Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain

A super enoyable VN about commiting or not commiting crime, depending on your personal tastes. I enjoyed the writing and game mechanics enough to play through it several times to unlock all of the endings. I appreciated how easy the devs made it to skip stuff you have already seen on subsequent playthroughs, it made for a very seamless experience when collecting all endings. Overall a fun comic-book styled crime caper!

This game has a great story that focuses on being true to yourself and making sure that you stay as honest to who you are. I truly recomend picking it up, as there is a lot of playability here. Have fun with it!

I don't usually play Visual Novels, but this one was recommended by a trustworthy source - and it was a lot of fun! The three main villain-employers have delightful depth, with motivation and backstory that fosters a desire to see each of their plots through - and then, play through the next one. However, it's not simply a retry of the same game - each run-through took about two hours, and each one adds more to the overarching narrative, culminating in a much bigger story. I played it on my Steam Deck, and it felt exactly right for the platform. It was great for the flight I was on, in a format that worked well for long-distance travel.

LOVE-4000 THIS GAME! I played Arcade Spirits and loved it, but Penny Larceny drew me in and wouldn't let me go in a whole new way. Visual Novels with multiple endings, been there and done that. Penny rewards you in new ways for finishing a run; urges you on to do another, with every run completed you get a little closer to the ending that is perfect (the player chooses it, so perfection is very subjective). For players that have played Arcade Spirits there are some fun throwbacks in here, too! Further than that, the game has so much to say that feels really timely. The bad guys? Capitalism, greed, hatred, systemic injustice. It has a lot to say about all those things. In fact, once played through ALL the scenarios, it takes things that are wrong with our world, and explains it, gives the player a sense of hope - there is a path through and forward even in a world that feels hopeless with how convoluted, messy and painful it gets. Of course, that is all in a fantasy context of superheroes and supervillains, but to me it was no less effective, and I really enjoyed the writing and the characters! In short, for someone who cares a lot about the world, this is an amazing feel-good game by way of how it acknowledges what's messed up and gives actual suggestions on how these issues can be dealt with. Music is great too. I love that the supervillain soundtrack is upbeat jazz! I've been listening to the title song after finishing playing ("Back of the House" performed by Alice Knows Karate).

A fun visual novel that incorporates the player and branching narrative into the story quite well. You're a voice on Penny Larceny's shoulder, giving them tips and suggestions on where and how to crime. They've got the standard thiefly skills of being quite agile, picking locks, that sort of thing, and I never ran into cases where wrong choices mean you fail, the game seems quite forgiving of these things. But there's a rating system so better choices *do* get rewarded, if only in the satisfaction of seeing five stars for a particular caper. Each playthrough is relatively short, you should be able to get through one in an hour or so. But a choice of multiple capers and different decisions you can make on each caper gives you a fair bit of variety in each run, and like most VNs, you can skip text you've already seen.

When pizza is on a bagel, you can have pizza anytime. (Even when you're a mask.)

I enjoyed it alot and the replayability factor is seemingly good, even if I have been foiled for now. Somehow though I found myself rushing through the text. I don't know if its I was in a bad mood and impatient, or the dialog sometime felt it wasn't going anywhere. Regardless I recomend this game but suggest you play arcade spirits first as they are set in the same multiverse and somehow this is slightly a sequal despite everything.

The writing contains an excellent mixture of silliness, heartfelt talks about emotion, and excellent moral compass about current societal issues/human rights. I can't think of anything that rubbed me the wrong way. This writing gets my support.

I just grabbed this on a whim because I thought it looked fun and ended up really pleasantly surprised at how deep and well-made this is! It's very [i]Young Justice[/i] in that it starts off light-hearted but goofy little jokes and puns become significant and meaningful later on. The writing is what really makes it stand out among visual novels. The characters are really well thought out and internally consistent. It also handles the presence of an omnipotent player really well. You're a voice in the head of the protagonist, and it's not just a plot device - it's an essential part of the plot itself. I thought it all worked out really well. As Penny you pick different villains to work with as their minion and encounter different heroes along the way. Each starts off seeming like a caricature, but most of them end up a lot deeper than they come across at first. This seems like the result of the writers really thinking about how a superhero v. supervillain theme could actually exist in our world, and what the fallout would be. Took me just over ten hours to see the whole thing. If you're into VNs and comic books at all I really recommend it. Thanks for making this, I really loved it!

I thoroughly enjoyed Fiction Factory's earlier visual novel offerings, the two Arcade Spirits games, but this takes things to the next level, building upon the successes of those titles while avoiding some of their weaknesses. In these types of visual novels, replaying to find alternate paths is part of the process -- but that can get repetitive and tedious. Here, that process is baked into the gameplay, giving the replays purpose. A single playthrough is satisfying and fun, but each iteration reveals new things. The game could repeat itself and be fun enough, but instead it keeps ramping up. It managed to surprise me more than once. Like the Arcade Spirits games, this one wears its politics on its sleeve and its tone is full of a certain kind of earnestness. Some may find this off-putting, of course, but it feels a bit more organic here than in the earlier games, and everything is presented in a thoughtful and self-reflective manner. The game clearly expresses opinions, but it frequently demonstrates how and why those opinions were formed, and sometimes acknowledges weaknesses and complications in its own thinking. More importantly than all that, the game is engaging throughout, and frequently very funny. I laughed aloud on several occasions. The subject matter is also more broadly appealing than that of Arcade Spirits, including elements that should appeal to fans of several different genres, and not requiring any particular deep knowledge to appreciate (though rewarding those in the know with a variety of subtle and not-so-subtle references). Arcade Spirits fans also have a few cameos to look forward to. As with many visual novels, there actually isn't much game here -- success is assured if you have the patience to work your way through all the paths. But gameplay isn't really the point; it's a tremendously entertaining experience, and the interactive format lets you explore it on your own terms. I strongly recommend this one!