Between Two Worlds

What's with adult VNs inserting pop culture references everywhere? Between Two Worlds is an adult VN developed by Drooskati Games with heavy focus on fantasy elements and character interactions, namely, romance and sex. While I had fun reading this specific visual novel, it has too many objective writing issues to genuinely recommend. I'll explain why in the upcoming paragraphs. First, let's discuss the visual and artistic aspects of this game. The environments are generic, whether I'm in the real world or the fantasy world, albeit extremely detailed. They didn't give me impression that I was in a fantastic world, filled with mysticism, mystery and wonder. Instead, it gave me the impression that it was more a glorified hiking trek rather than a genuine adventure. The world doesn't have the wow factor that's so important to high fantasy, because this is definitely high fantasy, and can break immersion. That being said, unlike the last game I reviewed, sound effects abound in this game, which help to give a sense of place, and the music, while generic for a fantasy setting, does the job, but I'd appreciate that some of the tracks are more tone and setting aware. The sex scenes are excellent, with realistic animations, and there are multiple camera angles and camera panning of the same scene, which give the scenes a quasi-FMV experience, which is great. They also don't overstay their welcome, which is a nice touch. The gameplay is standard affair for visual novels. There are some choices that I won't see the consequences later in the story, even at the very end, which is great. There are some problems, though. There are some choices which are antithetical to one of the core elements of the game, which is the inevitability of some important events of the story. If events are inevitable, why give me the choice to refuse to partake in said events? If I have no say on some events, then don't give me a choice, just proceed with the story. Another problem is that the game doesn't remember some choices I made. For example, if I choose not to investigate the cabin where Kisa lives, the game still pretends that I went where she lives. Another example is that the game doesn't seem to remember whether I decided to touch the stone statue or not, so the game pretends that I did, regardless of what my choice was. What about the writing, though? Well, the writing is what makes of break a visual novel, and, unfortunately, this is where the game falls short. For starters, the worldbuilding is nonsensical, especially when it comes to magic. There is no coherent magic system in this world, and power levels doesn't make sense either. For example, there is this individual who can negate any kind of magic, and even can negate the magic of the most powerful Magi in the whole land, as per one of the Stories of this game. If so, then why don't try to recruit him to defeat Alorine, which has the same kind of magic as the MC by the end of the good path? There is no in-world explanation as to why this isn't possible. This is yet another reason why rules in storytelling are so important. There is also numerous chance encounters when people give directions or provide with items critical to the quest, and several important plot contrivances, like the time when after the conversation with Alora/Alorine in the flesh, my party was kidnapped, and, instead of conjuring the portal to get my party out, I get in the portal and locked myself in with the others. This is a textbook example of trying to manufacture tension instead of doing what's logical to the context, which is saving my party. But, the funny thing is, I can ignore all these problems, if the characters are great, but no, not even the characters can save this game. There is the shy one, the open-minded one, the confrontational one, the one cracking silly jokes, you get the point. They're cardboard cut characters with no depth about them, and the only development they see is to serve the sex scenes and not to serve any level of poignancy or gravitas. The only character that sees some evolution or devolution is the main character, but it's done in the most shallow and basic way imaginable, and it didn't impress me too much. Even the party doesn't make any sense. There are four party members that can sense or perform magic, which is a very loose term in this particular game, because the rules for magic are never clearly defined. The party is supposed to be a group of people with clearly defined skillsets and talents that don't overlap each other. The dialogue is a mess. I can't read for five minutes without someone cracking a joke or saying something dumb. This is not done to ease tension. This is done at any time, even when the tone doesn't call for it. Camps are a sign of wasted potential, because it's the perfect setting for getting to know more about the characters, their fears, their dreams, goals, etc. This is a shame, because the elements for a good adult VN are there. The sex scenes are well animated, the setting is interesting, albeit generic in its presentation, and the worldbuilding has potential. The problem is that all those elements are brought down by contrived plotting, the complete absence of a magic system, which is instrumental to major payoffs in the story, and uninspired character writing. Like I said, I had fun reading this, but my recommendation or lack thereof must be based on a fair and objective assessment. If you care about writing quality, then this game will frustrate you. If you don't, you'll probably have a good time.

A long story at almost 40 hours. Was a lot of fun with a lot of laughs in a Jumanji style story. I really enjoyed it, but I like stories.

