Loop

[b]Loop[/b] is a short visual novel from first-time developers [i]Gulbrandr Studio[/i] and tells a brief story of a character named Deirdre (pronounced [i]Deer-dree[/i] for those struggling) who enters a mystical forest in search of her missing husband. The story appears to be based upon an Irish legend, but one, I suspect, that will be totally unfamiliar to all readers barring the most fervent followers of Irish mythology. When I first became aware of this offering, I was drawn in by the Irish setting – totally under-represented within the visual novel genre – and the beauty of the backdrop visuals, which are very clearly the high point of the package. The story itself suffers from, presumably, sticking too closely to the legend upon which it is based. As we progress, Deirdre runs into assorted magical inhabitants of the forest and engages in conversation with them, while attempting to locate her husband; but none of these conversations really lead to anything of additional interest nor do a great job of developing those characters, leaving the reader with the impression that each of them is a mere convenience to carry the narrative. Certainly there is a little more to “The Lady Of The Well” and “The Roadbuilder”, but not enough to elicit any feelings from the reader. [h1]Positives[/h1] - Quite comfortably, the graphics carry the product. Backdrops are beautiful, detailed and eyecatching. Character sprites have a brighter palette, and are also sufficiently detailed to hold interest. I note that another reviewer has pointed out a differential in styles between sprites and backdrops negatively, and this, for me, demonstrates such opinions are very subjective. I much prefer the cast graphics to stand out in front of the backdrops to blending in with them – unless, of course, they are being shown as part of an interactive background shot. - The musical accompaniment is fitting for the story environment. I found the first tune to be a little repetitive, but was glad that I left the sound up, as those following are better. I'm fairly sure that I distinguished four different pieces playing throughout, and they're nicely composed. [h1]Experience[/h1] My first run through of this game lasted about half an hour. I didn't rush, others are likely to finish more quickly than this, although 20 minutes is a probable minimum. I found the time spent to be a fairly pleasant distraction, enough to hold my attention but not enough to leave me really intrigued about the very sudden endings, what might have become of the protagonist afterwards. Since that initial run (and a subsequent second one which was extremely burdensome due to the paucity of user interface options), the developers quickly added a skip function which adds a degree of player accessibility to try out alternatives for a different ending. By the time I re-ran post-skip-update, I had already seen such a high percentage of the total text available, it was difficult to ascertain whether this function is actually a skip-read-text feature or a simple fast forward. I suspect that it's the latter, but as text speed is fixed to average-reading-speed, it's very easy to stop it before a caption is completed and thereby prevent any accidental missing of unread text. Unfortunately, due to the very sudden conclusions of all endings, the effort involved to replay for a different end renders that time commitment unrewarding. Ultimately, the developer's decision to create this product using Unity instead of Ren'py was a misguided one. The result is a very pretty front end which severely lacks user features – in sum total, you get a choice of two fonts (although the Celtic one looks nice and suits well), a “skip” which takes as long to move forward as is required to print out each caption at the preset speed, and a gallery of 5 screenshots representing each found ending. As others have mentioned, there isn't even a save option – although, it is worth noting that for the time it takes for a single run, and that only the final choice seems to make any discernible difference – this option not being present does not have much of an impact. [h1]Verdict[/h1] Overall, nice looking visual novel which should provide 20-30 minutes of comfortable reading experience, but unlikely to entertain at all beyond that first time through. The question for you, dear reader, becomes: is that enough for you to justify the full price? I believe that it will not be, and below I will suggest some pointers for the devs in the hope that they can either expand on what is present already, else look to put their undeniable ability towards producing a future game with a deeper level of content and user friendliness than is on display here. Overall, despite being obliged to give the game a “not recommended”, I would like to encourage some pretty clear development talent to stick at it and act upon the comments below. It's obvious that the creators do have the skills to produce a high quality visual novel; but at this stage, that potential has not yet been reached. Otome Lovers wishes to thank Gulbrandr Studio for providing a free review copy for this game. [quote]Please follow our curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/4680120/]Otome Lovers[/url], if you'd like to see more reviews like this one! [/quote] [h1]To the developers[/h1] - For this story, it feels like there is a presumption that the mythology that it is based upon will be familiar, which throws the reader into a situation of not understanding who any of the characters either met or referenced are, or what their relevance is to the protagonist's mission. The Roadbuilder, for example – why? What does he have to do with anything? And Sid – I can run off and marry him, but who is he? Just some rando who appeared without explanation? This could have been mitigated by expanding the story beyond the legend. Introduce us to Deirdre and her husband from a time before where your story starts. Let us understand what led to him leaving her. This could include mentions of the forest and characters within, which in turn would not make their sudden appearances feel totally “cold”. - The conclusions also desperately need fleshing out. The absence of any epilogues leave the reader with a strong feeling of “Eh? Wait, is that it? I don't get it.” - A visual novel can often stand or fall by the ease of interaction and user friendliness experienced by the player. This game's biggest shortcoming is the UI, or lack of it. Many of the smaller VNs don't have some of the more advanced features; but at a minimum, it is a fair expectation to find the following included: - A save and load facility, with several save slots. - A proper skip-read-text function, which also incorporates a simple fast-forward option for the achievement hunters. - A text speed option, which should also include instantaneous. - A backstep/rollback function. - A full screen or windowed mode option. - A text history log. - A font option for the dyslexic and those with sight difficulties. [b]Edit update 4 Nov 2024:[/b] the unattainable achievement issue i originally highlighted has been fixed. Also, the developers have improved the skip feature so that it now runs [i]much[/i] more quickly, which will make repeat runs far less taxing - although this might also raise a need to be more careful if you don't want to miss any unseen text.

