Review: Autumn’s Journey (Nintendo Switch)

Autumn’s Journey is a short and sweet visual novel game published by Ratalaika Games. Three characters – two dragons and a human knight-in-training – go on a fun journey with one another, each with their own intentions, all the while forming bonds and friendships with one another.

Even though Autumn’s Journey is a visual novel, I won’t get too much into the story since that’s the majority of the game, and I don’t want to spoil anything. I will say that the story was intriguing, and the characters were a delight.

Auralee is the protagonist, a human knight-in-training, following in her mother’s footsteps. She comes across Kerr and Ilmari, two dragonkinds in heavenkind (aka human) form. They each have their own goals – Auralee wants to become a full knight while Kerr and Ilmari learn more about heavenkind – much to Ilmari’s excitement and Kerr’s dismay.

The overall story was cool. The game took me about 2.5 hours to get through it the first time, and I was sad there wasn’t more. I would have loved to learn more about the dragons and see what happens next. Maybe there will be a sequel at some point, but I felt they could have added much more to the story since the game is so short. Yet, it was a satisfying ending (there are three different endings to get).

There was little gameplay. Being a visual novel, I expected more story with choices sprinkled throughout. However, there were only about a handful of choices to be made. I spent 95% of the game reading through the text. Since it was a good story, I didn’t mind. But since you can get three different endings, I felt there weren’t enough choices to determine which end to go for.

What I enjoyed was the art style. Autumn’s Journey has beautifully painted backgrounds, and the character designs are well-polished. The dragons looked fantastic, and they were both unique in human form with different ears that resembled their dragon type. They also had fancy clothes that made them stick out like a sore thumb amid the humans. Not to mention there were chibi animations throughout that were adorable and gave me a good chuckle here and there.

The music and sound effects were well done too. This is a soundtrack I would listen to. The music was emotionally appropriate based on the scene. The partial voice acting was good as well. I had to play around with the volume settings a few times to get it just right, though.

Overall, Autumn’s Journey is a fun experience. If you enjoy good stories and love visual novels, this is certainly a game to get. It won’t take you too long to get through it, and you’ll be sucked into the story and have fun with the characters’ banter.

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