You, With Me - A Kinetic Novel

While I liked Afterthought Studios’ previous works, unfortunately I cannot recommend this title. I wish that Steam had a neutral option on times like this, but since there’s not, my answer is “no”. Also, like it says on the title, this is a kinetic novel meaning that there are no choices and you only read the text. [b]The story:[/b] Jacob is an ordinary man and lives with his wife, Lisa, in Singapore. Everything is pretty much chill until Jacob finds out he’s really sick and will die in a few months. The stress that the couple goes through (especially Jacob) is intense, which makes Jacob act kinda like an a-s-s to his wife. Of course that his behavior is bad, but well, he’s dying and people tend to lose it. I thought that his behavior was very “human”, not the “everything will be alright” kind of cliché (at least at first). He’s a guy who worries about the future of his wife, and he already accepted the fact that he won’t be around for too long. I could feel his frustration of wanting to prepare for the worst, and Lisa acting hopeful bothered him. [b]Lisa:[/b] You know, at first I actually felt sorry for her. [spoiler]But after I found out that she stopped taking birth control pills on purpose and NEVER told Jacob about it… That was really s*hitty from that woman. Any sympathy I had for this character was instantly GONE when I found out that. I know it was supposed to be a dramatic part of the story, but really, it was just awful.[/spoiler] All she did to make Jacob fell better was flushed down through the toilet because of that crappy act she pulled. Overall, the story is interesting but I think that its execution wasn’t good. There’s several grammar mistakes (I’m not a native English speaker tho, but they bothered me a little), the narration isn’t that good, and there’s the layout; there are no paragraphs on this novel, it’s just a plain text wall without the proper space. It gets tiring to read, and the text even invades the bottom of the window, surpassing the text box: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=925747652 4/10. Still, I wish the best of luck to the developers with their next releases.

[h1]You, With Me is not really a novel approach to visual novels, and not really kinetic, but it is fortunately one of the most emotionally moving video games that I have experienced. [/h1] I don't really want to provide any spoilers, so I will just say that I cried a few times. It's a beautiful tale of life and death, love and pain, family and faults, faith and doubt. Speaking of faults, gramatically and editorally the text of the novel has many errors. But, these do not effect the comprehension of the plot. Although I have no idea of what the background is of the author, it comes across as written and translated by a foreign language speaker. I've read quite a bit of books in other languages, with my own poor translating skills, so I know for a fact there is great value in sharing a story that you would have never experienced had you not been willing to overlook the different grammar structure and errors. The photos are a nice addition. The text is controllable and moves with a mouse click, and you can scroll the mouse wheel to reverse the text should you miss something. The music is not overwhelming. It seems to come and go at important moments. The price is very good. You won't regret three to four hours in this story. [h1]There are no errors in the story itself. It is definitely touching and memorable. I highly recommend this story for anyone who enjoys visual novels. [/h1]

"another heart wrenching tale" Yup. Heart wrenching backgrounds. Heart wrenching sprites. Heart wrenching silence ocasionally interupted by some heart wrenching piano samples. Heart wrenching gramar mistakes and heart wrenching problems with translation [spoiler]I love how one character is called Shawn in dialogues and with different name in diary[/spoiler] Heart wrenching lack of polishing. I lost quite a lot of text - just because it didn't fit in box. And the most important thing: story. Heart wrenching? Yeah. Although final outcome is spoiled by some nonsense here and there. Just meh.

看不懂~英文GAL Game~ 只好···Ctrl键快速····CG似乎只有3张~ https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1980802765 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1980802787 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1980802816 主菜单的字体似乎很酷~~ ~结局是happy end~

