Mini Review Bundle 4 – Visual Novel Mini Review

The theme for this review bundle is ‘summer’. ‘Cuttlebone’ (trip to the beach to gather pet food), ‘Summer House’ (a tale involving alcohol and murder), ‘Sophie’ (holidays and bad endings) and ‘The Dandelion Girl’ (the girl from the future) all feature.

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Inami: This way we get to go to the beach and also get free cuttlebone. Win-win.

Title: Cuttlebone

Developer: Kuroonehalf

Length: 20 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Slice of Life

Relative Rating: 2/5

Overall Rating: 4/10

Key Positive Points: Backgrounds, interface design

Key Negative Points: Filler episode plot

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The Other Girl… why does that sound so familiar?

Title: Summer House

Developer: Carrollesque

Length: 20 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

Relative Rating: 2/5

Overall Rating: 3/10

Key Positive Points: Dark story

Key Negative Points: No sprites, crashes, some parts not fully explained

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I think my summer is ending here. As well as my life.

Title: Sophie

Developer: Didules

Length: 10 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: French

Version Language: English

Genres: Comedy, Slice of Life

Relative Rating: 1/5

Overall Rating: 2/10

Key Positive Points: A number of CGs

Key Negative Points: Too many bad endings, choice outcomes unconnected, plot goes nowhere

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You know, the day before yesterday I saw a rabbit, and yesterday a deer, and today, you.

Title: The Dandelion Girl

Developer: /jp/ project

Length: 30 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Drama, Romance

Relative Rating: 3/5

Overall Rating: 6/10

Key Positive Points: Good story, large extras section

Key Negative Points: More time needed to associate with characters

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Time to talk about instant bad end choices. Sophie featured a number of choices. They were as simple as, for example, choosing to go to the supermarket or not. However, the outcomes are absurd. In one instance, saying something slightly different to one character caused a completely unknown man to appear and stab the protagonist to death. If these bad ends are to be included, it must be obvious as to why a certain choice led to the end. Warnings and hints should also be presented in the preceeding story to guide towards the correct decision. Most of the time, it is not even worth including an alternative ending if they are not of a reasonable length; the choice point can just be made to progress as a natural part of the story.

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Mini Review Bundle 3 – Visual Novel Mini Review

Returning to my reviews after a two-year absence and with the recent review of ‘The Way We ALL GO’, the theme of this bundle is ‘looking back at the work of developers I reviewed previously’. We have ‘The Lockdown of Shinsou Elementary’ (scary school happenings), ‘Of Valkyries and Life’ (girls with wings, in different places and different eras), Yanderella (love triangles and killer cuddly rabbits) and Crimson Rafflesia (Hanachirasu with superpower children).

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???: I wonder… what kind of performance this school has for me…

Title: The Lockdown of Shinsou Elementary

Developer: TwinTurtle Games

Length: 1 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Comedy, Thriller

Relative Rating: 1/5

Overall Rating: 2/10

Key Positive Points: Idea could potentially produce a good story

Key Negative Points: Idea was not built upon, far too short

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Still, the girl herself had no idea of her origin or for what purpose her wings existed.

Title: Of Valkyries and Life

Developer: Desulishor

Length: 20 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Drama, Supernatural

Relative Rating: 2/5

Overall Rating: 4/10

Key Positive Points: Good artwork

Key Negative Points: Should focus on one story, text too wide to read easily

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Now, no matter how it turns out in the end, I’m sure… I’m sure the three of us won’t be able to stay together anymore.

Title: Yanderella

Developer: CHARON

Length: 1 hour 20 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: Japanese

Version Language: English

Genres: Horror, Romance, Slice of Life

Relative Rating: 2/5

Overall Rating: 6/10

Key Positive Points: H-scenes averted, pixel artwork fits

Key Negative Points: Some generic plot points, text pace of engine far too slow

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Even after putrefying two men to death and leaving their bodies in the most disgusting-looking state of decomposition ever, Sho Reilen feels neither regret nor guilt.

