Wheels of Aurelia 1978. is a visual novel based on different moments in time during Lella's travels with Olga and other hitchhikers found along the way. Released on all platforms in 2016. by Santa Ragione.

In this short visual novel, we take the role of Lella, while driving a car through Italy. The game is really short, each of the 16 endings can be finished in 15 minutes. Along the way you will meet different hitchhikers and characters that want to race you, where after winning the race, you'll get a new, faster car to use.
The story isn't voice acted, so you have to read everything while trying not to crash on every corner since the driving part of the game is terrible, the graphics are acceptable, but on higher resolutions they are blurry. The only thing I liked in this game is the Italian music on the radio.
The story isn't really engaging enough for me to try to get all 16 endings, it does point out some social aspects from that time, but they're executed poorly.

All in all, for those who want to get all achievements it is a short and easy game, but you're not going to have any fun while doing it. For others, it's not worth it.

A visual novel about a woman on a road trip in Italy in the 1970s. Despite its beautiful artwork and pleasant soundtrack, I just felt the experience wasn’t right for me, and likely won’t be right for most. Wheels of Aurelia would be best described as a visual choose-your-own adventure book. The main protagonist is Lella, a woman with a storied past looking to put it all behind her by travelling the Italian coast. Along her road trip she runs into a host of different characters, each with their own back stories and story progression. The story depends on which characters you engage with and which of the few forks in the road you choose to take. However your story plays out, there are ultimately sixteen different endings that are possible which can be discovered through multiple playthroughs. The most impressive aspects for me were the music and artwork. The soundtrack is an original composition which perfectly suits the beautifully hand drawn original artwork. Both do a wonderful job of capturing the essence of Italy during the 1970s. Unfortunately the stories and interactions are not nearly as engaging. From the main protagonist all the way through the complementary characters, I just didn’t find any of their stories interesting. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that in order to see each of the sixteen endings you need to either play through the same story until you get to a fork, or you’re given the option to skip ahead, which to me counters the intent of the game which is to have an experience.

Esse jogo tinha tudo para ser minha geleia. Uma novela visual ambientada nos Anos de Chumbo da Itália, com altas vibes anarco-comunistas e antifascistas, aliados a um sistema de diálogos bem dinâmico e uma narrativa cheia de ramificações que se expressa através de literais escolhas de caminho na estrada? Pô, o que poderia dar errado?

Obviamente, os detalhes. A execução não é exatamente atrapalhada, mas há um bocado de detalhes que se acumulam e acabam torrando a sua paciência. São os controles dos veículos aparentemente razoáveis até você ter que fazer algo com mais precisão como não colidir com nenhum carro ou vencer uma corrida, ou o fato de que algumas opções de diálogo ou ramos do enredo só aparecem em pontos específicos e você tem que repetir seções inteiras do jogo para ter a oportunidade de ver essas partes de novo. São pequenos inconvenientes que quando somados tomam principalmente seu tempo - daria para enxugar quase 1 hora do jogo (que já é curto, platinei em 4 horas!) só com algumas adições de QoL.

Talvez o problema esteja comigo. Talvez Wheels of Aurelia não tenha sido feito para ser consumido tudo de uma vez, mas em múltiplas seções, em cada uma você escolhendo um novo caminho e só aproveitando calmamente a estrada e as conversas.

Ou talvez é só mais um exemplo de como QA é essencial.

Eu queria muito amar mais esse jogo e recomendá-lo sem ressalvas, mas só de pensar no tédio que foi conseguir os 16 finais já me faz ficar um pé atrás. O que não quer dizer que desgostei de todo o meu tempo com ele, muito pelo contrário. Mesmo com todas as ressalvas, meu saldo foi bem positivo.

Tiene una idea bastante buena y un aspecto visual atractivo pero falla en cuanto a jugabilidad.

No solo la conducción es mejorable sino que los diálogos no están muy bien integrados con ella.

El aspecto visual también es un problema a pesar de lo bonito que es, y es que si entras sin saber nada parece un juego chill, y luego te pones con él y te encuentras tomando decisiones tensas, con fascistas de por medio, en plena carrera

En cuanto a la historia es cortita, lo cual juega en su favor a la hora de sacar sus 16 finales, pero tampoco creo que incite demasiado a la rejugabilidad

I really like the idea of the game, a roadtrip through 1970s Italy where you interact with a varied cast of characters and a focus on social issues of the time, but I got one ending of this game and it was so abrupt that it put me off a bit from continuing past that ending for the moment. Part of it also was some of the conversations and particularly the driving mechanic. A few of the little conversation dialogue trees I had, it felt like the other character's dialogue reaction was almost entirely unrelated (a glitch maybe?). The driving is also a bit clunky and particularly the turning feels kinda loose and slow which makes precision or avoiding some of it rough. Given that there are things like races and from what I know parts of it that you need to avoid driving wildly in it hurts my desire to go and get more endings.

Seriously though the first ending I had was less an ending and more that it just Stopped. I genuinely thought I was at, like, the first plot point and not an ending, and the result feels bizarre with someone you're supposed to have just met and have had like five conversations with. Given it feels like a very common ending to get (I picked up the first two hitchikers to see what it was like and then essentially just followed where the game sent me) to see it be so ??? is wild. Maybe I'll come back to it because it is very easy to go through more endings (it even lets you start mid-game) but I'm put off of it after one.

I really wanted to like this. It’s a narrative driving game set in 1970s Italy. Stories are told in very short bursts where you pick up hitchhikers and drop them off (or not) along the way.
The problem I have is the car controls very poorly even if you use the “autopilot” you’ll still be crashing into other cars and when some story points rely on you getting places fast it’s a problem. I was frustrated to say the least. Also the stories are too brief for me to connect with or want to try and get every possible permutation of ending available. It’s a shame really.

I really wanted to like this game. A roadtrip through 70s Italy, picking up hitchhikers, chatting with strangers, and seeing where life takes you is such a strong pitch for a game. But when I tried to play it, it all felt a little too messy. The conversations had an odd flow to them and constantly interrupted each other as every person in your car wanted to talk to you but when you spoke to one the others had to quietly sit and wait there turn. Some of the conversations were actually pretty good, some were interesting ideas that lacked execution. Probably the game's biggest issue was how bad the driving felt. You can leave it to auto-drive the whole time (which I did as much as possible) but getting prompted to do races with people or tailing missions meant having to manually drive which felt miserable and oftentimes it wasn't even clear which other car on the road I was following or racing. The good parts of this game just weren't worth the frustration of the bad bits.