Aquadine

Aquadine is a really lovely story that has the perfect pacing to keep you interested at all times and shows the emotional story of Ciel and his fellow classmates. The story itself is a bit short, but that was also a big reason why I liked it. It never felt like it was stretched to make it longer and everything that happened had a reason. It is quite rare to find a story that can keep your interest throughout. I also really enjoyed the background music and the background art was also great, even if it could use a slightly higher resolution to look a bit more high quality overall. The sprites themselves are also decent, but the movement that they implemented for the sprites looks a bit unprofessional and could be improved. What I also normally dont like is when VNs have partial voice acting, were only some words are voiced which then just doesnt fit with the written text. It is much better for me if it either has full voice acting exactly like the text, or just doesnt have any at all and in that case focuses more on creating a good atmosphere with the music itself. However after playing throught it completely I have to say that in this specific case I actually didnt mind it any even liked it in the end. Those two however are the only minor things that I could point out. The rest of this VN is truely quite a masterpiece. Yes this is a kinetic novel which means you cant make any choices, however if you want my opinion that makes the stories just all the better as you always get the best options you could get. The way they made that is that after the common route you can just pick one out of the four girls and after finsishing them all you even get the "real" ending. The game is also priced really fair as you will get around 10 hours of playtime and those hours will be really great. I havent had this much fun with a VN on steam in ages as I am a bit burned out by them normally, however I never felt like that with this one. The Dev truely created an amazing story that I would gladly recommend anyone buying. Overall, I can only hope that some more people, yes maybe even you reading this, buy and support the dev, because the game really is amazing and small devs need every penny they can get to hopefully be able to release more great titles in the future. I really look forward to more and I also have to give a huge shoutout to the dev for always replying instantly to my messages and just being a great person overall. I also like how the city this takes place in is heavily influenced by venice. :) Easy 9.5/10 Check out my Curator Page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34401214/

[code]Curator page here-->[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37670120/] DaRevieweD #156 [/url]<-- [i]New review every Weekend[/i][/code] [h1]"More Like Gondo-liar…!!"[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2686871118 [u] Here's The Thing:[/u] You are Robin Liyun, high schooler, part time gondolier and double-lifer making ends meet to pay off his mother’s hospital bills. Aquadine is the home he’s always known but the tide is about to change into a fish bowl after meeting new friends & intensifying old bonds. Make waves, splash around in this glorious city~ [h1][+] PROS;[/h1] [b]:) AQUA-CULTURE~[/b] My first ever kinect (static) VN, not to mention one with a dressing of galge (guy romances several suitors)- latter of which I typically don’t have the stomach for. But it felt good to just enjoy every word, witness lighthearted events without the burden of having to stress over choices. There is literally only one or rather four instances where you can exercise control in the game and that’s in deciding whose fate you want to see play out first. For the most part, you should treat it as an enjoyably calming and sniffles-inducing mini-series anime where characters’ past, present and future baggage get laid out. Perhaps even relate with their secretive struggles… One thing’s for sure, with “no hands” at the helm you won’t know where the ship will steer next, so there’s that for excitement and suspense! Each of the four possible character routes lasts approximately between 50 min to 1.5 hour, then factor those with the 30 min prologue and epilogue; that easily makes 6-8 hours as a whole! Of course, it comes with the usual souvenirs too where you can peruse the stunning CG art, listen to the tingling soundtrack to your heart’s content at any time~ [b]TIPS:[/b] 1) Not really one; but I went for Anya’s route last which was poetic and the best order! [b]:) SPLASHING SOME WATER COLOR![/b] The constructed hyper fictionalized Venice-like world of gondoliers and rising sea levels is excellent in painting a rich history steeped in ambiguities as to its origins! CG landscapes vary in quality consistency but they do have that slight milkiness of water color coatings as if one was opening one’s eyes underwater. And it’s surprisingly gorgeous in that every second I gaze into them, it’s utterly liberating; weightless even like I’m afloat, drifting to who knows where. I kid you not, I drank a lot of water playing it and it must be due to the corners and crevices of blue really bringing out the eyes of the city. Like, I totally want to live in this place despite its apparent proneness to flooding. Despite a limited change of scenery and fair amount of reuse between routes, the added unique hues whether it be in terms of lighting or song choices specific to each character give it renewed clout! The sound effects are overutilized but at least the scoring is majestic and does its job but the exquisitely and aptly named “A Somber Light” really gave me the feels~ [b]:) PLENTY OF FISH IN THE SEA…?