As a 2000s baby, I might be a little too young to feel nostalgic about 80s retro games, but that doesn’t mean I can’t recognize and appreciate the genre for what it is. Developed by Space Colony Studios and published by Astrolabe Games and Meridiem Games, Stories From Sol: The Gun-Dog is an engaging retro sci-fi visual novel with slight RPG elements.
Stories From Sol begins with some simple word-building via text on the screen. When Earth’s Solar Federation reigned terror through its oppressive policies, the Martian Territories and Jovian Unified Colony Fleet rebelled. This war, coined The Solar War, lasted three years. After learning this tidbit of information, you switch to your POV. Now, in Jovian territory, you are a pilot stationed on a carrier called the Kalyke, preparing for battle. You’re nervous, and rightfully so, as this is your first mission, but you have a war to win and a planet to protect, so you put on a brave face. Except things don’t go as planned and, unfortunately, you’re one of the only ones who make it out alive.
After reliving your trauma, you go back to the screen of backstory, continuing where you left off. Though Earth sent last-minute reinforcements, the Martians and the Jovians prevailed. Despite your losses, you still won the war. Four years later, you are now a security officer, jumping from ship to ship where needed. But when strange signals start appearing at the edge of Jovian territory, you board patrol ship JFS Gun-Dog to help JFS O’Brien investigate. This is where your story continues.
This was an amazing and engaging introduction to Stories From Sol. You don’t get to just read about what happened; you experience it, setting you up as a protagonist you’ll surely want to follow. Will you get over your trauma? What’s waiting for you on the Gun-Dog? More importantly, what are the strange signals out there..?
As always, when I first start playing any game, I like to go straight to the settings, and Stories From Sol has a few fun ones. You’re able to choose between three art styles: doujin, studio, and vivid. Doujin and studio give more of an older retro feel, in my opinion, but I enjoyed how colorful vivid was, so that’s what I stuck with. You can also choose between modern or retro font, with retro being more pixelated. I went with modern as it was a bit easier to read, but both look great with the art style.
Once you get to a certain point, you’re able to pick your name and pronouns, but that’s as far as the customization aspect ends. You have a preset appearance that pops up in art from time to time, and while that may be slightly immersion-breaking for some, I enjoyed getting to see “myself” in the environment.
Speaking of the environment, this visual novel does an excellent job of setting the scene through its art and soundtrack. The art in Stories From Sol is breathtaking. Even as someone who didn’t grow up on retro games, it’s obvious how carefully designed everything was. The music is robotic and staticky in a way you would expect from this type of game. It becomes a delightful background buzz when progressing through the story. When I thought I’d heard it all, a new beat would sneak out.
Of course, when playing a visual novel, you can’t skip over the characters, and Stories From Sol has some unforgettable ones. From the anxious junior engineer to your lieutenant commander girlfriend (yes…girlfriend! As a romance lover, this caught me off guard in the best possible way), the characters aboard the Gun-Dog are all so alive, and their personalities are unique and consistent. The annoying characters physically made me sigh, roll my eyes, and scoff. The sweet characters made me smile. I was invested. It genuinely feels rewarding to talk to them whenever possible.
Gameplay-wise, Stories From Sol has a sidebar with a few options that makes this visual novel more engaging and interactive than many of the ones I’ve played. There’s the “look” button that lets you examine your surroundings, the “use” button for you to interact with said surroundings, the “move” button that takes you from room to room, the “talk” button that lets you chat with whoever’s with you at that moment, the “item” button that lets you use items you have whenever appropriate, and the “function” button that lets you move anywhere within the ship without going through in-between areas. You can also check your objectives there.
As simple as these buttons may be, they unlock a world of depth for Stories From Sol. For example, looking at different items pulls up their descriptions, and as the story progresses, the text updates. When talking to people, there are also different responses depending on any previous dialogue you might have had. For example, you can accidentally flirt with another crew member upon first meeting with them. If you do, Cassie won’t be your biggest fan if you use the “talk” function after that. It’s features like these that truly bring this visual novel to life.
Something I would have loved to see was a skip button to make it easier for those who want to quickly go through the game again. There was also a lack of punctuation here and there that made reading and understanding some paragraphs slightly difficult but not enough to disengage me from the overall story.
Stories From Sol’s storyline was brilliant. I already mentioned that the introduction was great, but everything that followed kept my attention until the very end. I will say, there were a few moments where I felt I was missing something—I thought there was more I should’ve been doing, so I spent a lot of time going in circles and driving myself crazy wondering what I could possibly be doing wrong. Turns out that wasn’t the case. This might frustrate some, and while I was still paranoid for the rest of my run-through, I kind of liked how I wasn’t sure.
I only played through one route, but the ending I got was beautifully designed. There’s so much movement and life that I can’t describe without doing it justice, and I’m glad they waited until the end to animate so much. I truly enjoyed every second of this visual novel, and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t even enjoy sci-fi. The achievement I unlocked when finishing tells me there’s more than one epilogue to explore. And because I can’t help myself, I took a little peek at the four achievements I’ve yet to unlock, and I definitely need to play this game again with different choices.
With Stories from Sol said to be part of a bigger universe, our first protagonist’s story was an amazing first entry to whatever Space Colony Studios has planned for the future.
Inanna played Stories From Sol: Gun-Dog on PC with a provided review copy.
