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Very cute and cozy game to scratch your old Zelda itch with. You can tell the amount of love and effort that went into this, and it makes for a very comforting ride. I think it shows most through the dialogue, which never failed to make me smile at the very least, as well as the pretty graphics and overall art design, along with the area, city, dungeon and puzzle design. But although i loved the puzzles and the places the game takes you to, i have to admit i sometimes found myself losing my sense of direction and wishing there was something like a general map of each area, or a way to map your surroundings in detail yourself. Another downside is just how prone you are to fall into the water, and it gets frustrating real quick. Aside from that, i never found the game hard in the slightest, but being able to cheese your way through it with no real tension might also be a downside to some. Not to me, so i find the game really delivered a cozy and gratifying little adventure, making up for a great experience.
Really neat mystery/horror VN that condenses a good story into something that never gets boring - yet never rushes things at all-, so the pacing is very solid for its medium (although it already has quite some elements and mechanics outside of the traditional VN format).
In terms of ambience and setting, it's strikingly good. The soundtrack is quite nice and did its job well, and even if I didn't grow too attached to any particular melody or tune, the jazz style the investigation music had going on for the detectives' section got me really enjoying every second of it.
The visuals and aesthetics are very nicely done as well, and are the cherry on top of the whole thing, helping cement the whole "urban legends and the darkness surrounding the streets and people of 80's Japan" setting's vibe.
The artstyle is really good, both cute and horrifing at times. The characters' sprites are very expressive and really got to me, and the game's more unconventional use of angles, camerawork and character positioning managed to make dialogues very dynamic and fresh, effortlessly making not many sprites to be used in a wide arrange of situations without it being too repetitive.
And while the characters may not stand out much at first sight, they end up making their way into your heart in one way or another. Richter may be the best example: even if at first he may look real shady or a pathetic joke character at best, he became my favorite in no time.
This is all thanks to the quality of the writing and the dialogues between characters, which felt very compelling.
The story itself is very nicely put together, and surprisingly for its genre and medium it actually ties everything up in a very solid way. The ties between every little aspect and character of the story had me constantly glued to the screen needing to unravel more.
The only complaint I have is that some times the narrative kind of relied on the reader not having picked up on some twist for quite a while which I had already seen coming, but then kind of throwing you the answer to another which I didn't even have time to dwell on and resolve. But nothing major to undermine the experience.
I feel the horror was very nicely done, adding a modern understanding of gameplay to deliver the scares, which felt clever and not just cheap, loud jumpscares. If anything, its more 'quiet' jumpscares were the most bone-chilling part for me.
Overall it's a very solid game with a lot of neat and clever tidbits and a really good atmosphere that completely sets you in its mood, and is very much worth its time.
In terms of ambience and setting, it's strikingly good. The soundtrack is quite nice and did its job well, and even if I didn't grow too attached to any particular melody or tune, the jazz style the investigation music had going on for the detectives' section got me really enjoying every second of it.
The visuals and aesthetics are very nicely done as well, and are the cherry on top of the whole thing, helping cement the whole "urban legends and the darkness surrounding the streets and people of 80's Japan" setting's vibe.
The artstyle is really good, both cute and horrifing at times. The characters' sprites are very expressive and really got to me, and the game's more unconventional use of angles, camerawork and character positioning managed to make dialogues very dynamic and fresh, effortlessly making not many sprites to be used in a wide arrange of situations without it being too repetitive.
And while the characters may not stand out much at first sight, they end up making their way into your heart in one way or another. Richter may be the best example: even if at first he may look real shady or a pathetic joke character at best, he became my favorite in no time.
This is all thanks to the quality of the writing and the dialogues between characters, which felt very compelling.
The story itself is very nicely put together, and surprisingly for its genre and medium it actually ties everything up in a very solid way. The ties between every little aspect and character of the story had me constantly glued to the screen needing to unravel more.
The only complaint I have is that some times the narrative kind of relied on the reader not having picked up on some twist for quite a while which I had already seen coming, but then kind of throwing you the answer to another which I didn't even have time to dwell on and resolve. But nothing major to undermine the experience.
