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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy

Ace Attorney is one of the most famous detective visual novels I know. You play as the defense attorney Phoenix Wright (the guy shouting “OBJECTION!”) and your goal is to unravel the truth in many different cases. 

This review is about the first three games (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations) because I have the Steam version of this game.

Story

Phoenix Wright is a defense attorney, who trusts his clients and usually has the goal to declare them not guilty, even if the evidence points otherwise. Basically, he always wants to find the truth rather than taking the “easy way out” by blindly trusting the first plausible reasoning.

While this game can be considered a visual novel, it is still very interactive. There are two parts in the gameplay: The investigations and the trials. In the investigations you usually talk to people only about the current trial and interact with them by presenting evidence. You can also examine the surroundings. In the trials, you listen to witnesses and try to find contradictions in their statements by using items from your court record. So, although, you are reading dialogues most of the time, it’s not like the story is straightforward – you have to “puzzle” the truth together by yourself by finding contradictions and evidence until you reach the ending.

The Main Characters

Phoenix Wright

Phoenix Wright, our “ace attorney”, works as a defense attorney and usually has tough luck with his clients. Additionally, he has some personal problems and currently tries to understand what being a defense attorney means to him.

Maya Fey

The next master of the Fey clan, which specializes in the Kurain channeling technique. A young and impulsive girl, who declared herself Phoenix’ assistant and is one of his closest friends. Some in-game characters ship her (very much) with Phoenix.

Miles Edgeworth

Phoenix’s close friend and rival. A prosecutor and a prodigy, who basically never loses a case and gets very annoyed, when things don’t go his way. While Phoenix is very emotional and often speaks before he thinks, Miles is more rational and introverted. He rarely smiles and usually wants to deal with his problems on his own.

Dick Gumshoe

The homicide detective, who has usually the bad luck of being assigned to one of the cases, where Phoenix is involved. Detectives usually have to conceal a lot of information from defense attorneys, but Gumshoe is on quite friendly terms with Phoenix and tells him about some of the evidence that is involved in the case. 

And there is also an honorable mention: Mia Fey, Maya’s older sister and Phoenix’ mentor.

My Opinion

Ngl, this was like a rollercoaster ride.

From the beginning Ace Attorney starts off strong, introducing plot twists in every episode. Although there is an overall main story, which is only resolved in the last episode of Trials and Tribulations, every episode in each game is a short story that revolves only around the current trial. So, buckle up because most of the time you probably won’t see those twists coming.

However, every episode has still something in common: You have bad luck with your chosen clients.

Phoenix Wright usually believes them that they didn’t commit the crime even if all evidence points otherwise. And because you play as him, you are busy gathering your own evidence and finding contradictions, or your clients are going to be declared guilty. The prosecutor has usually more evidence and the upper hand and you have to grasp at straws to even prolong the trial. Screaming objection at every opportunity, pressing witnesses for more information, trying to find contradictions and alternative ways, how the crime could’ve happened, all the while looking at Miles’ arrogant smirk or being whipped from Franziska… damn, I am happy I am not a defense attorney.

Every trial felt like a battle of wits, with superior animations (never saw more fitting animations in a game than in this game) and great gameplay, and every investigation felt like a race against time. At the same time, it wasn’t like this game has any time-based features. You can think as long as you want to and talk to people as many times as you want to. There are only penalties in the court, if you waste people’s time, or later on in one of the mini-games in the investigations. So, this game manages to create this ambiance (that you’re running out of time) only by the gameplay, the story-telling and the animations, which is a great success in my opinion.

Basically, now that I finished it, I am even sad that this is over. That all things got resolved the way they got resolved, that I had to say “bye” to the cast and left them to figure out things on their own. Ace Attorney had in no way a happy story, nor a truly depressing one. “Trials and Tribulations” pretty much summarizes it: Things go wrong, horribly wrong, but the world does not stop turning and everyone needs to find their own answer how to go on. In my opinion, Ace Attorney is about finding that path. Like Phoenix does at the end – his reason for being a defense attorney. Everyone in this game has actually reasons why they behave the way they do – they have their own dark secrets and painful memories they’d rather forget, but they try to grow and become someone, who is not bounded by the shadow of their past. And that’s beautiful. Even more so, if you think about that the main genre of this game is an episode-based detective game (even a mostly interactive one!), so it’s even more amazing, how much depth the characters have and that there is an overall story connecting most of the cases together.

I mean, I played this game for 70h and it felt like maybe 20h passed at most. I could start playing in the evening and then look at the clock and realize in awe and shock that it’s already 2 am, although I just wanted to play only until 10 pm.

Anyway, I do love this game. It will probably have a special place in my heart and, since I bought the next two bundles in the Steam sale, I don’t have to wait any longer to play the continuation of Phoenix’s story (hurray). And I’m waiting for the next release…

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Taisho x Alice: Chapter 1

Taisho x Alice is a romance visual novel with multiple episodes, where it is your job as the heroine to save the male leads from their past and possible future.

This review is about the first episode and reviews for the future episodes will follow (after I played them).

Story

The problem with this game is that it is really difficult to go into details without including spoilers, so I will have to be very careful with my words. Roughly speaking, you are Yurika (you can re-name her before (!) starting the game in the menu) and your job is to save the person of your choice with the power of love. While this seems like your typical otome game, believe me, it’s not. You really have to save the guys and get your happy end at all costs because “every fairy tale should have a happy ending”.

The Characters

While I don’t know the overall story that connects Yurika to all of this, every male character in this series is based off gender-swapped fairy tale characters. However, their stories are “darker” than the stories we know from childhood and if you don’t help them, their future looks bleak.

Heroine (Yurika)

Yurika is an exceptionally pushy and determined woman. She is not the naïve and helpless heroine that you usually see in otome games, but a person, who knows what she wants and will do everything in her power to achieve that. Even, if she is shunned or ignored or pushed away, she still tries her best to get her happy ending at all costs.

Red

Red is introduced as Officer Red Riding Hood, who came to Yurika’s home to protect her from “The Big Bad Wolf” by staying at her place for a short time. He is very stoic and rational in the beginning, but changes a lot as he gets to know Yurika better.

Cinderella

Cinderella is the heir from a rich family and the fiancé of Yurika. He is described as a person, whose heart is made of ash – a rich playboy, who throws around money and cares about no one but himself. Again, Yurika is a positive influence in his story and brings him to the right path.

My Opinion

Honestly, I really liked this game and I will continue playing the second episode asap.

Yurika is so refreshing as a heroine because I really dislike the damsel in distress trope. If Yurika wants to do something, she goes and does it. For example, in Cinderella’s story she wanted to get to know her fiancé better and so she grabbed her luggage and went to his place. While this is not entirely realistic, it is at least something I can respect.

And the male leads in this game have also both very interesting personalities. They are struggling with their lives and have actual issues. It’s not like Cinderella is just “your typical playboy” and the heroine’s existence makes him suddenly a better human being and makes him change his ways. There is actually a reasonable explanation for his behavior and he does not change overnight just because the heroine is on his side. Also, that Red is suddenly at Yurika’s place to protect her from all evil like a shining knight in armor, is also fairly reasonably explained.

Basically, this game takes typical tropes from otome games and makes them actually reasonable. It’s even believable why both male characters fall in love with her in such a short time – you actually WORK FOR IT. I believe one of the male leads actually literally says that he started loving Yurika because she always did what he liked or wanted to hear. (no wonder this game is gonna be real dark real soon…)

Anyway, beside the characters, the writing is also not typical for an otome game. It usually uses very informal language and makes fun of typical anime and otome game stereotypes story and dialogue-wise. A good example for that is Alice, who actually rants about everyone and everything (including the mentioned tropes) – I really love him. However, while it usually made me smile, sometimes things were just too exaggerated (like the insinuations in Red’s route) and just cringe-worthy. Honestly, the game even cringes about itself sometimes, so take everything with a grain of salt.

