protoViolence - Definitive Edition

A great continuation of the story laid out in the previous game, malViolence. The writing is absolutely phenomenal and had both me and my chat having EMOTIONS while we played through this on stream! I have the same critique as I did with malViolence, so I've copied that section to include below: My only real critique is that the dialogue would frequently progress without my clicking to do so, with the automatic dialogue setting turned off. I understand wanting to have characters cut each other off, but when the subtitles show an entire sentence or two and the audio cuts off after the first two words, I didn't even get a chance to READ what was going to be said. Early interruptions also change the meaning of the emotion of the scene, and was very jarring to be in the flow of reading the subtitles only to have them taken away from me. Interruptions in dialogue should be treated like stage whispering: the audience knows based on other context clues that the sentence is being interrupted, while still giving the audience as much context as you can! You wrote that full dialogue, leave the full text on the screen and give us a chance to read it, especially in unvoiced sections!

I ate so good with this. The buildup throughout the entire game was great, and I could definitely feel the amount of care and love put into it! My emotions really went through the wringer and reading all the dialogue while listening the amazing music really amplified the experience. I played this blind to the series, can't wait to try malViolence!

"protoViolence - Definitive Edition" is not a game, it's an e-book that's been dumped on Steam masquerading as a game. As a visual/interactive novel, this doesn't feature any notable gameplay, it's just a lot of clicking through badly written dialogue that would never have been accepted or published in print, which poses the question, "How did something this badly written end up on Steam?". When someone hoping to become an author is unable to get published in print, they spend $100 and dump their high school fan-fiction onto Steam, under the guise of a game. This garbage high school anime club fan-fiction is an e-book about Ren'Py and its sickening consequences. It's not even a full book, it's an advertisement intended to encourage people to read another garbage non-game e-book called "malViolence" This was slapped together with the godawful Ren'Py visual novel construction kit... enabling terrible authors to publish books as if they were games when otherwise we might have been spared the pollution. So, just like no professional writing took place here, no professional software development took place, either. Visual novels/e-books are tedious at best... imagine the best novel you ever read, be that Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or 2001: A Space Odyssey or Twilight (if you have terrible taste in literature), but then translate that to a format where the words dribble out and you have to click your mouse every time you wanted to read the next sentence, instead of just turning the pages. You'd think it was garbage. Now imagine that experience, but with much worse writing (because if these guys could write professionally, they'd be published authors and this would be on shelves in bookstores, and they wouldn't have to pay Valve $100 to self-publish this on Steam), and you have your average Steam e-book. One of the chief problems with failed authors polluting Steam with non-game E-books is that E-books can easily just be presented in a web browser... there's no justification for charging money on Steam for what might as well be a webpage. We don't spend thousands on buying a gaming rig to spend money on Steam for something Chrome or Firefox could do. Despite having no up-front cost, this failed to appeal to the 130 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the e-book peaked at only 5 concurrent readers... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away. The funny thing is, if you wanted to print this book, you'd only need to print 5 copies to satisfy the entire world's demand for it. While this E-book has no up-front cost, you can get better quality, professionally written books and comics for free online (from places like Project Gutenberg) or from public libraries. Steam isn't a comic book store, neither is it Netflix, it's for games. Your gaming rig is not a Kindle. It's impossible for me to recommend things to PC gamers that aren't really games.

finally gotten around to finish this game and im genuinely surprised how well-written and plot heavy (in a good way) it is!!! i wasnt expecting it at all most likely due to my experience playing the first game, malViolence (another really good game!!!!! if you love puzzles) but i am not complaining whatsoever as someone who adores visual novel, this might be one of the ones that will be ingrained in my brain for YEARS.

I haven't played a VN that goes nowhere this long. Between a thin veil of pretension, unexplored moralizing, and 'mystery' that serves to only bloat the razor-thin narrative, it is an easy 'not recommended'.

