Criminally Yours

Oooh, I wish Steam had a neutral or nuanced rating. To start with some positives: I think this game is good value for money and generally decent quality. What attracted me to the game was the unique story concept, and even though I'm not really into superheroes, I found most of the plot entertaining. I like the bold sprite art and the comic book style UI. The soundtrack is pleasant and the voice acting seemed fairly good, although I turned it off pretty quickly as I almost always do. When it comes to negatives, however, I have a little more to say. Some of this is purely personal preference, so YMMV on how much it matters, but I think it's worth knowing before buying. (As a side note, there's a free version on Itch you can try before buying if you're on the fence.) The CG art is noticeably different to the sprites and sometimes the anatomy is wonky. There's also a lack of variety in CG composition, probably because the MC has no sprite or set appearance so cannot appear in CGs. I know that aids with self-insertion and gender inclusivity, but for anyone who doesn't self-insert, like me, it's a drawback. Admittedly, if I were a self-inserter, I'd probably struggle here given how defined the MC's character is and how much of their thoughts and feelings are spelled out - not to mention the game asks for your pronouns at the start but doesn't always respect them. I chose she/her and most references to my character were with they/them anyway. The romance I'm a bit mixed on. I liked a few moments and found others corny, but by the end, I just didn't find either relationship very convincing, nor did I feel much of anything for the love interests. I guess I liked Wes more, which is funny considering I bought this for the yandere, but no matter who you pick I think the relationship development just happens too fast. Both of Nik's endings felt too rushed in particular, plus his constant attempts to hit on the MC as Chronos gave me the ick and the strength of his obsession felt unjustified. Of course, indies don't have the luxury of big budgets and plentiful dev time, so I understand pacing romances can be very difficult in a short game. The other thing I didn't particularly like about the romance - although this is very much a personal preference - is that everyone is very attracted to each other right off the bat, and both of the guys [spoiler]admired the MC for years before the events of the game[/spoiler]. I'm just more of a slow burn fan, so if you're like me, that's something to consider before buying. The jealousy in the later part of the game could feel a bit much, too, but that's another personal taste thing. Finally we come to the writing, which was actually my main issue. There are a handful of typos or misspellings - nothing too unusual, though "hudderling" for "hurtling" certainly threw me off - but the [i]punctuation[/i] is frequently terrible. Almost every other line there's a comma splice or sentence fragment, and most of them clearly aren't stylistic. Dashes, colons and semi-colons are misused as well. To show some examples: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3642189551 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3642191140 (The first part is meant to be a speech tag for the cop's prior dialogue, not that VNs need speech tags to begin with, and the second is the MC talking about themselves, so it's particularly strange to splice the two sentences together.) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3642190709 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3642188307 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3642194110 So above we have a valid sentence followed by a sentence fragment followed by a comma splice, plus a grammatical error ("the feeling[b]s[/b] [...] [b]wasn't[/b] going to be gone") and an inconsistent tense ("wasn't going to be gone" should be "aren't going to be gone" or "won't be gone"). There are also a lot of other tense inconsistencies. Here are a couple of examples: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3642210685 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3642182728 These two are both switching from present to past, but in flashbacks there are instances of the reverse. The past perfect is used in odd places sometimes as well. All in all I found it incredibly distracting, but it's nothing an eagle-eyed editor couldn't fix. I think that's about it. I don't know. I don't really regret buying the game given how cheap it is, but I do wish I had known there was a free version I could try. I'm not sure I would have bought the game if I'd been able to try it out first so I recommend doing that if you can.

It was surprisingly quite a good game, I am still halfway through, at first from most of the tiktok videos, looking at both Chronos's and Thesis's photo, Thesis is more my type, put down hair with glasses, and wearing cozy outfits, so my type >///< But Chrono is really growing on me, as he is just a sweet boy who would do anything for Y/N and he even pays her rent for her. Ngl, he got a really nice body, will be extra awesome if his [spoiler] boobies are bigger too [/spoiler], and I am hoping for [spoiler] NSFW content, if you know what I mean, I will totally pay lots for that DLC [/spoiler] Overall is an interesting indie otome game, even tho at certain art, the LI looks strange like the head and body looks disorientated, or Nik just looks a bit weird when his face is getting closer to the camera. But, it is still a good game. And, all of the VAs are doing a pretty great job as well. A pure 10/10, awesome work there. And costing at this price is extremely kind and worth the money, I am glad that I purchased this game, at first I was a bit reluctant but my sixth sense kept on urging me to buy this. [spoiler] I also added a bit of steam tags for you, hopefully steam will learn your game up quickly [/spoiler]