All in all, I was really impressed by this game (10/10). While I did like Red’s story more than Cinderella’s, they both were very fun to read. Although, I do have to say that I kept being curious about Alice and the overall story of this game, while reading. Because it’s never explained. The game basically just says: “Go romance these guys. Have fun. Bye.” and then you do that… and what now? The suspense is really killing me…

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Belle Automata I

This game is an otome game, where you play as a self-aware android to find your purpose and your special someone.

Story

The heroine of this game was sold by her previous owners after her master died (probably because they noticed she has emotions and is self-aware). At the beginning of the game she arrives at the mansion, where the people, who bought her, live. While she is still sad about the loss of her master, she cannot just sit there and grieve because she needs to find a new purpose for her existence and maybe (most likely, if you don’t fail) even love.

The Characters

Heroine (Aureve)

The main character is a self-aware android, a dreamweaver model, whose sole purpose was to weave tapestries for her master. Well, until he died. His family realized she was self-aware and proceeded to sell her off. Now, she was brought to a fancy mansion and for the first time in her life can decide for herself, what she wants to do in the future.

Victor

Victor is the only butler of the mansion she was brought to. He is stoic and can be cold and straightforward at times. He seldomly smiles, talks harshly and is very overprotective towards the Nightmare Prince. However, if the main character chooses him as her love interest, he will show you he can be very emotional, if you have the patience to deal with him despite his behaviour. (Well, not gonna lie my heart skipped a beat at some scenes…)

Nightmare Prince

The Nightmare Prince is the heroine’s saviour and employer. He is a very mysterious person, who alters his voice, when speaking with the heroine, and besides her, only speaks with Victor and his brother Roman. If the heroine is patient and tries to befriend him, eventually, he opens up to her and she get to see, what he looks like and why he is behaving this weirdly.  

My Opinion

I actually enjoyed this game more than I thought I would. It was especially refreshing to see a new kind of main character in these kinds of games. I’m used to the typical damsel in distress, who has zero combat abilities and endangers herself in every way possible to humankind. Not that I don’t enjoy reading those kinds of stories, but having a totally different heroine is a welcome change of pace as well.

The main character does not endanger herself in any way, but instead seeks to understand herself and her emotions better. She starts slowly liking the companion she chose, not aware of her own feelings in the beginning and unsure where everything will lead to. Additionally, she chooses not only whom to pursue, but also what to do with herself. She gains new friendships, new hobbies and new goals.

It is very nice to read this kind of a story in my opinion, although I do feel that it is in some parts way too hopeful (but, hey, it is a fairy tale after all). To be honest I still would have bought this game, if only to play the Nightmare Prince’s route because …. Well, this guy is so adorable and precious. You just feel like you want to hug and protect him and tell him that everything’s going to be alright. Lucky me got this for free though to review as a curator. (And I’m so happy because otherwise I wouldn’t have played it probably because it’s so underrated that it never popped up in my recommendations…) Anyways, even besides the Nightmare Prince, Victor’s route was nice to read as well.

Besides the writing, the game can offer you nice visuals (although the CG look worse than the character designs), really good voice-acting (yes, it is fully voiced PLUS the androids actually sound like androids, which is amazing) and some really good lines that you can quote and seem smart (as I did here).

So, while I would give a 10/10 for the Nightmare Prince, I’d only give an 8.5/10 for Victor. Why the difference in score? Well, like I said I didn’t like the parts, where the game gets too fairy tale-ish and it was especially so in Victor’s route. I also didn’t like how Victor behaved that much. If I was the heroine, I would have quit pursuing him (hell, I even thought the bad ending was the better one). Also, the difficulty to get the perfect ending is high. Already 3 wrong choices gave me the “normal ending” with the Nightmare Prince (and for me the right choices were kind of difficult to guess sometimes) and for Victor I even got the “bad ending” when I didn’t use a guide. And lastly, I did not like that the difference between the endings was so little. If you for example get the perfect ending, the normal and the bad ending will have 90% the same story, so you will be skipping a lot of text.

You might be puzzled, why the Nightmare Prince got such a high score then? Because his story was far more realistic and consistent with my interpretation of the heroine’s personality. His character was also deeper and more “thought-out” in my opinion. The difference in the endings was also very true to his character and in this case, it actually made sense for the story to be 90% the same for all endings. All in all, I just really liked his character and story. I was actually so engrossed that I played his whole route including all endings in one sitting because I just wanted to know, how it ends.

So, yeah, here you have my opinion on this game and I hope you consider at least looking into it because it is far more underrated than it deserves to be.

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A Story Beside

This is a RPG, but rather that slaying monsters and saving NPC’s, you will be making everyday choices. Realizing along the way that those kinds of choices can have as much of an impact as slaying monsters or saving kingdoms.

Story

The main character is called Lyric. An average girl living in an average village on the mountainside. Every day is nice and blissful for her – surrounded by family and friends. The player has a vast amount of possibilities how to change her life for the worse or the better by influencing the choices that she does. While the choices do seem random and insignificant sometimes, you never know how much impact they can have on the future.

Characters

Lyric

I will only talk about Lyric because everything else seems like a spoiler to me. Lyric’s personality is heavily influenced by your choices. It’s really as simple as that. In my playthrough she was a very honest, hard-working, amazing and courageous girl, who was willing to put her life at stake to protect and save the things and the people she loved and succeeded in doing so. She was a hero. More than those heroes the game mentions. Because fighting your fate takes a lot more courage than fighting a monster.

My opinion

I was really shocked to see how unknown this game actually is. Having played “World’s Dawn” I just saw a notification in Steam that this game came out about a year ago. Long story short, I had put it on my Wishlist thinking it was another farming game and now bought it in this summer sale. Oh, how I had been wrong.

This game is like listening to a life story of a stranger and feeling more and more attached to them as you listen. Not only that – you can even influence the decisions of that stranger. It’s similar to being reincarnated into another person and making their choices for them. However, this game doesn’t really feel like a story. It feels too realistic to be a story.

There are happy things and sad things – just like in life. You learn to appreciate the small kindnesses life gives you in the darkest hour. You try your best to survive, to make meaningful choices, to make the right choices. To love and be loved. To save people in the hope that this small act of kindness can change the future for the better. Although you don’t know. You never know. Even when you’re older and look back at the things you did, you will never know, if they were the right choices. You will never know, if you could’ve done things better.

However, you will know that you did what you could. Even, if nothing seems to work at the moment and everything seems like a never-ending winter, you should always try your best to survive today, to survive tomorrow. And then slowly the darkness might fade. Slowly you might get the things back you cherished and loved.

The small things that you took for granted all these years. The friendship with your best friend maybe. The relationship with your partner, which might be sweet but lacks the fire and drama you’re used to from novels. The love from your pets. Your friends and family that surround you.

After playing this game, you might reflect on your life and see that this game is not so different from your own life. As for me, I did experience moments in my life that were actually similar to this game. Moments, where I instinctively knew that my choice had a big impact on the future of a person. Might it be friends, might it be family, might it be the love of my life. I instinctively knew that the things I’m choosing won’t be ever changeable in this timeline. And it’s a scary feeling. You sit there and wonder, whether you could’ve done things differently. How your life would have been, if you did things differently. If you had missed something, if you had neglected something. It just makes me emotional. This is the kind of game it is – it stirs something within you. Makes you understand something about yourself you chose to ignore all these years. And hopefully teaches you to cherish the things that you have and be careful with the choices you make.

Because everyone of us can be a hero or a villain, if we want to.

Everyone of us can change the world for the better or worse.

So, what will you choose?

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Lake of Voices

I stumbled across the visual novel “Lake of Voices” by pure chance and hence it is free (yes, it is free and good, so I don’t know why you’re even reading this review), I thought “Why not?”.

It is a “horror” visual novel, fairly short (about 5h) and deals with themes such as loss or sacrifices.

Well, obviously I don’t regret playing this game, or I wouldn’t be writing a long review about it. And since you’re reading this review, it seems you want to know more about this game as well… so here I go:

Story

You play as Kikka, attempting to cross the lake Sinnlos, with two other travelers – her fellow guard Bemelle and a young girl called Margret. Although the guide warns them that not everyone will survive this trip, all of them are not shaken in their resolve and attempt it.

