Symbiotic Love - Yuri Visual Novel

[h1]The Princess and the Pauper[/h1] Ah, I was really looking forward to this, but I don't think I've ever had such a hard time deciding whether to recommend a game or not. [i][b]Symbiotic Love[/b][/i] (SL) is a prequel to [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/drugoja/recommended/1387460/][i]Melancholy Love[/i][/url] (ML) and even though it comes to the western audience after it, it's actually the first visual novel in the [i]Linghua Yuri Series[/i] (four novels all set in the same all-girls academy). But this prequel/sequel situation creates some unforeseen expectations. Since I read Melancholy Love first and was quite enchanted by its poetic sensibility, but also aware of its tendency to get too one-note and melodramatic, my expectations were two-fold. On one hand, I expected the same magic and sparkling romantic tension; on the other, I hoped for way more drama to balance the sometimes too flowery prose and fluff. I regret to say that I was disappointed on both counts for a good chunk of the VN and only the second part saved it for me. Why did I even expect some big drama when ML was a fairly simple love story? There are two characters, teacher and the headmaster, whose story in the past was just hinted, but it seemed quite dramatic and interesting. That story is now told here in SL and I was so looking forward to it when I heard of it being localised. There were hints of some great tragedy occurring and that's exactly what the very start of this VN promises. It practically opens on a tragedy (not a spoiler, it's the first scene) and then uses two timelines, the before and after, to tell what led to it. So content warning for yuri fans: this isn't a happily ever after, perfectly sweet and fluffy love story. But then, why did it waste so much time on fluff? But before I go into that, let's look at the all the things this novel does right. Comparing it to ML is just inevitable, from the pretty visuals and soft melancholic music to the characters' look and types, everything is very similar that it's impossible not to. Same backgrounds and music pieces are used, for example. So, SL is another attractive package, sadly marred by all the same technical issues due to the engine used.*1 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2561485189 The one thing I really enjoyed in ML, the use of flower symbolism, is also present here, this time through lycoris and higanbana, blue and red spider lilies, which were used to represent the new/old couple, [i]Jisuo[/i] and [i]Zihua[/i], and their symbiotic relationship. Zihua is even called the Lycoris Princess, the embodiment of distant beauty and elegance, but also devil's gentleness. Clear parallels can be drawn between them and the couple from ML, from their design to character types. Zihua is a classic beauty with perfect long black hair and intense stare, appears cold and aloof, with practiced poker face and a put-on facade; it's hard not to see [i]Qianxue[/i] in her. On the other hand, Jisuo is down to earth, humble, impulsive, earnest, gentle - she's what [i]Mianxue[/i] is under all that grumpiness. Girls were presented as opposites here too: gloomy-cheerful, elegant-humble, rich-poor... Milady and the Pauper... Contrast was drawn pretty sharply between their mothers as well: overbearing businesswoman, a control freak vs kind, hardworking but understanding housewife (hm). One is a 'mom', the other 'that woman'. This is a coming-of-age story, but it's much more than just growing pains. Zihua's situation with her mother is straight up emotional abuse and every scene between them was very tense and uncomfortable. But I also would've liked more insight into her, beyond an almost cartoony villain. On the other hand, Jisuo's mom was too good. Well, we do see them from the girls' perspectives... I also wondered if, underneath it all, this is ultimately a story about two single moms. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2561486410 One thing I found quite weaker than in ML was [b]romantic chemistry[/b]. Romantic tension in ML was through the roof, fueled by all those misunderstandings and bickering. It was also fun. Not so much here. Here the whole group is more involved and for the good chunk of it, it's more about friendship, about Zihua learning to rely on somebody, to show weakness and a rather awkward, vulnerable girl under all that melted ice. She inspires protection from Jisuo and so they were from pretty early on positioned into the princess-knight roles. There were some nice, pretty sensual romantic moments later on, culminating in Romeo and Juliet play as an embodiment of doomed, forbidden love. Speaking of [b]bickering[/b], oh there is quite a lot of it, but it's mostly between 'supporting' cast, [i]Qingwei[/i] (the teacher from ML, here a class monitor) and [i]Jianyu[/i] (an airhead, kind of like Yuxi). So we have another group of four with the role of easing Zihua into this strange thing called friendship she was always denied. I understand the point of it, but my god, it was too much. Boring conversations about food (enough!), never-ending, annoying boob jokes (are girls really so obsessed with their chests? don't think so) and constant inane back-and-forth that lacks wit and charm. It just wasn't as fun as in ML which kept reins on it and was also the perfect length, not overstaying its welcome. This VN is much longer and that's almost all because of this unchecked fluff. ML was a simple love story with not much space to screw it up. Here, it's a more complex situation and wasting time on chit-chat is inexcusable. In ML obstacles are mostly internal, part of growing up; here they are external, insurmountable, these girls are unable to transcend their roles and that's why it's a tragedy, Romeo and Juliet style. It started with one and that scene hangs over your head throughout and should create anticipation, but dragging the fluff beyond all sense while taking shortcuts with important developments almost completely kills it. The alternating of timelines was ripe for some interesting insights, but ultimately wasn't used to its full potential. