Chronicles of Tal’Dun: The Remainder - Act 2
If you’ve read my review on Act 1 of this game you know I not only recommend it but love it. It is a truly unique work of art from my perspective. I adore the artwork in this game, the story and the music.
I am only an hour in but like to take my time going slowly through this game.
The character of Ilar is mysterious and compelling as always throughout the game. I enjoy that the game allows the player to choose their own gender and Ilar is also not defined as a gender so it is up to you to determine that for yourself. The game also uses gender-neutral pronouns implemented in a very natural way. Using they/them or xe/xer. I usually don’t mind if a game does determine genders for the player but this was a refreshing take that really, in my opinion, makes the characters more mysterious and wonderful.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best 2D Visual Novel Games.
Flower in the Snow - Resurrection
Flower in the Snow - Resurrection is an adventure, romance visual novel developed by Rainbow Flute Studio and NVLMaker and published by NVLMaker. You take on the role of Red, a bodyguard for hire, and he has been commissioned by Hannah, a servant of the Heinrich noble family, to accompany and protect her master, Lady Claudia Heinrich, as they travel to the north for vacation. What is unusual about this assignment, though, is that nobles usually travel south for the winter. However, Red accepts the assignment, as he wants to earn the money and save enough to build his own home and obtain a peaceful life. What secrets lie where Red and Lady Claudia are going? I’ll end my story synopsis here to avoid spoilers and all that.
– Real player with 9.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best 2D Visual Novel Games.
Gothic 1881
A story with a nice twist in the end, albeit it is short.
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best 2D Story Rich Games.
Utterly Pointless
Gothic 1881 is a very short (less than 2 hours) RPGMaker game that really fails to deliver anything meaningful. For less than $2, I did not expect much, but I have played games that are less than an hour long that have left more of an impact to me than this game does. The ideas are definitely there to be elaborated on, but the overall execution of the ideas is really lackluster and bland. If I had to be perfectly honest, this feels like someone’s college project.
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game
The Little Acre
The Little Acre is one of those games you don’t really want to give a negative review, mainly because of it’s beautifully hand-drawn animations. If there was a ‘mixed’ choice I would have chosen that one.
First of all, the game is really short. I left the game running while doing something else so I can’t say how long it really is but I’m pretty sure it’s less than 2 hours and I did not rush through the game.
A short game does not have to be bad but in this case it does hurt the story. Personally to me it felt like the game was rushed, especially at the end. There are still several things unexplained at the end of the game as well. Voice acting was good enough, not amazing but it didn’t really have to be. I did notice the voice actors got less lines as the story progresses.
– Real player with 6.9 hrs in game
Let me preface this review by saying The Little Acre has tons of charm and care put into it. The animation is all frame by frame and it looks so beautiful, the voice acting is great and the characters are all really likeable. It’s a very lovely game.
Unfortunately it is just too short - your first playthough will probably not last more than one hour and a few minutes. Usually I wouldn’t say a game being short is necessarily a negative aspect, but for an adventure game, and one with big potential such as this, that’s nowhere near enough time for anything to be well developed, as it’s over before you know it. Worse, the gameplay is split between two characters in different situations, so you get even less time and development with each of them.
– Real player with 6.6 hrs in game
Chronicles of Tal’Dun: The Remainder
A stone tower
You’re woken up with no memory of your past by an elegant, enigmatic stranger called Ilar who tells you that a door to the abyss has opened up and threatens to consume you, unless you do exactly as Ilar says.
A magickal mystery
You’re sucked into a vortex of forces beyond your reckoning - dark magick, bizarre artifacts, shadowy stalkers, and a past life you’ve shared with the stranger that they do everything to hide. Armed with the knowledge that you were a High Magus, and that a botched ritual of yours caused the disaster and your amnesia, you must summon your wits, courage, and force of will to rediscover the spell and undo your mistakes.
A treacherous path
Finding the tower’s secrets, however, will not be easy, for they’re locked tight within your research journal, written on scattered letters, and lying between the lines of Ilar’s words.
On top of that, danger waits around every corner - spells that warp your mind and body, sinister creatures who lurk in the dark recesses, and a relationship with Ilar that borders on explosive at times - everything seems to conspire against you.
But all is not lost, for there are fleeting moments of reprieve - an achingly comforting, recovered memory, an unexpected visit from a loyal companion, a touching moment of connection with Ilar - lifelines and breadcrumbs pulling you inexorably toward an unsettling conclusion.
Can you piece together the scattered puzzle of your life? Can you save yourself and Ilar? Can you keep your mind in one piece until the end?
Features
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A Visual Novel with almost 200k words that explores a world of ritual magick, pre-industrial technology, and a culture that marries ancient religions of the orient and occident.
