Demonic Blade
I thought it will be a regular story, but it was so much better than expected. The gameplay is negligible -from what i’ve seen, the decisions doesn’t affect the ending in this one-, and it limits to tell the story and branch just some dialogue by the choices you make. Not a revolutionary storytelling, but the characters were memorable for the duration of the game, and for the price, it was a good shot for me.
Recommended for anyone who is curious about it, and who wants a small and self-contained story. Not a game changer, but a good one, at least for any sensible soul.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Anime Interactive Fiction Games.
Great game. Very exciting!
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos
PLAY JUNIPER’S KNOT BEFORE YOU BUY THIS GAME!
Juniper’s Knot is another game created by the same people that made Dysfunctional Systems, and is legally free to download for Windows, Mac, Linux, and iOS at Dischan’s website . It’s pretty short, and should give you a good idea whether or not you’ll actually enjoy this game.
You’ll probably notice that there was no sort of interactivity involved in playing Juniper’s Knot, aside from clicking to progress to the next line of text. This is more or less how Dysfunctional Systems plays, except this game actually has moments where you get to choose from a short list of options what you (Winter) should do. However, there aren’t many times you actually get to do this, and it is actually possible to play through the entire story by only making a single decision. All of the choice moments in the game are placed together around half-way through the game, and they only lead to two endings. The ending you get is determined entirely by whether or not you can convince your mentor (Cyrus) to listen to what you have to say, and not do what he initially decides he should do in order to solve the problem he’s given. I wouldn’t consider either ending to be a “good ending”, but I suppose that’s why this is only the first episode in the series.
– Real player with 8.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Anime Indie Games.
The sad irony of Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos, is it comes so very close to standing alone but in a last minute effort, fully commits to setting up more episodes we’re all but certain never to see.
Let’s back up for a moment though. Dysfunctional Systems is a visual novel following Winter and Cyrus, who play the part of mediators: peace keepers of sorts to the different distant worlds surrounding their own. It’s their job to step in when things become too extreme, and ensure a world doesn’t destroy itself in acts of war.
– Real player with 6.5 hrs in game
National Park Girls
From my review on Yurimother.tumblr.com follow for more news, reviews, and media around LGBTQ+ women media
Studio Coattails delivers cute girls, the beautify of the American outdoors, and a distinct whiff of homosexuality in their new visual novel National Park Girls. First things first, this is NOT A ROMANCE, while there are definitely hints of yuri, that is not the focus of the game, so, if you are seeking high-octane lesbianism, look elsewhere. That being said, variety is the spice of life, so I jumped when I had the opportunity to play the first episode.
– Real player with 15.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Anime Female Protagonist Games.
~Minor spoilers~
Also me am big sad that it’s not big gay cuz i wan (female) national park to give (female) hooman de smooch. (I has humanoid BIIIIIG obsession)
Watched episode 1 and already knew this would be an outstanding novel. It has a similar taste to Highway Blossoms but has a different texture. Overall the characters are great and the names of a select few are laughable. Noticed a few typos in there but with that aside, I can see the game causing me to shed a few tears in the end. I’m 14 and my favorite character just so happens to be Yellowstone. She’s quite relatable when it comes to working and getting thrown around the house but her slang speech can sometimes get a little bit annoying. Yosemite’s character model is outstanding from the rest and her defensive personality made me chuckle a few times but under that she’s a sweet character and will open up to those kind to her. Zion is incredibly adorable, innocent, and fearful of any threats. Every way I look at her, I just can’t find any cons. Eve is a complex character who tries protecting the parks but ends up fighting people for supposedly not caring about their jobs. I find her violence to be kind of adorable in a way. The way she went as far as to squaring up against a drunk man who I think was taller in order to protect Yosemite honestly made my heart melt. She hides her sadness with anger (as seen towards the end of episode one) and slowly starts accepting the park trio into her home. A small con is that she get’s angry a little too often but that’s about it. my overall thoughts on this game’s first episode are a 9/10, I love it and can’t wait for the second episode.
– Real player with 10.6 hrs in game
WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.02
World End Economica 2. Even though my recommendation wasn’t exactly glowing for the previous one, I would definitely recommend this one if you made it through the first. In my honest opinion, it was definitely better than the first.
The story this time around is four years on from the end of WEE episode 1 and is still economics based but the plots shift a bit. He is no longer making money for the sake of some ludicrous dream. In fact, he is no longer making much money at all. He and some Swiss (?) noble attempt to fight the corrupt giants of the financial world and a romantic sub-plot creeps in. He is stuck in a love polygon between several girls (yes this is a visual novel) but, this being WEE you do not get a choice in the matter. Fighting for justice is not simple and Haru (this translation team changed his name from Hal) must learn this while walking the razor’s edge and not lose sight of what really matters.
