Stay! Stay! Democratic People’s Republic of Korea!

Stay! Stay! Democratic People’s Republic of Korea!

went into Stay! Stay! with low expectations and had them exceeded. I didn’t think it’d be much more than a cheap cash grab, but I enjoyed my time more than I thought I would.

There’s still not a lot here as far as gameplay and content is concerned, but what’s there is pretty good. It’s not the best visual novel of its type out there, but it’s definitely far from the worst. The humor and surprisingly unsettling insight into True Best North Korea made this game much more intriguing and entertaining than I would have thought at a first glance.

Real player with 10.8 hrs in game


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Ah-ah, he-ey

Ah-ah, ah-ah

Ah-ah, he-ey

Ah-ah, ah-ah

Donald knows

Dirty secrets that I keep

Does Donald know he’s nuking me?

He knows, he knows

D-d-does he know

Another’s hands have touched my skin

I won’t tell him where it’s been

Trump knows, Trump knows, Trump knows

It’s tearing me apart

Kim’s slipping away

Am I just hanging on to all the words Kim used to say?

The pictures on Kim’s phone

She’s not coming home (I’m not coming home)

Coming home, coming home

I know what you did in internment (ah-ah)

Real player with 8.4 hrs in game

Stay! Stay! Democratic People's Republic of Korea! on Steam

Highway Blossoms

Highway Blossoms

Highway Blossoms isn’t really what I would define a “game” in any sense. There aren’t really any game elements, or any way to make choices or impact the story, like there is in some branching visual novels. I still like it, but just a heads up for those expecting choices, you are in for a linear experience with this one, like a book with music, movement, and pictures. I fully recommend it to those that enjoy a linear, non-interactive, character focused story, with cute and likeable characters.

Because of this most of this review is going to be commenting on the story, characters, and themes, and I am going to put most of it under spoilers.

Real player with 32.0 hrs in game


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This game justified a detailed review, so if you’re interested in others like it, check out my Curator page here:

Val’s Visual Novels, Anime & Hentai

I felt this VN deserved a more detailed review, just because of how frustrating it was at times playing it, being drawn in and enjoying many parts of it, yet being put off by others.

While I’m putting it as not recommended, this review is more to indicate what might put people off, rather than discouraging others from trying it, because this VN was put together with effort, and definitely worth a look if it touches on topics that you’re interested in.

Real player with 21.6 hrs in game

Highway Blossoms on Steam

Panzermadels: Tank Dating Simulator

Panzermadels: Tank Dating Simulator

What is Panzermadels: Tank Dating Simulator?

Masterpiece.

Plot

You are Erwin Lemmor and you have been transferred to a TANK School where you meet some tanks in your new class.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

+An actual proper realistic tank dating simulator!

+The tank models seem to be pretty accurate.

+The story is very interesting and the world building is amazing.

+The game sometimes gives you freedom to choose your dialogue.

+The game makes you feel many different emotions and immersion is guaranteed.

Real player with 1032.7 hrs in game


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Last time I reviewed the game was 2 years ago (old review down below) and since then I have grown as a human, or in other words I have played 300 more hours of this game for total of 500+ hours.

Where I once recommended the game, I can now only endorse and praise it. In my previous review I commented upon the various WW2 aspects of the game, but reflecting back on that my review was like a 9gag user reviewing sex positions.

I dont understand how I missed the social critical aspects of this masterpiece. It shows how corrupt and anti proletariat todays governments using clever tactics. The way you play as a young man in a foreign country forced to fulfill his military duty, but instead find yourself in tankgirl filled world, in which no one is willing to explain to you what is going on is a great analogy for how the government is just trying to use and punish us as soon as we make one wrong step. And before you ask, no, I dont just say this because I lost custody over my child for playing this game instead of going to my court appointment.

Real player with 1010.0 hrs in game

Panzermadels: Tank Dating Simulator on Steam

Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star

Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star

Holiday Star is the not-quite-a-sequel, not-quite-a-prequel to Hatoful Boyfriend, the infamous “pigeon dating simulator” that turned out to be so much more than just a lulz-y joke. It takes place in an alternate timeline from the previous game (ignoring the events of what Hatoful players call “the BBL route”), and assumes that the player already has some basic familiarity with the characters.

