Prodigal
–- Review Update after 500+ hours below —
—Previous Edits have been made more succinct —
PreReview:
It has some minor influence in Zelda. I’d say there is a greater amalgam of original ideas at play that you don’t get to see when presuming its just a Zelda clone.
Great writing, evident character diversity, and heart-tugging dialogue that was never quite there with classic Zelda games. Can’t compare them at the moment, except for being a classic style adventure game.
Oh, and the OST absolutely smacks.
– Real player with 610.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dating Sim Exploration Games.
Easy recommendation.
While looking like a simple Gameboy game, Prodigal displays a very competent understanding of level design, narrative structure, and character development. Many games on the market emulate older, retro-style games with varying degrees of success. Prodigal not only nails it completely, but also builds upon it with modern techniques and inventive ideas.
The dungeons you explore in the first half of the game are paced well, following a classic formula established by the Legend of Zelda series where you gain new items. The second half of the game takes all your abilities into consideration and bases the dungeons around using all your abilities along with any dungeon gimmicks. In addition, there are optional dungeons with unique bosses you can find based on your town progression.
– Real player with 46.4 hrs in game
The Last Yandere: Cursed Dark
This one is a gem and underrated. I loved everything in this game. Thank you For everything.
– Real player with 8.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dating Sim Psychological Horror Games.
Very cool game. As a fan of visual novels I can definitely recommend.
9/10
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
Heartbeats
Heartbeats is a visual novel about music, love, relationships, mental health, and more!
Our main character is a former music sensation who has recently fallen out of popularity due to a lack of motivation. Just as he’s dwindling out of relevance, he runs into a feisty little girl named Sayaka. Along with her, he’s introduced to several characters new and old.
This is when an opportunity presents itself. Auri, a rising popstar and childhood friend, is trying to build her own record label after having disagreements with her last label. The main character, along with Sayaka, Auri, Lee and Grace, group together to help each other and create a record label!
Read More: Best Dating Sim Romance Games.
Mask of the Rose
Welcome to Fallen London: a darkly hilarious gothic underworld where death is a temporary inconvenience, the rats talk, and Hell is only a stone’s throw away.
Thanks to an unknown bargain, London now resides in a vast cavern under the earth. Down here, the sun doesn’t shine, and Parliament has sunk into the Thames. Queen Victoria never emerges from her palace. Cats spy on their owners and whisper their secrets abroad. The fabric of strait-laced Victorian society has begun to fray.
New Masters are in charge. Why are they so… tall? And always cloaked? And why are they so interested in love stories?
The possibilities for personal connection in London are different now. Thrown together in crisis, you might befriend or romance many of the characters you meet, from Griz, your assertive housemate for whom the Fall was a chance to break free of Victorian societal norms, to the infernally well-dressed gentleman at the Brass Consulate with the amber eyes.
Even death itself has a twist here: the first murder victim since the Fall is feeling much better, and keen to see justice done. Unfortunately, as the doctor who treated him immediately before he expired, your housemate Archie is the prime suspect…
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(Re)invent yourself: who were you before the Fall? Who will you be now?
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Create outfits from a selection of clothing and unusual accessories to unlock different story options
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Fall in love with a cast of diverse Londoners, each with their own secrets
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Matchmake among your friends, or seek love for yourself (by any definition you like)
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Write love stories in a delightful minigame, and use them to impress the new Masters
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Pick up odd jobs to earn money and gather resources. How are you at rat catching?
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Solve the first murder since the Fall, with the assistance of the victim
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Discover cosy, mysterious and magnificent locations in a dark and delicious version of Victorian London
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Seek deeper and deeper secrets over multiple playthroughs
Will you be a brilliant matchmaker, connecting friends and rivals while remaining unattached? Or are you looking for lasting love? Perhaps you’re open to whatever comes your way? Every major storyline is accessible regardless of whether your approach to love is romantic or platonic.
