Order of Ataxia: Initial Effects

No reviews for this one? Guess I'll give it a shot. This is a visual novel. If you've never played one of those, gameplay consists of reading and making choices. Basically a choose your own adventure. TL;DR at the end. At the time of this review, the game is not fully voiced (it will be getting a voice patch later, according to the store page). I completed a single path through the game, and reloaded before the final choice to get a second ending. Took me 3.5 hours. ART: You can see the art in the screenshots on the store page. It remains consistant the whole way through. Characters have several facial expressions and a couple poses. The game is tagged with nudity; there was a bath scene in my playthrough. The phrase, convenient censorship, applies here. The bits that put up all the red flags are hidden by steam / beams of light / splashes of water / etc. WRITING: The writing usually flows rather well, but there were a few times where I had to reread the lines to figure out exactly what a character was trying to say, or what point the narration was trying to get across. There was one time where I actually could not figure it out, and was forced to continue teh gmae hoping that the meaning would become evident by the following lines (I still don't know what they meant, but I get the impression that whatever it was, was less than important to the story). The game would benefit from having the editor take another look through the dialogue, or using a few less pronouns. There are some phrases that may not be used correctly. Example (this one isn't in the game, but should give you an idea): "Stuck between a rock and a heart place," could be used to explain a situation where you are forced to make an emotional commitment or be met with immediete pain; however, the correct phrase is, "stuck between a rock and a hard place," depicting a situation where you have two choices, both of with are undesireable. Lastly, there are more than a handful of cultural / product references. Famous actors, snack products, etc. I live in the USA, and I understood all the references. Your results may vary. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: I cannot vouch for every character's development; I picked the game up for the girl with the animal ears, and focused fairly exclusively on her route. Throughout her path she doesn't change too much. Likewise the main character doesn't change much either. He also has more agency than most main characters in visual novels. You will still make decisions for him, but expect him to handle the results with his own flare and panache. For example, sleeping next to the ever-lighthearted, animal-earred girl might be worth having your back all scrathed up by her claws, to you. For the main character, he won't willingly do it. If you do manage to make decisions that get him to do it, expect him to complain about it later. Overall, you won't find super deep insight to the characters, but you will understand their tropes and how they go about their lives. STORY: Do not expect a life-changing adventure. The story itself isn't bad, but if you're looking for an epic adventure full of "the feels" and catharsis, you probably won't find it here. What you will find is a fun little adventure. Unfortunately, you will be joining the adventure at the end of the main character's quest, and he and his animal-earred companion will make easily understood references to things that you were not specifically there to experience. Personally, I was a little disappointed with the ending I got, but the ending itself makes perfect sense considering the personalities of both the main character and his companion. MUSIC: Unfortunately, I was not able to experience the music (or voices). Played teh game while waiting for my new speakers to arrive, the old speakers are inoperable. When I get teh chance, I will go back through the game with sound, and update my review afterwards. TL;DR: ART: On par, see the scrrenshots on the store page. Nudity conveniently censored. No H-scenes on my playthrough. WRITING: Usually well-written. Occasionally confusing. Some problematic phrases / cultural references. CHARACTERS: Minimal change throughout the game. Wouldn't call them one dimensional, but they aren't super deep either. RECOMMENDED: I had fun following along during the 3.5 hour adventure, though without the voices I think the pricetag might be a dollar or two too high ($7 would probably be ideal).

A visual novel with alot of hidden, subtle moral lessons within, though quite obvious upon first appearing but sadly underplayed and undervalued. The light heartedness, comedic tone is the centralized theme, despite the light heartedness it has the potential to be something much more. Regardless the reason, it never manages to dive deep into the world and characters, only giving out the bear minimum. Despite being bear, it has done well with the overall atmosphere, creating sufficent substance which manages to fill in the missing gaps. While, remaning faithful towards its original tone, light hearted adventures of Doctor Charles Malcolm and his beautiful assistant Fallor. A visual novel, I'd recommend if you have the time or a peculiar urge of fluffy fox ear'd girls.

Not a bad VN with choices and multiple endings, story is ok but didint really do it for me.

Really nice game with a good story.

I had fun going through this game to catch the endings for those characters that I was most interested in learning about. It's easy to love the quirky, mischievous types, which Fal falls into, but in general the gamut of characters you can interact with is intriguing. I went through the game to get two of character's endings, which I found quite charming. The backdrop that the story takes place in is another layer of personality to the story, which I finished in two sittings, but you could possibly do in one extended sitting? It was nice to finish a story instead of losing interest and never getting to the end.

The personality of all the girls made me angry. I hated them all, and the only thing that got me through the game was the desire to unistall it.

I rarely ever write reviews but I like the developers other visual novels and this one didn't quite reach that expectations but even so it's by no means bad. I didn't write a review so much as make two lists but it's what came to mind so that's what I did and now I'll go to waiting for the next Rising Angels episode. :) Bellow are my positives and negatives for the visual novel. Bad/what could be improved: - Better audio visual feedback when you click something, like a sound effect or the text to scroll. I discovered that there is a text scroll but by default the text speed is set to max? If it was set by default so we could seee the scroll then we would decide if we wanted it or not. - The menus/UI is hard to look at. Especially because you can't immidiatly tell what the buttons are. - The game starts up in window mode. Don't do this unless you are trying to be retro. - Typos - The ending was very abrupt. Good: - The art is pretty and high quality. - Music is good but a little too loud at times. - The story & characters - I feel like this could have led to other stories/adventures with Fallore and the Doctor.