Beyond R: Rule Ripper

Cool take on a death game, where the players themselves are the rules. Fantastic jazzy OST, an engaging cast of characters (Lime, my beloved 🍋), and intriguing plot developments so far. Being able to start a new game from where the demo left off, along with a recap of what happened, was a really handy feature! The protagonist might not be to everyone's taste as the perpetual "No [strike]fun[/strike] death allowed! The only winning move is not to play the game!" guy, but even though I wasn't completely sold on Bill, the rest of the characters more than make up for it IMO. Really enjoying the game and excited to see where it goes next! 🔥 (Also, Billiards ball goes BRRRRRRR)

tl;dr 7/10 approaching 8 during its peak moments. Around 25 hours to get to true ending + a few more hours to get to any post-game content worth reading through. Strong rec to Ace Attorney fans, mid rec to Danganronpa fans, weak rec for Zero Escape fans (only if you specifically enjoy VLR Ambidex Game type tension and focus on the game's rules, rather than any kind of ontological mystery). Pretty interesting mystery novel, with the meat of the game being character interactions within the confines of a relatively slow-paced death game where no one is willing to kill each other outright, but where everyone's morals are constantly being eroded by the circumstances they find themselves in. Beyond R's standouts are the character writing that at some points borders on character study, the tense arguments revolving around who deserves to die the most, and some clever twists on investigation/argument mechanics that are standard to this kind of games. That said, if you expect this game to answer any of the big questions regarding the nature of the game itself, you will not receive any conclusive answers (which I personally consider to be a refreshing take on the genre, but your mileage may vary). Clearly a lot of thought has gone into the presentation of the game (even if the artstyle is pretty barebones), with some clever integration of the game's theming with the core gameplay mechanics and QoL features. That said, the technical polish is lacking in places. Fortunately, this did not detract significantly from the overall experience, and reaction to technical feedback was pretty much immediate, which is commendable for a solo dev.

Hadn't planned on writing a review but after finishing the game, the more I think about it the less I liked it and I was pretty mixed on it to begin with. The visual presentation and music are strong, and some of the characters are enjoyable. That's about all the praise I can give it. The biggest sin, for me, is that the game gives you an interesting premise (figure out how to survive the death game without any deaths, or at least minimal deaths) and then [spoiler]abandons it immediately. There's only one actual route with everything else being a bad end, and it's one where everyone ends up playing the kind of uninteresting death game until the exact outcome you were told would happen... happens.[/spoiler] The protagonist (among several other characters) accomplishes nothing for like three-fourths of the game and doesn't really pull anything off by the end. Most of the more solid characters are killed off first and you're left with one, maybe two passable characters when the finale rolls around. Speaking of the finale, reaching it is an exercise in frustration due to a level of hostile game design that hasn't been acceptable since Sierra adventure games stopped being made. What? You didn't pick up a piece of evidence four chapters ago because we arbitrarily let you only check three places? Tough luck, the final sequence is unwinnable. Oh, but it's fine, there's a time rewinder... hidden in a stupid spot no one would ever check. And that doesn't really help, since you have to fast forward back to several other choices you made or else you lock yourself out of the finale again. And which is also annoying because all the jump points are at the beginning of sections which open off with this game's very purple narration and dialogue, which takes about a minute of skipping to get through before you can go back to the choice you missed. The finale itself also has problems- most notably, [spoiler]you get no answers. This is because, surprise! This is only one third of a story, and presumably the other two games in this series will have actual story reveals in them at some point, but all this game has is a character who's supposed to be dead show up alive. And then. Rather than giving you an explanation for even that. This game has the audacity to just go "and then the characters learned what happened and it explained everything" and just not tell you.[/spoiler] tl;dr: game does not tell a good or even complete story; do not waste your time and money.

So, I've only just finished the Prologue, however there's a lot going for Beyond R: Rule Ripper. A jazzy OST, well written dialogue, and an interesting twist to the death game formula that's enough to make it feel unique. The art's great and there's a lot of neat touches to the UI that suggest a passionate developer. I'll update with a full review once I finish the game! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1DT1buxE4k

It's twisty, it's fun, it's philosophical, and not without its fair share of bugs. Pros: Fantastic UI, everything is themed and very stylish Incredible soundtrack, complete with a toggle to switch between different songs Tightly written mystery with compelling characters Secrets to find Cons: A handful of bugs, but most are still being squashed by the dev (who is very helpful and easy to get ahold of via the game's official discord!) May not run well on a low-end pc. The game engine appears to occasionally take up a lot of CPU usage which might make the game struggle from time to time. Hopefully this will be fully fixed in the future! Recommended for: Fans of Zero Escape, KID's Infinity Series, Zodiac Trial and its sequels, Exit/Corners, Game of Fourtune, Root Double BCAD If you enjoyed any of these titles, give this game a chance!

