Dead Wishes

Coming back to this game two years later I wish there was a neutral option because I can appreciate it has a certain demographic it appeals to, but I doubt I would ever recommend it if asked. I was given this game as a gift from a friend and played it for nearly 16 hour straight, devouring the story and everything it had to offer and I can admit that I partially enjoyed it but my feelings on the game were soured when I learnt that the artwork had been traced. My friend and I were both extremely disappointed and I didn’t think about this game for a very long time. I’ve since learnt that this issue has been rectified and so I’ve decided to come back and review it based on it’s own merits. I came to this visual novel looking for a horror dating sim and while I can say it’s content is certainly horrific, devevling into the torture-porn subgenre, it’s not necessarily scary. There’s a lot of gore but the shock factor wears off quite quickly and it starts to feel squicky for the sake of it. This is not a game for everyone but if you’re a fan of this genre, I suspect you’ll already know. The game advertises itself as using They/Them pronouns and a gender neutral MC but to my memory there is at least one route that uses female-specific terms to address you with. This won’t bother everyone, but I felt it was worth mentioning. Discussing the story itself is a little difficult as I will have to discuss a spoiler regarding its conclusion. I won’t get into detail about the routes themselves as obviously they’re subject to my own personal preferences but I will say that I felt that certain routes had been given more care and attention by the writers than others. I think that’s perfectly understandable given that it’s an indie project with 12 love interests but it was noticeable. The overarching story is quite interesting and I wish they had done more with it, that said [spoiler]the final route wasn’t very enjoyable but it set up a lot of details I wanted to see more of. As it is, I find the revelation that everyone was dead all along just as fulfilling as “it was all a dream”.[/spoiler] I know it’s a lot to ask, but at that point I wanted to see more from it not less. The MC often feels powerless to a frustrating extent, but this could be a general gripe with the horror genre itself. I mean, how often do you find yourself screaming at a horror movie protagonist for doing something stupid? Sometimes these characters wouldn’t be in their situations without making stupid decisions or by being a little bit more assertive. Perhaps it’s a redundant point to make but some of the situations the MC got into because of this felt downright miserable. Despite the fact that I’m not recommending this game, I did enjoy some of the routes and I liked the soundtrack too. I found the routes and characters to be a bit like marmite, I either loved them or hated them. I found some characters to be absolutely grating but I know that’s down to my own personal tastes and some people will love them. I won’t get it myself, but you do you. Ultimately it’s not for me and I cannot recommend it to anyone who isn’t a fan of this particular niche but it’s clear a lot of work went into this game and I respect the dev team’s transparency in rectifying the plagiarism issue.

good visual novel love how unique this game is for its routes and how your choices actually affect the story. my favourite character would have to be Ophelia but they are all unique and well written characters such as Sergio and Festus

eeeeeeh I've been waffling on this review for a bit, but I think I'm settling on DNR because even though I mostly enjoyed it, I don't want anyone just stumbling into this game. Some of the Steam descriptions feel inaccurate and this is the sort of game that people should avoid unless they know it's their cup of tea. TL;DR - 'Dead Wishes' is more akin to games like 'Boyfriend to Death' than 'Doki Doki Literature Club' Dead Wishes poses an interesting dilemma in that the game is better spoiler-free (that first romance hits you like a bag of bricks), BUT there are some pretty significant and needed content warnings. The description in Steam says that it just 'references' some stuff, but if you are going to play this game (especially if you want to get the true ending because you need to complete all the romances), know that it deals VERY explicitly with [spoiler] Sexual Assault and Coercion [/spoiler], [spoiler] Murder [/spoiler], [spoiler] Violence and Gore [/spoiler], [spoiler] Cannibalism [/spoiler], and basically [spoiler] every type of domestic abuse there is [/spoiler]. So like, yeah. Obviously not for everyone. All that being said--of these types of game, Dead Wishes is far and away the best of them. The issue with pretty much every other game in this genre is that without a good protagonist or thematic core, it turns into unplayable snuff porn (looking at you, BtD). Dead Wishes, though, *does* have a really cool (even beautiful!) storyline running through it, and is definitely about more than all the content warnings. The developers clearly put a lot of heart and thought into each of the characters and storylines, and there are even several routes that skid far away from the violence, creating nice moments of breathing room in an otherwise pretty dark game. Those moments feel deeply intentional, and it's clear that the developers actually give a ♥♥♥♥ about the players. And even though I've compared it to BtD, I'd say it's less [strike] ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid [/strike] intense than those games, in part because of Dead Wishes' superior thematic heart, but also because it's not gore for gore's sake. Something deeper is at play. It's probably the one and only game in this genre I would ever recommend, but I just don't see a scenario where I ~would~ recommend it. Because even if it's the best of its ilk, it is still of its ilk. Or whatever. ... Anyway, [spoiler] Anise [/spoiler] is my dream girl ~~

