The Raintime

This is a phenomenal work of literary genius, bringing to mind classics like Knut Hamsun's Hunger or La Rochelle's Le feu folie, both favorites of mine. More a kinetic visual novel than a game, the prose is gorgeous. The characters, while not always likeable, evoke strong empathy in the audience. There are occasional flaws in the text that give away that the author is not a native speaker of English, but this is forgivable considering that the prose is otherwise so powerful and impressive. Whoever wrote this has an excellent command of literary English overall. Its depiction of substance abuse is as brutal as it is fully relatable. The author's flare for description is delightful and the historical sense of place in the story drives the narrative in a unique way. Much of the story feels dreamlike, dissociative in nature, which is fairly accurate for a depiction of someone whose mental state is slowly eroding. The mental health themes feel authentic and can educate others about the experience of living with depression, addiction and psychosis, but more importantly, their driving role in the narrative does not feel exploitative or stigmatizing like in so much other digital media. The sound design is phenomenal and the cold, at times monochromatic and static nature of the imagery suits the story extremely well. Some of the (especially more sexist) language can be a bit difficult to digest, but it suits the gritty narrative and considering the disintegrating mood and grasp on reality of the protagonist, it's not hard to give it a pass. I genuinely cannot believe this project hasn't gotten more attention. Thanks to the developers for the engaging experience!

没有中文，差评！

depressed ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ simulator

Rammstein

I dont even know what this game is about, but i like it haha xD. Ich weiß nichtmal worum es bei diesem Spiel geht, ich weiß nur das ich es sehr mag haha xD

Although the story resonated with me a lot, most of the dialogue is actually very boring. The writing is good at times, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Overall, it's an experience that's not for everyone, and having to click every time I want to read the next sentence is very tedious. I agree that this should be a website or published into a book instead of being made into a visual novel, as it is not fun to play at all.

With games such as this we're always subjected to copious quantities of verbal diarrhea, regurgitated by the brooding not-like-other-people highschooler/undergraduate whose "journey" never goes anywhere. Perhaps visual novel enthusiasts (creators and players alike) would do well to abstain from anime for a while and open a real book instead. The illustrations were certainly eye-catching.