Firstly, let me state the positives in that the voice acting is quite well done and I enjoyed the voice acting. Secondly, the artwork and art style are quite well done and found it beautiful. **CONTAINS SPOILERS** Those two things aside, I wished I liked this game. Despite the fact of having two love choices (The Hero or Villain,) the entire premise of the story very heavily focuses on the villain (Nikolas) and pushes you/almost forces you into choosing the villain. Out of 21 chapters, you don't get to even have the choice of picking the hero (Wesley) until around the 15-16 chapter. By the 12th, I was simply clicking to get through the story without bothering to read because I was so disinterested by that point. Even after getting to the point of being able to choose Wesley as the love interest, the story continues to revolve HEAVILY around Nikolas even after the scene where Nikolas throws himself off a bridge, supposedly dying (which I was so grateful for him to be dead and out of the picture,) only for the story to continue in that your character (MC) and Wesley (Hero,) saved him and are taking care of him while he's in the hospital while MC tries to help save him/help him turn over a new leaf and all of that for Nikolas to still be completely obsessed with MC. I am all for yandere style characters and games. I've played NUMEROUS visual novels with this trope. Unfortunately, they were far better done. This game feels like an illusion of choice and I was severely disappointed with the story overall.

[b][i]Criminally Yours[/i], der fast perfekte [i]I can fix him[/i]–Simulator[/b] Zugegeben, am Anfang hatte ich etwas Schwierigkeiten mich auf die Story einzulassen, da einem die Romanze mit Nik quasi einfach aufgezwungen wird. Erst ab ca. der Hälfte des Spiels wird die Beziehung aufgelöst und es dauert sogar noch länger, um mit Wes endlich anbandeln zu können. Wer also nur Interesse an dem Tsundere-Charakter hat, bekommt hier nicht so viel Content, wie man es eigentlich von den typischen Dating-Visual-Novels gewohnt ist. Würde sagen, die Verteilung ist so 70% Nik und 30% Wes Content. Die Wes-Route ist trotz ihrer Kürze aber keineswegs schlecht und welches Spiel bietet einem schon einen so voll etablierten Ex, den man dann zusammen mit dem neuen Partner verabscheuen kann? xD Mich persönlich hat Wes allerdings leider nicht abgeholt, dafür aber Nik umso mehr. Und das obwohl Yandere-Charaktere normalerweise gar nichts für mich sind. Aber irgendetwas an seinem Charakter und der Beziehung zum MC hat mich so gefesselt, dass ich das Spiel in einer Sitzung komplett durchgespielt habe. Dabei wollte ich doch eigentlich nur mal kurz reinschnuppern... Für den ersten Durchgang habe ich etwa 1,5 Stunden gebraucht. Die restliche Spielzeit habe ich damit verbracht, die anderen Enden und Errungenschaften zu erreichen. [i]Criminally Yours[/i] ist also recht kurz und das Pacing ziemlich schnell, aber somit ist das Spiel auch perfekt für alle VN-Einsteiger, für alle, die nach einer längeren Pause wieder mit etwas Kleinem anfangen möchten, oder für die, denen Slow Burn einfach zu langweilig ist. Besonders gefallen hat mir, dass unser MC [i]Oracle[/i] nicht wie sonst einfach nur eine komplett leere Leinwand ist, sondern schon eine eigene Geschichte und mehr oder weniger feste Charaktereigenschaften hat. Es gibt aber dennoch genug Spielraum, um seinen Charakter und die Welt für sich passender bzw. persönlicher zu machen, ohne dabei vom Kanon abzuweichen. Das Spiel lässt uns neben dem Namen auch unsere Pronomen selber auswählen: she/her, he/him & they/them. Leider ist das meiste im Spiel aber neutral mit they/them formuliert. Natürlich verständlich, da man sich sonst das Voice Acting wahrscheinlich nicht hätte leisten können, aber trotzdem etwas schade. Die paar Stellen mit she/her oder he/him sind allerdings wirklich unterschiedlich zu den Pronomen vertont. Das Voice Acting an sich hat mir aber sehr gut gefallen (das ist natürlich reine Geschmackssache). Auch die Sprites, Hintergründe und das UI sind ein Fest fürs Auge und passen gut in die Comic/Superhelden-Thematik. Die CGs fallen vom Grafikstil her etwas aus dem Rahmen und variieren in der Qualität, aber sind insgesamt völlig in Ordnung. Wirkliche Kritik an dem Spiel habe ich bis auf die kleinen, bereits genannten Dinge nicht. Ich hätte mir vielleicht noch ein richtiges „Happily Alone“-Ende gewünscht, wenn man sich für keinen der beiden entscheidet. Außerdem gibt es Spicy-Szenen, die man machen muss. Sie sind natürlich einvernehmlich und vollkommen SFW, aber eben nicht optional. Einfach nur so als Anmerkung für Leute, für die das ein No-Go ist, wenn man bei sowas keine richtige Wahl hat. Es gibt auch noch ein [url=https://meant-to-bee-studios.itch.io/criminally-yours-mask-on]NSFW-DLC[/url], allerdings nur auf [i]itchio[/i]. Ob der Inhalt gut ist? Keine Ahnung. Vermisst habe ich ihn im Hauptspiel aber nicht. P.S. An Achievementhunter: Hier auf Steam gibt es zwar keinen Guide, aber die Entwickler haben einen [url=https://meant-to-bee-studios.itch.io/criminally-yours/devlog/1016785/criminally-yours-walkthrough-spoilers]Walkthrough[/url] auf itchio veröffentlicht