Well, the guide warned you guys, you can’t save everyone. It is literally impossible in this game, where dangers and timed choices lurk around every corner. Sometimes waiting is the only way to let danger pass and sometimes you have to act quickly. However, the lake always needs sacrifices. And by that, I mean, if you do not choose whom to sacrifice, the game will do it for you – trust me.

Basically, if you want to end up on a route or reach a specific ending you have to think beforehand, whom to save. Specifically – if someone dies it worsens the psychological state of the rest of the characters. Additionally, it changes the overall plot because the other characters make some crucial choices as well. For example, Lu assumes Bemelle and Kikka share a mutual attraction and you can guess why it’s bad to have him assume this, if you want his best ending.

Besides that, the story is pretty straightforward and somewhat repetitive. You will see what I mean – every story has the overall same structure and you will always have to skip some parts of the dialogue.

However, the overall impression of the story can be totally different depending on the choices. The most prominent example is the difference between Lu’s best ending and Bemelle’s best ending. I wouldn’t even have guessed from Bemelle’s ending what the true story behind the problems of the lake is.

So, while it can be a bit repetitive, it’s overall worthwhile to play each of the routes.

Characters

Kikka

The main character is Kikka the Steadfast – a guard on her way to help a village under siege with her partner Bemelle, whom she has known for years. She decides to cross the lake Sinnlos with him, so that they can arrive at the village quickly enough to help. While at the beginning she is quite “emotionless” and acts tough, depending on your choices and the consequences, this façade starts either crumbling down or not.

Bemelle

Bemelle is Kikka’s fellow guard and has known her for years. He admires and trusts her very much and, while before Kikka didn’t realize how much attention he has been giving her, in this trip it becomes very obvious. Additionally, he is very emotional and can’t really deal with his anger well – he can say things that he will regret later on. All in all, he is a good person though and is willing up to speak up, if he thinks that things are wrong. 

Margret

Margret is a witty young woman, who wants to cross the lake with the main character and her fellow guard. While she does have a reason to cross it, it has in fact nothing to do with helping others. Kikka has the option to befriend and help her deal with her issues. Only in her route you can learn about the reasons, why she has to cross the lake in the first place.

Lu

Lu is a stranger that you meet on the bridge. He does not have a light with him as he attempts to cross it and he is still alive, so it is kind of strange in the first place (the novel tells you that Nixi fear light and having light is the only way to cross the bridge and survive). His favorite phrase is “I’m sorry” and he is very hateful and depreciating towards himself. Lu has actually two routes – one “true” route, where you can be together, and one “bittersweet” route. The “true” route also explains the real issue – why Sinnlos is a deadly place.

The Guide

The guide is a stoic and apathic person, who seems to care only about himself and his survival. In his route and Lu’s route, you can see that this is not fully true and that he has emotions and cares not only for himself. However, in Margret’s and Bemelle’s route he really acts not nicely towards the main characters. Although he is not really a bad person (you will see what I mean, when you play the game), he makes pretty much sure everyone hates him.

My opinion

While the story had a few shortcomings (especially the true ending of Lu) because it was too short to have major plot twists like that and they were basically left there without further explanation, it was overall a very enjoyable novel. The writing style is good and immersive, the characters are nice and lively and the idea is creative.

“You can’t save them all” – basically you have to learn that lesson as well as Kikka. Although you might feel that as the player you have the upper hand and can manage to do the impossible, this game just tells you: “No, you can’t”. This is the part, which I tend to like the most because it makes it feel much more real. Not because you’re crossing a lake with monsters in it, not because you have a goal to save people in another village or because you can befriend strangers on a dangerous journey – but because dangerous, deadly things lead to death. It is natural. You can’t save them all and that’s it. And I am very pleased not because the novel kills of likeable characters, but because it is not cliché. It doesn’t make things magically appear and fix all problems and it doesn’t turn the main character into a superhero, who can be everywhere at the same time. All three characters besides Kikka are basically incapable to survive this journey alone and Kikka is just one person, so it’s obviously impossible to save them all.

To summarize:  This novel is free, so you can definitely give it a go, if you like the things I was describing in my review. Although this game has a few shortcomings regarding the plot, it was overall interesting and very immersive. I give it an 8.5/10.

Well… however I was a bit frustrated about the guide’s route, so I … uhm… wrote an alternative setting for it. It’s just a one shot and I’m not that good at writing (especially in English), soo please don’t judge me too much, heh?

[lizz-revs]

One Shots Based on Visual Novels

Sometimes I get creative and write my own stories about things...

The Lake doesn’t Welcome Many - Perspective of The Guide

[lizz-revs]

The Lake doesn’t Welcome Many

Disclaimer: I do not own Lake of Voices in any way and hope the creators do not mind that I wrote a kinda stupid fanfiction using a character of their visual novel (The Guide).

Here is the link to the original game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/782340/Lake_of_Voices/

Additionally, proceed with caution because this story might contain some spoilers.

And I’ll add a trigger warning to make sure no one reads it, who can’t deal with such stuff… (domestic violence hinted at / bruises)

While he was working, he saw humans, many different kinds of humans.

Humans with ugly, dark souls, greedy and careful to always benefit from everything.

Humans, who claimed themselves righteous, who wanted to help others even if it meant to sacrifice their life.

Hopeless ones, who tried to change their lives. Boastful ones, who wanted to show everyone how courageous and capable they were…

At first it was unbearable. He wasted time and effort trying to convince them to stop. Trying to use rational arguments, to warn about the dangers, to make them understand they would lose everything they value, if they cross this lake.

They never listened.

He grew tired.

Tired of their screams, tired of their cowardice and irrationality, how they acted and how they talked.

He did not care anymore.

They were all the same, always minding no one’s business but their own.

Always not listening to him.

“How bad could it be?”

“He is just exaggerating”

“We know of the difficulties, but we have to take the journey no matter what.”

And then the screams.

The screams were always the worst.

He felt like it was him metaphorically pulling the trigger on them. He felt it was his fault, no matter how often he tried to convince himself otherwise.

Eventually he grew dull to the pain.

His conscience stopped bothering him.

It was a part of his life now. Death was a part of him now.

Every time he led people to their doom some part of him died with them.

No matter how noble his goals were, he still knew deep inside that he had made a choice. He had chosen his kin and forsaken the humans. Every time a human died it was like a statement that Nixi lives were more valuable. It was wrong. Very wrong…

He’d deny it vigorously, if such a thought would emerge. He would tell himself how hard he tried to convince the humans since the beginning to move away. To leave the shores of Seelenlos alone. They didn’t listen. They were the ones at fault.

Not him.

He was the one, who sacrificed himself for his kin. He was the one trying to minimize the damage. He was the one, who had to burden everything. He was…

“Hello, this girl will cross the lake with you, when you guide the people to the other shore”

Will? Not would like?

He raised his head and turned around. He had a habit looking down on the water, when he wasn’t working as if trying to converse with the drowned or convince them that he was doing the right thing.

The person making such claims was a short and rather corpulent woman dressed as a housekeeper from a wealthy family. As saying that, she dragged the mentioned “girl” – a scrawny figure wearing a jacket with a hood by her arm, towards him. That person did not even look up.

In his years as a guide, he had seen a lot of people. Never before he had seen someone wanting to cross the lake not by their own volition.

His mouth became a thin line, making him look even more soulless and cold than he did normally. He was displeased.

“Here is the money.”, she handed him some bills, then just turned around and left.

He was speechless. He never took money for his work. He got his pay from the elders – the travelers did not have to pay for they were paying with their lives to begin with.

However, when he regained his composure, the woman was long gone and he was left alone with the figure.

“Do you wish to cross?”, he asked them for he was sure they never would have started a conversation with him on their own.

“No, but what choice do I have?”, the voice answering was definitely feminine, although tired and worn out.

“I could give you the bills and you could go the long way around”, he claimed, pretty sure that it was a valid choice.

