Beyond R: Rule Ripper

Great characters, amazing soundtrack. I love you, Coffee.

very in depth ! Much more detailed and complex than may seem initially, recommend !

A death game premise exploring morality, what it means to be a hero, the blurry line between naiveté and courage, and ultimately how much a human can remain resilient when faced against impossible odds. BRRR follows a similar structure and formular one can see in games like 999 or Danganronpa. A group of strangers find themselves trapped in an unknown location and are forced to participate in a game by an unknown group or individual, with the rules of the game involving the potential deaths of its players as time goes on. BRRR emphasizes this aspect of the game with its focus on "rules" as the driving mechanic, each player is provided a list of rules but also is given exemption from one of those rules, giving them an edge over the other contestants. If their rule is found out however they can be voted out by the other contestants. Meaning that this advantage is also their weakness and has to be utilized carefully. Where BRRR shines is its writing, the main character Bill, has a basic appearance which may cause one to see him as a neutral or self-insert character mainly used to drive the player's action. And while it is true that we are in charge of his decisions, his backstory and motivation are developed surprisingly intensely to establish him as someone who wishes to pursue a certain role in this death game but finds himself struggling to do so. This internal conflict serves as the foundation of his character and is well-crafted to impress from start to finish. The events of the death game itself too show clear well-thought out planning as there are plenty of dead and bad endings depending on which decisions you make in the control of Bill. To come up with such a flowchart of events, to make it rational, reasonable and also entertaining on top of that is no easy task. I found myself on the edge of my seat at many climatic points, both in the true route and the other endings. Now, while the writing is stellar, the gameplay aspects do have their downsides on the mechanical side of things. The game suffers from an unfortunate amount of bugs that will harm the overall experience. Thankfully the dev has done a solid job since release to fix those, as well as to add numerous QoL improvements. So by the time you're reading this they may be gone completely.

Might update with an in depth review after I have some more time to reflect on the story. Solid entry in this super niche genre, but probably only has value after playing the classics and desiring more (999, danganronpa, YTTD) I have a lot more thoughts but they would contain spoilers. Also currently has some bugs and visual glitches but the dev is currently working hard on them, so maybe wait for a month after release if you want a smoother experience. There's a cool and long demo. Go play it and decide yourself.

Being a fan of death game genre, I really enjoy the ideas and what the game offers here. The setting is something fans of the genre will be familiar with, but it manages to remain fresh with many interesting elements. The cast may look a bit bland at first, but the writing really makes them shine and makes you care about them. It's unfortunate that the game seems to be held back by its engine. There are many graphic hiccups that, while don't interfere with the ability to play and finish the game, make the game looks unpolished as well as revealing many things behind the scene too much like how sprites are separated into parts, or how the council scene are characters with a table sprite on top etc. However, some issues will stop you from proceeding the game. The developer is nice and fast with bug fixing, but when this happens and causes your game to be stuck, it dampens the experiences with the game. It also doesn't help that the game features many dead man walking situations which will force you to backtrack and find the missing pieces that you need. It can feel unfair, since there is no sign telling you that this is what you need to do and it's basically pure luck. The game does features a hint system with the in-game narrative after each bad end or death end, but it can sometimes be too vague or a little much, especially the system that let you backtrack and get back to where you were very quickly. My understanding is that there's a narrative reason to why this is explained as an in-game narrative instead, perhaps because it will be revealed more about the story later, but as a game system, it would have benefited the player and made the game more pleasant if this system were explained like a tutorial. With the engine making the game not as smooth as it should be for a visual novel game, it's already frustrating as it is, and not teaching players how to use this feature just doesn't help. The council and interrupt system, while creative, suffer from the fact that the game wants you to play without a text pause. Although the text pause option is available, since the game tells you outright that that isn't the intended experience, I decided to play the game without the text pause option during the council. While I understand that the game want to build some kind of tension, the council text flow system hurts the game more than it helps, imo. I've already built a habit of pressing the advance button for the text to finish, read the whole thing, then press again to move to the next part. However, if you press advance button to finish the text, the text will fade and move to the next part right away, not giving you enough time to read the whole thing. It's true that the game warns you and let you customize the reading and wait speed, but it's honestly annoying having to do all that (especially when there seems to be a bug that whatever you set before the council is replaced by the council setting). The council, most of the time, feels like there's no clear goal or you don't know what to expect. And when there's a chance for you to interrupt, it doesn't come back like in Danganronpa, so if you miss it you have to start over. It's really disheartening with all the stuff you get and they turn out to be useless since there is only one way to solve the puzzle. And it's so specific it doesn't make you feel smart for solving them. You might want to use the rollback feature, but often you won't get access to the menu that lets you do that, so you can only click start, go back to the menu, then reload from the start of the council. And even when you can rollback, you can only rollback to the start of the council anyway, not at a specific point in time. This makes the council really tedious and half way through I gave up on trying to play the game without knowing anything, and just use the guide for true end instead. It's just too frustrating and really takes me out of the game. It's a shame, since the game features some nice story setups, twists and characters, but half way through the game it became too frustrating for me to care and I just want to go through the game to read the story. However, the ending feels like it's a big setup for the next two games. I don't mind that some questions aren't answered, but this one feels like nothing is even answered. Still, I can feel that this is a game with so much heart poured into it. Even with its flaws, there is something solid here and I'd love to see more from the series. By the time this review is posted, most game-stopping bugs should have been ironed out already, so I'm sure your experience will be smoother than mine. I wish the game featured more CGs and various more arts, as one thing about death games is to see the death scenes, but none of the death scenes are shown here. I understand that the game's budget is limited, so hopefully the next game will do something about that.

