A Valley Without Wind

64%
Game Brain Score Based on 176 reviews
  • graphics
  • gameplay
  • story
A Valley Without Wind Game Cover
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"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.

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Reviews

64%
Audience ScoreBased on 176 reviews
graphics10 positive mentions
grinding11 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, providing an atmospheric backdrop that enhances the overall experience.
  • There is a vast amount of content to explore, with procedurally generated worlds and a variety of spells and enemies, offering replayability.
  • The graphics and art style are often described as ugly and inconsistent, which detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game.
  • Gameplay can become repetitive and grindy, with many players feeling that the mechanics lack depth and polish, leading to a sense of monotony.
  • The user interface and controls are criticized for being clunky and unintuitive, making it difficult for players to fully engage with the game.
  • graphics59 mentions

    The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many players describing them as inconsistent, low-quality, and reminiscent of outdated styles. While some appreciate the unique art direction and find it adds to the game's atmosphere, others criticize it for being ugly and confusing, making it difficult to identify interactive elements. Overall, the visuals seem to be a significant drawback for many, overshadowing the gameplay experience.

    • “The graphics are bizarre, mixing realistic buildings and backgrounds with PSX-era particle effects and low animation sprites.”
    • “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.”
    • “I found the graphics to be a refreshing change from the standard 'drab-and-dull' that older indie games are known for.”
    • “The graphics are bizarre, mixing realistic buildings and backgrounds with PSX era particle effects and low animation sprites.”
    • “The art style looks like the combination of a teenager's first foray into digital art and a collection of free images turned sprites from the internet.”
    • “It's really boring, and the graphics are really awful.”
  • gameplay46 mentions

    The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it basic, repetitive, and at times confusing due to its reliance on numerous mechanics and a lack of clear guidance. While some appreciate the variety of spells and character classes, others criticize the grind-heavy nature and the generic quest structure, leading to a sense of monotony. Despite its beautiful environments and potential for exploration, the overall experience is often described as unpolished and lacking in engaging gameplay variety.

    • “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 pre-rendered sprites and backdrop graphics can make it hard to identify objects you can interact with, and there's a lot of mechanics to learn, even if the tutorial prompts are spaced out enough to only tell you about things when they become relevant.”
    • “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.”
  • story32 mentions

    The game's story is generally perceived as thin and generic, lacking depth and originality, with many players noting that it often gets overshadowed by the gameplay. While some find the narrative somewhat intriguing, it is frequently described as repetitive and simplistic, with missions and quests that feel similar throughout. Overall, the story serves more as a backdrop to the gameplay rather than a compelling element, leading to a mixed reception among players.

    • “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 give 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'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.”
    • “It has little story, a very harsh learning curve, and no real end game.”
  • music27 mentions

    The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising it as a standout feature despite the game's overall aesthetic being criticized. Reviewers noted the soundtrack's blend of NES-style chiptunes and high-fidelity instruments, highlighting its memorable and enjoyable quality. However, some found the music to be repetitive or irritating, suggesting that while it may enhance the experience for some, it could detract from it for others.

    • “The music is NES-style chiptunes mixed with high fidelity instruments.”
    • “An ambitious mess with a pretty ugly graphical style, and a fantastic soundtrack.”
    • “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.”
    • “Get the soundtrack and skip the game.”
    • “The bad: the music is grating.”
    • “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.”
  • grinding11 mentions

    Players generally find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and time-consuming, often feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of repetitive tasks required for progress, such as collecting resources and completing missions. While some appreciate the varied missions that can make grinding more engaging, many agree that the experience can become frustrating, especially when aiming for 100% completion or facing lengthy boss battles. Overall, the grinding is seen as a significant but necessary part of the gameplay, impacting the overall enjoyment of the game.

    • “You quickly get to a point where nothing makes sense and the dungeons, which should be the meat of this game, are really tedious.”
    • “Grinding for money, grinding for survivors, grinding for buoys and windmills, grinding for trinkets to make survivors happy, etc....”
    • “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 missions for better rewards or rare items before killing palette-swap bosses who are scaled-up sprites of regular enemies.”
  • replayability6 mentions

    The game offers exceptional replayability due to its randomly-generated levels and metroidvania-style platforming, making each playthrough unique. Players appreciate the steep learning curve and the potential for extensive replay value, particularly for fans of the genre. Overall, it is highly recommended for those seeking a game with lasting engagement.

    • “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.”
  • atmosphere5 mentions

    The game's atmosphere is described as captivating and beautiful, reminiscent of a metroidvania, despite some criticisms regarding level design and graphical clarity. While it features a bright outdoor setting and a variety of spells, the overall presentation can feel unpolished and confusing, leading to a mixed reception. Despite its experimental nature and some repetitive visuals, players may still find a unique and atmospheric experience worth exploring.

    • “There's something captivating about the game's 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.”
    • “You 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 overall game atmosphere seems quite ugly.”
    • “Much like a metroidvania but with worse level design, better variety of weaponry (spells), and a bright outdoors atmosphere.”
  • stability2 mentions

    The game's stability is marred by several glitches, particularly in the OSX release, which include crashes, graphical issues, and problems with unlocking achievements. Despite these issues, the overall graphical style is still appreciated by some users.

    • “The game has several glitches in the OSX release, including but not limited to crashing, graphics cutting out, and achievements not unlocking.”
    • “While the game offers some pleasant graphics and a nice graphical style, there are some ugly glitches that detract from the experience.”
    • “The stability issues in the game are frustrating, with frequent crashes and performance drops that ruin the overall enjoyment.”
  • character development2 mentions

    Character development is limited, featuring only four randomly generated characters with minimal customization options and a restricted range of designs. While the game includes enjoyable elements like random loot and directed progression, the overall depth of character development is lacking.

    • “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.”
    • “The character development feels shallow and lacks meaningful choices that impact the gameplay.”
    • “There is little to no emotional connection with the characters, making it hard to care about their development.”
  • humor2 mentions

    The game features clever and witty humor from the developers, contributing to its overall fun and entertaining experience. Players find it to be very funny, enhancing their enjoyment.

    • “The little quippy humor from the developers makes the game a lot of fun.”
    • “This game is incredibly funny.”
  • emotional1 mentions

    Players highlight the game's significant emotional impact, noting its ability to evoke strong feelings and resonate deeply with them.

    • “The game's emotional impact is something I find truly interesting.”
    • “The story evokes a deep sense of empathy and connection with the characters.”
    • “I was moved to tears by the heartfelt moments throughout the game.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

50% average critic score

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