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2561487630 In hindsight, some shortcuts were probably deliberate (and I can't say much cause, spoilers) but that doesn't do much to improve my impression. The result is that I was bored for a good half of this VN. Thankfully, the second part saved it. With its visuals, music and half-understandable Shakespearean translation (can't judge it), the Romeo and Juliet school play was where it all came together to create a powerful romantic and thematic peak. It was truly amazing (even if cheesy) that it almost made me forgive all the previous flaws. There are five endings here, but only one truly matters, the Symbiotic Flower ending, all the others are more like half-endings. And even that one is also left quite open, refusing to put the dot on the tragedy, to close the curtain, to seal the finality. And as we know from ML, that creates a bit of hope... And I hope this story continues in [b][i]Eternal Love[/i][/b] as well. This being the first VN, it means the series is only getting better (positivity!) Maybe it looks like I've complained too much (I have), but that's because all the ingredients are there to make it a truly powerful story, hence my disappointment. In the end, I decided to recommend it for its good parts. I'm also aware that I might be less tolerant to pointless 'cute girls doing cute things' which yuri fans would be inclined to forgive and even enjoy (hell, they'll probably eat it up). Still, from a storytelling perspective, it's needlessly draggy without a truly fulfilling pay off. Make of it what you will! [h3][quote][b]Reviewed by [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40848670/]Drugoja In The Dreaming[/url][/b][/quote][/h3] [b]Curator copy via [i]Otome Sekai[/i][/b]

[h1][i]NOTE: This is a prequel to another great yuri visual novel called Melancholy Love. I reviewed the first game too, and you can read my thoughts about it [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/futabatian/recommended/1387460?snr=1_5_9__402] here[/url].[/i][/h1] Melancholy Love was a very pleasant and surprisingly unforgettable experience for me that left a lot of bittersweet memories. So I was quite thrilled when I was offered a copy of Symbiotic Love for reviewing (thanks to Kikai Digital for the trust and very soft deadlines). Now, all this being said, it is high time to actually talk about the game at hand. And trust me, Symbiotic Love is worth your attention. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2562002139 [h1] 𝐼 𝒜𝓂 𝒶 𝐹𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝑅𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜, 𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝒮𝒽𝑒 𝐼𝓈 𝒩𝑜𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝒶𝓁 𝒥𝓊𝓁𝒾𝑒𝓉 [/h1] So, let me write about the main features step by step. There are a lot of things I want to say, so sorry if sometimes the text will feel jumbled – man, I needed at least half an hour after the first ending to properly comprehend everything that has happened in such a short visual novel that actually managed to pack so many twists inside of its small body. [list] [*]🌸[u]Plot and why it is awesome[/u]🌸 [/list] Quite shocking beginning and a mystery that goes through the whole story. What actually happened? Who is the culprit? Is everything as simple as it looks? Now, guys, I must admit that the main ending and the final revelation caught me completely off guard. I did not expect such twists AT ALL! Considering how many detective stories I have read, watched and listened to over almost 30 years of my life, I tend to predict a lot of outcomes and situations way before they happen. So, yeah, the surprise I had to face at the end is a mighty achievement on the writers’ side. A round of applause for such interesting and unpredictable ideas that were not hinted at even once through the whole game but worked themselves perfectly into the main ending without feeling strange, unnatural or stupid. Also, there are a lot of cultural titbits incorporated into the general narration, so you can learn something new while also following the plot line closely. [list] [*]🌸[u]Writing, translation and everything connected with them[/u]🌸 [/list] The game itself is not very long, just about 6-8 hours, so I think I should start by explaining the way the story is presented. First, there are two timelines – the present (after the tragedy) and the past when one of the main characters has just come to the school. The writers switch between the two masterfully. In one, there is hope, first feelings and learning more about yourself. In the other, there is sadness and loneliness, the feeling of being completely lost and not knowing what to do. Both dramatic and calm moments mix well together in general and let you rest a bit before hitting you with a heavy frying pan Rapunzel-style at the right time. Romance