La Fille aux Pommes / The Apple Girl

When the femboy at my workplace told me he had made a game, I, as a capital G Gamer, asked him what it was about. He told me it was a simple visual novel about a girl who loved apples. I... Didn't really care. VNs just aren't my jam, but, as a good friend, i decided to give the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ a wishlisted and waited for the release. Truth be told, i didn't expect much but after actually seeing the art, i became far warmer towards this little labour of love. Speaking of art: fun fact, to our mutual hilarity, i commented that i expected cringy DeviantArt level art/ bad early 2000's anime trash and he knew exactly what i meant. After playing the game (and getting distracted, leading to a 4 hour romp turning into a 10 hour journey), i can't say i wasn't endeared. Normaly, i would use bulletpoints to help anyone reading this review quickly decide if their interested but there isn't much to talk about. Its a basic, linear VN with 0 choices with some really nice pop-out storybook visuals presenting a little story about a girl who likes apples. Credit where it's due, one of our other coworker wept after fininshing the story, so it certainly has soul and character. On my end, i had a cheesy grin as the story concluded because i ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ called the ending as soon as the last act started. My only big problem with the game is the english script is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ROUGH (but please, forgive him. he is... *French*. I'll give you a moment). But, fear not! i heard some fat bastard is working on making the translation more palatable for those who speak a language that doesn't smell like cheese (Coming January 2026). TL;DR: you like VNs? You like amateurish charm? you like neat art and soulfull stories you can finish in less than an afternoon? Give it a shot, you might be surprised. Also, PUT MY ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ QUOTE ON THE STORE PAGE, ♥♥♥♥♥!!!

I was about to play Black Souls II that I already had in my shopping cart but I still had some money in my steam wallet so I decided to look for one more game to buy. After going through recently released games I came across The Apple Girl. What I am looking for in games is "Soul" and that game definitely gave me some "Soulful" vibes. I was not mistaken. I had a nice 4 hours of soulful content. Pros: - Nice story. I cannot write much without spoiling the story but from start to finish I was involved in the story and I wanted to see what would happen next. It has an interesting structure that is not so common in storytelling. Message is also nice, it can make you shed a tear if you are sensitive to touching moments. - Simple but good enough art. In the era of AI sloppery I can appreciate any hand drawn art. It is quite soulful, especially the main character's images. Maybe what I would like to see is some better and more detailed backgrounds. - Good enough music. It fits well during various story segments. Cons: - English translation. In some places I think that there was a mistake in translation. Nothing serious though and I could easily understand what the correct sentence should be. - Misleading story fragments. Some story fragments could be written better so it could feel more realistic. At some point I was thinking that the fabric of reality is tearing apart in this game world. When you finish the game you know that this is not the case (It would be hard to describe it without spoiling the story). To sum it up I can definitely recommend this game to anyone who is looking for a short, soulful story with a nice message. I am glad that I get to play this game and for sure I would like to play more games from this developer.  P.S. [spoiler] I have read postscript. Gud91, I am glad that you managed to do what you wanted instead of selling potatoes. I can sympathise with you on a lot of points that you wrote in postscript. I wish I could stop selling potatoes too at some point. I followed your steam publisher page so if there will be more games from you I will surely try them out. Keep up the good work and congratulations on releasing your first game! [/spoiler]

It's easy to tell that the English translation is by a non-native speaker, but it's not too difficult to understand. The backgrounds are pretty simple, and look like placeholders, but I think the presentation suits the story. The music is nice and relaxing. Though it is a kinetic VN, there are two "endings" and I'm not sure which one suits the story more.

This was a pretty sweet and enjoyable experience. I loved the music and the drawings were suited to the style of the story. I felt inspired by your work and especially the final act. Looking forward to see more projects! [i]Man do I crave apple pies.[/i]

Une petite histoire bien sympathique à lire. Simple mais touchante, transmettant bien son message. L'artstyle a son charme, et la musique est bonne en étant parfaite pour l'atmosphère proposée par le jeu. On sent que le jeu a de "l'âme". Si vous avez 4 heures devant vous, foncez. (Félicitations Gud91 pour la sortie !) Partie spoiler/Postface : [spoiler] Le vécu de Gud91 (l'auteur) se ressent parfaitement à travers l'histoire et le message qu'il transmet (si vous suivez son compte, ou que vous avez lu la postface vous savez de quoi je parle.) Mes félicitations Gud pour avoir réussi à faire ce que tu désirais vraiment. [/spoiler]

Lovely story about family, work struggles, apples and potatoes 10/10 apple experience 🍎

I remember really looking forward to checking this game out and just not really having any time to sit down and read through it for months. I bought it during the launch but here I am, only now in March with free time to finish it... But I'm glad I finally got the chance to sit down and go through it. There's a bit that really resonated with me from this, especially speaking as a fellow creator. Especially through Act 4, where it felt really clear to me what the game was trying to get at. And I feel like it's something I can really understand where the creator is coming from. I know it's mentioned in the developer notes, but from following the creator the last few years, it clicked on seeing what they were trying to say. Maybe the message will feel a little heavy handed to some, but I don't think that's a bad thing. I think it said what it wanted to say, and what it needed to say to get those emotions and thoughts on things out there. I want to leave this last note to the creator of this game. And it's to please just keep making what you want to make. And to keep going forward. I know it's not easy. I know it's hard. You aren't going to always feel like you're seen. It certainly took a long time for myself to feel any trace of that. But there will be people there interested in your work, and appreciative of what you've been putting out there. Thank you for this lovely experience here full of soul, and I'll look forward to the little bonus story you're putting out for this and whatever else you make from here. I like potatoes a lot, but I like apples too, and I hope to have some more apple dishes or even other kinds of fruits. I hope you'll continue to do what you love. Thank you.

Об этой игре я узнал абсолютно случайно, она мне попалась в рекомендациях и сразу зацепила вниманием своим дизайном(а также моей любовью к инди-проэктам), поэтому сразу была добавлена в список желаемого. Спрайты персонажей, фоны и музыка очень приятные, особенно порадовали безумно красивые арты ближе к концу игры. Сама история очень красивая, большую часть игры она напоминала сказку, потом я подумал что история переростет в психологический хоррор...Но к счатью новелла им не стала. А также я рад, что автор дописал хорошую концовку(эта девочка не заслуживала плохого конца!) Эта игра шикарна, я прошел множество инди игр, но никогда не видел, чтобы автор с самой игре писал о своих чувствах и личности не только через двойные смыслы и задумку произведения, но и напрямую, постскриптум сломал для меня стену между произведением и автором. Очень надеюсь на новые проекты автора, надеюсь читающим не придётся доставлять картошку!

Very enjoyable short novel that has a lot of emotional impact and love. Soundtrack is good (thank you Mock Off), art is good. I really just want more people to enjoy it so we can all read more of Gud91's other work.

I found this visual novel through a discord server I'm in, and I decided to check it out. I'm very glad I did! This was a nice little story, and I look forward to reading anything else the author comes up with. The way it was told reminded me of a fairy tale story of sorts (which it was nice to see that was the author's inspiration in the notes afterwards), and I think that style, and the artwork were really suited for this type of story. I also liked the use of color (things getting darker/grey) when the main character's mood or the tone of the story got a little darker. Including two different endings, despite it being a linear VN, was interesting too. I do like both of them (slightly favoring the happier one). It's a really nice story of finding yourself and your own happiness. The author has also noted that spelling and translation errors are being worked on. I noticed some, but there was nothing that was too jarring or broke my immersion of the game. All in all, this was a fun read that I would suggest checking out.