That is when she looked up. Her face was somewhat pretty, although she looked malnourished and had purple bags under her eyes. Eyes that were a deep and bright color of blue and looked at him angrily, no – furious: “And do you expect them to welcome me with open arms? A girl in rags with a lot of cash?”, she hissed, “I know, you will be leading me to my death… But why did you mock me in the same way she has for the whole trip? Do you enjoy seeing people suffer?”

He was taken aback by the sharp and strong words from such a feeble creature, so it took a few minutes for him to answer.

“Why do you think I enjoy seeing people suffer?”, he asked ignoring the first part completely. It was not intentionally ignored. It was more that the second part stung and awoke something in him, which he thought was long gone.

“Because…”, she didn’t know what to say and bit her lip realizing she had spoken to harshly and hastily to a stranger.

However, this gesture made him involuntary look at her lips and then his gaze was drawn towards her neck. His eyes slightly widened, betraying him by showing some emotions for the first time in a long while.

Oh, yes, he had told himself so often that humans were a danger to his kin that he had to protect. And those humans, who died, deserved it in the end because it was their choice. Some of those humans even deserved to perish for other humans’ sake. But this…

He was looking at bruises, a purple unhealthy color mixed with yellow. They had a weird shape…

Like fingers.

Someone tried to strangle her with their bare hands.

The girl realized what he was looking at and hastily looked down on the ground, so that he wouldn’t see; wouldn’t look anymore.

Maybe that was why she thought he enjoyed people’s suffering.

Because she never knew anything else.

For the first time in years, he felt something within him coming to life. Not only a bit of emotion, a fleeting feeling of regret, shame or pain, but something far stronger. He was furious.

His first thought was to ask, who did that to her, but he dismissed it as quickly as it came. First of all, he doubted she would answer and second, what could he do about it? Run into the town and kill the person responsible? Not only it would endanger his kin and the girl, but it would lead him to lose his job as a guide – make him lose everything he stood for.

Speaking of what he stood for – he had told himself for years that humans were the stronger and more selfish race and that they would betray his kin, if they ever had the chance. That it was either killing some individuals to protect his kin – the minority, or losing all chances of survival.

But killing this girl was like killing one of his brothers or sisters, one of his family. She was the living example of everything that would happen to them, if a human found out. The reason he was protecting in the first place. And she was not a Nixi but a human.

It was like a punch in the gut.

For years he had seen travelers; some of them were righteous – those, who tried to save everyone and whose claims were that the world was unfair and they were helping to undo it. He had dismissed those sayings as self-praise and overreaction. Now it seemed to him that not they were the fools but him.

Assuming that he knew humans through his job and through the fleeting contact he had as a teenager with one leader of a village and using it as an excuse to let them die for years… Wasn’t it something that he had done all this time?

And now the truth stood before him – the truth that he had been wrong. That he had been protecting not the weak, but playing God. Maybe he had been leading someone over this bridge, who had been a parent or a relative of this girl. And it was him, who turned her into this. Had she been from his kin…

He stopped himself.

Exactly, she was the reason why he was protecting them in the first place. So that they didn’t need to suffer like her. She was human. Just human.

“It’s okay, if I die”, she said suddenly as if reading his thoughts.

Startled he looked up and saw her standing next to the water of the lake – far too close to the water. While he had been thinking and debating with himself for seemingly a long time, he did not notice her moving.

He made a few steps towards her, debating with himself, whether he should pull her away from the murky dark water or not.

She kneeled down, robbing him that choice – now it was either kneeling and pulling her back, which was a rather intimate gesture, or waiting for her to go away on her own. Although it was very unlikely, she would move from that place in near future.

“I don’t mind dying”, she repeated quietly, as if talking to herself. Actually, she was because a human wouldn’t have been able to hear her muttering.

“No one minds it, they even paid for it”, she chuckled quietly, “it’s not like I have a place to be anyway…”

She reminded him of Lu, who was a part of his kin. His favorite appearance was a short and scrawny red-haired boy and when he spoke, he either belittled himself or said he was sorry. He was sorry for everything, beginning from his existence. And this girl apparently shared the same thoughts regarding that.

He almost cussed aloud.

Why did he start comparing these two? It was a bad choice; one he couldn’t turn back. He had before successfully stopped himself, when he started sympathizing with the girl, but now it made his whole effort for naught. The emotions were there again, now far stronger than before, since he had found a compared her to a person he cherished and protected.

If she was like Lu, then how could he forsake her? If she was like a person for whom he killed others to protect them. If he’d kill her, wouldn’t he kill Lu with her?

He shook his head. These thoughts were so wrong. All of them. He should…

Instinctively he jumped forward, his hands slid around the waist of the girl and he pulled her back from the shore. Although he heard a low hiss from the water asking something like “What’s wrong with you?” or “Didn’t she agree to be a sacrifice?”, he didn’t answer. He didn’t have an answer actually because he had instinctively moved towards the water as he realized the impending danger in the back of his mind.

Well, actually he had an answer now. There was no way he could live with himself apparently, if he let this girl die. And as far as he understood her, she would die, if he’d left her.

While he had pondered about the choices he had now, which were rather little, the girl apparently regained her composure and wiggled out from his grasp.

As she stood up, she gave him a curious look: “Why did you save me?”

He growled. So, she had seen them as well.

“Do you intend to keep me?”, she asked, her gaze still fixed on him, as if confirming, whether he was willing to go through with his actions or just some guy, who claimed to be righteous and didn’t mind the consequences of his actions.

He stood up, keeping quiet.

It was answer enough for her because she frowned and then turned around facing the lake again.

He hissed.

She turned around to him both surprised and startled. Her blue eyes now full of curiosity waited for an answer to her question, which she hoped would soon come.

The hiss had been the answer though.

In a language she wouldn’t understand… yet.

“Don’t touch her. She is mine.”

Suddenly a lot of noises were coming from the lake – angry, surprised noises.

She turned around again, seeing a lot of shadows close to the shore made her involuntary take a few steps back towards him.

He didn’t bother to answer. They would see what he meant in due time. Or maybe they wouldn’t see it and choose someone to replace him. As for now he intended to do the things his duty told him to do. This girl was belonging to a minority as well. She had nowhere to go. She regarded herself as a thing – something you can keep. He wouldn’t be able to kill her. He wouldn’t be able to sacrifice her for his cause – trying to save his kin from exactly this.

Future would show.

But for now…

“Come. You will be staying with me. We will go to the other side, when there are more travelers. The cabin on the other side of the lake will be your home.”

She didn’t answer. He looked at the water, not at her, while saying it. His emotions were far too strong, out of control and he didn’t trust himself enough that they were not visible on his face.

After a while that seemed like an eternity, she spoke: “I’m Rika… pleased to make your acquaintance”, her voice was shaky. She probably was crying from disbelief and relief because of his answer.

He sighed.

“You ought to remember my name from now on. It is Dour.”

Notes: Actually, I wanted to call him Airen before I saw the Bonus Scene ;_; Airen is a way better name, damn it…

[lizz-revs]

Battle Royale: For Your Heart!

First things first: This game is only a Demo (roughly 70 min reading time). There is no full version available yet and it’s pretty short. You only get introduced to the possible romance candidates and have about 10-15 choices (maybe more, I didn’t count). Therefore, if you hope to see some romance interaction going on, you will be disappointed. Additionally, since the funding goal on Kickstarter wasn’t reached, there is no real information, when the full game will be released.

However, I would still like to express my opinion about the Demo and, when the game gets released and I get a chance to read it, I will just update this review.

 Story

In the story of this game you play as a noob (gender is selectable), who has decided to join a Battle Royale Game for the first time because their favorite streamer SamuraiStriker asked his viewers to participate. After you manage to embarrass yourself in front of more experienced players in the waiting area and hopefully found new friends, you are given a choice, whether you want to team up with some of the romanceable characters or go alone.

