Learn French With Games: Nova-box
Continuing the “Learn French With Games” series, today I want to shed some light on an indie French studio Nova-box. They develop interactive graphic novels, which are similar to Japanese Visual Novels.
Not all games are equally good for language learning. I remember there was an FPS made explicitly to teach you languages. I wasn’t impressed. Random words here and there, some sentences thrown around, what was that? Essentially it’s a waste of time masked as “learning”. You could as well be playing Counter Strike, at least you’d get fluent in Russian.
But these graphic novel games are amazing for practicing French reading, because they are text-heavy, slow-paced, and you have a lot of time to figure out what is going on. At the same time they are not as heavy as the actual novels, and you have visual cues so you don’t have to look up as much vocabulary.
All the games are pretty short, especially if you don’t care for the replayability, so it won’t take long to play all of them. I recommend it to any B1/B2 level learners looking to improve their French.
Most of them are available on on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Nintendo Switch.
End of Lines
A family trying to survive after climate collapse. The art is gorgeous, the soundtrack fits the mood, and the writing is great. Choices actually matter, and different endings make it worth replaying.
The story can feel heavy, but it’s very engaging. The game does have a political angle, which may or may not work for you. The resource-management system is there but doesn’t change much. Replaying can also feel repetitive since there’s no real text-skip option.
Across the Grooves
Very stylish. You play as Alice, whose life suddenly changes after she listens to a mysterious vinyl record. From there, you travel across Europe, make choices that shape her personality and relationships, and explore several possible endings.
The art is excellent, the atmosphere is strong, and the music plays an important role in the story. The overall presentation is well done. The game is fairly short, but it has good replay value thanks to different routes and outcomes.
A few limitations are worth noting: no manual saves, no skip for already-read text, and the story’s direction is a bit uneven.
Seers Isle
The theme of Vikings is not new, but this gave me strong Banner Saga vibes, maybe that’s because of the art.
It has fantasy elements, and the story pulls you in quickly. A single playthrough only takes a couple of hours, but the game is built to be replayed, with multiple routes and different endings to uncover.
The choices feel important on the first run, and following the group of apprentices while the mystery slowly comes together is engaging. Some routes are quite similar to each other, and replaying can get repetitive since there’s no real skip option (again). The symbol system that determines the endings is also a bit unclear if you’re trying to reach something specific.
Along the Edge
A woman inherits her grandmother’s house. Naturally, inheriting anything from an old person triggers a chain of unlikely and mysterious events. And the inheritance tax, obviously.
I start to sound like a broken record, since their games are pretty similar mechanically. I mean, they are essentially VN’s, what did you expect?
Echoes
This is a Film Noir in the form of a graphic novel. It’s black and white and the atmosphere is great. I think it was their first game.