Recent reviews by Hatzuling

That frog can SING

I haven't been on in a while.
But now I feel like an asshat because I've been recommending it to my friends just to only now find out that duos has been removed. Why do games constantly do this?

Find a better game with duos, or wait until they bring duos back.

I just keep getting better

A really great fresh take on the theme of a visual novel with branching paths, a great read, fantastic storytelling, and an awesome blend of supernatural horror and mystery from multiple perspectives.

Main character was really likable, and the writing is done in a way where everyone is realistic to some extent.

When I thought "Wow this game is probably over soon," that's when the sheep popped up and said "hey, this is the point where you've gotta stop streaming." Which is the equivalent of "Congrats, you've finished the tutorial."

10/10

TL;DR Definitely recommend for anyone who has never played or has only just scratched the surface of Visual Novels. Definitely would not recommend for a Visual Novel Veteran looking for something new.

With that out of the way, allow me to explain. I don't really think the game is underrated or overrated. I've played many visual novels before touching this one, and maybe that's why i simply wasn't impressed by the game.

Visuals 8/10
The art was pretty on point. The background art in particular is pretty beautiful. Not sure if it's all 100% just drawn versions of real locations, but that would make sense. The characters are in full display in the gallery above, so judge them at your own discretion there.

Story 6.5/10
I'd say the execution of the story is what both killed and saved this one. On one hand, it's no secret that there's multiple endings. It's weird because the story is actually exactly the same for about 70-80% of the chapters on all routes, no matter what choices you make, so it's amazing how they managed to do that yet still have all of the endings make sense to an extent. However, the story itself felt lackluster to me and each ending left much to be desired. I'll leave it above 6 because my very first run seemed promising. I had high expectations through and through because the character, world, and storybuilding all seemed to be going somewhere, perhaps like Steins;Gate, which had a very slow buildup. But they didn't, or they just sucked, so this will never go above 6.5 The characters start to get a bit of depth and then it just ends. I heard the new version of this game has extra content at the end of every route, but this is a review for this version of the game.

Music 7/10
There's only 2 tracks I remember. The main theme, and the one where bad things happen. A very simple soundtrack, not a lot of variety, but it gets the job done, and to many it is probably very nice to listen to. Just don't expect anything close to Sawano Hiroyuki level stuff, or Katawa Shoujo's level of emotion.

Characters 5.5/10
Very, very, very, bland characters who betray their own character trope/personality in the blink of an eye at very weird moments, and then just as awkwardly go back into character like they suddenly remembered who they were supposed to be acting as in their school play. The character interaction with the MC is also very frustrating. The characters you "Interrogate" tell you practically 90% of the story and then they'll suddenly go back to "Hm, nevermind. Pretend I didn't say that. That never happened." And that happens in every. single. chapter. (Minus the end chapters). The only reason I keep this above 5 is because the MC feels equally as frustrated. Good on him.

Gameplay 3/10
Here we go. This is the main reason I highly persuade all of the veteran VN players to avoid this mess. To start, the navigation system is absolutely pointless since the game is super linear, and the other locations you can go to during the chapters are just distractions or ways to get you lost, unless you're an achievement hunter. The fact that there's so many dang places to go on the map made it really annoying since I couldn't really remember what some places were called, or that some places like a castle was actually hidden in a "park." Good thing World End Syndrome took note of that and named their places simple things that summarized what the place was, and that game made going to different places purposeful. Did you get triggered when I called the game linear even though there's multiple endings? A fantastic mechanic they implemented in this game is that after you respond to Aya's letters on 2nd playthroughs, you can skip the rest of most chapters. That's right. The story is 100% the same except for the the final couple chapters and the only deciding factor is your past self's replies to Aya's letters from the past, and that is either a budget issue or just the devs/writers being lazy. They could have opted to make a better branching storyline where your choices made at those points I specified, AS WELL AS your choices everywhere else actually matter, but they didn't so I finished the game in literally less than 4 hours. Don't even get me started on the interrogations. What a sad attempt at stealing formats from Danganronpa and Ace Attorney. The interrogations are what made me hate the characters THE MOST because the MC makes pretty sound arguments, exposes their who shebang, MAX mode is beach-episode-filler level content, the characters give you the typical Danganronpa accused reactions, the MC uses the typical Ace Attorney accusations, and when you think it's a done deal, all you get is information you already knew, some character backstory that you probably don't care about, and then you're back to square one because the characters "go back into character" and deny your whole existence. Basically, the "gameplay" they added hurt it as a visual novel. If all they had in the game was just text box decisions and lots of dialogue, that would have been so much better.

So if you actually read this far, you must be thinking I clicked recommend by mistake. It is no mistake. Despite all aspects of this game being pretty flawed (aside from the visuals), you'll notice I referenced other VNs throughout. Again, I've played many, many visual novels, and I know for a fact that made my experience of this game terrible, because I have tasted the forbidden fruit that has spoiled me so. So again, if you are new to the VN genre, please do give this one a try if its story seems to interest you. But VN veterans (especially if you loved the ones I've mentioned), let's just pray Danganronpa 4 or WES 2 come out soon.

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