[code]Not a lot of people know about this game, and probably it should stay this way. This is going to be a rant, and I apologize in advance but I need to vent [b]hard[/b].[/code]
[b]R is for Rachel[/b] is a visual novel about a queer girl Joan who falls in love with her neighbour Rachel. When I've read the name for the first time, I scoffed, to be honest, instantly remembering Life is Strange. But the premise got me, and I thought I should at least try the demo... It was horrible. I hated it so much I needed to complain to everyone. After some time, though, I felt shameful. Maybe I'm being too critical? Maybe I should give this game a chance, it was just a demo. So I bought it.
[h2]Is there anything good in the game?[/h2]
Uhh... no, not really. I honestly can't come up with any praises here.
[h2]Okay. What was bad, then?[/h2]
You really wanna know? First of all, thank you. Second — sit down, babe, we'll be here for a while.
1. The art looks awful. Remember that filter in Photoshop which made everything look as if it was drawn? I think every picture in this game was created with some sort of filter like that. Looks sloppy.
2. You cannot change the text speed, which is a must-have for any VN.
3. Lots of typos/errors. I had a feeling that the writer's first language is not English — this is not a bad thing, of course, but in that case you need to hire someone to edit or translate the text. While we're here, the writing style is no good either, and the dialogues are full of "he/she said" after every phrase.
4. The main schtick of the game is that sometimes you can type your actions. Honestly, the dumbest thing I've ever seen. You can't choose what you're doing, it's always "write the right action to progress", and there are moments when it's not obvious what the game wants. There are like 3 or 4 times when you do need to choose something, but in these cases you usually write "yes" or "no" and that's it. The choices do not impact the plot, btw.
5. The plot is stupid, underdeveloped, and incoherent. I've saved this for last, because you know, if the plot was actually good, I would probably forgive all the bad things. But the characters are shallow, there are constant time skips, even though there [i]should be[/i] time to develop the characters. Every person in this game kinda feels like a parody.
Here's a recap: Joan (MC) has an anxiety disorder and doesn't have any friends because of that. Almost every social interaction is hard for her, she finds it difficult to speak with most people. Joan's mother, Anna, is worried Joan doesn't have friends, so she forces her to meet the neighbours (Rachel and her mother, Samantha) and invite them for dinner. Joan does exactly that, all goes well, and they have a dinner together.
At some point Joan and Rachel go outside, talk for like 5 minutes and then start kissing, even though there wasn't even any spark. Okay. After that they become girlfriends and, as I assume, almost always spend their free time together, but the game doesn't show that, so I don't know for sure. At the same time Joan is getting bullied at school, and her parents are constantly fighting because Anna thinks that James (her husband) is cheating on her.
That's basically most of the story without any boring and unnecessary details. I've told you all of this since I want to share the dumbest plot twist. [spoiler]Turns out, James is actually cheating, and his mistress turns out to be Rachel. Also Rachel apparently wants James to divorce Anna so that they can be together forever. What? Why?? Joan finds out about all of this and decides that she's too tired for this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. (For the first time, I feel you, Joan.) You can probably guess what she wants to do, especially if I tell you her next actions make the whole situation even more dramatic.[/spoiler]
I have so many questions, I still don't know where to start. [spoiler]Why did Rachel date Joan AND her father (stepfather? not sure)?? Why did Rachel lie she has no attraction to men?[/spoiler]
What's the point of this story? Is it to show that we shouldn't bully anxious depressed teenagers because otherwise they might do something awful to themselves? If yes, was that really the best story you could come up with?
[h2]Let's resume...[/h2]
I honestly don't think that the creators of the game made it so bad on purpose. I can even imagine that [b]R is for Rachel[/b] was created as a cautionary tale. But this tale is cautionary only for the people who create games and stories. You need to make an effort to create a good story. If you do not, you might end with an awful by-product such as this.
Please do not waste your money on this. Even if you want to hate-read, it's a miserable experience.
[quote]🌟 If you want to see more reviews by me, check out my curator page → [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45309733/]Anna's Misadventures[/url] 💛[/quote]