Dead Wishes is a Dark Romance Visual Novel that contains a total of 12 character routes. 6 male, and 6 female. One of the female routes will be unlocked after getting the good ending of the other 11 characters. There is a free guide that can be downloaded from a link in the store page. The routes themselves can be a bit tight when it comes to getting into the character routes themselves but isn't too bad if you understand what each character is looking for. While I did mention that this is a Dark Romance Visual Novel just about all the routes contain triggering topics for people which I will mention below. These are not meant to be taken lightly as players are likely to encounter all of these if going for the complete story. Triggering Topics include: [spoiler] Murder, Manipulation, Mutilation, Negging, Forced Captivity, Amputation, Cannibalism, Violence - Physical and Threats of Sexual, Minor Dubious Consent, and Explosive Rage. [/spoiler] The story of Dead Wishes is formatted like a traditional visual novel in which the player plays through a short intro prologue that will help determine the character route they end up in. There are only a few instances where character routes split off from other characters. This intro section is made up of a small personality quiz that is used for a few characters. The prologue is also made up of the MC deciding how to tackle the issue of their rent being overdue and now having enough money when the landlord comes to collect. As I mentioned above there is a free guide for players to download that is linked in the description of the store page. Once the player has entered a character route there are about 30 choices before the route concludes. Upon reading dialogue players are able to skip dialogue. I found this especially helpful when I was playing the same characters route in one sitting as the majority of the dialogue doesn't change upon choosing different choices, just the ending. An average character route would take me about an hour to complete. I do tend to read fairly quickly so I can see routes taking the average reader up to two hours to complete as well. The interest of each route does tend to make appearances in other routes bringing cohesion to the world the MC is occupying. Depending on the route the personality of the MC can also change slightly with some routes having a more combative or reserved personality. The gender of the MC is also left ambiguous for the player. There is the exception in Vincent's route where he refers to the MC as his "wife" as he desires a traditional relationship in the sense of roles. When it came to the characters of Dead Wishes I found myself drawn more to others as is common in a visual novel. Through morbid fascination I enjoyed Mateo's route despite it holding a great deal of potentially triggering topics and never really ended in a "good" end for the MC. I also enjoyed Sergio and Festus' routes as well. Of the women I enjoyed Allegra's route the most due to some of the parallel's I was able to make from the challenges she faced in her character arc if the player becomes closer to her. I overall enjoyed the world building of and through each character and how it contributed to a greater picture for the game and as a result also forced me to think a bit when it came to the choices made in the final character route. The art of Dead Wishes contains numerous quality backgrounds but also a variation of character sprite variations to add to the presence of the story. Each character gets a total of 3 CG's. One for the good and bad endings as well as one that is granted part way through the route naturally. The various background locations and character sprites help to draw the player into the environment and feel as if they are present in the moment. The times where the screen is black generally follows graphic story content that holds more power when left to the players imagination. Despite the often dark nature of the routes I often found scenes where I could smile at the gentle nature of the characters and interactions....at least until it no longer was as was often the case. When it came to the Music and Voice-acting of Dead Wishes I felt that both were sufficient in their jobs. The music helped to elevate scenes or draw attention to more serious scenes when it would die out before starting back up again. I never felt like the music stopped abruptly as it would often naturally die out as the scene became more serious. The voice-acting for characters was also pretty good for the most part, but there were moments where it became a little distracting. This was generally the case when a character would over exaggerate their inhale as it would become the loudest part of the game for that moment. This became a bit jarring when it came to reading due to how loud it was that I often finished reading before the effect finished or just waited for the sound queue to finish before continuing to read. Dead Wishes is a title that while I greatly enjoyed would not be a game I could recommend to everyone due to the many darker topics the game tackles. If the topics I mentioned earlier are not a deterrent for a player than I do think this is a title worth playing for the world it weaves and the many character routes to choose from ranging from a mafia boss to a seamstress. The game is no stranger to throwing the MC into toxic environments/relationships but does also contain quite a few tamer routes to help balance out the darker ones. Fans of Dark Romance stories are likely to enjoy what this title has to offer and are who I would recommend the title to first and then avid fans of visual novels second.

Absolutely riveting. This game renders your morals useless and your sanity as a liability.

Ufufu. Ma~kun, you're ticklish, huh...? Kiss, kiss 🎵

[STEAMDECK REVIEW] I LOVED it! First off, I played this on Steamdeck and it worked great for me, with no noticeable issues that I can think of. It's def a VN that leans more towards horror and thriller vs dating sim or romance if you happened to think that would the be case. It's also not just like romancing a mild yandere and ending up with at least 1 happy ending. It's quite the opposite, really. All of the ROs are very intense and there is def Non-Con for anyone that isn't aware. It's basically a survival game. And winning it is: "you SURVIVED" and get to "live" another day, while pretending the other 100 times you accidentally died didn't happen WHAT? WHO SAID THAT? (or on purpose if you're too curious what will happen lol)! Anyways loved the plot. Sometimes it was very gruesome and dark, so it can be really hard to read through it btw! Just keep that in mind if darker games aren't for you. There's many ROs to choose from, I didn't play them all, so don't count my play time as correct for you if you happen to want to 100 this game. This game is prob a good 30+hrs for all endings (since I'm currently only at 17hrs). I only played the male ROs tbf since that's what I was interested in doing, and at least all of their "good" endings and some of them I did more and got their bad endings. So that was it, I really enjoyed playing this game. The choices do matter and it keeps you on your feet! AND YES, def would recommend! XD

I've had this game for a while now. All I want to say is Clement best boy. That's it, that's my review. Also I hope there will be achievements/cards/items soon <3

Great VN, incredible soundtrack, highly recommended to anybody looking for a darker or horror-themed visual novel!