First look: Valiant Hearts for iOS explores World War I's human side via puzzles, love letters, and cartoon visuals
Whatever platform players choose to experience it on, Valiant Hearts: The Great War does a nice job of telling a personal and engaging story using a large setting that really hasn't been explored like this in an interactive medium. However, as with making the game feel universal to all players, Ubisoft Montpellier opted not to be heavy-handed with any sort of message or grand takeaway.
"We wanted to make sure that the game had no judgment on what happened in the war--even the ending--so we didn't want to force the player to specifically think about something at the end," says Fanise. "There's no real moral message. We don't want you to think about something being bad or good."
Still, while they didn't want players to depart the adventure with a definitive perspective supplied by the narrative, Fanise says the team is glad that players are thinking critically about the war, and conflict in general. Some players have written in to say they've played the console or PC version in front of their kids, which helped facilitate discussion on the merits of war and whether they would serve if needed.
"Even if it's a comic-style presentation of war, we are very happy that people are thinking seriously about war," Fanise adds. "In the end, I think we achieved the goal we had to make people think about it and ask questions of themselves."