The Ballad Singer
As much as I would like to recommend this game, I just can’t. I could say that it has beautiful graphics, is fully voiced, has an intricate story with 4 characters, who sometimes cross with each other, has nice soundtrack and several QoL features, like ability to double the speed of narrator’s voice to speed up the game.
But all of this gets completely ruined by absolutely unfair death mechanic and BS choices. At the beginning of the game you’re warned that you will die here, a lot, that’s why developers created fate system. You have limited amount of fate points, every time your character dies you can either continue the game as other character or restart your last choice. Both of these options consume 1 fate point. Ok, so you decided to create a game that revolves around constant danger and death traps, fine. Surely, you will spend extra time making these deaths logical, so only if player actually made a mistake they would die, right? No. Most of choices in the game that lead to your death are absolutely random and, unless you already know which one is the right one, you will die not because you’ve made a mistake, but because you drew a short stick. Here are few examples, technically spoilers:
! I am an “elf” in the middle of the forest who needs to get to the cabin in the distance and sees two roads: a big, stone one or small, trodden one. She has to pick one. I chose small, trodden one. Game then tells me that I spend some time walking on that road and noticed that it leads in completely other direction from the cabin and that day is closing to the night. Now I’m faced with another choice - continue on this road, or go back and choose other road. I, thinking that this new piece of information is game hinting me that I chose wrong, choose to go back and pick the big road. And I died. Because apparently there’s some shitty death trap on the big road. How was I supposed to know that? There were no hints, there was actually a fake hint that made me choose the wrong road.. Another example -
! I am a mage and am currently fighting a giant water elemental. She (yes, she has gender) creates a water wave and I need to defend myself. There are three options: make a tornado, create stone wall or create a flame shield around me. Now, the last one is obviously a bad desision as I’m fighting a water elemental who, surely, can easily fight fire (also, earlier in the game, we already used another water elemental to fight fire elemental, so it’s logical even in game). This would be a logical death choice. Developers could choose other two choices as “right” ones - they will allow you to continue the fight, but give different texts or future options, because the fight would progress differently. That would be cool. But no. Only one of these choices is correct - tornado. Why? Why the fuck should I pick tornado, except by random? I picked the stone wall, because surely, the stone wall can stop water wave. No, you died, fool. And, despite me playing only for two hours, the game gave me tons of such choices already. They, aside from making the player angry, completely ruin the immersion. No, you’re not a mage trying master the elements, you’re an idiot, sitting before your PC and who was unlucky to pick the wrong choice, so now you have to reload and make the “correct” one and it’s correct because developer said so. A death should be a result of either one very dumb and obviously wrong decision, or a series of bad decisions with hints that you’re doing everything wrong. Not what we have here.
– Real player with 15.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choose Your Own Adventure Indie Games.
If you came here with one thumb on your lighter, ready to lose yourself in some heart-wrenching ballads, I’m afraid I’ve got bad news for you. I didn’t encounter my first ballad until at least 3 or 4 hours in, and it was pretty underwhelming when it finally arrived.
Yeah, their choice of titles doesn’t make a lot of sense, and neither do most of the other choices in this game.
Well, I can’t say I wasn’t warned. They always told me not to judge a book by its cover, and that’s exactly what I did. Can you blame me, though? On the surface it looks great. It’s got that Extremely Fantasy, D&D manual sort of vibe. Everywhere you look you find fierce monsters and sharpened blades, towering dragons, fireball-hurling wizards and pots of stew consumed in shady inns full of adventures just waiting to happen.
– Real player with 7.8 hrs in game
Realm of Night: The Forbidden Knowledge
Yeah no, this is a interesting game sure but i keep getting the bad ending on the train, i really hate games that is this strict on choices that you have to get a perfect score to get a good ending. I hope some ones does a guide at some point but until then i cant recommend this.
The worst thing about this game is the card system.
– Real player with 5.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choose Your Own Adventure Visual Novel Games.
The Barbarian and the Subterranean Caves
The dialog are well-written. The graphic is unique yet weird, i find it funny somehow but actually liked it.
The story itself is about 20 mins long. Who you visit at the beginning will make you run into different endings. However, even accept the mission from different people, you are going to meet the same person and get the same loot at the end. But your decisions, thoughts, enemies, and your story ends in different ways.
Aren’t these real lives?
– Real player with 6.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choose Your Own Adventure Indie Games.
If you hope for many H-scenes then this game is not for you, but if you want some decent VN game that has many choices for you to explore within few hours so this is the good one.
– Real player with 3.7 hrs in game
Samurai of Hyuga Book 4
what the fuck did i just read.
Firstly, SOH4, much like the previous entries, is extremely well written but there are a few sketchy lines scattered throughout and it sometimes goes overboard on the horniness.
Now onto the more important stuff.
