[h1]Short Review[/h1]
CLANNAD Side Stories is less a game and more an audio novel that was ported to Steam with minimal effort to make it function like one. Some of the stories here are worth experiencing if you're a CLANNAD fan, but the way this thing is put together is genuinely baffling. No dialogue differentiation, no control over pacing, barely any visuals, inconsistent audio, and no save feature. I ended up watching the rest on YouTube after putting up with it for a while, and I felt like I wasted my money. Just watch it on YouTube. DO NOT purchase it here unless if you want to support the devs for a mediocre experience.
[h1]Full Review[/h1]
CLANNAD Side Stories is a collection of linear side stories originally released on PSP that cover things not explored in the main visual novel or the anime, like how the Furukawas met, more background on why characters gravitate toward Tomoya, and other bits of supplemental lore. Some of that content is genuinely interesting if you care about the world. The problem is that the way this thing is presented on Steam is one of the more baffling experiences I've had with a visual novel, and I've played free VNs that handle the basics better than this does.
[b]The presentation and controls.[/b] To call this a visual novel is generous. For the majority of the time you're playing, there are no character portraits on screen at all. Even when multiple characters are speaking, you're relying entirely on voice acting to figure out who's talking. Some nice art does appear for each chapter, but it doesn't stay up consistently and often only covers a fraction of the chapter's runtime. I'm genuinely not sure why even basic character head pop-ups weren't implemented just to show who's currently speaking. Beyond the visuals, there is no way to advance the dialogue yourself. Even with text set to instant, nothing moves until the voice acting finishes, and it'll move on whether you're done reading or not. You are entirely at the mercy of whatever pace the game has decided on, which is not something a visual novel should ever do to you. The original CLANNAD let you control this. Free VNs let you control this. This is stupid.
[b]The dialogue formatting.[/b] There is absolutely nothing to distinguish narration, inner thoughts, and spoken dialogue from each other. No varied fonts, no bold or italics, not even quotation marks. Everything is presented identically, and you're again just trusting the voice acting to tell you what kind of text you're reading and who it's coming from. This is Visual Novel 101 stuff that somehow didn't make it into the final product.
[b]The audio.[/b] Inconsistent throughout, and Tomoya's voice in particular sounds off, especially if you watched the anime and have a specific voice locked in your head for him. It's not terrible across the board, but the inconsistency makes it hard to settle into the experience.
[b]The save feature.[/b] There isn't one. The stories are short, around 20 to 30 minutes each, and there are chapter selects to let you jump back to specific points, so it's not the end of the world. But the fact that you just can't save and load from anywhere is silly, and I can't think of a good reason for it other than the developers being too lazy to turn this into an actual game.
[b]The content itself.[/b] To be fair, some of the stories are decent and add genuine context to the main game's characters. The ones that flesh out why people care about Tomoya or explore the Furukawa backstory are worth seeing if you're a fan. But there are also a fair number of nothing-burger stories that don't add much. I recommend just watching everything on YouTube, which I'd consider the superior way to experience this content if you're curious.
[b]Overall.[/b] CLANNAD Side Stories has some worthwhile content buried inside it, but the way it functions as a piece of software is almost impressively bad for something charging $19.99 ($7 on sale). The original game got all of this right. Free visual novels get all of this right. This doesn't, and I can't recommend buying it. Watch it on YouTube, save your money, and spend it on the actual CLANNAD instead. DO NOT purchase it here unless if you want to support the devs!
[code]If you liked this review, then feel free to check out my [url=https://www.youtube.com/@VinroyIsViral]YouTube Channel[/url] for more reviews. I also have a curator group called [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43774503-The-Completionist-Crusaders/]"The Completionist Crusaders"[/url] that focuses more toward completionists. Thank you, and happy gaming![/code]
