CAFE 0 ~The Drowned Mermaid~

Cafe 0 ~The Drowned Mermaid~ is a short shoujo/mystery visual novel. You play as Marie Umino, a deceased girl who must find who killed her 7 days earlier. There are several suspects that you can meet to try and find out who the true culprit is. The story branches out in "routes", that lead to several ends : 4 "main" ends, one "true" end, and one "bad" end In order to get the "true end" you need to finish the story at least 4 times, to get all the items needed. That means you have to re-read dialogues you've already read, which can get quite monotonous. At least you can use the "skip" function, although in the end, that makes the game very short. It's not really hard to figure out what to do, as the choices you can make are fairly limited and rather simple (you can be "good" or "evil", basically), and the writing isn't stellar, though it kept me entertained. I wouldn't really recommend it, unless you're a diehard fan of visual novels or mystery novels, because there are far better visual novels out there (and with better art, too), and the price is quite high right now (luckily I got it in a bundle). But for 2 or 3 euros, you might consider it...

[b](...)The sun rose up from the waters. Its beams fell, warm and kindly, upon the chill sea foam, and the little mermaid did not feel the hand of death. - Hans Christian Andersen, [i]The Little Mermaid[/i][/b] [i]CAFE 0 ~The Drowned Mermaid~[/i] is RoseVeRte's second visual novel and the first game in the CAFE 0 series so far. It is most certainly no masterpiece, yet it is a satisfactory supernatural mystery with an eerie feeling, accomplishing more than many others of its competitors for the genre in a limited game time. In this eerie little adventure, our protagonist is Umino Marin. As the game starts, the young high school student finds herself in an odd little cafe in the middle of nowhere. Once within, she is attended by a weird waiter with the worst kind of manners: Sui. Sui presents Marin a glass of water and obscurely wishes her a good journey. Only then Marin wakes up, apparently just saved from drowning in her school's swimming pool. The most alienating of all these uncanny events, is that we remember nothing from our previous life and we bear no reflection before a mirror anymore. It's as if we do not exist in a physical manner. As the game progresses, Sui appears again to inform that this is the last week before we died. We are solemnly living through the last week of our lives, in order to come into acceptance of our dying. We will have a week to learn about our past, come to meet with the people that we deemed important for us and find a way to deal with what actually happened to us. The narrative within the game is not extraordinary, yet it's chosen topic and the specific way that its mystery ends up revealing itself is more than charming. Marin's character and her way of dealing with the impending doom waiting for her at the end of week, the constant suspicion she endures for everyone and the sense of loss she goes through, change in every playthrough according to your choices to establish a unique, supernatural sense. Marin's nickname at the school - The Mermaid Princess - is a direct reference to Andersen's elegant, yet grim fairytale. The titular oxymoron - The Drowned Mermaid - is a most fitting metaphor for the storyline too. Characters themselves tend to end up on the superficial side due to limited game time, yet you still get a solid sense what type of people they essentially are. The CGs and the artwork are most certainly not the strong suits of the game, yet I ended up liking them a lot anyhow. The amateurishly drawn manga depictions of all characters felt like a solid art choice for me. They are eerie, anatomically wrong and far from being appealing, but their eeriness, especially the glassy, cold look in everyone's eyes - very like dead fish eyes - felt like fitting allegories, as if every one of them are dead on the inside, including Marin herself. Sad, but beautiful. Most people in discussion forums got sincerely annoyed that the Japanese voice acting is presented as a bonus DLC rather than being a part of the original game, but the developer explained that the original version lacked any voice acting at all. So, them being a later add-on, you gotta pay for it. I played the game with the voice acting, and I'd vote that it is worthy of your 5 dollars. Voice acting is really well-done, enhancing the mood of the game wonderfully and adding character to all personas. At the end of the day, this was one of the visual novels that grasped me as I went for the bed. I found myself thinking about the tragedy poor Marin ended up with. I do recommend the experience for the ones who enjoy the genre, and maybe all others that would appreciate a good but short supernatural mystery. Please also check out Lady Storyteller's Curator page [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ladystoryteller#curation]here[/url] - follow for regular updates on reviews for other games!