– Real player with 21.9 hrs in game
Took five hours to burn through the entire thing in one shot.
If your think 13 bucks is worth five hours of reading, then buy this. ‘Cause it’s amazing. The game is full of references to the first game though, so if you haven’t played or read that, you’re probably going to be pretty lost for the first hour or so, upon which the information is reiterated so many times that you can probably piece together even if you didn’t know that yes, there was a WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.1 even though this is episode.2. Really, if you’ve played one, then you might find the constant reminders irritating. I sure did after, what, the twentieth time?
– Real player with 13.1 hrs in game
9-nine-:Episode 1
don’t mind my game time.
on the first playthrough you’re forced to a bad end. and my god, that bad end is heartbreaking.
on the second playthrough, you’re then forced to pick all 4 correct answers to get the good end.
that branch-out from bad to good was… let’s just say unoriginal. I’m not against this kind of system per se, however it’s what the “correct answer” that bothers me. basically you have to be a white knight simp to the main girl every time or you’ll get a bad end. if there’s anything I’ve learned in my past, its that nice guys always finish last. frankly speaking, this is gynocentrism, and it’s seeping into the world of VNs.
– Real player with 23.5 hrs in game
9-nine: Episode 1 was way more enjoyable than I expected, sorry for being presumptuous again.
First, as usual I fell for breathtaking art. Can’t say that visual novels with male MC and cute girls are my favorite but when chars are so adorable I can’t help but find the whole experience at least relaxing. Bright colors, very detailed & precise backgrounds, stunning CGs… What a sight for sore eyes! And the novel is voiced with the option to turn off the MC’s voice. It’s the first time I see this feature. Not that it’s what I’d ever use myself but it’s still rather considerate to other players.
– Real player with 21.4 hrs in game
War of the Human Tanks
Battleships and chess with lolis.
Fantastic fun, interesting story with many twists and several endings, engaging gameplay that demands strategic thinking and an incredible soundtrack throughout.
The game’s story is told through visual novel format, which sets the state of affairs and the stage for the battle to follow. Battles are fought in real-time, but with a sort of turn-based system that runs on ticks, for example after giving a unit orders to move you must then wait for it to radio in asking for new orders before it can be moved again. Battlefields are presented as a grid of octagons, and before the round commences you must first place your units as in Battleships. Each unit has it’s own special properties and characteristics similar to chess, for example some may move 2 spaces at a time whereas others may only move 1, or one unit might only be able to attack horizontally whereas others must attack at least 2 spaces ahead of itself. The aim of each battle is to eliminate the opponent’s ‘Command Tank’ before they destroy yours which, regardless of how many units they have remaining, wins you the battle. The battlefield is covered by a shroud as seen in most real-time strategies with sight range varying between your different units, so early game tactics may usually consist of Battleships-esque artillery strikes into the dark hoping you’ll hit something, as your units gradually advance closer to the enemy, thinning out their ranks until their command tank is within firing range.
– Real player with 73.6 hrs in game
The first time I saw War of the Human Tanks, I was put off by how obviously low-budget it is; that was a huge mistake. Apparently, the art style just needed some getting used to, because once I got into it, I thought the graphics were actually pretty good. There’s full voice acting, fun animations and even some really catchy music that makes me itch to buy the soundtrack.
But what about the meat of the game? That, for me, comes in two packages (or perhaps Amasson boxes): the story and the gameplay. Let’s get this out of the way: The story is awesome. I loved it. This is definitely not a “skip-the-dialogue” kind of game; in fact, after a certain point, the story became the main appeal. It’s simultaneously lighthearted and grim, with a really interesting setting that ends up being much more detailed than you might suspect at first. There are four endings (two main paths, with two endings each) that all end up being pretty radically different and are all fantastic in their own way. I’m really in love with the setting, and all the little things you can learn about the rather disenfranchised battle-androids they call Human Tanks; the story really exceeded my expectations in every way. The translation is great, and the writing is clever, funny and serious when it needs to be; some of the big twists were huge gut-punchers. I’d definitely say the story was maybe the best part for me, and it’ll stick with me and inspire me for other personal projects for quite a while.
– Real player with 53.0 hrs in game
Beach Bounce
Beach Bounce was the second game developed and published by Dharker Studio, back in the summer of 2015. Since then, the game has been “remastered”, to improve several things, and it surely did.
Beach Bounce is the first game of the Bounce Series. Two other games are available, Beauty Bounce released in February of 2017, and Bunny Bounce, released in March of the same year.
In Beach Bounce we take the role of Tomoyo Oshiro, a young man who receives an invitation to be of assistance at his grandmother business, a resort named Beach Bounce.
– Real player with 15.3 hrs in game
Lacking in both the ‘visual’ and ‘novel’ departments. I cannot recommend it even if you’re just in for the adult content; there’s relatively little adult art and what’s there has little variety.