I finished the game a few hours ago and took a nap so I could process how I felt about the experience before writing a review. Unfortunately I just cannot recommend the game for the reasons below. I tried to look past them to recommend it anyway but they're just too much of a problem for me to do that. I'm going to replay the game as an "evil" character and will change my review if that impacts my opinion but... I kind of doubt it will, based on point 4 below. 1: Poor Animation of Adult Scenes First off is the thing that ultimately caused me to not recommend Between Two Worlds, and that is the how the developer made the... artistic decision... to focus on describing what is happening in the intercourse scenes instead of just animating them. My brother in Christ, it's a VISUAL novel. You can animate the scenes and skip the Polybuzz AI generated descriptions of what the characters are doing. If we can see it happening you don't need to explain what is happening. That's actually the whole point of this particular entertainment medium. Seriously, my guy, a picture is worth a thousand words and an animated scene is worth exponentially more. I appreciate that a lot of effort went into making this game but... dude. We're here to WATCH THINGS HAPPEN not READ ABOUT THEM HAPPENING, specifically... ESPECIALLY... during the intercourse scenes. I'm also going to say this about that: I do NOT recommend getting any of this guy's future titles if this particular issue isn't fixed in them. If you're going to present a long story like this (which is my second issue with the game) then you owe it to your players to SHOW instead of TELL. Especially when the text description of what's happening reads like it was generated by a poorly optimized LLM. 2: It is Long and Linear That's what she said. Anyway, while I can appreciate an AVN with a lengthy story this one really comes close to overstaying its welcome, and that comes down to the ratio of decisions made by the player about what the main character will do versus just watching things play out. Sorry, I mean reading about what happens, since we've already established that "show don't tell" is a concept not fully actualized by the developer. There are huge stretches of the game where you're just clicking through event descriptions or dialogue without any other feedback, and it gets to be a bit of a slog. There just aren't enough actual choices for the player to make, most notably in dialogue. This is a very on the rails kind of AVN and it doesn't pair well with the length. I had a hard time investing in the main character because after a very short time in the game it became clear I was playing a very clearly defined (*cough cough* author self insert *cough cough*) character who didn't need my input to progress the story outside a handful of decisions. I get this isn't an RPG but considering the game revolves around an RPG... yeah. Having to sit and watch the MC say wildly out of pocket things not anywhere near what I would want to say in a situation was very frustrating. I get that adding more dialogue options could lead to complications with the flow of the story, and with a story as long as this that could make into a bit of a labyrinth on the design side. Unfortunately, however, the alternative is a game where I ended up with glazed over eyes clicking through the MC doing or saying things where a choice should have been present, even if the overall impact on the story based on the decision would have been minor. Little decisions like this help the player invest in the character and the world, and this was not present enough given the length of the story and its complexity. 3: Hannah Starting the story with Hannah as your girlfriend was not a mistake, it was a choice. Not a very good one, mind you, but it was a choice. Unfortunately it wasn't the player's choice and that's a problem for me. This might be controversial but I really don't like when AVNs forms a strong romantic bond between the main character, you know, my representative in the story, and another character before I've had any real chance to get to know them. Or, in this case, forces me into a romantic relationship with a character whose personality seems to be the DM's Girlfriend trope. Or, more accurately, the author's thinly veiled ideal girlfriend fantasy. Hannah has some personality, actually all of the characters do and it's part of why I ultimately decided to finish the game, but to say that Hannah is shoved down your throat from the beginning is a massive understatement. Most of the adult scenes have her in them. By the end of the story I was actually sick of seeing her naked I was ready to dump her for the gnome. Maybe this is just a "me" problem but selling a harem game where you start off in a two-year committed relationship with someone isn't a great idea. Likewise, filtering the player's romance options through the lens of "but what would Hannah think" or "we have to include Hannah" lead to some frankly bizarre story beats I'll not go into for spoiler reasons. Absurd to the point of immersion breaking would be my description for how Hannah responds to the MC's general attitude of wanting to bang anyone they see, with one specific amorous target being absolutely ridiculous. Simple solution would be to just not force the MC into a relationship with a character you know nothing about from the beginning of the game. But hey, again, maybe that's a "me" problem. 4: Moral Navel Gazing Finally we come to the elephant in the room, and that is the "morality" system in the game. Heavily based on the D&D/Pathfinder morality, evil is defined by wanting power in a vague kind of way while good is defined primarily by vibes, apparently. I read from the dev's response to a different negative review that he took from the Pathfinder magic system and made some changes so it would fit the game world. I actually liked this touch, including implementing the lesser-known antimagic field as a story beat. Good stuff. But my guy... morality in Pathfinder or D&D is clunky, heavy handed and, despite what DrPinkCake might say to the contrary, doesn't really fit into this kind of game. Thankfully this game doesn't descend to the Lunatic Dhar Mann Noir depths of DrPinkCake's work (seriously, the end of Acting Lessons is hilariously insane). However, its presence alone begs the question: when the overwhelming majority of humanity has consistently rejected polyamory why in the BLUE HELL would you try to include a binary moral component in your harem game? We play games like this to escape the pressures of modern life, not be hit over the head with a false moral binary. I say false because what makes moral conundrums work in DrPinkCake's games (though the word "work" is doing some heavy lifting there) is that it's balanced by player choice. Yes, you make a few choices in this game, but the lack of actual nuance in Between Two Worlds makes them shallow and unfulfilling. Maybe I'll change my mind after playing the "evil" story, but I doubt it. So far "evil" in this game has been expressed with all the subtlety of a cartoon villain. According to this game's moral compass it's cool if we manipulate our friends into a polycule because our girlfriend goes along with it. That's the opposite of good, that's actually incredibly evil glossed over with a thin veneer of social approval to make it go down easier. The behavior of the main character and Hannah in pursuit of this polycule is WILDLY toxic, but it's okay in the end because... good vibes? Not so much, my guy. I felt incredibly scummy by the end of the game because it basically just pats you on the head and tells you that it's okay to do whatever you want as long as you're kind of nice while you do it. Again, I hate to break it to you, but that's incredibly evil. All I'm saying with this point is that you don't actually have to include a moral aspect to a game like this. That's about it. See ya.

