Short visual novel reveiws

Gameplay:

The gameplay is still very basic, but it does get a little bit harder than you would expect and will throw you for a loop. The ending was legitimately a challenge to beat and it took me a long time to figure it out. The art was generally ok, but I felt like the sprites for the characters were a little bit lacking in these chapters until the end. I did not like the Roxy and Jane ones very much sadly.

Story:

The story was really good and I was impressed at some of the things they decided to do with these chapters. I knew ultimate Dirk would show up, but I wasn’t expecting Candy Dave to show up or Alpha Rose. The ending where one of the creators puts themselves into the story in a Hussie like style was fun and cool, definitely a good throwback to the original comic. I like how they play with the idea of canon and fanon in game and talk about how each reader’s interpretation is important and valuable. I’m not sure if this is where it is going to end or not (I don’t know if there will be Cherubs)  but if it did I would be satisfied with it.

Characters:

I felt like the game generally did a very good job with it’s characters. It even got my interest and pulled me into caring about my least favorite character from the original comic (Roxy) which is a hard thing to do. This volume also had two of my favorites in it (Jake and ultimate Dirk) so I greatly enjoyed it. Speaking of Jake, I really think that the fact that trying to help him turns into a nonsensical mess is perfect and I just have to draw attention to it here. Jane’s route was solid and about what I was expecting from her. No surprises really, but Jane is always a fun character so it was still good. I like how Dirk’s route explored many sides to who he is and who he the potential to be. I have always generally liked three out of four of the alphas a lot and I liked them here too. I feel like these chapters added a lot of depth that was greatly needed.

Conclusion:

Gameplay

The gameplay is basic for this game. The options are easy enough to pick through and not very hard. The art is unique and interesting and the music for the game was made by Toby Fox.

Story

The story for this game is pretty solid. A lot of the routes have complexity to them and there is even one character who is unable to have a fully happy ending and no matter which one you get it will still be bittersweet because it is realistic for him to pick his country over you. The game is not completely deadpan serious though and it does have its funny moments here and there, adding more to the game in my opinion by blending humor in well.

Characters

The characters for this game are very well written and interesting. There is always more than one layer to every single one and they are very unique. Going through each route and seeing everyone’s story that they have to tell is very exciting and fun.

Conclusion

Gameplay

The gameplay does not differ too much from the previous section of the game, but there is slightly more interaction to be had (like naming your character Terezi in Vriska’s route for example). There are more secret endings to be had in this part than in the previous one. It also gets a little bit harder and you will not be winning on your first try as much anymore. The artwork is still very good.

Story

The story starts to also get a little bit more complex, throwing back references to Friendsim and implying that there is something much deeper going on than just a fun fluff storyline for you to enjoy. I greatly wish to see how they play on certain things in the chapters to come. The story also does get darker, allowing you to actually die in more of the endings and dealing with certain problems the trolls have.

Characters

I like how this game dives a lot more deeper into characters from the original comic that did not get nearly enough screen time and lets you explore who they are on a deeper level. It actually made me end up liking some of the characters I was previously bored by in the original comic and made me really get invested. I also like how it does not ignore the character’s negative qualities and displays them along with the positive ones.

Conclusion

Gameplay

The gameplay is basic. You click options and do things. It isn’t very hard because there are not too many endings to get. The artwork is good.

Story

The story is very poorly done. All it is is a bunch of rushed small scenes for plot and then sex scene piled on top of sex scene awkwardly like you would expect from just plain porn in a non visual novel form. This isn’t even well done however since you can’t even see all of it and you are left just reading about the majority of it. Weird terms for dicks are also used. The writing for this game is by far the worst I have ever seen on Steam first hand. I’m sure there are worse written games out there, but I have not played them yet luckily. If there is a game with worse writing than this, then I really don’t want to play it.

Characters

The characters are actually very well designed and there is a lot of wasted potential plot wise because of this. They did have the potential to really go somewhere if the people who made this game had decided to put any work into their writing beyond basic character design.

