
"Black & White" is a dystopian visual novel + war chess game: black and white, sensibility and reason, freedom and order: follow your beliefs and join your camp.
Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
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All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: Simplified Chinese**languages with full audio support
Engagement
Reviews
Themes across 49 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
I've made an unofficial English translation, so I figure I might as well say a few things about the game. I'll be releasing the complete TL in a day or two (search "1/2 White or Black English Patch" on itchio), and I wouldn't have completed it if I didn't think the game was good. So, what are you in for? This game is mostly set in a dystopia in the late 27th century. A religious organization, the White Lords' Church, seized control of the world 600 years previously. The rebellions were crushed, and human art and culture were nearly wiped out, as dictated by the church's Doctrine. But not all hope is lost - a new rebellion is rising, one that can finally topple the rule of the church. In 1984, Oceania will beat you into compliance, ruling by fear. In Brave New World, the World State drugs you into being happy all the time, ruling through a need for joy. What does the White Lords' Church do? Well, they want you to be content. They would view Oceania as crazy people seeking death and destruction. They would view the World State as fundamentally unstable. The Church feels that, as long as your emotions aren't too strong, and you've assimilated into the church's culture, you're okay in their books. The main point of contention surrounding the church is their hate for art and culture. Any culture originating outside of the church will be destroyed if possible, and replaced with something made by the church. This is one of the main reasons the rebels fight - they want to keep humanity's identity alive, in spite of the dangers the White Lords' Church claims culture possesses. The game offers a lot of good commentary on the pros and cons of supporting Black or White, which I definitely liked. There's a fairly substantial section at the very end focusing on the rise of the White Lords' Church in the late 21st century. Interestingly, that bit isn't set in China, but Chicago. Expect some Americans in that section. As for the SRPG portion: It has the pieces necessary to make a good SRPG gamemode, but it has no impact. By the time you finish the SRPG tutorial missions, the main story is already over. The remaining SRPG portions are pretty straightforward, too - pick the 3 strongest DPSers and you're golden. I know some people want the SRPG bits gone, but I honestly feel they can stay if the battles had some meaningful story content in them. The big stuff happens in the VN sections, and what you get in the battles is narratively worthless. Many people are saying that it ends on a big cliffhanger. This is true. The story does set up a self-contained story that it resolves in this game, but the larger story is unfinished. For example, it eventually becomes clear that you, the player, have some unspecified relevance to the game's world, but they discuss this right before they say "See you in the sequel!". The cliffhangers can be really off-putting, but I assure you that there's enough stuff in here to fill a story's Act I. There are also 12 main characters in here. You're probably thinking that the focus on each character is very diluted. You'd be right. The Black Side gets a small origin story for each player character, but the White Side is not so lucky. In fact, Black Side feels like some miniature spinoffs of Hungry Lamb, whereas White Side focuses more on the main story. The 21st century content is much more focused - it has a decent amount of content for two specific characters instead of 12. I feel that structure was a lot better. It sounds like the developers temporarily shelved the sequel due to bad sales, but it just so happens that they launched their big hit, Hungry Lamb, after this game. Who knows, maybe they'll come back and make the sequel they teased by name in one of the multiple sequel hooks. I sure hope they do - this IP is legitimately pretty good, and it's a shame it wasn't officially brought over to the West.
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Concurrent players on Steam, sampled daily since tracking started.
Hours played at review time, across 49 reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Great aesthetic and storyline, heavily reminiscent of Drakengard 3/DoD3 (why did drakengard 3 resonate so much more strongly with China...? lol). The SRPG parts feel a lot more like what I expect from "War Chess", your units don't have MP, don't level or have complex stats, and have 3 skills they can choose from each turn. Most HP counts are around 4-6 and a strong skill will do 2 damage, so it feels a lot more like a puzzle than a Final Fantasy Tactics kinda thing. Already some really interesting unit ideas, one unit moves a pet unit around and makes a debuff field between them, another can stick their pet unit onto friendlies to deal more damage. Playing with Unity AutoTranslate, it's not too bad. The battle mechanics are absolutely simple enough to understand easily with machine translation. Official English seems to be upcoming, but I got tired of holding my breath.
need R18 DLC
剧情写的很好,但是只写了一半,至于后续?反正没看到有续作的消息。 不愧是二分之一,就连剧情都只有二分之一。
58卖个半成品?这故事都没写完
我就给个赞吧。
最近🐔0又发新大份了,回头给这部打个差评。至今记忆尤深,因为当时某同学给我塞的,我半信半疑地玩到结局之后才发现自己智商被按在地上狠狠摩擦(重要是nm还没写完,就一个半成品),发现是已经不能退款了,只能含泪隐藏游戏假装没有被坑过。 游戏剧情全篇不知所云,立场没说明白,最讨厌这种似是而非的主题了,搞得自己清高,站在道德最高点谴责人性。最搞的是🐔0最后还发道歉说快完事的时候才发现自己写的就是个垃圾,我都绷不住了,怎么会有这么唐的策划,是不会做项目立项吗? 简单来说,我买了,我有罪,祝🐔0早日倒闭。
战棋部分做的完全让人没有游玩的欲望,剧情缺点也非常多,看的出来作品是想从两个阵营的视角来叙事,告诉玩家,没有哪一方是绝对的正义或是邪恶。但实际上的效果十分差强人意。本作采用了碎片化的叙事,通过追溯两个阵营,各个角色的记忆,来还原世界观。然各个角色的独立故事都十分单薄,末能支持起人设。独立故事的失败带动了整体故事的失败。先败带后败了属于是。
一款只有一半的游戏,让人连想认真评测的心情也没有~
不推荐 有着无限潜力的题材,塑造了各种各样有趣的人物,给我们看了所有的回忆,却在结局篇一幕中速速结束,戛然而止,仿佛拉了一半被夹断。让人失望的不是这游戏怎样,是它本可能怎样。但如果有续作,我还是会掏腰包买下抱以无比期待得玩,但就目前来讲,真是让人意难平的作品。
Momentum
Pace estimated from the game's recent review growth (our daily snapshots) at its own sales-per-review ratio — a momentum signal, not booked sales.
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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