The Divine Deception

My playtime is gonna seem quite low but that's purely because I assisted in play-testing the game before its Steam release. As a long term fan of visual novels for more than a decade now, I'm confident that I'm not biased at all in saying that this VN was a wonderful experience. For what's essentially a kinetic novel, the minigames and bets against the narrator help to keep things from getting too stiff. The format of the game is also quite interesting - you're free to make your own path through the narrative which means that no two plays through the game will be exactly the same. My own route through the game was pretty notorious for being absolutely crazy within the development team but honestly, that just made me enjoy it all the more. The mystery is good but more importantly, it's fair. You're drip fed all kinds of information that might or might not seem helpful at the time, but that could be because you just haven't gotten to that path just yet. It's hard to say much about a game that'll be different for each player, but honestly, that makes it unique enough for me to definitely recommend to any fans of the genre.

The game story is very unpredictable and i love how the main characters are all very intelligent. as someone who has read many vn, i found this a very unique experience.

Just finished the game and although I can't deny that I enjoyed it, the buildup and ending felt somewhat anti-climactic. I would still however recommend this VN for fans of the Zero Escape series, YTTD, Danganronpa, or, really, any VN with elements of mystery embedded within. I would give DD a 6/10. Without spoiling anything, I would say that I felt the game was slightly rushed and clearly made on a budget. That is not to detract from the concepts underlying the writing, but I can definitely see areas of improvement for specific areas of the VN. Specifically, I feel there are certain areas that can be improved on. First, clarity. [spoiler]I must first state that I greatly appreciate how bold Themis was in exploring difficult concepts that were pleasantly intellectually stimulating. However, I do believe that these concepts can be better illustrated/explained. For example, I strongly believe that Laverna's murder investigations should have their accompanying illustrations. They need not be high quality, but some artwork would make the scene much clearer. The instructions for the hacking examples could also use some work.[/spoiler] Second, quality control. [spoiler]I laud Themis again for being bold in running 7 "concurrent" storylines while juggling between avoiding express spoilers while allowing the storylines to interact with one another. Regrettably, certain storylines were clearly given less thought. If I had to rank the 7 personas, and I think many will agree with me, Vels' storyline was by far the least interesting. In my view, it appears to have been written in afterthought and I found myself bored by the storyline as a whole. The action scenes and fighting took up a bulk of the writing and, ultimately, I felt like Vels could well have been omitted as a persona completely. [/spoiler] Nonetheless, I still greatly appreciated the read and would still recommend it.

Compared to the writer's previous work (The Zodiac Trial), I was blown away by this suspenseful, political thriller set in the corruption-filled city of Panthea. Despite its small budget and team, The Divine Deception excels in many areas. Its writing is evocative, clever, and witty. Its characters are realized, believable, and loveable despite their flaws, and make up a cast that is greater than the sum of its parts; the main characters especially—there was something to love about each and every one of them, they were unique and charming in their own ways, and I never felt like I had to slog through scenes with lesser protagonists to get back to ones I enjoyed. The Divine Deception similarly excels in its setting: it is incredibly fleshed out and feels like somewhere people actually live, like there are actually people living their lives outside of the scope of the story. Every aspect of The Divine Deception feels incredibly well-planned. The four institutions that make up the core of the city and play a major role in how it's run—the government, the police, the Duat crime family, and the Olympo megacorporation—interact in a way the makes sense and indicates a significant amount of forethought and planning on the part of the author. The mysteries, backroom deals, double crosses, and more that are revealed as the story progresses were also exceptionally presented. There is a significant amount of foreshadowing,—some of which I picked up on and some of which I missed—enough that it's quite easy to predict the most significant reveal well before it is explicitly stated, but it's not done in a way where I felt cheated out of experiencing that reveal along with the characters. Rather, the story created a tension that made me anxious to see how it would play out when it finally happened. And, even some of the foreshadowing that I missed felt incredibly obviously in hindsight, and the story of plenty of smaller reveals that weren't as obvious and surprised me at their uncovering. This visual novel was not flawless, however. While I mentioned that I find it hard to pick a favorite protagonist from the bunch, there were some protagonists whose stories, rather than their character traits, were not as interesting as the others'. Particularly, the characters who had a lot of action scenes were betrayed a bit by the small amount of CGs—significant sequences of fights, chases, etc. told on a black background or static image. While CGs depicting this action would have significantly increased my enjoyment of these scenes, even just some extra time taken to plan motion for the character sprites—which, as far as I know, is easily done in Ren'Py—would have made the action scenes in The Divine Deception much more enjoyable. Overall though, despite its small production scale, The Divine Deception is able to tell a story of surprising scope, with complicated-but-solvable mysteries, suspenseful political plotlines, and an incredibly believable world. 8/10

