The Paracelsian Project

[i]The Paracelsian Project[/i] is a dystopian visual novel with puzzle-solving elements developed and published by Sixkilla Gaming. You take on the role of Elina and awaken to find yourself in unfamiliar surroundings with total amnesia. After meeting Tomoki and Mari, a couple of strangers who are in the same predicament as Elina, the three of them take it upon themselves to explore their surroundings and hopefully, retrieve their memories. After meeting (yup, you guessed it) a few more strangers who are in the same situation and some conversation, Elina finds herself in an office. One of her newfound companions discovers a computer and activates it, and then another stranger shows up on the screen. He explains that his name is Takwin and that he's here to help them to recover their memories, but in order to do so, they must explore their surroundings. Although this isn't much to go on, Elina and the others don't have much of a choice. I'll end my story synopsis here to avoid spoilers and all that. As for the gameplay, [i]The Paracelsian Project[/i] has multiple choices presented throughout the story. The choices affect Elina's relationships with other people as well as ultimately decide which route she gets. There are a total of 8 endings, one of which is a secret bad ending and the other is the true ending. Also, there are a few puzzles, and the puzzles may differ, depending on the route. In addition, there are several CGs and Steam achievements although achievements won't count towards a user's global total until the game is out of "Steam is learning about this game". Now that I've gone over the story and gameplay, I'll move onto my critique. Upon first learning about [i]The Paracelsian Project[/i] and reading the store page description, I knew that I had to give this a try, so I'm grateful that the developer was able to provide a review key. First, I'll go over the story. I liked the concept of Elina, the main character, waking up with no memories whatsoever and that her fellow companions are in the same situation although there are other visual novels that use the same concept. Also, I enjoyed the idea of Elina having to establish positive or negative relationships with others that determine the routes that she gets. Although you eventually have to complete most of the usual endings (with the secret bad ending being the exception) in order to get onto the true ending route, I feel like it's worth the effort to get there. Also, there's a helpful flow chart available, so once you complete a route, you can access the flowchart and use it to jump to any point in the story if you want to go on a different route and/or obtain a variant ending. However, I can understand that this may not appeal to all visual novel fans since there are some who would prefer to play one or two routes. In regards to the puzzles, I found most of them to be doable to complete. As long as I took my time to think about the puzzles (there's a hint system as well if you get stuck), I was able to solve most of them fairly quickly. You can choose to skip the puzzles, but you won't obtain the related achievement if you do so. Achievements unlocked for me without a problem since I was able to obtain most of the endings. Only the secret bad ending eluded me (which I admit that I asked for a bit of help XD), and after I got the related achievement, I had to exit the game and then restart it in order to obtain the last achievement (getting all of the endings). Regarding the writing, I found it to be sufficient. Pacing was fine, but I noticed some typos, so it definitely wouldn't hurt to have a proofreader go over the script and correct them. I wish that there had been more backstory about how [spoiler]the world became the desolate wasteland that it is[/spoiler], but that's probably a personal preference. Commenting on the art, the sprites are in the typical anime style, which is fine for this visual novel. Backgrounds are done well, giving off that "trapped in a weird facility" kind of feeling. XD Especially, I enjoyed viewing the CGs, and there's definitely plenty of [spoiler]death although nothing grotesque[/spoiler]. In regards to the music, I noticed just a few tracks, so there isn't much variety. (Oh, I should note that when I first started up the game, the game sound was very low, so I had to go into game options to increase the sound. I wanted to listen to the music. ^^) However, the tracks that are present fit the story well, giving off that slightly sci-fi, dystopian feel. There is no voice acting, but this isn't a surprise since it isn't present in many visual novels. Overall, would I recommend [i]The Paracelsian Project[/i]? If you enjoy visual novels with puzzle solving and don't mind going through multiple routes to get to the true ending, then I'd say that this is worth taking a look. I found myself enjoying the game overall although I admit that it's a bit on the short side. (It took me around 5 hours to complete all of the routes and obtain all of the achievements and CGs.) For the asking price, I'd recommend holding off for a bit of a sale, but for the developer's first visual novel, I enjoyed it very much. ^^ [quote]Flying free and writing reviews solely for [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44702020/]The Introverted Gamer[/url].[/quote]