[h3]6.5/10 for me[/h3] Mixed feelings. I like the first two-thirds of the story, but it didn't get any better after that [b]pro/con: [/b] heavy Y/N vibe MC, two LIs fighting over you [b]pro: [/b] +fully voiced LIs +hot art +I love yandere&tsundere +nipple piercings [b]con:[/b] -too corny&vanilla for me -bad pacing&bad story structure (one LI gets wayyyyy too much screen time [spoiler]I genuinely thought the story was about to end and that's when the other LI showed up ?_? [/spoiler] -kinda weak MC, their power setting is just so random... -you are a [i]registered[/i] hero and your hero work doesn't pay ANY thing??? so you just work for a whole ass hero company, protect the whole city and risk your life every day for nothing????? And you have to work a 9-5 desk job to keep your family and yourself alive???? that's some crazy setting, I would become a villain within a [b]day[/b] in their shoes, [spoiler]nepo baby or not[/spoiler] If you said that was a cover and the heroes get paid mainly by their hero job, I would be more convinced -and as the story progresses, the MC's characterization becomes ambiguous and unclear to me... like they are trying to make them more complex, but too much was left unsaid Overall, the story feels dragged out too long. not too bad, but not very good either. bbbbbut, if you are into vanilla kinda vibe story you would probably like this one

Genuinely the best 5 dollars I have EVER spent. This game is GOD TIER. The music was great, the story was AMAZING, the characters sprites were GODLY. I'm in love with this game yo.

If the devs made Nik's boobs bigger, it would have been a perfect 10/10 game.

I do love this game…but hear me out…The content of this game was great, but they have this option in the game to pick your pronouns, so when the character refers to you, It’s personal and intimate. Except, i think It’s some bug, and It’s always they/them…it throws me off, and will snatch you out of the immersion, especially because they give you the option and it just doesn’t work. There were some audio issues, at one point I had to stop the game and check if they used ai because some parts just sounded weird/off but the voice actors did good. The sprites were perfect, the CG, not perfect at all, it look like they all swallowed iPhones…but hey, 5 bucks. Would LOVE more Wes❤️🖤…and have Nik put us in a cage💙🖤thx, I love the characters…but the pronoun bug or whatever, sucks..

I played on itch and I.... I still can't get myself to not get with Chronos LOL Wes is so hot and I was so sure I would love him but I can't part from Nik. What can I say except I love an obsessed man. If you're looking at it and think you might like it, you're probably spot on! You'll probably like it a lot.

Your honor, I can fix him /srs