So worth noting right off the bat, I was a late-stage playtester who got to play through a version of the game about a month or so before launch. That's why I was able to blast through this final version in three hours with the power of skipping and remembering solutions. My playtime for the pre-release build I finished was around 30 to 40 hours, so I was still able to fully enjoy this game like any other player. Now you may be asking why I bought this game if I already was able to finish it? Simple, it's damn good and I want to reward it for being so. Without revealing any spoilers or anything, I can say this is an incredibly ambitious and worthwhile game. With seven different storylines you're jumping through, it never feels like the story slows down. And while you may think seven storylines in the same world can get confusing really quickly, it actually is very good at staying cohesive. The mysteries across this game are also fascinating, always encouraging you to go farther and farther. The characters are also solid and memorable, a vital element of any visual novel I feel. And of course, the game holds no punches, which I love. This is one of those games that will just stick with you, for lack a better word, due to the thought provoking sociopolitical themes, engaging mysteries, and superb revelations and twists. Moving on from the story, where this game also impresses me is in how it incorporates different gameplay mechanics into a visual novel. So even if you're the type of person who may normally struggle to get through a visual novel, the minigames are there often enough to help motivate you through. All of the minigames are enjoyable to get through, though I gotta give special props to the hacking minigames for just being a lot of fun. The presence of minigames and the overall bigger scope of the narrative make this a surefire step up from Zodiac Trial. If you enjoyed that game at all, you'll enjoy this one. Speaking of Zodiac Trial, I will say the art and music direction are very similar to that game though I think there's quite a few improvements worth noting. Namely, the art being more expressive, more refined, and the addition of new tracks, especially that bop that is the hacking minigame theme. In terms of visuals, though, the thing that has easily improved the most is the overall UI, having a clear distinct style while still being very functional. So to conclude, this game has an amazing story that'll make you think about it extensively during and after your play-through, interesting and unique minigames that will be sure to spice up the story, and visuals that more than succeed in depicting this lively world. All of this for less than $20USD. If you're at all interested in mysteries, please give this a play. You will not regret it at all. Solid work, and I hope we get to see more in the future.

After playing Zodiac Trials, I knew I had to play this game. I wasn't really sure what to expect going in, and starting out in the first few hours, I was still a bit lost. (You'll understand why when you play for yourself!) I'm so glad I kept going. I'm not really sure what else to say. I loved it. It's a conspiratorial mystery told from the perspective of many different characters. 10/10

In this Visual Novel you are presented with seven stacks of cards each representing a different storyline happening in the same city at roughly the same time. How they all fit together and the exact chronological order of them is something you will gradually uncover. Thankfully this feels very natural and rewarding. Sometimes stories attempt this and fail, but here it creates an exciting plot where theorizing is fun! An absolut recommandation for any lovers of mystery! On a side note: I absolutly adore the hacking minigame and the music!

Good game.

This game is incredible - don't be put off by the few number of reviews. If you like mystery/puzzle type games, you know how it feels to constantly be searching for the next actually good game in the genre. Look no further!

[b] Overall Impression [/b] This game is ballsy, for lack of a better word, and I can think of few games that set such difficult narrative challenges for themselves and successfully execute on them. The game wants to challenge you, both in your ability to predict its many twists and turns and in the moral foundations you use to navigate them. While some individual elements may, at times, feel underbaked, the entire narrative is so simultaneously fragmented and cohesive that it will be a game that I think of for many years to come. [b] ---{Characters}--- [/b] ☐ Fell in love with them ☑ Really great ☐ Enjoyable overall ☐ Liked some, disliked some ☐ Pretty meh ☐ Send them to writing jail The characters of this game are, simply put, great. Dialogue is this game's momentum; everything lives and dies on the intermingling ideas, motives, and quips that occur in each conversation presented. Characters feel at once incredibly grounded, realized, and complex, while at the same time being deeply recognizable, unique, and iconic. The protagonists as well are refreshingly their own complete characters, with mannerisms and ideologies that bring the game out of the bland protagonist conventions common in visual novels. The game is at it's weakest, however, when these protagonists placed outside of conversation and into long, monologue scenes, which is particularly true for the first set of scenes. ---{Story}--- ☑ Amazing ☐ Great ☐ Good ☐ Average ☐ Some lore ☐ No Story The story, the connections between plots, the unified nature of its mysteries, the intrigue of Panthea, the moral dilemmas presented, and the agency the player has in figuring out the game's biggest questions is [i] the [/i] reason to play this game. The characters and dialogue keep each scene enjoyable from moment to moment, but the game as a whole does an incredible job bring players through various emotionally varied, ideologically varied, and tonally varied arcs, both in the clearly delineated arcs of each protagonist and in the subtler but powerful arcs of the various different inhabitants and factions of the city. What the story sets out to do, and does, is beyond impressive, and the intensive foreshadowing of each twist (of which there are many) makes even scenes with no 'choice' feel very interactive, as the player attempts to create their own theories. My only complaint is that some twists/reveals are of such a grand scale that they can make other twists feel less impactful. ---{Gameplay}--- ☐Very good ☑ Good ☐ It‘s just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't The gameplay is nice, but I wouldn't go much farther than that. Playing through the various minigames serves as a nice, optional, break from dialogue. They are well thought out and enjoyable, but at times they feel very disconnected from the heart of the game, and the real interest a player will have in it. For me, the most interesting gameplay aspect by far was the (spoilers for the first ten minutes} [spoiler] betting aspect of the game. It makes the player feel more rewarded, for their interest and thoughts on the story, while at the same time making the player more invested in the game's various ethical dilemmas and structural mysteries [/spoiler] ---{Graphics}--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☑ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it The graphics in this game are both good and decent, in so far as what is there is solid (the character sprites in particular look quite sharp, while the backgrounds at times feel rough) but there are times when the lack of a CGI or fully done sprites makes certain scenes or sequences feel off. The lower budget nature of the game can at most be felt here. ---{Audio}--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐Bad ☐ I'm now deaf I enjoyed the songs quite a bit, though their production value is lower than one might hope. They did their job though, and really helped set the mood in many scenes. ---{Game Time}--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☑ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond As you can likely tell from many review times, this game is long, though it never overstays it's welcome, and all it's length feels entirely necessary. ---{Price}--- ☑ It's a STEAL ☐ Worth the price ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money 30+ hours of content that is enjoyable on a replay is far more than one might expect from a $15 dollar price tag. Although the graphics and assets are clearly indie/low-budget, the content, and quality of written content, that you are receiving makes this game a steal. ---{Bugs}--- ☐Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs I didn't run into any bugs or major typos (that I noticed), but I am aware that some bugs have been found.