[/b] Story-wise it’s a swirl of films far back as [b]The Little Mermaid (1989)[/b] or[b]Just Add Water (2006)[/b] what with the mythology of merfolk but with the subtext of millennial “drama” that goes around in high school! But the pearl-studded, imperfect cast are what attracts tourists so to speak… With five distinct personalities and social problems but overlap more than you’d think! I saw a fragments of myself in each of them. There’s the reserved but sharp Anya who feels she doesn’t belong. Charismatic Diana who’s self-conscious and concerned for her career path. Resilient Cameron with an “unchangeable weakness”. Gracefully airy Elisabeth whose family skeletons haunt her from moving on. Finally, the diligent Robin unwavering to his family but lacks confidence. Very memorable and inspiring cast~ [b]:) IDENTITY POOL-ITICS!?[/b] The depth it took with the volume cliché-ridden anime plot devices was unexpected to say the least. What were initially derivative, surface-level and blank canvas interactions soon giving way to serious diving of real issues! “Birth defects”, bigotry, expectations and overshadowing are just a few of such matters that smack into you like falling face first into water from a height. At first, I wasn’t feeling the whole silly Clark Kent facades, and I perceived it as just lying to oneself. After a while, I truly fell for it and likewise it filled my heart… then my lungs. Because it was also painful, presenting me with wake-up-calls that I’d rather leave submerged and muffled in the water. Sometimes it’s so hard to remember that others are also in the same boat as us. But it took this tour guide to give me direction, slap me with an oar to show me the error of my ways, which I’ll always remember and be grateful for. ~ https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2686874286 [h1][-] CONS;[/h1] [b]:( A THICK SCULL.[/b] This comes down to subjectivity but there were times when the flow was really milking it and I could pinpoint several parts where you’re sure the route would’ve concluded but kept going… Such that multiple scenes transitioned within a short duration like a movie with a huge budget antsy to show a lot that it doesn’t let the moments breathe~ [b]:( MERE-MAID OF LOVE…[/b] As it turns out there is indeed one true route and so I felt it was huge betrayal of sorts. Where selective occurrences we’ve known to be true were omitted, altered or spliced together… So, they were almost contradictions and certain facts are either repeated again as if forgotten! Also, the forced romances I thought sent out false hopes in that pillars of support do not necessarily have to always end in “ships”. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all very sweet and tender, boy I wish I had that too! But why couldn’t some of them have just remained platonic. Especially since they will be reversed anyway, it felt like fanservice albeit tasteful ones at that. But the ending was absolutely brutal, I’ll give it that much~ [h1]BUGS:[/h1] x All is smooth sailing here! [h1]NITPICKS:[/h1] ~ With no fully voiced lines; I became tired of the same few utterances which sometime got intolerable as they didn’t fit the emotional state or context of conversation. ~ The “encyclopedia” option should be visible right away with the other important menu and not under “setting” ~ No typos; but there’s the few and far between missing/unnecessary articles-pronouns in the English dialogue. ~ Maybe I just didn’t notice it before in other VNs; but the chopped off legs bother me so much! ~ The avatar quivering effect during conversations trigger me and give me a seizure. [h1]"- But He Gets My CIEL of Approval!"[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2686882074 [u]Last Words?[/u] A non-choice-imperative but enthralling VN like staring at your reflection in the water. Kick back, laugh maybe grab some tissues… It has issues staying grounded but still very much salt to the sea~ If you like visual novels but tend to develop sea sickness from all the choices! If you love to be all buoyant with the occasional heavy anchors to loosen the tear ducts… Then you’re in for a deep, blue treat. So, what are you WADING for~ [h1]9 / 10[/h1] [code]Jerking out tears of joy and appreciation to [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/ReviewersParadise/]Bazizen[/url] for the key![/code] [code]Don't forget to follow my curator [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37670120/] DaRevieweD[/url] for more games!![/code]

[h1][i]This game was kindly offered by SoftColors as a request for a review that I gladly accepted given I had my eyes on this title for a while.[/i][/h1] [i]If you’re willing to explore the beautiful town of Aquadine there’s a famous gondolier named Ciel who guides tourists around the place showing them the most interesting spots the town has to offer. While being a cheerful and hardworking youngster, a lot of girls happen to have their eyes on him, but little do they know that Ciel has an important reason to maintain his reputation while struggling to pay hospital bills for his bedridden mother…[/i] [h1]Game’s premise:[/h1] [i][b]You play as Robin Liyun, a high school student immersed in books who lives together with his cheerful grandfather due to family circumstations. One day, his routine gets shaken up when he gets asked by his teacher to show the school to their new classmate – Elisabeth, nothing less than a famous singer from neighbor town Sylphyr. While Robin’s classmates are still in a daze after the sudden notice, he himself never showed interest in celebrities, therefore is not particularly excited about this arrival and treats her as a regular classmate. After Elisabeth’s arrival, with a bit of push on Diana’s side, Robin gets closer to his group of friends and starts understanding the meaning of friendship while never really relying on anyone but himself or his family. The group of friends consists of Diana, her cousin Cameron, Anya and now also Elisabeth. While no one at his school suspects him, Robin is bearing a huge secret… will his friends be trustful enough in order to completely open up with them about his difficulties?