Dear Althea

This story is based off of the book [i]Dear Faustina[/i] by Rhoda Broughton, which I’ve never read, so I can’t inform you of any comparisons. Instead, this visual novel follows the life of Althea Vane. After her father dies, her mother announces that she’s, more or less, abandoning the family to pursue ambitions that she was barred from as a married woman. Althea and her siblings must quickly decide on their futures, as their family home is to be sold and they’re expected to be independent from their mother henceforth. [u]Information[/u] • Options icon needs to be precisely clicked on to lower save/load options from the screen in order to proceed reading. • Puzzles can be skipped. • Flowery, old-fashioned English dialogue and descriptions might be difficult for some to understand. It is probably similar to the text in the original story, which was written in 1897. • Hack Mode allows the player to experiment with choices/romances. • Three women and one man can compete for Althea’s heart. • There is full-body nudity and sexual acts in the game, but they’re all optional. [u]Praises[/u] • Lovely art and animations that are dynamic and detailed. • Character gallery. • Link to the original story (free download). • Interactive character introductions that give educational information on English/French products used in the late 1800s. The player needs to click on all the various items on a character’s person to see all available info. • Polyamorous romance is possible. • The importance of consent is emphasized in dialogue and game choices. • Tense, dramatic scenes that capture one’s attention well. • Demonstrates through the black/Indian character, Eliza, that classism and racism deeply intertwine with sexism. A decent call out to white “feminists.” [u]Complaints[/u] • It does have some bugs, but the dev seems to have good communication skills and definitely isn’t ignoring reports. (I don’t know how big their dev team is, so it might be a while before all issues are addressed.) • No Steam interface; no screenshots without ShareX. • Some typos and translation errors occasionally. For some reason, pronouns are often incorrect. • No endings list. The store page states there are several different endings, but the player won’t have any idea what to go for. The game needs more work. It might be better to wait a while for bugs to be fixed, if you’re someone with low patience. The game is not unplayable, but the bugs can be a bit annoying at times. Hack Mode can be helpful if the player gets too frustrated. Overall, I really like the game. A lot of work and heart was put into it. It has good narratives on women during that time period. The characters are interesting. It has a unique design for a visual novel. There’s plenty of good things to say about it. It just needs more polishing. I recommend this game to those who like period dramas and queer romance. [quote] Please follow our curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/4680120/]Otome Lovers[/url], if you'd like to see more reviews like this one! [/quote]

I sadly can not recommend this game for a couple reasons. 1-Holly bugs! Text randomly is skipped or not filled in, often conditionals seem to misfire so that you get multiple choice outcomes or a repeat of a choice. 2-The plot is very pressed-I tried so hard to steer our protagonist away from the main course only to be thrust back to it over and over again. Other than that, it is a descent game with a good amount of psychological depth wherein, at least in my opinion, a young noble woman is recruited and psychologically manipulated into various scandalous activities. No, for the most part not scandalous in the way you are thinking, but rather in doing covert missions to cause a sort of class warfare to save the poorer elements. It is interesting that the normal defenders of the poor and helpless in this game seemed like the most morally bankrupt characters in the game, so a good twist on the common tropes. I think if they can clean up the bugs and make the path less linear this could be a great game. But it needs cleanup before that can happen.

