Siren's Call: Free Beta Edition

UwU

6

Either I am stupid or this game is a loop

no

Siren's Call is a game that fails at being scary in any sense of the word, but succeeds in creating an experience that feels wholly unique to the visual novel medium. I typically don't write reviews (mostly just popped on steam at all for this one), but there's something about the way this game weaves its very specific flavor of dread into not just the narrative, but every aspect of its design, that is worth mention. I've decided this game's singular purpose is in making the player doubt themselves. Just about everything funnels back into that idea. The signposting on how to navigate some of the dialogue choices is cryptic, the game's initial goal is weirdly mundane, and the character's motivations are far from clear until DEEP into the story. While that sounds like sloppy design, what all this does is perfectly put you in the mindset of the game's main character, Oliver, and lets experience his struggles in getting out of tricky situations with people first hand. You really do just kind of become this guy by the end of it all, and while I wouldn't exactly call that "scary", it does lead to some pretty stressful conversations and memorable scenes between him and his friends. Like, the game will do ♥♥♥♥ like erase your saves at the end of every chapter simply to make you think "did I do something wrong?!?" It will tell you to try again upon failing a loop. Hell, it will make you feel like you've failed every chance it possibly can. But this is clearly by design. Normally when I play a visual novel, I can sense some kind of attempt on the part of the writer to get me to feel something. But with Siren's Call, there was only one thing ALL the conversations and design choices led back to: uncertainty. This focus on uncertainty is a potentially horrible thing to center your game around if you want anybody to actually enjoy playing it, but from a ludo-narrative perspective, it's nothing short of masterful writing. I imagine some people are going to feel insecure playing this game, like they've done something wrong. Like they've ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up. But that sensation and how to move PAST that sensation kinda feels like the entire point of the novel. And the intention of this uncertainty is reinforced by the game's passionate (though admittedly blunt) theming. The kids here may talk in overly theatrical ways, but all that really does is add to the sense that none of what you're experiencing is actually real. It's all very tightly woven together, and once an actual sense of normalcy is established by the game's end, it feels earned and refreshing. Honestly, Siren's Call is strongest when it's attempting to ♥♥♥♥ with the player like that. While the "scares" (if you can even call them that) aren't scary, they ARE delightfully bizarre and add to this general vibe of confusion and mystery. Have you ever been having a seemingly normal conversation with a friend, and then they just say something completely out of pocket (but not exactly out of character) but keep talking like they didn't? That is the kind of vibe this game seems to fixate on. Even when compared to other VNs I've read in the genre, it feels wholly unique to this game. Splendid stuff. That being said, the UI is not the best. There were some crashes that were very much not by design (the game doesn't do the whole meta-narrative thing, so these were probably just bugs) and the art is somewhat inconsistent. You can tell this is a rookie project...you really can. Apparently this is just the demo version or prototype version or whatever, but I seriously hope the dev addresses these things in the final release. What we have here visually and in terms of user experience just isn't on the same quality as story itself. The music is pretty good though, but the visual part of this visual novel feels almost like an afterthought. In short, play this game if your okay with something that will throw you for a loop, but is a bit funky. With a bit more polish, this could be a masterpiece. As it stands though, even though a visual novel is the only kind of story this story could be, this VN still feels somewhat lacking. If you can get past the jank though, you'll find a true diamond in the rough. I know I did.

After the first "day," you'll find that this isn't a dating simulator, but a different type of visual novel entirely. In the next few "days," you'll learn that there's a lot to find out about you (the MC) and all your friends with events that happened before Siren's Call. You'll also love the music and all the characters. The characters all bring a unique personality to the story and you'll enjoy your interactions with them as you read through the VN and you'll sometimes want to just let the music play in the background as you do something else.

Yes.

Pretty good, if you have patience to stick with it past its seemingly unoriginal front. I promise you it's not just DDLC again.

man oliver is just like me fr (autistic and bad at poetry)