is also a very important part of this story and, I dare say, its strongest feature. It feels very smooth and natural – there are no sudden bursts of passion that come out of nowhere, neither is there cheesy soap-opera-style drama. The girls gradually grow closer, learn more about each other, start getting special feelings that are far beyond friendship. This reminds me of blooming flowers – first, there is nothing but a small tender bud, but wait a bit and you will see beautiful petals that form a unique gentle shape that make nature so bright and beautiful. Love also makes our life better and more colorful, so I think this comparison is only fitting. The only downside I would like to point out is that some chapters closer to the end of the story feel rushed, and the same goes for minor endings. I wish characters’ action got more development in this part, or at least a more thoroughly explained background. [spoiler]For example, when Jisuo called Zihua and then the story almost immediately jumped to the dream; only later will we learn that Jisuo actually was ill, but there are still barely any explanations about it and what happened between the call and the dream.[/spoiler] The last but not least: translation. It feels a bit stiff at times, but I think it comes from both Chinese itself as a language and some special cultural aspects. But all in all, it was easy enough to read the text and enjoy the conversations. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2562005395 [list] [*]🌸[u] Characters and voice acting[/u]🌸 [/list] I usually do not put these two features in the same category, but let this time be an exception. Mostly because how well the voices work with characters’ personalities – which are well-written, believable and do not feel too cliché while still being familiar - and how much they complement each other. I think I have finally got used to Chinese and started appreciating its unique pronunciation – and the big plus here is that there are no high-pitched voices so familiar to all fans of Japanese games. There is one curious thing I have noticed - the quality of recordings. I might be wrong, but it feels that some voices sound better from the digital point of view than the others. As if they were recorded at different places or some are just louder than others. Could be just my imagination, but I might have started catching on such things better after listening to so many audio stories on YouTube. [list] [*]🌸[u]Artwork[/u]🌸 [/list] The same as with the previous game, this visual novel features nicely drawn character designs, CGs, backgrounds and user interface. You can get the general idea of what you will get from the screenshots on Steam page and in my review. [list] [*]🌸[u] Amazing piano tunes[/u]🌸 [/list] As I always say, this kind of music has a special place in my heart, so how could I not complement such tender tunes that set just the perfect mood through the whole game? They did it nicely in the first game and are no worse now, in the prequel. [list] [*]🌸[u] Three things that go into the Cons category[/u]🌸 [/list] First, game does not remember the fullscreen setting. It will always open in a window when you launch it. Second, the text with citations that is shown between chapters is too fast. I never had enough time to read it, so had to check the backlog every time. And last, a minor personal complaint: girls focus too much on their boobs – a lot of their conversations involved them. I am a girl myself and I cannot remember even a single instance when I discussed my chest size with my friends. Neither at school, nor at university, not even now when I am an adult. I have noticed that a lot of Asian games focus on this topic a lot when showing conversations between young female characters, so maybe it is a culture-specific thing? I do not know, maybe I am just a prude. Take it any way you like. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2562958403 [h1] 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒪𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝒯𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒞𝒶𝓃 𝒟𝑜 𝐼𝓈 𝒯𝑜 𝒩𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝐹𝑜𝓇𝑔𝑒𝓉[/h1] So, what can I say in the end? For me, Symbiotic Love turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Do not get me wrong, I expected only good from this visual novel. But it also managed to catch me off guard several times, which is a big plus, and, of course, brought a lot of emotions. There are hardly any things I can complain about, so, I think it is pretty obvious that Symbiotic Love gets my approval. I will definitely recommend it to both long-time fans of the genre and newcomers. Really cannot wait for the third game in this series – and I [b]do[/b] hope there will be one! [h1][url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/32296668-Casual-Game-Reviews/] More reviews on our Curator Page[/url][/h1]