Use an elaborate, dynamic story-crafting system to create love stories – and murder theories. Are the twists in the tale not to your taste? Then change the motive, the location, even the victim, and see how the stories adapt!
Your past will open different doors for you in London. What was your life on the Surface like? Were your family landed gentry? Or did they own a tailor’s shop, or dabble in the occult?
Your clothing will also make people think differently of you. Your outfits open new possibilities in conversation: be bolder, more commanding, more flirtatious. Ingratiate yourself with London’s inhabitants by changing your style of dress – they won’t be able to resist you in that hat!
You’ll also work odd jobs and collect resources which will open new avenues in social situations. Your housemate Griz has found you work as census-taker for those curious new Masters. Fill your census-taker’s notebook with intimate details about your fellow citizens and you’ll find you can pursue deeper relationships with them, romantic or otherwise.
Griz
For your fellow lodger Griz, the Fall of London has been a liberation – the chance to throw off her corsets, dump the dresses and be taken seriously in a position that would have been forbidden to her when she was ‘Miss Griselda’.
Archie
For your other housemate Archie, the change is terrifying. What is a medical student supposed to believe in when even the laws of death no longer apply?
Harjit
When the Fall struck, Harjit stepped up to help anyone who needed it. Now he’s settling into his role as a man in uniform, but the territory is unfamiliar – and, secretly, he has a missing person of his own to find.
Milton
Milton is the amber-eyed host of a literary parlour with a scalding handshake and a prior address in Hell. He’s an excellent listener, but does he only want you for your soul?
Rachel
Rachel was halfway through her serialised novel when London fell and everything she was writing about was turned upside-down. Her publisher grows impatient. Fortunately (?) meeting Milton has rekindled her passion – for more than just writing.
David
Rachel’s brother, and no fan of Milton, David is also destined to be Fallen London’s first murder victim. When he returns from the dead, you can ask him all about it.
Horatia
For a decade, Horatia has taken in lodgers and turned them into family. Since London fell, people need the security she offers more than ever. So when a man made entirely of clay knocks at the door, offering to pay handsomely for lodgings, she can hardly refuse.
Mr Pages
One of London’s new, mysterious “Masters”, Mr Pages has embarked on the titanic endeavour of conducting London’s first post-Fall census! But why are its questions so concerned with the love-lives of London’s citizens? How do people declare their affection, in this fair city? How lasting are their attachments? Might a Londoner take an interest in a very tall, broad-shouldered, cloaked personage that leans towards the chiropterous, hypothetically speaking?
Explore this unique city in glorious, richly rendered 2D. Experience London through three seasons: the season of Confessions, the season of Yule, and the season of Love. Help establish the first Feast of the Rose, a festival of romance that will be celebrated in London for decades to come!
For players of Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies, Mask of the Rose offers a chance to immerse yourselves in the city that founded this deep, dark, and marvellous universe. And for veteran players of the Fallen London browser game, it marks your first opportunity to visit the city just after it fell. But fear not: Mask of the Rose is an excellent introduction to the universe we’ve been building for more than a decade, and you don’t need to have played our other games first. Come on in. Most things won’t bite, unless you want them to.
Explore the locales, lives, and loves of an impossible city. Exchange bon-mots with devils. Investigate the first murder where the victim can testify at the murderer’s trial. Dive into the sunken ruins of poor drowned Parliament. And if you’re truly reckless, fall in love.
Super Web Kittens: Act I
Going into this I didn’t have high expectation for a game like this, I mean come on you can’t blame me with a video like that and the whole game being based around cats (And dogs). I decided to bite the bullet and drop the $5 and started the download, After the download finished I started the game and started playing, After about at most an hour I finished the chapter and I can say both the story and premise of the game was both engaging and interesting. The dialogue between characters was both entertaining and interesting, Honestly the only thing I don’t like about this game is the grammar errors every few dialogue boxes. (Sorta ironic as my grammar isn’t good either) But I honestly can forgive that for a Act 2!
