Entropic Float: This World Will Decay And Disappear

Entropic Float is an experience I'm grateful for the existence of. Where I often feel invisible, this game made me feel a little more seen. I was surprised by how much content there is, especially considering that it's available for free!! I opted to pay a few dollars when I initially got it through Itch, as I didn't know what to expect, but it was worth far more as an experience. EF is a fantasy time-loop mystery story, the larger part of which is non-linear. I tend to think that games with multiple routes/paths have an ideal order in which they should be played, but EF is one case in which I think the different parts could be played in any order; each a wonderful way to experience the story. Various moments are made more intriguing or mysterious, or lead to different readings of situations, depending on what one saw prior. Maybe there is an ideal in some cases, but most orders have differing benefits both ways. It's very consistent, minds what knowledge the player should have obtained from a specific "loop", and doesn't rehash the same information unnecessarily. It was fun theorizing as I went along! Some of the references definitely went over my head, but I did catch a fun GNOSIA reference in there! EF clearly takes inspiration from the aforementioned and from Zero Escape (among others, surely). The game explores many sensitive themes in ways that seem well-informed, and always does so with empathy. There are many content warnings, so if it's relevant for you, I recommend reading those before playing! A full list of them can be accessed from the game's main menu. It's so supremely queer. I've never seen more LGBTQIA+ rep in a single game before, and felt a little spoiled! This queerness isn't at all incidental — it is inextricably woven into the fabric of the story. There's a depth to the representation that I rarely find in other fictional media, which comparatively often leans into stereotypes and misconceptions, or just plasters a label onto a character with little to no thought put into how such experiences of the world would shape and inform other aspects of them as a person. (Notably, this is the first and ONLY time I've seen a non-binary character who is over 50 years old.) Entropic Float's characters are all written with abundant love, and with compassion for them in their struggles — and this extends well beyond LGBTQ+ specific experiences. They're all fairly eccentric characters, but in a way I found much more tasteful than, say, DanganRonpa characters. Even with their quirkiness and more unrealistic aspects, they retain a human element (which I found DR character to generally be devoid of). I can honestly say that I like all of the main cast of characters! I do, however, have some favorites~ I'm glad that at least some of these characters will be returning in subsequent games (and I'm planning on checking out the DLC for EF as well). There are lots of cool character designs and some wacky fashion. The 3D character sprites are far from perfect aesthetically, but they're still expressive and fun, just like the characters themselves. Many different art styles (drawn by different artists) are present in CGs, and this lack of visual consistency took me out of the experience here and there, but I can't really complain, especially at this price (free, if you didn't catch that). While I'm on the topic of complaints to note: • Shinjiro and Jazz's voice actor has no right to sound so goooood. Especially Jazz had me dyingggghhhhjdr • the song that plays on the title screen made it difficult to load my save file, because I wanted to keep listening to it (it's good) As for an actual complaint, though; the sound is really poorly balanced. Some music tracks are much louder / quieter than others, and although the voiced lines aren't many, when they appear, they're often too quiet to be audible, or really loud suddenly! All things considered, I was adjusting my volume controls one way or the other very frequently. As for the system, everything necessary is here. Quick Save/Load, Skip, Log, the ability to easily rewind text going quite a ways back using the mouse wheel. Simple and convenient. Each route/loop has two endings (both are significant and necessary to reach the true ending). Once one is reached as a result of in-game choices, the player can go through again picking other choices, or can even skip right ahead to the other of the two endings (not that I ever did the latter, as I liked seeing the alternate text/scenes following the choices. It seems very convenient, though). I can't not recommend this one. Entropic Float is a heartfelt, suspenseful, fun, and sad mystery. It's a bit rough around the edges, but it's something special. Shout out to Pudding. (I played this on my desktop PC but, this is playable on Steam Deck. It's not optimized for it, but the controls are simple, so it works.) (Copied over from my Backloggd review.)