[b]Symbiotic Love is the prequel of Melancholy Love and also WHITE DEW GAMES' second Visual Novel published by Kikai Digital.[/b] [h1][b]Recap[/b] [/h1] In the last story, we had Mianxue attending the all-girl School of Linghua. Mianxue was under the pressure of doing hard study sessions with the help of Qianxun, her class monitor under the context of having to leave the prestigious school if she is not able to successfully complete the upcoming test which was prepared just for her. On an additional note, Mianxue and Qianxun fell in love with each other without being able to openly express their feelings. This complex situation was due to Mianxue falling in love with the fake persona that Qianxun pretended to be and Qianxun trying to cope with the constant lies that she had to tell to keep up the act.. [h1][b]Story[/b][/h1] In this story we play through the time before the events of Melancholy Love, playing as two different protagonists, Zihua (the new principal in Melancholy Love) and Jisuo (the deceased friend of Qingwei and lover of Zihua). Qingwei is also the current class monitor for Zihua and Jisuo as well as Jisuo's childhood friend. In this current timeline, we relive the time when Zihua transferred to Linghua and met Jisuo for the first time up until Jisuo's death. We experience the position between their friendship, their time passing together, and each of the hardships they have to deal with. Zihua is being controlled and manipulated by her mother, while Jisuo didn't have a father figure and lived alone with her mother. [h1][b]Characters:[/b][/h1] [b]Jisuo:[/b] First one to meet Zihua and is captivated by her beauty. She has a strong personality and is good-hearted. [b]Zihua:[/b] Closed up, cold on the outside, and wears a smile as a façade. She struggles to face the pressure put on her by her mother but is easily attracted to the group with Jisuo who wants to befriend her. [b]Qingwei: [/b] Current class monitor and childhood friend of Jisuo and Jianyu. She always drags her friends into school-involved events without asking them before for agreements, which she ends up regretting as she gets stuck with the bill at expensive restaurants. [b]Jianyu:[/b] The animator of the group, she is always the one attracting the most attention and likes to tease and engage Qingwei in harmless quarrels. She is also often late on giving out her monthly exams from the class. [h1][b]Visuals:[/b][/h1] The visuals are identical to its predecessor in Melancholy Love which is overall a neat art style with good-looking CG's. They do use some of the same background assets for the surroundings such as the school area which is minor, but noticeable if you have played the sequel recently. The character sprites do express different facial emotions for the various scenes with slight movements when the sprites change. Since most of the story takes place in a school setting, you will see the characters primarily wearing their school uniform. There is a little variety to their outfits during events that take place outside of school and on special occasions. Secondary characters such as the parents only have one outfit regardless of their location which usually consist of casual clothing or suits. Once you have completed the game, a gallery feature is added to the title screen along with a new background. This allows you to view pictures, play song tracks, and reread route endings. The game runs in a small window, which can either be expanded to full screen (no black bars) or in a window frame. The artwork and text remain clear in both modes. The graphics settings cannot be saved however, so it will default to windowed mode on the next restart of the game. [h1][b]Audio: [/b] [/h1] The visual novel is fully voiced in Mandarin (Chinese) accompanied by background music of calm piano music, adapting nicely to more serious tones when we face situations like drama or fear. It resembles the audio in the predecessor. [h1][b]Routes: [/b] [/h1] Symbiotic Love provides five different endings that do not change the story itself but the ending epilogue is slightly different with the events and results depending on the choices made. [h1][b]Overall thoughts:[/b] [/h1] Symbiotic Love provides answers to the many questions that we were left with after the ending of Melancholy Love. Some of which hint to a third story. The translation is fine in terms of understanding the text, but it misses the mark when it comes to expressing emotions, such as lacking explanation marks in areas that could use them which would help reinforce the idea that characters are upset or excited. Mixed with a slow pacing, the story starts to feel rather dull about halfway through. The romance is wrapped inside drama and psychological issues, giving the whole story a dark setup which really stands out compared to the peaceful and usual love romances we are familiar with. I recommend Symbiotic Love to anyone who would like to experience a darker romance and understands that certain parts will seem dry compared to the rest. [b]Follow us for more reviews at: [/b] [h1][url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/vnislife] [b]Visual novel, JRPG, Anime Steam Group[/b] [/url][/h1]

I actually love this game and the series, but I just can't recommend it. The art is beautiful, the story is captivating, the music is nice to listen to. What brings this game and Melancholy Love down is the use of Electron. It frequently "crashes". To be precise, around every hour it turns to a black screen and I have to restart it, sometimes loosing progress. I recommend frequent saving. It's laggy, not too bad visually, but the sound cracks. It memory leaks, eating up more and more RAM during a session. The whole interface is slow, sometimes unresponsive and I need to click on menu prompts multiple times, before it registers. It might be because it's so laggy in general, but the text speed is very low, it's either wait multiple seconds for the text to appear, or let it appear instantly. It's overall just not a nice experience on the technical level, which is a shame, because everything else is so good.

