Anomie

While I backed this project on Kickstarter, here is my honest review about it: That's not your generic VN with moe characters and fan service. At some point, it's almost experimental. You'll see when it happens. But, as a whole, it works. You always want to know what will happen next and I dare you to foresee the story. Some questions don't have answers, sometimes you have answers to questions you didn't ask yourself. No matter if you liked it or not, in the end, you will retain the experience and the uniqueness of Anomie. If you want to support a new VN writer who's exploring new ways, buy Anomie!

Cool and ambitious little VN, especially for being the first one that Leaf created. It strives to be different and even manages to surprise me with refreshing ideas, especially towards the end and how he presents the closure of the story. I liked the art and music, often the biggest mistake i've seen in first time VNs is that they try to look too much like the japanese counterparts, but not as good. Or they go for the safe and for the most time generic "moe" like artstyle. The music was very pleasing and managed to enhance almost all of the scenes. There are some things that can be improved for the next VN, not all of the "main" cast of characters were that memorable for me, they needed a bit more of development and backstory. But the main duo Lorelei and Quentin had a really great dynamic. So i'm already looking forward to your next VN Leaf, i'm sure it will surprise me for entire different reasons than Anomie did and i appreciate that you want to create more unique experiences in this amazing medium :)

This was one of the most beautiful and moving visual novels I have played - let me tell you it is great but it has a boring middle and beginning - if I hadn't seen tinges of greatness I never would have anticipated the ending which was great. No spoilers of course but it sure turns it out better than it looks. Touching and great experimental novel SPOILERS BELOW DO NOT READ UNTIL YOU ARE DONE - IT"S A GREAT STORY The fact that the ending was so miserable yet was supposed to be touching was not a good feeling for me. I don't play games to experience real-life sadness and that's what I got. Some really unhappy feelings met me at the end and I'm glad I have normal horror games to play now because this was REAL SADNESS FROM OUR REAL WORLD which is not good. Anyway I'd give it a 9/10 for a mostly boring story and a beautiful yet horrible ending that made me feel terrible. I love it and I'd buy a million sequels but I don't like real life in my stories. Great job though to the developers.

I just finished Anomie and overall, I greatly enjoyed it. I won't say it was perfect. The ending was odd (not bad, just not at all what I expected), and it felt a little bit like the penultimate chapter ended abruptly. That being said, the characters were well written and distinct, and as I was reading the VN, it constantly kept me wondering what was coming next. The art was overall good, I liked the use of "generic" figures (this will make sense as you go through) for the masses of humanity. As a 1st effort by Leaf, I think he and his team did a very good job from story to art to music. I also liked the staff notes that were revealed at the end to get an insight into the creators. I guess the biggest compliment I can give to the VN is that I wish it had been even longer, and more in depth. It was an interesting world with an interesting story and kept me engaged the entire time.

This an amazing VN and im glad i took the chance to play it. The story is great and will grip you with its narrative though the beginning can be slow. Other than that, the music was great and this a must play for any VN euthanist

Fantastic game!! :D

An interesting and emotional story told using the means of a VN. There are no choices, no interactivity - but reading the story acompanied by visuals and music gives a great feeling. Though I must warn everyone - it's not a generally happy feeling. I, for one, am really sad after the VN's ending. And my reflection feels off.

This is an amazing VN in my opinion everything fit surprisingly well - the music, the art, everything. Its really immersive which is a huge thumbs up in my book. i do recommend people to try this out :)

In a world doomed by individualism, a young man is sent to live in a state-run commune with equal number of men and women. Now that doesn't sound like a typical love story, and it isn't—from the get go, it's obvious that [i]Anomie[/i] has greater ambitions than just telling a story of what happened to Quentin after he arrived at the camp. On his way to the camp, Quentin meets a girl who is quite distressed about being taken from her family and her previous life, having to take part in the experiment. Later they talk though a ventilation shaft, with Quentin hesitant to support her over fear of being watched. Soon enough, Quentin is assigned to a group of four—two boys and two girls—with whom he shares assigned duties. Two of them are content or even happy with the situation, while one of the girls, Lorelei, is keen to get to the bottom of things. Though they don't like each other much, Quentin and Lorelei team up to investigate the premises. With the pacing being just right, you're always wondering what will happen next. For the studio's first work, [i]Anomie[/i] gets a lot of things right—the characters are well-written and believable, Quentin and Lorelei slowly growing closer is nicely done, presentation is minimalistic but on-point, making good use of the soundtrack. Despite having this amazing Orwell-meets-Golding premise, [i]Anomie[/i] gradually neglects its plot in favour of its characters and themes, burying the latter half of its dramatic arc in narrative smoke and mirrors. While this is obviously the writer's choice, and the bittersweet ending we get is not bad in itself, being the pedestrian reader I am I would rather see the premise and setting fully fleshed out in a traditional story. (It worked well enough for [i]Swan Song[/i].) Overall, I enjoyed reading [i]Anomie[/i] and would recommend it, especially if you're interested in psychology or philosophy—if you're in for the dystopian plot, you might not get out of it as much. In any case, I'm looking forward to more games from the studio, it looks promising! [i]For more EVN reviews, feel free to look at my curator page: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34616763-Azar-Reviews/]Azar Reviews[/url].[/i]

The first thing that caught my eye about Anomie was the screenshots. Though they look simple and flat at first, their minimalist composition successfully conveys a gloomy, oppressive, and lonely atmosphere even before the game begins, and that meant I could never get the game out of my head, despite the game's clear low budget. As I started the game itself, I was glad to see this melancholic atmosphere carried over. The game takes place in an unspecified apocalyptic event, which forces the protagonist to be separated from his family and moved to an apartment complex in the middle of nowhere, where he and hundreds of other strangers will have to just...stay in until further notice. This makes for a very distinct type of apocalyptic setting as it is neither after the end of the world, which at least provides a fresh start and opportunity to heal, nor before the end of the world like in a film like Last Night, where all of humanity is doomed but at least granted time to make peace with their deaths, but a "Mid-Apocalypse", a kind of limbo in between: The world has spiraled into chaos, and everyone's just stuck how, when or if they'll make it out the other side - kind of like during Covid, if it was a kind of Cancer instead. This is where the game's minimalist visuals stand out the most; it's like the whole world these characters inhabit is one giant liminal space, with the apartment complex being both comforting in its safety and unnerving in its secludedness, allowing the game's tone to seamlessly go from cozy to tense. Despite the game being a Sound Novel, i.e. literally having no gameplay besides clicking to the next page, I found myself very absorbed. Unfortunately, the game doesn't really stick the landing. After an extremely tense climax where everything goes to hell, it all gets solved [spoiler]with this weird sci-fi twist[/spoiler] that, while tragic, still can't help feeling like a cop-out. Still, I mostly look back on my time with the game fondly, as I think that, as of this writing, we all can relate to feeling trapped in a kind of dystopic limbo, never sure of when or how the other shoe will drop and if we'll survive it