[/b][/i] [h1]Characters:[/h1] [b]Ciel[/b] Appears to be a handsome and hardworking youngster working as gondolier. Never shows his weaknesses in front of others, a role model to look up to. Everyone loves hearing him sing, which does happen rarely… But is everything as bright and shiny as it appears? One day he meets a mermaid, after being lured by hearing someone else sing the song he learned from his mother. [b]Robin[/b] A shy student doing his best at school, but not paying too much attention to his loud surroundings. With time, his bonds with friends gets stronger, but something prevents him from opening up completely… [b]Diana[/b] Robin’s cheerful friend who has a huge crush on Ciel… like most of the girls from her town. Works at a famous Cafe together with her mother. Cameron’s cousin. [b]Cameron[/b] Robin’s best friend who is a lot into martial arts and is aiming for something huge in his life. He is willing to make a difference in people’s lives, the same way as someone did for him when he was a child. Loves pandas. [b]Anya[/b] One of the friends from Robin’s group. Tries presenting herself as distant and cold, but gets dragged by Diana – her childhood friend – into funny situations. She’s very artistic. [b]Elisabeth[/b] A famous singer from nearby town who recently moved to Aquadine creating a bit of commotion. Went on hiatus for a couple of months due to personal reasons and gets uneasy while others keep asking her when will she be doing a comeback on stage. A really sweet and caring girl, appears to have a bit of difficulty at understanding puns. [h1]The town of Aquadine:[/h1] There’s an antique legend saying that long time ago, merfolk used to live among humans in the town of Aquadine. However as expected, in a short time merfolk had to face discrimination from human side of civilization causing the species to dissolve. The most part of the town is situated on water and with the help of our hardworking gondolier we will explore all the corners of this town from the common everyday’s routes to the town’s specialties and classic ancient areas. The town is very well portrayed creating a whole new world to explore through the game. Not only the design is eye-catching but it also recounts a very interesting story to each area. [h1]Featurings:[/h1] Aquadine is a Kinetic Novel presented by SoftColors where you will find 4 character routes and one unlockable ending after the routes’ completion. One of the parts that are found most appealing in this game is the whole setting that manages to switch from casual everyday’s moments to mysterious and nostalgic atmosphere bringing us different stories coming to each character such as secrets to uncover and difficulties to overcome. The game presents a lot of slice of life moments between friendly classmates as well as, relatable situations they keep to themselves that we’ll come to uncover. The dialogues are partially voiced with phrases that might result monotone after a while, however they are fit to the situations, therefore I would not consider it to be a flaw. What I managed to slightly dislike in this game is the shaking effect added to the sprites in the moments of awkwardness, tension and so on, due to getting very repetitive during gameplay. Aside from this, there are few things left unexplained in the story, which got me curious more than anything. However, this game has really a lot to offer such as an opening video with original music, immersive atmosphere with dreamy-like background music, fun dialogue lines with lively moments, emotional parts, and a deep message at the completion of the game. The character development is well done and personages do inspire kindness as well as will to change and grow, while reminding us that it is totally natural to ask for help and, most of all that we are loved. [h1]Overall:[/h1] This game is recommended if you’re looking for a relaxing read with moments that can move you emotionally. Suggested if you love exploring new worlds and settings and learning more about them and their story. As a bonus you get to know a lively grandpa who is very pleasant to have around. Not recommended if you are looking for a Visual Novel where you get to date heroines with different branching endings to each and lots of choices to take. [code]To find out and discover interesting VNs, indie games and more navigate through my Curator Page! 🩷 [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44707415-Gyepi-Types/][b]Gyepi Types[/b][/url] 🩷[/code]

[h1][b]Check out the Review with additionnal screenshots and better esthetic on [url=https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/post/aquadine-review]Sinical Anime Network[/url][/b][/h1] Aquadine is developer SoftColor's first project which is a kinetic novel fitting into the fantasy romance genre. The setting takes place in a small town at the sea border where its past and present has been influenced by the beliefs and monumental possession of sirens and the god of the Seas, Levios, a species which lived in the past with humans in the city. [h1][b]Story[/b][/h1] We play as a boy with 2 different identities, one as a school student named Robin, who has given up on following in his mother's foot steps. Robin faces criticism from other citizens for this choice which puts a heavy weight on him to be just as perfect as his mother was. The second identity, as the famous singing Gondolier Ciel from the Cloud Company, well known for their past reputation and well loved Gondolier Torrie, who is