The Characters

As far as I know, there are six routes/ characters to choose from:

Your “twin” (basically the character of the gender that you didn’t choose to play), who is maybe slightly better than you, but still a bad player. TwinTails, who acts like a cute girl, but seems to be an experienced player. Midnight, who acts like a middle-aged guy (I don’t know, if this was intended) and is definitely an experienced player. SamuraiStriker, the famous streamer, whose fan you are. He in my opinion a little too arrogant and a little too secure about his win… HollyDay, who seems to be somehow very creepy, cruel and wants to win the competition no matter what. (However, the description of this game states that she can actually be a nice person as well).

My Opinion

Anyway, like I said there is no romance in the Demo. Therefore, I’d say that for now the main genre of this story would be comedy (or parody like it’s said in the description). Plus, SamuraiStriker and HollyDay had only a short introduction and left a somehow bad first impression on me.

Even though overall the Demo is very short, I still would like to mention some aspects of this Game:

I really like the writing style and the overall writing of this game. I think it is great that the focus is comedy rather than romance in the beginning because it doesn’t “rush” the plot. It’s not like you fall in love with someone just because you meet them in a lobby a few minutes ago and their in-game character looks cute. However, there are two aspects in the writing I disliked: Firstly, I was overwhelmed by the amount of choices you have in this game. While there are people, who like it, when there are a lot of choices, I have the opinion that it can destroy the flow of the game. Just because you’re busy saving & loading most of the time to get the route that you like (or just hunting for CGs). Secondly, I just don’t like, how stupid the main character is acting sometimes. I mean, even, if she is supposed to be a total noob, it doesn’t make really sense for her to know so little about the game, when her favorite streamer is often playing Battle Royale games or even just computer games…

Besides the writing, I also liked the art of the game and the gameplay. Especially I want to mention that in the full game, you will be able to choose your starting point like you would (more or less) be able in a real Battle Royale game and that’s a great detail.

Overall, I think that this game managed to pique my interest. While I can’t really vouch for the whole story right now, the writing until this point is nice and the idea of the story is not only interesting, but also realized well. However, there are a few things that I don’t like right now: The personality of the main character and the amount of choices.

Anyway, for now I’ll stay curious until the full game gets released.

[lizz-revs]

Theories about Visual Novels

Since in the past years I’ve started to play not only romance visual novels, where the plot is pretty much described in all the routes, but also mystery and horror visual novels. Therefore, I started to develop my own theories about, what’s going in the games.

And, while I know that everything will be revealed in the end, I want to have the pleasure of writing down my theories and see, whether I am right or totally wrong. Of course, if you’re interested in them as well, feel free to read and comment. However, I’ll write in each case, how much I’ve read, so please refrain from writiting spoilers.

Higurashi When They Cry (Currently read: Chapter 4)

[lizz-revs]

Theory about Hinamizawa - SPOILER

Warning: Heavily Spoilers (I’ve currently read Chapter 4)

I think honestly that there is something like drug addiction or a disease or something going on.

Why I think so?

Well, first of all the hallucinations. Keiichi hallucinates in all of the chapters at some point.

In the first chapter it happens, when he thinks that Rena and Mion are evil or have a somewhat evil personality like, when Rena starts stalking him. Additionally, it doesn’t look like he is the first one to experience it because

It is mentioned that Satoko’s brother has acted the same, before he disappeared

He clawed open his own throat like the photographer Tomitake did

In the second one there is this whole business with Mion. Rena kind of mentions that there is the demon side of Mion, which awakes because Keiichi doesn’t care for her. This may sound like something supernatural, but also can be interpreted as a disease. Additionally, at the end, everyone dies either suddenly or commits suicide. I think the cause of that could be hallucinations as well, since there is a possibility for one to die from shock (sometimes exploited in horror games e.g. with using the heart rate of main characters).

In the third chapter Keiichi even literally hallucinates the murder of Satoko’s uncle. I mean, there wasn’t a corpse. It also seems like he develops a second personality throughout the novel, more like, he starts acting like a psychopath. Even in the first chapter this personality was hinted at, since at the beginning, I presume, Keiichi is killing Rena, while telling that he loved her. (tbh could also be Mion, but I am more likely to guess Rena because he prefers Rena throughout this chapter)

But why disease or drug and not a demonic entity?

Hmm… well, I really don’t think it’s a demon since other villages actually don’t come close to Hinamizawa residents and say that they are descendants of demons. Would be a really easy excuse for everything, if the residents are actually demonic. But basically, what I think instead, is that this disease may have to do something with the air or the swamp in Hinamizawa that is why I was suggesting drugs or simply toxic air. So, while demons might be an easy explanation, it’s more likely for me that the residents start feeling sick, when they stay in the village for too long.

What about Rika and the disaster that happens, when Rika dies?

That’s actually a good question because in every timeline, where Rika dies, the swamp erupts toxic gas and the whole village is wiped out. More surprisingly Rika is even able to foretell her fate, as we can see in the fourth chapter. Honestly, while this can be easily explained with supernatural abilities, it is very hard to explain otherwise. I think that Rika might really have a talent and that she is able to see the future. However, I don’t think that her death is the reason for the toxic gas. I think it is more like she can’t save the village from the toxic gas, if she is dead.

To sum it up:

I think that the village is plagued by a disease or some kind of drug (don’t really know, whether Irie has something to do with the drug, or the drug is just naturally produced by the swamp). However, I am sure the blue substance or something that the girls have in their pockets at the end of chapter two is something like a medicine against it. This disease corrupts the human brain, so that the person starts heavily hallucinating and act rather brutal against themselves or other people. It also corrupts relationships since the person feels that everyone is hostile against them.

However, Rika’s ability to foresee the future seems real. Additionally, that the Sonozaki clan is more like a mafia seems very real too. Therefore, I don’t doubt that Mion has some blood on her hands or at least has at some point done something rather illegal. Additionally, I think it is very suspicious that Rena seems to know something about the “demonic powers” of others. I feel like she might know something about the true happenings at Hinamizawa, but chose to say that it’s all the work of demons.

Additionally, I really don’t trust both Irie and Miyo. Miyo seems to be way too brutal and is interested in all that gruesome stuff…

Ah, yeah, if it’s a disease, then who killed all those people?

I think Keiichi did his fair share of killings and in the second part it was mostly Mion, who went berserk. However, Rika wasn’t murdered by them in the third and fourth chapters and also there were a lot of people murdered before Keiichi even came to the village. My opinion would be that the deaths of the people before Keiichi’s arrival were the work of the Sonozaki family.

Now, for the other murders, I think it depends on the timeline. In the first part it was Keiichi. In the second part the killings were done because of the Sonozaki clan. And in the third and fourth part I think it was the main antagonist of the series. Yeah, I honestly believe there is an antagonist, who has also some kind of medical knowledge because I really think that this person has an influence on the Hinamizawa “disease” and its progression (e.g. Tomitake, who clawed his own throat). While the protagonist(s) don’t live long enough in the first two parts for the antagonist to act, in the third and fourth part it’s enough time for them to get to their goal: Slice up Rika at the shrine as an offering.

That’s it for my theory.

[lizz-revs]

Higurashi When They Cry - Himatsubushi

As you might have guessed, this is a sound novel as well. Look up my Reviews for the First Part, Second Part and Third Part of the Series, if you want to know, what this game is about, as I will not repeat, what I wrote before.

Story

This time we read about the past of Hinamizawa, the dam construction riots and the abduction of the grandson of a governmental official. The story is told by a police officer named Akasaka Mamoru, who arrives at the village in order to find the missing grandson and ultimately solve the case, whether the culprits are the Sonozaki family. While he is searching for the grandson, he meets Rika Furude in Hinamizama and develops a close friendship with her. She actually warns him at the beginning of the game to return back to his homeplace in Tokyo and give up on the search of the grandson, but he doesn’t listen to her. So, the ending is rather… not very good.

New Characters

Mamoru Akasaka

Akasaka is the protagonist of this chapter. He is a police officer from Tokyo and has a pregnant wife, who is currently staying in the hospital. Akasaka is a very devoted to his work and a fighter for justice. He is very diligent and refuses to give up and go back home until he has rescued the child. However, this is more than stupid in this scenario.

