Signs of the Sojourner Reviews
Signs of the Sojourner turns deck-building into a chance at growth.
There’s a lot to love here, but I don’t think the main mechanic works very well. Which is sad, because I wish it did. I want to love it, but ultimately I just found it frustrating, and watching the credits roll felt like a compromise. So be fairly warned before giving it a shot.
Signs of the Sojourner by Echo Night Games has my definite seal of approval to those looking for a fresh deckbuilding game. At the end of my first playthrough, it felt like I only scratched at the surface of the game. With multiple endings and a variety of decks to try out, this is a title I’m looking forward to diving into once again.
Had Signs of the Sojourner allowed the player to fail without having the door slammed in their face, it would be easier to forgive some of the flatness present in its card system or the brevity of its script. But by framing conversations as games to be won without anticipating how often they’d be lost, huge chunks of the game become sequences of frustrating nonsequiturs.
Signs of the Sojourner is a very good amalgamation of Deck-buildings, Rogue-likes, Visual Novels and even Tetris and the Whole thing works beautifully. It really forces you to make hard decisions about how you move your story forward and to understand the whole thing, you need maybe a dozen of playthroughs.
Review in Persian | Read full review
With a novel concept and brilliantly thought out execution, Signs of the Sojourner has all the makings of gaming’s next indie darling.
I have, to borrow a metaphor, a lot of Fatigue cards in my deck some days.
Signs of the Sojourner has an excellent premise, an incredible soundtrack, and solid writing, but this jars with an often punishing and frustrating difficulty. All signs point towards this being a light-hearted narrative Indie, but the balance undermines that core identity, making it a struggle to fully enjoy.
Despite all its gameplay issues, Signs of the Sojourner remains an entertaining title that you can experience time and again; each time encountering new things. Playing this game can distance you from AAA titles for a while, and will bring you a fresh experience
Review in Persian | Read full review
Signs of the Sojourner is one of the most cohesive narrative games I have ever played. The interplay between mechanics and storytelling is absolutely brilliant, which makes it a shame that it misses the mark in terms of actually being enjoyable to play. The inclusion of a frustrating "fatigue" mechanic is at odds with the general laid-back design approach to deckbuilding. There is something truly beautiful here that is worth experiencing, it's just a shame that the game seems to fight itself at every turn.
Signs of the Sojourner is an interesting interpretation of the art of communicating and the difficulties of the maturing process. The dialogue made through cards with symbols is simple to understand, but offers depth with the varied effects of the cards and the minimalist construction of decks. The journey through this exotic world is immersive because of the many interesting characters, beautiful locations and unique ambience, in a diversified journey made to be experienced several times. Some details, like the influence of luck and the constant inclusion of useless cards in the deck, bring a little frustration, however, I interpret it as another metaphor of the game - just like in life, we need to do the best with what we have. In the end, Signs of the Sojourner offers a different and unique narrative experience.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Signs of the Sojourner is clever and charming. While the game mechanics can put a dampener on the laid-back feeling of the game, you’ll probably be too engrossed in the touching story to care. In a time where everyone in the world is being forced apart, a game about making connections and appreciating what you have feels like the perfect antidote.
Navigating a world of wonder, an intrepid trader encounters a succession of strangers in this engaging narrative card game
Signs of the Sojourner is a slice of life deck building narrative game. If that was more than a mouthful for you, you may consider steering clear of this game as the conversation based game-play will careen you down a narrative driven path rife with haggling and sometimes fleeting relationships. For the right gamer, Signs of the Sojourner will provide the kind of unique game play that you can't find anywhere else. For deck builder fans, you may find it hit or miss to your tastes, but if battling is more your speed, this might not be up your alley.
...it’s a lot of fun to craft a deck to meet the challenges and stories of the road. Meeting the characters along the caravan’s route and learning their stories is a joy that drives mechanical experimentation. It’s refreshing to create harmony and boost meaning-laden signal over noise.
Signs of the Sojourner is a refreshing game, succeeding largely in how well it takes eternally relatable ideas like talking to other people and transforming them into a very sensical card game that has a surprising amount of depth despite a straightforward presentation. The way playing cards represents conversations is genius, making this a standout for how unique it feels.
There are some parts that don't quite work. A fatigue system discourages you from prolonged excursions and can make things tricky, and the limited number of cards means you're rarely fully prepared to speak with everyone. Overall, though, we'd say it's a successful experiment, and a breath of fresh air among all the usual noise.
At its core, Signs of the Sojourner is a deck-building card game with elements of a visual novel. At times the card drawing feels very much like it’s luck of the draw. Like real-life conversations with others, it’s a game were failing these card encounters is a part of the experience. You can’t see everything in one playthrough or win at every conversation every time. And the narrative of the story adapts to that, leading to multiple endings. Similarly in the world of Signs of Sojourner as in real life, words and actions do have consequences!
Signs of the Sojourner’s creative card-based conversations make for a unique and satisfying mechanic that compliments the very endearing narrative. There’s just something mighty satisfying about seeing a successful conversation play out the way you want it to, whilst the ‘easy to play but difficult to master’ nature of the gameplay ensures it never grows stagnant as you progress. There were a few frustrating moments here and there where I felt at odds with the game and couldn’t succeed in conversations due to the random nature of the deck-building, but it didn’t cause enough issues to deter from what is otherwise a warm-hearted and memorable experience. Signs of the Sojourner really does something different with the genre, but what it does is entertaining throughout.
A unique combination of conversation gameplay and deck building, Signs of the Sojourner is a truly special game dripping in charm.