Conclusion

Gameplay

There are a good amount of choices in this game and there are 22 endings. That being said, it isn’t very hard to get all of the endings and it is also very hard to die in this game, not counting the two endings that could be considered “bad” if you do not want your character to be evil that involve running off with either the dragon or Loric. Some routes may go into places that look the same but different events will unfold which is a really nice surprise. The artwork is generally pretty good, but there were a few moments when the characters ended up looking kind of awkward at times.

Story

The story is reminiscent of a D&D campaign. It has a very typical fantasy plot where you and your companion in a part of two are trying to find people and rescue them from orcs, but you get into more adventures and encounter more characters and monsters you have to outwit or fight along the way. It has a basic premise but it is done very well.

Characters

Most of the characters in this game have minimal backstories because they do not appear for long, but this is fine as the focus of the game is mostly the adventure anyway. That being said, the characters are well built to fit the theme of the game so they do the job. The one character you do get to know a little bit more is your elf companion, but he is the main romance option and you end up with him in almost every ending so this makes sense.

Conclusion

Gameplay

The gameplay is ok. Aside from trying to figure things out and talk to the two other characters there isn’t really much else you do. You will probably die the first time around, but it gets easier to figure out after that. The artwork is decent.

Story

The story is ok, but it is way too short. It makes you feel like there is going to be more than there actually is there. The biggest positive thing about the story is that for your first play though there is this air of mystery where you aren’t quite sure whats going on or what to do. This feeling fades a little bit though after the big twist about the doppelganger is revealed and the game keeps going. After you beat it, going back to get other endings isn’t really rewarding since most of the deaths don’t add anything the main ending doesn’t give you already.

Characters

By definition, the only way to play the game is to get to know the characters in it. It’s how you win it in the end. Because it’s all about figuring out what’s real and not real. The characters are still kind of basic, but it works for what it is.

Conclusion

Gameplay:

The artwork is so bad that it looks like it was drawn using a how to draw anime book. The nsfw parts were no exception to this and I laughed so hard at the fail vagina that looked like it had a tornado coming out of it that the person in the room next to me actually ran over to see if I was ok. I actually really liked the music for the game for the most part (especially Jake’s theme) even though I’m pretty sure it was off of a free music site. The sad music when the main character isn’t getting nudes is well....it adds a special comedic effect. The gameplay was super basic and a lot of the parts looped back around. There are only a few bad endings and it’s hard to lose.

Story:

The story follows the main character who is a loser wizard in training as he goes on a journey to get nudes from his teacher. The plot gets very over the top and silly at times involving things like a random drug dealer, dying by walking into a room, and going to Africa randomly and almost getting killed by a magical lion. It is all over the place.

Characters:

The main character is accurate to what he is probably supposed to be. He is gross, unlikable, and is obsessed with getting nudes. The rest of the characters are just kind of there really. The librarian just randomly fucks someone in the back closet and it is never mentioned again. The teacher character is very confusing and seems to just be there for the main character to eventually have sex with. They play her up as lazy, but she ends up being super one dimensional and she seems to just do things randomly for no reason because the story can.

Conclusion:

Gameplay:

The gameplay is ok, but nothing groundbreaking. It involves clicking on some background things that you might miss the first time, but that is basically all you have to do. The artwork is good and shifts depending on the reality of the world.

Story:

The story for this game is really good and it makes you think about how we perceive our senses of self online. It really gets into what really makes up a person. There are also vague elements of eldritch horror which is interesting when you combine it with the cyberpunk base for the story. The game brings to mind reading a really well written creepypasta late at night.

Characters:

The characters are not incredibly detailed in this story because it is mostly driven by the world and the mysteries surrounding it, but they are still well done and decent. The main character is someone where it is unclear if he wanted to do good in the end or just wanted to do something to ease his boredom, which is an interesting thing to have in a main character.

Conclusion:

Gameplay:

The gameplay was basic. You click things and move forward. There are chapters. You probably want to do the chapters in order so things make sense. The artwork is pretty good. It is cartoonish and fits. I wish there were more options and endings.

Story:

The story is decent. It has kind of a shitpost feeling to it, but that is kind of what Homestuck has in general so it isn’t bad and it does flow. I like how the MC existing at all is treated like a conflict. The ending to chapter 4 genuinely made me happy in a touching way though.