Robin/Ciel's mother. Robin, with the new identity of Ciel works at the Cloud Company to be able to pay off his mother Torrie's hospital bills, which they are barely able to pay. With the bad reputation he has as Robin he had to create a new face with a new persona to be able to attract the much needed customer. Robin visits his mother anytime he has any free time between jobs watching her condition slowly worsen. Although his mother appreciates this, she is worried that her son is missing out on life while sitting with her everyday. This continues until one day when his friend Diana ends up tricking him into tagging along with her. Thanks to this, Robin gains new experiences with his friend, always being pushed to the front line, discovering what true friendship is, and eventually meeting other friends who have their own secrets and struggles. The bonds of friendship are further strengthened as they together discover the mysteries hidden inside the seaside town. [h1][b]Characters:[/b][/h1] Diana, a red haired happy go lucky and carefree girl, which brings animation and fun into the group, always trying to tease them at every opportunity. Anya, which is a rather closed, shy and mostly quiet girl but which always end up getting dragged along with Diana to be with her friends. Cameron, Robin's best friend who is the strong, secure, and loyal defender type that excels at martial arts, striving to be able to be highly recognized by participating tournaments. Elisabeth, a well known Singer originally from the village Sylphir, who moved recently with her father and butler to Aquadine in hope of being able to recover from her recent past which brought her here on Hiatus from her singing career. [h1][b]Visuals[/b][/h1] Aquadine is a very beautiful visual novel with detailed backgrounds and stunning CGs. I personally enjoyed how the art represented the past and present times. The character sprites are well drawn and have slight movement to them, each with a few different facial expressions to help match the tone of the events that happen in the story. A nice touch is that the characters also have a few different outfits, variety is nice to have in visual novels. You can choose to play either at Full Screen or Windows mode. I played in full screen mode at 1920x1080 and everything looked sharp with no blurring or distortions. [h1][b]Audio[/b][/h1] The background music is fine. I have no complaints here as it is mostly subtle, just enough to be noticed, and it does change to fit the scene/event that you are in. It is appropriate for the story, but not memorable enough to warrant any DLCs for the music. The game does include some limited voice acting. There are voiced character reactions as well as when someone addresses one of the character names but all the normal story text is non-voiced. [h1][b]Routes[/b][/h1] After an event on the beach we reach a point where we can select 1 of 4 possible routes, 1 for each close friend of Robin. Each of these routes has its own ending and events that will cause you face a lot of emotions and some hard choices. This is where you realize, you need your friends as much as they need you. Once clearing all the routes additional "memories" are unlocked on the main menu page which also include a lot of deep emotions and events. I recommend to read Anya's route last, followed up by the memories available in the menu. The only negative thing that I can mention about the routes would be specifically for the events. They are pretty short and will get straight to the point within a few lines of text and then will immediately end. With this being in the romance genre, it would have been nice to see more dialogue in these events further showing their expressions/emotions before the events end. Honestly this is a minor thing, and can easily be overlooked with so much else that is done right. [h1][b]Overall Thoughts[/b][/h1] My overall impression of Aquadine is very good. It provides a very wonderful and mysterious environment, interesting history and the past events of the city, and the different characters are very enjoyable with each to there own extremes. In Robin's friend circle, there are a lot of emotional moments that really makes you care about the characters, mixed up with a lot of nostalgic conversations and compassion. Every route possess its own flow in the story which I really liked. My favorite route is the one from Anya, which is the only routes that get you involved with the actual sirens and goes even beyond this. The only thing which I miss in this visual novel would have been a bit more action, or maybe even a bit more dramatic scenes, since the story is rather soft paced. Nevertheless the quality given to the text, the music, and the artstyle is great. I can safely recommend this Visual Novel to all romance and emotional genre lovers. [h1][b]Follow us for more reviews at: [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/vnislife]Visual novel, JRPG, Anime Steam Group[/url] [/b][/h1]

