recruit followers to help build their settlement. The world adapts to the player's choices, providing a dynamic and personalized gaming experience.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

64%

Audience ScoreBased on 353 reviews

graphics20 positive mentions

grinding22 negative mentions

The game features a unique blend of genres, combining elements of platforming, RPG, and city management, which can be intriguing for players looking for something different.
The soundtrack is praised for its quality, contributing to the game's atmosphere and emotional impact.
There is a vast, procedurally generated world to explore, offering a sense of adventure and replayability.

The graphics and art style are often described as ugly and inconsistent, detracting from the overall experience.
Gameplay can become repetitive and grindy, with many players feeling that the mechanics lack depth and polish.
The user interface and controls are criticized for being clunky and unintuitive, making it difficult for players to fully engage with the game.

graphics
118 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
68%
15%
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many players describing them as inconsistent, low-quality, and reminiscent of outdated styles, leading to confusion in gameplay. While some appreciate the unique art direction and find it visually interesting, others criticize it as ugly and poorly executed, often detracting from the overall experience. Overall, the graphics are generally considered subpar, with many reviewers suggesting that they may not appeal to those who prioritize visual quality in games.
- “The graphics are bizarre, mixing realistic buildings and backgrounds with PSX era particle effects and low animation sprites.”
- “The game offers some pleasant graphics and graphical style; although there are some ugly glitches here and there, it is pleasant all the same.”
- “While the game's story isn't particularly impressive, the combination of easily-learned gameplay, beautiful graphics, and incredibly memorable music gives a profound sense of solitude and loneliness.”
- “The art style is frankly hideous, but it's got some interesting ideas.”
- “The biggest problem with this game though is the graphics and artwork are really cheesy.”
- “Also, the graphics are really hard to get past, as they look like mid-90's stock images just cropped onto the game world.”
gameplay
92 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
67%
11%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it basic, repetitive, and bogged down by grinding mechanics and a lack of variety across continents. While some appreciate the fun core mechanics of fighting and exploring, others criticize the confusing controls and the reliance on an extensive in-game encyclopedia for understanding gameplay elements. Overall, the game offers a mashup of ideas and styles, but struggles to deliver a cohesive and engaging experience.
- “There's a variety of different offensive spells you can equip yourself with and a decent difference in how different character races (effectively classes) play, very pretty environments to explore and music, and most importantly the core gameplay (fighting monsters and exploring) is very fun.”
- “The metroidvania style gameplay with procedural worlds is so satisfying.”
- “Supported by Arcen's usual post-release support that is second to none, this side-scrolling dungeon-crawling, civ-a-like, genre-mashing game features polished gameplay at a tidy price!”
- “The gameplay is basic.”
- “However, after fifteen continents and no new gameplay mechanics or biomes, the game has become incredibly repetitive - kill the lieutenants, kill the overlord, find/buy buoys or windmills as needed and move to the next continent.”
- “Gameplay is shallow and repetitive.”
story
64 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
83%
5%
The game's story is generally considered thin and generic, often overshadowed by repetitive gameplay and mission structures. While some players find the narrative somewhat intriguing, it tends to get lost amidst the grind of resource gathering and mission completion. Overall, the story lacks depth and polish, making it feel like a secondary element to the gameplay experience.
- “It has been years since I played this game, but this story is one I must tell before I become too old to remember the details.”
- “While the game's story isn't particularly impressive, the combination of easily learned gameplay, beautiful graphics, and incredibly memorable music gives a profound sense of solitude and loneliness.”
- “With each boss, more stuff to do is introduced, and you learn more about the story.”
- “The story is a bit thin.”
- “It has little story, a very harsh learning curve, and no real end game.”
- “It's pretty clear the developers got partway through progress of making the game, given its bizarre title screen which features 'asking for your key', a blurb about the aforementioned progress which hasn't updated in forever, and a scrolling storyline summary which is about as much as I ever got for plot.”
music
54 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
37%
56%
7%
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising it as a standout feature despite the game's overall aesthetic shortcomings. Described as a blend of NES-style chiptunes and high-fidelity instruments, the soundtrack is noted for its memorability and distinct vibe, although some find it repetitive or grating. Overall, while the graphics and gameplay may not impress, the music is frequently highlighted as a strong point worth experiencing.
- “The music is quite good, as one would expect from Arcen Games.”
- “The music is NES-style chiptunes mixed with high fidelity instruments.”
- “An ambitious mess with a pretty ugly graphical style, and a fantastic soundtrack.”
- “Get the soundtrack and skip the game.”