[h1]Una Interesante Propuesta...[/h1] Que queda un poco opacada por tanto problema técnico... aunque como las joyas; con una pulida puede brillar. [Breves agradecimientos a Tijerín Art Studio, que considero mis reseñas dignas y me suministro una copia de su Novela Visual; ¡buena suerte con tu proyecto!; ojo que tienes algo bueno, pero un poquito mal ejecutado.] >A Grandes Rasgos: Pues... este título es una Novela Visual, inspirada en una novela de Rhoda Broughton que por cierto desconocía (y agradezco al developer compartir cultura) en la cual encarnamos a Althea, una chica británica que de un momento a otro ve su vida cambiada por el mismo hado que implica vivir, en nosotros queda tomar decisiones por ella; desde pelear con tu familia a ayudar a una lucha social implicando con ello amoríos, pues el tema que maneja es romance-drama. [u]Al punto:[/u] es una novelita visual que se diferencia del promedio al tenerte interesado e involucrado, ya que realmente tus elecciones cuentan, y hay muchísimas a lo largo de ella, lo homologo al sistema de diálogos de mass effect (que es lo único que he visto así de libre) ya que si hay respuestas originales que puedes dar, y no se cierra a lo "bueno" y "malo" maneja los claroscuros de forma sublime, aderezando la trama con puzzles que están bien implementados... pero malamente ejecutados: que lo que tiene por el momento de feito esta novelita es que posee muchos bugs, no tan graves, pero que si influyen en el ritmo de como la experimentas. [u]Para las personitas que vienen por los desnudos y el contenido sexual:[/u] si posee contenido sexual, consistente en relaciones sexuales, pero estas están encuadradas a la trama de una forma inteligente; en otras palabras, no es porno vulgar, es como ver un cortometraje de los 80's 90's erótico, donde la trama se aderezaba con estos actos... así que; si buscas vulgar porno, no es el caso... por otro lado esta novelita va más enfocada a la identidad Queer... que en pocas palabras es la libertad de identidad sexual... por lo que los personajes (tanto masculinos como femeninos en su mayoría) son andróginos y va un poquito más enfocado al origen de esta identidad, que es lesbianismo... aun así en lo que brilla la novelita es la inclusión y libertad que da a la hora de generar romances, además que están muy bien elaborados, en el sentido de que son realistas, con los vicios que conllevan las personas; hay personajes manipuladores, carismáticos, sumisos etc. >Lo Bueno: +La historia; siendo que está inspirada en una novela es buena; debajo de los amoríos hay una lucha de clases que a veces ni se nota, pero eso es más por el género de esta. +Las ilustraciones, tenía dudas con el tráiler dado que no soy en especial fan del arte en 3D, pero en el juego este tipo de ilustraciones se aderezan con un efecto al "oleo" muy bonito, cada ilustración está bien hecha y bonita. +La libertad de elecciones y como estas influyen, a diferencia de otras novelas visuales en esta si te mantiene interesado en seguirla desarrollando debido a estas. +Los personajes son "naturales" en el sentido de que, si se sienten humanos, como mencionaba existen personajes que son hipócritas, manipuladores, o sumisos como en la vida real. +Los puzzles y las interacciones; es un título cultural por norma; dado que te describe como se vivía en la Britania victoriana, encajes, trajes, corpiños, botas, botones, todo lo describe fehaciente y como era en la época... es de mérito compartir una cultura. +El guion es bueno; realmente se notan los modales y el trasfondo histórico. >Lo Malo (y lo feo): -Todo el trabajo se echa un poquito a perder cuando tienes un jueguito bugeado xD desde botones que no sirven o se bugean a puzles que no se pueden pasar (el segundo de la caja de juguete) es una novelita que está muy bugeada y pierde muchos puntos dado que te corta el ritmo e interés por los fallos... ojo no son graves pues si es un título acabable, pero si llega a frustrar y molestar que te lleguen a pasar. -Le faltan cositas que una novela visual debe tener en regla: como el botón de skip (que en este caso si veo necesario cuando quieres explorar las muchísimas opciones que tienes) y que no puedes "leer rápido" la novela dado que si clickeas mucho se bugea. [h1]Resumiendo:[/h1] Pues... es una buena e interesante propuesta, la cual se nota el desarrollador le puso amor y empeño... que tristemente se ve diezmada por los errores técnicos (dado que a lo que tengo entendido el creador primeramente es artista, no creador de juegos) 6/10 me gustaría darle mejor calificación, pero por el momento está muy bugeada para mi gusto, y puede no ser tolerada por el jugador que la adquiera (quedan prevenidos, sobrepasando estos, es una decente adquisición)... arreglados estos puede llegar a ser un título bueno, ahora bien, si buscas una historia de drama y romance es una solida opción más si estas un poquito metido en esto del LGBTQ, que en si es una novela más dirigida a las relaciones lésbicas, así que es menester decirlo: adquiérela si 1) te gusta leer en primera... que las NV's son para un nicho especifico de persona, si no te agrada el género, ni leer y solo vienes por el contenido sexual... puede no ser una experiencia tan grata, 2) quieres obtener un poquito de cultura extranjera, al menos si no eres europeo, dado que si deja cositas para ser una mejor Lady o Lord. [code]Si encontraste útil o divertida esta reseña, considera unirte a mi mentor de Steam: [url=store.steampowered.com/curator/33788137] [/url] es gratis~♥ y me ayuda mucho a la hora de redactar.[/code]

