Ghost in the pool
For a short horror VN, the game was pretty decent. I did enjoy reading the story, which was pretty straight forward and to the point for the most part. There were some bits that I was a bit confused by even though I could probably connect the dots (
! specifically talking about the cat…). There are three different endings, which I do like the variety. I also do like the route map and that different choices did slightly change a few things (though the endings themselves do not change). The graphics were great and I loved the sounds.
– Real player with 7.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Beautiful Anime Games.
Curator page here-- [url] DaRevieweD #61 [/url] -- [i]New review every Sunday[/i]
CASCHA games is a solo developer from China working on two visual novels; Ghost in The Pool (GiTP) and in-development Sunset Paradise. GiTP is a joint effort with author and comic illustrator JOEY, to bring the latter’s horror works to life in a new medium. Due to a language barrier, sadly I cannot (though I’m Chinese) read nor check out the comics. However, I was hooked into this game because the title reminded me of a widely debated mystery in my hometown.
– Real player with 4.9 hrs in game
Trackless
I backed Trackless on Fig and later tested the early beta and RC.
Trackless is a good atmospheric game with simularities to Shadow Gate and Kings Quest. It takes two of the best aspects of both games and merges them with an interesting, and often gorgeous art style, and beautifully haunting OST.
Trackless uses text parsing in the form of (mostly) verbs to solve various puzzles. Where it differs from Kings Quest and Shadow Gate is in the use of typing in specific single verbs. The more complex the verb the higher the score. There is no score cap as in Kings Quest and the game is in a 3rd person 3D format with some 2D art mixed in.
– Real player with 25.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Beautiful Casual Games.
The game plays like a 2D P&C, but in a 3D world, so you can stick to the given path, but also wander off to explore a side-quest or two, or maybe find one of the alternative endings. Exploration is rewarded, which, together with several bonuses, adds to the replayability factor — as does the main mechanic. In short, you talk to people, solve puzzles, explore, and write.
For more precise interactions, verb input is required. Trackless improves the historically often tedious word search by allowing for a larger range of words for each interaction and rewarding the player for originality or precision, so a player, who wants to move on, can do so with the most plain of word, while others can take their time to get more bonus points. These points are by no means important for progress (with one exception), but allow you to spice things up a little. Some of the upgrades you can get will be more helpful than others. Not much is told about them, and you might even miss them being upgrades (as did I during my first playthrough), so you will have to explore and experiment.
– Real player with 15.8 hrs in game
Murder On The Island
This game is reviewed for [url]TentacleBunny's Cozy Cottage [/url] who generously offered the steam-key for [i]Murder on the Island[/i] that was provided to the Curator
Background
This is the first Visual Novel by the renamed Forever Young Games which previously released Global Soccer Manager simulations under the same name. It is written by Márk Kovács as an experimental foray into this genre and it’s purely a Kinetic visual novel where an holiday island owner interviews the remaining 13 holiday-makers after 1 is discovered murdered on the 1st day of a week’s stay on the Island.
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Beautiful Casual Games.
Murder on The Island is pretty much a Detective Kinetic Novel were you try to find the Murderer. Sadly you can only try to solve it by reading the Story. You dont get any Choices or get to decide on who did it in the end. Nevertheless just for the Case and the Infos you get while playing i found it quite interesting. It took me axactly 1 hour and 40 minutes to complete which would have been faster but you have to wait for the text to completely pop up and you cant set it to instantly.
So just the Story is quite good, however there are also a lot of things I didnt like about it. The Art is just average and the Translation has a few Grammer mistakes that are pretty obvious. The Game also feels laggy as it is completely in 30fps and the Menu is very minimal. You also dont get a Skip feature or any of the other feature you normally expect of a VN.
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
Wild Romance: Mofu Mofu Edition
Full disclosure here, Wild Romance: Mofu Mofu Edition is literally a hentai visual novel. The H-content is valued above everything else in the game and it shows. Anyone looking for anything else in this game will be sorely disappointed. I kept that in mind while reviewing the game.
