Synthetic Lover

I don't mind playing through a nonsensical BL romance every now and then, but this game is a total cringefest on rails. I'm divided between recommending this or recommending against it, because the writing is so daft I thought it was actually humorous and kind of entertaining. The game looks nice and the voice acting is fine, I see no problem there. But playing this I was constantly trying to grasp for some meaning in the story or some sort of world building or chemistry between the characters. Or just some basic explanation about why things are the way they are - why are they letting these bluescreening androids run free? Are the "biots" actually experiencing emotions or merely expressing them? Why do dating biots have tear ducts? Geez, I don't even want to know the answer that one. Either way, the writing doesn't seem to care. I tossed a mental coin and turns out I'm recommending this. After all, it gave me a chortle and made me realize that while games featuring androids and transhumanist themes are fairly rare, there are some pretty good ones out there. I've already lost a decent amount of brain cells soldiering through this drivel, maybe I should revisit some of them instead!

boys kissing <3

Nice story!

什么？！这游戏有成人内容？！我完全不知道？？？ 因为是中国区所以没有补丁链接啊，那没事了（狗头 配音+2 老实说我是靠着配音才能一直玩得下去 设定+2 跟底特律的“机器→人”不一样，这部更像是人类的自我探索。Ian对世界的好奇心真的很让人怜爱。搭配biots的科幻设定，很多莫名其妙产生的感情也能说得通了。 音乐+1 功能+1 方便的存档读档和跳过对话，体验很好 背景+1 桥上的风景真的很漂亮 CG+0 剧情CG还好，感情线CG内容太少太相似，拿到后没有成就感 立绘-1 表情很丰富俺很爱，但完成度有点低，且风格和背景差的有点大。还可以更好。 价格-1 原价80属实有点贵了，打折入不亏 音效-1 揍BigTech和枪战的音效给我听乐了 玩法-1 视觉小说也是游戏。总体来说互动选项太少了，外加没用的争执太多，我很难集中注意力继续看剧情。 剧情-2 （目前只玩了Bastian）角色们做事缺乏动机。因信任问题吵架的次数太多导致剧情重复。角色缺乏成长。行动往往比说教更能体现人的意志，看到他们被彼此的话语打动，我却完全没被触动。 虽然有不少缺点，但游戏本身是值得玩的，题材上的尝试是我推荐这游戏的主要原因。希望以后还能看到更多新颖的东西。 Btw We still need Chinese.

It is unique that this story plays out from the perspective of the synthetic person. It deals with some really interesting subjects that give me reason to pause and think. It is really disturbing to think about [spoiler]how artificial people, brainwashed to have no desires or opinions are more practical than mechanical robots. That's a very dystopian idea that I've never seen explored before.[/spoiler] The writing and art are excellent. Unfortunately the character art in the gallery images seems lower in quality than the character art used during conversations. There are also a lot of scenes where something is happening but I only get a black screen. Occasionally that can make sense for dramatic effect, but I think it was done so much here to cut down on the necessary art. Shame. One thing didn't make sense to me: [spoiler]As a companion biot, Karim should be lacking feelings, desires, preferences, etc. just like Ian before the start of the story. Yet he is in for repairs due to impotence, but in fact he isn't impotent, he's gay and his owner is female. The dialogue suggested he'd been "tampered with", but then it was contradicted later. Karim seems just as human as Ian in spite of not having used the device to unlock his conscious mind. [/spoiler] Maybe I just missed a sentence or two somewhere that would have clarified, but this really bugged me. Overall it is a really fantastic story that explores subjects that I have never seen done before.

原價...不推，但折扣90%off還是能買的，對話全配音挺不錯的，腦子先放下就是。 背景是嚴肅的議題、花了很多的篇幅描述主角心態轉變的歷程，然而收尾得非常瞭草，沒有解決問題粉飾太平的那種。另外愛情線開得莫名其妙且主角表現得非常"怪異"，當你感覺他成長時又會退回為了談戀愛不顧一切的戀愛腦形象，糖灑得不合時宜，割裂感很重。

