Walkerman by Scalemail

The amount of English visual novels on the market has steadily been increasing, so it is becoming more difficult for new entries to stand out from the crowd. However, Walkerman immediately caught our attention thanks to its promise of hunting supernatural creatures. Starring Jorgen, a young man from the countryside, the game will follow his adventures as he embarks on his new career as a walkerman.

Being a walkerman involves taking on the supernatural beings that skulk in the dark after the sun has set and it is not exactly a noble profession. After spending most of his life living out in the boondocks with his father, Jorgen finds himself drawn to this occupation though. His journey will take him to the city-state of Midgard where, according to the developer, supernatural battles won’t be the only thing he has to contend with.

Walkerman features a free prologue, titled “The Thing in the Weald” which offers a brief taste of what players can expect from the full game. We were definitely impressed by the contents of the prologue, as the story immediately drew us in and the setting is very unique. Scalemail plans on releasing the full game as a series of five episodes, with the first estimated to be available in November of this year.

During each of the episodes Jorgen will encounter a single foe that he must investigate and ultimately defeat. What makes the game so unique is that walkermen are not your typical monster slaying heroes and stand very little chance against the creatures they hunt in direct combat. Thankfully the monsters all obey their own unique set of rules, which can then be exploited in order to best them. It is an interesting concept, especially for a visual novel, and we are looking forward to seeing it in action.

Walkerman is set to feature a branching story with multiple endings, but getting to these will require some puzzle solving. Since most of the design and writing is already complete, the purpose of the Kickstarter campaign is to fund the remaining backgrounds, illustrations, sprites and other artwork. The artwork in the prologue already impressed us and hopefully the campaign will not only meet its funding goal, but also the stretch goals for sprucing up the visuals even further.

The prologue can be downloaded for free and we urge all visual novel fans to have a look. There is still some time left to back this project and help it reach its goal. Don’t forget to vote for it on Steam Greenlight either!