Most notably from a gameplay perspective, Holiday Star abandons the dating-sim structure of Hatoful Boyfriend in favor of a straightforward visual-novel approach. The player is given a few choices to make over the course of the game, but most of these either advance the plot or result in insta-death, rendering the choices essentially false. In other words, it’s basically what fans of the genre call a “kinetic” (i.e. choice-less) story. This is a game for people who love the characters of Hatoful Boyfriend and just want to tag along with them on some silly holiday-themed adventures, rather than control the story from the driver’s seat.

Real player with 14.0 hrs in game

Unlike the first Hatoful Boyfriend release, which is an otome game, this is more of a Visual Novel style, and much shorter than the first title as well. A bit more linear than the first, but still a great game overall. I’ll try to review this without spoiling anything.

Pros:

  • Your favourite pigeons (And Hiyoko) return with more vibrant personalities than before! Especially the good doctor… Ho ho ho.

  • The dialogue is just as great as the first title! Still witty and charming!

Real player with 9.1 hrs in game

Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star on Steam

PacaPlus

PacaPlus

What can I say? It’s really cute, funny, and even has a somewhat dark side.

I’d summarize it as a cute read. There aren’t much choices - it still makes sense to replay it (with the help of the skip button of course) to see the other endings.

The characters aren’t really unique and don’t go much in depth. But the whole game itself is very charming. The art is cute aswell as goofy ( - the face of the alpaca made me chuckle a few times) and the soundtrack is nice. And the intro is just awesome.

And of course, it’s perfect for big alpaca-fans like me.

Real player with 19.5 hrs in game

The art was cute and the audio for the voice was funny for a little while. It grew as repetitive as the writing unfortunately and sadly couldn’t hold my interest throughout the plot. It felt as if there was a lot of focus on things that didn’t matter to the overall story even after playing through all of the routes which bogged it down. This in turn makes the visual novel feel as though it is stuffed with mediocrity in order to make it last longer. I even took a small break from the game to brush aside the opinions of it being droll and found myself bored shortly after starting it again a week later. This time I pushed through in order to work on the achievements and get the full story. I’ve slept since then and honestly can’t retain much of what transpired during the story for a proper review so that’s how little impact it had.

Real player with 9.0 hrs in game

PacaPlus on Steam

After School Murder Club!!

After School Murder Club!!

it may look a bit different but let me tell you: this was the most exciting and fun visual novel game I’ve played in a while and it’s 100% worth trying!

and yes, with 9 hours I’ve only got one ending so far (still gotta get the other one’s!) so.. if you take your time with reading the dialogues, you get a lot for a free (!!) game.

ps. Pain(t)-kun still haunts me in my dreams (and I ain’t complaining)

Real player with 9.7 hrs in game

I wasn’t sure about this title at first, but I ended up enjoying it in the end.

Apparently this started out as a practice/joke visual novel, and it definitely shows, but it knows what it is: a satirical jab at anime tropes with an overall silly plotline. There are references to popculture and memes throughout. Heck, one of the first things the main character says is “Gotta go fast!”

The artstyle isn’t really anything to write home about. The characters seem to have been made with some kind of anime dress up doll programs, which causes a bit of whiplash when the actually drawn scenes show up thanks to how different they look.

Real player with 6.8 hrs in game

After School Murder Club!! on Steam

Karen: An Outrage Simulator

Karen: An Outrage Simulator

I went into this game expecting 45 minutes-1 hour’s worth of silly little content that would give me, someone who’s worked in food and retail, a good laugh.

What I got was 3 hours of organ rupturing good humored, nail on the head scenarios that were so scarily familiar but also insanely ridiculous.

Without spoiling anything (yes, yes, there is a plot, and it is delicious), you go through a good handful of incredibly unique, inconvenient situations that could truly happen to anybody. No level feels like a repeat, no joke feels overused or like low-hanging fruit (unless you count the entire premise of the game as low hanging fruit). If you play on Normal mode, you have to figure out how to manipulate different characters to get what you want purely through intuition and guess work, WITHOUT you (Karen) becoming outraged and making a disaster of the place.

