dUpLicity ~Beyond the Lies~

Bad

*This game has a free demo. duplicity is a nice sci-fi story about an old man that likes a girl too much. Suspiciously too much... [h1]Gameplay[/h1] The gameplay, as others have noted, is a mixed bag. This is a visual novel, so this review starting with gameplay means you know something's up. It takes inspiration from dating sim flash games, where you click on buttons and see numbers go up. In those kinds of games, you have a limited number of action points per day, so there's a cycle of "press Work button 3 times then go to sleep"... and that was considered sufficient gameplay. It's kind of neat to see it used in a 2012 game. How ever. The main issues start with: 1) The game has a [b]time limit[/b]. In most dating sim games, you do not have a time limit, so you can take your sweet time to trial and error whomever you choose to "explore". Not here! You have a limited amount of days before the game hands you the bad ending or the no-route good ending. This would be feasible were it not for the... 2) Events! Once in a while, the game dsiturbs your grinding cycle with a story event (AKA actual VN content). The game doesn't tell when those are going to come (school festival, monthly check-up, etc), so you have less days than you think you have. Having an in-game calendar wouldve made this part of the game far less frustrating, as I couldn't be bothered to remember when the events occur LOL It's like to succeed you have to note down and chart out a grind-route yourself. Or... just use the excellent Steam Guide after like 3 playthroughs. 3) The game is 800x600, which can look horrible on most screens nowadays. Since I have a 1366x768 display this was not a problem though. If you succeed in getting through this part of the game, you can enter a route. Hooray, actual VN content! [h1] Graphics, Audio and Atmosphere[/h1] The main girl and the two male leads are really tall instead of those modern anime artstyles where women look and sound like they're 14, so that's a HUGE point for the game. The backgrounds come from a lot of free websites, but they all blend nicely and tell the stories that they need to. Some backgrounds are better than others, but my personal favourites are shots of the sky. Most of the school backgrounds are from the same artist though, so the game -mostly- feels like it takes place in the same school. Some areas don't feel connected to each other and that can ruin immersion for some, but I got used to it. They don't feel too jarring. The character graphics themselves feel just right to me - not a lot of special effects, and it doesn't feel -too- perfect that I feel like I don't deserve to see it. Worth noting there is no color correction or lighting though - characters will still appear fully lit even in a dark scene such as a night playground. I've heard criticism about the artstyle to the point Roseverte no longer wants to draw their own characters, so that's a shame. The sounds and music for the game sound quite Japanese, and they all do a good (but not perfect) feel of capturing the scene. It's dragged down by being compressed to the underworld and back though even by 2013 standards, so your ears might hurt after a while. But the two vocal tracks the game has are pretty dang good! --- Despite the issues above to the point of using a walkthrough, I'm pretty biased for the game. When I played the demo in 2013, it helped me discover that I like otome games... which was weird, since I grew in a male body and liked male-oriented things. It was euphoric, so I ended up not binging on them a lot and treating it like medicine. Fast forward to 8 years later, I discovered myself to be a woman afterall! I love this game for being my first exposure to female-tailored media, so much. Without it I probably would be [i]dead[/i] by now, and I'm saved from that fate thanks to Roseverte and one highschool friend that introduced me to this game. ...where were we? Oh yeah, the review! If you don't have strong nostalgia like I do, the game probably won't hold up, It's average at everything, but at least it's not as clunky as the original Cafe 0. Considering Roseverte is still alive and kicking, I suggest you check out their more modern titles instead. I don't consume too many stories, so I was really entertained by the why the old man is being the way he is. Try the demo and see if the existing narrative and vibe pulls you in. Thank you for reading!

There is so much potential for this game, but it is lacking in many ways, like the conversations between each character gets tiring after you keep reading them over and over again. I would give this game 4/10.

