Dead End Junction

Probably one of the best VNs here on Steam, at least one of the most unique for sure! I can recommend it for pretty much anyone who is into kinetic or visual novels because it has all in one: story, characters, music and style.

A charming VN with excellent artwork.

It has cute girls and a catgirl. Definite yes.

中文環境下無法開啟遊戲

[h1] Introduction: [/h1] Dead End Junction is a kinetic novel/digital dime novel developed by 773 & localized by Culture Select, set in an alternate universe version of the Old West. [u] [b]Story summary[/b] [/u] Born in the peaceful town of Cow Stone Bell, the now sixteen year old Josette Jowston, is a young cowgirl with a desperate desire for the action and excitement on display in the “dime novels” she spends so much time reading. She was raised by her uncle after her mother passed away and father disappeared. But after reading a letter from the President of Lowland addressed to her missing father, Josette sets off on a journey beyond her peaceful town to see the grand world outside of Cow Stone Bell. Unfortunately, Josette is about to learn that a life of adventure may not be all it’s cracked up to be. [h1] Controls: [/h1] [u] [b]Mouse:[/b] [/u] [table] [tr] [th]Buttons[/th] [th]Actions[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Left Mouse Button[/td] [td]Advance Text[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Right Mouse Button[/td] [td]Open 'Pause' Menu[/td] [/tr] [/table] [u] [b]Keyboard:[/b] [/u] [table] [tr] [th]Keys[/th] [th]Actions[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Enter[/td] [td]Advance Text[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]A[/td] [td]Auto-Mode[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]F | Hold down Enter[/td] [td]Skip Text[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]esc[/td] [td]Open 'Pause' Menu[/td] [/tr] [/table] [h1] Presentation: [/h1] [u] [b]Story[/b] [/u] The story is divided into four episodes which are each fairly well paced and includes some twists and turns. Sometimes it takes just a bit too long to reach the climax though, but the nice flowing dialogue between the characters made up for it. On the other hand, battle/action moments felt a bit lackluster. Mainly because they're not described in all too much detail. The story also ended on a unsatisfying manner before we could learn more about all the other worlds. I also personally wanted to see more interactions between certain characters. [spoiler]Especially Josette and Flannel[/spoiler] [u] [b]Characters[/b] [/u] An interesting cast of compelling characters, each with their own unique personalities, traits and complimenting sprites. [u] [b]Sound[/b] [/u] The soundtrack is great as It fits well with the old west setting, but they may get repetitive as the same songs tend to be used frequently throughout the game and the absence of voice acting makes it more noticeable. Sound effects are nothing amazing though. [u] [b]Art[/b] [/u] The novel is nicely presented to tell out the story, which in a way looks like a dime novel or comic book/manga. The character sprites look excellent, fit the personalities of the characters and bring some variety with them. The CG's and backgrounds are great as well. [u] [b]Problems[/b] [/u] ▣ Sometimes a character sprite or background gets stuck, which is annoying because you get conflicting images with the story. For example: You're outside a Fuuro tent but the background got stuck, still showing the inside rather than the outside of the tent. ▣ No way to determine the speed of the auto-mode (A on keyboard). ▣ When loading a save, you won't return at the exact same spot you saved at, rather you'll start from the beginning of that particular scene. ▣ No backlog. So you can't re-read dialogue you've missed. [h1] Pros: [/h1] [list] [*]Price [*]Beautiful Art [*]Likeable Characters [*]Potentially Good Story [*]Nice Soundtrack [*]Steam Trading Cards [/list] [h1] Cons: [/h1] [list] [*]Cliffhanger Ending [*]Not voiced [*]Some bugs & Small typos [/list] [h1] Conclusion: [/h1] Even if you don't like visual novels in general, you may like this one because of how different the game approaches the story telling by making it look like a comic book. It offers vibrant characters, beautiful art, nice soundtrack and a potentially good story. The most unsatisfying thing is the ending to this particular novel though. It feels unfinished and with no sequel in sight at the moment, so if you don't enjoy cliffhangers then don't get it before a sequel is announced. I would want to give it a mixed rating but that's not possible, so I went for the 'recommended'. It may be unfinished but for what it currently offers, it's worth a shot if you can get it on a good sale. [b] Recommended on sale. [/b]

No gameplay in the game. So, it's a "kinetic novel"? Needs more kinetics. Even those old Marvel shows from the 60s which were just the original comics set in a show format had a sense of action and speed to them. Don't get me wrong, the writing is good, I liked what I was seeing, just the pacing was a tad slow. Also, no save function.

耐着性子把流程走了一遍，整体还是不错的。 画风很独特，老实说我就是冲着这画风买的。。。 BGM非常棒，氛围烘托得很好。 剧情中规中矩，很多挖的坑，立的flag都能猜出结果来。但是最后的半烂尾的开放结局我个人接受不能，然而并没有第五章。。。 英语什么的都不是问题，这种风格的游戏翻译成中文或者玩日文版本的反而违和。 不过这游戏的小bug还真是恼人。 顺便吐槽一下，这游戏真正的主角：[spoiler]女汉子[/spoiler]、[spoiler]女装子[/spoiler]、[spoiler]智商担当[/spoiler] 。

日风美漫的良性结合，几好 3+1.5+2.5=7/10

南北战争后西部少女们的冒险故事

For a few moments when I just started this game it felt like a hidden gem. However, as the story progresses quite a lot of major problems become apparent, and they negate almost all the good that there was in the story originally. Well, for instance, the setting in this VN is pretty unique. It is set in a fantasy world based on Wild West. Josette is a tomboyish "cowgirl" who lives in a small isolated town in a desert. The story is focused on Josette and her friends traveling across the world and confronting the Dark Knight, an evil god who transfers to her world from another and will bring great misfortunes with him. Well, on one hand, this VN has a lot of interesting ideas. The setting and the comic book-like presentation make it stand out among other VNs. It also has a lot of other little things that could make it a great VN: the characters have likable base personalities, the art style is fitting and reasonably good, and some ideas it brings are quite interesting. On the other hand, this VN is simply not done well enough to make it all work. The plot is full of cliches and overall goes nowhere; the pacing is completely off; the setting, in the end, is left largely unexplored; the characters lack any depth, and their development is very unrealistic (basically, fanfic level of unrealistic). The presentation would work much better if the VN had a lot more visual assets, and since it tries to mostly rely on dialogues rather than exposition, most fight scenes consist of a single static CG, a few dialogue lines, and... that's it. And the final problem is that this VN lacks any real conclusion. The ending is pretty much sequel bait, and, since this group never released anything new since 2012, I doubt that the sequel will ever get released. In the end, though I still liked this VN. It works pretty well if you want to relax your brain and consume something dumb and without any real value. I'd recommend trying this VN if you are looking for something like that, but it's the only reason I'd recommend it.