The Girl of Glass: A Summer Birds Tale
Join Kristal as she sets out on her journey to better understand herself and the world around her in a point and click adventure game, featuring turn-based combat and hand-painted environments. The Girl of Glass is set in a fictional mid-20th-century European country ruled by a tyrant eagle. You play as Kristal, the girl of glass, who is struggling with growing up, letting go of the past, and finding a future to believe in. On your journey of discovery, you will visit numerous places and meet a wonderful cast of characters to interact with – all in very detailed, hand-painted graphics. The Girl of Glass tells a charming coming-of-age tale with its unique characters, beautiful settings, and many dialogue options and choices that impact the story. You first meet Kristal at a circus where she is slaving for an ungrateful circus crew. One day a boy arrives and convinces her to run away with him. Together, they embark on the adventure of their lives. But it seems every road only leads her closer towards an inevitable confrontation with the eagle.
Game Discussion
Steam User 0
The Girl of Glass: A Summer Bird's Tale is a one-of-a-kind game, for better and worse, but while it has its rough spots its various parts all add up into something special that I'm very glad I played, and that's stuck with me ever since I finished. It's a hybrid of point-and-click adventure and turn-based tactical battler, and while those two genres have rarely (if ever) mixed gracefully before now, the combination mostly works here. Kristal, the main character, is made of glass--in her daily life she is fragile, unable to defend herself and forced to use her wits to stay hidden from danger, though laying low is at odds with her outsize personality, passion for life, and strong sense of right and wrong. In her dreams she confronts threats as an avenging-angel figure in a vivid fantasy landscape, summoning imaginary companions to help her face down the fears that plague her in the waking world. The two gameplay styles--light-hearted point-and-click puzzle solving and aggressive fantasy combat--don't always mesh perfectly, but for this story, at least, they make sense together.
The combat is *hard*, and sometimes frustrating, but if you stick with it it's absolutely beatable; you can also adjust the difficulty if you'd rather move through it quickly. Still, the game's inventive character design really shines during the combat sections, with a whole array of fantastical creatures from golems to elementals to floating eyeballs alternately opposing and aiding Kristal in each battle. The hand-drawn art is fantastic across the board, with scenes often looking like something out of an animated film, and the soundtrack is beautiful; the story is moving and the characters, especially Kristal, are memorable. The lack of voice acting (aside from the wonderful narrator) detracts a bit from the immersion factor, but not enough to be a dealbreaker. All in all it's a sweet, lovely game that I'd recommend to anyone who can handle a more experimental approach, and who doesn't mind puzzling and combat served side-by-side.