Blake: The Visual Novel

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Hikaye açısından zengin, seçim odaklı bu gerilimde Çizgi Roman, Görsel Roman ile buluşuyor. Blake'in, gizli bir düşmanla karşılaştığı yolculuğunu deneyimleyin; bu, onu akıl sağlığını kaybetmekle zorluklara göğüs germek arasında seçim yapmaya zorlayan bir dizi olayı ateşler. Doğru kararları verin ve New Stone'u kurtarın.

Blake: The Visual Novel is a passion project from solo indie dev Ori Mees that takes us to what I’d call a cyberpunk-noir future - the world and characters capture the feel of cyberpunk without relying much on the aesthetic and hone in on the feeling of being a detective. Regardless, it’s a quick story worth exploring with memorable characters, great comic book- inspired art and absolutely killer music. Blake has been having strange dreams, but not nearly as strange as his real life has become when he wakes up with a crate of stolen owls from the zoo in his bedroom. With the help of some legitimately enjoyable characters such as Max, Orlo, Lee and Hari, Blake seeks to get to the bottom of everything while uncovering some deeper mystery and finding out about his blood family that he never knew. Unfortunately , as this is a visual novel and is entirely a story, I can’t say anything further about the plot without spoiling it. What I can talk about is the refreshing nature of providing actual choices to the player that deviates the story greatly. There are a few points particularly where the player makes a choice and branches the story in a totally different direction. There are a good few endings, and it all comes together to give you the feel of a good ole fashioned paperback choose your own adventure novel. I wasn’t a fan of the ending that I got, as it felt abrupt, but I know there are a few others to unlock which might be more narratively satisfying. I also felt that some of the characters, particularly Jonathan, didn’t really have a believable dialogue back and forth with Blake. In fact, his felt so fake that I was sure he was secretly a villain until the end, as his story just didn’t add up. Blake’s coworkers are delightful though, and I especially loved Hari and was kind of irritated that Blake didn’t enjoy her company. There are a few issues here and there with the writing’s flow and transitions from scene to scene, and yes some of it feels like being jerked between one revelation to the next, but I had a good time with it and the characters are definitely crafted with heart. I also want to give special props to the soundtrack. It is fantastic and probably the thing that has stuck most with me, giving a perfect flair to both the cyberpunk and noir sensibilities of the visual novel. In fact the ambient music is so pleasing I left the game running on my computer while cooking dinner so I could keep jamming out to it. It fits in with the atmosphere and the story the developer is crafting seamlessly and honestly I’d just buy the soundtrack as a standalone at this point. Overall, Blake The Visual Novel is a fine entry to a niche genre and I think is worth playing for anybody who already enjoys visual novels. If you are one of the many people that doesnt, however, I do not believe this one will change your mind. I think if I could give any award to this 1.5 hour game, it would be for most directed vibes. The city of new stone is cool, interesting, and I advise anyone who is even a tad interested to give it a run.

Overall Blake is a very nice albeit a bit short visual novel. It’s a great story about mental issues, mysteries, loss and hope. It has a few hiccups, but nothing major really, it’s a perfect game for a Saturday afternoon, to kick back and enjoy a cybernoir story. If I recall correctly this was Ori Mees’ first game, and I have to say; way to go, way to go indeed! If you want to see the whole review about the game, peek here: https://youtu.be/3kqXSyEVie0?t=28

[b]Blake: The Visual Novel[/b] is a story-rich, choices-driven psychological thriller in which players take on the titular role. After encountering an unknown nemesis Blake must deal with a series of mysterious events that will make him question his own sanity. Overall Blake: The Visual Novel is a gripping narrative experience with diverse and distinct characters, detailed narration and engaging and believable dialogue. The graphic novel aesthetic fits perfectly with the themes of the game and was a particular highlight. It will take around 4-5 hours to complete a playthrough and as the story is very intriguing and sparks curiosity about the multiple other paths, missed dialogue and variations on the ending there is some replayability. The only negative was the reliance on mental health tropes, which was really rather jarring and disappointing at the end of an otherwise enjoyable experience. As such I tentatively recommend the game and would suggest bearing this in mind when choosing whether or not to play this game. [b]WANT TO KNOW MORE?[/b] My full review of this game where I go into detail about gameplay, narrative and styling is available on [url=https://indie-hive.com/blake/]Indie Hive[/url].

This is a short personality test structured like a visual novel. There's not much more to it since the story isn't particularly compelling or novel, and awarding different achievements/endings for 100% bipolar behaviour means that it isn't particularly useful in any way for learning about yourself since most people will probably fall in between both extremes. At the current sale price of under a dollar, this is completely fine and I'd recommend the game; however, it's definitely not worth buying at full price since there are better uses for that money on Steam. However, the art is pleasant, crisp and clean and I'd like to give the artist a competency tip. I hope he or she moves on to other projects in the future. It's a shame that this work wasn't more fleshed out, because it could've been much better; however, there's way too many danging plot threads and extraneous character interactions for me to consider this work in any way finished. The writing is competent, but unstructured and the characters feel more like unrealistic caricatures than human beings. They're not unlikable in any way, but due to the brevity of the game, contact with them is too limited and short for me to form any attachments. Some characters have so little screen time that I'm completely puzzled by why they exist in the first place. (P.S.: I have to give extra credit to the artist for managing to design the rotationally symmetrical title, that was very well done).

I always saw VNs as a niche genre for horny teenagers with the same cliche storylines 😴 Now I've played two games with a mature plot where the goal isn't to score ⚽️