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After seven years of development, indie visual novel game The Hayseed Knight is now available in full for PC on both Steam and Itch.io.
Helmed by solo developer Maxi Molina, the game follows a one-eyed farm boy called Ader as he pursues his personal quest to become the most celebrated knight in Acazhor – a fictional kingdom inspired by the Muslim-ruled regions of medieval Spain.
The narrative was greatly influenced by the Picaresque literary genre, a storytelling tradition rooted in Spanish culture that depicts a plucky adventurer overcoming one scrape after another. It features an intriguing mix of comedy, romance, and more serious moments too, with your decisions affecting the overall trajectory of the story.
Rather unusually for an indie title, The Hayseed Knight is also fully voice-acted and absolutely bursting with gorgeous hand-drawn animation. This allows scenes to unfold in an almost cartoon-like fashion and you can see some of the animation for yourself in an animated trailer that debuted alongside the full release.
It contains five chapters (in addition to small epilogues) that are estimated to take around 20 hours to complete in total, with potential for further playthroughs in order to discover all three major endings.
Development first began in 2017, with the game entering Steam early access and receiving major updates on a chapter-by-chapter basis. A recent Steam post outlines some of the biggest changes in the full version, including the release of the final chapter plus plenty of overhauls and improved illustrations throughout. The post also describes this release as “the last big update” providing there isn’t “anything failing catastrophically and needing patches.”
In line with Molina’s aim to offer “newcomers a chance to add a high-profile paid project to their resume,” the voice cast includes actors with a wide range of experience levels. In addition to the voice actors, all external contributors including musicians, translators, and consultants are credited in the game no matter the scope of their work – which is certainly commendable.
If you’re looking for some other great games to play, why not check out our guides to the best dating games and the best LGBTQ+ dating sim games.