Pros:
Fantastic character designs. If there is anything that Wild Romance really exceeds at, it is definitely the character designs and the overall art. Having great character designs is a must in any sort of H-game, so this is a massive plus. There may only be four characters, but each is nicely designed and fits into a particular niche, with personalities to match.
– Real player with 6425.2 hrs in game
Very enjoyable. Some of the scenes went on a bit, but based on the colorful language and voice acting, you can tell that they did their best to please everyone. There were a couple of things that were over-the-top for my taste, but for someone whose taste runs to cat girls and so on, I don’t think anyone is likely to be disappointed. The graphics were fine and in this case, I didn’t mind the mosaic censoring on small patches throughout the game. The amount was minor and basically hid a ton of “male members” which I don’t particularly care to view in detail anyway. (Let me add that if you want something more graphic, there are a ton of games out there like Twists of My Life that are much more unrestrained than this game and the price isn’t all that different.)
– Real player with 19.1 hrs in game
Edge of Reality
A game in which there are several options for the development of the plot. You can choose any language that suits you. Nice picture and good music.
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
This is a review when I wish Steam had a ‘maybe’ option. Overall, this is a solid game and only the minor grammar errors let the side down.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
Over the Alps
Over the Alps is a spy story that takes place as tensions escalate into World War II as told through a choose-your-adventure featuring choices that feature personality and character traits of your protagonist. The scenery is designed after postcards of the Swiss Alps and are remarkable. As any choose-your-adventure story goes, the writing is the most important, and playing through, you can tell that the story is crafted in detail and is quite funny to read through.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Pitch perfect: the writing reads like the best old adventure classic you’ve never read and manages to pack punch, warmth, humor, and pathos in short paragraphs and postcard-length mini-episodes. You’re never too long before you’re making a new choice or zipping to a new location. I haven’t enjoyed a game’s writing this much since 80 Days. Oh look! This came from some Inkle veterans. Makes sense.
The writing isn’t the only thing that’s pitch perfect. This game has a simple, great visual design that doesn’t hold your hand. Navigation is subtle and never distracts from the vintage poster style art: flocks of birds are used to indicate buildings you haven’t explored yet, a spinning compass tells you when it’s time to choose the next path on the map, etcetera.
– Real player with 7.9 hrs in game
Type:Rider
Come take a journey through typography and learn a little about the origins of literacy. This sounds like it would be a blast… and it is: at first. But that’s for later.
Type:Rider is an interesting platforming game that has you controlling a colon. You jump slide, bounce, etc through levels collecting the alphabet while avoiding various dangers. The difficulty scales the further you progress.
The story aspect of the game was quite fascinating. I learned a lot about fonts, and where they came from through this game. It reinforced certain things I had learned before and added more details to them as well. Type:Rider can be a very fun game for exploring this piece of culture.
– Real player with 9.4 hrs in game
Can I nominate this for an utter crap award?
Ok, so the game is f&#*ing beautiful (mostly in the beginning) and the typography story, while going waaaaay outside typography, is fascinating. Play a little game, read a little story. If that were it I’d give it 5 stars and nominate it for sainthood. But, it goes down hill. Waaay down hill. At breakneck speed. With no controls to speak of. Actually… that’s a pretty good description of the game, but I’ll do it justice.
You play as two dots, possibly a colon with a balance problem or an ellipsis amputee. Maybe a homeless umlaut. And you slide back and forth with the cursor keys or the ‘a’ and ’d' keys. Understood, common, no vertical controls, but space to jump. Simple, right? No. You see you only control one of the dots and drag the other around. This is a huge problem because you can’t see which one you’re controlling and the Unity physics engine gives it weight (a little typographical humor there). You can also wall jump, but what constitutes pressing against the wall seems to be up in the air and often goes the opposite of what you expect. In fact getting stuck on the scenery and terrain (which are often indistinguishable) is also a problem. And the scenery/terrain doesn’t really use the physics engine. It won’t push you, it will crush you against the air instantly.
– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game