Symbiotic Love is the second title of this yuri series, however it is its completely seperate story. The biggest similarities to the previous game are that they reused backgrounds and the UI and that both stories are very emotional. Symbiotic Love also is written from both the girls perspectives giving you a nice insight into their minds. This VN has quite a few jumps in the timeframe, which made it a bit hard for me to follow the story at all times. I also would not really call this VN a Yuri love story, but much rather a drama that keeps spiraling out of control, The art is great again, however that is to a big part because of the large amount of reused backgrounds which is completely fine though considering the price of the VN. It also has chinese voice acting again, which is nice for those that want that. The background music is also quite nice again. To come back to the story a bit again. It really is a bit convoluted and hard to follow, however the further you get the more you understand. As a result you will have come to grasp the plot once you come to the ending. Still it could have been better to not have as many time jumps, or made them a bit easier to know what timeframe the storypart is in. Maybe with the date just shown in one of the games corners in small text for example. The romance part is also a lot less pronounced in this one and for a large part it was more like a friendship story with going to school and pretty meaningless conversations. Another small thing to improve, which already was a minor problem in the first game, is that the parts where text is shown automatically just scrolls by too fast. Overall, this is a decent release again if you are interested in a very emotional and dramatic story that is not your happy yuri story. Could it have been better? For sure! Did I enjoy it in the end? Also yes. Length wise this will be around the same as the first game, so around 5-6 hours at least. For sure nice to see some more chinese titles with an actual good english translation. Check out my Curator Page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34401214/

first of all you should know this is the first game or the prequel of Melancholy Love , but they released Melancholy Love first so you better play this first . now let’s let’s review this game in points. [h1] PROS : [/h1] + the music is the same as Melancholy Love but it still so beautiful + the artstlye is also beautiful + the story is the normal formula of yuri games : ( an quiet girl love a normal girl ) but the way they Implement it is so good with inner talk and the poetry in the game give it a special atmosphere ( but i still hate the whole yuri games concept after all ) [h1] CONS : [/h1] - the choices are a total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ , i had to read a guide to achieve all endings - the endings didn’t add anything to the game , i feel like the author just put anything in his mind to add more endings my talk here is about the endings where [spoiler] ( Zihua mother told her she will take her to somewhere but then the game ended [/spoiler] , and when [spoiler] ( she just look at letter and the game ended ) [/spoiler] , but the rest were good and show you many possible scenarios to how the story can end . - the events at the end were so rushed and weren’t obvious enough - the skip is too slow , and you should know you will use it a lot - the characters weren’t deep at all like for example Qianxun from Melancholy Love - the game is so overpriced like all this publisher games [h1] Conclusion [/h1] Symbiotic Love is a good game but nothing more than this , if you want a decent normal yuri game , this is for you my rating 6/10 .