Kuraudo Ooishi

While he was a reoccurring side character in the previous chapters as well, he is more of a main character in this one. Since Akasaka doesn’t know his way in Hinamizawa, Ooishi acts like a mentor to him and teaches him, how to behave. Ultimately, we can also see that Ooishi wants the best for the village, since he is devastated at the end of the chapter and is as obsessed as Akasaka to find out the truth about what happened in Hinamizawa.

My opinion

I think it is very refreshing that the protagonist and the story-telling changes. While Keiichi was a high school boy going through puberty, Akasaka is an adult, who is very much in love with his wife and wants their daughter to be cute like Rika.

Actually, he is even more or less a fanboy of Rika, but he treats her with a fatherly attention and far better than her own family. So, while there are traits that make Keiichi and Akasaka seem similar, they are behaving differently and Akasaka has a lot more freedom in his actions than Keiichi because he is an adult (plus a police officer). While this is a positive aspect on its own, Akasaka proves in this chapter that even, if you have a freedom of choice, there is still a way to choose the worst possible ending.

However, since this chapter was shorter and more informative about the past than the previous chapters, it was very quick to read and gave many insights, which led to my current theory about what is happening in Hinamizawa.

(you can read about it here – SPOILER ALERT)

I think you should definitely read this chapter, if you want to decide on a theory as well, because now the story is told in the perspective of the “enemies of Hinamizawa” and therefore, you might finally have valuable reasons towards the human culprit theory instead of the demon culprit one.

Well, that’s that, I think you’ll miss out, if you don’t read it. This chapter deserves a 9.5/10 since it is good, but still really can’t compete with the previous one.

[lizz-revs]

Higurashi When They Cry - Tatarigoroshi

As you might have guessed, this is a sound novel as well. Look up my Reviews for the First Part and Second Part of the Series, if you want to know, what this game is about, as I will not repeat, what I wrote before.

Story

The protagonist, you might guess, is again Keiichi Maebara, who transferred schools and joined the same club with the same girls as in the previous parts. However, this time he quickly develops a close relationship with Satoko Houjou. He feels like she can give her the family love he earns for and starts acting like her missing brother. While he finds support in his actions by Irie Kyousuke, the coach of the school’s baseball team, I cannot fully grasp, why he would hate Satoko’s brother with such a passion. Additionally, while these feelings for Satoko may be bright as the sun, Keiichi develops a rather dark second personality, which starts to shine after Satoko’s uncle comes back to Hinamizawa. Keiichi is faced with the choice of how to deal with this sudden fiend and, what he chooses you’ll find out in this novel.

New Characters

Irie Kyousuke

He is the baseball coach of the school as well as the head doctor in the clinic of Hinamizawa. His personality is somewhat weird because, while he may seem like a normal adult at first, he has a fetish for maid costumes and maids and has rather questionable feelings for Satoko. However, he is not a criminal, more like he materializes the feelings he has for Satoko in making her happy in all possible ways. I am not sure, how far he would go for her happiness, but I guess maybe I will find this out in the next chapters.

My opinion

I think this chapter was the best of the series so far. The author manages to captivate the reader because of the sudden change of pace and plot in the story. While everything begins the same like before with Keiichi’s transfer and the club, this time the relationship with Satoko quickly changes the flow of the story into a somewhat heartfelt family reunion. Keiichi seems to be similar to a reincarnation of Satoko’s lost brother and since the reader gets a glimpse of Satoko’s past, they completely would agree with Keiichi’s decision to support Satoko to the fullest.

However, all that happy go-lucky atmosphere changes for the worse, when Satoko’s uncle suddenly returns. Why? Maybe Satoko was too happy. Higurashi plot doesn’t like happy at all.

Anyway, Satoko’s uncle is back and Keiichi doesn’t know, what to do, since he is still a child and doesn’t have any income or resources to help her. Like his other friends. Well, what now?

An idea, which is born, cannot die so quickly, and Keiichi’s idea is that, what determines the outcome in a somewhat drastic way. And I can tell you, I never had anticipated this ending.

To sum this up: I think it might be my favorite from the series so far and I’m kind of doubting that any chapter that comes after this can change my opinion, but we shall see.

I think, if you managed to get through chapter 2, you will read this chapter in one go. It’s a clear 10/10.

[lizz-revs]

WILL: A Wonderful World

This is a unique game, where the actual story is partly told by written letters and partly as a dialog. Your contribution to the story is that you need to change the contents of the letters by switching sentences from two of the letters you get and therefore you decide the fate of the characters.

Story

You play as a goddess, who lives in a secluded city in a house. Outside it’s always snowing and you only later get to know about the world, where she is living. The goddess has only one friend and it’s her dog Willy. Every day she receives some letters and can change the fate of the sender by switching out the sentences in two of those letters.

The characters introduced in the letters are more or less the main characters of the story since the content of the visual novel is mostly about them. Their names are Li Wen, Wen Zhaoren, Jimmy, Pi, Spottie, Carlos, Alicia, Chang Gyeong-Min and Kang Baek-Ya. These characters can be divided further in four groups: Li Wen, Wen Zhaoren and Jimmy are the first group. Their story is more or less like a romance K-Drama, while Jimmy’s story later on becomes even a little scary. The second group consists of Pi and Spottie and the third group of Carlos and Alicia. Both of these stories I’d call action stories. And the fourth group would be Chang Gyeong-Min and Kang Baek-Ya. Their story is pretty much a thriller/ detective.

Characters

Li Wen

She has a somewhat cold and distant personality and isn’t very happy with her life before she meets her new art teacher Wen Zhaoren. While she seems somewhat intelligent at first, she makes a lot of really stupid decisions throughout her storyline and is actually quite a romantic.

Wen Zhaoren

He has pretty much given up on his life at the beginning of the story and wants to quit living altogether. However, after meeting Li Wen he somewhat gains a new purpose in life and becomes a happier person.

Jimmy

While at first, he seems more of a geek and a somewhat secluded gamer, he matures throughout his story and at the end becomes a successful adult.

Pi

A secret character.

Spottie

He is a cat, who lost his guardian and struggles to start a new life as a stray without anyone next to him.

Carlos

He is Alicia’s brother, who ventures out from his hometown to search for his lost sister and gets somehow involved with a shady organization.

Alicia

Carlos’ sister, who was separated from her brother at a young age. She wants to find Carlos at all means, however, gets also involved with shady characters.

Chang Gyeong-Min

He is a freshly graduated police officer, who has a lot of illusions about his future job. Being more about physical strength than brain, he often blindly follows his ideals about a greater justice and throws himself into dangerous situations without a second thought, much to the dismay of his chef.

Kang Baek-Ya

He is a somewhat pessimistic police officer, even more annoyed because of his new partner Chang than his own “miserable” life. While he seems cold at first, he is actually somewhat caring towards his friends and subordinates. However, he has also a darker side, which actually never gets fully explained in the game, since he can’t actually write about it in the letters, while he is unconscious.

My opinion

This game has very interesting approach to visual novels. It completely satisfies a lot of readers with different preferences by combining different genres together in one big story line. While some of these genres might be focused to satisfy specific readers like e.g. there is k-drama like romance, the whole story can be enjoyed by everyone, who likes suspense. Honestly, I was really engrossed in the story, while reading this novel, so I sat for days in front of the computer in order to read everything.

Besides the story I really liked the characters as well. They all have different personalities, a different goal and a different story. I really enjoyed it that some of the stories didn’t focus at romance at all, or even led to worse endings, if you included romance, since it was hindering the characters to reach their goals, or made their decisions very emotional towards the end, where they should have acted more rationally.

