Just an 'okay' visual novel that admittedly looks a bit different, but I was a little confused by how you formatted the game, mainly because I don't think I ever seen anyone use free character movement in this engine, so I am trying to control it like an Adventure Studio, but it's not responding the same way which feels weird. It's more like a regular visual novel, you just get to control the character between the points of interest that is, like having additional animation, no real puzzles, just narrative choices.
One route takes about 30 minute with 4 different endings, although triggering the correct path is a little funky, some of the dialogue responses feel too similar, or may not produce the result you expect, even if you use the walkthrough it seems it's either wrong or outdated, as well having a few confusing interactions at the last part. If nothing else the story was a bit unusual, you travel with a friend to meet her fiance, but something about him feels off to you, so you will attempt to talk her out of it, or embrace whatever happens. Some weird things happen if you choose the correct path, but I should not say more than that. Overall the dialogue felt fine, I didn't mind the characters, I guess it's just the game is a little short, so things kinda happen too quickly for my taste.
The art style felt a bit uncanny as well, although looking into your website, I guess it's just how you draw, I mean it does not look bad, just different, I kinda dig it, although some of the walking animations just don't look great compared to the fixed scenes, not sure if it's worth doing them, you might be better of just making a vanilla visual novel, would make the quality more consistent.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
(+) I like that you trying to add some movement into a visual novel, not many games do it, and the scenes like the train actually look pretty decent, especially if the entire game was like that, but the consistency overall wasn't great. You have an interesting art style as well, at first I thought maybe they were like compiled photos, but I guess you just draw them like that.
(+) I thought the idea for the story was at least different, and the dialogue was fine, just a short game otherwise, so I didn't get as much out of it. I like that little contemplation after the boat from the player's perspective, I honestly didn't know where it was going.
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
- try to have at least one art panel for every ending, like what is happening to the character after you took that route, that in my book is just baseline reward for getting an ending in any visual novel, bare minimum
- I feel like the narrative choices don't do what you expect them to do, because I am like, if I say nice things to him, clearly that is one ending, but no, you say like vague things that sometimes feel trivial and you get unexpected ending. It should be more intuitive and maybe not as specific, and your walkthrough seems outdated or wrong
- you did some double dipping into spot interactions, and that may not be intuitive to the player, I guess if you do that, maybe there should be some color-coded feedback that you making progress or something new happens, or don't do it in a first place
- the big reveal with his goal probably would work if the game was a little longer, but it's kinda like a big narrative gotcha, and the game shortly ends, I don't know, I feel like you could have done something better with the plot
[b] Overall Thoughts: 6/10 [/b]
I found the game a bit interesting even though it wasn't great, unusual concept for the narrative, your art style is weird in a very uncanny but curious way, and overall I didn't mind the story. Just those little things, I felt the choices could be handled better, the game felt too short, no ending art panels, and maybe a little janky with character interactions. Something for you to work on perhaps, I probably will try your other games, if I don't forget.
[code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
