Moments of greatness and intrigue cut off at the knees by needlessly juvenile and cringe inducing jokes.
So the premise to this game is great. You play Kaname Date, a police officer working for a department that specializes in diving into suspects subconsciousness to try to learn the truth. One night you are called to a grisly murder that sets off a chain of events as you investigate further. The gameplay to this backdrop is split into 3 main parts all of which have ups and downs:
The visual novel section - Most of the game is spent visiting areas talking to characters, asking questions to lead further on the investigation. A lot of the characters are pretty good (I especially liked Aiba and Mizuki) while some are pretty bad (intentional or not Ota is an insufferable weasel) and the localization and voice acting along with this is superb. Each character's voice fits them perfectly and I thought the performances were really good. While in these locations you look through Date's eyes and can move the camera around highlighting objects getting descriptions and lines I quite liked (Does get old revisiting areas with little new). So all good? The problem is the game is obsessed with throwing in terrible sexual innuendos, puns and other cringe humour, often at seemingly completely inappropriate moments and characters. It constantly wants to stick a spike in it's own wheel killing immersion and it gains nothing from it.
The action section - Every so often in the story there are mini quick time event scenes with shoot outs as your investigation progresses. These moments are absolutely destroyed by the above mentioned issue in that they are meant to be serious moments of danger but no, everyone is distracted by porno mags. It's so painful I rolled my eyes 360 degrees in my skull. It wasn't funny or clever once, by the fifth time I was actually angry by it.
The Puzzle sections - While diving into people's minds they play out like a surreal puzzle as you try and bump your way through. Many of them are full of great imagination. The issue is they play out entirely in a trial and error scenario with timers to complete and random penalties or boosters earned on each action. Due to the nature of a surreal dream there is no logic to it meaning you bumble about hoping to choose the right option on random objects. It just feels like the idea is great but needs refining to actually be fun.
I guess that's my main issue with this game just being great ideas but the execution never lands. The writer seems like a 13 year old horny boy and a grizzled divorced father at the same time. The premise is great but the puzzles feel annoying more than fun etc. All that said I enjoyed so many aspects of the plot, characters and art that I saw it through to every ending, a couple of which I genuinely found moving so it was worth it in some ways, It just could have been so much greater.
+ Story premise is great.
+ Some nice art.
+ Great voice acting and presentation.
- Juvenile humour constantly ruins pacing and story moments.
- Seriously why is it so cringey?
- Trial and error puzzle sections aren't as fun as they should be.
So the premise to this game is great. You play Kaname Date, a police officer working for a department that specializes in diving into suspects subconsciousness to try to learn the truth. One night you are called to a grisly murder that sets off a chain of events as you investigate further. The gameplay to this backdrop is split into 3 main parts all of which have ups and downs:
The visual novel section - Most of the game is spent visiting areas talking to characters, asking questions to lead further on the investigation. A lot of the characters are pretty good (I especially liked Aiba and Mizuki) while some are pretty bad (intentional or not Ota is an insufferable weasel) and the localization and voice acting along with this is superb. Each character's voice fits them perfectly and I thought the performances were really good. While in these locations you look through Date's eyes and can move the camera around highlighting objects getting descriptions and lines I quite liked (Does get old revisiting areas with little new). So all good? The problem is the game is obsessed with throwing in terrible sexual innuendos, puns and other cringe humour, often at seemingly completely inappropriate moments and characters. It constantly wants to stick a spike in it's own wheel killing immersion and it gains nothing from it.
The action section - Every so often in the story there are mini quick time event scenes with shoot outs as your investigation progresses. These moments are absolutely destroyed by the above mentioned issue in that they are meant to be serious moments of danger but no, everyone is distracted by porno mags. It's so painful I rolled my eyes 360 degrees in my skull. It wasn't funny or clever once, by the fifth time I was actually angry by it.
The Puzzle sections - While diving into people's minds they play out like a surreal puzzle as you try and bump your way through. Many of them are full of great imagination. The issue is they play out entirely in a trial and error scenario with timers to complete and random penalties or boosters earned on each action. Due to the nature of a surreal dream there is no logic to it meaning you bumble about hoping to choose the right option on random objects. It just feels like the idea is great but needs refining to actually be fun.
I guess that's my main issue with this game just being great ideas but the execution never lands. The writer seems like a 13 year old horny boy and a grizzled divorced father at the same time. The premise is great but the puzzles feel annoying more than fun etc. All that said I enjoyed so many aspects of the plot, characters and art that I saw it through to every ending, a couple of which I genuinely found moving so it was worth it in some ways, It just could have been so much greater.
+ Story premise is great.
+ Some nice art.
+ Great voice acting and presentation.
- Juvenile humour constantly ruins pacing and story moments.
- Seriously why is it so cringey?
- Trial and error puzzle sections aren't as fun as they should be.
NOWITSREYNTIME17
2 years ago