I decided to follow what I assumed to be the only male opition in the line up of dateable charactors thinking, oh wow... they are being inclusive by having a Bi main charactor, only for the only male opition to actually be a rather large boobed girl in disguise.... and appearently she had decided to disguise herself as a boy since a very young age... not because she feels that she is transgender male... but because she wants to fight with the boys and feels she can not fight with the boys... if the boys know she is actually a girl... it was a total turn off realizing that they were so closed minded that even when the opition is presented... the moment you choice that path... he literually finds out he is actually a she in the first five minutes .... as if the writers were going... whif..-wipes hand over forehead- that was close... for a second there you almost had a gay/bi relationship. Hell I would have been happy if said charactor was actually a transgender female and so was exploring his/her life style and coming out as transfemale... but no... he was actually a she... all along... ever since elementary school she had been dressing as a he... -rolls eyes- all so she can compete in the male compeitions cause she wanted to prove she was just as good as the boys.... which if you ask me... dressing as a guy, living as a guy to prove a girl can just be as good as a guy... kinda loses effect if the guys dont realize they are actually fighting a chick. NOT to mention... there was only one choice in this whole novel.... who are you gonna date... that's it... its not a game... its literually just a novel

From what I can tell, this is SoftColor’s first visual novel (VN) and debut into scene. I was genuinely surprised by the quality of what Aquadine has to offer. The script was well written and visually stunning. Story was very wholesome following the themes of adolescence romance, coming-of-age, slice of life, and a bit of fantasy elements thrown in there. Each route has a different theme and is unique that I believe most readers will find something they like such as one route felt like a fantasy RPG, while another was a coming-of-age. My personal favourite was Diana since I could relate to her dilemma and problems. Visually, as mentioned, Aquadine is stunning. The backgrounds are painted so beautifully and detailed that it felt like Aquadine was coming to life; that it could be a real place! Likewise the character sprites and CG scenes further help capture the readers attention with the sprite animations of changing expressions, partial voicing, and gestures. While some CG scene don’t match with the art style of the character sprites, I hope a future update or patch will be released to have everything consistent because my OCD is kicking in. Overall, I highly recommend this novel. Aquadine summarize in a few words, it would be wholesome, breathtaking, and ambitious. A major plus for me was I could play on my phone (Android, sorry Iphones; hopefully, it’ll be available on itunes????), since I can play anywhere and anytime like during my commutes, lunch, and **cough…restroom…cough** without having to boot up my computer. I wish there were more VN available as mobile apps. Anyway, I look forward to future titles from Softcolors.

(The reason for the low play time is because I was provided with an early copy of the game to review. I am going to go through Aquadine again but just wanted to get this review out asap!! That being said, if you want a longer and more thorough review, go to the bottom where you'll find a link to the review I made of Aquadine on YouTube!) Plot summary: In the beautiful town of Aquadine, which has a rich history supposedly involving merfolk some people believe in and others don't, you can be taken on a gondola tour by the energetic and charismatic Ciel, who is actually the son of the town's most famous gondolier but he keeps that fact a secret. His rel name is Robin Liyun, and his primary reason for giving gondola tours it to pay for his mother's hospital bills- she has been suffering from an unknown disease affecting her vision and breathing which requires her to be constantly hospitalized. After one night of giving gondola tours, Ciel/Robin hears a mysterious voice singing and follows the source of the noise to find a mermaid, who quickly swims away from him. Now knowing the existence of merfolk isn't entirely a myth, Robin continues his day to day life of hanging out with his friends in school and working hard to pay for his mother's hospital bills- all the while questions about the merfolk's existence and if they can in some way help his mother stay in his mind. Aquadine has a great story in a beautiful, unique setting with well written and relatable characters that will make sure this story isn't one you'll soon forget. One thing SoftColors does great is giving the reader time to get attached to the cast of characters with mundane, everyday life stuff before heading into the meat of each character's story route. The day-to-day life of Robin, Anya, Diana, Cameron, and Elizabeth is such a joy to watch because each character has their own quirks that when put together, make for some hilarious comedy and endearing interactions between friends. Even the side characters without whole routes dedicated to them stand out as really well-developed and unique, to the point where I could still probably tell you about every character with a name and character sprite, as opposed to them being "plot device A" like other visual novels might do. Also, subtle foreshadowing and hints towards the overarching mystery/questions about the merfolk is spread throughout each of the character routes, which makes it much more satisfying when we learn everything. It doesn't feel like SoftColors out of nowhere is saying this and introducing this plot point out of nowhere, it all feels very well-thought out and planned which I appreciate. And at the heart of Aquadine's story, which spans four character routes, and an epilogue/true ending that follows one of said character routes, is a story with a very important message: it is ok to ask your friends, family, close ones, etc for help when life gets hard. Because life is difficult, and overwhelming, and asking the people around me for help is something I still struggle with, so being reminded of it in such a beautiful way is great. It's an important lesson that I'm sure everyone could benefit from being reminded of. The artwork is amazing. All the character sprites, CG's, and backgrounds are all really well drawn and the town of Aqaudine is just