Disclaimer I helped playtest for the game outside of Steam, so ignore my playtime. I really enjoyed the premise from the get-go. Each character represents a rule in this killing game, and there are hints throughout of who is which rule. I really enjoyed taking notes on this and testing if my theories were correct. It's a pretty unique premise for a death game and lived up to that concept! Gameplay wise, the game is mostly reading, and the game branches depending on your choices. You do have the councils where you also need to decide when you want to interrupt others, too. The art is beautiful, with a lot of expressions and poses. I do admit at first I had trouble telling apart the three older men (Poker, Cocktail, and Darts) but as the game went on I came to understand what made them distinct from each other. That honestly might just be a me-thing, though. I ended up enjoying all of the characters, everyone was really so charming. The music is absolute fire. I love the jazzy soundtrack, and it meshes perfectly with the bar setting. The UI matches great, too. All of these aspects come together to make a very immersive experience. You can tell a lot of love and care was put into this game. On the negative side, not 100% of your questions are answered by the end. The game does tell a complete story, and I felt satisfied by it. I don't want to get into any spoiler territory here, but it's worth mentioning you won't know the solution to absolutely everything. I enjoyed the game enough that I didn't feel it was a negative, but that's just me. If you don't like good guy protags, you might consider that a negative here? I personally loved Bill, but he's more of a pacifist and a nice person. If you were wishing to play as a cutthroat competitor in a killing game, that isn't the experience here. When I played, there were also a lot of bugs, many because of the engine being used (VN Maker). I can't guarantee that they've all been eliminated even though playtesters found a ton. But I will say the dev is extremely responsive, so if you contact him either via discord or through the discussion posts here, he will work ASAP to fix anything leftover. The plot is definitely worth pushing through any of these issues! I'd strongly recommend this one for any death game and mystery game enjoyers. I'm absolutely looking forward to what the dev releases in the future!!

Absolutely recommended. After 32 hours I have seen the true ending and quite a few others, and I'm willing to see the 100% of the game and get every achievement over time. The demo was very good although quite slow-paced, but that's not a bad thing. Just don't expect an always-tense death game à la 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors, because this game is quite different although the audience may be the same. If you are unsure, just try it: it contains three entire chapters of the game. I played in spanish (loved to play a game of this kind in my native language), and the game was very well written, specially considering this is the devs's first videogame. I felt many things playing this game, but I was just in awe that I felt the need to take notes of everything, just like the characters in the story, and trying to piece together all the info and data that I got so I could reach a conclusion before it happened in-game, feeling like a true detective. It's been so long since it happened and I just felt really happy about that. I love Ace Attorney, but playing them I used to feel like I reached a very obvious conclusion yet the game refused to hear me until that happened. This didn't happen in Beyond R: Rule Ripper. The game is not perfect and, I'd say, the biggest flaw is needing a guide (which the dev kindly provided on Steam, by the way) to get the true ending. However, this happens on many mystery novels, and the "bad endings" are usually interesting and/or give clues about what's actually happening, which isn't usual in the genre at all, so I'm pleasantly surprised. I received this game for free from the dev. I didn't ask for it, but he sent it anyways and I couldn't be happier that he did; otherwise maybe I wouldn't have heard from the game. Really looking forward for Tohriv's and GJ Staff's next projects: I'll buy them on day one, because these devs can pull anything.

I havent actually gotten that far yet I'm just giving it a good review

First off, I have to overall rate this game positively - I think this is my first ever review, so it really is a special game and clearly a crime of passion by the developer, who is a super cool person that seems to be very committed to improving the game in any way they can. However, I can't help but feel that there are some growing pains that this game has, and to me personally it failed to deliver on some of the promises that it had made (implicitly), which makes it hard for me to 100% recommend to everyone, however, if it looks cool to you, I think you should play the demo for sure. Ignore my playtime, I AFK'ed a bit while playing, "true ending" should take around 30ish hours to complete (this is how far I've gotten), with some extra story bits taking a few more hours to see. I got kinda burned out, so I did not see all endings. Absolute positives: + The soundtrack is amazing and fits the vibe of the game perfectly + The dialogue is well-written, next to no grammar mistakes or typos + The characters are all very intriguing and interesting, especially the POV character + Kinda rudimentary but cool gameplay segments Up to taste: * This game is more of a very in-depth character study(/studies?) than a mystery story. I don't want to spoil anything in the game, however, lots of questions are presented and some answers are alluded to, but in the end this game is about the players as people interacting with each other within the confines of the game. There aren't many twists and turns, I was expecting something akin to the Zero Escape series, but got something pretty different. Still very cool and interesting, but different. Not a major spoiler IMO, but beware: [spoiler] really cool that we will be getting more of our questions answered in potential sequels, however, that does make this game feel a bit incomplete in my opinion. [/spoiler] * I felt like the trial and error style gameplay didn't really fit the story, keeping track of what you've seen can become tedious, and even though there does exist a mechanic to alleviate this I still didn't see what purpose it serves that for a given segment you can collect 4 out of 5 tidbits out of which you need 2 to progress five hours later down the line. Again, nothing major, just about the nature of choices in the game: [spoiler] I kinda would have preferred a more linear narrative, or one where your choices always have immediate visible effect. I guess I've just been spoiled by flowcharts. [/spoiler] Maybe this style is just not my cup of tea, I have not played a ton of VNs aside from the big popular ones (Danganronpa, Ace Attorney, Zero Escape). I ended up completing the game with a guide, but I felt like it didn't detract at all from my experience. The negative: – The game is buggy, no two ways about it, however, the dev is super passionate about fixing everything that they can, so it's getting better every day Play the demo, and if you are hooked, buy the game, you won't be disappointed - but be open to a different kind of experience!

A Zero-Escape style death game VN with great writing, characters who aren't silly anime tropes (yeah, I know you all love that nonsense, but I'm the exception, sorry), and genuine heart. Probably the best attempt I've seen at "hey, what would happen if we put normal people who don't spout off philosophy/science at the drop of a hat in a wacky death game". I wish I was eloquent enough to go into more detail about why I liked it, but sadly it's beyond me. As much as the "rules" (which are a fun idea and for the most part well-executed) are the USP here, the characters and writing are really what make this a winner. Props to everyone involved this one, please send them your money (and maybe even play the game too)