Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
released on Feb 28, 2018
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is a Narrative-Adventure game about traveling, sharing stories, and surviving manifest destiny. Featuring gorgeous hand-drawn illustrations, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine combines 2D visuals with a 3D overworld US map.
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Epic
great writing, but im not sure if ill play it again.
I wanted to love this game. Instead, I only liked it
I gave this game a couple of chances but it's difficult for me personally to keep at it. Let me know if I'm misjudging the cons in case the game opens up much further in the game, which it doesn't as you get to the middle of the U.S.
The pros: the art and voice acting for each story bit is a good touch... and that's about it. The actual stories are good and well written but they are each criminally short and lack engagement other than "do X" or "do Y" sometimes.
The cons:
- Visuals: The art style outside of the story section doesn't look good personally - seems to try to have a cell-shaded art style but is very flat and bland due to the world being simple. Also, there's this weird shimmering that is very noticeable on the docked display where during story sections, both the text box and the actual image shimmer annoyingly. This doesn't happen in other switch games.
- Audio: the same 3 tracks of folk music, gets pretty grating. Some of the voice-acting is actually good and sounds professional (narrator, hobo boy). Others sound like they're a random dev recording inside a cardboard box lol.
- Technical: performance is really bad for what the game is trying to achieve on the switch hardware. The radial menu to select stories is extremely finicky and at some points bugs out spamming a choice from the analog screen. Additionally, difficult menu navigation during storytelling.
- Gameplay: just.. walking. You can whistle which slightly increases speed and hitchhike, hop trains, and pay trains which is tedious to do (time, health, and money penalties respectively). It's all extremely slow.
- Progression: to complete the game, you have to track down 16 separate NPCs through the huge map of the U.S. (which is already really slow). You have to give the types of stories they ask for but even if you do, you could only progress them if you track them down somewhere else on the map and give them brand new stories they want to hear. This is done for each character, for multiple chapters, running after them a huge map that's tedious to navigate.
Ended up dropping it when I realized how tedious the game was, that it wasn't worth it to stick through for the more interesting micro-stories.
The pros: the art and voice acting for each story bit is a good touch... and that's about it. The actual stories are good and well written but they are each criminally short and lack engagement other than "do X" or "do Y" sometimes.
The cons:
- Visuals: The art style outside of the story section doesn't look good personally - seems to try to have a cell-shaded art style but is very flat and bland due to the world being simple. Also, there's this weird shimmering that is very noticeable on the docked display where during story sections, both the text box and the actual image shimmer annoyingly. This doesn't happen in other switch games.
- Audio: the same 3 tracks of folk music, gets pretty grating. Some of the voice-acting is actually good and sounds professional (narrator, hobo boy). Others sound like they're a random dev recording inside a cardboard box lol.
- Technical: performance is really bad for what the game is trying to achieve on the switch hardware. The radial menu to select stories is extremely finicky and at some points bugs out spamming a choice from the analog screen. Additionally, difficult menu navigation during storytelling.
- Gameplay: just.. walking. You can whistle which slightly increases speed and hitchhike, hop trains, and pay trains which is tedious to do (time, health, and money penalties respectively). It's all extremely slow.
- Progression: to complete the game, you have to track down 16 separate NPCs through the huge map of the U.S. (which is already really slow). You have to give the types of stories they ask for but even if you do, you could only progress them if you track them down somewhere else on the map and give them brand new stories they want to hear. This is done for each character, for multiple chapters, running after them a huge map that's tedious to navigate.
