Signs of the Sojourner

I downloaded this game three years ago, and it still remains one of my favorites. This game is a master class in how to marry gameplay and narrative themes. Becoming well-traveled matures your deck, but makes conversations harder when you've returned home. Or you can staunchly refuse to change your deck, only to be met with strangers that have no chance of understanding you. Each playthrough remains impactful, no matter the choices you make.

I don't always love difficult games, but I have a soft spot for those that back up the challenge through the story, and make failures and successes feel that much more meaningful. There's something fascinating about a game that doesn't let you save and reload after a failure, but instead forces you to live with it. It makes for a much more compelling story.

There's so much I love about this game, but I would be amiss to not mention the fantastic art and music. Seriously - this soundtrack is a bop, and makes for perfect road trip music.

If there was one indie game I wish more people would talk about, it's this one. If you like roguelikes, deck-builders, good storytelling, or even just like the art style, definitely check this out.

This was an nice game. I like the art style and found the mechanic very interesting, but it also was suprisingly hard, the auto save, repeatly locked me in conversations i couldnt win, still enjoyed it despite the fustration.

I really enjoyed this ride! I felt connected to the characters and loved the customization. The art is beautiful and engaging and the gameplay is super unique

What an exceptional game. I got sucked into it enough to complete my first playthrough in one day, and I can't wait to start another. The art, the music, the writing, all are superb. I especially appreciate that failing conversations felt as much a part of my character's story as succeeding, and made my achievements feel all the sweeter when I managed to pull through despite the setbacks. Overall, a great experience that'll stick in my mind for a long while.

I know I'm very late to the party, but this game is truly unlike anything  else I've come across in my years of "gaming." I have finished 3 full playthroughs, and found a different ending each time. Mimi and Theo are just adorable. This game is so pure and refreshing. Ugh, I can't say enough good things. 

This game's good and I'm on my 3rd run so ig i like it enough. The art and story are fantastic. And the description seemed really cool. But I find it so frustrating and genuinely not fun to play most of the time. I got this as part of a bundle and didn't know much about it or what to expect in terms of game play. I'm continuing to play it because I like the story/character/idea of the game, but the mechanics are just too punishing for me to say that I actually like it. I think it would really benefit from rewards for replays (better deck, not getting as fatigued, etc) because this type of stuff is what kills it on the reruns for me.

That being said, again, its a good game! And if it seems like something you would like, totally get it! It's beautiful and interesting with a unique style of play. I have replayed it 3 times not liking the game play so it's really winning. I just have some personal gripes that made me frustrated about the system, as a lot of times you are set up for a forced failure (no matter the original deck) lmao

has got to be one of my favorite games!! I haven't found anything else like it. 

i loved playing this game so much, and loved watching my girlfriend play it just as much honestly! seeing the different ways our stories played out was so cool and we both felt satisfied with our very different endings

This is the first time I've finished a game and immediately wanted to throw myself into the next playthrough. So well done.

Elias is such a good friend ;_;

I love that I can plop back home with a hand full of fatigue and non-Bartow cards and he can still match with Accommodate, barely getting the conversation by with Accord.

But also, it was terrifying that I had to rely on him to do so! And heartbreaking to toughen up with Square and Diamond cards for the far towns, alienating the circle of Circle friends in near towns; it felt too limiting otherwise, like willingly stagnating as a sheltered kid. Or maybe I just suck lol.

Amazing art style !

loved this game! A friend had gifted me the indie bundle for palestine aid back in june and i got around to this one today. Finished my first playthrough in a go :D
The game mechanics work really well and I like that there are no 'perfect choices'. I'll probably be replaying this at some point to see a couple of places/conversations I couldn't get to the first time around. World-building was also v interesting!

Hi, first of all the game is amazing!!!! Played through it once and fell in love ngl. I really had to restrain myself from playing it til 3 am.

I bought the game through the bundle for racial equality and was wondering if that still allows me to get a steam key? I'm a completionist at heart and I really want to 100% the game. Thank you for such an amazing game!!!

Hey!

I just recently made a video on my top 50 recommendations for the Palestine bundle and included yours in the first video as its one of the best Indies I played in the last year:

I would love if you could tweet/mention your inclusion on social media/newsletter/discord if you enjoy the video. :)

Thanks a ton for making a fun game!

