Necrobarista

I feel like a heel giving Necrobarista a thumbs down, but it's just so... boring. You can tell that a lot of love and passion went into the game, and it is definitely gorgeous to look at. The graphics are top-notch for a VN, the camera angles are fantastic and really make the environment come alive. But the story? Dear lord, this is the most white bread slice of life I ever read. I just finished playing 10 minutes ago and can barely tell you anything that happened because pretty much nothing happened. There is a café that acts as a sort of purgatory before spirits move on. There is a woman who works there who is an alchemist or something, and a kid who builds robots, and an old gold miner, and Ned Kelly for some reason, and some new guy arrives who seems to be the protagonist, but then after the second episode he just becomes another side character, and there's a teen couple who fall in love and a cocktail waitress and a yakuza boss and it's all set in Melbourne and three crab robots talk about sushi in between scenes and, like, sorry for spoilers but that's the whole game. I mean, to be fair, there is some progression in the characters by the end, but despite the potential of this diverse and wacky cast, we learn so little about them that it's hard to care. They all speak in the same florid style, as if they're trying to pad out the word count of an essay instead of communicate their emotions. Perhaps I missed a bunch of subtext, but it all came across as vapid and inauthentic to me. VNs are supposed to make you feel something! Oh well. I hope the developers keep at it because they clearly have a gift for art direction, but even on sale I can't really recommend buying this unless you only care about the art.

Not really a 'game' per se, so if you are expecting gameplay or a loop, you will probably be disappointed. If you like an interesting story with chill music, interesting characters, quirky graphics, with multiple side stories, aka a visual novel, then absolutely get it.

An amazing game, with excellent cinematography, soundtrack and story. Seriously, just beautiful.

cool story I like it. Chay and Kishan are really compelling characters!

One of a kind. Sound track absolutely slapped, story slapped. 10/10 Banger and i know bangers

You *might* like it. To be perfectly clear, this is a pure visual novel—there is no real "game loop", just a number of chapters with some optional dialogue. I like the premise quite a bit, but the storytelling was a bit aimless and dry, and what's worse, the save system seems to be malfunctioning. I couldn't create any new bookmarks. It is not at all clear when one chapter ends and another begins, either. There's a little bit of first-person mode in it, walking around the café looking for "memories", but I found this to be a little dry too. Perhaps things get more interesting after that; but I wouldn't know, it just wasn't landing for me after the first thirty minutes. To be clear, I've requested a refund, and got it on sale; I definitely do not recommend it for the full amount. Honestly I think it might do better as an actual comic book or cartoon.

I haven't read this much since 7th grade. The greatest collection of millennial jokes.

I'M... I'M NOT CRYING.,.. YOU'RE CRYING!!!