[h1] Short Review [/h1] Gameplay: 8/10 Visuals: 9/10 Audio/Sound Design: 6/10 Voice Acting: 8/10 Story: 8/10 Overall: 7.8/10 [h1] Gameplay [/h1] [b] 8/10 [/b] Your standard visual novel, I use 5/10 as the standard rate for this software. The extra points come from the choices themselves. Your choices in Synthetic Lover influence the story greatly, and each of the endings feel fully unique and fleshed out. Taking the extra time to choose each option and play every single ending didn't feel like a bore or a waste, and in fact felt worth the extra time to explore. My only complaint is that Terrance's story felt a bit less unique through each of the three endings in comparison to Bastian's, but given his character and the progression it makes sense. Overall, the game runs smoothly and your options really feel like they have an impact on your story. [h1] Visuals [/h1] [b] 9/10 [/b] I will say, the art was a bit off-putting at first. It certainly isn't what I picture in my mind for a VN. However, getting into the game and after collecting all the CGs, I can confidently say that the style has grown on me heavily. An extra point is docked though because many, and I do mean many, of the art pieces have eyes that I can only describe as reminiscent of a dead body. Like they're trying to look at planes flying two different directions. Other than that, there were many CGs and sprites I found myself more than enjoying. ESPECIALLY the 18+ ones. Most 18+ CGs either feel off-putting or kind of odd (being aroace and all I'm rarely looking at the art for sexual appeal), but this game's art makes them feel perfectly in place. Not to mention, a few of them tugged at my heartstrings and they truly felt intimate. [h1] Audio/Sound Design [/h1] [b] 6/10 [/b] The audio itself is pretty basic. None of the sound-effects were overwhelming or too loud, and the music was just fine too. Nothing really caught my attention though, and I played most the game with the music slider on low. Needless to say, nothing stood out, which is much better than if anything was displeasing. For that reason, it'll remain slightly above average, [h1] Voice Acting [/h1] [b] 8/10 [/b] I honestly didn't like the voice acting at first, especially for Bastian. Some lines are delivered awkwardly or plain poorly. However, those instances were few and far inbetween. I never expect a visual novel to have voice acting, so when it does it's always a pleasant surprise. Especially if that voice acting is good. I ended up really loving the voices and being able to match the faces of each character to their sound, which is especially hard for someone like me. So, major props to them! The voice acting even helped me pay attention to the dialogue and forced me to not skip over important text by accident, which was nice. [h1] Story [/h1] [b] 8/10 [/b] I have to say that the story itself was more interesting than expected! However, each ending still left me a lot of questions about the universe. I can't expect a fully fledged out world in something as quick as a visual novel, but some scenes or statements did leave me a bit confused. However, that didn't at all impact the romances whatsoever. I played through Bastian's route first, and when I finished I was MORE than pleased. But I was also left worried. I had gotten so attached to the idea of Ian and Bastian being together, I feared I wouldn't enjoy Terrance's story. Luckily, that was not at all the case in the end, and I found myself loving both couples for different reasons. (Psst... game devs... make a DLC where you can poly with them both... PLEAAASEE....) I found myself no longer dreading Terrance's story once getting into it, and overall am very happy with the hours I spent reading this VN. Even the bad endings were interesting! Which was a pleasant surprise considering most VNs put little to no effort into wrapping up a story with a bad ending. [h1] Finishing Notes [/h1] I will admit, I originally got this game for $3 as a joke on a steam sale because I had no faith in it. And I am frankly disappointed at myself for even having thought of buying this game purely to make fun of it. I am emotionally attached to literally all the characters in it now, it's not even funny. I am very happy I gave the game a chance, even if it wasn't a fair one at first. I heavily recommend playing this if it catches your eye, even if it's just to make fun of it. Who knows, maybe you'll fall in love with it like I did. Great work devs, and thank you for yet another beautiful story!

可以，文体量很多，有免费的r18补丁。就是朋友线有点无聊。一周目打出朋友结局，真的太朋友了，一点火花都没有，快玩睡着了。但是浪漫结局有太猛了，OMG。还有剧情有点扯，巴斯蒂安线.，两人逃亡后简直就是开启开挂人生了。但是无所谓了，全配音游戏，男主真的太可爱了，金发美郎。史低才八块钱。我爱了

be gay: do crime the VN. absolutely banger soundtrack. the adult scenes are very well written; more focused on the feeling than the action. bastian has a grip on my heart

Nice game, the story is intresting. Only 2 pathes, each one have a good ending, a neutral and a bad one. I bought it with a discount, a little bir expensive otherwise. A good buy :) The guide is nice, but only explain how to get the endings, not the achievments,