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Lots of games are about wanting, but few are about longing. Typical game design dangles a series of carrots out in front of you in the form of experience points, new weapons, unlockable levels and so on and so forth. But The Sailor's Dream is different. It doesn't want you to get everything. It also doesn't want to hold anything back behind arbitrary barriers. It wants you to take your time and unearth all its content at your leisure. And chances are when you do, you'll still be left yearning for more. The Sailor's Dream is a window that you open, not a door that you shut.Many people won't like Swedish developer Simogo's latest and it's easy to understand why. It's advertised as a game, but it's really a visual novel. Well, actually, it's more of a visual short story. Simogo's been heading in this direction for its last few games with Year Walk being a puzzle adventure, then Device 6 being a visual novel of sorts with a handful of puzzles that tied into its labyrinthine plot, and now The Sailor's Dream has all but eschewed that entirely (with a couple minor exceptions, but more on that later). Even Dear Esther had some procedurally-generated narration, while The Sailor's Dream is a far more closed system with its interactivity limited to scrolling through images accompanied by sound effects and the non-linear order in which you pick up the pieces.
Even as a visual novel, The Sailor's Dream is certainly divisive. Because of its non-linear format where you assemble the story by observing environments and reading passages, it's easy to think that it's supposed to be a mystery. And in its first act it definitely is. But no matter how you go about picking up the pieces, chances are you'll form a reasonably solid idea of the core plot relatively early on. But what's wrong with that?
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