Signs Of The Sojourner Review

[Enrique Fats]

Signsof the Sojourner is a narrative deck-building game about connecting and communicating with others. It breaks away from typical card-battlers by instead challenging you to understand different perspectives and navigate social situations.

Your deck is your character, shaped by your experiences and relationships. Different decks will lead to different narrative paths as your cards impact your ability to communicate with various characters. Rather than building the most "powerful" deck, you will have to make decisions about who you want to be in this world and how you relate to others.

Set in a near-future earth-like world, you take over your mother's store after her death, traveling to diverse locations in order to acquire goods for the shop. This is a world where communities are more insulated, where travel is difficult, and where climate change has made life hard, but you'll still encounter optimistic stories, compassionate characters, and delightful surprises.

I downloaded this game three years ago, and it still remains one of my favorites. This game is a master class in how to marry gameplay and narrative themes. Becoming well-traveled matures your deck, but makes conversations harder when you've returned home. Or you can staunchly refuse to change your deck, only to be met with strangers that have no chance of understanding you. Each playthrough remains impactful, no matter the choices you make.

I don't always love difficult games, but I have a soft spot for those that back up the challenge through the story, and make failures and successes feel that much more meaningful. There's something fascinating about a game that doesn't let you save and reload after a failure, but instead forces you to live with it. It makes for a much more compelling story.

There's so much I love about this game, but I would be amiss to not mention the fantastic art and music. Seriously - this soundtrack is a bop, and makes for perfect road trip music.

If there was one indie game I wish more people would talk about, it's this one. If you like roguelikes, deck-builders, good storytelling, or even just like the art style, definitely check this out.

This was an nice game. I like the art style and found the mechanic very interesting, but it also was suprisingly hard, the auto save, repeatly locked me in conversations i couldnt win, still enjoyed it despite the fustration.

What an exceptional game. I got sucked into it enough to complete my first playthrough in one day, and I can't wait to start another. The art, the music, the writing, all are superb. I especially appreciate that failing conversations felt as much a part of my character's story as succeeding, and made my achievements feel all the sweeter when I managed to pull through despite the setbacks. Overall, a great experience that'll stick in my mind for a long while.

I know I'm very late to the party, but this game is truly unlike anything else I've come across in my years of "gaming." I have finished 3 full playthroughs, and found a different ending each time. Mimi and Theo are just adorable. This game is so pure and refreshing. Ugh, I can't say enough good things.

This game's good and I'm on my 3rd run so ig i like it enough. The art and story are fantastic. And the description seemed really cool. But I find it so frustrating and genuinely not fun to play most of the time. I got this as part of a bundle and didn't know much about it or what to expect in terms of game play. I'm continuing to play it because I like the story/character/idea of the game, but the mechanics are just too punishing for me to say that I actually like it. I think it would really benefit from rewards for replays (better deck, not getting as fatigued, etc) because this type of stuff is what kills it on the reruns for me.

That being said, again, its a good game! And if it seems like something you would like, totally get it! It's beautiful and interesting with a unique style of play. I have replayed it 3 times not liking the game play so it's really winning. I just have some personal gripes that made me frustrated about the system, as a lot of times you are set up for a forced failure (no matter the original deck) lmao

i loved playing this game so much, and loved watching my girlfriend play it just as much honestly! seeing the different ways our stories played out was so cool and we both felt satisfied with our very different endings

But also, it was terrifying that I had to rely on him to do so! And heartbreaking to toughen up with Square and Diamond cards for the far towns, alienating the circle of Circle friends in near towns; it felt too limiting otherwise, like willingly stagnating as a sheltered kid. Or maybe I just suck lol.

loved this game! A friend had gifted me the indie bundle for palestine aid back in june and i got around to this one today. Finished my first playthrough in a go :D

The game mechanics work really well and I like that there are no 'perfect choices'. I'll probably be replaying this at some point to see a couple of places/conversations I couldn't get to the first time around. World-building was also v interesting!

Hi, first of all the game is amazing!!!! Played through it once and fell in love ngl. I really had to restrain myself from playing it til 3 am.