I really don't want to give this a negative review... but my heart kinda wants to . Paracelsian Project is a very short VN, WAY too short for the price and the quality you're given... The visuals are simple but nice, though very barebones (i did like some of the backgrounds!) The music is definitely the best part of this game, it's really incredible, each track has a lot of vibes , it's very space-y , and it gives a huge claustrophobic feel to the game... Too bad we either can't buy it or listen to it anywhere online... Characters were a bit flat and very tropey, the game is trying to force emotions through scenes (like with Aaron and Akio) but the game and the scenes are so short, you really can't feel anything for those characters ... I LOVE flowcharts, and the one in this game is ... not that impressive, very simple and not that interesting to look that, but it does it's job. The story is ... kinda boring. The whole "humanity is dead and we must save what's left of it, oh also amnesia" has been done so many times, and this game doesn't really give anything new, though i did like some parts of the true end . The plot is quite predictable, and a bit nonsensical at times (the main villain is ... something) i honestly can't say i enjoyed it at all. I will give bonus points to the UI, the tablet , while mostly useless, was really cool and well designed, there was even a moment where [spoiler] someone breaks the tablet, which makes the button on the screen shatters, that was kinda cool [/spoiler] ; I liked the cypher puzzles, there were easy but simple to understand , i wish more VN had puzzles like that but that's more my own preference. But ♥♥♥♥ the 2nd puzzle for route 1 where [spoiler] you're given "paracelsius" "exodus program" and other things, but the answer is "paracelsian project" , which is both very specific and NOT written like that in the hint, i just typed that out because it was the name of the game... very stupid [/spoiler] ; I kinda wish there was more puzzles through the true end , and that the puzzles were harder overall because they were VERY easy, but oh well. Also , if you're missing the last 2 achievements... I had to look up with an external software that there is a secret bad ending where you have to be unfriendly with everyone... cool idea, but there was no way to know that unless you "cheat" to see the achievement, as far as i know nothing in game tells you about it... oh and the last cheevo is for getting all endings, so you might have to restart the game to get it. Speaking of the "friendly" system, i wish it was more developped... It basically was useless, most endings being dependant on a single choice ... There is quite a lot of typos too, but i will give it some slack, though be warned they ARE here ; I got some weird bug during ending 1 where the background was just black, for both variations of the ending too ! Loading the scenes fixed it , but it kinda ruined it because things were happening on screen, and i couldnt see anything, and i had no idea at first it wasn't supposed to be like this... I do love small VN like this one, and i want to do my best to support them and show appreciation ... but yeah, it's not worth the price at all... I will recommend it if you just want a quick VN that's visually quite pleasing , has some crazy good music, some cool UI, and some decent puzzles. But other than that... everything else kinda falls flat. Hopefully the devs improve and make better VN (and story) ,i sincerely hope the best for them !

If I had a choice, I would really give this a neutral review. But since I had to decide - and considering that this game already has quite a few positive reviews - I'll be going for a negative one. [b]Game Length[/b]: Completing the game took about 3.5hrs for me. Considering the current price, that's just too short. Way too short. [b]Story[/b]: I found the story to be quite mediocre. While the story had some good parts, a good chunk of it is just unimpressive. There are also no big twists... well, not exactly. There was one twist, but it was very predictable. The whole "humanity is done for" plot line has also already been explored many many times before and its execution in this VN felt also kind of... unbelievable? I don't know, the story was just kind of mediocre. It was not totally bad, there were some good parts, but it was far from amazing. [b]Writing[/b]: The writing had some typos. Other than that, it was okay. Also nothing amazing and sometimes the writing definitely felt a bit stiff, but overall it was fine. I couldn't do it better. [b]Characters[/b]: The characters were also okay. Again, nothing amazing, but it was alright. However, since the game is so short, we barely get any information about them. Most scenes are too short to get me invested. I feel like there's some potential there, but it was never fully explored. I think 6 (8) characters were just too many for this project. Less characters and more dialogue with them maybe would've been better. But again, it's not awful. Elina, Tomoki and Stefano (and maybe Mari) definitely have been better explored. The other characters were just... there. [b]Art & Music[/b]: The art is solid. The music also fits and is also quite solid. Nothing is particulary spectacular, but they do their job. [b]Puzzles[/b]: The puzzles also could've been done better. They are all a bit too easy. I would've preferred a higher difficulty, but maybe that's just my preference. No puzzle is really memorable and there's probably nothing you've never seen before. Overall, the game falls right in the mediocre category. It's not awful, but it's just also not amazing. For a 5 to 7 euro price tag, that'd be fine. But for 15 euros, I really can't reccommend it. It's just too expensive for the length and quality. If the price is lowered in the future, I might change this to a positive review. I don't regret buying this game, since I believe supporting indie VN developers in the mystery genre is a good thing. So if you're like me and you want to try out some indie mystery VNs, you can give this game a go. The game is not bad and I was really hovering between giving it a positive or negative review, especially because I don't want to discourage indie developers from creating these games. But for 15 euros, I just can't bring it over my conscience. So yeah, if the developer reads this, i just want to point out that I did enjoy some chunks of the game. But there's always room for improvement. Thanks for writing this VN :)

