I quite like visual novels. Usually, my games of choice consist of grinding or competition, and they are always a nice change of pace. Indeed, this was the case with this title as well. I will say my only two issues with the game here, as to not detract from the praise. Sometimes, it is hard to tell in terms of walking where one can go and where you cannot due to the way the art is unclear about environment. The other issue is that apparently the company behind this stole it from the original creators and is not giving them their dues, completely antithetical to a lot of the game's messages. At the time, I didn't know this and would have never purchased had I known, but I will still say something about it as to make others aware too. Now, for all that is good of this game. It is beautiful in every sense. Every scene looks like its some sort of a hand painted depiction of a decaying city, cargo bay, or waterfront. Even the characters and their models are so well done that its always interesting to see their faces in the dialogue. They really made an obese, money hungry scoundrel easy to look at. To pair it, the soundtrack does its job perfectly. While I cannot say that it really stole the show, it complimented every scene perfectly. If anything from the audio stole the show, it was the phenomenal voice acting. However, as this is a visual novel, the true praise has to lie with the writing. Despite how dark the narrative was, there was so much levity in the dialogue that going along never seemed too hopeless. Further, the work never strayed away from tackling darker subject matter. Rape, murder, politics, and racism. All of it was not glossed over nor treated as a joke, and no character felt like a caricature of what they may have been made to represent. It all felt incredibly grounded in being a story first with elements of the prior second, just as any great commentary usually is. Gameplay wise, the system involved left you thinking about your choices as well as being beckoned to explore everything, and the randomness I assume will leave run throughs having different playouts. There are many ways to get to the same ends, many things to skip over, and I am sure many things I missed. Exploration was also interesting, and as necessary as it was, never felt like a chore. Its a nice game. There were some bugs, but they were minimal. I recommend it, perhaps not from the company that is currently selling it, though.