This visuell novel has a cruel story and it start with a puzzle. You need to end first 4 endings to get the puzzle pieces to get the real end and to light the truth. You see 2 good endings and 3 bad endings all a part of hope or of trueness, but which one is one? So you need to play 5 story-lines, most time its only feels like much filling but that is normal in every game, movie or book but some parts like the mirror scene are boring and get on the 2nd walk skiped with fast forward option because no big changes most time. But the end was really not bad, not really surprising because some details in the walks before like a smile or other stuff but i find its one of the better visual novel stories i played (even if i not play very much). Graphics are not good and not bad. Most people could do it better or this standard so i give 7 of 10 points to it. Sure it could be better but its not so important. Sound is okay not nerving and not be making the game much better 6,5 points here and the story gets on the way trough the game 7 points (ignore the boring mirror parts and mornings, rest is a bit to short) but the end get 9,5 of 10 points for me, maybe i overdo it, but without the little signs before it would be really astonish but not so believable so it was a hard way for the developer to make it not to much and not to less and i find it hit it very well and a good ending is for me the most important point of a game like Zelda Majoras Mask or Metroid Prime 1-3 get the best/ full ending. So for visual novel genre fans this game should be good, for others only if they want a story like a comic/ manga but dont need action or something and only if you hold till the end of all walks for the rest of the gamers this game should be the right choice, the storyline is not everyones (only SPOILER: If you love betray tales it could be something you like). I give this game for this well tought narrative 82%, but if you dont like VS, let your hands of it, if you dont know it, watch trailer and play maybe first some free VN. I would prefer a discount of 50 better 66-75 % or more to pay not to much, but here work FEW developers hopefully with a low bugdet many hours, dont forget how much work and hard a game development is. Thank you for reading and enjoy your time.

This second otome visual novel from roseVeRte feature a female protagonist Marin Umino, a former swimming ace at a school who finds herself at Cafe 0, a place where the recently deceased full of regrets arrive at and would be attended by a different waiter for each different person to advise them on returning to the living to uncover pieces of their past, discover more about themselves and eventually find peace in their journey after death which is unavoidable and will always occur within 7 days at the time of returning back to the living world. With the Cafe 0 waiter Sui attending to Marin, Marin finds herself waking up from a near drowning incident at her school's swimming pool where she was introduced to her best friend Ami Kawase, her ex-boyfriend Tooru Mizutani and her school's doctor and counselor attending to her Shou Takizawa with no memory of each character's role in her past. As Marin attempts to find out more about her past through each character, she will return to Cafe 0 and back to the living again, reliving the same 7 days prior to her death with additional mysterious items from her death appearing in her room drawer each time before eventually dying without returning to Cafe 0 in a tale of mystery, intrigue, subterfuge, love, lust, honour, jealousy, betrayal and vengeance. The game has plenty of save slots to allow different gameplay and dialogue choices to be made during the game, with a black or gold butterfly popup icon to reach a different storyline branch, Marin taking on a white, black or green appearance, additional mystery items to make enquiries on after each playthrough and the option to skip and fast-forward any part of the game. Background music and overall game presentation are good after factoring in chibis for each of the main characters and constantly moving zero symbol in character selection screen. Recommended when at discount or in bundle offer as it takes less than 10 hours to unlock all mystery items, reach all endings and unlock all CGs and achievements.