I bought the game through the bundle for racial equality and was wondering if that still allows me to get a steam key? I'm a completionist at heart and I really want to 100% the game. Thank you for such an amazing game!!!

Weirdly enough I'm getting an unhandled page fault on read access to 0x24 at address 0x69885BD5 (and consistently so, the only variable is the thread ID) when running it under wine. Removing dxvk from the equation didn't change anything either.

If anyone gets version 4 to run under Linux (or some other version I'd have access to), please do let me know, since from what I've seen so far this does seem pretty nice & I'd like to at least be able to give it a proper try beyond a few seconds into it (it crashes a few seconds after clicking "Begin Story" / after the last card in the first round was played; whichever happens first).

oh this game! oh! this game really did swell like a triumphant score in me as i played; the card matching is a very unique, frustrating and analogous bedrock to the game mechanics. i'd say it mimics the rhythm and cadence of a conversation well, and all its lil aggressions and the like. i deeply enjoyed just going around and talking to people and trying my damnedest to talk to people and not at or past them--or, in the game-specific terms, having the right cards at the right time in the right positions. the worldbuilding and the WRITING is MWAH MWAH i was really excited to go places, read the little vignettes, and feel like the traveler. and i did. what a delight. a joy. will be replaying

Downloaded this exactly one year ago and played it a couple of months after but, gosh, I just keep coming back to it. What a good, special game. Lovely story, interesting endings, amazing characters. Overall a fantastic experience. Really, really fond of it.

i very rarely write reviews of things, but this game is just too good for me to not say anything about it. i first acquired it in 2020 through the racial justice bundle, but its such a good game i decided to buy it again today.

it really is a wonderful cozy game, every time i replay it (which is often) it feels like returning to my hometown. the game play fits the atmosphere and story really well, and the structure of the story makes it so that the game mechanics never get too easy. even when you fail conversations it doesn't feel like a disappointment, just a consequence of the changing experiences of the main character. the dev team pulled the conversation/card game format off in such a beautiful, poetic way.

easily one of my favorite games of all time

This is a really great example of how to match story with gameplay. Everything meshes together so nicely, and even though there are no words on the cards they really get across the idea of navigating your way through a conversation a lot better than the charisma/speechcraft systems in most RPGs that involve that kind of stat.

i think the fact that i found this game frustrating and difficult at times says more about me than it does the game. youre told by nadine fairly early on: "you can't please everyone, and trying won't do you any good." and like... she's right? and i trusted her on that, but still didn't value her advice. like, watch me! so i spent the whole game trying to do everything for everyone and have them all like me. and for mediocre results across the board, i got a mediocre ending. spreading yourself too thin to please everyone is a fools errand, both in this game and real life.

theres so much that can be said about how perfectly this game encapsulates interpersonal relationships and interactions. but there's not much point, because it's all revealed to you as you play. every new mechanic or card type you encounter makes you go "oh- ooohh, that's clever. oh that translates perfectly from real life." i always found myself imagining the actual conversation as every card was played, 100% sucked into the world.

i have so much thoughts and feelings about this game, i will try to make sense but won't promise anything. tldr: i think this game achieves everything it sets out to perfectly; the gameplay is fun though hard at times, it enriches how you see the whole game; it's beautiful in art and music.

at first i thought that i wouldn't like a card game, but i saw a few people recommend it, and decided to give it a try. first time i liked it a lot, and saw a lot of replayability potential. a few months later i played it again, and then again, and i will play it more. i noticed more and more how interesting the world is, which makes me try my best to try to get to know all of the characters and communities over the course of several playthroughs.

the gameplay is amazing. the choices you make affect your experience A Lot. and the conversation mechanics are unique because you cannot just choose the best answer, you have to struggle and be careful to connect to other people and gain their trust and friendship. and at the same time it doesn't feel like you're playing against them, just as you're trying, you can see that these people are making an effort to connect to you too. and if you don't succeed it's not always because you said the wrong things, sometimes it's because you're very different, or it's just your bad luck today, or they're distressed and you don't have the right thing to say to them. it feels so real, and it works incredibly well with the overall feeling of this game.

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