SOH4 is so emotionally taxing and unrelenting, that there were points in this where I just wanted it to stop. In fact, I had to take a break in order to preserve my sanity. However, the pay off and character development that arises from the pain and torment, was incredible. SOH4 is not content with simply describing the struggle of its characters, it forces the reader to experience them.
– Real player with 30.8 hrs in game
This game has left me utterly disgusted. I am not one to shy away from dark themes like the abuse and rape portrayed in detail in this game, and the abuse and manipulation is quite well-written.
Where the fantasy falls apart and leaves me solely disgusted is when the narrative continually acts like said abuse is fine and harmless. The main character spends a majority of the book literally enslaved and leashed to an abuser but while you can pursue a romance while this is happening, there is no option to truly hate the person doing this to you. At most you can manage a dislike, and even then there is unavoidable scenes where you are jealous and possessive of your abuser, or sympathetically forgiving and pitying.
– Real player with 21.1 hrs in game
The Detective Chapters: Part One
Really enjoyed the overall story. Like the whole Goth thing that you got going here - loved those clubs back in the 80s and 90s. Except for a couple minor crashes that I was able to recover from that game is excellent and has promise. Wish there was more to the chapter but looking forward to the next!
– Real player with 3.3 hrs in game
The time I spent with The Detective Chapters: Part One mostly consisted of the playable character getting stuck on small objects I accidentally knocked over, trying the find my lost cursor, and physically writing down binary to solve a puzzle. That all came to a halt when the game got stuck 3 separate times on a day transition card reading “October 7th 2016”. From the very little I got to experience, this game feels as if it’s still a rough draft. If you decide to give The Detective Chapters a shot, you should do so in the ridiculously awesome early 2000’s graphic setting.
– Real player with 3.2 hrs in game
Will: The Beginning
played for 11 minutes, accidentally made my character disappear then my antivirus blocked it and i cant play anymore.
10/10 didn’t finish
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
It’s a fun game!
At first sight, it might seem like the game does not have a lot to offer, but after getting into it I was impressed with the details in the game.
Positive:
+The story is written well. You can find some jokes too 😂
+You get different endings relative to your choices in the game.
+We can see the decision tree at the end of the game.
+You can feel the creepy atmosphere while playing. (Rain in the night, silence and demonic figures)
+Fell in love with the funny “Quiz” feature at the end of the game. (I wanted to face it with my bare hands! 😂)
– Real player with 3.4 hrs in game
Art of Fury: Virtual Gallery
Not enough furries
– Real player with 14.3 hrs in game
Basically Gallery Walk Simulator
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– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
LoveKami -Useless Goddess-
Should you get this game? Well, if you like cute love stories told in visual novel format, with a generous dollop of fanservice thrown in, then yes, you absolutely should. Otherwise, it might not be the game for you.
LoveKami -Useless Goddess- is not really a sequel to Pulltop/MoeNovel’s other LoveKami game, though it takes place in the same universe. I haven’t played that game myself, so I can’t compare the two, but this game stands on its own quite well; you don’t need to have played the first game in order to fully enjoy this one. The protagonist is a super-ordinary guy named Sho who, on his way back from the convenience store one night, runs into a girl passed out in the street. It turns out she’s one of the goddesses that’s come to Earth, although she’s what’s known as an “aragami” - a troublesome goddess, of sorts. Sho shares his food with her, and decides to bring her back home until they figure out what can be done for her. Wacky hijinks ensue almost immediately.
– Real player with 9.5 hrs in game
LoveKami -Useless Goddess- is borderline NSFW, but it’s not a bad thing.
Don’t get me wrong, it has some good sides
Where do I start.. it gives a very different take on the LoveKami series, instead of Divine Idols in Divinity Stage though it is mentioned but you don’t see any of it here .
Routes
It gives you three routes same as before, but all three of them follow a common route but it gives a different scenario and ending depending on the route you picked. I noticed that how the three routes somehow follow a similar pattern of events and/or conflicts from each other, like they follow a same path but its completely different from each other.
– Real player with 9.4 hrs in game
Tequila Sunrise
Quick and punchy like a 2 minute punk song. Tequila Sunrise isn’t an inventive VN, but its humor and brisk moving narrative held my attention the entire way. Personally I think the game is better without the patch… because the patched scene is a mortifying read.
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
I’m kinda hooked on the trailer of the song, although it is short but there is beauty of this VN game
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
Becoming
yes
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
So you’ve read the description and now you’re looking at me for some guidance. Check out my video of the game posted above to see some of the gameplay and hear my thoughts.
Becoming is a visual novel with choices to be made. The music, backgrounds, characters and other aspects are quite appealing; though I find some of the text to be oddly worded causing me to have to reread a section or sentence multiple times to get the meaning. I am really looking forward to streaming the conclusion of the game. If you are in to visual novels, reading, making choices and being a prick to everyone around you; then you have to get this game.
– Real player with 3.4 hrs in game