Characters:

These are pretty much just the same characters from Homestuck, but they are well portrayed here.

Conclusion:

Gameplay:

Like the first game, the game is challenging and you will die a lot. But there are even more endings and there is even more content this time. There are even really fun hidden secrets in the game this time around like the cellphone on the table, unlocking Ren’s route, Vincent’s desk, and having to die to get Lawrence’s best ending locking back into the themes of life and death in his route perfectly. There are also bonus things for unlocking all endings such as scenes showing character relationships that you didn’t see coming and of course....the famous dick picture for Lawrence if you want it (because it is basically a meme at this point). This game has the challenging mechanics of the first game and rewards you even more for going the extra mile. The artwork is also better than it was in the first game and some of it is legitimately amazing even if there are a few rough patches here and there.

Story:

Parts of the story still fall kind of flat, but in this game they at least change it up a little bit. You can actually turn the tables on some of your captors and be the bad guy if you want to. Lawrence’s route is beautifully written and shows someone that is struggling between life and death and slowly losing their sanity along the way since they can’t be either one. There are also more obvious fetish related scenes in this game though like a certain one in Vincent’s route so take that as you will. This is still a NSFW game after all.

Characters:

There is no Strade in this game. Unless of course, you count the dead Strade in the freezer. All of the characters are at least decent if not very well written. Vincent is the least well written of them because he is actually Akira and I wish they had just made another character instead of giving memory issues to an already existing one and getting rid of what used to be Akira and he is a little too edgy in my opinion, but he is still ok and not nearly as badly written as Strade. Lawrence is the best written character for reasons stated above and this review really can’t do his route justice or put into words everything about him.He is clearly the best written character in the game though, I can say that much.

Conclusion:

Gameplay:

It is very basic, but it is also time consuming to get all of the endings and unlock what I would consider to be the second half of the game. The skills mechanic is very interesting.

The art is photos of birds mixed with backgrounds and various things, but the style works really well and it is good.

Story:

The story for this game is absolutely incredible and blew me away. It had me in tears at certain points. It deceives you into thinking that it’s going to be a silly joke game with birbs (with the exception of a handful of the character endings that give you a small taste of what you are in for), and then it completely flips itself around and becomes a much darker and much more serious game.

It caught me off guard when the MC literally dies at the beginning of the second half of the game. That is something that I have pretty much never seen done in a VN before. The second half of the game gives you satisfying answers to all of the questions you have already been asking and much more. It explores a lot of characters on a deeper level and it shows that even managed to humanize (or birdize in this case I guess?) a character like Shuu who seems like a completely irredeemable villain.

Characters:

The characters are very well done and it’s incredible that the game lets you see all the characters in as much depth as is does, even if some of them only really show who they really are in the second half of the game. All of them tie into the story at the end and all of them are important.

Conclusion:

Gameplay:

This is a horror game that plays like a very challenging dating sim because it is part dating sim. The use of the health and sanity bars is fun. It is very hard to tell in a lot of cases what will get you killed and what won’t, so it really makes you go back and learn everything and feels really rewarding when you do get survival endings. It’s also worth it to go back and get bad endings so you can find out more about the characters. There are only 3 routes though and it does leave you wanting more. The artwork can also seem kind of awkward at times and it is not always as visually appealing as one would like.

Story:

The story is the game’s weakest point. It is inconsistent and the plots are all “this character kidnapped you for their own “personal use”, try not to die” in some form or another. Not much else to say here. It is a porn plot and therefore mostly not very good.

Characters:

As far as main route characters go, it has one really well written character, one decent character, and one really badly written character. The side characters are all pretty decent and one of them is even able to be romanced (even if you don’t live). Rire is the best written since he is unpredictable and will piss the player off in all the right ways. He is smug and cunning, always a step ahead of you. Even when you beat him you still don’t win. He has the most fun and unique personality. Stade was very badly written and his route took a lot away from the game for me. He is someone right out of a slasher movie and he isn’t very creative. Everything he does is super predictable even if it might not be easy to win with him. He is basically just a bunch of slasher movie tropes in one character. Sano is a decent character that is interesting enough and cool for the right kind of player.

Conclusion: