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A Story of a Company Review: Not Your Average Office
8K View2022-06-22If you've ever worked an office job, you're probably familiar with the office politics, gossip, drama, and maybe even the occasional romance. Now imagine your colleagues are a sheep, a reindeer, a doberman, and a fox working together at a prestigious pharmaceutical enterprise (and who hasn’t?), and you've got A Story of a Company.
Developed by Buff Studio, this message-based interactive novel tells the story of everyday animal/human hybrids at the office. Being a fan of interactive stories, I wanted to see what office hijinks A Story of a Company had to offer. Surely a fox and sheep wouldn’t be able to coexist in an office environment! What I got was an easygoing, feel-good interactive experience.
A Story of a Company is a chapter-based visual novel that puts you into the shoes of Howl, an average Joe type struggling with the commonplace issues of questioning his significance on the team and wondering if what he does is even worth it. In that way, I think most of us can relate to this “hero,” assuming you’ve ever worked a job that your heart wasn’t necessarily in, but you needed the cash. Throughout the story, you'll witness heartwarming moments and funny scenes, with each chapter consisting of several segments in Howl's day—from the morning commute to the lunch break right up to the end of the day. These segments generally end in a chapter cliffhanger to keep you coming back for more. If you're thinking to yourself that this setup sounds as mundane as your typical day at work, you're not wrong.
This is where the charm in A Story of a Company lies. I could've easily considered this game a snoozefest from the title chapters alone. In the segment entitled “Morning Meeting,” for example, one of the biggest sources of drama was that a glass of water almost spilled, then a pen almost fell to the floor, then a phone. Despite the humdrum scenarios and the occasional typo (check out the image below), the interaction between the characters through the charming dialogue kept me invested. Each character has a defined personality with likes and hobbies, and I couldn't help but smile while reading the text.
A Story of a Company builds on that charm by offering choices that affect your relationships. There are a lot of interactive titles out there with branching stories that leads to hundreds of endings. This game doesn't offer that level of intricacy. Generally, I only had two to three choices at my disposal when a choice popped up. And although each choice affected my relationship with a respective character, I would have liked to see more variation in the style of choices. For example, it would've been nice to see some timed choices to keep me engaged in the story, especially during the moments where response time is a factor in the events playing out.
Still, A Story of a Company adds meaning to these choices by keeping a record of friend points gathered with each character, which apparently opens up new opportunities and potential endings. I say apparently because I'm not sure if the friendship point system is only there to give the illusion of new endings. I wasn’t able to unlock any different conclusions myself, but I know this tally of my friendships kept me invested. I definitely tried building my friendship with my favorite character, Shuck, a doberman, whose introduction reads, “I didn't get to become the assistant manager through hard work. ‘hard work’ has never been my thing. I think it's stupid.” Yeah...we all have people like that in our office.
The hand-drawn art style was an added bonus. Part of the allure of A Story of a Company is the collection system. I didn't find the unlockable achievements particularly brag-worthy, but the art gallery, which highlights the funnier moments of the story, caught my attention.
There are two versions of A Story of a Company—a paid version, which removes all advertisements, and a free version. When I started playing the free version of the game, the constant bombardment of ads at the bottom of my screen was annoying. It even got in the way of the text at times. After playing a bit, though, the ads became less noticeable. A Story of a Company does a good job of letting you play a fair bit before throwing an ad in your face after every choice. It's not the most aggressive monetization scheme I've seen in a game of this type.
By no means do I think A Story of a Company is the greatest interactive novel I've ever played. That said, it offers likable characters and nice visuals for a casual game. The multiple endings—assuming they’re really there somewhere!—provide a reason to keep playing. Plus It's simple enough to play casually; I really appreciated the auto-scroll feature, which allowed me to multitask by eating dinner and playing the game simultaneously. And no...that’s not laziness. It’s efficiency. So if you're looking for a lighter slice-of-life tale, A Story of a Company offers some quality, lighthearted entertainment to pass the time.
SCORE: 3 STARS OUT OF 5
PLAY IF YOU LIKE:
• Underworld Office. If you like other Buff Studio interactive titles like Underworld Office, you should check out Story Of A Company.
• Multiple endings (I think!). If you like a game with lots of replay value, this title offers multiple interactions and paths you'll want to explore.
If you've played A Story of a Company and want to share your thoughts, let us know in the comments below!
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"we all have people like that in our office." Why are you calling me out like this in your article?!
2022-06-22
Author likeduh oh! :)
2022-06-24
Lol loved this part: "I really appreciated the auto-scroll feature, which allowed me to multitask by eating dinner and playing the game simultaneously. And no...that’s not laziness. It’s efficiency."
2022-06-22
Author likedalready collected all endings but I haven't seen the secret bonus route yet. been lazy and also looking for clues in the internet but I guess there aren't that many ppl playing it sadge
2022-06-26
Author liked