Time of the Moon
I played so much fun! TOTM has such a so deep story that makes me interested in their secrets or hidden stuff, and various puzzles combined with the game or the battle systems. The story was impressive in whole game playing. I loved the creator’s effort to make the game from one to ten, so detailed game. I would gladly cheer this game, and I’m waiting for the meeting with ‘Time of the moon 2’ from now on.
– Real player with 15.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery RPG Games.
Overall good game. Fun puzzles, good combat. negatives are poor translation to English and you lose your items at the end of the chapter
Edit: after a few chapters you finally get to keep items.
– Real player with 8.3 hrs in game
A Clockwork Ley-Line: The Borderline of Dusk
A Clockwork Ley-Line is an awesome VN but with serious technical issues!
Introduction
The story and setting are really interesting, especially for someone like me who plays mostly slice of life-ish VNs. Once you have started with reading you don‘t want to stop.
Each time a new Mist appears, means that something funny will happen.
Playtime
Concerning the playtime, one guy states in his review that he needed only 3h to complete his first playthrough. I can only absolutely disagree to this, since I cleared the true end after around 20h.
– Real player with 26.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery Singleplayer Games.
I love this game. Kind of obsessed with it, really. It has good, dynamic characters, and a solid plot without plot holes (with the exception of a small, but still present, plot device at the end).
My only complaint is that Steam registers the launcher as playing the game, and the launcher closes after the game launches, so Steam doesn’t accurately display your total play time. While you can get around this my renaming the actual start app to the launcher app, it comes at the cost of font modifiers and punctuations (quotation marks and dashes, specifically) displaying as the game’s coding markers (specifically, ・ followed by a character)
– Real player with 18.7 hrs in game
Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition
Short review:
Having played Root Double, I’d easily recommend this to any visual novel fan, especially those looking for a story filled with mystery, suspense and a strong cast of characters. Not only is the story filled with many heart-pounding and emotional moments from start to finish, but the world, story and characters are all extremely fleshed out and detailed while remaining coherent, and are all tied together by the end to make for one of the most satisfying and ‘complete’ stories I’ve experienced. It’s easily one of my favorite visual novels, and my current favorite game on Steam.
– Real player with 107.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery Multiple Endings Games.
Root Double: Before Crime * After Days -Xtend Edition (ROOT√DOUBLE) is a mystery/sci-fi visual novel video game developed by Regista and Yeti collaboration. It was first released on 2012. An updated version called Xtend Edition was later released in 2013 and finally 2016 for PC.
ROOT√DOUBLE is a beautiful game. 60-70 hours long of story. Nice visualization and bgm. Fully japanese voiced dialogues with mostly famous voice actors. All-round interesting/likeable casts. Several mysteries and plot twists will thirst a player with curiosity as they want to find out more and more. The great thing about this game is that every single phenomenon that represented here are explained by sciences which are all existed in real life topics. And most of time, plot twists and explanations are worth the wait. It’s well-educated writing that even rare to find in most sci-fi of a same genre or what not.
– Real player with 90.7 hrs in game
The Mystery Of Woolley Mountain
If you are a fan of good old fashioned point and click, inventory-based adventure games, this is really one for you. It is funny, well written and has excellent graphics and voice acting. The puzzles are challenging, but not too difficult and well integrated in the story, as they should be in a true adventure game.
With all those walking simulators around, they dont make many games in this genre anymore. I think it is importent that we support developers, who still make games like this one.
– Real player with 16.2 hrs in game
So a few months ago I played “The Mystery Of Woolley Mountain” on Switch and thought it was a good little adventure game. And then one day, the developer asked if I wanted to try the Steam version and I thought that was really nice. Most of my points from the Switch version are still there such as:
-Tells you exactly what you you have to do and item hints are very clear. Like saying looks like Auto so it’s one of the keys to get him back
-As amateur as it is, I find the art style charming
-Has a final boss.
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game
TOKYO CHRONOS
This is the first Visual Novel I play in VR, because I wanted to know what the experience was, and on that matter.
So I will just leave here the 2 reasons why I recommend this game: VR Visual Novel is really cool, and Monono Yu (The pink haired character).
–—–
Now for the review itself.
My only problem is with the story’s base setting, because I just I found out I’m not really a fan of the “detective”/“mystery murder” format, as I feel it’s just a sad excuse to make an compelling story, not that it isn’t. I mean, Danganronpa is interesting, and surprising, but here… If I were to compare it, I would say it’s a mix of Angel Beats and Steins' Gate, two stories that I really like, however, I feel they were great because they either went full science mode, or full spiritual mode.
– Real player with 25.9 hrs in game
Although the game is visually pretty, and the story is interesting as well, it leaves a lot to be desired on the finishing touches.
TRANSLATION
In the English translation there are a ton of glaring spelling and grammar mistakes, as well as it sometimes outright contradicting what is being shown, such as
! Sota Machikoji clearly running out the hotel room door while the narration says he is jumping out the window. I assume the translator(s) just worked on a scriptbook and haphazardly transcribed it without ever even seeing it in game.
– Real player with 22.2 hrs in game
KAPIA
The World Union collapsed, the nations are divided into coalitions “East” and “West”, a mysterious intelligent infection is forcing people to live under city lockdown. This is the world that needs saving. The world of KAPIA.