Both the characters and storytelling are also very unique. Since you are reading the character’s letters and since they are writing to you only, when they have a problem, you have some time-skips and a very subjective perspective. Also, it is pretty funny that a some of wishes of the characters need to be ignored in order for them to achieve the best possible ending since they can’t predict the future and sometimes the future is brighter, when people don’t get, what they want for a while. While some of the choices didn’t made sense for me and the endings for some stories felt a little rushed, I think all in all the game does a pretty good job conveying the story and combining all of the stories into the main story. However, you need to be prepared that you won’t always get the happy ending you wish for and some characters don’t manage to get to their goal, even when you try to help them. Plus, the story of the goddess is actually a real tear jerker, so be prepared.

I can add that the music is very good as well. The game tells you to wear headphones, while you play and I wholeheartedly agree with that suggestion.

To summarize: I really love this game and it’s holds a special place in my heart since I was so fascinated both with the storytelling, the idea and I really liked the characters. The only thing I was frustrated with is that the one, who brought happiness to others didn’t have a happy ending herself. And I am still kind of sad about it.

Obviously, this game gets a 10/10 from me.

[lizz-revs]

This Starry Midnight We Make

It’s more of a puzzle game than a visual novel. Your goal is to combine stars into different clusters and the missions in the game specify how that combination should look like. In between there are short story sequences.

Story

You play as Hamomoru Tachibana, who got lost while visiting a festival in Kyoto. She walked into a forest and found a pond, which has the power to influence people’s fates. When you throw rocks into the pond, they become stars and combining those stars leads to clusters. Each cluster has a different metaphorical meaning and this meaning is basically translated as an occurrence in someone’s life. Hamomoru didn’t only find the pond, but also met a scientist with the name Chuuya Shingoh, whose goal is to analyse how the stars in the pond would affect people’s lives. Therefore, he assigns Hamomoru as his assistant and she has to comply because she had lost her wallet prior to this event and has no means to survive otherwise. And so the story begins, where at night Hamomoru and Shingoh combine stars and throughout the day they watch the people, who are affected by their “experiments”.

Characters

Hamomoru Tachibana

She is a clerk and currently on vacation in Kyoto. Since she had lost her wallet, her only option is to stay with Shingoh and be his assistant. You are playing as her, when you combine stars in the pond. She really likes food.

Chuuya Shingoh

He is a scientist, who takes his job very seriously. While he seems calm and collected on the outside, he stops being rational, if it’s about science. Because for science he is willing to do a lot of sacrifices as well as for his little project regarding the stars in the pond.

There are four other characters, who are influenced by the stars in the pond. You will meet them and get to know them throughout the game, so, it will be a little of a spoiler, if I start describing them here.

My opinion

This game is somewhat calming. You will be in charge of combining stars throughout the whole game. You’re not going to influence the story or the main character’s personality in any way, but still you will be kind of intrigued and fascinated by the story. Somehow, it is really nice to see, how you’re able to change people’s lives for the better and how you can help them to achieve, what they couldn’t do before without the help of the stars.

The story is well-written and the pace of the story is really good. You are slowly introduced to the characters and start to get to know them first as acquaintances, then as friends. Like Hamomoru you will slowly develop the urge to help them and therefore are willing to grind through the star-combining for hours. And, after finishing the game, you will feel somehow a sort of satisfaction, like that you didn’t help virtual characters, but real people, or somehow made the world a better place.

Regarding the gameplay, I think it’s the weakest point of the game. Towards the end, it becomes more of a grind and you will need to look up a guide in order to complete the game. It’s still worth it though, but it would be better, if there was a less exhausting way to do it.

All in all, this game is still one of my favourites. I think it is very underrated because it is a really heart-warming game with a good story and amazing characters that you will totally like.

I think everybody should play this, but because of the grind, I can only give it a 9/10.

[lizz-revs]

Rose of Winter

This is an otome game, where you have to choose between four candidates. It is a short game (about five hours), but it’s more like a visual novel in terms of the writing and the story.

Story

You play as Rosemary, who needs to cross the mountains with a companion of her choice in order to earn some money. Although she wants to call herself a knight, she kind of isn’t yet, but she still gets the chance to romanticize some ‘hot’ guys, plus earns herself some cash at the same time. Every companion she chooses has a unique story and Rosemary has different experiences on each journey. While she travels with one of the men, she is also able to find out more about their past and their life and may or may not start a relationship with them.

Characters

Rosemary

She is a self-proclaimed knight and currently in need of money. She seems not very girlish at the beginning, but she is pretty romantic and is willing to choose her own destiny. Rosemary also knows that love isn’t the most important thing and is willing to accept that other people may need to choose their duty instead. She is a very strong girl and one of the few main characters of otome games that I really respect.

The Fae prince Falkner

He is a fairy, so he basically sits on Rosemary’s shoulder for the whole trip. Although he is small, it doesn’t mean he can’t stand up for himself and he knows his duty as a prince. However, sometimes duty and feelings clash.

The companion of the southern Prince Crow

He seems kind of mysterious at first and flirts a lot with the main character. As she gets closer to him, he is willing to tell her the truth about himself at some point. This is more like a bittersweet romance.

The dragon prince Tirune

He is very cold at first, but has his reasons to do so. Dragon prince means he is literally a dragon and,  as a dragon, he hates the cold very much. His story was my favourite because Tirune is actually a really sweet guy (erm… dragon).

The magnificent prince Kuya

He isn’t that magnificent. While Rosemary travels with him, she realizes he is more talk than action and some kind of a jerk. However, at some point, Kuya opens up to her and he is… well kind of cute too, in a peculiar kind of way.

My Opinion

The game is great. Each story is unique and the only thing that repeats in every story is that Rosemary needs to cross the same mountain. It’s an aspect that is really rare to see in a otome game because most of the developers tend to copy paste some scenes eventually.

Next thing I want to talk about is that I loved the characters. I mean each one of them had a different background, a different story and the whole romance aspect was handled differently. I liked the characters because they had not flawless personalities and distinguishable character traits.

Another good aspect is that the romance wasn’t forced. It was more like “things just happened naturally”. Every partner handles Rosemary differently and she acts not the same in every story.

If we are talking about Rosemary, I also really like her as a main character because she has a realistic personality. She doesn’t have superpowers or is at the right place at the right time (while we are talking about that I might add there are no real damsel in distress scenes in this game). Rosemary tries to make her own choices regarding her life rather than just giving up because of possible hardships. I really respect her.

In conclusion, this is one of my favourite games. It has a really good writing style. The characters are great and the main character matures throughout the story. Every route you can choose is unique and even, if this game seems like a fairy tale at first, the endings are a lot more realistic than you might have thought. I would totally recommend buying this game.

Also, what makes this visual novel really special for me is that it leaves you with a sort of feeling of accomplishment after you finish it. I had some kind of warm and fuzzy feeling after reading the story like I came back home from a long trip. And I felt really happy for some reason for the whole day. The game is just this amazing like that.

10/10

[lizz-revs]

Lost in Secular Love

This is more of an otome game than a visual novel. It is quite short. There are only three routes available and there are only two ends for each route.

Story

The heroine has to go to a temple to get married to a monk because her father made a mistake to support the wrong candidate for the throne. Now her family maybe calls themselves aristocrats, but they are poor, and since a monk has a lot of money, the mother chooses to marry off her eldest daughter to one. The heroine is not religious in any way though, but a glutton. However, miraculously she stills passes the test at the temple and is engaged to the monk Zhikong.  Now is the time for the player to decide, whether this relationship will last, or, if she falls in love with someone else: either Zhikong’s brother Huihai or her childhood friend Ziqing.

Characters

The Heroine

I kind of like the heroine but at the same time I don’t. What I really liked, was that she has some distinguishable personality traits like her love for food or her will to survive because she is poor. In addition, I liked her inner conflict that she is torn between following the aristocratic traditions and earning money for her family.

However, I have two major problems with her personality: Firstly, how she fell in love with her fiancé doesn’t make sense to me at all. The story goes from he kissed her and now she is obsessed with him. They just completely changed her personality, so that she is an over-caring, obsessive girlish teenager, who acts like she fell in love with a celebrity.