Without spoiling the plot, short story short you end up working at the resort after you arrive. Everyone there is female of course and they want you big time. While ‘working’ you make chit-chat (filled with blushy “hehe”, “hihi”, and “tehihi”) and end up going on dates after work, or just getting food and totally not going on a date. After realizing you are the epitome of the perfect man they throw themselves at you, leaving you the all-important plot choice of bang or don’t bang (which happens to make up the majority of decisions in the game). You may think this is a gross exaggeration and there’s lots of build-up, tension, seduction, perhaps even romance involved, but more than once you
! literally get a knock at your door and get propositioned on the spot. In the two currently present chapters your decisions make no difference apart from a few changed sentences. 5 out of the 7 women in the game’s banner art will offer themselves to you no matter what you do, the rest doubtless to follow in later chapters. The actual plot is brought up only occasionally and you just spend your time chatting up the ladies so far.
– Real player with 10.8 hrs in game
KARAKARA
This is a plaintext version of the full GameCynic review (with gallery)
Supported in part by a successful Indiegogo funding campaign earlier in 2016, Japanese developer Calme’s debut title is a short visual novel centered around the daily life of Leon, who struggles to keep his café open in a post-disaster era.
Visual novels — games which are essentially watching anime at your own pace, with little to no actual gameplay — are often a difficult genre to do well. Their simplicity means that storyline often makes or breaks a game, and a market saturated by home made, amateur titles can often overwhelm new developers. Luckily for KARAKARA, this isn’t a problem, thanks to strong personalities for the main characters.
– Real player with 19.1 hrs in game
If I had to describe KARAKARA in one sentence, I’d say “It’s Fallout meets NEKOPARA, but not as competent as either one”. Now if that intrigues you, please read on.
KARAKARA is a fully kinetic visual novel. That means there’s no plot choices, no dating sim elements, not even a petting button or localized earthquakes. It functions like a standard visual novel, with static backgrounds and slightly animated character sprites. I really like the visual style, particularly with how colors are balanced. If I had to complain about anything, I’d say everything is just a bit too bright, but it’s not bad. As for audio, the music isn’t exactly remarkable, but it makes for a good background. There’s also sound effects that get the job done similarly, and the voice acting was at least good enough that I didn’t mute it.
– Real player with 14.1 hrs in game
WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.03
And finally, number three in the WEE series. The story here is another four years on from the previous episode (why four again? They seem to like the number four). This time, we are playing financial lecture with romantic subplot. Hal makes a big bet, wins big, things turn to crap and he chases after the girl he loves and we get a nice, happy, romantic ending. But, they really went full on this time with explaining how things work and even give definitions for some of the terms used. Why they didn’t do that from episode one, I will never know. On top of that, they even give diagrams to show how some things work. Diagrams that simplify or break down how some of these investments work. Diagrams. DIAGRAMS. To me, putting diagrams in was wholly unnecessary because reading this you need at least a basic understanding of how these things work and because this is number three in the series, and you have almost certainly read one and two, I feel like everyone reading this has that.
– Real player with 29.9 hrs in game
World End Economica. An epic tale about greed, dreams, and moon stocks. Set four years after the second game this story concludes the series in one hell of beautiful finale.
First off, if you’re here to check out whether or not this trilogy is worth getting, YES. ABSOLUTELY. This series is great with each installment being an improvement over the previous which were already good and great games, respectively, in their own right. Be warned though, there’s a lot of economics terminology that may fly over your head, but even if you don’t understand a lot of the terms the underlying story is always easy enough to follow that it shouldn’t be a real issue. In fact, it may even interest you. At the very least you’re bound to learn something about stocks and the economy.
– Real player with 16.3 hrs in game
9-nine-:Episode 2
I like Kazuki Fumi but unfortunately I can’t agree with a popular opinion about EP2 being an improvement compared to EP1.
I feel like the biggest problem of EP2 is that they tried to appeal to their “you don’t need to read a previous EP to enjoy this one”. Pretty much the first half of the game is wasted on reintroduction of things you know already.
There are bits of new info but in the end it all felt like a filler episode where our main characters have to bring a mid boss down in order to move forward. When you think about it, most of that info could be introduced way more efficiently.
– Real player with 65.2 hrs in game
Minor spoilers to follow.
After the middling first episode, the second part of Nine-9 is a definite improvement. I guess the elephant in the room that we should get out of the way is that this is the sister route, and yes, it is a romance route like the others. The vanilla Steam version keeps it somewhat more subdued, however it’s very much a central part of the story.
That said, Sora is a funny and hyperactive girl, and I enjoyed her route a lot. Some strong creative liberties seem to have been taken with the translation of her dialogue, including the infamous “broski” but honestly, I think it’s funny and it works.
– Real player with 21.9 hrs in game