First of all, I played the game before its release on steam thus explaining my playtime. Also, I voluntarily will not speak of the game's details because it's not what I want to defend in this review. Café 0 ~The Drowned Mermaid~ perhaps isn't the best visual novel ever made nor the prettiest. It's probably one of the ugliest but, as a wise and just as ugly man once said, what matters is what's inside! And what's inside is okay! It offers an average and, somehow, a bit compelling story focused on characters interesting enough for you to keep on playing the game. I went through several states that I'd like to develop from before playing to reaching the true ending: 1) The discovery: I was truly amused, mostly by the graphics (just like you I assume) and yet was curious about this setting (like you once again, explaining why you are currently reading this review). 2) The purchase: I ended up purchasing it due to my curiosity taking over my reasoning I guess (not that I regret it today), and felt this feeling ,which was a mixture of both amusement and a bit of nervousness, just like before you go on exploring the complete unknown of a safe experience. 3) The playthrough: I played for a straight 4 hours (as I remember), at night alone in my house and went through a rollercoaster of feelings mainly composed of inquisitiveness and mockery at times which truly fulfilled those 4 hours I spent on the game. I was also really satisfied by the endings delivering something that can rarely be found in gaming experiences in my opinion. 4) The post-experience: I went from making fun of the game, upon discovering the game, to making fun of the game and defending its qualities, because it deserves it. I even lost some credibility in some friends' mind but it doesn't matter because not only did I have a good time but I also became wiser as of judging one's book by its cover and therefore, by extension, learning to give a chance to everything and everyone. Some might point out the price of the game, perhaps a bit expensive for its content, and I can only agree but once it goes on sale, I truly hope that this review would have convinced you to give this game a chance. A chance it really deserves. Thank you. EDIT : I know this game will win an award one day.

I enjoyed the story (no spoilers here), which is sumarized on the store page. It took me around half an hour to read through, & as usual with most VN's there were multiple endings to go through. The art was fine & did the job it was meant to, & the same with the soundtrack. Both were serviceable but nothing extraordinary. I'd sugest waiting for it to go on sale if you're keen to try it. The game has both achievements & trading cards.

a good Visual Novel agme. can recommend it. the price of this game is in offer -70% alright. has steam cards. all achievements work.

I often find games that give me conflicting emotions are far easier to reccomend, and this is such a case. For the majority of my playtime, I absolutely loathed this game; the characters, the dialogue--all amounted to some of the most infuriatingly childish attempts at romance and edginess in a game with some very straightforward choices that lead to almost the exact same thing. I almost gave up, writing it off as another game more catering to tweens and their fledging libidos, and I am so glad I didn't. You see, this is an otome visual novel; basically, this is meant for girls, and in just about every way, The Drowned Mermaid is that. At a lot of points especially I was put off by the main character and the choices offered, and all of the endings at first seemed extremely shallow, going the "I love you forever~~" route or the "burn for all eternity" route (which were always far more interesting). However, without giving too much away, this shallow presentation to some extremely shallow characters is actually a partial ruse for something much more intricate and sinister. While this does not discount the dialogue as being amateurish, somehow it adds to the intrigue this game builds up. With each ending, you get closer to the true one, and believe me when I say it won't take you long. By the end of my little journey, a game I thought I would hate for its pandering had me wrapped around its little finger as I tried to piece together what actually happened, and once the real truth comes out? You will find even the most innocent and cringe-worthy romantic endings will carry a very different weight by the time you see the true ending. Cafe 0 is a unique enough concept that manages to surpass its own failings, even though as a Visual Novel it leaves something to be desired. However, if you really take a moment to see this fairly short game through, you will be surprised as to how wonderfully put together this story is. For the price and for the length, I can say without a doubt that this little gem in the rough is more than worth your time; just don't be afraid to use the skip button after your first time through. Edit: A good two hours were not recorded on this log because of my finicky internet, so what you see there is only about half my playtime, just to give you an estimate on how long it took me to see everything.

Un visual novel que demuestra que ahogar una premisa intrigante (un pueblo costero, un misterioso ahogamiento) es más fácil que desarrollar personajes con más profundidad que un charco. La protagonista pasa más tiempo recordando lo que olvidó que haciendo algo memorable. El ritmo es tan lento que hace parecer la evaporación del agua un deporte de acción. Y el giro final tiene tanto impacto como un suspiro en medio de un huracán. Ideal si buscas la emoción de observar cómo se seca la pintura en una pared, pero con sprites de anime. Un café descafeinado, sin azúcar y, para colmo, se te ha caído al suelo.

The art style could use more work, but other than that the voice acting and story were nice. I loved the tragic and bittersweet endings and the real [spoiler]evil[/spoiler] personalities of the 3 characters you get to engage with. After collecting all the routes, you get to play the true route and learn about what those 3 really think and get revenge :3 ❤ I'd recommend this game cuz I'm all about that revenge life and secretly sh-tty people You should definitely get the Cafe 0 game that comes after this one, it's definitely an upgrade from this game