beautiful to look at. During the day, it's bright and energetic, fitting for the misadventures of Robin and his group of friends. And during the night, it has this mysterious and almost supernatural atmosphere due to the subtle but effective light blue colors placed in the background, reminding you that this is a town indeed that has some connection to merfolk. The soundtrack is great too, you have a great variety of tracks from upbeat for the day-to-day life of Robin and his friends, emotional piano heavy tracks for heavier scenes, enchanting music very fitting for Aquadine's mysterious and enchanting settings, and a beautiful opening and ending song (the ending song being sun by splendiferachie who I absolutely love). Overall, both artwork and soundtrack knock it out of the park and yes I will be making some of Aquadine's CG's my computer wallpaper thank you very much. Also quick side note the English voice acting is really good and never distracting/off-putting, and the cast do a great job with each character's set of repeated phrases. Cho is a personal favorite of mine when it comes to the voice acting. And the UI is very well made! In the end, Aquadine is a great experience, and one I recommend to anyone. It has a unique and beautiful setting, well-written and memorable characters, a well thought-out story with an important message, great artwork and soundtrack, and good voice acting and design. Especially for their first visual novel, SoftColors absolutely knocked it out of the park and I give the game a 9.5/10. If you want a more thorough review where I talk about each character route a little more and what makes them great, check out my early review of Aquadine on YouTube!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPV6meo1bk0&t=196s

After finishing Aquadine I can say with the utmost sincerity: It's not getting the award for Sound Design. A long gameplay later I managed to finish the game, I had fun for about half the time while the rest felt either disappointing or not that much engaging. Unfortunately more things in this game drag it down than elevate. Sound side of this is pretty poor, voiced lines get irritating pretty fast (I wish Grandpa would just shut up) while background sound at times is just too loud (Elisabeth bike ride hurt my ears). Music was average but I played without any sound with my own music in the background, thanks to the game's overall sound design that did not encourage listening to it. In the graphics department the game looks quite beautiful but I do wish it offered more "places to visit" because at times it really undermines the story (with Cameron route for example). I would take the voice budget and put it into more graphics and add more characters (Cameron route could use a few more visible characters). At different times we will see full-screen static images, those are well done. The plot, characters and the world of the game, it has its ups and downs. It will be a spoiler free recap. Starting with the world at the end isn't that engaging, doesn't feel like a part of the globe but just a bubble and at the parts very loaded with exposition that slows the game pace. Our main hero Robin has a double life as four eye freak at day and dashing Ciel during gondola routes, I do wish we had one scene of transformation between his two personas. After a short while we meet our friends and then supernatural elements that surround the Aquadine. The game later gives us a choice of four different routes (and later a post game of one route in the form of Memories).  Anya is the main heroine of Aquadine and her route/story became that "not that much engaging" part of my feelings towards the game. It could've been a somewhat better story if maybe stretched out (giving time for exposition) and more focused. Left me with the feeling that after the conception the other stories were just added to make the game bigger/longer. Diana presented quite the "typical Visual Novel route" and it was a nice change of pace after much fantastical and overburdened Anya story. It felt pleasantly average and because of that I had fun. One bad side is that I don't have much to say about it without going into spoilers. Thirdly I tried the Cameron route and oh boi, it really made me disappointed with this game. Had high hopes for it and sadly it didn't deliver, putting us on the path of tropes that can be found in many other visual novels. The worst thing it did, it really punched the hole in both narrative coherence and suspension of disbelief. It really hurt the enjoyment of future experience with Elisabeth route and past experience I had before. Second to last route was Elisabeth, I kinda don't know If my enjoyment with it (I had a lot of despise a couple of hiccups along the way) was because It was genuinely well done or maybe Cameron left me with hoping for something good. I had the feeling that maybe Elisabeth would be the main heroine If supernatural elements would be kicked out of Aquadine. After finishing those four routes we had the last memories route which is the post game of Anya route that also combined a few elements from other routes (for sure Cameron's). Given the whole exposition and setup (in other routes) I had hoped for "obvious" resolution of Robin's main problem but shockingly the memories route went the other way, which was a very nice surprise. It delivered a nice conclusion. Despite me having a positive feelings at the end, I gave this game a thumbs down because on the technical side (first and foremost sound design) it wasn't that great and just about 55% of the story was good. For the first game it is a success that it isn't a complete failure. I would give this game a thumbs sideways but sadly steam doesn't have them. The end. *There is no "Sound Design" Award.