I feel the horror was very nicely done, adding a modern understanding of gameplay to deliver the scares, which felt clever and not just cheap, loud jumpscares. If anything, its more 'quiet' jumpscares were the most bone-chilling part for me.
Overall it's a very solid game with a lot of neat and clever tidbits and a really good atmosphere that completely sets you in its mood, and is very much worth its time.
This review contains spoilers
I'm not exactly sure what to make of this game since I have mixed feelings about it, so this is going to be quite long.
First I'll explain the downsides that kept me from fully liking the game, then moving onto its more positive aspects.
I feel my experience was greatly undermined by the fact that it actually ran quite poorly? Even though in theory I have way better memory, space, processors etc. than the minimum requirements specify, I still persistently got major audio and graphical delays, specially with scripted events. Several times did something happen and it didn't graphically load until several seconds later, in which whatever asset was to appear was placeholded by an eye-jarring box with [EVENT] written on it, highly taking away the experience, and moreso, the intended effect and scare.
Beyond that, I feel the game overall was pretty....slow. Not only were the menus, scenes and loading times slow for a relatively simple RPGMaker game, but I missed some way of skipping though scripted scenes/events and dialogue, which I wasn't getting anything out of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time over.
It took me about 20 hours to get all the endings, just from having to start the game all over from having missed one regalia at the very start. Which is fine, since you need to be on NG+ to unlock the new one anyways, but with the game playing so slow I wasn't particularly happy about it.
The story is kind of the middle ground for me. It didn't pique my interest as much as I'd wanted because I felt there wasn't enough for me to hook on. It's not horrible nor badly told at all, but feels kinda underexplained. Not just directly, but also with how little clues I consider there are up to you to read into. Even having read and mulled over every bit of dialogue, letters, text and rest of bits of the story and exposition, I still couldn't pierce the story together beyond the family falling apart because "wow! DID!--i mean... insanity and dementia!" (which is what the protag is actually diagnosed with) and that somehow probably the pact the mother did with the demon caused it?? But nothing is ever explained further than that, and there's not much more to go on for much longer on your own, either. We get close to no answers beyond that. What exactly was that pact? How come we know nothing of it if it's so vital, triggering everything in the story? The way I see it, maybe the price for the pact was either the protag splintering/losing her identity or for the demon to "own" the protag -something he repeats a few times- and upon learning that her family had basically sold her to him she developed DID? even though it doesn't work like that at all? And how are the brother and the strange boy/demon related exactly? Are they supposed to be the same person since their design is obviously similar? But why and how would they be? The entity the pact was made with was implied to be an outsider from the family, encountered in the woods, and the brother was only known to be able to see demons and the like, not be one. But maybe it's just me not getting it from being exhausted having to replay the game so many times over to get all the endings in hope of some final exposition (which doesn't happen).
I'm not saying a game has to completely spoon-feed you its story for it to be any good, but I'm not a fan of having to look up "X story explained" after scrutinizing the whole game, trying hard to pierce it for myself and not getting anywhere.
Besides that, and moving onto its more positive aspects, I felt each character's roles as alters was pretty realistic, which was the reason I first figured out that was what was going on. I actually really like all of them except for maybe Fleta. The symbolism for each of them was also good and fitting, which is why I don't have many complaints in that regard.
Going though each character's parts was greatly enjoyable, as they all had very distinct and strong personalities and the way it was reflected in their sections made for great ambiental storytelling. The diferent areas are really stellar, not only in setting and ambience, but also in the graphical and audio departments. The art and its direction is absolutely gorgeous, and the music is incredibly good as well. It really helps cement the whole "mysterious wonderland of whimsical dream spaces" setting and feel, and each area had its own particular charm and executed well its role, be it cutesy fancy parties and gardens, run-down yet romantic old mansions, creepy and abandoned underwater circuses, mystical rose-filled churches, or floating dreamy theatre corridors. God, I absolutely loved them all, but my absolute favorite was Enjel's, I legit spent at least a couple hours just wandering around basking in the ambience of the place.
