After seven years of development, independent visual novel game Hayseed's Knight It is now available in full on PC on both Steam and Itch.io.
Directed by solo developer Maxi Molina, the game follows a one-eyed farmer named Ader as he pursues his personal quest to become the most celebrated knight of Acazhor, a fictional kingdom inspired by the Muslim-ruled regions of medieval Spain.
The narrative was greatly influenced by the picaresque literary genre, a narrative tradition rooted in Spanish culture that depicts a brave adventurer overcoming one problem after another. It features an intriguing mix of comedy, romance and also more serious moments, where your decisions affect the overall trajectory of the story.
Something quite unusual for an independent title, Hayseed's Knight It's also completely voice-acted and packed with gorgeous hand-drawn animations. This allows scenes to play out almost cartoon-like and you can see some of the animation for yourself in a animated trailer which debuted alongside the full release.
It contains five chapters (plus short epilogues) that are estimated to take around 20 hours to complete in total, with potential for further play to discover the three main endings.
Development began in 2017, when the game entered Steam Early Access and received major chapter-by-chapter updates. TO recent steam The post outlines some of the biggest changes to the full version, including the release of the final chapter, plus many revisions and improved illustrations. The post also describes this version as “the last big update,” as long as there is “nothing that fails catastrophically and needs patches.”
In line with Molina's goal of offering “newcomers the opportunity to add a high-profile paid project to their resume,” the voice cast includes actors with a wide range of experience levels. In addition to the voice actors, all third-party contributors, including musicians, translators, and consultants, receive in-game credits regardless of the scope of their work, which is certainly praiseworthy.
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