In a post-apocalyptic world nearly entirely scorched by fire-rain, partners Yukiharu and Mikaela have been assigned as terraformers to heal the continents of Uvu and Zuhhaar. Encounter curious characters and unexpected events as you learn about the reality of the fantasy world in which you reside.

The Scorchfarer is an episodic, hand-drawn visual novel developed by Michiyuki Project. At the time of this review, only the first episode is available (and free to play!), with the developers expecting to release new episodes every eight months or so. The novel also has the soundtrack and digital artbook available as DLC.

GRAPHICS & VISUALS 9/10

The Scorchfarer contains breathtaking hand-drawn scenes and characters. With seventeen unique characters in the first episode alone and over forty-five varied backgrounds, I was never disappointed in the visual aspect of this novel. The static backgrounds were often decorated with dynamic overlays such as falling flowers or swirling smoke that brought an otherwise flat scene to life. Many characters were adorned with swaying hair, tails, or clothing to keep things dynamic.

The characters themselves had changing expressions and stances as the story progressed, showing their personalities and emotions in great complement to the reading portion of the game. The characters’ visual representations gave a unique balance to the writing, since every detail of emotion didn’t need to be explained as it would in a book.

MUSIC & SOUND QUALITY 7/10

With fifteen original songs and 3-4 hours of playtime, the variety of background music never became repetitious. The music was pleasant and cheery, mainly piano and wind instrumentals. Some of the songs made me feel nostalgia for late 1990s RPG games. The game and storyline were well enhanced by the scores behind them.

There wasn’t a complete lack of sound effects. At one point, popping noises reflected the disappearance of some cute hedgehog-like characters. Other than that one instance, though, there was not much more than the music playing in the background. I feel that this auditory portion of the game could have been improved so as to bring the story to life more. For example, in one scene, plates are being smashed. Having the sound effect to go with this action would have made the scene more thrilling.

Overall I feel like the game’s audio was well done and could only be improved by adding more in future episodes.

GAMEPLAY 8/10

Being that this game is a visual novel, the gameplay is limited. I do feel that what has been included, though, was very well done. You progress through the game by reading the text displayed on the screen. You can toggle whether you’d like the reader to skip to the next part automatically or if you’d like it to stay the same until the spacebar is pressed. This can be helpful if you’re a slower reader and need more time or if you’d like to skip through the text more quickly. A log button will also display all the text you’ve already read in the chapter if you accidentally miss something or need to revisit it for clarity.

There is also an auto-save feature so you never lose your spot, and five chapters that you can start from after you’ve unlocked them. These features make traversing the story relatively easy if you’d like to revisit specific parts of the story.

A unique mechanic that was included is “search for sparks”. Throughout the novel, the image of an eye is displayed in the top right corner of the screen. When the eye is closed, there is nothing to see; however, if you pay attention, the eye will sometimes open. When the eye opens, you’re able to click on it. When you click the eye, the UI and characters will disappear from the screen, leaving only the background and text that says “Search for sparks”. After a few moments, a few spots on the screen will highlight with “sparks”, and you’ll be given little tidbits of text conversation (like sidebars) of the characters discussing something in the background, such as a piece of art or a display. This gives small additional bits of lore and looks into the characters’ lives outside of the immediate story.

There are also ten achievements available to collect in Steam, mostly revolving around the sparks and a few others.

Some visual novels include options to select what the main character says in a particular situation or other choices to make the player feel less like they’re reading a book and more like they’re playing a game. This was lacking. However, I still think the mechanics included in The Scorchfarer were effective and well done.

STORY & CHARACTERS 10/10

The story and characters of this game shine very brightly and are very much the decisive point of the game’s quality, as they should be in a visual novel.

You begin your adventure with Yukiharu, a fox-beast humanoid who dyes his fur, and Mikaela, his counterpart, a little humanoid of another sort with long pink hair. They’ve been studying to terraform the scorched planet and restore its livability as a team. After three long years of waiting, the pair is finally called to begin their journey. The first episode details the characters’ time going from their academy to their final exam, where they must terraform a portion of land using their magical abilities. There are many colorful characters to meet along the way who are well documented in a convenient journal that can be accessed via the main menu.

When meeting new characters, the journal will be updated. Each character has an item on the edge of the journal screen that is attributed to them. When you click the article, it gives an overview of what you've learned about the character, along with background information such as age, height, species, etc.

As the storyline is the meat of the game, I’d prefer not to go into too much detail about what occurs. I do have to say that I was left wishing there was more. The beginning was a bit of a slow burn for me; however, I was very much into the story by the end and wanted to continue reading. The first episode is just an intro to what seems to be a very fleshed-out tale with high-quality lore and unexpected turns in the plot. The characters have tremendous and complete personalities and backgrounds. It appears that the entire thing is very well mapped out.

Getting to the end of the first episode and feeling excitement over what will happen next is a win for the developers, and I’m sure it will secure their success with a returning audience.

OVERALL 8.5/10

If visual novels are your thing or even if you’ve never tried one before, I highly recommend The Scorchfarer from Michiyuki Project. With the first episode being utterly free on Steam, there is no excuse not to give it a try. This game is gorgeous and 100% hand-drawn. A beautiful score of fifteen original songs complements the storyline and does not repeat so much as to become tiresome. For a visual novel, many gameplay mechanics are included other than simply reading through to keep the player engaged and interested throughout. Lastly, the characters and storyline are immaculate. I cannot wait for the next episode to be available to consume and leave me hungry for more.

The Scorchfarer was released on April 15, 2022 and is available now on Steam. The reviewer received this game for free.