Episicava - Vol. 1

[i]* A free key of the game was given to me. Even so, that didn’t affect my opinion of the final product.[/i] [i]Episicava Vol.1[/i] is a medium-length action visual novel by [url=https://twitter.com/WorksEpic]Epic Works[/url]. Episicava tells the story of a young man called Arin Arlento and his search of revenge against the people that murdered his entire village and family. Also in this world, humans have superpowers and are divided depending on their abilities. [b]Please notice that this is the first game of a trilogy.[/b] The story starts right out with action. But I disliked the fact that there was a lot of information being thrown at the reader right in the beginning as well, like a full explanation of how the superpowers work; that could've been explained during the novel. The story progresses at a fast pace too, with a lot of new characters showing up. This title is also mostly kinetic, there will be a few choices to make from time to time in order to avoid bad endings. There are two heroine routes in this first volume: Alacria and Aniam. Alacria is your typical tsundere girl and Aniam is more mature, I personally liked her better and her route as well. An important detail is that you'll have to read Alacria's route first to unlock Aniam's, so if you're not a big fan of tsundere type, you'll have to bear with Alacria for a while. After clearing Aniam's good ending, you'll unlock the "true route" of the game. There is one critical factor that plagues Episicava to the core: the clichés. They are [i]everywhere[/i]. I'm used to them, I usually don't mind as long as the story is good and the characters are likable. But there are so many clichés in this visual novel that it became a bit overwhelming at some point in my opinion, and that can be a huge let down for some people. We already have the "revenge setting" of the story, all the girls love Arin, one time or another he'll release his "true power", there are hundreds of complicated names that you won't remember anymore after 2 minutes, and so on. The writing feels like it was based on a s*hiton of shonen manga, all at once. Let's talk about the technical aspects. The art was good/average. But it was very inconsistent, and that was a let down to me. The CG quality is different from each other and from the sprites, it's simply a different art style. If all the images had the same quality of the CGs or sprites, I wouldn't complain. I just don't like inconsistency regarding art in a visual novel, that's a huge pet peeve of mine. Also, Alacria's sprite is missing the rest of her legs; she's literally floating when she appears on the screen. o_o I must say that I [b]loved[/b] the backgrounds, though. Honestly, they were so pretty and colorful, maybe one of the best backgrounds I've seen in a western visual novel so far. I also liked the little animations that were presented during the action scenes as well, they were nice. The BGM was good too. The songs are catchy and exciting but along the way sometimes they sound misplaced. Maybe it's just me, I don't know. I rarely talk about the UI, but I think this is worth mentioning: There's this giant circle with lots of symbols right beside the text box that one time or another will glow depending on how Arin uses his powers. The standard blue text box is alright, but that giant symbol just annoys me. I thought it would have some sort of major impact in the gameplay, but it apparently doesn't have. By the way, there's a bug in the gallery: when I try to see the CGs I've collected in the "others" category, it doesn't matter how many times I click on the thumbnail, the full image won't show up... Anyway, this game is fairly long, it took me almost nine hours to read the common route, both heroine routes, and the true route. 6/10. I recommend getting this game on a sale since the writing style might not please everyone. I know that I've pointed out a lot of flaws, but that doesn't mean that I hated this title. It had its moments, it certainly isn't the worst visual novel I've played, but it's far from the best. I think there's a lot of room to improve here since the essence of the story is interesting. I wish good luck to the developers on their next releases! [spoiler](There's also a [url=https://steamcommunity.com/app/618430/discussions/0/1694917906649519801/]"special patch"[/url] that unlocks extra content ( ͡o ͜ʖ ͡o))[/spoiler]

I backed this game on Kickstarter, and I'm sorry I did. It's a visual novel that reads like a 13-year-old's adaptation of an over the top action animé. Every interaction in the game feels like a struggle for dominance where someone has to put someone else in their place, and by that I mean action scenes, dialogue and even the optional R18 scenes. Every interaction has to have a winner and a loser. Huge amounts of text are spent on describing how a certain power activates and how (in)efficient it is compared to this other power that is activated, and ungh... It all just feels like a young boy's animé power fantasy. Now, if you're a fan of that kind of story telling, you'll be getting your money's worth, because the novel is lengthy, and does have a couple of routes that play out quite differently. However, I couldn't stomach the writing style - I was shouting at the screen in annoyance at what should have been normal dialogue turning into a verbal sparring match that had to end up leaving someone humiliated. I'm willing to chalk this one up to just not being for me. If you're into constant power struggles and over the top action animé, it may be for you.

