Ciel Fledge: A Daughter Raising Simulator

Genre: Simulation / Visual Novel / Misc.

Players: 1

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Review:

Ciel Fledge, released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2019, is an odd combination of elements that includes Visual Novel and Puzzle game elements, but it is mostly a Simulation style game that has you managing the schedule of a young girl to balance out the various demands of life as well as ensure her proper development within a post-apocalyptic sci-fi world.

The presentation here is a mix of good and bad. On the one hand, I like the hand-drawn 2D characters, although they’re not especially detailed or elaborate in their design. On the other hand, the way the different visual elements here are sorta’ slapped-together feels awkward and amateurish. Often characters who are talking will slide into and out of frame, which is fine, but they will do so very, very slowly, which not only drags down the experience but looks extraordinarily odd and at times makes me wonder if the game is broken. Also, the extremely long loading times contribute to this feeling of the game being seemingly broken at times.

While the idea of a scheduling Simulation style of game isn’t terrible, Ciel Fledge does little to make this compelling. You set up the schedule prior to each week, but outside of the various stats in question, you’re not given much reason to see any of these stats as anything more than a number. Perhaps it influences the story, I don’t know, but if so, the connection to the gameplay is not at all easy to see.

The Puzzle game elements are also somewhat inexplicable. You’re guided through the game’s color-matching Puzzle system early on, but not given any real feel for there being any sort of depth or nuance to it. It’s kinda’ hard to say conclusively though – seemingly every part of this game is “explained” through a lengthy tutorial that overloads the player with text but doesn’t really ensure that the player understands the concepts it is trying to convey. And for a game that is often so simple it becomes boring, this game seems to do it’s darndest to overcomplicate things.

Then there’s the story. This story depicts a post-apocalyptic humanity surviving in flying cities and has the player’s character taking in a mysterious refugee from another city that was lost to a mysterious explosion. It’s a decent premise, but the intriguing elements are nullified by the stilted and contrived dialogue.

It’s unfortunate that so many of Ciel Fledge’s ideas fail to come together properly, because some of these ideas are fairly unique and interesting, but they’re absolutely ruined by terrible execution that makes the gameplay tedious, slow-paced, and over-complicated, and takes the interesting story elements and makes them hard to feel invested in. There’s not much else on the Nintendo Switch quite like Ciel Fledge, but even so it’s hard to recommend this game.

tl;dr – Ciel Fledge is a combination of various genres but is mostly a Simulation that has you managing the schedule of a young girl you’re raising. Unfortunately, the mechanics are alternately bland and over-complicated, and the presentation and story are often awkward and unnatural, making this a difficult game to get invested in no matter which way you come at it.

Grade: D+

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