The Midnight Sanctuary

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뭔가, 뭔가 광기를 기대하긴 했는데, 이건, 이건 아니야, 이건 아니야, 전 할 말이 없습니다, 웃을 수밖에 없었습니다, 요 한동안 어두운 인생을 살면서 가장 크게 웃었습니다. 먼가, 다들 모델링이 기괴뻑쩍해서 하난 풍선인간이고 하난 양 다리를 다 저는 안면마비 외계인이고 그거는 머라 할 수가 없는 괴물이고, 입 있는 자들은 기본적으로 입 안에 하얀 조개가 들어있고, 게다가 비주얼노벨인데 다들 걸어다니면서 직각꺾기를 합니다, 그래서 몰입이 안 됐어요, 진지하게 받아들일 수가 없었어요, 그래서 웃을 수 있었고 화도 안 났을런지도 모르겠습니다. 뭔가 스토리를 쓴 사람이랑 대본을 쓴 사람이 달라서 스토리는 진지하려고 하는데 대사는 하나같이 오타쿠스러운 데서 오는 위화감도 그렇고, 종막의 전개와 그 결말은 마치 그동안 쌓인 답답함이 뻥 뚫리는 어이없음, 그래도 나쁜 쪽이 아니라 좋은 어이없음, 하여간 기괴뻑쩍한 체험에 목마른 사람에게 추천드립니다. 시대상과 인물 언동이 쪼까 애매꾸리하긴 한데 크게 더 거슬리는 것도 없었고 '그 문양' 도 없었으므로 일단 추천으로 돌려놓습니다, 뭐 자기 나라를 사랑하는 걸 뭐라 할 순 없졍.

I'm sure many of you have reservations about giving this game a try due to its visuals. Honestly, it looks pretty rough. Mouths move strangely. Noses are practically nonexistent. Animations are goofy. Scenes will appear too dark to discern at low brightness settings but blindingly bright above them. All of these traits add up to one thing. This game is absolutely beautiful. In a sea of identical VNs, The Midnight Sanctuary stands out as something both off-putting and intensely familiar. In screenshots, it is intriguing. In motion, it is stunning. That is to say nothing of the VN itself. The Midnight Sanctuary tells a fantastic, fully voice-acted story better read than read about. If you have played the developer's previous titles, you should have a good idea of what to expect. I would love to say more, but unfortunately, to do so would cheapen the experience. This brings me to the one point I am mixed about. The Midnight Sanctuary is a cheap game ($10 at the time of writing), and the amount of content received is representative of its price. This is an incredibly short VN with a single path, clocking in at about 3 hours. Every hour is well spent, and I don't believe the story needed more, but even among similarly priced VNs, more is typically expected. I would not blame anyone for deciding this was not worth the cost. For those willing to accept this, however, you will find a marvelous, strange experience in The Midnight Sanctuary.

Esta novela visual parece estar hecha por el estudio Shaft, pero el estudio Shaft de cuando ese estudio hacía buenos animes. Esto quiere decir que estéticamente este juego es LSD puro y duro. El estilo de arte está bastante logrado y, pese a que el 3d del juego no es que sea el más pulido del mundo, los diseños tienen suficiente encanto como para estrechar la brecha de los pocos recursos que ha debido tener el desarrollo del juego. Respecto a la historia, normalmente las novelas visuales, al menos las que yo he leído, suelen tener el problema de que son demasiado largas y que constantemente se están repitiendo, como diría Peter: "se repiten constantemente". Esto no pasa en este juego, pues la duración es bastante corta. Y pese a que algunos aspectos de la trama necesitan una o dos capas de pintura para no sentirse tan, cómo decirlo: a medio hacer, la historia presente está lo suficientemente bien desarrollada como para merecer una lecturita. También se podría decir que el tono es bastante peculiar, y pese a que los temas que intenta desarrollar no son los más concretos, uno siente que se han esforzado para intentar darle un toque de originalidad y profundidad.

This is a must-play if you're at all curious about VR as a medium, especially for narrative purposes. The game has the format of a visual novel (although without choices beyond the order in which to do things, so more of a 'VR-format story' than a 'game' per se)... but, with the viewer present inside 3D scenes, embodied as a (fairly passive) character, while fully voice-acted characters animate around you... the art and animation style is minimalist, but it still feels lavish to be in a story within this full-size physical town where so many things are happening. The story is mysterious and charming, though I can't say too much without risking spoiling things; it starts out confusing, but by the end you're invested in everything, and left with a lot to think about... The voice acting is excellent, and helps bring everything to life despite the slightly abstract visuals. In terms of VR comfort, in one sense it's very comfortable -- your viewpoint never moves (except when changing scenes, behind a black wipe). And the game has on-screen prompts, in the event that your eye didn't wind up drawn towards something important -- it's a bit artificial, but honestly I appreciate it... However, there are a few minor VR comfort problems; one of the game's most distinctive visual choices is an art style that projects a texture onto certain surfaces, directly out of your face... (it's hard to explain, but you'll know it as soon as you see the title screen...) It's gorgeous, but it made me feel slightly dizzy until I got used to it... adjusting didn't take long though. Also, the 'map screen' is a view of the town as though the whole world were sideways in front of you, which I found dizzying at first, though again, it became second nature before long. The other VR comfort problem is just that the visuals are very un-shaded and silhouette-based, which again looks wonderful and lends itself to the game's surreal mood, but it *does* make it hard for your eye to resolve depth sometimes, in a way that can be a little straining after long enough. It's also worth mentioning, on a purely technical level, the game's VR implementation is very dated and is already showing signs of not working right; the audio comes out of my PC speakers rather than my headset speakers, and the game reorients itself to your headset's current position on each launch (which might be over on a shelf if you didn't launch it from inside VR -- luckily there is a prominent 'recenter' button, at least), and the in-game controls are illustrated on an Oculus Remote (remember those??) so you may have to fumble around until you discover what things are mapped to (luckily, aside from the 'reorient' button, there's only a single 'interaction' button). Still, none of these are show-stoppers at all; just things worth being aware of before going in... I really wish to see more things like this, that give such a vivid stage for a story to unfold on, and take such a beautiful bold approach to visuals (even at the risk of that boldness being a little offputting until you adjust). Content warning (and mild spoiler warning!) for some shockingly front-and-center suicides and deaths (although thankfully no gore, at least).

This is certainly a unique visual novel. It's 3d and has animation, so there's no narration. No choices, completely linear progress. All dialogues are voiced, sometimes a bit poorly. It's very rare for a game to look so refreshingly unique (artstyle) and at the same time so ridiculously amateurish (some models and animations). The story is mysterious and generally fun to follow, but the writer clearly didn't know where to go with it in the latter half, so the ending is rather lukewarm. [spoiler]Objectively:[/spoiler] 7.5/10

Short and sweet but super unique! Between the visual style and putting you in the role of the observer, I felt like the bizarre dreamlike vibe of it all really added to that uncanny feeling throughout

I like the funny patterns that follow your head in VR. Spooky but pretty short.

はももるさんかわいい

Interesting story, never really played another game quite like this. The atmosphere, the themes, the visuals, all very unique and thought provoking.