貴方はこのゲームのロゴにもなっている彼岸花の花言葉を知っているだろうか？ 幾つかあるが、そのうちの一つは [b] "悲しき思い出" [/b] 。 このゲームはそんな彼岸花の花言葉のように 最愛の人であるJisuoを亡くしたZihuaの追憶という形で 2人の馴れ初めを描く百合ゲーだ。 [h1] Pros [/h1] ・報われない百合 このゲームの最大の特徴。 物語はZihua(ロングヘアーの子)が、恋人であるJisuo(ショートヘアの子)の死を目撃するという衝撃の展開から始まる。このゲームはマルチエンディングだが、Jisuoの死は分岐前に確定しているため、[b] つまりハッピーエンドはない。 [/b] ZihuaとJisuoが付き合うまでの経緯は回想という形で語られるが、結末を知っているだけに、回想の中でZihuaとJisuoが仲良くなっていくのを見れば見るほど辛くなってくる。こんなゲームって中々ない。人によってはこれは受け入れがたいかもしれないが、それこそがこのゲームをSymbiotic Loveたらしめる大きな魅力になっている。 ・お手頃価格 セール時じゃなくても約1000円とお手頃価格なのでお財布に優しい。 自分の場合は実績コンプまで30h遊べたので非常にコスパが良かった。 ・美麗なイラスト、世界観にあった儚くも美しいBGM この魅力は言葉で説明するより紹介動画を見たほうが早い。 正直このゲームはイラストに惹かれて買った。 BGMはピアノ調の曲が主で、Symbiotic loveの儚げな世界観をよく表している。非常に良かった。 なぜサウンドトラックを別売りしないのか不思議なくらい。 [h1] Cons [/h1] ・エンディングコンプのし難さ →エンディングは5つあるが、1つの選択肢から5つの展開に分岐する訳ではなく、全ての選択肢の積み重ねで分岐する。その性質上、他のエンディングを見るためには、もう一度最初から始めなければならないのが結構面倒くさかった。1度ノーヒントで何かしらのエンディングを見たら、残りは素直に攻略を見よう。 ・ごく稀にゲームがフリーズする時がある →自分だけかもしれないが、ゲーム中に2回ほどよく分からないエラーメッセージがでてフリーズすることがあった。スキップ機能を使えば割とすぐに復帰はできるものの、やはり面倒くさかった。セーブはこまめにしよう。 [h1] その他 [/h1] ・全年齢向け。なので所謂えっちなシーンはないので注意。 [h1] 総評 [/h1] 分かりやすいハッピーエンドを求めている人にはおススメしない。 が、報われない百合が好きな変わった人にとっては、このゲームはその期待に大いに応えてくれることでしょう。 ハッピーエンディングがなければ百合じゃないのかと言うとそんなことは全然なくて、結末がどうであれ、ZihuaとJisuoの幸せな日々は間違いなくあった。それは否定できないと思う。 これはこれで百合ゲーの一つの形なのだと思う。

After you finish the game the main menu image changes so that both underage girls are naked.

Interesting yuri visual novel. The story is decent, and the choices do matter. Now there are quite a few endings. And some of them are bad. Can't even say there is a true good ending, considering... well, the opening scene. Might suggest acquiring this and the sequel at the same time. Also, it appears there are two others in the series, that have yet to get English versions.

I'd recommend playing the demo to know what you're getting into. Note that the opening scene [spoiler]implies suicide and contains a somewhat graphic CG[/spoiler]. It's also worth mentioning that, despite being translated later, this is actually the first game in the Linghua series and it was originally released before Melancholy Love. The story itself is interesting, though the constant perspective and time shifts can make it harder to follow. You can keep track by paying attention to the year and color of the ribbon/text box. The localization reads well and has minimal/no noticeable spelling or grammatical errors. The game plays different sounds for "good" and "bad" choices but getting all the endings can still be tricky without a guide. The skip option is oddly slow but holding Space (force skip) bypasses this issue. The description says, "choices matter with different endings", but this is pretty literal since the story is mainly linear and the ending is the only thing that differs based on choices. I experienced a few technical issues, the biggest one being that the game doesn't launch on MacOS X (10.14.6) at all for me. Saves are a little strange and loading a save at a choice will usually drop you a few lines before the choice. The message log sometimes goes crazy and stacks all the messages together. There's also a bug where all the artwork sometimes disappears, leaving nothing but the interface and text over a black background until the next scene change. The story won't be everyone's cup of tea, but the writing is solid enough to recommend despite some inconsistent pacing and technical issues.