i have so much thoughts and feelings about this game, i will try to make sense but won't promise anything. tldr: i think this game achieves everything it sets out to perfectly; the gameplay is fun though hard at times, it enriches how you see the whole game; it's beautiful in art and music.
at first i thought that i wouldn't like a card game, but i saw a few people recommend it, and decided to give it a try. first time i liked it a lot, and saw a lot of replayability potential. a few months later i played it again, and then again, and i will play it more. i noticed more and more how interesting the world is, which makes me try my best to try to get to know all of the characters and communities over the course of several playthroughs.
the gameplay is amazing. the choices you make affect your experience A Lot. and the conversation mechanics are unique because you cannot just choose the best answer, you have to struggle and be careful to connect to other people and gain their trust and friendship. and at the same time it doesn't feel like you're playing against them, just as you're trying, you can see that these people are making an effort to connect to you too. and if you don't succeed it's not always because you said the wrong things, sometimes it's because you're very different, or it's just your bad luck today, or they're distressed and you don't have the right thing to say to them. it feels so real, and it works incredibly well with the overall feeling of this game.
the characters are very diverse in design, culture, character, identities, values etc. all of the locations and their communities are unique and alive too, and soundtracks add to their atmosphere. i also loved the cooperation and kindness themes in this game. even when there's injustice and inequality, the game doesn't focus only on the bad. instead of the usual gritty powerless and hopeless anti-capitalist narrative, i would call this a pro-worker narrative. people care about each other, they help and comfort each other in time of need, they fight together.
i haven't seen everything this game has to offer, and maybe i never will, because i am human and i make mistakes in conversations, and that's okay. but all of the time i've spent playing signs of the sojourner was worth it. i found it just challenging enough, fun, exciting, touching, healing, inspiring.
10/10, easily made it's way to the list of my favorite games. i know i will think about it a lot, and i will not shut up about it to my friends so they play it too.