[b]Beyond R: Rule Ripper[/b] is a mystery visual novel about being stuck in a bar with a bunch of strangers being forced to play a game where the players themselves are its rules. Clear inspirations were taken from series such as Zero Escape, Danganronpa, and Ace Attorney. While not perfect, any fans of the death game genre don't need to hesitate in picking this game up. [h2]Story[/h2] [hr][/hr] I won't be going into details about the story or characters, as that's best experienced first hand, but I will say that the overall premise, the game's rules, and in particular the characters participating in it are all fascinating. The cast has varied personalities and are entertaining, for the most part. Dialogue between each character feels natural and has some wit to it. Presentation is strong here, very well put together thematically, with special mention to the Council debates. It does a great job selling the chaotic nature of group discussions, enhances tension when present, and expresses its characters' emotions in very tangible ways. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] [hr][/hr] In terms of gameplay, it leans heavily on the visual novel tag. You interact with the game by making choices at certain points, or more active decisions during the Council segments. Your input does matter here, but it isn't quite like Danganronpa's debates or Ace Attorney's cross examinations where you're carefully reading and looking for contradictions. Moments of deduction do exist, but not to the same degree as one familiar with those games might expect. To properly set expectations, I feel the need to talk about the game's structure. Firstly, in terms of routes, this game has only one 'true path' and about two dozen bad endings that can happen depending on certain circumstances or choices. It's unlikely you'll know which you're on until something bad happens, which is a positive. When you reach a bad ending, you will get a hint on how to avoid it, which is helpful. One frustration you might run into, however, particularly playing blind, is that the hints aren't always specific enough. Beyond that, getting back on the path to story progress often involves going back to previous chapters, to make different choices or find different clues. The game does have a chapter jump to assist this, but it still involves lots of text skipping, and the trial and error involved can stiffle the story's momentum. To me, the challenge this type of game presents should be more about deducing what the correct clue or evidence for a specific puzzle is, not finding out it can't be solved because you didn't find the necessary evidence in the right room 3 hours ago. Not a game breaker, but it can be a detriment. [h2]Other[/h2] [hr][/hr] The game can be minorly buggy at times. For example parts of character sprites, usually hands, appearing on the profile screen. It's uncommon and doesn't impact progress. I experienced one game crash during my playthrough. The developer seems to fix these when found. [h2]Final Thoughts[/h2] [hr][/hr] I liked this game. I'm interested in what comes next from the developer. It's clear this was no easy undertaking, and the flashes of brilliance in Rule Ripper can't be denied. I patiently await the inevitable sequel.

Death game with a strong focus on the human drama of it all, rather than getting too bogged down by the technicalities of the game or a grander overarching narrative. And the characters are compelling, the stakes high, the tension and suspense thick, so it just... works. Go figure. It is a tad unfortunate that it isn't really a "finished" story given that there's two planned sequels, but also, oh hey, two more games following a similar premise/structure? Sounds sick. I'm not that bothered that we don't have all the answers yet, though the true ending felt... maybe slightly underwhelming, as a result? I also appreciate that success isn't just "pick the right choice at the right time and that creates a branch", it's a bit more complex and more difficult than your average VN would tend to be as a result. I do feel some of the councils need more time-outs, especially later ones, since redoing everything, even with fast-forward, can take minutes and that. Doesn't feel great, but otherwise no real issues with the structure, even if it makes hunting down bad endings harder. The theming is strong and consistent, too, even the color choices of the main area feel. Intentional, to the story and twists within, in a way I will not elaborate on. All-around quite good, even if it shows its rough edges in spots, and I'm definitely curious to see the follow-ups!

