Knock-knock
Don’t look at the Metacritic reviews.
It’s hard to explain this minimalist game, but it definitely has something about it. A very special experience that completely justifies the whole mystery surrounding it. Don’t read anything about this game. Simply get it and play it if you’re into subtle creepy games, if you’re into urban legends, creepypasta - this is a lot like it, but on a superior level of quality and attention. This is my favorite type of horror. The entire game is like a weird lucid dream yet, not where you are in total control. There are visitors.
– Real player with 30.1 hrs in game
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Knock Knock is Dark Souls meets The Stanley Parable which plays hide and seek with Amensia: The Dark Descent. According to the game one should play at night in the dark, alone (and most likely with headphones on).
The biggest Steam complaints I found in the reviews was this game was repetitive and frustrating. What RPG game, for example, Dark Souls, is not repetitive and frustrating, and just because Knock Knock has no blood splatter and gut spillage that does not mean one does not die, which happens more often then one is lead to believe. (When one dies, it is done without fanfare.) This of course leads to the entire campaign having to be redone from the beginning which is both frustrating and repetitive just like in Dark Souls (and screaming at the computer scene in utter frustration can occur). Another comparison to be noted between the two is where as the player collects souls in Dark Souls, in Knock Knock the player collects time. Each campaign though not timed until the much later levels is timed based. The player must collect time to reach the dawn of the day either by surviving the night hours by watching the slow moving clock or finding a “clock” which speeds up time (found only by turning on lights and remembering). Running into the monsterous “guests” (some of whom will hunt the player down), let into the house through breaches of the dimensional fabric (which need to be closed or can be walked through) will lose the player time or their life. This whole game is one way, no level can be repeated, only the entire game once an ending is reached.
– Real player with 20.9 hrs in game
Last Labyrinth（ラストラビリンス）
Alright, I just finished every ending, I’ll do my best to edit this into an unbiased review.
First things first, the ‘endings’ are only endings in name. You’ll get your first ‘ending’ only a few hours into the game, having explored only a tiny fraction of the game’s rooms and puzzles, and each ending shows you a piece of the storyline underlying Last Labyrinth.
Pros:
+Katia is adorable, and while the game could have been played on a flat monitor, there’s something about looking a 3d Katia in the eyes and feeling like she’s present in the room with you that makes it 100x more stressful when she’s in danger.
– Real player with 19.3 hrs in game
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IT WAS AMAZING!!
It really had the psychological layer of fear and I loved everything the game had to offer!
The feeling so helplessness as well as having command of the situation. Lovely contrasts executed well, together with the irie atmosphere!
Maybe it is a bit pricey but I am really glad I bought it!
I just wished the game was longer! I really want more of this game even if I would have to pay more for more content.
Update: I take back that is was short. Found more content if I kept playing after they showed the credits. There seem to be a lot more behind everything than I first thougt and I want to know all of it!
– Real player with 14.5 hrs in game
Muv-Luv Alternative (マブラヴ オルタネイティヴ)
It is really worth its #1 VN in VNDB, it was worht the time i spent playing the 3 games. Muv Luv Extra, Unilimited and at the end this one, i might be one of those who really liked extra a lot and was meaningfull for me, so people who wants to play it and looking at this review for a chance, give a try and just stick with it, feel it and enjoy it, dont play it like challenging you to finish it asap, just enjoy the game and you will feel like living like Takeru in their world and understand and suffer all the things he had to endure with, and avoid spoilers, it might be obvious and for some people it normally doesnt kill the thing, but believe it kills like 60% of the feelings if you know what is going to happen, and when you finish the game you can go check all the awesome info about Muv Luv you can find, it is worth it and very interesting
– Real player with 116.8 hrs in game
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It’s good, but I don’t recommend it.
Overall - one of the best and worst VNs I’ve read. World presentation and history itself were superb. Although scenario had huge dips where I struggled not to skip dialogs about “resolve”, long- and short-term goals, unconvincing drama etc. The same stuff was talked about over and over again. Also, for the game this long there is not enough music tracks, so they are overused. Apart from that - great presentation, action scenes (not typical for VNs) and EPIC story. There are not many FMVs but there are moments where reading it feels like watching big budget sci-fi movie.
– Real player with 114.3 hrs in game
Muv-Luv photonmelodies♮
Pros:
-They got rid of some minigames in Altered Fable that were mandatory for progression and extremely difficult
-The translation job is fairly competent, albeit I think they took some creative liberties at times.
-It’s a nice bundle of stories from the Muv-Luv-verse
Cons: There’s a decent chunk of cut content from Altered Fable (namely H-scenes) that fans all agreed they wanted to keep included, but were lied to
Some of the aforementioned creative liberties in translation are…off-putting at times.
– Real player with 83.8 hrs in game
Note: This is not a classic game. It’s like an anime with subtitles, but most of the time, the images don’t move, meaning there are only slight animations. You should be prepared to read a lot and also should have already read Muv-Luv (+ hidden Unlimited) and Alternative first - otherwise you will miss out on a lot of plot and details. Even though they are set in a different universe, as you should know by know, there are a lot of similarities.
This game is the 2nd fandisc of Muv-Luv and features 3 BIG stories.
– Real player with 63.4 hrs in game
ChronoClock
ChronoClock is very enjoyable visual novel. In fact, its such treat, i am totaly in love with it.
Its moege in its best form! If you are not looking for anything complicated and just want to have fun, i would be hard pressed to think of another VN with such high entertaiment value!
Character design is higlight of this VN. All the characters are incredibly well written, they are also out of usual stereotypes which makes interacting with them really refreshing. For example Makoto is girl with yakuza background, who has quite oldtimer beliefs and holds honor and chivalry in high regard (also she is totaly crazy into rabbits), then you have Misaki who at first glance is tsundere, but when teased a little she comes out spilles out her real feelings (come on, honest tsundere? you have no idea how fun she is), or Cro who is goddess but due to certain circumstances she becomes human girl and is expiriencing everything “human” for first time.
– Real player with 48.3 hrs in game
It’s a very enjoyable and straightforward game where you always know on which girl’s route you are. It took me 36 hours to complete.
Story.
I won’t write any details here but I’ll say it’s mostly slice of life type of story. The game promises you it’s nothing serious but that doesn’t mean you won’t cry. I did. It just means there are no bad ends.
Characters.
You have your typical anime archetypes: tsundere, overly attached sister, shy girl, blonde from overseas, etc. Despite beign clichéd they are not boring by any means, in fact I feel each one of them brings something fresh into this pungent bog of stereotypes. There are 6 girls to court, 4 initially available and 2 unlocked after.
– Real player with 36.9 hrs in game