Title: Crimson Rafflesia (Full Demo 1.0)

Developer: Soyasushi Productions

Length: 1 hour 20 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Drama, Mystery, Supernatural, Thriller

Relative Rating: 3/5

Overall Rating: 5/10

Key Positive Points: Some good character work, some promising plot, secret content

Key Negative Points: Too many plot points copied from Hanachirasu

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By chance, I happen to have picked two visual novels which are somewhat similar to Nitroplus works. Playing Crimson Rafflesia, almost every event that happens before the opening is copied from Hanachirasu; some effort is made to develop the following plot differently but there are still too many connections. Yanderella has some links to Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi. but these are more subtle; the story is developed differently and it may merely be due to similar themes. Basing work on other visual novels is fine but at least some changes are needed, lest it seem as though ideas are being directly replicated. With a few tweaks, Crimson Rafflesia could become independent enough for the final release.

Mini Review Bundle 2 – Visual Novel Mini Review

Time for some RPG style visual novels. In this bundle we have ‘Dear Mariko’ (murderous stalkers are around), ‘Kimi to Boku to Kireigoto’ (a cycle of betrayal) and ‘Paper Cranes’ (the prison of the mind).

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It’s because of that woman. She’s been following me around for a while now.

Title: Dear Mariko

Developer: Soyasushi Productions

Length: 10 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Horror, Thriller

Relative Rating: 2/5

Overall Rating: 4/10

Key Positive Points: Killer twists

Key Negative Points: Skipped over backstory, story potential not utilised

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Was I even sad about losing you?

Title: Kimi to Boku to Kireigoto

Developer: CHARON

Length: 20 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: Japanese

Version Language: English

Genres: Drama, Slice of Life

Relative Rating: 1/5

Overall Rating: 4/10

Key Positive Points: Graphics and pixel art style

Key Negative Points: Hard to tell who is speaking, unclear ideas

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For everyone in The Cells, inmate or guard, there’s something that anchors them here, something that keeps them from escaping back into the world.

Title: Paper Cranes

Developer: Emily Kardamis

Length: 20 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Mystery

Relative Rating: 2/5

Overall Rating: 4/10

Key Positive Points: Pixel artwork, exploration of confidence

Key Negative Points: Rushed morals, mostly just dialogue

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These visual novels all start with a good, clear idea. However, they do not explore these ideas enough. If time was taken to build up and extend the story, the outcome would be worthy to read. Unfortunately, they stop short of the required quantity.

The Way We ALL GO – Visual Novel Review

That’s what happens in life. Everything changes… and all you can do is keep on going, giving it everything you have.

Title: The Way We ALL GO

Developer: Ebi-hime

Length: 6 hours

Price: £4.79

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Drama, Horror, Slice of Life

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After a sudden move to the city two years ago, returning to the village in which he spent his childhood allows Atcchan to meet once more with the friends he left behind. Although he managed to keep in contact with a few people, he abandoned others without a word and has since not worked up enough courage to contact them. There are only three days to meet with his friends; spending most of your time with one person could potentially upset others.

Some of the major themes covered include separation and isolation, with other themes hidden within routes. The plot varies between normal, everyday scenes to sudden, tense encounters; be prepared to wade through to the endings to see the climax of your actions. If you are looking for extreme and bloodthirsty violence then you may be disappointed; efficient and realistic slaughter is the key focus here. I have seen a similar location and time period setting for a number of horror works before – the enclosed nature of the village give the impression of a cage from which we cannot escape until the problems are solved. The writing style worked for me and there were no spelling mistakes or errors which I could spot.

The first group of routes mainly focus around two characters: Noelle and Amu. Noelle is a quiet, isolated girl who transferred to the village from the city a number of years ago. Amu is the strong and loud childhood friend. The discussions between characters are normally quite harsh but fair. They try to say what they feel, even if it may hurt others. Sometimes this leads to dangerous confrontations. Most of the humour revolves around wordplay and conversational combat, with some dark comedy too. The second group of routes focus around some of the minor characters introduced in the earlier routes and explores them in more detail. Although I did not find these routes as captivating as the first half, they were still enjoyable to read. The final route of the game is mostly for fun – fan disk level shenanigans. By this point, we know the characters enough to enjoy this – as a whole the visual novel is a reasonable length.