Aquadine is a Visual Novel about a gondolier sculling about with the ladies and reciting mermaid lore. Got through all the routes in 11.5 hours using the space bar on my keyboard. Difficulty is N/A. Good game is good. Game play - It's as visual novel as you can get with a visual novel. There are no choices throughout that could trip you up, only reading. Routes - Once you get through the first 5ish hours and get to know the characters, you are given four routes to clear. After you do all four there's a fifth route that caps the story. There's no wrong way to do the routes. You can't lose here. Do whatever order you want. Story - A good, wholesome, well-rounded slice-of-life story with unexpected surprises. One route is far superior to all the others, but I liked what I read throughout and each route is different enough to be its own short-story. I enjoyed the entire trip. Voice Acting - the voice acting is limited to exclamations and short responses while you read the rest, but the VA's were chosen well and a few made of laugh. Music - The OST is low key awesome. I could listen to the background music without easily getting tired of it and it fits with the emotions and atmosphere. I did get a little tripped up at the sung music being played while trying to read the words, which is hard for me in general, however it was a once-in-a-blue-moon deal and didn't impact over-all reading. Hentai? - No. By the gods, no. Cat - This game has a cat! Meow! Achievements - Aquadine has no achievements on steam, or profile backgrounds, or cards. We need achievements, backgrounds, and cards! In terms of VNs, this is a very wholesome, quick VN with likeable characters. You could either play through one route and be satisfied with your chosen date in 6ish hours, or do everything and get the full story in twice that. The lore carries the game and there's enough individuality in the characters to enjoy their paths. If there was one thing I'd want, I want more game to read. There are certain character and side character aspects that I wish were expanded upon. I want a more thorough epilogue. I want a sequel.

[h1]Overview[/h1] Aquadine is a story about friendship, family, finding hope in the hard times, and most of all, the secrets we keep and the manifold chaos they sometimes bring on us if we don't reveal them to the right people, or if we don't have said people in our lives. The store page description tells you that at least the main character of the story is hiding a big secret, but beware! He's far from being the only person in this town with secrets! This VN is mostly billed as a comedy, but it really brings a roller coaster of emotions. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will probably gasp at multiple points. Aquadine is also a kinetic novel of sorts, which honestly is usually a turn-off for me because it usually means that you, the player, have no control over the direction and outcome of the story, and you are placing yourself solely in the hands of the writers and hanging on for the ride. This is probably also the reason why the game has no achievements, and why it has been so unjustly overlooked. But let me say a few things about why I think that was a good move for this game, and why I think that makes it better than the average VN. First, you won't have to spend a long time with this game re-doing old parts of the story trying new decisions to try to get different endings. You just read through all the routes and you're done. Second, you just read that right. Even though it's a kinetic novel, there are still multiple routes! Once you finish the opening common route of the story, you will reach a character select screen that presents you with 4 routes, each of which focuses on the given character and imagines how things might go if Robin were to enter into a closer relationship with that character. Only one of these routes is canon (you'll see), but they all serve to give you a lot of background info on those characters, and are where most of the world-building happens. And when you finish all 4, a new option will appear on the main menu, which is the final route to the true ending. Third, the ability to focus on telling the story the way they wanted to in each route, while not having to allow for different combinations of decisions, allowed this developer to create a story that was more consistently high quality than any of the indie VNs I have played before. So you won't have to worry about parts of the story being given less attention or not being paced well. During my time with Aquadine, I went from seeing it's potential but being skeptical, to seeing it come closer to my expectations, to having every expectation far surpassed in every way, to even being left speechless by the quality of parts of the story. I know you won't be disappointed either. [spoiler]Actually, there is one thing I was disappointed by, and it's the fact that I have some unanswered questions after the true ending. Maybe they're leaving the door open for a sequel? I can only hope so.