Billie Beetleneck -A detective tale-

Yazılmış her hikâyenin, bizimkiyle aynı anda var olan alternatif bir dünyası vardır. Çok sayıda paralel evren aniden yok olunca, Billie Beetleneck bu etkileşimli görsel romanda şimdiye kadarki en zorlu davasına girişir.

Унылое и Скучное

Full disclosure, I am a backer/contributor to this game, but even with that in mind, this game comes recommended. I'll also be avoiding spoilers since the game is short and free, so the key takeaway is that I think you should play it. For the dev's first attempt at a visual novel, I must say they did a pretty good job. While there are some minor issues here and there (the most common I saw being the lack of proper capitalization for proper nouns), the overall package is delightful. Character and background art was a treat for the eyes, and the music was nice and relaxing throughout. The concept is also very unique: you take the role of Billie Beetleneck, a detective from Bugtown, given the task of getting to the source of the recent uptick in bookworm attacks. See, in this world, books are physical worlds that Billie can travel to and from, and the bookworms threaten to destroy not only as many of these worlds as they can, but maybe even Bugtown itself. That's the non-spoiler version. The game is a linear visual novel with some choices that only effect the game is very minor ways, like lines of dialogue. While that may be disappointing to fans of the genre, I think it was ultimately for the best in this game's case to help deliver a more focused narrative. Depending on your reading speed, Billie will only take you 2-3 hours to complete. This is both my biggest compliment and biggest criticism against this game: the short length absolutely helps with the pacing of the story, not a single scene feels like it drags before you go to the next one. Helps to keep the story engaging throughout. On the flipside, I was left wanting more. There's a lot of interesting ideas that could have been explored that I think would have helped make the experience richer. Plus, the ending was unfortunately somewhat rushed, and I personally prefer endings that take their time with their resolutions. While improvements could have certainly been made, I did not regret my time with Billie Beetleneck at all. You can only ask so much when a developer is willing to put their game out for free, and I ultimately enjoyed myself. If you have a couple hours to spare, please consider giving this game a try!