This game reminds me of Beyond Entropy visual novel, Quantum Leap, Raging Loop, this game "" Stalking, Cooking Companions, Dread Weight, that game that just came out with the trilogy about the something some organization looking for Zachary but not quite, and that game with the alchemist girl who has to die ten times with the guy named I_____ you know but it's otome, just any game with looping which you should know because I'm pretty sure it's obvious, anyway it's pretty good I give it a 10/10 it's just perfect art, characters are stereotypical but I like that familiary, perfect music, perfect extra, multiple narrators, little minigames, it's just a high quality high production game that you never totally forget unless you are me who plays a crap ton of games but I'll probably remember this one and this is an old visual novel called something Queen you can find on some archive of erogedownloads which by the way has really good games back when the internet was the wild wild west and you couldn't buy this stuff even if you wanted to which I did...before steam consumed my life which it has....honestly I'm getting lost in nostalgia but this is a 10 there are many endings many secrets many details even if I don't understand most of this it's still a 10 because it's like Danganonpa but with multiple endings and Cafe Zero in setting and all those otome games like Nicole and Raging Loop with a big mystery. Oh yeah expensive but thanks to the Kickstarter backers this kind of game is definitely expensive to make for sure that much I know.

Uno de los mayores problemas del juego es su introducción. No se trata tanto de las conversaciones entre personajes, sino del propio narrador. La parte inicial (con la escena del sol, la casa y los créditos mezclados con narrativa) resulta confusa y te desconecta mentalmente. No queda claro qué aporta realmente a la historia ni qué relación tiene con lo que sucede después, ya que se siente excesivamente poética o abstracta. Además, todo lo que ocurre antes de llegar al pub (junto con las explicaciones de las normas del juego y la tablet) se vuelve excesivamente denso. Son explicaciones largas, enrevesadas y poco dinámicas que hacen que el inicio se sienta lento y, en algunos momentos, aburrido. Sinceramente, el juego funcionaría mejor empezando directamente con todos los personajes en el bar y la situación ya planteada. Los personajes, en cambio, están bien planteados (incluido Bill). Cada uno tiene su personalidad y sus interacciones funcionan correctamente sin hacerse excesivamente pesadas. También es muy positivo que el juego tenga una estética clara y coherente: todo el entorno del pub, los nombres de los personajes, el detalle de las bebidas, los objetos, las mecánicas, los sonidos y la ambientación en general están bien cuidados. Además, se agradece que las ilustraciones no estén hechas con IA, lo cual le da más valor artístico al conjunto. El mayor contraste y principal problema del juego está en su ritmo. Después de una introducción lenta y cargada de texto del narrador, las reuniones (que son una parte muy importante) pasan a ser extremadamente rápidas desde el inicio. Aquí es donde tienes que tomar decisiones clave, pero el tiempo es tan limitado que apenas da margen para pensar. Este cambio tan brusco de ritmo hace que la experiencia se sienta poco equilibrada. En mi caso, en mi primera partida, cuando por fin tuve control sobre las decisiones, la experiencia fue bastante frustrante. Solo tuve oportunidad de tomar dos decisiones y ambas fueron incorrectas, lo que hizo que mi partida terminara al momento. Da la sensación de que el juego no te da suficiente tiempo para adaptarte: pasa de un ritmo excesivamente lento a uno vertiginoso justo en los momentos clave. En cuanto al precio, no lo recomendaría a su coste completo, ya que la experiencia actual no me parece suficientemente equilibrada como para justificarlo. Sin embargo, podría ser una opción a considerar si se encuentra con algo de descuento. Aun así, no es recomendable para quienes nunca hayan jugado una novela visual de este tipo, pero sí puede resultar adecuado para quienes no tengan problema con narrativas más lentas y tengan experiencia en el género.

Would reccomend for anyone whos played Raging loop, 999 games, danganronpa etc etc. With a lack of good deathgame themed games around its always nice finding a new one and looking forward to more from the devs