Me: how many pop culture references can you insert into your game?
AlterWorlds: yes.
Bare Witness is an adult visual novel developed by AlterWorlds, with heavy focus in character interactions, in this case, romantic and sexual interactions. That being said, I truly believe the devs need a crash course in storytelling, because there are many, many things that don't make sense in this game. Prepare yourself for a real rant about poor writing. But first, let's dissect some of the other elements of this game.
I need to give credit to whoever designed the characters, the backgrounds and the animations, because they're top quality, save for some scenes that looks rendered by an AI. Animations in sex scenes are excellent, with realistic motions, ligthing and facial expressions. That being said, some elements, like window positions in backgrounds change, despite being fixed elements, but that's just me nitpicking. The music not always matches the context and the tone of the scenes, and there is a conspicuous lack of sound effects.
The gameplay is standard for a visual novel with focus in romance (and sex). Make choices who favors different girls to get their routes and see their endings. It's very easy to follow, save for one notable exception, which is the Heidi/Sadie route. I needed to go out of my way to figure out what the problem was. It turns out, you need to interact with Zenda, a girl completely unrelated to Heidi and Sadie, and then, turn her down, so you can meet the requirements for the route. It's extremely counterintuitive, which would explain why only 12% of players got that ending.
Okay, rant time. The writing for this game is utterly abysmal. The only positive thing I can say about the writing in this game is the dialogue, and that's about it. This game shouldn't have any problems with worldbuilding, since is set in a universe with many commonalities with the real world, but the writers managed to screw it up anyway, because of one element: the introduction of polyamorous relationships. Am I to believe in a world so similar to the real world, a man can get a harem of girls with no issues, no backlash from the public, and no legal problems? This is why rules in storytelling are so important, because they tell the reader what's possible or not in a fictional setting. The writers are required to set a precedent in-universe for polyamorous relationships to exist to justify the player pursuing a harem. Otherwise, it becomes a major plot contrivance at best, and a plothole at worst. There is a plethora of instances where characters make absolutely nonsensical choices, especially during plot-critical events, characters expected to be competent being incredibly incompetent (and I can't for the life of me believe US Marshals are that incompetent), and all of that just to favor later payoffs in the story. If a writer needs to force events and ignore or change the internal logic of the story in the name of the payoffs they want, then they're incurring in plot contrivances and therefore, lazy writing. The characters are uninteresting, and, like I said, the only thing going for them is the dialogue, and no, quirks are not what make characters interesting. What makes them interesting is the challenges they face, their struggles, their fears, flaws, goals, motivations and dreams. And I don't even think those aren't there. The problem is that they're seriously underutilized and underdeveloped. It's as if developers for this kind of games think that powerful character writing and romance are mutually exclusive, when it's not. Lastly, there are elements that are treated inconsistently by the writers. First, is the plan to face Caprio, because it changes depending on the route chosen, when the situation is the same: the same warehouse, the same layout and the same challenge. An example of what I'm saying is that the warehouse has a window through which someone can sneak into, but this is only relevant during the "Ham Sandwich" route. The other routes completely ignore that detail, when it's a very relevant element, because it provides with a chance to outmaneuver Caprio with next to no problems. Second, is the relationship between Heidi and Athena. They have a casual relationship at the start of the game, but, if the player pursues one over the other, the writers treat the relationship as if they were in love of each other. They did this because they wanted to set up a conflict, but came across manufactured. If the writers left breadcrumbs of their relationship slowly evolving, then the conflict would have make much more sense. Third, is the main character's trauma with guns. In some cases, it's portrayed as it should, but in others, it's not even a factor, even in tense scenes, like the standoff with Caprio in some routes.
It's honestly a shame that I didn't recommend this game, because the elements for potent storytelling are there. But inconsistent, contrived writing and underdeveloped characters threw a wet blanket on what otherwise should've been a good adult visual novel. If you care about good storytelling, you should look elsewhere. If not, and the spicy scenes are all what you care about, then you're in for a treat.