Note: I've experienced this game off Steam, but was provided with a [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32980295-EVN-Chronicles/]Curator Connect copy[/url] regardless, so disregard my playtime - the actual length of Episicava is around 10 hours. -------------------------------------- I can't say I expected much from this game, but I think it's still fair to call it a disappointment. It claims to be inspired by famous fighting visual novels, such as the Fate series, but it would be more accurate to call it a VN equivalent of a particularly edgy and trashy shounen anime. The protagonist is one of the most obnoxious, unlikeable pricks I've seen throughout the medium and while it's definitely a conscious desition by the developers, it simply doesn't work. There's theoretically some development for him and he became that nasty, "anti-hero" type because of his traumatic past, but overall he's scum, who casually kills people and disrespects the heroines to the point of sexually exploiting one of them and nearly sexually assaulting another one. I wanted him to drop dead most of the time and that's never a good place for your lead character to be. Other characters are also horribly one-dimensional and boring, the second romanceable heroine, Anian, being the only, slight exception. Villains are completely over-the-top and their motivations absurd, their only role seemingly making sure that the protagonist isn't the biggest piece of trash around. The fighting is just the typical shounen kind of cheese, with convoluted and not very logical system of superpowers and people shouting their moves to the point it stops being amusing (spoiler: it stops being that very quickly). One positive thing I can probably say is that while the protagonist is inertly OP, his main enemies are doubly so and although he definitely represents a pretty obnoxious form of power fantasy (to the point it's even stated dozens of times that he's extremely handsome and every woman falls for him at the first sight), he's at least not a Gary Stu that will overcome every challenge without breaking a sweat - he gets owned regularly and in a pretty extreme ways. Fortunately, he also has Wolverine's healing factor on steroids, so he at least can go through an infinite number of near-death scenarios without a problem. Oh, the plot conveniences... Did I mention plot conveniences? The story starts in a high school, for no apparent reason, as the protagonist is already a crimelord planning a genocide against the country he blames for killing his people. Then, the plot moves in a linear fashion, with only choices leading to dead ends or allowing you to access unlockable routes (there's three in total). The plot is rather predictable, once more filled with cliches and a myriad of plotholes. The humour mostly falls flat and the off-putting protagonist makes you care little about the serious parts. The art and music are ok, especially after studio fixed the pretty heavy issues the game had at launch. [b]In the end, though, you can't polish a piece of dirt into a diamond. While Episicava definitely wasn't the worst EVN I've played, there's really not many reasons to recommend playing it - there are simply much better ways to spend both $10 and 10 hours of your time. Skip this one, it's simply not worth it.[/b]