Spielwertung: 5/10 Spielzeit: 90 Min Game (+ Rest Idle für die 4. Karte) Spieldurchläufe: 2 (2/15 Enden) Welches Bundle hat mir dieses Ei ins Nest gelegt??? Ehrlich, bei diesem schwer auszusprechenden Titel muss ich leider passen. Ein Graphik-Novel, der am Anfang suggeriert, dass man "Entscheidungen" treffen kann/muss, der am Ende aber auf sehr, sehr viel Lesen und Klicken hinausläuft. Mein erstes "Ende" erschien nach 30 Minuten. Ich hatte versucht, die beiden "Werte" Gesundheit und Bildung im Gleichgewicht zu halten und relativ wenig auf einen oder beide "Verehrer" geklickt. Anschließend wurde ich als "Genius", aber wohl ohne Liebe, ins Berufsleben entlassen. OK. Eigentlich hatte ich da schon genug von dem Spiel gesehen. Bis auf die willkürlich erscheinenden "Events" waren die 6 Optionen, die mir "Freiheit" vorgaukelten, alle sterbenslangweilig. Nach dem 1. Lesen gab es keine Veränderung mehr. Die "Vorspultaste" wurde mein bester Freund. Im 2. Durchgang, bei dem ich volle Power auf den "Klon" gegangen bin, entwickelte sich eine gänzlich neue "Geschichte". Nach demselben "Vorspiel" kam in mehreren Kapiteln "seine" Geschichte zum Tragen. Mein Beitrag dazu: 1x 50/50 Klick zwischen den Kapiteln, am Ende mehrere 50/50 Klicks. Dieser Durchgang hat 60 Minuten gedauert. Ich habe also SPRICHWÖRTLICH 30 Minuten (!) vielleicht 5 (!) Entscheidungen getroffen und sonst nur gelesen und geklickt (und zwar pronto!). JA, das Spiel hat vermutlich noch mehr, VIEL mehr Inhalt, bei noch 13 ausstehenden Enden und einigen EXTRAS. Aber will man das erleben? Die Charaktere sind blass. NULL Empathie. Es interessiert mich NULL, wen Yuki sich da angelt. Der Schulleiter ist darüber hinaus viel zu alt und distanziert, geradezu unsympathisch, aber sein Klon (!) kein Stück besser. Und unsere Hauptfigur, aus deren Perspektive alles abgeht? Ich meine, die Story hilft ja nicht, aber sie ist selbst so gelangweilt/unsympathisch/blass, es ist ein Trauerspiel. Ich schieb die Schuld auf den Hauptkniff der Storyschreiber: Ein menschlicher Klon (!), der aber jünger (!) ist als sein Schöpfer, gleichzeitig aber auf knackiges Highschool-Alter hochgepimpt (!!). Dazu der Versuch, sowas wie "Mystery" in diese Geschichte zu bringen, aber gleichzeitig auch "Emotion" (Oh nein, "er" "betrügt" "sie" (die ihn gleichzeitig als "Versuchsobjekt" "ausspioniert" und nur zum Schein "seine Freundin spielt". Dazu die "Berichte", die völlig sinnlos jedes Mal zu sein scheinen. Entschuldigung, aber wer schreibt so einen Mist? Was will dieses Spiel sein? EIn Dating-Game? Ein geheimnisvoller Thriller? Ein "Jugendliches-Ausbrechen-Pubertäts-Geschwurbel"? Irgendwas mit Manga und Anime? Ich geb zu, dass ich mit der Manga-Szene nicht vertraut bin und die Fachbegriffe dieses Spiels, die verwendet werden, nicht wirklich verstehe. Was ich sehe, ist dies: Fazit: Das Game ist auf fachlicher Ebene sauber gemacht. Wenn der Umfang, wie ich ihn vermute, ist, dann können "Fans" dieses Spiels hier sicher 6, vielleicht sogar 10+ Stunden mit verbringen. Für Leute, die durchaus einverstanden sind Dating oder Romantikspiele zu spielen, aber irgendeine Form von Logik oder Interesse am Spiel / den Charakteren / der Handlung brauchen, könnte das Spiel ein Reinfall sein. Auf der anderen Seite dürften die meisten, die dieses Spiel "erwerben", ganz genau wissen, was sie sich davon erhoffen. Für mich keine Empfehlung, aber ich bin froh, dass ich es halbwegs ordentlich als "gesehen und gespielt" für immer begraben kann.

Had to play for "secret garbage santa". The game fulfilled its purpose and I need a drink.

Tinha tudo pra ser um jogo legal, com uma história interessante e um desenvolvimento considerável, mas a mecânica é monótona e repetitiva, nada que realmente prenda a atenção do jogador por muito tempo

das Spiel ist MEGER Cool

随手好评

Tags: Adventure - VN - Visual Novel Note: Otome Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library TLDR: Mediocre to average visual novel about being a lab assistant and having to romance boys mostly centered around having to fill activity gauges and managing a rest gauge. Scripting can get broken, triggering things out of order. Certain dialogues are bugged like never having anything to report at your monthly meetings. Hard deadlines to reach with certain stats in certain gauges to unlock story. Requirements to fill gauges high and spamfest of clicking gets tedious. Story sci fi/mystery plot is buried too deep to be readily enjoyed, probably to hide that its only half implemented. Not bad, I managed to see a handful of endings. Some of the scripting is subpar. Some activities are just mathematically worth less than others which makes them redundant. School grades only matter until midterms and after that you can entirely focus on one of the two romancables. There is some layering in terms of reveals and subplots but unless you seriously max out and slant all of the game in one direction you will just wind up with one of the generic endings that center around how well or not well you did with your school/grades. There is one character that stands out as mostly unexplained, and there is a bit of an overlap between an early game dream sequence and how the game presents itself afterwards which blurs the lines. All in all its rough around the edges but its somewhat entertaining. Might grind my way through a couple more endings someday.

Wow, I'm kind of flabbergasted... The good: The theme song is kinda cool. The bad: Everything else. This can be a very short 'game' - I finished it in 30 minutes and got the "Common Route" ending. There is something off about all of this. The art is amateurish, with the worst thing being the eyes that are just...odd. The story is confusing and doesn't seem to remain consistent throughout. The protagonist is weirdly submissive to the point of fetishism. The game play is choosing from 4-5 choices for your daily activity and repeating with no variation. And then a couple events happen - and its entirely unclear whether one's choice of activity has affected anything. It's hard to know what to say. Even as a student project, I'd give this like a "C-". I can imagine that an urban legend could spring up in which this is seen as a "cursed" game. At least it was short...