The story is decent, although there are a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes. More as the story progresses. And it gets boring, tedious, and there's no connection felt to the characters throughout the game. The artistry/graphics are pretty bad though. Bad claymation looking CGI. and it also gets worse and the story progresses. It's kind of weird though. I played this first way back in Aug 2025. It didn't look this bad then. SO what happened? IDK. This is a new computer, with better hardware and software. i even went into the system and set the perimeters the same as it was. But this still looks worse than it did back then. Still IDK. For a 2022 release, it isn't the worst. But it's still pretty bad. On top of everything else, it will not shut down properly. You need to exit the Steam ap to get it to shut down. Or reset your computer, whichever you choose. It didn't use to do that though. SO the fault may lay with Steam. Either way, that definitely helps to seal it's fate as non recommendable from me. Anyway, not going to recommend this. It's 2026 now. There are a lot of other AVNs out that have way better graphics, and less spelling and grammar mistakes. But there are a lot that are even worse. SO yeah, mediocre at best. Still doesn't deserve a recommendation. And to top it off, the Dev took offense at what I wrote. Defensive over your work, huh? Sure seems like it. If you don't want someone to give you a bad review, fix your sh_t. Not a lot of you actually do that though. I only know of 3 AVN Devs that actually do fix their stuff to make them better. Brand new computer too. SO don't come at me with that either. I'm a hard critic, get over it. The other devs don't give a damn about my reviews, except those 3 that actually fixed theirs. And when they did, they let me know. And I changed my opinion to positive. Maybe think about it. Could make higher opinions if you fix it.

Even if the adult parts of this game/visual novel don't appeal to you, I'm enjoying the story immensely!

I was a bit dubious at first, but I've really started to enjoy the story. The graphics are good, and the game play is enjoyable. I'm not much for multiple choice kinda play, I just enjoy the story, so I normally go for the walkthroughs. But this is enjoyable, I hope there will be more than one season :-)

The major appeal of this game is the story, the characters, and the relationships that develop from the choices you make. Be warned that if you're looking for slightly interactive porn, you will be disappointed; the animations are good but they are far less frequent than you might be looking for. This is more like a visual novel with adult content than it is purely an adult game looking to titillate.

Disappointed. The game starts off slow and boring. The H-scenes are a turn-off. Even though they are technically high quality, they somehow manage to not be sexy at all. The male protagonist is very average down there and comes across as an unsure woman-pleaser. There is also a lack of meaningful behavioral choices to reflect the player’s character.

I really enjoyed this game. Very ambitious world building where D&D game bleeds into reality. The heart of the game is the group of friends and their evolving relationship.

Good game and story with decent replayability