Amidst the chaos, Stefan, a retired pilot and a strong-willed grandfather, takes on the responsibility of ending the conflict. Little does he know his most powerful ally will be his little granddaughter, Reny.
-
Controller or Point-and-click
A traditional point and click flow with an easily accessible drop-down inventory. To make things more exciting we also added a first-person close-up menu where you can interact with various items.
Or play KAPIA with your controller and enjoy a modern game flow from your couch.
-
Play for both characters
People have different sides to them, and the same goes for characters in KAPIA. Discover the story from different perspectives as you play for both Stefan and Reny. Follow their own unique paths to achieve a common goal.
-
Unique 3D design
Enjoy a carefully crafted environment of medieval architecture and futuristic gadgets. Intelligent robots walk the streets of manually carved stone, power banks light up antique lamps, and typewriters serve as input devices for powerful computers.
-
Puzzles and mini-games
Logic and diversity was the key to our work on this most significant aspect of the game. Just like in traditional adventure game most puzzles are tied up with objects, but there are also conversational puzzles and a whole bunch of logical mini-games.
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
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
Epitasis
At this point I cannot recommend this game.. It’s beautiful but very strangely organized. There are also a number of technical problems, which you might or might not encounter. They have brought me to a point where the game is essentially unplayable. Your experience might be different.
Totally mind boggling what many reviewers have said about playing the game in two to four or more hours. I have explored and struggled and experienced many, many unnecessary crashes at the middle stage of the game. Lately whenever I click on a glowing object, the cursor gets stuck. There seem to be two different pointers, one belonging to the mouse, one thrown out by the game. Often in trying to disengage from the stuck point, the game becomes unplayable. Swings from high to low screen resolution and often crashes (“minimizes”) down to the taskbar icon. Generally the position is “saved,” but what saved means is open to debate.
– Real player with 53.7 hrs in game
Summary: Loved the aesthetics, music, and gameplay, puzzles were trivially easy, don’t get it if you want any challenge.
This is Talos Principle for kiddos. It uses a similar world system as Talos, where you can explore a beautiful world and 2-3 puzzles are contained within each world. Sometimes the puzzles overlap which is cool. The way the game uses colors is really fascinating and advanced, so if you’re after effects and aesthetics, you’ll love the hell out of that aspect of this game. There’s also dynamic weather! This works for the beauty of the game but can make navigating a bit confusing because levels at certain times of day do not look anything like they do at other times of the day. Loved the color and the natural design, simplistic but pretty. The soundtrack is amazing as well, it really added to the whole experience and is one of the better ambient game soundtracks I’ve heard.
– Real player with 5.5 hrs in game
AR-K
I received this game as a part of some bundle I bought way back.
I want to like this game. I wish the development team the best. But unfortunately I cannot recommend it, not even for $8 USD.
There are good, or at least decent, things here. There is some humor, including physical humor, that works. The actual voice lines are mostly fine, and what faults there are there in this audio itself are much more likely on the VA director and/or scriptwriters. Barring one jarring segment of lines I noticed in the 2nd episode where something obviously went wrong in recording or compression or something, but the team decided to use it anyway, which… fits with some of my suspicions about how out-of-time/energy/money they were feeling at the time.
– Real player with 16.5 hrs in game
AR-K may be a study in how to have an okay story, okay graphics and good voice-acting and still come out with a bad game - soo manyy problems.
This title consists of the first two episodes of the game, “Gone with the Sphere” and “The Girl Who Wasn’t There”, and the second feels way better than the first. Still, we see a lot of beginner’s mistakes in the handiwork. Basically every aspect of the game is flawed in some way or another.
Note: Review was rewritten to fit Steam’s transparent character limit.
– Real player with 15.9 hrs in game
Fatal Twelve
This game kicked my heart in the d***. Every. Single. Time.
With that said, let’s break it down.
Visuals:
There’s a good amount of visuals here, given the number of characters in the game. Some stunning, some sad, but all are good.
Voice Acting:
They have a good pool of talent, I thought until they started crying. I’m not entirely convinced that most of the VAs know how to cry, but that’s the only bad thing I have to say about them. Well, that and pain. They’re not good at that either. Apart from that, they’re believable, and play their roles extremely well.
– Real player with 34.4 hrs in game
FATAL TWELVE is a Visual Novel lasting around 20 hours. You basically play as Shishimai Rinka, who gets its fate of being killed altered and lands in a battle between 12 people called “Divine Selection”, in which only 1 will ultimately survive.
tl;dr: A nice round up VN, where you can make a couple of choices leading to 7 different endings in total. The character depth is what this game is about.
Story:
The deadly survival game is explained right at the beginning. Though not all of its mechanics are very clear then, but you get to know them throughout the game. Each of the 12 participants of Divine Selection comes with 3 cards: Name - Cause of Death - Regret. Since only 3 at random are given to each participant and their causes of death undone, they have to learn these 3 cards from others to be able to eliminate them for good. You learn about this game lasting merely 12 weeks, so you always know exactly at which point you are through the entirety of the game. The mindset of our protagonist greatly depends of its relation to others, which will be the main point of making choices. You realise very early where the main story arcs will lead you, so the outcomes aren´t very surprising, though a narration style, beautiful artworks and character depths make up for it. The actual outcome might be known, but the details make this VN very thrilling nonetheless.
– Real player with 29.5 hrs in game