Regards,

Marco

oh this game! oh! this game really did swell like a triumphant score in me as i played; the card matching is a very unique, frustrating and analogous bedrock to the game mechanics. i'd say it mimics the rhythm and cadence of a conversation well, and all its lil aggressions and the like. i deeply enjoyed just going around and talking to people and trying my damnedest to talk to people and not at or past them--or, in the game-specific terms, having the right cards at the right time in the right positions. the worldbuilding and the WRITING is MWAH MWAH i was really excited to go places, read the little vignettes, and feel like the traveler. and i did. what a delight. a joy. will be replaying

Downloaded this exactly one year ago and played it a couple of months after but, gosh, I just keep coming back to it. What a good, special game. Lovely story, interesting endings, amazing characters. Overall a fantastic experience. Really, really fond of it.

i very rarely write reviews of things, but this game is just too good for me to not say anything about it. i first acquired it in 2020 through the racial justice bundle, but its such a good game i decided to buy it again today.

it really is a wonderful cozy game, every time i replay it (which is often) it feels like returning to my hometown. the game play fits the atmosphere and story really well, and the structure of the story makes it so that the game mechanics never get too easy. even when you fail conversations it doesn't feel like a disappointment, just a consequence of the changing experiences of the main character. the dev team pulled the conversation/card game format off in such a beautiful, poetic way.

easily one of my favorite games of all time

This is a really great example of how to match story with gameplay. Everything meshes together so nicely, and even though there are no words on the cards they really get across the idea of navigating your way through a conversation a lot better than the charisma/speechcraft systems in most RPGs that involve that kind of stat.

I'd love to see a Linux version of this if you ever find you can spare the time and effort to produce one, but I played through the whole thing using WINE and didn't run into any problems at all.

Thanks so much for contributing this game to the itch.io bundle for racial equality and justice. I've been having such a fun time going through the bundle, and this was such a gem to play!

Full review is up on my website! https://knavegaming.com/?p=75

just saw that there's an update??? thank you to the devs for giving me another excuse to replay this. love this game, its artstyle, music, and overall vibe are incredibly comforting to me :) 

right off the bat, i need to say: get this game. even if you dont like card/deck-building games. trust me. theres also a dog. hes perfect.

i think the fact that i found this game frustrating and difficult at times says more about me than it does the game. youre told by nadine fairly early on: "you can't please everyone, and trying won't do you any good." and like... she's right? and i trusted her on that, but still didn't value her advice. like, watch me! so i spent the whole game trying to do everything for everyone and have them all like me. and for mediocre results across the board, i got a mediocre ending. spreading yourself too thin to please everyone is a fools errand, both in this game and real life.

theres so much that can be said about how perfectly this game encapsulates interpersonal relationships and interactions. but there's not much point, because it's all revealed to you as you play. every new mechanic or card type you encounter makes you go "oh- ooohh, that's clever. oh that translates perfectly from real life." i always found myself imagining the actual conversation as every card was played, 100% sucked into the world.

i have a lot to say about this game (as does everyone it seems like lol) but honestly, just play it for yourself and you'll see what people mean. its a really good game.

We are excited to discuss Signs of the Sojourner on Indie Game Club!

Twitch: https://twitch.tv/potionsandpixels

i have so much thoughts and feelings about this game, i will try to make sense but won't promise anything. tldr: i think this game achieves everything it sets out to perfectly; the gameplay is fun though hard at times, it enriches how you see the whole game; it's beautiful in art and music.

at first i thought that i wouldn't like a card game, but i saw a few people recommend it, and decided to give it a try. first time i liked it a lot, and saw a lot of replayability potential. a few months later i played it again, and then again, and i will play it more. i noticed more and more how interesting the world is, which makes me try my best to try to get to know all of the characters and communities over the course of several playthroughs.

the gameplay is amazing. the choices you make affect your experience A Lot. and the conversation mechanics are unique because you cannot just choose the best answer, you have to struggle and be careful to connect to other people and gain their trust and friendship. and at the same time it doesn't feel like you're playing against them, just as you're trying, you can see that these people are making an effort to connect to you too. and if you don't succeed it's not always because you said the wrong things, sometimes it's because you're very different, or it's just your bad luck today, or they're distressed and you don't have the right thing to say to them. it feels so real, and it works incredibly well with the overall feeling of this game.

the characters are very diverse in design, culture, character, identities, values etc. all of the locations and their communities are unique and alive too, and soundtracks add to their atmosphere. i also loved the cooperation and kindness themes in this game. even when there's injustice and inequality, the game doesn't focus only on the bad. instead of the usual gritty powerless and hopeless anti-capitalist narrative, i would call this a pro-worker narrative. people care about each other, they help and comfort each other in time of need, they fight together.

i haven't seen everything this game has to offer, and maybe i never will, because i am human and i make mistakes in conversations, and that's okay. but all of the time i've spent playing signs of the sojourner was worth it. i found it just challenging enough, fun, exciting, touching, healing, inspiring. 

