DUSK INDEX: GION（ダスクインデックスギオン）

まず始めに、このゲームは読むゲームという事です。 ボタンを押して、ただひたすらテキストを読むだけ。聞き込みしたり、推理したりなんて物は一切ありません。それでも内容がよければ不満はなかったのですが... ネタバレになるので詳しく書きませんが、はっきり言ってSFです。 公式サイトに書かれているジャンルには、「サスペンス系ビジュアルノベル」とありますが、どうしてそのジャンルだと思ったのか理解ができません。 とりあえず人が死ねばサスペンスと勘違いしているのか、と疑うレベルです。 ノベル部分しかあてはまりません(笑) 人間と機械の共存みたいな題材ですが、正直気分が悪くなる内容でした。考えさせられる部分もありましたが。 全体的にきちんと伏線回収もされていたのは良いですが、最後まで行方がわからないままのキャラもいて、中途半端な部分も気になります。 最後に、読ませる事を目的に作ったのなら、もう少し文章をきちんとして欲しかったです。 一般的にあまり聞かない言い回しをしたり(現代のキャラが)、接続詞が変だったり。 色々書きましたが、値段は安めなので、気にならない人もいると思います。 参考にしてもらえればと思います。

This game was pretty good! It's a sci-fi thriller visual novel with gorgeous artwork. Don't go expecting much in terms of gameplay/choices, this is an entirely linear VN focused on it's story. The plot of the game had a pretty interesting setup with identical murders being committed in Kyoto across a 100 years. It had me hooked after the first chapter and overall I found it pretty good. It did a good job of exploring all the good and the bad (a lot of bad) that could come with AI VR/AR tech and the consequences of it in society. I particular loved its criticisms of gen AI art and the entire arc with [spoiler]Rabbit[/spoiler] was one of the highlights of the game. The main cast of characters were really well done, they were very endearing and had phenomenal voice acting. I really loved the AI companions each character had and they were really, really cute. That said, the story wasn't without faults, I didn't really like the antagonists in the story and I thought they were pretty boring. There is also a lot of suspension of disbelief needed towards the end of the story as it starts to get a little bit too convoluted. While I liked how the story wrapped up for the main cast I wasn't really sold on [spoiler]the villains' motivations and why they went about committing these killings across time[/spoiler]. Although it isn't too big of a deal, the side characters all lack voice acting and it's a bit jarring when you have these characters appear on screen conversing with the fully voice acted protagonists and their dialogue is entirely mute. Another minor nitpick is that there is a little too much exposition about the world and I found the way the characters always voice out their thoughts to be a bit exhausting. I think they could have cut down on their thoughts a little bit and instead just gone with silent narration. I also had some notes about the localization in English. It was surprisingly good overall although there were spots where the dialogue had some weird construction. There were also a couple typos and for whatever reason special characters weren't being rendered. For example, "Schrödinger" didn't render the ö and "cliché" wouldn't render the é. There were also times where the japanese voice acting would actually have a lot that is said but the english dialogue in the text box would be very short/curt. I don't think this was entirely a bad thing as sometimes I think the shorter text made more sense in context and from what little I can understand of japanese most of the game was translated well. Nitpicks aside the localization didn't really negatively impact my opinion of the game. Aside from the story, the visuals in this game are absolutely gorgeous. Every character is illustrated to perfection and the background art is stunning. I'd love to see more from these developers as this game is genuine visual treat. I'd also love to see their next game have a slightly better soundtrack as I think a lot of the music in this game is a little boring. This game was also a lot longer than I thought it was going to be, I spent a good 11h on this game and I'm a very fast reader, I think for most people this would be around 13-15h long. It's a little sad that this game doesn't have more reviews or people playing it. Its a really well done ambitious sci fi VN. If you're into games like Ever 17, Steins;Gate or The Sekimeiya you'd probably like this game. I highly recommend this game to fans of sci fi stories and I hope you give this game a shot!