Aesthetically and ambientally this game is a solid 10, and I feel it's worth playing just to experience going through these spaces, so beautifully crafted and put together. It's noticeable the huge amount of love and thought that went into them.
As a sidenote, I also quite enjoyed the occasional inspiration from and references to Madoka Magica, as a fan it really won me over.
First I'll explain the downsides that kept me from fully liking the game, then moving onto its more positive aspects.
I feel my experience was greatly undermined by the fact that it actually ran quite poorly? Even though in theory I have way better memory, space, processors etc. than the minimum requirements specify, I still persistently got major audio and graphical delays, specially with scripted events. Several times did something happen and it didn't graphically load until several seconds later, in which whatever asset was to appear was placeholded by an eye-jarring box with [EVENT] written on it, highly taking away the experience, and moreso, the intended effect and scare.
Beyond that, I feel the game overall was pretty....slow. Not only were the menus, scenes and loading times slow for a relatively simple RPGMaker game, but I missed some way of skipping though scripted scenes/events and dialogue, which I wasn't getting anything out of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time over.
It took me about 20 hours to get all the endings, just from having to start the game all over from having missed one regalia at the very start. Which is fine, since you need to be on NG+ to unlock the new one anyways, but with the game playing so slow I wasn't particularly happy about it.
The story is kind of the middle ground for me. It didn't pique my interest as much as I'd wanted because I felt there wasn't enough for me to hook on. It's not horrible nor badly told at all, but feels kinda underexplained. Not just directly, but also with how little clues I consider there are up to you to read into. Even having read and mulled over every bit of dialogue, letters, text and rest of bits of the story and exposition, I still couldn't pierce the story together beyond the family falling apart because "wow! DID!--i mean... insanity and dementia!" (which is what the protag is actually diagnosed with) and that somehow probably the pact the mother did with the demon caused it?? But nothing is ever explained further than that, and there's not much more to go on for much longer on your own, either. We get close to no answers beyond that. What exactly was that pact? How come we know nothing of it if it's so vital, triggering everything in the story? The way I see it, maybe the price for the pact was either the protag splintering/losing her identity or for the demon to "own" the protag -something he repeats a few times- and upon learning that her family had basically sold her to him she developed DID? even though it doesn't work like that at all? And how are the brother and the strange boy/demon related exactly? Are they supposed to be the same person since their design is obviously similar? But why and how would they be? The entity the pact was made with was implied to be an outsider from the family, encountered in the woods, and the brother was only known to be able to see demons and the like, not be one. But maybe it's just me not getting it from being exhausted having to replay the game so many times over to get all the endings in hope of some final exposition (which doesn't happen).
I'm not saying a game has to completely spoon-feed you its story for it to be any good, but I'm not a fan of having to look up "X story explained" after scrutinizing the whole game, trying hard to pierce it for myself and not getting anywhere.
Besides that, and moving onto its more positive aspects, I felt each character's roles as alters was pretty realistic, which was the reason I first figured out that was what was going on. I actually really like all of them except for maybe Fleta. The symbolism for each of them was also good and fitting, which is why I don't have many complaints in that regard.
Going though each character's parts was greatly enjoyable, as they all had very distinct and strong personalities and the way it was reflected in their sections made for great ambiental storytelling. The diferent areas are really stellar, not only in setting and ambience, but also in the graphical and audio departments. The art and its direction is absolutely gorgeous, and the music is incredibly good as well. It really helps cement the whole "mysterious wonderland of whimsical dream spaces" setting and feel, and each area had its own particular charm and executed well its role, be it cutesy fancy parties and gardens, run-down yet romantic old mansions, creepy and abandoned underwater circuses, mystical rose-filled churches, or floating dreamy theatre corridors. God, I absolutely loved them all, but my absolute favorite was Enjel's, I legit spent at least a couple hours just wandering around basking in the ambience of the place.
Aesthetically and ambientally this game is a solid 10, and I feel it's worth playing just to experience going through these spaces, so beautifully crafted and put together. It's noticeable the huge amount of love and thought that went into them.
As a sidenote, I also quite enjoyed the occasional inspiration from and references to Madoka Magica, as a fan it really won me over.