Her development is really abrupt in every story. She goes from “I want to eat white rice!” to “I want to be there for you and do religious things!”. It’s confusing because she was very materialistic at first, but suddenly becomes very poetical and mature (in the good endings). I feels like the person was switched out, but not like she has matured mentally.

In the bad endings, I feel like she was switched out as well. In my opinion, doesn’t suit her personality, because she is shown to be very headstrong, that she lets herself be completely destroyed. I don’t believe that even strong affections change people this much. It was like she had completely given up on life.

Nevertheless, to be honest, even with her flaws, her personality is still a change from the typical lady in distress "please hold and save me" girly-girl, which is typical for otome. Still it is very underdeveloped because her personality changes feel rather forced and rushed.

Zhikong

He is the heroine’s fiancée. He starts off being quite monotone and makes many religious quotes (, which I didn’t get…), but has a weird fetish for … strange things? (I don’t even know, how to describe the stuff he hoards, just play the game and see for yourself). What intrigued me the most about him, was his devilish, so to say yandere, side later in the game.

And, like I said, I didn’t get most of his religious quotes, so the interactions with the heroine weren’t that interesting for me and I became bored with his personality quite quickly as well. I even couldn’t understand, what choice mattered for the bad end and why. He was mostly acting the same in both ends to be honest, so I felt in the bad end the heroine was just somehow mentally unstable and it was her problem that everything escalated and not his.

Anyway, this route had a lot of potential, but it left so many things just unexplained. Zhikong’s yandere side for example: The game never explained, why he is acting like this, and what events led to it. His personality is rather confusing, not very realistic and the story had a lot of unnecessary drama.

Huihai

This is the brother of the fiancé, so it’s more like a forbidden romance.

My favorite route of the game, although I liked the bad ending slightly more than the good ending, since it was written more realistic in my opinion.

Huihai is more of a housewife than manly. He has an obsession for buying things at a cheap price, but has also a childish and flirty way of talking to the ladies. In fact, he has quite a fan base, so to say, and gets many gifts, which end up in the warehouse because he clearly doesn’t get the meaning of love yet. Yet means that, after the heroine appears and you choose his route, he does fall in love – with that girl.

This is a clearly unhappy event for both of them, since the heroine should be married off to his brother. So, they start off being just friends, but that isn’t a wise choice because at some point both of them realize that they want more.

I think this story was actually really good. It is clearly realistic, since it’s normal for two people to fall in love, if they share the same interests and the main character suits Huihai very much. There was character development – not only the heroine changed her way of thinking, but Huihai became more manly – both grew up. And last, but not least, there wasn’t unnecessary drama because the situation they were in was dramatic enough itself, and understandable so.

However, I think in the good ending towards the end things were too rushed. Before some event, it was going towards the bad ending, but suddenly everything changed and they could have a good ending. Therefore, I liked the bad ending more. Otherwise, of course I’d want the characters to be happy.

Ziqing

The shortest and the worst route of the game. It had so much potential. Childhood friends met each other after so many years, developing romantic feelings for each other, but the girl has to marry Zhikong and so on…

Well, what happened was an unlovable, almost egomaniac person, who said so many rude things that I started to wonder about why the heroine even keeps talking to him. If I was her, I’d had punched him at least a million times. And he made her cry so often with his unbelievable bad behavior – there are just things you don’t say to a person. I don’t really care, how hard you’ve had it in your life, dude, but just why do you have to make her life miserable too?

So, it’s no wonder that, when he confessed, I wasn’t the slightest happy, but utterly confused, why the heroine didn’t just say outright no, but that she had to “think about it”.

What made it even worse is that his personality just completely switched after the confession, like he started to be really caring and not being rude, but only teasing.

For me it was like a try to make a character tsundere, but not fully understanding the meaning behind tsundere, so they just made him awful instead. But, how can you love an awful character? So, after the confession they just switched his personality, so he is more lovable, without any further reason.

My opinion

Well, enough ranting about the characters. As you can see, my main problem with this novel was not the writing style, the music or the art, but the character design and the routes.

Honestly, I don’t think all of the routes besides Huihai’s are really worth playing, but I’d think Zhikong’s route is at least somehow enjoyable. Anyway, Huihai’s route is actually so good that for me it’s totally worth to buy this game for it.

It had the right amount of drama and action in it and since it wasn’t that long, it didn’t get boring or tedious to play. In addition, I really liked the chemistry between the main character and Huihai.

In conclusion, this novel is a pretty refreshing story with a rather unusual and kind of funny main character. The story idea is quite nice as well, but the actual storytelling and character development is still unpolished. With some routes like Zhikong’s the character development is rather questionable. Somehow, the characters just switch personalities. However, there is also Huihai’s route, which makes up for all the lacks the other two stories have.

If you want to read something for a few hours, which isn’t your typical romance visual novel game, but you don’t necessary want a game that is absolute astonishing and I’d call one of the best I’ve ever read, then I would say you should give this novel a try.

I’d give Huihai a 9/10 and the rest of the game about 6/10.

[lizz-revs]

Hustle Cat

This is more of an otome game, but a very good one. Its writing style is amazing and I’d only say it’s an otome because the main genre is romance and it’s fairly short and heavily dependent on choices.

Story

You play as the (girl or boy – you can choose) Avery. They have started a new job at a cat café; however, this new job brings many problems with it. The café Avery starts working at is quite special and the workers there are all people, who need to deal with their problems in order to move on with their lives. Avery needs to choose to help one of them because, if they don’t they won’t ever have their previous life back as well.

The characters

Avery

They are a very tomboyish girl (or a guy), who doesn’t like to study and was in search for a job. They don’t like reading that much, but are friendly towards others. Avery wants to help people they like or care for. Their usage of language is pretty standard for a teenager – they often use slang and cuss sometimes.

Mason

She a quiet girl with a delinquent personality. As Avery grow closer to her, they realize she has also a very sweet side.

Hayes

He is a timid and shy boy. Hayes seems to like poetry very much and even writes his own poems sometimes.

Finley

She is a really extroverted and eccentric girl. In addition, she is a very famous internet celebrity.

Reese

He is a nosy, but really cute, brat. Reese can be rude sometimes, even when he tries to help people. Also he loves playing pranks like making new employees wear the uniform.

Landry

He is a friendly and laid-back person, who dislikes conflicts. However, when he gets angry, his complete personality changes for the worse.

Graves

He is the owner of the café and a really eccentric person, who speaks like he came from the 19th century.

My opinion

This game is great.

It’s written from Avery’s perspective, so the writing tries to mimic the thoughts and expressions of a teenager. At first it might seem like the writer isn’t doing it on purpose and it’s actually their writing style, but that’s a false thought. The writer of this novel is using that writing style intentionally to tell the story from Avery’s perspective. When needed, the writing style changes very quickly, as you can see, when you read Graves’ dialogues, which sound very poetical and metaphorical instead of Avery’s usual style.

Another aspect is that the characters have all really thought-out and well-developed personalities. Although the game is fairly short, it manages to tell every story of each character detailed enough that the reader starts caring for them as much as Avery.

Another pretty remarkable aspect of this visual novel is that it touches a lot of sensitive topics without being too nosy or critical about it. First of all you can choose the gender of the main character, so the relationships are really open-minded (this aspect made the writing suffer a little though, since I felt that a lot of situations are kind of expecting the main character to have a specific gender e.g. in Finley’s route I’d say that they should be a boy).

Then the characters deal with a lot of problems. And these problems are very relatable and also make the characters seem very human. I think a lot of visual novels and otome forget that even in romance games most of the readers don’t search for a perfect prince on a white steed, but for someone they can relate to and, who has some faults as well. This game clearly brings this point across. The characters are definitely more lovable because they are not perfect.

Nevertheless, even, when I disregard both writing style and character design, the whole story is great too. I really like the message(s) that it brings across. It’s very open-minded, but at the same time so hopeful.

After reading it, you will feel very happy inside as if you have been in Avery’s place and helped all those people in the café to deal with their problems and move on with their lives.

I’d call that a pretty great feeling.

And this amazing game deserves your money.

And it is clearly one of my favourites. 10/10