Disclosure--Beta Tester here, I'll be as honest and unbiased as I can. This game is like a concise and punchy zero-escape type game. Mystery, puzzles, escape scenario -- it's plot focused with twists and turns as we go. It'll take about 5ish hours to complete, so although things move very swiftly and it inevitably lacks the time to develop some elements like a longer visual novel might, I found it a punchy and very fun experience. The music and atmosphere throughout the game is very good. The art is well done, simple, clean and effective. The puzzles I found to be really good--they are short and tricky, and you can always ask for help or skip them if you need to. One thing that annoyed me about the zero-escape games was how tedious the puzzles felt, where here the puzzles add a nice flare to the game without bogging it down. This game is far more about plot than the characters. The characters are all unique enough and have personality, but we don't get as much depth out of them (what you'd expect from a game of this length). The characters all get interesting back-stories that inter-weave with the plot, but don't expect a great sense of character-drama in this story; expect more plot-related tensions between characters. At times these plot / characters resolutions occur quite rapidly, and although occasionally jarring, the upside is the story moves along at a good pace--there's never a dull moment. Ultimately the plot and atmosphere is where this game excels. It raises many existential questions; questions about life, consciousness, moral dilemmas and the like, all with twists and reveals along the way. I found the second half of the story is where it really comes into its own. Due to the length it doesn't have the depth of other entries of the genre, but it also delivers a more consistently tense plot (where longer entries are often plagued by pacing inconsistencies). If you're looking for a concise and punchy plot-focused mystery, akin to zero-escape, then I'd recommend this game.

Wow... uh... I can see where the author was going with this, but it was absolutely NOT ready to be released. The text is so full of typos and redundancies that it doesn't seem to have had an editor at all. The dialogue is stilted, and characters seem to act without any motivation; events and actions are just forgotten. In fact, the characters keep admitting they've forgotten plot details, despite being in a life-or-death situation! Worst of all, the game can't decide whether the point of view is first person or third person omniscient (we should not, for instance, be able to see other characters' visions, because Elina can't see them). The characters talk incessantly about who they can and can't trust, and who the "puppet master" is. No one has any reason to suspect there's a puppet master at all, that they've been abducted, or that anyone actively DID something to them. They should be looking for an explanation, not immediately assuming they're in a death game or that someone can't be trusted; at most, only one character (the "suspicious one") should be jumping to conclusions. In better VNs in the genre, the characters in the game initially start as a cohesive whole trying to work together to attain freedom; some characters may be jerks, useless, or suspicious, but the idea of a traitor doesn't come up until there's some reason to think there IS one. Then we come to the puzzles. They're so elementary that they might as well not be there. You can achieve some seriously great things with this engine; games like [i]Trainwreck[/i] manage it. You don't even technically need puzzles; you can just have plenty of branching routes based on meaningful choices that send the story in very different directions. [i]The Zodiac Trial[/i] is a good example of that. Overall, this game shouldn't be for sale yet. There's the skeleton of a great visual novel here, but it needs work. A lot of work. The [i]story[/i] is great. The problem is the lack of writing ability to make the text itself work. I'd offer to do it myself, but that's a little presumptuous; I've worked as a professional editor, but that was a couple of decades ago. This review is subject to change if the above issues are handled.