Okay to be honest at first I thought this would be a pretty amateur visual novel and a good time killer at best but then the characters started talking to each other. The first route I played involved an older nonbinary character sharing his experiences with gender to the agender protagonist. It may have been because i was playing this game sorta late at night but this conversation made me tear up. I think this game has a lot to say about how we interact with one another. In my opinion it has excellent representation of LGBT+ characters and every single character is queer in some way. I felt like the characters were able to meet me at my level and I enjoyed learning about each of them and having notes added to the profiles. This is an indie game with a lot of polish and effort that seeks to portray each of its characters with empathy and love. I'm really glad I gave it a shot and I hope you will as well.

tl;dr 18 REALLY GOOD routes, half of 19th tedious, second half of 19th and ending good again. Mystery/investigation 5/5 (big reveal is perfectly satisfying) Some dialogues are "TELL ME YOUR STORY I'LL HELP YOU EVOLVE" but overall it's still very enjoyable (and it's not like these were bad exactly, just... very direct - which is how they'd be in real life - and very often). Since I like the characters, not a big problem. It's also reaaaaally easy to play, all endings are very accessible! Now for those who don't want to be spared the ao3-like version! Bc that tldr is painfully vague and I personally am never satisfied with vague reviews :D (and it ate my life for three days so I have many thoughts and feelings) (In case my feelings got lost in the process: loved the game, details could be better but they are details, the story far outweighs the sometimes less subtle writing) It's one of the more immersive VNs I’ve played in a while, except the memory fragments part (they’re not bad, just too long for what it is) but that’s not a big part. It all felt super cool to read and I’m satisfied to no end with my experience! Be sure to use H to see the last (and beautiful) CG. For the first 18 routes you get "puzzles" with zero logic (thus not actual puzzles) but the characters get fun ideas. Despite it being loops, it's never too repetitive because the rooms kinda vary and the “solutions” change every time. What IS repetitive is the "oh we learned this tidbit (ex. time passes differently in different rooms) of lore which we must react to for the third time", but it can't really be helped? And at some point I felt very confident in my understanding of the Anomalies, so that's good! Something that might matter: it feels like something between science and magic. Not too fantasy for me, so that’s saying something. Very human and kinda science-y. I'm a bit worried about the order of routes though, since at least three of them feel like they'd be weaker if I hadn't played most of the others before. [spoiler]there being an 8th person, two of them being siblings, where the blocked door on the deck leads[/spoiler] Too bad there’s no suggested order, because I’m not sure everyone will get so lucky, but that’s kinda nitpicking. Especially since it might not matter at all, because I first did the ONE route where JJ appears as a girl before coming out, so maybe I just got it too linear and it’s better with more chaos! A lot boils down to "I love this! ... if only it was written/paced a tiny bit differently!". Like, there's a character that supposedly talks much fancier than the others, but I barely noticed? Stephanie is supposed to be "rude and mysterious", but she comes off as just quiet (similarly, Touko's less insensitive than the characters say). There’s no real difference between teenagers and adults. So a few times, you just have to accept what the game says even if you don't personally see it. (Also, every other line a "Oh, I didn't mean to offend you, I was just wondering", and considering there’s talk about most people’s sexuality/gender/sometimes race… it can get tiring. Also never understood why they split 5-2 instead of 4-3? And sometimes they’re ignorant about the strangest things, like “What is this thing?” “A foosball table. I’m not sure how it works either” like please XD They do have culture though! Mostly JJ and videogames but I can easily imagine True knows hundreds of musicians and refrains from quoting them for everyone’s sake) Likeable characters though! Or maybe I’m just weak to the art ahah. Some may change their minds too fast, but no one’s whiny (at all) and no one’s really too annoying. I couldn’t get into Jazz (except her FABULOUS [spoiler]”yeah, this situation sucks… *fun music starts playing* but isn’t is also soooo interesting?”[/spoiler]) and True, but that’s personal taste. [spoiler]They’re good enough friends that they consider moving “together” in the epilogue so I don’t really feel that bad.[/spoiler] Still, they’re not all copies of each other and inspire very different feelings, including “pathetic little man I want to choke him with a pillow (even if he’s terrible at fake names)”, and I'm happy with them! Which brings me to arguably my favourite part, the protagonists! Especially Rashmi (although I wish we saw more of [spoiler]his memory problem, since it’s so useful in the gaslight route[/spoiler] and Amelie. She’s incredibly well done, [spoiler]the way of acting cute and then hating it because it’s not really her, I might be wrong but[/spoiler] it’s the closest I ever came to Understanding gender dysphoria and I loved it. Some things that have an explanation (maybe forced but there) but still disappoint me: Amelie (very frustrating) [spoiler]having auditory hallucinations at the VERY END which comes out of literally nowhere. “Under stress, she imagined deadly danger and that’s when she ended up here, but it was alllll a hallucination” YEAH NO[/spoiler], and The Enemy (missed opportunity at worst) [spoiler]”I modified my memory for you so it would appear human” yeah but I really wanted more hints in that memory that it was a “different world”, they were modified way too well and it just feels too easy. There is a bit of foreshadowing in it, but I wanted [i]more[/i][/spoiler] While we’re at it, the Enemy and the ending: I can see people not liking the reasons behind the Anomaly (mostly coincidence, also endgame spoiler [spoiler]wish we saw a bigger difference between witches and humans[/spoiler]) and the entropy, but I really liked it. What felt best about the game was finding little clues in all the loops, and the ending made perfect sense with them all! I actually felt like I guessed the enemy on like, my 6th loop (and I did!), but it was only one slightly off line so I just got lucky (and even then, I was so unsure it was like watching a movie and betting on the murdered in the first minutes). And the solution was good too, used the powers at hand the best it could (it wasn’t possible, but I wonder [spoiler]what would happen if they could just make the enemy human[/spoiler]. So yeah: story-wise, it’s near perfect! Lastly the ending, bittersweet for three, good for the others (and we get a cute drawing of a dog!). I never felt as vindicated by logic when [spoiler]I thought Madeline was going to adopt the kids – she didn’t, but them sharing an epilogue still was perfect[/spoiler], and just generally, it all felt right!! (For those who read spoilers, [spoiler] it may seem very fantastical but it’s actually very rational, witches for example are just a word[/spoiler]) Oh, the one thing that is a problem: the name achievements. You need to replay way too much to get a second one and since skip is broken for a part of it...

