Shining Song Starnova
Oh my, it was a fun long adventure! This visual novel is about the ragtag band of seven cute idols and you play as their producer trying to make them great again. I can’t say I was too excited when I just started. Not my cup of tea absolutely. But I realized once again that when a game is really well done, it doesn’t matter if it’s up your alley or not.
My first impression was very positive. All those settings, nicely organized gallery. In this regard everything was just flawless. Artwork is lovely. Each girl’s sprite is beautiful, CGs are so pretty and there’re also cute chibi images. Even being so far from my actual preferences I still have made 100 screenshots. Plus, the game is partially voiced, has cards and achievements.
– Real player with 88.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Crowdfunded Choices Matter Games.
Shinning Song Starnova First Impressions
(Completed Mika’s Route)
Love in Space is probably my favorite Visual Novel developer. They seem to always be put on a budget via crowdfunding but they always deliver. The Sunrider series is a great blend of sci-fi opera, fanservice and story payoff, I was always a fan of the spinoff academy entry more than the main series, but they are all treasures.
Shining Song Starnova is the latest visual novel created by the team and joining up with Sekai Project they once again release a top-notch visual novel. Multiple routes, great writing (I was a bit fatigued from the use of “oy”), and great characters make this entry a must have and possibly a great starting place for those new to the visual novel genre.
– Real player with 50.2 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
Read More: Best Crowdfunded Linear Games.
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
Last Year
EDIT 5 (+990h): $0.49 USD BUY IT NOW! 100% RECOMMENDED
EDIT 4 (+970h): Right now as I am writing this review there is a 90% discount. ONLY 2 DOLLARS. FOR THIS PRICE IT IS 100% RECOMMENDED TO BUY THIS GAME. There are more people playing and it’s a very good game! (30/10/2020)
EDIT 3 (+963h): Well, MUCH has happened since my last edit (I’m a LY Mod now!) and it’s just that right now the game isn’t getting updates because Elastic Games has run out of money. All the devs are gone and only the owners are left, which are looking for a publisher to continue developing the game and to release it in consoles. In Halloween we will have news if they have found it, apart from an update (not content) of the game. Right now, I do NOT recommend buying the game, maybe it goes Free to Play. (01/10/2020)
– Real player with 1007.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Crowdfunded Survival Games.
I’ve held off of leaving a review on this game for a while now because i just felt no need to leave a review if I’m being totally honest, but I’m here to leave to you what this game is and what i think about it.
i picked up this game and played through beta as well as nightmare almost everyday, if you bring in my numbers from beta and nightmare id say i would be close to 2000 hours in total or around. I know this game inside out and i know a lot of the problems.
the first thing i wanna clear up here is a lot of hate about the in store transactions, i just want to say, they had no intention of adding a store at all, it was the community that on dev streams constantly asked for ways to support the game and thus, the store was released.
– Real player with 541.6 hrs in game