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Be lured into an occult world by artwork made to resemble alchemical manuscripts - intricately hand-drawn with pen and ink, then edited and animated digitally to bring to life.
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Immerse yourself in the haunting soundtrack weaved from organic sounds, ceremonial instruments, ritual chanting, and glitch effects.
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Choose who becomes your friend, enemy, or romantic interest.
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Chronicles of Tal’Dun: The Remainder contains Act 1 to 3!
Highly Likely
This is one of the most tedious, poorly crafted, boring, pointless games I’ve ever played.
The art is phenomenal. The developers' interactions with folks on the internet is disappointing. It’s buggy and slow and repetitive.
There are no puzzles, there’s barely a story, there is no skill involved, it’s poorly translated, it’s a little sexist, and the characters' motivations are all over the map. There’s literally a segment in this game where you need to cross a river, so you hold the joystick to the left for over a minute while he slowly turns a crank. This happens multiple times. The most engaging moment of the whole thing is a long and laborious multi-part fetch quest.
– Real player with 4.6 hrs in game
Highly Likely is a short and light-hearted point-and-click game that is set in a rural Ukraine and follows a man named Mikola as he tries to get himself out of an enormous debt that he owes to the bank. He finds himself a new business opportunity, one that is risky and could land him in trouble with the law, but he knows that he’s got no other choice. This is the basic story premise that is very relatable and could happen to just about anyone.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
Monster Seek Ep.1
Updated on 04/19/2021
https://youtu.be/ijDW4rpmSZ8 (1st Look)
https://youtu.be/S8ic7XJ09Bg (Revisited on 04/19/2021)
So you’ve read the description and now you’re down here in the comments trying to figure out what’s it all about. Click the video above to see some of the gameplay, mechanic and hear my thoughts on the game.
Warning This game as intense amount of screen shaking and may effect those who are sensitive to motion sickness*
Monster Seek (Ep.1) has wonderful graphics and music with simplistic (non complicated) controls. You character looks like a cross between Dr. Light (megaman) and George Lucas (Star Wars) which got me invested from the first moment I saw the game.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
When you enter the village nothing happen. It’s all black screen. Please fix.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Project Vostok
“Project Vostok” is a non-linear horror visual novel about a group of airplane crash survivors finding a mysterious Soviet-era bunker in Russian mountains.
A plane flying from Moscow to Barnaul crashes in the Altai Mountains because of a crew error. Almost two dozen strangers are left there to survive. An indefinite list of their problems includes injuries, lack of food, risk of being frozen to death, and contradictions inside the group.
Things take a massive shift when the survivors find an abandoned Soviet bunker built in a cave. Warm rooms and an abundance of supplies lead them to move to this mysterious location. However, it soon turns out that all the problems they have encountered earlier were nothing compared with what is awaiting them now.
Expected release date of the first episode: February 2022.
SANYA
Sanya — is a 2D adventure game about a little boy named Sanya, his dog, friends and many exciting adventures that await them in a Russian town of the 90s.
It’s a game about everyone who once was a kid. Here you’re going to find friendship that last for life; enjoy a carefree summer until mom will call you home for dinner; remember how it is to have knee bruises and pine needles on your palms.
Main features:
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Fresh take on point-and-click adventure: non-linear world exploration; relationship development with various characters; a little puppy who will help you in all your adventures;
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Communicate with the world through a child’s perspective. Various mini-games convey the feeling and lived experience of being a kid;
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Non-linear plot with branching and various endings, which evolves depending on where you’ve been, what you’ve done and who you’ve met;
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Underrepresented unique setting of post-soviet 90s Russia that evokes strong feelings of nostalgia for a place stuck in time;
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Stunning combination of 2D sprites with 3D environment and effects like dynamic lighting and volumetric fog;
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You can pet the dog. Need we say more?
Sixth Extinction
I really enjoyed the game, it’s very unusual game as the combination of narrative and puzzle is something I have never seen before in such a way.
I enjoyed the different stages and when I started playing, I thought to myself “will all of the game be like this?”.
But I quickly found out the puzzles changed with the narrative and I really enjoyed that!
So a quick list of pros and cons:
PRO:
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Interesting and diverse puzzles, often suprised me
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Satisfying to solve the puzzles
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Really nice mood and fitting graphics
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Just finished the game and… wow. I’m speechless. The end is amazing!
But if the end is amazing, it is also because the game is really well done. Very nice art, well-balanced puzzles, nice sounds, and a very special atmosphere. Really interesting idea to combine puzzles with a story - and what a story…
I really got fascinated and wanted to finish it… and then, the end!
The portrait layout (phone-like) is okay but feels a bit cramped. And because the drawings are so nice, they should take the full screen! It would also help for the immersion. But this is only my taste.
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game