(I rarely write reviews but since this game seems to have flown under the radar, I wanted to contribute to its visibility a bit. Hope more players discover and get to experience this.) Went into this blind based on a recommendation and because I'm interested in VNs taking place in the Meiji era. It's a pretty good visual novel, but lacking in terms of gameplay and non-linearity. No choices and only one ending as far as I could tell from my playthrough. (Spoiler-free summary since the steam description is a little lacking): The story centers on a series of murders in 1906 and 2006, with each case bearing striking resemblance in both the crime scene and the murder circumstances across the two eras. The narrative tackles subjects like Gen AI, replacing human labor with AI, and cyberbullying, topics which are probably more relevant today than they've ever been. The reveal behind the mystery is a little nonsensical, but it's quite fun so long as you don't think about the logic too hard. The main characters are definitely the highlight of the game. I enjoyed watching them confront their trauma and move on with their lives, on top of uncovering the mystery. I also appreciated that the writing didn't get too melodramatic during emotional scenes, and heavy topics were handled pretty tastefully in my opinion. Side notes: The main characters are fully voiced but side characters are completely silent, which is a little disappointing and makes for a jarring listening experience at first (I got used to it though). Also, there was a scene where the background didn't match where the characters were actually supposed to be, but it's one scene and the location is never revisited. I presume the team didn't consider it worthwhile to make a few background art assets for a single scene, probably because of lack of time or budget rather than any intentional cut corners. Still, I kind of wish there were more CGs, backgrounds, and possibly lip sync/blinking animations, as the art for this game is quite beautiful. As an aside, I encountered a minor bug where character like 'ō' and 'é' wouldn't display at all. For example, 'séance' is displayed as 'sance'. Hope it gets addressed in a later patch. The epilogue implies there might be a sequel in development, so I'm looking forward to what the writers have in store next for our leads!

First, I have to mention that this game has virtually no interactivity. You just press a button to continue the story, there are no choices and the game is linear. There is one section with a choice but it is optional and only gives you a little bit of background on some things. If this isn't something you might enjoy than this game is definitely not for you. Overall it's a nice game. It took me around 11 hours to finish it, so not too short or long. The highlight is definitely the art by Kuregure (呉々 or krgrmo). The character design was great, even for relatively minor characters. The VA and music are also good, though I wish we had more tracks and more voiced characters. The plot is nice, it takes some time to start rolling and does get a bit messy here and there especially near the end but it was enjoyable and had some really great specific sections, which honestly would be great on their own without the context of the game. This is one of those "I can't wait to see their next game" experiences. It was a bit unpolished but not for lack of passion or skill.

+ Quatre protagonistes fort sympathiques et bien travaillés. + Ambiance et [i]lore[/i] de qualité. + Joli [i]Character Design[/i]. Quelques CGs marquants. + La partie Meiji donne envie de plonger dans des livres d'Histoire sur cette période. + Certains thèmes abordés dans le jeu incitent à la réflexion ou sont même en parfait adéquation avec notre actualité. +- Aucune interactivité, aucun choix (alors que potentiellement, cela aurait pu donner une force supplémentaire à ce titre). - Les cinq derniers chapitres, sans être mauvais, ne sont pas au niveau du reste. On dirait un SciAdv en petite ou moyenne forme. - Manque de moyens ? : pas assez de pistes musicales, de CGs ou de doublage (pour les personnages moins importants). - Manque de relecture pour le texte anglais. Note : 7,5/10

A sci-fi novel packaged as a software. The visuals are static 2D illustrations. Both characters and backgrounds are detailed, with a more realistic version of manga style. Background music is good and changes with the mood of the scenes. Unusually it is almost fully voiced (in Japanese): all main characters are voiced, while episodic characters are not. Since the main characters also narrate the scenes (and parts of UI), this adds to several hours of quality voice acting. There is no gameplay. The reader's interaction is limited to clicking away text and saving before exiting. At one point it is possible to choose order of some lectures, but they make sense only if read in order. It takes about 24h to read and listen to the text, but it would be faster with only reading. The story starts as parallel sci-fi and historical crime investigation and is quite interesting. It held well untill the end, although some of the explanations turned more to metaphysics than science. The text is verbose and it can be fairly slow going, especially in the first chapter. Characters were interesting and went through a serious development. English localisation is good, but suffers from occational typos in later stages and sometimes it is not well synced with voice-overs.

Beautiful, atmospheric visual novel. The music is ambient, the characters are interesting, and the story unfolds slowly. Highly recommended!

I really like the art and the atmosphere so far, but there seem to be some spelling errors in the English version. Words like "Schrodinger" being written like "Schrdinger" and the like. A bit unpolished.