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
Press E, read story, that’s about it. The Cat’s are cute. Glad I only paid .99 for this game.
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
The Terrible Persistence of Memory
As always, PixelsandPins delivers a visual novel with great storytelling. A thought provoking and well written tale- The Terrible Persistence of Memory is a great short game to sink your teeth into if you’re looking to finish a game in a single (or maybe two) sittings. It’ll have you thinking about the choices you make (they actually do matter), and who you choose to spend your time with. Would recommend checking this game out, one of my favorites for sure!
(PS: Don’t mind my short play time, I already played it once before!)
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Doki Doki Ragnarok
Doki Doki Ragnarok is a viking visual novel in which you pillage and date villages around the world. It takes place in a ridiculous world where viking raids are like going on a date - with the village!
For vikings, raiding a village is more than warfare: it means dating, flirting, and understanding each other consensually. Show that you carry a conversation as easy as you carry an axe.
Choose from a wide cast of diverse vikings and unravel the peculiarities of each village. Find out what they truly desire from the viking of their dreams. You can always revisit past conquests to experience alternative dates.
Will you find the village of your dreams?
Features
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Date quirky villages across Europe!
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Choose from a wide cast of diverse vikings
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Choose your voice regardless of your appearance
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Encounter Odin, other vikings, local people and various animals!
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Revisit dates to explore alternative outcomes
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Stay in touch with past conquests in case someone invents a Dating App.
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Collect achievements by choosing the weirdest, funniest or plain most unlikely options on your dates!
Planned Steam Features:
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Cloud Save
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Achievements
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Trading Cards
All is Fair in Dust and Air
All is Fair in Dust and Air is in my opinion a must buy for any fans of graphic novels/choose your own adventure style games. I have a plethora of extremely fond memories regarding this style and it being set in the Guns of Icarus world which is already an incredibly unique setting definitely gives this title a step ahead of the rest. All in all I was pleasantly surprised with this product and upon booting up the game for the first time I was met with a beautiful soundtrack and enchanting art style. Other than that the dev team has to be one of the most passionate and friendly bunch I have ever seen with updates and content being added over time unlike some of the more sketchy early access titles. What else can I say? Get this game!!!
– Real player with 9.3 hrs in game
I giggled when I played this visual novel, it reminds me somebody I know for some reasons lol and it also reminds me of Harvest Moon, my childhood game. The game atmosphere makes me forget about the reality world for a while, I wish I could ride on William’s airship!
– Real player with 8.6 hrs in game
ARISEN - Chronicles of Var’Nagal
I like this game so far. Don’t get me wrong it is still early access and their are missing text on some parts, but I am entranced by the story lines and who I want to be with
– Real player with 7.7 hrs in game
If you spam-skip the game has a stroke.
– Real player with 5.5 hrs in game
Pendula Swing - The Complete Journey
Pendula Swing is a very beautiful game, and I really loved the way that it combined fantasy with the roaring 20s and how it delved into everything from sexuality and gender with datable male and female characters to disability issues and even class and race issues.
I think my overall problem with the game, though, is that it does so very shallowly. It touches on and represents all of these different and important topics, yet never really goes in-depth related to any of them. Additionally, character and relationship development also feels a bit more shallow as well, based on pick and choose sets of dialogue options that make said development feel more rigid and rote than organic. There are immersion elements and story development areas that could be stronger.
– Real player with 25.7 hrs in game
I was looking forward to this game and I really tried to like it, but I just can’t, in good conscience, give it a good review. The concept is great, but sadly, was poorly executed in this game.
Everything the dev tried to achieve with this game is just so half-a$$ed, to put it simply. It mixes American 1920s culture with a fantasy setting, but it doesn’t actually fully capture 1920s culture. It captured the essence and aesthetics of it that people like about it, but in reality, that’s such a small portion of what the 1920s were like.
– Real player with 16.5 hrs in game