malViolence - Definitive Edition

The character you'll primarily interact with is so damn charismatic that it's impossible not to like him by the end of it. The puzzles are fun and multiple difficulties ensure that you can get to the end even if puzzling's not your forte. The game does a good job of illuminating a pretty dark story through tidbits of info strewn about the game, and it rewards you for paying attention -- the good end is absolutely the best ending, and the bad end is by far the least satisfying. I want Cautionne to do evil things to me before he leaves me face-down in a rural ditch.

The Devs, specifically Mado, reached out to me based on my appreciation of Visual Novels and asked if I wanted to check out the malViolence, citing it as a sci-fi, puzzle based, visual novel. What I found was an expertly crafted puzzle game with a short, yet highly intriguing story with hints of the dystopic world wrapped around it. For those who enjoy solving complex puzzles, you can raise the difficulty to your standards. For the rest of us, normal was brain-straining enough and easy should suit someone who wants to focus on the story. The devs were kind enough to throw in a skip button as well...which I regret to say I did use, ONLY ONCE! The character writing was fantastic, the partial voice acting was superb, the art was charming from start to finish and I was sad to find myself at the end so soon! I'm amazed they just give away an indie gem like this for FREE. I'm definitely looking forward playing the prequel and the sequel soon!

I was contacted by the dev to check out the game and found the artstyle really captivating. The story was great! Characters were interesting and lovable and the voice acting was amazing too. Overall enjoyable play! The puzzles were interesting and fun, though some posed quite a challenge (mostly bc i'm a bit incompetent) but there's easier/harder levels and guides certainly helped. And if puzzles aren't your thing either you can skip them (which was very useful when trying to get the different endings). So if anything, definitely give it a try for the story even if you're not a puzzle person!

I love puzzles of all kinds, and the puzzles in this game were *top notch*! I am used to doing puzzle games on hard with no sweat but this was actually complex and I loved every minute of it. I highly recommend this one if you enjoy things like Danganronpa and Zero's Escape!

havent had the chance to write a proper review here (since i knew this game through itchio first) but truly this game was very enjoyable for me to finish! as someone who loves visual novels AND mystery/escape room games, malviolence ticked a lot of boxes for my puzzle-solving brain itch :D did not know theres a second (and THIRD?? GAME??) so ill make sure to check those out as well!!

Short yet emotional! The 2d art is really eye-catching, the music is fun and fitting, and the voice acting is really well done I'm not really good at the puzzles, buuuut I think that's just a skill issue on my part lol.. They're fun but I'm a bit of a dum dum when it comes to stuff like this But yeah I really enjoyed myself with this! Def gonna be checking out the prequel and the next game when it comes out.

i haven't played the prologue yet but i'm already really intrigued by this story and how the past is slowly revealed to the mc, i'm not very good at puzzles even though i love escape rooms so i appreciated the different levels and ability to skip the artstyle is also lovely, i'm looking forward to the future game already