Loop could have been an alright short vn, but I sadly can't really recommend it. The story is alright on its own, and the background art and the character sprites on their own are both also alright. Together the sprites and backgrounds though, don't really fit together with their artstyles being different and the sprites being much lower resolution than the backgrounds. The game also doesn't offer any saves, so you always have to go through the entire game, and there is no textspeed setting or a setting to switch to windowed mode. The game also tries to run with as many fps as possible so that it sometimes gets up to 5000 fps for me, which then at the same time makes my steam and even the game itself lag at times. Unity as a VN engine just isn't the best option. Then we come to the fact that a big plus to this game is supposed to be the multiple endings; however, as there is no save system and the auto skip function is extremely slow, it's just tedious to try to finish all the endings. This gets even worse as the entire story will always play out the same and only the very last choices actually have an impact on the ending, and then the endings are extremely short and unsatisfying. If the game wouldn't cost 5€, I might ignore all these problems, as doing one playthrough alone is still decent and fun enough, but since that one playthrough is only like 20min long and everything after that is just tedious, I simply can't recommend getting this unless you can get it on a steep sale. [h1] Check out my curator page: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34401214/] Press me [/url] [/h1]

This is an intriguing and philosophical game with beautiful graphics. However, it is very short and the interface is very basic. I got my first ending within 20 minutes of playing. I would go back and collect the other endings, but there is no saving and no skip button. This game is in dire need of a skip button. Honestly, I just don't feel like clicking through the text again. And I would have to do it a third time to get another ending. And a fourth to get another. It looks like the game has five endings in all. Give it a try if you don't mind click click clicking. I'm giving this a cautious recommended since it does look like some work was put into the game. This is the first time I wish Steam had that illusive neutral button the other reviewers keep mentioning. If the devs add a skip button I'll play through the other endings and edit my review.

Lovely story, beautiful artwork, and really pleasant music.