[quote=] This review was brought to you on behalf of [b] Abyssal Ascent Reviews [/b] in collaboration with its publisher. If you liked it, please [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32607787-Abyssal-Ascent/]Follow[/url] the Curator and [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/AbyssalAscent/]Join[/url] its group. Thanks! [/quote] [quote=] For a focus on lewd games, check out [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/candytray]Superfabs Candy Tray[/url]! Curation is [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32749084/]here[/url]. Thanks! [/quote] [b]Episicava - Vol. I[/b] is your typical visual novel with adult content mixed in. The narrative is mainly focused on the protagonist (well, he’s not your regular hero type by any means) and his quest to take back what was stolen from him; a quest of vengeance of sorts, and finding a reason to live and fight for what he believes in. As far as narration, there are some switches to various character thoughts and perspectives at times, and it takes a moment to figure out who is who sometimes as far as which character certain parts of the story are being centered around. Overall though, the writing is good, the story is well paced in my opinion, and it stays fairly interesting. The main character’s arrogant attitude really bugged me, but that goes to show that the writer is portraying that cockiness in a way that really feels like the personality is directed in such a manner to make me react, so in that respect it seems pretty authentic. The women you encounter are also full of varying personalities. The art is nice overall, and the immersion aspect is something I really enjoyed. Music changes with appropriate story transitions, a lot of small effects showed up as well at times, which is a lot better than just having a set background and a wall of text, where the story must then make up for it, putting more overall burden on the writing for an overall good experience, if that makes any sense. Overall I enjoyed those little things, but I wish there had been an R18 patch here on Steam as there are more uncut versions on other sites that have this title available. I had to hunt one down for the purposes of getting a more uncut feel and experience, plus the fact that I cannot pass up boob and beyond whenever I have the opportunity to see the full work put into the original game. Perhaps they decided not to add a patch due to Steam’s difficult process, but I am simply speculating. It can be risky, as one developer I am personally aware of firsthand lost their steamworks credentials for games that honestly were not in my opinion anything close to as borderline as many of the uncut loli games out there being allowed on Steam. Too much grey area, and judgement calls from people still. I hope that improves more. Glad the tide has at least begun to turn. Anyway, I’m ranting off-topic, but for the purposes of my review, I feel that the game itself is pretty decent! Better than average, but not supreme in its first volume out so far. I do hope more work on this title is pursued, as it does leave you hanging there after the true ending once you’ve unlocked several different arcs from making choices and progression. As far as choices, it has some options on occasion, but they are fairly linear and it still has an overall kinetic feel - as one choice is generally good, and the other is bad, and results in the need to reload, kind of like a game over. Still the overall material is engaging and I had fun while reading the VN. The hentai R18 scenes were quite nice, and they didn’t take too long to rifle through in words. That bothers me with some that over-embellish and rehash the same points. The art is a bit inconsistent in some of the scenes too, but nothing that overly bothered me really. My issue with the uncut version content is that the main character’s “goo goo” is a good bit darker than his body. Kind of odd to see the contrast, but only a small gripe with that not being lightened up some to match more. I’ve blabbed enough, so I’ll make a short list of what I liked and disliked about my experience with Episicava - Vol. I so far after finishing all arcs: [h1]Pros[/h1] Decent story, character personalities, and overall flow. The transitions with sounds, effects and other little additions made it more immersive in my opinion. The pacing was nice, and it had some unlocks to make it into several different arcs available as you played it more. I think the writing is done well enough to keep many of us interested throughout. Some feels a little shallow, or under-developed, but maybe that is just me. Still, overall it’s consistently decent or a bit above average. The art is done nicely as well, and the patch I found most likely adds some extra to it. While a couple of the pictures make the main character look a little strange, overall the women are nice to gawk at. Some interesting scenes as far as perspective. Some he’s more transparent so you can sort of see through to the other side. The price isn’t all that bad for the amount of time it takes to get through, but I’d want the adult content fully, and no censoring, or an option to change it as part of that package, personally. [h1]Cons[/h1] Well, the main character was super cocky and arrogant, which I found rather distasteful. Couldn’t really “like” him much. The story called for it, and since it irked me, perhaps that bodes well for the writing to even get me worked up emotionally. I like nice guys! The linear nature of choices were kinda either proceed with story or game over bad endings most of the time. More interwoven stuff might have bumped it up another notch for me. There were issues with grammar and mistakes, but it was just a word or two once in a while. Wish I had a shot at editing this myself to make it more streamlined. The main character’s “goo goo” was much darker compared to his body. I found the contrast odd on the H scenes. There were things in the story that kinda confused me, or were too coincidental and bits and pieces which were just a tad odd, but overall it’s not a huge deal. Some of it was a little off for me for whatever reason in my head though. No achievements or anything like that. Might make it more engaging to have that sort of thing going. Also the fact that there was no R18 dlc for this game that I could find. Wasn’t easy digging up a patch to get extra content. I did not check first to compare, but I’m pretty sure it’s not full uncut on Steam version. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Good read overall, and I would definitely recommend this one. Probably would grab it on another spot instead, unless one doesn’t care about searching for patch, or just wants to play the regular version that *might* have some censoring of some sort. Again, didn’t check personally, so I’m not sure the extent, if any, to censoring. Character personalities are somewhat authentic, and the transitions and small things are done well enough for me to give it a thumbs up. It just needs a little tlc with some of my negative points mentioned above. It feels like it has life, and was done with care and attention. The art is enjoyable, and other small things make me lean towards really liking it in an overall sense. Not ground-breaking, but pretty much above average with most things that are done. They are done right, and I think most fans of visual novels would enjoy going through this one!

Good art- bad story. Meaningful choices are actually just guesses that zap you dead if you guess wrong. It reminds me of a comic book someone could write about an immature 13 year old trash talking super villain. I had to force myself to finish it as it would not be fair to review it if I had not finished it. It was a struggle. The writer created an interesting world but the story leaves alot to be desired. Example: Main character is in a tough situation so we give him a new power or say he wasn't really trying hard until now--ect. Save your money!!!

