#killswitch visual novel review

[ebonysplendor]

Killswitch (Demo) Review 🦊

TL;DR: There's some guy named Clove, and we run some errands. Actually, that depends on which route you take. The important thing is that we end up eating stir fry either way, so, it's lit, I guess.

Game Link: https://dreadonarrival.itch.io/killswitch

Notable Features: Gender Neutral MC, Self-Insert, Beastkin LI (Fox(?)-Human hybrid), Yandere, 18+ game Spiciness: 0/5 -- No explicit scenes or suggestive language in the demo. Barely any bad language Red Flags: 0.5/5 -- Implied stalking, implied break-in. Aside from that, for a yandere? He didn't really do anything.

Wanna know more? Not if you're not 18, you don't, but if you are, let's get into it!

I debated for a hot minute whether to do this review or not, and I decided that I would just so y'all can see:

1. I don't love/recommend every visual novel out there, as I've actually run across some that I didn't care for 2. This is going to lowkey give me a chance to vent

That being said, I'm just going to be real about it...I did not like this game in the slightest lol. Hear me out though.

The summary on the page sounded pretty solid, not to mention, I'm an absolute sucker for yandere LIs, if that wasn't obvious, and I'm a bit of a degenerate, so the 18+ content was a literal plus, even if it wasn't in the demo; however, this LI just...didn't cut it. At least not for me; it might for y'all.

I had already took the plunge when I saw that he was an animal hybrid, but I thought that his design was cool, the VN had great reviews, and, like I said, the summary sounded interesting.

After playing it myself, though? Respectfully...what the hell was everybody thinking when they rated it? I'm honestly starting to think I didn't play the same game, because I just don't see the potential that the game has to offer nor what was damn near 5 stars about it. The crazy part is, it's not even 1 or 2 or 20 or even 50 people that think this -- one hundred and fifty two (152) people rated this game, and it has almost a 5 star rating.

Wild. Absolutely wild. That in itself is more interesting than the damn game.

Just to be clear and contrary to what you just read, this review isn't meant to shit on the game by any means because this is still someone's craft, and it's extremely brave putting yourself out there on the internet; however, I'm here to review it and give it my honest opinion, and, as implied, I'm going to be honest. Just as a heads up, there's going to be a lot more negatives than positives this go around.

Anywho, I've rambled on long enough. Let me give you a synopsis of the gameplay, even though there's not really much to discuss. Keep in mind that because there isn't much to discuss, I'm going to pretty much tell you the gameplay from start to finish because ... well, there's nothing really to ruin. There wasn't a plot twist, or any jumpscares, or creepiness, or...anything really. That being said, let me stop rambling and start summarizing.

Okay, so boom...

The game starts with us waking up in our bed, and we have a pretty mild hangover.

We look at our clock, and we notice that we have a smooth seven minutes to get ourselves together for work and actually make it there by 8:30. We think about ditching work for a moment, but we're like, "Nah, let me go". So, we get ready super fast, and we bolt out of the door.

Luckily, we make it to the library right when our shift starts. During our shift though, we run into this guy. His name is Clove.

Clove, these are the homies. The homies, this is Clove.

Anyways, we're at work, and he's looking at the book of the week, so we gots to hit him with the customer service. We ask the typical "Are you finding everything okay?", and instead of answering, he's looks at our nametag and was like "Oh, that's a cute name, but Rabbit is more fitting." Oh...oh okay.

So, we're thrown off, and we're just "...huh?" because he said it with so much confidence like we were supposed to catch on to whatever inside joke he was trying to pitch. He catches on to our confusion, though, and he gets all flustered. He just kind've brushes it off and is like "Ah, dang, you don't remember me, huh?" and we just kind've stare him down because...like who's mans is this? Then again, he did look familiar...

We think about it some more, and the memory is actually there, but it's kinda fuzzy and the name just wasn't coming to us. We pretty much come clean about his face being familiar and where we remember him from and how we used to play together, or whatever, but not his name. He's cool with it though and is just like "It's Clove, like the spice". There's not really any small talk in between before we get called for assistance by one of our coworkers, and we just kind've depart saying that we'll see each other later, but after he leaves, we're like "Lol how is there going to be a later if I forgot to ask for his number?". Whatevs though. We live in a small town, so we aren't too pressed about it. Our shift goes on, and we head out to get groceries afterwards.

While in here though, we run into Clove again at the checkout line. He's pretty shocked to see us, but takes it as an opportunity to apologize and lay down the rizz a little. By lay down the rizz, though, I mean that all he really did was ask if we wanted to go out to dinner.

Of course, we say yes, and we agree on having dinner at our place. Clove's cool with it, so we exchange information, and we -- and just to be clear, by "we", I mean, like, you and me -- head off to get dinner set up.

