Niandra
Very enjoyable. The latter chapters definitely make up for the series' slow beginning and flaws
2021
A really really cool little game. I love that it takes something mudane and makes it interesting, and adding a story was a great idea!
This review contains spoilers
A very enjoyable chapter. Great character POVs and answers a lot of mysteries. My only issue with it is that the whole "let's band together to storm the child consultation centre!" took up a large chunk of time and got a bit repetitive
2016
This review contains spoilers
I read a lot of visual novels and specifically enjoy games like this one a lot, but One Night Stand didn't click with me. ONS is one of those VN games that can be beaten in about 5-10 minutes, but gives the player a lot of choices so multiple playthroughs are encouraged
Sadly, I just felt like there wasn't much content and after 2-3 playthroughs, it felt like 85% was skipping stuff I'd seen before and 15% was new interactions. The game basically has a few different moments that the player has to arrive at, with choices changing things in between those moments so the whole thing gets repetitive fast. It also didn't help that skipping text just felt kinda sluggish and I think the game was freezing up slightly? There's 27 achievements so there's a lot of replaying and it was just a bit a tedious, to be honest
My other issue is that the game doesn't really know what it wants to do? For example, there's a really interesting brief plot point where you find out the girl has two IDs with two different names but this seemingly goes nowhere and you cannot learn anything about it? All that can happen is, [spoiler]the girl will get mad and kick you out if you bring it up[/spoiler] so I just don't really see the point of it being included (which is a shame because I actually felt very invested in this mystery). There also doesn't seem to be any opportunities to find out why the girl is sick either so it feels like not much is explored at all
I would very much recommend any game by Angela He if you're looking for something like this
Sadly, I just felt like there wasn't much content and after 2-3 playthroughs, it felt like 85% was skipping stuff I'd seen before and 15% was new interactions. The game basically has a few different moments that the player has to arrive at, with choices changing things in between those moments so the whole thing gets repetitive fast. It also didn't help that skipping text just felt kinda sluggish and I think the game was freezing up slightly? There's 27 achievements so there's a lot of replaying and it was just a bit a tedious, to be honest
My other issue is that the game doesn't really know what it wants to do? For example, there's a really interesting brief plot point where you find out the girl has two IDs with two different names but this seemingly goes nowhere and you cannot learn anything about it? All that can happen is, [spoiler]the girl will get mad and kick you out if you bring it up[/spoiler] so I just don't really see the point of it being included (which is a shame because I actually felt very invested in this mystery). There also doesn't seem to be any opportunities to find out why the girl is sick either so it feels like not much is explored at all
I would very much recommend any game by Angela He if you're looking for something like this
2021
A super short and simple visual novel with a great art style. It is also very sad!!
Fairly solid - great aesthetic and sound effects! Definitely worth the cheap asking price. My main issue is that you seemingly cannot skip text you've already read, like most most visual novels, and there is no save system. This means if you want to explore additional text choices, especially later on, it's a bit tedious to go through everything again
2019
I just kinda didn't get it, and thought it was boring...
2018
This looks lovely and the music is great but uh, I just kinda didn't get what the story - that has less than five minutes to tell itself - was going for...
2015
I am 26 years old but this interactive toy really pleased my brain. It's basically the equivalent of a fidget toy. I imagine I would've loved this even more as a kid!
2017
I really enjoyed this short experience. I learned a lot, it made me cry and left me with a lot to think about. One of my favourites from the racial justice bundle!
Not super amazing but not bad either - a quirky little concept
A slightly tedious ending chapter to a very fantastic visual novel series
2022
Obviously influenced by Florence, I was quite excited to play this but its runtime of 5 minutes meant it just felt like Late Bird was over before it could really say anything that made an impact on me
An extremely cool playable cinematic trailer. This isn't for everyone and definitely has a specific audience in mind but I can't deny that this is an accurate look at MMOs and their culture. My only issue is that at one point, you're dropped in a really big level and it's a little unclear how to progress which kinda hurt my pacing a lot
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