Beyond R: Rule Ripper

I'm enjoying the story so far so I'm leaving a positive review but I want to say that I'm trying to play this game on Steam Deck and it is not very easy. Would be super nice to see Steam Deck controls added, I've tried to set it up but it hasn't been easy haha.

Peak

I really wanted to like this game, the premise is very interesting. The trouble is it wants to be all fancy with its time-rewind mechanics, but is too buggy to actually handle them. I got one bad end, tried to navigate to a place where I could actually continue the story, and it kept crashing on me. Even regular saving and reloading creates graphical bugs and occasional crashes. I might come back if there's a major update, but for now it's best avoided.

Me hace recordar a las novelas visuales que le dieron horas y horas de lectura, intriga, sustos y diversión a mi adolescencia y joven adultez. Pero no quiero recaer solo en la nostalgia, sino también en la excelencia narrativa y artística de este juego, que, además, me sorprende por la flexibilidad en su jugabilidad, no creas que solo es leer (aunque la base es esa), es leer rápido, pensar rápido, hacer conexiones y sospechar constantemente. No quiero escribir mas porque quiero seguir jugando (?).

I want to like this, and the premise is engaging. The art, music, and animations are enjoyable. The jazz is inoffensive, even to those of us who don't dig it, and the palette and pacing are good for the 1.5 hours I've sunk so far. I think the writing needs a lot of work. The clichés and the use of metaphor makes the narrative vague and somewhat repetitive. The passive voice is critically overused. If there was a good balance between the concrete and detailed or vibrant and the pages of sweeping empty phrases attempting to set the emotional valence, I would like this much better. This needed an editor who understands how game language is written and how you create tension, nuance, and above all the investment in a character's life. At least for the prologue, no one is acting like people who would awaken to find themselves in this situation. No one behaves normally, everyone behaves with varying degrees of sociopathy and calculation. Which is fine! But in contrast to other death game....games, this is a selection of people who are absolutely ready to give up their parents, kids, lovers to play a highly complicated game with mortal stakes. There should be SOMEONE losing the plot, talking about themselves honestly, etc. No one wakes up kidnapped with strangers and acts like Sherlock Holmes. Suspend disbelief! Having said that, the developer/author is at their finest when writing the contrast between the protagonist and the other characters, who I hope will become much less two-dimensional as the story progresses. I strongly, strongly recommend a good English editor before release of another game in this vein. I will come back after a bit to finish my thoughts!

Honestly really fun death game! I really enjoyed the cast and I felt all personalities were just extremely realistic. Usually in games I prefer very 'over the top' characters but here I really appreciated how human the characters are. The emotions, the distress... It gave a highly immersive experience. So yea, for people that are looking for a death/killing game VN, I defs rec this one! (Also for the yuri fans, it does have a tiny bit of yuri! Omg...) I do have a tiny complaint which is that I wish skipping through read text was more efficient; with a ton of endings it would be nice if that was made easier. But yea go play! Teehee

Beyond R: Rule Ripper no reinventa el género, aunque es una propuestas con alma. Su mezcla de lógica, tensión y estética de club nocturno crea una experiencia intrigante y cerebral, aunque algo densa en su arranque. Las reglas tardan en encajar, pero cuando lo hacen, el juego te atrapa en su red de sospechas y silencios. Le falta expresividad visual y variedad sonora, pero compensa con intención y coherencia. Un pequeño death game con más cabeza que presupuesto, ideal para quienes disfrutan resolviendo acertijos… antes de que se acabe el antídoto pero que no es un buen acercamiento a quien quiera tontear con el género.