Honestly the R18 is few and very far between but the the pretty and unique art style was worth the price of $13 CAD. The game is more story than sex and it's a very long story. I already put 2 hours in and I'm not even near the end and I been speed reading. There are some minor bugs and puzzles can be difficult like making tea the old way. luckily you can skip these puzzles but I feel that sometimes hurt's the outcome. for skipping tea it tasted bad. next playthrough I will complete it see the difference. Hope the dev makes more Games. I purchased the game bcause you can pursue straight or lesbian relationships and can be in an ambiguous relationship. I wanted to get with the pretty dude from the banner. turns out that's the sexy lesbian you meet at the start, so of course I got with her for my first playthrough. I recommend this game for it's art, it's length and romance options. Just remember R18 is not the focus, it's story is!

Greetings, Ladies and Gentlemen. I would not recommend this visual novel for now since in terms of English language it is horrendous. A lot of mistakes, overloaded sentences and similar linguistic abnormalities. I bought it due to the art style but the linguistic part is not compensated by it, unfortunately.

British Victorian era VN + quality graphics/music + 10 endings = A reinterpretation of the novel "Dear Faustina," which follows the life of Althea making life changing choices. Interesting puzzles. [h1][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35180752-3-point-play/] Follow our curator for similar games [/url][/h1]

This game was released with quite a few bugs as seen in other reviews but the Dev has been doing a great job of smoothing out the experience. The routes of the story feel immersive and a joy to read and the updated Haker mode allows you to travel through other routes with greater ease. If Victorian Drama is something you enjoy this is well with the few hiccups.

Sadly, i cannot give an opinion about the story if the game because i had to ask for a refund. The bugs were too many. And some of them serious enough to not letting me play. My save file got corrupted, the dialogue background desappeared (thankfully it came back going to the menu and coming back), when I was seeing one character profile the data of another character popped in a random place, some text was skipped randomly... You know, if they were some minor bugs that didn't make it difficult to play, i wouldn't mind but there are some basics in a visual novel that can't happen... And all of this happened in just the first 20 minutes of the game. I won't risk some of these bugs happening more later like the save file corruption...

I really want to recommend this review without any reservation. The graphics are gorgeous, the story is, if viewed from a distance, quite engaging, and the choice of a Victorian setting makes it miles and leagues above the typical settings seen in this genre. However, this game has a ridiculous number of the most basic and fundamental of bugs. Spanish text is often left in, the text for dialogue does not load if you reload a save (workaround is to look at the dialogue history aka "backlog"), dialogue is often repeated or skipped, some puzzles (like [spoiler]the game your sister gives you[/spoiler]) and there are typos in many, if not most, lines. If I could give this a mixed review, I would have. Had the reviews been overwhelmingly positive, I would have not recommended it because I really like everything except for the typos and bugs. This is really a diamond in the rough, but I would happily buy every single game with this art and this setting in the future if the devs could just hire a proofreader and somebody to test all the dialogue beforehand. It is extremely unfortunate that this game only got one first impression, and that first impression was, understandably, mixed. This game will likely be forgotten, and I imagine that the developer will be quite discouraged in the future.

A good visual novel with a few rough edges in it. First off, a positive stuff: [list] [*]Pretty visuals with plenty of unique colourful characters and backgrounds [*]Good soundtrack in the spirit of the time depicted in VN [*]An engaging story about personal conflict and social-economic discrepancy in the end of XIX century [*]Simple puzzles allowing to get rest from continuous reading (and which can be safely skipped!) [*]Stylish pictures and descriptions of various clothes and personal items used in those days (I was amazed to learn that such simple things as buttons on a coat could reveal many about their owner) [*]Lots of choices leading to different outcomes [*]Hack mode to help player view different endings [/list] Secondly, aforementioned rough edges: [list] [*]Lots of typos, however not critical enough to distract from story [*]Minor bugs, like sentences being repeated or UI glitching [*]Lots of choices leading to same outcome since developer guides player towards specific narrative (though I understand that creating truly unique paths is difficult, moreover for a small game studio) [/list] It's clear that developer put a great effort into the game and cares about it. All in all, I liked this VN and recommend it to play.