ALLBLACK Phase 1
ALLBLACK Phase 1 is a free to play Kinetic Visual Novel split into 3 chapters that grabs your attention from the start with its intense action involving an amnesiac who is rescued at sea by a fishing vessel and, upon docking, is thrust into a world of mystery & intrigue. The plot is driven by a gradual unravelling of self-discovery experienced during life-threatening scenarios that the amnesiac encounters the moment he leaves the fishing vessel.
There are moments when reading this VN that you’re immediately reminded of the Jason Bourne novel The Bourne Identity and, even though this VN is based off a novel, it’s conversion maintains the same engrossing desire to want to share the journey of discovering the unknown about the amnesiac.
– Real player with 5.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Noir Sci-fi Games.
This may be the strangest things I have completed on Steam. The game/story started out very strong but quickly my enjoyment descended into hell. The art and sound are amazing. The story is interesting. This games downfall is the writing. The story drags because of the asinine level of unnecessary detail make sections that should be exciting into extremely long narrative that go on and on and on. At first I found this amusing but by chapter 2’s end my enjoyment drifted to frustration.
– Real player with 5.1 hrs in game
BUSTAFELLOWS
Probably the highest quality otome game that’s been localised into English so far. I have yet to play a game with this many immersive elements, I’m shocked that this isn’t the standard. There’s animated CGs, dynamic voice work, characters with multiple outfit changes and poses. Their eyes even move to the speaking character if they happen to be on the same screen. This game has THE smoothest intro to main menu transition I have ever seen in my damn life.
So let’s look at our lovable cast:
- Limbo is the confident and suave type who always seems like he’s in control. He’s funny, and supportive, but he’s actually a lot more childish than one would think. He’s a really good poster boy.
– Real player with 118.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Noir Story Rich Games.
In short, I like reading Bustafellows. Although it has many places where it underwhelms me.
The stories in this game are kind of all over the place. It seems there are too many topics the game wants to tackle on, but fails to do so in depth.
A lot of the settings are far-fetched and unrealistic, like Crow being a super genius all-powerful hacker. The existence of magical plastic surgeries. Our 5 fixers, who are supposed to do things hidden, expose all of themselves to the enemy, or even worse, to the internet. Villains who conveniently put everything that would prove them guilty in a nice
! USB drive for us to read.
! Nanobots entering one’s body, powered by “body energy” which the only plausible meaning is glucose in the blood (right?), but they stopped working after the person goes in to cardiac arrest, but in no sense would going into cardiac arrest take away all the glucose in the blood. I know I shouldn’t expect realism in this kind of games, but not doing so would require me to lower expectations.
– Real player with 51.4 hrs in game
Deep Lake: Prologue
nice opening music. nice graphics. Story is okay- from what I can make of it. Bad translation in parts which made it hard to follow. For example the mc stepped in a ‘paddle’ twice and got his feet wet smh. I hope the later installments fix this. Might be pretty good if they do. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and thumb this one up, but if there’s no improvement, I’ll have to change my recommendation.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Noir Adventure Games.
This is the first ‘visual novel’ I have experienced. It isn’t a game; you don’t make any choices. So, having gotten over that expectation, I will proceed.
Obviously a novel needs an interesting story, and this is interesting. I imagine it is better in Russian, but since I don’t understand a single character of Cyrillic, I had to make do with the English version. It needs some work. I was able to get the gist of what they were saying most of the time, but an important part of a novel, to me, is how the story is told. So in order to make this a successful English visual novel, they’re going to need to find a fluent Russian/English translator. Google Translate just doesn’t do it. You can’t use the word ‘defile’ when you mean ‘define.’ Two totally different meanings.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Detective Hunt - Crownston City PD
Reach out for the truth and aim to be an Ace Detective! (lol not really)
Your basic detective game where you investigate things and collect evidence with that black and white noir style art :D
I like the short chapters and the various choices I could make that may lead to different endings on each chapter. Sometimes I forgot that I was a detective and not an attorney (lol) so dying is actually possible when confronting a suspect.
Cons: No skip button for read text, only 2 save slots, autosave only, no settings option. basically just technical stuff XP
– Real player with 10.9 hrs in game
I’m always into this kinda detective-visual novel kinda thing.. bought this game after reading the review from detective mortuus..
yea, it’s kinda simple game, not too hard, not too complicated either.. but love the storyline, love how things going if I do this, and things going if I others instead.
not that long of a game, finished mine after 2 hrs or so, but I’m restarting again just to see the other endings, unlocking the achievements, trying to answer differently, and try to catch different person each time lol
– Real player with 10.7 hrs in game
Lockheart Indigo
Lockheart Indigo was a short but fulfilling experience, with all of its parts forming a cohesive whole. The art, the music, the characters and the gameplay all fit together seamlessly to tell an exciting story.
It offers a unique system where, instead of battling your enemies in combat, you have to win them over with clever persuasion. And it’s clear the developer took a lot of time in crafting the various responses to show each character’s unique personality and motives.
I definitely recommend this game, it was a joy to play and a great homage to the Game Boy era from which it took its inspiration.
– Real player with 5.8 hrs in game
About 2-3 hour long detective game where the combat is replaced with interrogation, it’s kinda like playing Undertale and only using the dialogue choices (no bullet-hell though). Whenever you need to get information from the character you have to find a way to probe them by using evidence and their motivations against them. The story was decent enough for me to finish the game, but I was a bit disappointed with the illusion of choices as the game is pretty linear overall. You can use F4 to set the game to fullscreen, however, it does not have a widescreen so you will be playing with black borders. Even though the game is relatively polished and resistant to stupid choices, there are some potential softlocks due to the enemy AI, you should keep 2-3 save slots 30 minutes apart just in case (I wasted like 40 minutes because one of the quest items became inaccessible).
