Children of Zodiarcs

At twenty-some hours to completion, Children of Zodiarcs can feel like a long row to hoe. The weight of the story drags it down a bit, as it increasingly becomes obvious that the only character who isn't fundamentally broken in some fashion is the weird foreign kid who only appears in the side story. Everyone else is a bundle of neurotic fears and psychotic motivations, shaken hard and unleashed on an unsuspecting narrative. But negatives for characters aren't always negatives for the game as a whole, and Zodiarcs puts it all together well. It's a good game, and I'm glad to have finished it, but I cannot stop wondering if certain points weren't actually branching paths or plot flags in disguise, if there weren't some way to eke out a happier ending from it all. That may be wishful thinking on my part, but it's a small hope nonetheles. In a city as messed up as Torus, we need all the hope we can get.