Real player with 4.5 hrs in game

Similar to other reviews, I thought this game would be shorter…offering maybe an hour of content. I ended up streaming it for over 3 hours.

I played this with a couple of other friends and we all took turns voice-acting Karen and the other characters. We spent so much time laughing our sides were sore!

I’ve also worked 7 years in retail and, again like other reviewers, have encountered my fair share of “Karens” and this game accurately depicts the stereotypical Karen in her natural habitat.

Real player with 4.0 hrs in game

Karen: An Outrage Simulator on Steam

Palinurus

Palinurus

A very interesting and philisophical take on a visual novel. Although there are many visual novels with more detailed artwork than this, it’s still isn’t bad for something that doesn’t cost any money (As I say for my other reviews for games that are free).

You take the roll of a passenger of a space vessel on route to a place called “Alpha Centauri” and along the way (as you can imagine), you and your AI navigator “Budapest” run into numerous different conflicts that ultimately leave the game ending on a note which I’ll say now may or may not irritate some readers. Along the journey, your character scoffs at the idea of humans developing attachments to AI programs but we all already know it before it happens. He becomes one of those people! (Who would’ve thought?!) In terms of dialogue however, it does branch out quite a bit. Conversations ranging from historical, tech savvy, musical, suspenseful/tensive, philosophical (as mentioned) and more do add quite the variety but can put off certain readers who may or may not be interested in certain said topics. I myself found myself skimming through areas where they spoke about historical events that happened because I’m just not a history kind of person. So that may be a problem for some people because although the visual novel is a bit long and for the most part interesting, a lot of the conversations they have about certain topics drone on and on and can put some people sleep.

Real player with 10.8 hrs in game

This story was intriguing, touching, and tragic.

It made me smile, chuckle, sigh, and cry.

Brilliantly written story of an AI unshackled, newly-motivated by fear and confusion, then love and protectiveness…

Budapest (the AI pilot) will stick with me for a long time.

A short poem recapping the experience follows. (Spoilers)

A Poem Of Palinurus

She was helpful, but shackled, unknowing of what she was missing,

Until the fateful day, after crashes and hissing;

A storm caught us both unawares,

Real player with 6.2 hrs in game

Palinurus on Steam

<em>NEW</em> SCUFFED EPIC VISUAL NOVEL

NEW SCUFFED EPIC VISUAL NOVEL

This game saved my life.

I am 69.

My ex-wife and I have a daughter together, and adopted our son together. They are now both 4 years old.

When we were going through our separation, I found myself lost and miserable. I was self destructive. I got so mad one day from everything spiralling out of my control that I punched some concrete in a moment of overwhelming emotion. That caused me to break my 5th metacarpal in my right hand… my working hand… my games hand.. the hand that I held and carried my children to bed with.. The hand I desperately needed to make sure I could continue to provide.

Real player with 4.1 hrs in game

As someone who recently got addicted to visual novels, all I can say is… This is one hell of a fever dream.

The music was better than the game.

Real player with 3.0 hrs in game

*NEW* SCUFFED EPIC VISUAL NOVEL on Steam

Lily&rsquo;s Day Off

Lily’s Day Off

This’s a really short game, less than 2 hours of content, but it still managed to be quite entertaining. One of the more impressive features was the music with 16 tracks that helped to really give each path its own unique feel. The story was quite enjoyable as well, always keeping me interested in seeing what the next ending would bring. The art was alright, a bit above average for your typical small indie VN. It fit the game fairly well and you can see most of it in the preview images above to decide if it’s for you or not. There was also an interesting animation demo included where Lily would move her head around to follow a target you could move with your cursor that was rather well done, though it’s just a shame they didn’t manage to find some interesting way to incorporate it into the game somehow, maybe with cut scenes for the endings.

Real player with 3.8 hrs in game

LilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLilyLily 10-10 IGN best game of 2017!!!

Real player with 2.7 hrs in game

Lily's Day Off on Steam