First and foremost i recommend this game though calling this a game is a bit generuous aside from the fact that there are some interactable parts which at the end you have to check all of them so there isnt much aside from the story, there arent any choices so is mostly most readin though i do think ths story compasetes for this. Negatives though most of these are nitpicks/personals so they arent that important: A bit personal but at least i dislike how teh game is somewhat voiceacted like the scene hasnt even changed and the character will only have some voicelines with sometimes breaks imerssion to me, personally i would hav rather if they keep it all voice acted or none of it voice acted. Second the lack of choices is somewhat a issue i have there nothing wrong with there having no choices in this game as it is a prequel but i do find that choices that have personallity but choices that lack importance can still help you connect with the principal character (Deidre) and with imerssion even if they dont cahnge the ending or anything significant it can be as simple as letting you choose if the character drinks coffe or tea or in an exampole of the game which flavor sticker you give to Pavel, on the other hand: Third:the interactive choices that you have in this game for me arent the best, first they dont go with my second point has these arent choices has you have to interact with all nonethless so principally when the game starts getting to its climax this part can feel like they are interrupting the story... but i do think this is more personal it does work to see what Deidre does but the fact that we have to click on all of them just make me wonder why make it interactive at all? The only issue with the story is that if you played MalViolence (the first game) the princiaal character will be getting info and stuff tha you already now which can be a bit bad as the tension falls a bit flat when you alrady know what this is about, thats why i think this game actually work better if its the first game you play. Now the positives a summary: First ill go with music is not something i pay to much attention to but the few times i lsitened i actually like the music and that it went well with the scenarios and the feelings of the moment, the voiceactors for me did a very good job Pavel actor for me is the one who comes at mind first but its also because thats the character who show more emotion but it its still very good, i really like the scenarios though i would have like to see more i did like the few that they had, the white walls and minimalistic look really giving it the lab looks indicating how unporsonal this place is and goes along with how militaristic the place treats the children, the story pacing for me is good it really works as backstory for Cautionne. Now ill go deeper but since this is a visual novel i find it hard to go into it wihout giving spoilers so... you are warned. [spoiler] Ill talk about both of this at the same time there a notebook and a file these are a diary and a case report in that order,i like this because it helps understand how Deidre is both censoring and hiding information from the higher ups as Deidre gets close to Pavel i think it does a good job to separate the personal and not personal side of Deidre. There also the phone Deidre is texting what seems to be Deidre teacher/mentor, this helps to see how Deidre interacts with someone who they actually trust aside from showing more in depth both the conflict that Deidre has aside form the how responsaible are for the cybernetics and experiments going on the place, the computer is were the interviews between Pavel and Deidre happens this works more has to show the attachment that both characters have for eachother aside from helping you the player to get attached to Pavel, after you interact with all of this the princiapl story happens,normally you get a data and it starts the start of the story is good its intrduces the charcaters fairly well the mitilaristic atitude of the children and empty white corridors already give you the notion that something is wrong with this place and the way that it advances, the story gives you time to know Pavel and the rest of the character while the story slows but never stops as Deidre is always looking for more info on the place... Deidre is a good job at making a charcter relatable and work for a plcae like this (works better if you havent played Malviolence) but you can understand why Deidre does and the why and despite playing the first game this game did let me be inmerss enough that the twist and tention still work adn the game made me cry a bit which is something not a lot of games can do (though children are my drama weakpoint) there is also nice forshadowing point for some stuff that happens in MalViolence, the fact that we are seeing this through some diffrent method and as if we were looking at files ia also very innovative and i like it, at the end is a nice game for what it is is short but i particularly enjoy it a lot the scene with Pavel after the surgeries are alwyas shocking and made for a good point of both care and as the realization of how truly ♥♥♥♥♥♥ upt the place is, though i would have like to see a bit more i do liek how dr.Tan and Deidre start as friends from a whole time but has Deidre realize how bad this place is and what is doing to the children Dr.Tan and Deidre start drifting apart as Dr.Tan keeps defending the place even has Deidre keeps figuing out more and more bad stuff with at the end truly showing Dr.Tan is all for the better mentallity, Shri is also a nice addition though not has relevant, she feels like her own character whiel still helping Pavel character has she is his best friend, it show how lonely adn despite all optimistic Pavel is, its also a good show of how positivetly Pavel affect Shri and also a good look in how the pressure that this place but in children its not good if you are on the bottom like Pavel the children ended up being hated by the others as when one children struggles or missbehave they and theri groupg (of other two children or the whole classroom dpends on what) gets punished with lead the children to start resenting the missbehaving which is a struggle for kids like Pavel which simply have some learning disabilty with this place doesnt account for teaching all the kids the same, at the same time childre like Shri can also suffer has being on top ends up puting a lot of pressure on the children, its good to see how such a positive extroverted kids as Pavel helps Shri and the effect that Pavel ausence makes on Shri when he is ausent/hurt.[/spoiler] Aside from that yeah... overall a good game i like how the date is shown for each day and month allowing us to ahve a notion of how much time passes between what we see and the few critiques that i have are mor nitpicks/personal things, its a short game but its also free, for last notes the art whic is good is still similar to the first game which helps but i always like it is a sytle with is consistent but it allows for diffrent character to have diffrent bodies and faces which make it easier to remember the game and to like them,the table in which you interact with stuff also changes depending on what happens on the story which is a nice detail. Now ill stop writing befor i start repeating myself more has my brain does want to keep talking about the game, i recommend the game and i do hope everyone enjoys it,ill come back if i think if orgotten about something but i am alkmost sure i written anything, lots of love and cheers!

As of writing this review I have only played protoViolence and have not played malViolence. I enjoyed reading through the story, the characters were well written, I hated the character made to be hated, and I dreading for the future of the main two. Going in I knew it was going to be a psychological horror, but was not expecting the degree of body horror. The art in the game was very good and haunting, I love the choices made for some of the scene, the use of negative space and the camera angles.

its rlly good ;-;