10/10, easily made it's way to the list of my favorite games. i know i will think about it a lot, and i will not shut up about it to my friends so they play it too.

Just had a little session on the game, so much fun!

A game about the linguistic katamari we pick up as we roll along life's paths. How we change as we grow, and our ability to communicate with old friends changes too. How communication facilitates connection between people and cultures, for good and for ill. Loads to unpack in this one. Just a really interesting experiment in narrative design that I enjoyed a great deal. Highly recommend.

This is exactly the sort of game I needed to help me live through a pandemic year. :) The more I play it, the more ways I find to use strategy in the card system instead of being at the mercy of luck. The deeper you dig, the weirder the world of the game turns out to be. And I really love the art style - the choice of color palettes and just the wonderful exuberant whimsy of it.

i can't recommend this enough. really likable characters, great art, amazing music, and SUCH A GOOD DOG. 

one of the best aspects of the whole experience is the way that the gameplay plays into the themes. everything aspect fits together so well, and it creates a very distinct feeling of cohesion.

9/10, one of my all time favourites. 

keep coming back to this game bc its just so comforting, love the cozy feel :))

if anybody's reading this: USE ELIAS'S CARDS !!! the ones that copy the last card the opponent played i mean - those are insanely useful. personally i found the game pretty easy when you get the hang of it, just focus on having around half a deck of those copy-cards (i forgot the name whoops) and having the rest be cards that have two symbols on each side. this allows you to adapt to whoever you're talking to the easiest. i usually had one card that was kind of the card i had to cycle out, since you have to replace a card after each conversation.

if you have certain people you want to talk to, then for that playthrough definitely focus on keeping cards with their symbols - it's okay if you fail conversations with other people you don't care as much about. though i could never do that without feeling bad, so i think that's why i focused more on trying to be able to adapt to whoever i was talking to even if it ended up with me always being on thin ice haha.

luckily for most situations you're able to make one or two mistakes in a conversation before completely failing it, so it's okay if you're unlucky with fatigue or something. if i have more free time on my hands i might create a more in depth guide though i dont think anyone would read it anyway heh

Deck-building game about communities, travel, trade and climate issues. Very well-crafted in all regards, from writing to art to mechanics - though some players may find card swaps tricky. 5/5 - outstanding.

its too hard and stresful lol i love this game but at what cost

oh my stars, this is a gem! I beg you for a card inventory for an option to swap out at least 1 card so I can finally beat ms. border patrol 

Nice storytelling and characters, and some interesting options in approaching your expeditions and exploring. The conversation mechanics are a fresh approach to building conversation into a game, with a co-operative system of matching styles with NPCs and anticipating what they may bring to the conversation.

However I found the deck management (or lack of it) to be a massive source of frustration. It becomes incredibly difficult to try and develop a deck that can provide what you need when there is no option to store cards for later use or experiment with different strategies. Gaining and losing a card after each conversation usually leaves you with a lot of dead weight in your deck, which combines with the fatigue cards and your small hand to frequently rob you of any chance of success. 

In terms of the narrative, this essentially locks you into just a couple of areas based on how the people there talk - which doesn't really gel with the story of exploring the environment, building business connections, meeting new people, and learning about the past.

Perhaps an option to change the difficulty with things like the rate of fatigue accumulation and number of cards allowed in your hand could go towards balancing the game better. Even just to allow people a level of challenge they can enjoy while also experiencing the wider story.

Incredible replay value for me.  The game mechanics are addicting and the story is compelling enough that I found myself playing it over and over to find new snippits of stories and new characters.  Easy game to learn, very difficult to master.  Frustrating at times because of random card draws and I wished sometimes there was an option NOT to get a new card from a conversation, but overall I adore this game.

this game is so gorgeous i've already replayed it three times so far and i adore the different towns to explore and the different characters to interact with!! the colors and the art of the game is so stunning and i love how the cards affect how u interact with them as well! 10/10!!!

This game is so beautiful! I quickly got very attached to the characters xD Can't wait to play though it again and see what I can do differently!