This World Unknown

Val's route was my first route and it was pretty decent, as a straight male I still adore the romance within this route, despite some dragging, unnecessarily long storytelling, it was still fine. But then my second route went with Garrett's, and the dragging writing started to affect the experience, it is so bad that I skipped through the latter part, and even lost my interest playing the remaining 2 routes but instead skipping them just for the Steam achievements. I really feel bad to have done so when Dev's note mentioned that Garrett's route was their probably least fav, and i was supposed to play Val's at last, which was like slapping in my face and telling me that I am playing it in a totally wrong and opposite way, really unfortunate.

The level of depth and detail in the world-building is insane. The vn gets really tedious at times, though. Overall, still recommend.

Gra jest fajna. Postacie są ciekawe i każda ma swój charakter. Grafika w grze jest inna, nie każdemu może się podobać, ale mi akurat odpowiadała. Muzyka jest dobrze dopasowana i nie czułam jakiejś powtarzalności. Fabuła rozwija się powoli, co może nie odpowiadać osobom, które lubią szybką akcję. Zanim wejdziemy na ścieżkę, początek trwa 3-4 godziny, same ścieżki też są długie (coś około 6 godzin). Oprócz powtarzalnego początku, każda ścieżka jest inna. Polecam grę, bo gra się przyjemnie, ale jeżeli szukasz czegoś z szybką fabułą, to zrezygnuj.

Очаровательная игра.

I don't like this game. It is just not what I wanted.

Good story(:

没中文玩个蛋，看不懂，啥时候能让AI帮我把游戏都翻译了就好了。

This world Unknown is a Visual novel taking place in fictional version of medieval times, with an Otome spin. In the story we follow Rhea, who is a nurse in a small village. The doctor that she is working for is already not liked in the area and his reputation might be ruined, if the hospital won’t manage to cure very respected religious leader, that was stricken by mysterious illness. So with old or freshly made group of friends, our Heroine is out on a journey, to find a cure. During it, she has a chance to fall in love with some of her male companion. The story, in a typical Ebis fashion is taking classic trope and then exceeds all expectations, by creating something much more deep and impactful. You can witness it, with works like “The Way We all GO”, “The Mermaid of Zennor” and “A Winter’s Daydream”. The plot is well written, with a cast of characters, that play well off each other. Ebi mentioned, that with this story she tried to learn more, how to write male characters and I would say, that you can really see, how her male characters writing improved. In comparison to “Strawberry Vinegar” and “Empty Horizons”, it is significantly better. I mean... Now, the author created multiple BLB, or Boy Love stories with many more being currently in works. But, those are not the main focus of this review. All important characters of the story, go through development, that deepen and at times better their person. I especially liked the change of Asa’s world-view in his route. The characters have depth and well written backstories. The game encourages trying multiple routes, to be able to learn more about them. I especially enjoyed the main heroines personality. She is very interesting person, that made me appreciate her a lot. I wanted to protect her, by any means possible. You could say, that she is awaking my motherly instincts. LOL. Even if, she doesn’t need a guardian. Rhea is a young adult and she acts like it. The plot also touches on more mature and serious topics like racism, organized religion, “Us vs Them” mentality, classicism and toxic expectations, that are pushed on young men. “This world Unknown” comments on those topics, in proper way that is not disrespectful. Social commentary is done in a way, that floats with the story, so you don’t need to worry, about it being too direct or interrupting? The VN at the beginning might feel a bit slow, but the more you learn about the characters, the more enjoyable it becomes. What else is also enjoyable, are the stunning visuals that Ebi prepared for us. The character sprites are very well made and the scenes that have their own art are simply breathtaking. This game looks beautiful and is a joy to experience with all of your senses. That of course includes the audio. The sound effects are mostly very well fitted in. My only complain would be the fact, that in some of the crowd sounds, you can clearly tell what the “Background” is talking about and it is taking the focus away, from what is important. The guy asking about parents – I am looking at you. (If you will read, or already had read the story, then you know what I am talking about). Music in this story is tasteful and simply does, what it needs to do. You shouldn’t expect Ryuukishi type of a deal, but if you like to read your Vns with BGM, then you won’t be disappointed. Rounding the review, I will mention some miscellaneous things, that didn’t fit the float of the review earlier. The story is quite long, which is definitely big plus. Finishing it 100% took me around 24 hours. One rout is around 7 hours of reading and the game offers 5 different routes. (One of them has 2 different endings!) The VN has really well integrated humour, that definitely can cause few chuckles or snickers, however it doesn’t take away from the impact of the plot. It’s really well made. This world Unknown’s score is 94/100

Restart for all ending achievement.

I really enjoyed this game, much more than I expected. I don't usually play visual novels with this type of art style, and because of it, I thought it would be more of a cute, light-hearted story. I was wrong; the backgrounds, the music, are subdued in a way that matches the story because it touches on dark themes at times. They do a great job of bringing you into this world, this tiny village in the middle of nowhere. The character sprites, though they are stylized, are very expressive. The story flows well, and I felt the characters themselves were written in a more genuine way, a little less like tropes and more like real people. Especially the main character; she is a very sweet girl, but not in an artificial, blank slate way. I was happy to see this type of character being represented so well, I really sympathized with her. Overall, I was able to immerse myself in this game, and I had a great time. I won't say I liked all the romantic routes, but I'm still glad I played it, especially Valerian's route.