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Ghost in the pool
For a short horror VN, the game was pretty decent. I did enjoy reading the story, which was pretty straight forward and to the point for the most part. There were some bits that I was a bit confused by even though I could probably connect the dots (
! specifically talking about the cat…). There are three different endings, which I do like the variety. I also do like the route map and that different choices did slightly change a few things (though the endings themselves do not change). The graphics were great and I loved the sounds.
– Real player with 7.5 hrs in game
Curator page here-- [url] DaRevieweD #61 [/url] -- [i]New review every Sunday[/i]
CASCHA games is a solo developer from China working on two visual novels; Ghost in The Pool (GiTP) and in-development Sunset Paradise. GiTP is a joint effort with author and comic illustrator JOEY, to bring the latter’s horror works to life in a new medium. Due to a language barrier, sadly I cannot (though I’m Chinese) read nor check out the comics. However, I was hooked into this game because the title reminded me of a widely debated mystery in my hometown.
– Real player with 4.9 hrs in game
MAMIYA
At the time I’m writing this review I have yet to experience MAMIYA fully and to completion. I’ve seen all its endings (and not endings, for that matter); however, there are still some stories and details to uncover in three more not-exactly-routes closely related to three more characters (whose existence is a bit spoilery). I will absolutely read everything that is there to read, and I mean everything, because each and every word of MAMIYA is a heavenly treasure I hold very close to my heart.
– Real player with 53.3 hrs in game
Target Audience: Those with a soul
Summary:
To say that Mamiya brings out the best in emotional writing that tugs at your heartstrings is like saying that EA brings the worst out of monetization strategies. Mamiya may have supernatural elements and interesting twists within its 15 hours of story. With strong characters who you connect with almost immediately, to dark themes that really dive into some interesting subjects without any fear, Mamiya is something that I really don’t want to spoil anything off: because even the most basic elements of the story should be experienced without any sort of spoilers. I mean, I could go in how the twists are realistic and yet really satisifying, that all the substories work in a variety of ways and hit a range of themes, and that the writing is down to earth and yet is a style that feels a little bit different then others out there. It’s all done with a mysterious story that makes those who pay attention to small details have it pay off for them.
– Real player with 51.4 hrs in game
Ark Noir
This game is worth your time, and $10 USD is a fair price.
- Resource management is the main gameplay aspect. You need to manage your HP, Fortune (lets you bypass otherwise difficult content and helps keep you supplied, but is limited in supply, slowly filling over time), and Inventory (for fighting, but also as consumables for helping NPCs and keeping yourself healed). You’ll want to take on everything to get better endings, level ups, and unlocks, yet doing so will strain your ability to adapt to difficult moments. Eventually you do have to fight at the end of each floor, so you’ll want to spend Fortune on weapons, but if you spend too much then you might not be able to save a vital NPC that might or might not show up. Or maybe your character is already good at fighting, but has such pitiful Fortune that you’re stuck passing on rest rooms (full HP for a payment of Fortune) you really need. Everything is turn based, so there’s no need to rush your decision-making, despite what the clocks on each floor might have you believe.
– Real player with 108.7 hrs in game
This is a really nice indie game-gem , which will look good in every RPG fans' library. And as a vn, it is decent, too. AN feels more like an rpg/dungeon crawler/survival game, than a vn, though.
So what do you get ?
1. A “Whodunnit”- and Why ? - mystery. I love those :)
2. Decent story, for a “short” game - though really weird at times ( Why on earth is the chief of security 15 years old ? )
And the conversation is a bit off now and then. But overall, absolutely decent.
You wake up in a sinking ship , an Ark filled with refugees and animals in cages .
– Real player with 57.0 hrs in game
NetSpace Saga Ep.1
When the crew of the Black Coffee Class C Transport ship finds themselves with no cash and no fuel, they have to ask for work from an old, unpleasant acquaintance, which unchains a series of events that will change the fate of the Solar System, making them unlikely heroes.
Fight your way against aliens, zombies, robots, androids, AI’s, sicarios, and more while meeting hundreds of characters in the Asteroid Cities, vInternet (a Virtual Internet that has gone mad), and Deep Space. Rescue three girls in danger and learn Satan’s true name, while uncovering a terrible conspiracy.
Features of Episode 1:
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A modern take on classic gameplay!
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Turn-based Battle with Point N' Click elements, just like the JRPG gems of the past!
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An irreverent story with characters you will never forget!
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Save anywhere!
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More than 70 unique enemies!
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Meet hundreds of characters!
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10 or more hours of gameplay!
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4 or more hours of hilarious side quests!
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A dark, cyberpunk soundtrack by The Krundas!
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More than 40 levels!
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You can connect to vInternet anytime and explore!
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Use Chips to learn new abilities!
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Episodic story!
Monsters, Briefcase and Road
Brightness, colorfulness, stylish music and a bunch of enemies. All this is in Monsters, Briefcase and Road.
Join the journey of the main character, a multi-genie to different places in the world and fight against enemies that get in the way.
The game contains different locations made in 3d, such as:
Abandoned cities
Dark nooks
Bright areas of cities.
Also, the game has a wide variety of enemies, both in types of attacks and visually.