Scar of the Doll

Gotta admit - this visual novel was worth the price. The visual part isn't great, but the novel part is fantastic. A few twists and turns with the story, and an interesting conclusion. Also, great to see a visual novel that isn't about adult content.

Let’s get this out of the way first: this is [i]not[/i] a AAA game, it’s a low-budget independent visual novel that clearly lack polish. Location backgrounds are reused, music loop points are very obvious, the dialog feels flat at times, and some of the characters feel under-developed. It’s also very linear – there’s one ending, and very little possible variation in the journey. The puzzles, if you can call them that, are relatively simple. There are plenty of ways to die, but it’s fairly easy to work out the correct sequence of actions. For early deaths, the game even tells you where you went wrong. There was only one point where I had trouble working out what I was supposed to do. None of that gets in the way of the thought-provoking story Hidehisa Miyashita tells. There’s plenty of suspense and surprises, and you really don’t know how all the pieces will fit together. It leaves you with plenty to think about. The game does feel dated – it’s definitely a product of the late 1990s. It’s not surprising that it didn’t receive an English translation at the time. I won’t say it’s an overlooked masterpiece or a must-play classic, but you can see its influence on later visual novels and interactive fiction. Considering the low price and frequent discounts, it’s good value. You’ll probably find it particularly interesting if you appreciated Miyashita’s writing for the RPG Folklore.

Interesting visual novel experience that had me drawn in from the get go. Has some twists and turns along the way and never gets boring or loses momentum.

Juego cortito y agradable. La historia es un poco predecible pero eso no quita que tenga giros de guión interesantes. Ideal para una tarde aburrida!

A good story with some traces of sci-fi. That's it. It's a VN where the only "branching paths" lead to a game over, but it's always clear where you went wrong (just keep saving in different slots).

Chill horror game 90's vibe kinda fun

I wanted to like it. I saw a video essay on YouTube that didnt spoil anything and decided to give it a try. It underwhelmed my expectations by a wide margin. It’s very clunky, slow, repetitive, and the surprise can be guessed from the beginning. Do not recommend.

This game is not perfect, the character models are cropped, how you get killed and what the "right" choices are to progress though the story are very random, collect this item but don't examine it or you get a bad end is a very frustrating approach to choice based outcomes. It is totally possible to ignore all that though as the game is very short. Yes it's a waste of time but not too much time. What this game really nails is the story. It just takes so many weird turns throughout and its very hard to tell what is going to happen up until the end, feels very fresh. While the soundtrack is somewhat repetitive, that one song from the soundtrack that plays everywhere and is unnamed is cool too. Cool game overall, really good story but the overall package does lack some polish (there is a mouse cursor in one of the screenshots) but then again at least we got an English translation. Makes you wonder how many more of these crazy stories we are missing out on from this era of Japanese visual novels. For how criminally cheap this is, definitely worth it.

Great if short horror/mystery visual novel. There are plenty of ways to die and some of them seem like some nonsense but it's worth pushing through. Make sure to save often and keep rolling saves.

A fun and lovingly-presented little thriller.