We've documented 18 accessibility features for The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, including Fully Voiced (Or No Speech), Select Difficulty, Play Without Sight, Colour Blind Friendly and Audible Directional Cues. Its accessibility is strongest in Getting Started and Visual but it also has features in Navigation, Difficulty, Reading, Controls and Audio to reduce unintended barriers.
This report is created with input from accessibility experts and the player community to help people find games that have the accessibility features they require. Once you have found potential games on the database, there are excellent specialist accessibility sites that offer in-depth reviews to guide your purchasing decisions.
Play involves exploring the world using only sound to guide you. You use the spatial audio of the world to make your way around, meet people, fight enemies and slowly learn new abilities. The game is fully voiced and offers an impressive sound stage. Combat and exploration is intuitive and in real-time.
Our accessibility examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked The Vale: Shadow of the Crown accessibility 2 years ago.
Game Details
Release Date: 19/08/2021
Out Now: PC and Xbox One
Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds
Players: 1
Genres: Fighting, Role-Play (Action, Adventure and Narrative)
Accessibility: 18 features
Components: 2D Overhead, Day and Night, Hand-Made and Open World
Developer: Falling Squirrel (@FallingSquirrel)
Costs: Purchase cost
Controls
We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Controls in The Vale: Shadow of the Crown which deals with how you control the game, different options for alternative inputs and whether you can remap these settings to suit your needs.
Gamepad
Can play with the following:
Multiple Buttons & Two Sticks: Can play with multiple buttons and two sticks.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Controls
If you want to play The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, but it doesn't offer the Controls accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Controls accessibility:
- Frog's Princess (11 Controls Features)
- Ord (6 Controls Features)
- Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind (6 Controls Features)
- Audio Wizards (5 Controls Features)
Difficulty
We've documented 2 accessibility features for Difficulty in The Vale: Shadow of the Crown which deal with how you can adjust the challenge of play, and whether this is locked once chosen or can be adjusted as you play.
Difficulty Options
Select Difficulty: Select the level of difficulty from a range of presets. This not only offers a way to adjust the challenge of a game but enables you to do so without dealing with individual criteria.
Adjust After Setting
Adjustable Anytime: You can adjust the difficulty while playing, without having to restart the level you are on. This enables you to quickly adjust the game to suit your needs and see the difference immediately.
Getting Started
We've documented 6 accessibility features for Getting Started in The Vale: Shadow of the Crown which deal with what support is offered to get started with the game. This includes customising the experience when you first open the game via any onboarding processes it provides as well as tutorials and other assistance when you first start playing.
Onboarding Before Play
Before you are presented with the home screen, onboarding settings aim to aid you accessing the menus you need to adjust the game to your requirements. They can also provide an easier way of turning on important adjustments without digging through menus.
Onboarding: The first time you open the game, you are asked to confirm options for control, navigation and accessibility settings. Games can differ in what they present at this stage, but will count for this, provided they include a streamlined onboarding process.
Sightless Onboarding: For games playable without sight, the first time you open the game, all menu options and explanations are narrated by default and menus are controlled via a button or stick presses rather than an analogue cursor. This enables blind players without sight to get ready to play.
Low Vision Onboarding: The first time you open the game, the default text is high contrast and font size is at least 1/20 (46 pixels on 1080 screen) the height of the screen and in an easy to read font. This enables legally blind visually impaired players to get ready to play.
Assistance Getting Starting
These features aid your play of the game in terms of cognitive load on learning controls, dealing with pressure and coping with the environment and challenges.
Tutorials: There are helpful tutorials and instructions on how to play. Information is provided in a timely manner, with appropriate level of detail.
Practice Area: You can practice freely without opponents or time pressures. This can be a specific practice option, or the ability to play levels with the easiest opponents to improve understanding and skill.
View Control Mapping: You can view a map of controls during play. This clearly displays the mappings of actions to buttons/keys/mouse/keyboard without having to leave the game. This includes games that always display buttons to press during play.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Getting Started
If you want to play The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:
- Frog's Princess (8 Getting Started Features)
- Lost and Hound (8 Getting Started Features)
- Frequency Missing (7 Getting Started Features)
Reading
We've documented 2 accessibility features for Reading in The Vale: Shadow of the Crown which deal with how much reading or listening comprehension is required, how well the game provides visual and audible access to the text and whether subtitles and captions are a good fit for purpose.
