No Random Novels

A mostly lighthearted and somewhat satirical visual novel for those that want something that you can just turn your brain off and enjoy. I haven't finished all the routes (I finished 2 of them - Seho's and Fran's, and there is a Kairen ending and a Normal ending). The endings are decided by mostly unimportant choices scattered throughout the game in a stat-raising style, and the game can even tell you which choice corresponds to which character. There isn't really plot branching, so if you played a route you basically know what happens in the plot. There are small moments for each character in their respective route that kinda develops their relationship with the main character. As a result, there was a lot of skipping in my second playthrough, and it takes quite some time to skip between choices and it felt like a little bit of a waste of time (I played for 8 hours total according to the time steam recorded, I think playing the second route was only 2 hours and a vast majority of that was skipping time - I don't think reading the extra scenes took more than half an hour, to be honest) There's also a lot of potential for the development of certain characters and their personalities/backgrounds that I feel like could definitely been expanded on to provide more depth, but it felt skimmed through. The main character also wasn't very interesting (which for me personally is an important thing, so that may just be a me problem), and a lot of the issues felt shallow and the way they were dealt with contributed to that feeling. I just feel like more things should have been more thoroughly explored, especially since there was a lot of filler content that just felt boring and skip-able. And my biggest gripe - no Lucian Route? His character felt the most interesting of them all and had many implications for something deeper going on and it just felt weird for there to seem like there was buildup for nothing more to happen with his character. I feel like it's worth it if you have money to spare and free time to just relax, or if it's on sale, but otherwise it's probably not really worth it to spend a full US $30. It's a pretty solid game with the concept and what it was trying to do, and I admit most of my complaints above were kind of based on my own high expectations especially with other games in its genre (I wouldn't really recommend this game if you are on a budget, because you can get more plot-intense games with longer content such as Hashihime or Slow Damage or Beyond Eden for around the same price). It's also ported from mobile, so the UI and controls are a little weird at times (for instance, it's easier to scroll by clicking and dragging vs using the scroll function on your mouse) Tldr: Solid game, it's exactly what it's advertised, although a bit repetitive and won't really satisfy those who are looking for very complex characterization or plot. A bit overpriced in my opinion so maybe wait for a sale or if you have disposable income. It feels a bit more like an otome game/dating sim rather than most BL games, so manage your expectations. Choices don't really matter much besides a few character-specific scenes and a character-specific ending depending on what character most of your choices correspond to. A fun light read that feels more like slice of life than anything.

재미없어요 ㅠㅠ

loved this game! it's been on my wishlist for a little while that i honestly forgot about it until it went on sale and i binge played it and wasn't disappointed. went in expecting seho to be my fave and quickly went with fran's route (i typically have an order planned when i begin visual novels like this). i was sort of surprised by it because i have never particularly favored yandere characters, specifically because i don't particular enjoy routes where characters are a walking red flag, but i ignored them for this one instance. kairan is positively adorable as well. now that i've completed, however, i had the most fun with kairan's route. all the art and characters are absolutely beautiful. i spent the whole time obsessing over their outfits as well and how perfect i think they each suited their characters. there were a few awkward parts of the dialogue and one or two instances of accidental misnaming characters, but it's easy to understand what was meant to be said. definitely recommend this if you have some time! the story was interesting, and i wish the game was a bit longer.