Ended up dropping it when I realized how tedious the game was, that it wasn't worth it to stick through for the more interesting micro-stories.
i thought it was very very interesting. i need to get back to this one
Sights & Sounds
- The visual design is a bit of a mixed bag. The artwork for the characters and story cards is amazing. The kind of stuff you'd want to buy prints of and hang on your wall. The main map where you spend most of your time, however, is fairly barren, largely uninteresting to look at despite the amount of time you spend looking at it, and maybe even a little ugly
- There's some intriguing sound design choices that wind up falling flat on their face due to the game's other deficiencies. I love the idea of having a central musical motif that changes as you visit other parts of the country. Unfortunately, you spend so long on the map that you'll grow weary of the same lyrics over and over again. At this point, I think I even know the Spanish version. In a vacuum, the song would be really good, but I don't think I ever want to hear it again
- The voice acting is pretty good. No complaints there
Story & Vibes
- A wolf tells you to go collect stories in the US for him to eat. I'm sure it's an allegory I don't quite understand
- The game takes place in the US, obviously, but the time period is intentionally ambiguous. It appears to be basically anytime and everytime in between 1890 and 1970
- At its best, the game is soulful, beautiful, and enigmatic. The art and music in the character transformation sequences are a feast for the senses. The character-focused stories that precede these are genuinely interesting and well-written as well
- Those moments are brief. The remainder of the game is mind-numbingly boring and honestly takes too long to complete. There's no payoff to the story, either. You just walk slowly around a map for several hours experiencing brief moments of whimsy until the game ends with no fanfare and barely any intrigue. The ending isn't bad on its own; I probably could have enjoyed it if the game weren't so monotonous
Playability & Replayability
- As you travel the country, you'll pick up little stories at the various locations you visit on the map. Some of them are familiar Americana (Paul Bunyan, the devil at the crossroads, La Llorona, etc), but others appear to be original. Compiling all these stories, even as small vignettes, is pretty impressive, and they're pretty cool to read. I liked the city-specific ones too
- These stories can grow and "level up" as they evolve into more unrealistic (but more exciting) versions of the actual events. These leveled up stories are important tools for entertaining the named recurring characters you meet along the way
- These named characters, 8 in total, appear at campsites that move around on the map. As you chat with them at their fire, they'll request stories with different emotional affects (funny, exciting, scary, sad, etc). If you pick an appropriate story, you'll learn a bit more about that character. Repeatedly succeeding at this task as you follow their campsite around will eventually transform the character and unlock their story for use at other campsites. These character stories function as wildcards and are pretty useful
- All of this would be enjoyable if your PS2 skeleton hobo didn't shamble across the map so slowly. Sure, there's ways built into the game to move across the US faster, but they have annoying drawbacks that make them more inconvenient then hitting the autowalk button and doing something else for a while. The trains cost money (you won't have much) and may or may not be headed in the direction you want to go. The "fast-walk" requires you to play a rhythmless rhythm game while skeleton bum whistles atonally (and in grating contrast to the background music). You may notice that if you're trying to control your direction and camera at the same time, you may not have another hand free for the rhythm game, so be prepared to alternate awkwardly between that and the camera. You'll eventually abandon all efforts of using it anyway when you realize it doesn't make you move appreciably faster. Even the fast-travel is only marginally useful; fast-travel locations are contingent on completing character stories, and there's no real reason to return to a region of the country after you've completed the character stories there
- The decision to never change the gameplay loop in any way whatsoever during the entire 10+ hours of the game adds a nuanced layer to the tedium
Overall Impressions & Performance
- This game takes a bunch of appealing ideas, memorable stories, catchy music, and gorgeous artwork, then arranges them in the least appetizing way possible
- To analogize the gameplay loop, imagine that you are going to see a highly-anticipated movie. Instead of watching it normally, you're required to leave your seat and walk--not run or jog--a lap around the theater's parking lot while the same Old Crow Medicine Show song plays on loop to advance the movie 15 minutes. Sure, the film is nice, but you spend most of your time looking at a flat surface with lines on it while being behaviorally conditioned to hate banjos
- While walking around the map, I frequently experienced inexplicable framerate issues on a setup that has no trouble playing modern AAA games
Final Verdict