There are many endings. Most of them are significantly different enough to deserve existence, although one or two of the ‘bad’ endings could have been combined. My main problem with so many endings was that, as it did not follow an easily recognisable system, it was difficult to tell what to aim for at the decision points. The list of the endings was not very useful for navigation either; any which were not yet unlocked gave no clues, any which were merely stated the ending name. After getting through about half of the endings, I would either have to start searching each path of the decision tree in order or otherwise look up the walkthrough. I opted for the walkthrough. The number of decision points was reasonable and most of the major decisions were obvious. Getting onto some routes required correct decisions on minor choices as well.

The Way We ALL GO is similar to Higurashi not just in themes and setting but also in artwork. More rather, in the original Higurashi artwork. Due to time, skill and money constraints, lower quality art assets were used in Higurashi. Many people are put-off by this style, preferring to read something with both reasonable story and reasonable artwork. Back now to The Way We ALL GO. For the CG, the art styles vary between each due to having multiple artists. Some of them are a very high quality but most are not. Likewise with a few of the character sprites – the grandparents are closer to the expected art quality. On a positive note, there are a variety of character expressions. Background artwork was based on various photographs freely available on the internet. With some effects applied, they are sufficient and consistent. While original drawings may be better in some cases, these backgrounds are still suitable.

As for the background music, there is a good variety to fit every atmosphere. The creepy music works very well to build tension. Music was taken from various royalty free sites but they still work well together. Sound effects were also taken from royalty free sites. The ‘cut-in attack’ feature was probably my favourite sound effect.

An ending list, CG gallery, music gallery and character profiles are available to view in the extra section. As discussed previously, the endings are relatively hard to locate but at least the list allows you to check that you have completed them all. Some of the graphics from the final route are missing from the CG gallery at the moment; everything else is still there, with basic functionality. Music gallery also works but may benefit from a slight reorganisation into a scrolling table format. The character profiles are a great touch. However, they did not unlock until I had finished the game. If possible, profiles which evolve as you meet characters and view endings may have improved the feature.

To summarise, focus was placed in the right area; developing a good story with good characters. Difficult themes are covered and the length gives you enough time to engage with the characters. Whereas the artwork and reliance on free resources does let the overall image down, it was not too distracting. If you are willing to overlook the appearance and read the story then there will be no regrets.

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Relative Rating: 4/5

Overall Rating: 7/10

Key Positive Points: Strong story, character dialogue and character thought processes

Key Negative Points: Lack of consistent style and quality in artwork

Mini Review Bundle 1 – Visual Novel Mini Review

This compilation serves to transfer my previous reviews over to the new system. Some of the timings may be slightly out so I rounded up to the highest value previously stated. If you wish to read the old reviews on which these were based, you can find them in the following links.

Of Dinosaurs and Pineapples

The adventure of Bacon

Stupid Script Novel

Yandere-Chan

More than Forever: A Tragic Love Story

Schoolgirl x Squid

Project Dualis

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Unicycle-riding donkeys juggling flaming midget accountants interns: Hey why weren’t we in the game.

Title: Of Dinosaurs and Pineapples

Developer: Envisage Games

Length: 10 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Comedy

Relative Rating: 1/5

Overall Rating: 1/10

Key Positive Points: Tuna-can battles

Key Negative Points: Nonsense plot, poor artwork

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Because everybody knows that the red monster hunts in the dark outside the farm.

Title: The adventure of Bacon

Developer: Unknown (KebecMaslow)

Length: 10 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: Spanish

Version Language: English

Genres: Childrens

Relative Rating: 1/5

Overall Rating: 2/10

Key Positive Points: Works well as a children’s story

Key Negative Points: Too simplistic, needs polishing

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You go to school, only to find out that it was blown up by a meteor. THE END

Title: Stupid Script Novel

Developer: Unknown (foxhead128)

Length: 10 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Comedy

Relative Rating: 1/5

Overall Rating: 1/10

Key Positive Points: Maybe you have a little sister

Key Negative Points: Nonsense plot, poor artwork

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Mia: Compensate with more blood.

Title: Yandere-Chan

Developer: Nyodude

Length: 60 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Horror, Slice of Life

Relative Rating: 3/5

Overall Rating: 5/10

Key Positive Points: Yandere and bad endings

Key Negative Points: Lack of backstory and reason for actions

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Shirley: Will you love me forever?