- “A valley without wind is an exceedingly ugly game full of horrible music and just barely enough animation to be more than a PowerPoint presentation.”
- “The music in the game is fairly repetitious 8-bit style audio and will likely get quickly muted, and the graphics, while better than Terraria, are nothing to write home about.”
grinding
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game features extensive grinding for various resources, including money, crafting materials, and mission rewards, which can become tedious and unpolished, especially in the later stages. While some players appreciate the atmospheric elements and varied missions that make grinding somewhat engaging, many find the overall experience repetitive and overwhelming, particularly when attempting to explore or achieve 100%. Despite its flaws, the action-platformer retains a level of charm that keeps some players invested.
- “However, playing it involves a lot of grinding.”
- “Money is still fairly tight so there's no getting away from grinding to find missions that drop the rewards you need.”
- “The problem is it's done in the most grindy possible fashion: you're aiming to get crafting materials to level skills, kill enough goons to get currency, and take on (entirely random, as far as I could tell) missions for better rewards/rare items in your time period before killing palette-swap bosses who are scaled up sprites of regular enemies to try and stabilize the region.”
replayability
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
50%
17%
The game offers exceptional replayability due to its combination of randomly-generated levels and metroidvania-style platforming, making it appealing for fans of the genre. Players note that the replay value is significant, with a steep learning curve that encourages repeated playthroughs. Overall, it is highly recommended for those who enjoy exploring varied gameplay experiences.
- “The replayability is literally endless.”
- “The combination of randomly-generated levels and metroidvania-style platforming gives it a great deal of replayability.”
- “Highly replayable and recommended to everyone who likes metroidvania-like games.”
- “Weird replayability.”
- “Overall, a good platformer with a steep learning curve and potentially a lot of replay value.”
atmosphere
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
30%
30%
The game's atmosphere is described as captivating and beautiful, reminiscent of a metroidvania, despite its unpolished graphics and repetitive object designs that can detract from the experience. While it may initially feel grindy and confusing, players often find a unique charm and inspiration within its experimental concepts. Overall, the atmosphere is a highlight, making it worth considering, especially on sale.
- “There's something captivating about the game atmosphere.”
- “It's grindy, unpolished, and hard to understand at first, but after that, it's one of the most atmospheric games I've ever played.”
- “It's a very experimental project that lost its way before it was discontinued, but you just might find a fascinating bundle of concepts and inspiration in there, with not-half-bad gameplay and, in my opinion, a beautiful atmosphere.”
- “But the whole graphics are mixed together and sometimes you can't understand what is what; object images also repeat themselves, so the whole game atmosphere seems so ugly.”
- “Much like a metroidvania but with worse level design, better variety of weaponry (spells) and a bright outdoors atmosphere.”
- “Verdict: grab on sale, there's something captivating about the game atmosphere.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game features appealing graphics and a nice visual style, but users report several stability issues, particularly in the OSX release, including crashes, graphical glitches, and problems with achievements not unlocking. Overall, while the visuals are enjoyable, the presence of these glitches detracts from the experience.
- “The game has several glitches in the OSX release, including but not limited to crashing, the graphics cutting out, and achievements not unlocking.”
- “The game has several glitches in the OSX release, including but not limited to crashing, the graphics cutting out, and achievements not unlocking.”
character development
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
25%
50%
Character development is criticized for its reliance on four randomly generated and minimally customizable characters, with a limited selection of designs. While the game incorporates enjoyable elements like random loot and directed character progression, the overall character development experience feels constrained.
- “It has some fun elements, things I usually enjoy in games, such as random loot, directed character development, and procedurally generated levels.”
- “You start off with four randomly generated and barely customizable characters, and there's a very limited number of character designs to boot.”
- “You start off with four randomly generated and barely customizable characters, and there's a very limited number of character designs to boot.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is praised for its clever and quippy humor, contributing to an overall fun experience. Reviewers consistently highlight its comedic elements, describing it as very funny.
- “The little quippy humor by the developers makes it fun as well.”
- “This game is very funny.”
- “The little quippy humor by the developers makes it fun as well.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Reviewers highlight the game's significant emotional impact, noting its ability to evoke strong feelings and resonate deeply with players. This aspect is consistently recognized as a compelling feature that enhances the overall gaming experience.
- “Something that I find interesting, however, is the game's emotional impact.”