I don’t want to comment on the story too much since that isn’t my main problem with the game, but just a few things about it. It kind of just starts - and kind of just ends. Maybe it’s because the game is intentionally short. I think some background before the game actually starts would be nice, as the main character just immediately goes into the forest to look for her husband once you open the game. I don’t care enough about the main character and her husband to care about the choices I make. Despite the game saying you don’t need any prior knowledge about Irish folklore/mythology to play this game, I think you do, otherwise it’ll fall flat for you (AKA, me). My first main problem is the absence of a save function. Every modern game should have a save function by default at this point. No amount of justification of “this game does not have a save/load menu intentionally” should justify not having a save function. I should have the freedom to save/load before in-game choices instead of restarting the story and having to skip all the text to make a new choice. Which leads into my next point. While a skip-text button has now been added to the game, it’s not very good. It will skip text that hasn’t been read yet if you’re not careful. So, once you select a new choice, you have to scramble for the button to turn it off again, otherwise you will miss new dialogue. The skip-text function isn’t even that good as it skips the text quite sluggishly compared to other visual novels I’ve played. After having the game open for about 10-15 minutes, the text starts to lag(?). I thought maybe it was my Steam Deck having a problem with the game, as I had just updated it right before playing this game, but I had the same issue on my PC as well. This is probably because this game is made in Unity (for some reason??) instead of being built in an engine made for visual novels, which is why the game is missing basic visual novel features. This is the first time I have ever played a visual novel that visibly lags, which is hilarious. I don’t even know how you can optimise a visual novel to make it not lag, since visual novels are meant to be bare-bones as is. The art. While it’s not stated on the page for the game itself (and I think this legally(?) has to be stated if true), I have a bit of an inkling it’s AI generated. But going off the assumption it’s not since it isn’t explicitly stated, the art style of the backgrounds and the art style of the sprites are jarring. The different art styles of the sprites themselves don’t match, like they don’t belong in the same game. You’ve got a semi-realistic anime/painted style for the main character and her husband, a more anime-like style for the blue haired character, a kind of hand-drawn/textured style for the lady of the well, etc. Also, just the quality of the sprites being lower than HD and then having HD backgrounds is really weird. I can visibly see pixelated outlines where they may have been etched out of a background, which makes the sprites look messy. Finally, an endgame problem I had. One of the achievements for me was bugged. I originally started the game on my Steam Deck last night, and was able to unlock every other achievement just fine; except for the “Queen of the Forest” achievement. I reinstalled the game, tried again. Reinstalled, got a different ending first, then tried again. I installed the game on my PC, tried again. It took going into the game’s settings and changing the game version to 1.1.0 to pop the achievement. I think this game needed a lot more clean up and polish before hitting Steam.

I play visual novels occasionally, and this got me interested because of Irish mythology. Is it too embarrassing to admit that a video game made me cry? Loop did that! It’s a short story but cut right through to my heart! Story! Music! Everything worked well together. I will certainly come back to read/play it again to get other endings. And will look forward to more games from the studio.

Fun short visual novel with a dark Irish mythology vibe. I enjoyed meeting the strange characters, exploring the forest, and replaying for the different endings. It has a lot of charm and heart. Worth checking out if you like myth-inspired stories.

This game has no ability to save. It also has a broken achievement that you have to do shenaniganry that I refuse to do to get it to pop, and a skip text feature that lags because the game was made in unity and it does not enjoy being open for more than 20 minutes. I hope the devs come back and fully remaster this game with new art, story, and lots of TLC, because I do love the idea of this VN. Just not the execution of it. also something something the art looks AI adjacent and that's just not very fun.

Such a beautifull plot but heartbreaking..seaching beloved one but end-up [spoiler] losing [/spoiler] him ;-; Completed all ending routes but seemingly last achievement: Queen-forest did not pop-up. Hope they fix this. Thanks or making such a wonderful Visual Novel game. the background and bg music are magnificient too. Love them all. Recommend this for all VN lovers

Le faltan funciones básicas como guardar partida (el juego se excusa mucho de eso) y el autoskip no se puede desactivar durante una decisión por lo que, si tomás una decisión diferente, te vas a perder parte del diálogo que sigue a la decisión. El arte me llamo la atención pero ahora veo que es tanto inconsistente en los personajes y a la vez genérico. Nunca creí que jugar una novela visual sería frustrante pero Loop lo logra.