XVTM

Maybe a bit too experimental and unorthodox for most readers, but I personally really enjoyed the narrative so far, I thought it had a lot of unusual and strange ideas for the character interactions, highlighting certain reactions using gameplay that otherwise would be impossible to convey through the text. I kinda expected like a short visual novel with some gameplay gimmicks, and at first I was right, but I ended up playing it for 5 hours for a single path, having many complex undertones, constant tension building, and frankly I felt the game often changed its overall tone, sometimes following the choices that felt completely different and would evoke all kinds of emotions out of me. It's a 'minimalist' presentation, and yet the game is anything but simple and takes advantage of many weird gameplay elements to set the tone, the characters project many different traits, and the responses felt very natural to me (at least after the introduction that felt a bit cheesy). It's very emotional and touches on all kinds of ideas, depression, stress, love, desperation, hope, anger, making friends, making enemies, appreciating yourself, hating yourself, looking forward to the future, not looking forward to the future, getting an acquired taste in food, and just about everything in the middle. One thing that kinda impressed me, you would use very simple elements like timing on responses, interactive minigames, and other gimmicks to complement the scene in that specific moment, and make it like a part of the choice you making, often having feedback on how well you competed the task - overall I feel like the game has a very good attention to detail and I think you were tracking the personality of each character really well, aside from the overall premise of the game I thought there were many grounded characters that were easy to digest, or at least get their point of view, even if you didn't like them as a person. Another thing I noticed that felt very odd, unlike many visual novels sometimes you would really focus on the dialogue, up to 15 minutes during certain scenes, which generally is not a good idea because it's easy to lose attention of the reader when not much happens, but overall I felt like the individual character moments had their purpose, and those lengthy scenes actually felt less like a visual novel, and more like a genuine interaction you would have with a person, uncut and unedited. [h1] Pros: [/h1] + At first I thought these gameplay elements would be more of a gimmick, but for the most part I thought you used them very well to set the atmosphere and amplify the tension in the dialogue, there were many moments where I felt I knew exactly what the character is feeling in those few seconds, considering how little visual feedback is actually given, I think you did a really good job focusing on the characters + Really nice choice of ambiance across the game, again going back to that simple and yet evocative presentation, I think it really helped to play with headphones, not much is shown, but the sound sort of created the picture for the panels really well, even often having some heavy tension in the scenes + The game is unusually heavy on the dialogue and choices, some important, some not so much, but I felt that even simple moments for character development had their place, from the frustration with customers, to having introspection being alone in apartments or the bath, there are a lot of layers to this story [h1] Feedback: [/h1] - you know it feels very strange that you starting the text almost all the way on the left side of the screen, I am partially looking at my wall and not the screen lol. The font was not the best, but I kinda got over it - I felt like the part with the customers and the mysterious task were setting up the story for a lot more tension and mystery, but it almost felt like it turned into more of a relationship game later, which to be fair, I still think the writing was good, I just thought the whole danger aspect of the story was more compelling in that moment, and the game now kinda doing many different things from what I expected, maybe not always for the better - maybe increase the volume of background music just a little [b] Overall Thoughts: EA 12/27/2024 [/b] There are certain moments in the dialogue that I feel are so heavy with tension, and I think you are giving really good feedback on how characters react to what is happening to them in those moments, honestly maybe better than most VN games that I played. That being said, I think the issue with this game is not that you doing anything wrong, but maybe the game is too much of a slow burn, and frankly it requires a lot of attention to get something out of it. Aside from a few story elements that I felt were a little forced, I get a sense that you are a really good writer/writers, and not afraid to make 15 minutes worth of dialogue for individual scenes, because the characters feel so organic. You know, maybe the narrative themes and just overall idea for the story might be a little too specific to the taste of the audience, but there is something to this game, I thought overall it felt very different from just about any VN game I played so far, so at least for me, it's worth a lot. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]

I saw an ad for this on an obscure Taiwanese (Not china btw) basket weaving forum, and decided to toss a shekel at it. I couldn't actually get into the game because of a far too long EULA that I'm neither reading nor blindly agreeing to. The title screen is neat though. 10/10 Plaiting is the best basket weaving technique.

Just finished this game. Slow burn, 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂 scenes, definitely isn't for everyone. But for me, I loved this damn game -- the characters, the artstyle, the world, the story -- loved all of it. I doubt there's plans for another installment judging from how little traction this got, but I'd drop a grand to see this world and it's characters expanded on in the future. If you're really concerned about the EULA, read it over yourself in the game's directory. It's only six pages long. I don't think I'm getting my door smashed in or anything. I'm really just gushing about this game, to be honest. American Dove's review is way better if you want to know what you're getting yourself into with this game.

I haven't gotten super far into this yet but so far it's sticking with me somehow. I can't explain why but this is a game I keep thinking about when I'm not playing it. Maybe it's because it captures humanity in the stages of a collapse it doesn't understand. There's something interesting about that happening to us despite all our tech. I see now this game is billed as AO but I don't even care about all that. It's somehow a haunting view of a world we inhabit today, sentence deferred by a thousand years. Maybe it gets hornier later on but by then I feel like it'll have been earned. Edit: It *did* get hornier, and honestly, it's great. The human experience generally involves these kinds of things and the scenes are really nicely done. I have plans for a 2nd, 3rd, and maybe 4th playthrough already, and I agree with another reviewer: these are wonderful characters and I'd love to see even more of them. Not like *that*, I mean. It's just been a lot of damn fun to travel the world with them. I encountered one softlock at about the 15-hour mark, but by the time anyone reads this review, it'll likely be fixed and I'll be on to playthrough 2. This is one of the most unique games I've ever played. A final, post-playthrough edit: This is a wonderful game and you really should give it a try. There's something beautiful in this world and in these characters that I find even more compelling than I did when I began. Some games are more art than others, and this one is one that's more art than less. I already want to play again but I'm going to take a bit of time to digest the two playthroughs I've finished already. Attention to detail in this game is great too. For example, some of the linguistic quirks that are hard to get right about military comms, like not using the duplicative "over and out" that Hollywood favors, show me that the dev put a lot of time and care into getting the characters right and making them *sound* right.