- 3/10. If the entire game were scaled down (or maybe if the travel options were better), it would have been a better experience. It's frustrating how the pacing subverts every effort you make to enjoy the game
- The visual design is a bit of a mixed bag. The artwork for the characters and story cards is amazing. The kind of stuff you'd want to buy prints of and hang on your wall. The main map where you spend most of your time, however, is fairly barren, largely uninteresting to look at despite the amount of time you spend looking at it, and maybe even a little ugly
- There's some intriguing sound design choices that wind up falling flat on their face due to the game's other deficiencies. I love the idea of having a central musical motif that changes as you visit other parts of the country. Unfortunately, you spend so long on the map that you'll grow weary of the same lyrics over and over again. At this point, I think I even know the Spanish version. In a vacuum, the song would be really good, but I don't think I ever want to hear it again
- The voice acting is pretty good. No complaints there
Story & Vibes
- A wolf tells you to go collect stories in the US for him to eat. I'm sure it's an allegory I don't quite understand
- The game takes place in the US, obviously, but the time period is intentionally ambiguous. It appears to be basically anytime and everytime in between 1890 and 1970
- At its best, the game is soulful, beautiful, and enigmatic. The art and music in the character transformation sequences are a feast for the senses. The character-focused stories that precede these are genuinely interesting and well-written as well
- Those moments are brief. The remainder of the game is mind-numbingly boring and honestly takes too long to complete. There's no payoff to the story, either. You just walk slowly around a map for several hours experiencing brief moments of whimsy until the game ends with no fanfare and barely any intrigue. The ending isn't bad on its own; I probably could have enjoyed it if the game weren't so monotonous
Playability & Replayability
- As you travel the country, you'll pick up little stories at the various locations you visit on the map. Some of them are familiar Americana (Paul Bunyan, the devil at the crossroads, La Llorona, etc), but others appear to be original. Compiling all these stories, even as small vignettes, is pretty impressive, and they're pretty cool to read. I liked the city-specific ones too
- These stories can grow and "level up" as they evolve into more unrealistic (but more exciting) versions of the actual events. These leveled up stories are important tools for entertaining the named recurring characters you meet along the way
- These named characters, 8 in total, appear at campsites that move around on the map. As you chat with them at their fire, they'll request stories with different emotional affects (funny, exciting, scary, sad, etc). If you pick an appropriate story, you'll learn a bit more about that character. Repeatedly succeeding at this task as you follow their campsite around will eventually transform the character and unlock their story for use at other campsites. These character stories function as wildcards and are pretty useful
- All of this would be enjoyable if your PS2 skeleton hobo didn't shamble across the map so slowly. Sure, there's ways built into the game to move across the US faster, but they have annoying drawbacks that make them more inconvenient then hitting the autowalk button and doing something else for a while. The trains cost money (you won't have much) and may or may not be headed in the direction you want to go. The "fast-walk" requires you to play a rhythmless rhythm game while skeleton bum whistles atonally (and in grating contrast to the background music). You may notice that if you're trying to control your direction and camera at the same time, you may not have another hand free for the rhythm game, so be prepared to alternate awkwardly between that and the camera. You'll eventually abandon all efforts of using it anyway when you realize it doesn't make you move appreciably faster. Even the fast-travel is only marginally useful; fast-travel locations are contingent on completing character stories, and there's no real reason to return to a region of the country after you've completed the character stories there
- The decision to never change the gameplay loop in any way whatsoever during the entire 10+ hours of the game adds a nuanced layer to the tedium
Overall Impressions & Performance
- This game takes a bunch of appealing ideas, memorable stories, catchy music, and gorgeous artwork, then arranges them in the least appetizing way possible
- To analogize the gameplay loop, imagine that you are going to see a highly-anticipated movie. Instead of watching it normally, you're required to leave your seat and walk--not run or jog--a lap around the theater's parking lot while the same Old Crow Medicine Show song plays on loop to advance the movie 15 minutes. Sure, the film is nice, but you spend most of your time looking at a flat surface with lines on it while being behaviorally conditioned to hate banjos
- While walking around the map, I frequently experienced inexplicable framerate issues on a setup that has no trouble playing modern AAA games
Final Verdict
- 3/10. If the entire game were scaled down (or maybe if the travel options were better), it would have been a better experience. It's frustrating how the pacing subverts every effort you make to enjoy the game