Title: More than Forever: A Tragic Love Story

Developer: TwinTurtle Games

Length: 10 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Comedy

Relative Rating: 2/5

Overall Rating: 4/10

Key Positive Points: Book commentary

Key Negative Points: Story stopped short, relies on reader knowledge

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He’s not a large, hulking, disgusting squid like you’d see in some kind of weird hentai. Instead, he is very small and cute, with tiny little tentacles and large, inquisitive eyes.

Title: Schoolgirl x Squid

Developer: Ebi-hime

Length: 60 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Comedy, Romance, Slice of Life

Relative Rating: 3/5

Overall Rating: 5/10

Key Positive Points: Squid

Key Negative Points: Generic scenes, polish required

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She was suddenly acting like a completely different person…

Title: Project Dualis

Developer: Desulishor

Length: 60 min

Price: Free

Adult Content: None

Original Language: English

Version Language: English

Genres: Mystery, Romance, Slice of Life, Supernatural

Relative Rating: 3/5

Overall Rating: 5/10

Key Positive Points: Voice acting

Key Negative Points: Generic scenes, predictable outcome

Update – Visual Novel Review Changes

As I do not have much time for writing, spending longer making the review than playing the game posed a problem for a few of the shorter games. I plan to cut down on the length of review for shorter games and only write full length reviews for longer games. I will put multiple short reviews together in a single post for any game classed as ‘Very Short’ on VNDB (under two hours of playtime). If the visual novel was not free or if it deserves a separate review then I will most likely write a full length review.

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So far most of my reviews have been for free OELVN and the ratings were scaled based on comparisons to other OELVN I had read. Now that I am planning to review some Japanese visual novels, these old ratings need to change a bit to fit with my other VNDB ratings. I therefore will have two rating systems:

Rating 1 – Relative Rating

In comparison with visual novels of the same original language, a score from 0 to 5.

Rating 2 – Overall Rating

A standard score from 0 to 10, compared with all visual novels.

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I am also going to start reviewing a few Japanese visual novels in the Japanese language version, so I will mention the language version that I am reviewing.

My judgement criteria are to remain the same; story is the foremost important element. However, for those visual novels which cost, I will also take into account the value for money.

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Some parts will be moved around, such as putting the screenshot at the top of the post. There will be a short summary of details at the top and review outcomes at the bottom.

Symbols will be present on list pages to allow you to search for any relevant visual novels.

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Introductory Summary

Screenshot: A screenshot from the visual novel.

Quote: One quote which I picked out from the visual novel.

Title: What I refer to the visual novel as (may present English and Japanese title if needed). Includes link to VNDB.

Developer: The developer of the visual novel. Includes link to VNDB.

Length:  The length estimate of the game. Either my playtime or, if I did not measure it, the length from VNDB.

Price: Cost of the version of the game reviewed. Currency may vary depending on developer.

Adult Content: If the game is 18+ on VNDB.

Original Language: The language that the original visual novel was written in.

Version Language: The version which I am reviewing.

Genres: Rough estimate of the genre of the visual novel.

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Concluding Summary

Relative Rating, Overall Rating, Key Positive Points and Key Negative Points.

Update – Site Improvements

The removal of old posts has now been completed. The remaining stages of the cleanup are to improve the tags and broken links present in the visible posts, as well as creating a new background and updating sidebar links.

Looking back over all my posts allowed me to find those which attracted the most interest: guides, reviews and Manga Week Challenges. I will therefore focus my content around these areas. Guides can only be produced when I obtain a suitable game, which is about once a year. Challenges take up a lot of time and would probably lose value if ran too often. Therefore, the majority of my new posts will be visual novel reviews. With some changes to the structure, I aim to produce at least one review a week but I could potentially complete more.

Due to current work, I will be unable to run the Manga Week Challenge at the usual time of the year. Instead, it is likely to be closer to the August/September period. I am also planning to run a Visual Novel Week Challenge – this would run in a similar way to the Manga Week Challenge but, instead of a set threshold, a score will be calculated based on the number of visual novels completed and their corresponding lengths.