[/spoiler] I would now like to talk about 3 aspects of this game in more detail, and show you how the few small nitpicky flaws this game has are far outweighed by the positives. [h1]Artwork[/h1] Other than the well-written story, this to me is where Aquadine shines brightest. It's also the main reason why I spent so much time on the game. I kept wanting to just stop and look at the art. The VNs that I've read in the past have all had CG images that I've wanted to take screenshots of, but this is the first one to have several regular background pictures that were almost as beautiful as the CGs, and not just screenshot worthy, but wallpaper worthy. I've never wanted to take anywhere near this number of screenshots from a game before. The character sprites are also well-done. Every character (except for the one set of twins) is unique, just as vibrant as the background art, and has a good assortment of expressions to suit their personality and any situation they are in. The only tiny flaw here is in the animations. The rather low-tech way that some of the sprites shake or jump can be kind of off-putting at times, but since this is the debut of an indie dev, I consider that problem to be pretty much insignificant. [h1]Soundtrack[/h1] I'll say this right up front. If you're going to buy Aquadine, and you like listening to video game soundtracks outside of the actual games at all, get the bundle with the soundtrack. It's not as epic as Ori, but most of it is just as great in its own way. It is possibly the most addictive part of the game. In-game, there are enough tracks that whatever music is playing at the moment is quite appropriate for the scene and brings the right feeling to match. I also really like the lyrics to the main theme song. It's my favorite one of any VN that I've seen on Steam, and is one of the main things that made me see a lot of potential in this game. In general, I find no clear flaws with the soundtrack at all. [h1]Voiceover[/h1] Quality wise, voices are generally well done. I read from the dev that they used professional voice actors with plenty of experience in VNs or anime. I very much enjoyed having the voices in this game, even if it was only partial voicing, because being able to hear the voices added a lot of extra personality to the characters, and helped immerse me into the story. I also especially want to say that I appreciate the English dub. People who have played a lot of traditional VNs might be used to hearing Japanese voices, but I don't know enough Japanese to understand a full sentence, and it throws me off to hear a language I don't know while trying to read one that I do. So if the voices hadn't been in English, I would have had to turn them off, and the overall experience wouldn't have been nearly as good. The only thing more I could have asked for was full voicing rather than partial, but again, it's an indie dev with a small budget, so I'm fine with it. [h1]The only actual drawbacks I found[/h1] There is only one thing I really don't like about the game, and that is the part of the story that one character describes as a "mandatory beach episode." The irony of that is, that line was supposed to be funny, making fun of other VNs, so many of which feature such scenes. But in reality, that was exactly what it felt like: mandatory, forced in when it wasn't entirely necessary. But the worst part is that during that scene, the main character (Robin) in my opinion acts completely out of character twice. And both times, it makes him seem like not nearly as good of a guy as he was the rest of the time. Of course, all that is not as bad as I probably make it sound, it's just that everything else in the story was so good that it stands out. Other noticeable flaws include the many typos in the game, and one huge plot hole at the end of Elisabeth's character route. I don't really count those, though, because 1: every VN I've read has had lots of typos, and the general meaning always comes through, and 2: Elisabeth's route isn't canon anyway. [h1]Other notes[/h1] 1: Just FYI, this game contains some infrequent language in the PG to PG13 range. 2: When you get to the part where you choose the character routes, you can pretty much read them in whatever order you want and be just fine. But one word of caution: if I were you, I would at least go through either Diana's or Cameron's route before going to Elisabeth's route. If you don't, there will be a character who will show up right at the end of Elisabeth's route, in the very last scene, and you won't really know who she is if you haven't done either Diana's or Cameron's route first. 3: I love the sound of Anya's laugh. It's musical. 4: I would give just about anything to have an IRL friend like Cameron, whether that's all we were or not. [h1]Final Rating[/h1] I can't give this game a 10, because there are some flaws I can't ignore, however minor they are. But I consider this one of the strongest 9.5 ratings of any game I've ever played.