10.9 hours played
Written 1 year and 8 months ago
It's times like these where I miss star rating systems. A binary choice of recommendation just doesn't cut it sometimes. If you ask me if I recommend this VN, it's a clear "Eh, maybe." So, let's go into some detail.
[h2]Story[/h2]
+ The mystery is pretty well done, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's nothing too original, but I enjoy stories like these.
+ I also like how the VN shows different sides to the same story in the different routes.
- While the first half of the routes do a great job at building tension, the second half usually fails to do so. The story is over mere minutes after the plot twist has been revealed.
- After reading one or two routes, the rest of them barely contain any more surprises. It's just the same thing happening in different settings.
- Even having read all routes, the real nature of the mystery is only revealed on a superficial level, leaving open quite a few questions. This may be intentional, but it leaves a bad aftertaste.
[h2]Characters[/h2]
+ The characters have unique personalities and are quite likable. Of course, you got your typical stereotypes, but they're well executed.
- Unfortunately, the VN doesn't take the time to build an actual connection to those characters. The horror part of the story starts very early, leaving the character development behind. Due to this, the impact of the things happening just falls flat. When a character dies, I want to be in despair instead of being like "Oh too bad, they were nice" and moving on. For a self proclaimed Utsuge, the VN does a pretty poor job at making me cry. (For the uninitiated: "Utsuge" means "depressing game", one designed to make you cry).
[h2]UI[/h2]
It pains me to say that this is the point that tipped the scale towards me not recommending this VN. There are so many technical issues! It really puts a damper on the enjoyment of the story. Here's a few examples:
[list]
[*]The settings menu only works partially. Aside from the fact that the sliders are hard to handle in general, some of them simply stop being functional after saving once. I had to go into the settings file to achieve my desired settings.
[*]The log starts at the beginning of the scene, making it an ordeal to reread later passages
[*]QOL: I can't hide the textbox to view a Scene or CG in it's entirety
[*]There is one instance where you are unable to skip text, which is being shown with a short message in the middle of the screen. If you happen to save before the message disappeared and reload the save at a later time, the text is still there [b]and will never disappear![/b] It will stay there until the end of the game, unless you reload an earlier save.
[*]Apparently there were some erotic scenes that have been removed for Steam. That in itself is not the problem, I don't care much for those anyway. But please, don't just disable the choice to enter those scenes, remove the choice entirely! And way more important, remove those scenes from the Gallery! It's impossible to have a complete gallery now! It just makes the VN feel incomplete, as if it was still in Early Access.
[/list]
Come on, you're not an AAA publisher, so don't ship buggy games! 🙃
[h2]Conclusion[/h2]
It [b]is[/b] a decent VN, but it has quite a few flaws and the technical issues certainly don't make it any better. I wouldn't buy it in it's current state for this price (except I already have lmao), but it's up to your decision if you're interested enough in the story to pay it.