(Ok so, I haven't played the full game, but I am a fast reader and have seen the spoilers for the major parts of the storyline. Here's a review as of now, subject to change:) Entropic Float, by all means, is a FREE-TO-PLAY (and no-fees-added) passion project. The single negative review on this page as of 11/6/2022 by user Lichice does give a few valid points that I'd like to touch upon, said reviewer also does seem to ignore that fact. (This user also has a habit of leaving negative reviews on many FREE indie games with balance issues... as well as AAA games like Elden Ring that have been otherwise well-received.) While the repetitive nature of the novel is frustrating, it makes sense in context of the story. While some character designs feeling incoherent to the setting and to other characters, they are also some gems of character designs. While the writing is extremely dense and occasionally hard to understand, it could easily be the developers style. I honestly don't know why people would give Entropic Float such a hard time when it's a FREE GAME made by one person. The review also mentions that "characters are more than just their gender and orientation"... If that's what you think of all the lgbtq+ stuff in current media, just walk away now. This game was not made for you and you will not enjoy it. All in all, Entropic Float is a solid visual novel that's free and has a lot of love put into it! Passion projects be flawed but fun. EDIT: I am now farther in the game than before. I will take back what I said about the "dense" writing and say that the narrative structure and prose is fantastic. That being said, if you don't like to read, this game is NOT for you.

I went back in time too tell you too play it

Good: Magical time anomalies is an interesting concept. Solid and consistent art style. Multiple choices leading to various endings. Mostly natural dialog that doesn't sound like it was run though google translate. Bad; Weak but thankfully sparse voice acting. Shallow characters. Too much time waster filler dialog between the choice points. Ultimately after making it to one of the endings I had no motivation to push on.

Fun

Modern bir fantezi ortamına sahip ücretsiz bir drama-gizem görsel romanı. Kendi sistem zamanınızdan etkilenen ancak yalnızca bununla sınırlı olmayan on sekiz son aracılığıyla gerçeği bulmak için içeride sıkışıp kalan on dört kişiye ulaşın.

Fantastic thinker of a text based game! I highly recommend. Bonus points from me because I am from Berkshire County!