Reading Level
How much reading is required to play the game's main path or story and how complex the language is. The presence of voiced characters doesn't reduce this requirement, as it's recorded as a separate datapoint.
Moderate Reading: Moderate reading required. The quantity and complexity of reading are at a level that a high school student (14-year-old) would appreciate.
Voice Acted
All Dialogue is Voice Acted (Or No Speech In Game): All of the game dialogue and narrative can be voiced, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to read the dialogue and narrative text to play the game.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Reading
If you want to play The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, but it doesn't offer the Reading accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Reading accessibility:
- Blind Spot (6 Reading Features)
- The Kingdom of Istyald (6 Reading Features)
- Frog's Princess (5 Reading Features)
- Alt-Frequencies (5 Reading Features)
Navigation
We've documented 4 accessibility features for Navigation in The Vale: Shadow of the Crown which deal with how the game provides guidance and assistance to navigate its worlds. These are only for games that have traversal and exploration in 2D and 3D spaces.
Clarity
Audible Directional Cues: Additional in-game audio cues that indicate where to go next and how close you are to arriving. This is offered as a sonar-style ping with positional/stereo audio and volume to guide you in the right direction. This is useful for blind players.
Head-Up Display
Head-Up Display Narrated: Key information displayed via text or icons is narrated. This enables the player to know their health, weapons, ammunition and other items without reading the head-up display.
Menu Navigation
Menu Narrated: All of the game menus can be narrated for easier navigation. The game menus can therefore be navigated without reading text.
Game Choices Narrated: Player choices through textual user interface are narrated. This enables selections such as dialogue, weapon-choice or character upgrades to be made without reading text.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Navigation
If you want to play The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, but it doesn't offer the Navigation accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Navigation accessibility:
- Audio Wizards (6 Navigation Features)
- Lost and Hound (6 Navigation Features)
Visual
We've documented 5 accessibility features for Visual in The Vale: Shadow of the Crown which deal with how you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.
Narration for Visual Elements
This is the audible narration of in-game text. Sometimes talk about as Text To Speech, although it may include the narration of no-textual elements. This is different to Text To Voice, which provides player-player textual communication audibly.
Menu Narrated: All of the game menus can be narrated for easier navigation. The game menus can therefore be navigated without reading text.
Game Choices Narrated: Player choices through textual user interface are narrated. This enables selections such as dialogue, weapon-choice or character upgrades to be made without reading text.
Head-Up Display Narrated: Key information displayed via text or icons is narrated. This enables the player to know their health, weapons, ammunition and other items without reading the head-up display.
Colour Options
Colour Blind Friendly: Game doesn’t rely on colour or can switch to colour blind friendly mode with double coding or similar way to avoid colour dependance.
Play Without Sight
Play Without Sight: The game can be played without sight. Positional/stereo sounds and haptic feedback enable play without the need to see the screen. This is useful for blind low-vision and sightless players.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Visual
If you want to play The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, but it doesn't offer the Visual accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Visual accessibility:
- Lost and Hound (10 Visual Features)
- Frog's Princess (9 Visual Features)
- Ord (8 Visual Features)
- Frequency Missing (8 Visual Features)
Audio
We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Audio in The Vale: Shadow of the Crown which deals with how you can adjust the audio of the game and whether audio cues compensate for aspects of the game that are hard to see.
Adjustable Audio
Balance Audio Levels: Set music and game sound effects separately. This enables you to select your preference as well as ensure critical game sounds aren't obscured by other audio.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Audio
If you want to play The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, but it doesn't offer the Audio accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Audio accessibility:
- Lost and Hound (4 Audio Features)
- Frog's Princess (3 Audio Features)
- The Kingdom of Istyald (3 Audio Features)
- Audio Wizards (2 Audio Features)
System Accessibility Settings
In addition to the accessibility features provided in the game, you can also use system-wide accessibility settings:
PC
Windows has extensive accessibility features. Some, like colour correction, work with games. Lots of accessibility software can be used with PC games, from voice recognition to input device emulators.
Xbox One
Xbox One has a system features, the excellent co-pilot share controls mode and adaptive controller support for all games.
Read more about system accessibility settings.
Accessibility Report supported by VSC Rating Board, PlayabilityInitiative and accessibility contributors Andy Robertson