[h1]Prelude & Review Information[/h1] Be advised, this review contains light spoilers for the game prevalent in the Story section. That said, anything outside of the Story section will be majorly free from such things. However, please read the beginning of the Story section for some information that you may want. It would also be good to note the inspiration this game takes from other games in the genre: namely Fate/Stay Night and Tokyo Babel. Though I'm not that knowledgeable about Tokyo Babel, I'm very much involved with anything Fate related. This will lead to a few comparisons down the line. Now, let's move on. [h1][b]Now The Real Review Begins[/b][/h1] [h1]UI[/h1] The UI is fairly standard. For now, let's focus on the text box we see while playing. Again, nothing special and it doesn't have to be. But, it's clean and the font is readable, that's what matters. Initially, what intrigued me would be how the symbols (in the bottom left of the screen) for the various races would play in the dynamic of the story. Unfortunately, I don't believe that they play any role at all. It would be interesting if the MC's proficiency in a certain race's powers factored into the look of the symbols or if the entire thing changed in relation to the perspective of whichever character we were in the mind's of at current. Still, it's there for aesthetic reasons and it doesn't hinder it in any way, benefiting it a bit actually but not to the extent it could. Lacking from the story is a proper quick save and quick load mechanic. In addition to that, there are a limited amount of save slots: 30. This may not be a problem for some people, however, VNs have instilled in me the necessity to constantly save regardless of time or place and I would hate to have to overwrite a save should the need arise where I want to go back and reread a certain part. Luckily, the game doesn't prevent you from saving the story during a choice. The hexagonal main menu does have an interesting look though and it includes a gallery, sound mode for all the music, an event mode for the H-scenes, and a side story mode (though I don't believe anything has been included as of yet). [h1]Story[/h1] The story in Volume 1 is split into a few parts. First, you will play though the common route and eventually Alacria's route. During the common route, you will be able to die a few times but don't worry too much. The beginning is very strong but along the way, it does meander at times. The perspective switching that happens throughout the story was also confusing at times. A few lines would go by questionably until it reveals you're in the mind of another person. The very start is a pseudo-exposition dump but you'll get by even if you don't remember 100%. However, if you're curious why I say you'll be going down Alacria's route, it's because there isn't a choice. You must first finish her route before unlocking another story branch. This necessitates the replay or loading of a save. Even if you don't have a save, skipping shouldn't be too hard. Alacria's route has a good end and bad end. This new route we happen upon is Aniam's route. If you didn't like the tsun semi-loli, maybe you'll like the more mature but still emotional at times, Aniam. The point is, she was a bit more enjoyable to be around. However, her route does lead to something that is inevitable and you have no hope to prevent. That is unless you finish her route then proceed to the true route which is only unlocked after her happy end. The true route ends in something rather unsatisfactory. Even going into the game knowing that it is only part of a whole, the ending is a bit too abrupt. It could use a bit of polish in regards to that. The MC, Arin, is at times great and incredibly frustrating. Know that he isn't a self-insert character. Everything he does he has his reasons for and for the most part we can't control him. This is good but sometimes his emotions are too inconsistent. At one time, he does x, and now he does y. He seems mature then he goes off and does z. Still, he's not a bad MC and it helps that his inner monologue is self-referential at times. [spoiler]I was very happy with the end of Alacria's route. Getting married to her was great and seeing that they actually wrote about the pregnancy is even greater. She kept her tsun and sass and good on her, after all, that's what we love about her. Petra and Cheshire were also very enjoyable in her route. I knew how Petra would act as she has a common archetype but her sacrifice was still admirable. I wish we would've got a CG for her death. Imagine Petra laid against the tree, Alacria bawling into her chest. She has a hand petting Alacria's head as if to say "not to worry." The bright hues reflecting off upon the cast with her in the tree's shadow, looking off into the distance, her eyes dimming, but smiling all the same. Cheshire stands there in reverence, holding back tears at the sight of her dying mistress. Arin kneeling next to Petra, one hand hugging Alacria and the other holding Petra's other hand as it eventually fades to black. During the routes, we come across Zaid. This is where my FSN comparison comes in. He resembles Archer in a way and his attitude is becoming of Archer during his life or Kiritsugu Emiya before the climax of Fate/Zero. Meanwhile, Arin looks like Gilgamesh in his UBW attire. It's subtly ironic knowing this actually, seeing as a person who looks like Gil is going through an ideological battle. Combining this with the use of parallel realities which Kato alludes to leads to a variety of possibilities. Although, adding the concept of different universes could cause a lot of problems in itself and while time travel/universe hopping has been explore for decades in various mediums, few have got it right. It'll be a great feat if Episicava can pull it off. Here's hoping they will. I'm also really curious as to how Ace will react as we didn't get to see Alacria confront him during the council meeting. The moment which broke my heart most was seeing Alacria dead in Aniam's route. I was enraged as in a previous route, that was our wife. Her tsundere shenanigans aside, she was a good person. Still, credit to the game for arousing such strong emotions as that is the goal of any game, regardless of genre: to arouse emotion. [/spoiler] [h1]Music[/h1] Some of the music is particularly good but even with a decent amount of variety, it does tend to get a bit dull after a while. There was one point where I didn't believe the music fit the narrative at the time but that was only once. So, you might not be running to buy the soundtrack (though Overlimit intro is pretty good), but it does its job. [h1]Final Thoughts[/h1] Overall, it's a pretty good VN. It doesn't overly take from its inspirations but you'll see the influence. As the first part of an overarching story, it does the job well, even if the way it separates the volume from the other two is through a sharp transition. The happy moments are fun filled and the sad moments are genuinely heart wrenching. I advise you try the bad ends because the CGs from them are both beautiful and horrifying. The BGs are reused a few times too many though. For a base $10 and nearly 9 hours of relevant gameplay, skipping the overlapping bits, (Steam didn't track one of my play-sessions for some reason), I believe this is worth your money.

