After getting 100% achievements, i was very, very satisfied playing this piece so i really want to share what i felt about it through this review. I hope this can shape up the decision for you whether to get, or pass on the game.
However, before going into the review, there are 2 points that i would like for you to know beforehand so that you can better expect on what could you get out the game for yourself, which are:
[i]1. I am a Kamitsubaki fan. Please assume that there WILL be bias in my commentary, no matter how miniscule.
2. I played the game in the Japanese language, so when it comes to certain points that involves language / alphabets, your mileage might vary while playing the game in other languages.[/i]
[b]With that out of the way, let's talk about the game![/b]
[h1][b]How long is the game?[/b][/h1]
The game itself is a very, very short game which probably consists of 3 ~ 4 hours of reading all story available in the game, and that includes the gameplay required to unlock all the story. But to 100% the game, everyone will have a different time due to the nature of the gameplay itself. I will elaborate more about this in the "Gampelay" section later on, so for now, let's talk about the Story!
[h1][b]Story[/b][/h1]
Story is definitely the game's strong suit, the main dish of the whole experience.
This game features a standalone story without the need to know any lore beforehand, so anyone can get in just fine without missing anything. This game keeps things really simple and does not rely on throwing a plethora of jargons at you, nor having a complex world-building to set the tone of the story.
Assuming that you're already familiar with the main plot of the story, i want to praise that the game does an excellent job of placing you as the protagonist with amnesia. No prologues, no lore drops and no narrations are there to help you, the player, to know the world better than the protagonist (which sometimes happens in other games) at any point, so you're never disconnected and will always be in the shoes of the protagonist through the whole thing.
The greatest achievement here, is how impactful the story is whilst being only a relatively short read. The Main Story features an interesting, heavy topic that you would not expect just from the game's title, and in such short read i was left with a lasting impression that rivals that of a lengthy, tens-of-hours of reading. I was left pondering about the world after the events of the game for a good few days after, so i can say you're definitely in for a good surprise.
As for the Side Story, there are 5 even shorter reads, each for the respective girl of the Newspaper Club, which helps you understand who they are even more. I recommend reading them first the moment you unlock it, before proceeding with the Main Story.
[h1][b]Gameplay[/b][/h1]
The gameplay is really simple. Basically you get 5 parameters, and the game will ask a number from a certain parameter and you have to raise it so it meets that number. Trust me, it's even easier to understand when you play it yourself rather than reading this.
My only gripe with this gameplay however, is that due to the nature of the game being RNG-heavy with all the randomness and the involvement of dice-rolls, the time and ability to clear the contents, especially difficult end-game contents (which are tied to Achievements) are heavily determined by luck.
[strike]Additionally, you can technically "soft-brick" your progress if you get unlucky one time too many, due to the dependency to power-ups which also drops randomly, and they are finite so they can run out. So if you're somehow stuck in a state where you got no suitable power-ups, you're stuck doing free investigations farming until you get enough appropriate power-ups. So, if you're an Achievement / Trophy hunter, i would like to emphasize that this game is not a game that respects your time the best.[/strike]
EDIT : After Patch 1.0.3, the QoL of the game has been improved greatly so the game is far easier to progress, including getting all achievements!
[i]※ By the way, this game does feature a Story Mode which outright deletes this gameplay, effectively turning the game into a visual novel. However i STRONGLY recommend you to play the Normal Mode instead because the dialogues mid-game sessions contributes to the overall immersion too, even by just a little.[/i]
[h1][b]Graphics & Audio[/b][/h1]
Combined with the simple gameplay, the game features comfy, cute pixel-graphics accompanied with 8-bit tunes to go along, which grasps that retro-game feeling pretty well.
First of all, the UI of the game feels professional. The whole note-book vibe they aimed for gave the game an unique-look while still being intuitive as a visual language, which is what UI is all about. As for the character stills, the variety of expressions are great, and i find they striked a nice balance between keeping details and keeping the jagged, low-resolution pixelated look. As for the environment, while most of them successfully delivers that comfy retro look, i do find some of it looking a little-bit too 3D, where it definitely felt like they used a 3D render as a reference but did not "pixel-ify" it just enough. Not a deal breaker, but definitely could've been better.
Next, let's talk audio. This game does not feature any voice-overs for the dialogues, so the whole vibe was set by the music, and i'm liking it. From happy and chill melodies to unnerving and anxiety-inducing tunes, the 8-bit "bit" did not sound like a handicap but instead a proper taste. For the sound effects, they were decent and just fine, but i liked the sound effects of the UI a lot. Navigating the menu definitely felt good.
Lastly, the game also features a total of 6 new, full-length song releases from the respective artists that became the model of the characters in game (KAF, RIM, Harusaruhi, Isekaijoucho, KOKO), which is quite the luxurious treat for the fans ([b][i]me[/i][/b]), but might seem over-the-top for people who are just here for the game and don't care about the artists in general, and especially, i believe it definitely bumps the price tag a lot.
[h1][b]Before ending the review...here's some nitpicks.[/b][/h1]
While i was praising this game very much up until this point, to be honest when it comes to their attention for detail in shipping this game onto Steam, i am quite...disappointed? Maybe "disappointed" is quite the strong word, but here's the thing. First of all, the icons for all the Achievements are just the same, single, recycled, cropped image from the main key visual. That just feels so lazy because even smaller indie games still bother to make unique icons for each of their Achievements. Also, they did a very amateur oopsie here because as for now, the image that should be the game's logo on the Library page where you launch the game, is a screenshot of the game instead, blocking the gorgeous main key visual. Their first news for the game in English is also "Streaming Guideline in only Japanese" but then it doesn't even bother to show the actual guideline in Japanese, just a placeholder News that contributes to nothing. It feels like there's minimal care for the shipping process onto Steam, and in my opinion it really stains the game's first impression and does not do the game justice, which is a big shame.
[h1][b] Aaaand, that's it![/b][/h1]
For you who actually bothered to read all these, thank you for your time and attention! All in all, the game's great and i really want to recommend it for everyone that has made their way here to this game's store page. If you're looking for a short, simple game with an interesting story, definitely try this game out when you have the chance! Length-wise, it's just like sitting through a single movie, and with the actual full-production ending song that plays after the story? It DEFINITELY felt like watching a full movie.
That's all from me!
