Discouraged Workers

Languages: English, Korean, Spanish - Spain, Russian, Simplified Chinese

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Hours played at review time, across 49 reviews with recorded playtime.

positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up

I'm re-visiting my review and reposting it since the game has now been fully updated. The dev team is done with this game and it will not receive any more work. My initial review was done in August of 2017. The game was recently finished in March 2018, and it is now a much more finished and polished product. There are still things about the game that I dislike, but some of the additions really did make this game more enjoyable. I am changing my previous negative review to that of a positive one due to the new changes. There is a demo of the game for free available if you're not sure about spending money on this product. There is also a G-rated version of this game [i]Discouraged Workers: TEEN[/i]. [h1] Pros[/h1] [list] [*] Nice artwork, which is probably my favorite part of the game. With the new update, there's more art available. They've added artwork into certain story telling scenes where there wasn't anything before (except for text). Some of the still images for the gallery are more sophisticated (being a full body shot with more detail, instead of just a bust). Some of the stills are now animated (such as walking on the bridge and the sex scenes). The characters all got a major overhaul and they look way better. I will post some screenshots below of the same gallery image in the old version of the game versus the current version. It will give a great example of just how much work has gone into the artwork: Old gallery image: [url=]https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1116641369[/url] New image: [url=]https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1359662767[/url] [*] Nice music. There's a few different tracks that play throughout and they all vary enough so that you're not constantly listening to the same looping sound. [*] Each bit of the story is sort of broken up into 'chapters'. You will finish a segment, and then you will be shown a sort of results screen where you'll see what new stuff you've unlocked in terms of gallery items, character bios, music, etc. This breaks the story up into managable parts, and you will also be given the opportunity to save. I can see why some might find this to be annoying, but I think it makes it feel very organized and I personally really like it. [*] Nice big text that is easy to read. [*] It has a built in achievement tracker, which I appreciate. It basically shows you your total progress on the way to unlocking an achievement as you make progress. [*] Lots of options in the menu. A few different languages available, an epilepsy friendly mode.. and even a blind friendly mode. This allows those who are visually impaired to enjoy this game by having it read aloud to them. You can customize sound, text speed, text skip options, display (full screen/window), and there's even an option to resync your achievements with Steam's servers if they're bugged (which they've been known to do). [*]There is only one good ending and several bad endings, so you'll have to play a few times to discover them all. However, the game is good about giving you a heads-up when you get to an important turning point where you can make a game altering decision. [*] The dev has been pretty helpful in answering questions relating to bugs and usually offers a fix. I'm always happy to see a developer who is hard working and dedicated to their product... as well as dedicated to helping the fans. I had asked a question in the discussion page and he answered me personally with a fix that worked. [/list] [h1]Cons[/h1] [list] [*] I'm still not a fan of the pacing of this story, and I still find it a bit of a hard read. They try to cram so many different characters, a lot of back story, and a lot of drama into a very short and underwhelming story. There's really just a series of mini plots dumped into a larger story to give the impression of something bigger. But because there's so much going on, they can't put focus on one single area and so it is all very disjointed. There are a lot of great focuses in this story too: such as struggling with unemployment and poverty, but the implementation is poor. What I will say with the fully updated version though is that it seems like the relationship between Ga-yeon and Yunwoo is much more solid. This does add a layer of enjoyment in, as this is the main focus of the game. [*] The characters don't feel very meaningful, with the exception of Yunwoo. There are about 4 other NPCs thrown into this story, but they're introduced and then quickly thrown to the side. They lack any sort of emotional depth. These side characters only serve as mini plot devices. Even Ga-yeon's sister is largely absent from the story after a certain time. Most characters introduced do very little for the story over all. [*] I didn't find the sex scene or masturbating arousing. Using words like "love juice" and "boobs" or describing a blow job as "putting your tongue in his urethra" really isn't very sexy. Is this an anatomy lesson or a sex scene? I had played the PG version of this game ([i]Discouraged Workers: TEEN[/i]) previously and I feel this game doesn't benefit from this additional scene at all. The scene has been updated from the previous version, however. The masturbation and both sex scenes are now fully animated. It actually LOOKS rather nice, and all previous censorship (like blurring) that was present previously has all been removed. Anime tiddies for all! [*] You can't use the skip function until you've read that certain piece of dialogue. There isn't a "skip all" function for text you have not yet read. This was never fixed or addressed with the fully updated version and still remains an issue for me. Almost all VN's have a 'skip all' function whether you've read the dialogue or not. So if you're not enjoying this game, it makes it even more tedious. [*] There's very VERY little choice in this game. It would have been a much better story telling experience if I feel I had any control over Ga-yeon... but I didn't feel that way at all. The decisions are also sort of vague. You're sometimes not sure if what you are doing is the right or wrong choice. [*] For such a short VN, this game is pretty pricey. This won't take you any longer than 3 hours to finish, even with making different choices for the endings. There is also some additional content such as puzzles and a little mini-game in the main menu to do (for achievements), but even a few extra things thrown in... I don't think that 16.99 is a justifiable price for the main game. I'd give this a 6/10. The artwork, presentation, music and additional content are all great. The poorly implemented story, character development and writing could do with some work, but I'm glad that I gave it another re-read after the final patches and content were added.