Начну с того, что предыдущая игра от этих разработчиков - Forgotten Not Lost - мне не слишком понравилась, но You, With Me оказалась хуже по всем фронтам. Скучная тягомотина, излагающаяся сухим, пресным языком с постоянным переливанием из пустого в порожнее. Вначале я крепился и терпеливо читал, но вскоре свернул это словоблудие в фон и занялся более интересными делами. Потом вернулся и кое-как добил по диагонали. История начинается с того, что герой узнаёт о том, что у него последняя стадия рака, шансов на излечение практически нет, жить осталось максимум полгода. Короче, всё плохо, можно завернуться в простыню и ползти на кладбище. Что он и принимается делать с завидным усердием. Тут-то и кроется главная проблема: резкий старт, без какой-либо вводной части. Нас толком не знакомят с героями, не показывают их "счастливую жизнь до", а просто ставят перед фактом: чувак заболел, давайте ему сочувствовать. Что, естественно, не вызывает никакого сочувствия. Вскоре в историю подваливают родственники, и реакция на них лично у меня была из разряда "кто все эти люди и какое мне до них дело?" В общем, история не задалась с самого начала. И чем дальше, тем больше новелла скатывалась в бразильскую мыльную оперу с заламыванием рук, шаблонными сюжетными ходами и [spoiler]непременно счастливым розовым финалом, который разработчики сами же и проспойлерили в первых секундах проморолика[/spoiler]. Все присутствующие тонули в соплях и слезах (попеременно то от горя, то от радости), и всё это так наигранно и натужно, да ещё с такими подробностями, что временами я чувствовал себя любовником, забытым неверной супругой в шкафу, подглядывающим в щёлочку между створками и вынужденным подслушивать разговоры о "кровавых стульях", таблетках от метеоризма и противозачаточных пилюльках. Я бы это ещё стерпел, но когда главгерой стал сваливать странности в поведении жены на пмс, новелла превратилась в один большой анекдот. Увы, совсем не смешной. Что касается технической стороны, то тут тоже ничего хорошего. Создаётся впечатление, что разработчики клали болт на свой проект. Диалоги располагаются в окне внизу, всё остальное вываливается сплошной стеной текста на весь экран, причём без каких-либо абзацев, что сильно затрудняет чтение. Герои настолько словоохотливы, что подчас их речи выползают за пределы окна, и прочесть окончание фразы не представляется возможным. Встречаются ошибки, опечатки и ляпы вроде наслаивания спрайтов персонажей друг на друга. Апофеоз всей этой вакханалии - заключительная сцена, в которой [spoiler]сын героев по имени Шон в диалоговом окне идентифицируется как Наташа. Из подгузников не вылез, а уже трансвестит.[/spoiler] Господибожемой, что я читаю вообще?! С графикой тоже не повезло. Для меня, привыкшего к японским вн с симпатичными девочками, здешняя рисовка оказалась слишком сурова. В итоге не знаю. То ли это я такой бессердечный, чёрствый и бездушный, то ли разработчики сделали плохую новеллу. Категорически не рекомендую.

This visual novel's story had the potential to be interesting and touching, as it explores a man and his wife's differing approaches to handling the man's cancer diagnosis. Unfortunately, it reads like the writer put it through google translate, with plentiful instances of baffling grammar and word choices that don't quite make sense. It's also full of bugs like the text getting cut off sometimes, or sprites appearing on top of each other. I might have been able to overlook some of that if the story was still compelling, but I found it extremely hard to sympathize with the protagonist, who spends most of his time being scornful and patronizing toward his wife as she tries to take care of him. Although I stopped feeling bad for her later on, [spoiler]when I found out she had stopped taking her birth control on purpose without telling her husband, so I guess maybe they're both awful and kind of deserve each other.[/spoiler] Either way, every aspect of this VN was disappointing except for its unintentional comedic value. Go spend your money on better VNs instead.

You, With Me adds to the pool of depressing visual novels we've been enjoying from Japan and abroad for years now. And while its premise sets you up for an easily moving story, the writing doesn't do it justice. With minimal assets and a disturbing lack of sound for the most part, it's up to the story to drive everything, but though it is in every aspect a melodrama, it fails to deliver what makes those kinds of stories memorable and emotional. There's an overwhelming banality to every event, helped in no part by the stiff, awkward, heavy-handed narration that drags on for far too long. We're lead in circles as the characters struggle over the same problems, only to be fed the point of it all as if we never had a hope of realising it. It's not Afterthought Studios' best (and it's not laughably bad either), so I can only hope it was a stepping stone to a stronger work. As-is, however, the game comes off as a clumsy first draft in dire need of re-writing and editing.

首先VN的V要划掉，然后我会给剩余部分的N给6分。 [b]作为一部VN，V的部分糟糕透顶。[/b] UI很简洁，只有保存、读取和自动阅读开关。 没配音不说，游戏流程几乎没有音乐。我还曾一度以为我耳机出问题，但事实上就是没有音乐，一个小时的体验就听到了几分钟音乐，剩余时间真的是寂寞如雪。 图片真的少，出场立绘总共才5个角色，动作也少，CG两三张。 文本排的乱，什么一两句对话后一整页的心里描述都不提了，有的对话框甚至溢出，下边对话完全看不到。 另外关于用词和语法，怎感觉英文是二次翻译的产物，怎么看怎么不对劲。 唯二能取彩的部分：一、题材少见，讲述突来的疾病对一个家庭的影响。亲情牌好牌，结局也比较温馨。 二、作者描写部分细节之处比较细腻。（虽然用词语法一样比较诡异）

pros: beautiful hand drawn graphics good subject matter (awareness is always good) decents dialogue. cons: in the diary it is hard to read should have used a darker font. some of the content is too long and you cannot read the last line. gets a bit wordy and repetitious...which i understand but seems like the same things just rewording the same retoric, personal: i love the novel over all i just got bored after awhile for some of the reasons i stated above...got bored. it is like when you read books from the same author after awhile you get so used to their style you get bored. oh and don't let the hours fool you i took breaks...watched a movie and such. :) well time to get back and see how this story ends =^.^= p.s. i loved the ending...but who in the heck is natasha? i did not read anything about a natasha in the journal...or did i over look it? i thought at 1st they may have had twins...but in the last image of the family there is only 1 child...so who is natasha and where did she or he come from?

Almost no music, grey screen each time the character is thinking, text bugs... I can't recommend this game, even if the story is interesting. And for those who wonder : there isn't any choice to make in this game.