Если вы любите визуальные новеллы с захватывающей историей, запоминающимися персонажами и интересными сюжетными поворотами.. То данная игра не для вас. The Paracelsian Project - Это визуальная новелла, которая повествует о 6-ти человек, которые оказались запертыми в неизвестном помещении с множеством лабораторий, без памяти о прошлом. Основная задача персонажей - сбежать. Видно, что разработчик берёт вдохновение с медиа в жанре убийственных игр, по типо Danganronpa или Zero Escape. [spoiler] (И в истории далее и вправду происходят загадочные смерти) [/spoiler] ... Но не думайте что тут будет мега интересная история. У игроков обычно уходит 3-4 часа на прохождение этой игры (у меня больше, потому что мне было очень тягостно читать текст). За такое время, нам дают множество концовок и развилок.. Но в этом и есть основная проблема игры - на всё события будто уделяется минимально внимания. Персонажи почти не успевают раскрыться за данный промежуток времени и по итогу получаются картонные болванки, к которым чувствуешь ноль эмпатии. Сюжет тоже крайне однотипен. По мере повествования нам пытаются подбросить повороты для размышления, но это вызывают не интригу и интерес к истории.. А недоумение и растерянность. Это относится к концовкам в том числе. Дизайны персонажей.. Мягко говоря, плохие. Учитывая последующие повороты в сюжете, дизайны некоторых персонажей мне кажутся непонятными. Но даже без учёта сюжета, дизайны очень плоские и не запоминающийся. Из плюсов, я мог бы отметить саму рисовку и пазлы. Как я понимаю, данный проект является первой работой Sixkilla, и я считаю что данный артстиль интересен и имеет потенциал расти дальше. Только я бы хотел увидеть больше экспресии от персонажей. Поскольку у персонажей только одна поза с меняющимся лицом на всю игру, это сбивает с толку, учитывая что очень важно показывать также body language и, возможно, артикуляцию. Но, как я сказал, ПОТЕНЦИАЛ есть. Пазлы тоже были более положительной чертой игры. На уровне простых point-and-click квестов, но где надо разгадать шифр для выхода из ловушки. Иногда приходилось лезть с интернет источники для доп.материалов для решения, из-за непонятных подсказок в игре.. Но, в частности, одна из более-менее приятных черт этой игры ИТОГ: Не рекомендую эту игру из-за скучной истории, плоских персонажей и малого количества контента за такую цену. Sixkilla, if you are reading this, i truly do believe in your potential in gamedev. I do think it's better to work on your writing and story-building skills. Because in VN genre - story is the foundation of everything in the game. Also the artwork is good, but it can be improved by giving characters more indepth designs and making them more expressive. Good luck to you in the future.

A typical ontological mystery "you wake up in a room" story with a weight reduction kit applied - all semblance of plotting, character development or narrative depth is tossed out to make for the breakneck speed it is going. Still, while looking cheap and feeling rough to play, this game cannot be called misguided and it still has ideas that other works of the genre have yet failed to explore.

A relatively short sci-fi story that scratches the "you wake up in a room" itch decently well. I personally enjoyed it, especially at the new price, despite its flaws. The story explores some interesting ideas and concepts, but everything feels rather rushed. The characters generally feel like plot devices, and they're not all that fleshed out. There are [strike]alot[/strike] a lot of typos in the script, so if that sort of thing bothers you, you're in for a rough time. The game does have a (very basic) flowchart, which is a plus in my book for games of this genre. Puzzles were nothing special, but it did add some degree of gameplay and interactivity beyond the branching dialogue choices - and ofc, it has an obligatory Periodic Table puzzle! 😂 (Thankfully, the game provides you with it so you don't have to tab out to look it up. 🙏) Also, the music is solid - that was one of the highlights for me. Paracelsian Project is pretty rough around the edges, but I still had fun playing it. Decent effort for a first time game developer! 💪

Loved the game, fairly short and easy to finish within 5-6 hours. Really impressive for a developers first game. Congrats Sixkilla Gaming and keep up the great work!

Opinion of tester and "sponsor" of project. Does it count?.. The Paracelsian Project is short (3-5 hours, I assume) visual novel with few cipher-based puzzles sections. It's heavily inspired by classics of genre. such as Infinity series or Root Double. Still, as seen from graphics and some story scenes it takes more western, somewhat more "grounded" approach to usual themes and subject. From good side, there is multiple route mystery going on, so if you are fan of these you may find yourself intrigued, if only for hour or so. Characters are not fantastic, but they are relatable (at least, until most endings for different reasons?) Few of cipher puzzles are well-made and took me few minutes to figure out. There are few nice easter eggs and secrets in game. I also liked soundtrack for most part. VN includes flowchart for scene navigation, imo it already makes it better than some other genre titles. From bad side, longivity of VN leads to most endings being somewhat sudden and short. There is also not much of narration, compared to other games of genre (for clarification, I'm not big reader, but, for example, I really felt ADV mode in 999 lacking compared to NVL mode - Paracelsian Project is better than that, but slightly?) Story is also weaved in more emotional, empathical way, so if you were planning to solve murders akin detective - I have bad news for you. Overall it's average mystery visual novel with few ADV segments - made with taste and love for genre - which could engage you for evening or two. It's not that good, but it's not bad either. so I could recommend it only for genre fans. As owner of free version it's hard to say, if game will be worth it's current cost or it's gonna be better to wait for some sale. I guess question lies in your wish to support indie mystery devs or just to have some brainfood for rainy days.