So yeah, we change into some dry clothes since it was raining during our walk back, and we get started on dinner; we made stir fry.

Clove comes along, and we -- meaning us and Clove, this time -- eat dinner, not really talking much to each other. Now mind you, it's not so much out of awkwardness, but because, apparently, the food was really bomb. Dinner ends, and with the help of Clove, we clean up the dishes.

We don't really want the night to end just yet, so we offer the idea of watching a movie, and Clove's like "Yeah, sure!", and so...that's what we do. We watch a movie.

During the movie though, we snuggle up to him, and he snuggles up to us. He starts purring, and considering that we're already tired from the day, it lulls us to sleep, and...yeah lol. That's it.

No, I shit you not, that's how it ends. We wake up, go to work, meet this guy, realize it's an old friend, have dinner with him, and fall asleep with him cuddling us on the couch. Afterwards, we get hit with the "This is the end of the demo" bit, and then this screen pops up:

Yep. It took us back to the menu. That was it. That was the demo.

I have never been more antsy to get to the review part as I am now...

Before I get into it, like I mentioned at the start, please, do not take this as me shitting on the game, but I'm not going to lie to you guys about how I felt about the quality of the potential either. That's not me, but we're still going to do it respectfully...at least as much as possible. This is still someone's creation, and the aim is not to bash their work or destroy their passion to create, but to simply provide my unsolicited opinion to people who will listen. Das it. That being said...

Y'all...I did not like this game in the slightest lol. Like point blank period, I just did not like it. It simply was not for me. I don't know if it was the fact that homie was not fully a homie, and he was mixed with a fox(?) or if it was the fact that nothing really happened, and it was too monotonous; I don't know, but this game and me did not vibe, like, at all.

First off, I understand that there has to be some kind of build up because, while you can just jump into the drama, it has to be executed in a certain way. Like I said in my Parasite in Love review, an intro can be a little hard to write without making it super plain to the point of making a person give up on it, but not so much shit popping off out of seemingly no where that it simply doesn't even make sense.

This game, however, was nothing but build up, but that wasn't even the issue. The issue was...it didn't build up to anything. Well, let me rephrase that, what it built up to was super anti-climatic. For the sake of there being something I didn't spoil, I won't share exactly what that was, but just know that it isn't much. It hardly qualifies as "threatening" or something to be concerned about. Especially, if you go a certain route? The ending is more of a "Where the hell did that come from?" versus an "Oh! It's that guy!" type of reaction because, while you knew it was going to happen because, duh, plot purposes, it seemingly came out of no where, and it lowkey made no sense. It went from being kind've plain and monotonous to "NOW ENTERS THE PLOT FROM STAGE LEFT!". If it wasn't for the fact that it was a yandere game, and it was expected, that bit at the end would've been entirely random.

Not to mention, nothing in the game itself happened either, and I mean that quite literally. In one of the routes, you can choose to sleep in instead of going to work, and...it's just extremely boring. The only interesting part that happened was that we felt like we were being watched at one point, but that was literally it. There was no elaboration, no anything. We just left that area, and everything was all good again. No looking over the shoulder. No nagging feeling that someone could be stalking us. No sense of threat. No...anything. Just an "Oh, that was weird. Oh well! Let's do our grocery shopping!" Like...huh? Literally, no other interaction, except that piece at the end that I'm not going to tell you guys about, but that "being watched" feeling? It never comes back. It just stops, and we're perfectly fine. We're not suspicious or anxious or anything. Just a "Mmm, that was weird, but we got shit to do" type deal.

Just to provide something positive -- because at this point, I'm doing the exact opposite of what I said I was going to do, which is not to just flat out shit on this game -- the best thing about this game is that it's a demo. What others and I have played is not the finished product. It's still a work in progress, and granted, while I feel that it needs a lot of work, there's potential for the kinks to be worked out and for the beginning of the game to get outshined by the plot and drama in the full game. I feel that it definitely has more than enough wiggle room to grow, and I genuinely hope it does. Other people seem to be excited about this game, so hopefully it'll deliver, poor start to it or not. The intro can honestly be excused if the rest of the game is going to carry it to victory.

With all of that being said, I'll end my ranting there. Um...although I personally wasn't a fan, I still say give it a go because a lot of people did give it 5 stars, so maybe I'm missing its charm -- maybe I'm the problem lol. Besides, all jokes aside, I wouldn't want you to take my word for it and run with it. I'm always an advocate of trying things out for yourself, especially if it's available for free. So...give it a go, and see what you think!

As always, while you can't leave a comment on the dev's game page this time, you can send a "private" review and rating to the dev, and donations are always helpful to them! Like mentioned at the top, here is the link to the game if you'd like to try it out for yourself! While I don't really recommend the game itself, I do recommend that you play it yourself and make your own opinion about it.

Welp, that's all from me! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

Killswitch