Great art, music, story, and special effects. Well-written but not with a lot of exposition which isn't that important in Action VN's anyway. One important fact is that it is very long which is great for around 10 dollars. Can't wait for Vol. 2 and I have only played 3 hours so far. Most games this price are 3 hours or less making this one much better than most imho But the cringe is strong though I think this game is supposed to mock cliches so it's intentional but I like it since it's hilarious.

Some people consider visual novels to be watered down versions of regular novels because the story is usually told from a person's perspective only, with many constraints. This game is even more watered down than that. As much as I want to enjoy it, it feels like I'm reading some juvenile's fantasy. It feels like the writer is either inexperienced or impatient as they skip through much of the necessary steps of building up the atmosphere, characters, plot etc. Also, Alacria's sprite isn't even aligned properly! She literally doesn't have a pair of lower legs! As such, it is simply impossible for me to recommend this visual novel. The dev will really have to step up on a lot of things in their next creation if they wish to persist without being buried by other competitors.

This VN is coated by an uninspiring story coupled with a questionable soundtrack and one of the dullest character personality traits I’ve ever seen. At least it’s semi-decent looking. [h1][b]Graphics: 7.5/10[/b][/h1] The one aspect that it does right is this. I’m quite happy with the art this provided. It may not be the best out there, but it sure is better than most I’ve seen. The CGs for the characters look almost completely different from the sprites though…I found this a little strange. It’s almost as though that the CGs were characters that you’ve never seen before. [h1][b]Storyline: 4.5/10[/b][/h1] Oh you know, it’s the typical story that goes something like this: [spoiler]"They killed my family, I’m the only one left, I know the man behind it all and I must take my revenge by killing him."[/spoiler] It’s generic and lacklustre. I’m sure you’ve played a game with a similar story structure to this before. [h1][b]Soundtrack: 5/10[/b][/h1] Things done right: The music that plays on the menu, the sword and the gun sound effects. The others were really [i]meh[/i]…in the sense when a track plays in a specific scene that track sometimes didn’t even match the specific scenario; almost like they didn’t bother to put more effort to making a track that more arcuately matched a specific scenario, even if that particular scenario would only last for a couple of minutes. This was only a major issue as many of the tracks would be repeatedly used again and again, even if it didn’t match a scenario. This means that, yes…that same repeated track would match a scenario down the line about 60% of the time. [h1][b]Gameplay: 7/10[/b][/h1] I would’ve liked to have been able to see the date and time when I saved the game, this would be really helpful when going through different routes and choosing different dialogue choices. It’s a nitpick, but I see it become a common standard on a lot of VNs. It’s not all doom and gloom however because the gameplay itself is very smooth…no bugs, glitches or crashes to report. [h1][b]Price: 6/10[/b][/h1] You get a VN that plays very smoothly with no issues and get to see some nice art to look at. The two biggest let-downs are the soundtrack and the story. If only the story was more intriguing; I could easily recommend it at this price, but no…at £6.99. [b]On a -50% sale? Sure, go ahead.[/b]

Great Game.