A secluded mountain resort, 10 friends, 1 murderer. Investigate, interrogate and present evidence as you solve various mysteries throughout the night. Will you be able to reach the truth and uncover the culprit’s identity? Or will your deductions lead you to blame someone completely innocent...?
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Game #123: Shinrai: Broken Beyond Despair
I was a bit hesitant before starting this VN and I thought it might be a waste of time. It looks an "amateur" work but I'm glad I gave Shinrai a chance. It's nothing groundbreaking but it's a pretty solid murder mystery game. Would definitely recommend this one if you're looking for a new VN to play.
7/10
I was a bit hesitant before starting this VN and I thought it might be a waste of time. It looks an "amateur" work but I'm glad I gave Shinrai a chance. It's nothing groundbreaking but it's a pretty solid murder mystery game. Would definitely recommend this one if you're looking for a new VN to play.
7/10
Músicas... estranhas, personagens sem muito sal, porém vejo como um segundo jogo pode arrumar isso.
O importante é que foi divertido.
O importante é que foi divertido.
The mystery itself is solid enough, but wasn’t into the characters or dialogue as much
Aw man....I'm always looking for mystery visual novels and this one was real rough. My main issue is that Shinrai is mostly character driven but I wasn't a fan of most of the characters
Shinrai basically reminds me of myself as a teenager on deviantart back in 2009, where I thought that I had give characters heavy written accents to distinguish them, instead of having their personalities stand on their own merit. It reminds me of how I thought it was crucial to add references to media I liked. The artstyle has the same sort of vibe, with its cat ears wearing protagonist - although I don't think it's bad at all! And the background/rooms honestly look really solid
Mainly...I just want visual novels to stop feeling the need to have a character whose entire personality is being a pervert and sexually harrassing people. It's not fun to read and also not original, and just kinda immediately sours me at this point
Shinrai basically reminds me of myself as a teenager on deviantart back in 2009, where I thought that I had give characters heavy written accents to distinguish them, instead of having their personalities stand on their own merit. It reminds me of how I thought it was crucial to add references to media I liked. The artstyle has the same sort of vibe, with its cat ears wearing protagonist - although I don't think it's bad at all! And the background/rooms honestly look really solid
Mainly...I just want visual novels to stop feeling the need to have a character whose entire personality is being a pervert and sexually harrassing people. It's not fun to read and also not original, and just kinda immediately sours me at this point
I remember reading Branson Reese reviews on letterboxd and there was a particular quote that stuck with me. "High school productions are often better than professional ones, because you know EVERYONE wants to be there." And that's a sentence that kept coming back to me here.
Shinrai REALLY wants to be about how lack of communication can destroy relationships. And it wants you to KNOW that's the story from beginning to end. I don't really want to be mean to an indie project, but this really feels like a game made in 2008 rather than 2016. It almost screams American middle schooler trying to write an anime, with memes and quirky archetypes and so on and so forth. Its all-encompassing and if that drives you up a tree, you're gonna have a bad time.
But I can't really work up a dislike for it.
And so I keep coming back to that Branson Reese quote. Its not well-written or particularly engaging, but you can really feel how much the creators cared about what they were writing. They worked really hard to write a complicated mystery, tying together different character motives so it all made sense. You can feel how they all laughed amongst themselves writing a goofy old Castlevania reference or hentai joke. Or how they committed to their protagonist wearing cat ears and had to write situations where she would keep forgetting to take them off during a murder investigation. I dunno! It was weird! It was embarrassing! It was ambitious and earnest! I had to keep skipping text because I just got overwhelmed with the sheer Middle School Energy of the dialogue. The theme is heavy-handed, but you totally buy that these are the mistakes these children were making because they didn't know how to communicate! I think I liked it a lot! Maybe!
I had more to say about this four hour not great murder mystery vn than the 70 hours/six months I spent on (the unquestioningly good) Dragon Quest XI. I don't know if that's damning of me or the games, but it says SOMETHING.
Shinrai REALLY wants to be about how lack of communication can destroy relationships. And it wants you to KNOW that's the story from beginning to end. I don't really want to be mean to an indie project, but this really feels like a game made in 2008 rather than 2016. It almost screams American middle schooler trying to write an anime, with memes and quirky archetypes and so on and so forth. Its all-encompassing and if that drives you up a tree, you're gonna have a bad time.
But I can't really work up a dislike for it.
And so I keep coming back to that Branson Reese quote. Its not well-written or particularly engaging, but you can really feel how much the creators cared about what they were writing. They worked really hard to write a complicated mystery, tying together different character motives so it all made sense. You can feel how they all laughed amongst themselves writing a goofy old Castlevania reference or hentai joke. Or how they committed to their protagonist wearing cat ears and had to write situations where she would keep forgetting to take them off during a murder investigation. I dunno! It was weird! It was embarrassing! It was ambitious and earnest! I had to keep skipping text because I just got overwhelmed with the sheer Middle School Energy of the dialogue. The theme is heavy-handed, but you totally buy that these are the mistakes these children were making because they didn't know how to communicate! I think I liked it a lot! Maybe!
I had more to say about this four hour not great murder mystery vn than the 70 hours/six months I spent on (the unquestioningly good) Dragon Quest XI. I don't know if that's damning of me or the games, but it says SOMETHING.