Silence! The Elder Speaks (PC)

“The world is merely as you perceive it, so shape it into what you want to see.” --Shaman, Silence! The Elder Speaks

Source: Screen Capture from Game

Silence! The Elder Speaks is a retro RPG style game created by First Fossil Press. You play as the shaman of a small forest village, and in your old age it has become time for you to choose a successor to train as the next shaman. It will be up to you to make choices in how you plan to inform the villagers (to tell the truth, or a more pleasing lie), as well as choices of how to treat the villagers, including the possibility of saving one of their lives or allowing them to die.

There are 3 different apprentices for you to choose from, 2 boys and 1 girl. One of the boys is energetic and talkative, although he seems a bit scatterbrained. The second boy is more neurotic, and a perfectionist. The girl is a bit of a wild card. She seems smart and reliable, but also strange. I chose the girl as my apprentice in my play through (girl power!), so I am unsure if the other apprentices yield different events.  

Source: Screen Capture from Game

You choose your apprentice at a ceremony, and you are asked to tell everyone a story. You get to create this story Mad Libs style—a story of creation. As such, you are naming your own god and telling how your world was created. My story was gross—oceans of saliva? Yuck. My God’s name was also named Grant. Grant the Giant. This led to me laughing out loud when a villager exclaimed, “GRANT DAMMIT!” in anger.

I really liked the graphics of the game. The sprites are cute, with enough detail to give each character their own identifiable appearance. The environments are colorful and cute, I particularly like the appearance of the trees. The animations were all smooth, as were the controls. The controls can be personalized, which is always a plus as well. The music seems minimal, and has a tribal feel to it, which isn’t bad. The music seems to fit well with the game.

The game is entertaining, and even humorous. There are many joke lines in reference to pop culture, although one of my favorite joke references can be found on a tombstone, as seen below:

Source: Screen Captures from Game

Overall, I did like the game. In my playthrough, I missed a few quests. I got the rating of “You did alright.” So, I have that going for me. It’s better than I expected, considering I killed a villager (inadvertently, mind you). I do wish the game had been longer. At the end you are left as the successor that you chose, and you go out to be shaman on your own. I felt it could have been tied up in a better way, perhaps.

The two issues I had were that, in dialogue boxes, there were no names for the NPCs, so sometimes I had no idea who was talking. I mean, obviously I was talking to them, but without knowing their names the characters felt less memorable. 

The game was pretty short, about a half an hour long for me. The game is free to download and play from Itch.io *here*. Please give it a play and let me know how you did! As always, be sure to leave comments of encouragement, or helpful criticism, to help the developers improve their skills and future releases.

Happy Gaming, Friends!

Bell