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About this blog

This is a series of condensed articles from my main Blog.

Reviews, News and Analysis are my specialty and will be updated weekly on the main site followed by here.

Entries in this blog

Analysis

Event CGs – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Capturing The Action   When visual novels wants to enhance the drama and impact of a particular narrative beat or intimate character moment they turn to Event CGs. These large and intricate graphics depict these key moments with a vivid detail which the character portraits are no capable of replicating. Each one has such a profound effect on the player due to the infrequency of their us
Analysis

Adventure Games – Uncovering The VN Hybrid

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Pixel Hunting   Creating a sense of immersion within a fictional world has always been one of the greatest strengths of visual novels so it is only natural they would end up paired with a style of gameplay about interacting with the details of that world in the form of Adventure Games. These are titles which involve clicking on elements of the environment in order to solve puzzles or me
Review

AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative Review – Slicing Between The Weave

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Genre - Sci-fi, Mystery, Thriller    Play Time - 18 hours    Developer - Spike Chunsoft     Steam     VNDB    Split In Half   Where do you go with a story after all the lose ends of the original have been tied up in a nice neat knot? This is the dilemma which nirvanA Initiative faced and the solution it chose was to split its play time between two new protagonists. Indeed the i
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Analysis

Save Systems – An Anatomy of Visual Novels

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Recording Your Progress   Almost every game has some form of system by which the player can save their progress since a developer cannot expect them to complete the title in one sitting. How this manifests varies wildly from the freedom to save as many times as the player wants to a single save slot only available at designated intervals to an autosave system out of the player’s hands.
Analysis

Apocalypse – Genre Deep Dive

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Until There Is Nothing Left   As a species we have a strange obsession with the inevitable demise of everything we have built in the face of sudden and uncontrollable disasters. There is a kind of catharsis at seeing this scenario play out in a fictional setting and witnessing how the characters attempt to adapt to the end of the world as they know it. This genre of Apocalypse stories c
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Analysis

Dating Sims – Uncovering The VN Hybrid

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Making Yourself Desirable   Many outside the visual novel space often make the mistake of referring to romance visual novels as Dating Sims and at a glance it is easy to see why given their shared focus on pursuing a chosen heroine or hero. The two types of game have had a long and connected history with Dating Sims utilising visual novel elements to sell their story sections and buildi
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Review

Death End Request 2 Review – Glitching Our Way Into True Fear

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Genre – JRPG, Horror, Mystery     Play Time – 16 hours     Developer – Compile Heart/Idea Factory    Steam     VNDB   Hack The World   There are two ways to make a squeal, either you stick close to what was established in the first game and provide more of the same or you take the basic ideas of that original title and reinvent them in a new form. Death End Request 2 takes the
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Analysis

The Skip Button – An Anatomy of Visual Novels

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Pressing Fast Forward   A simple feature like a Skip Button might seem too minor to be worth covering in any detail, after all most visual novels have one so they must be a normal part of them, right? It is only when it is taken away that its impact, both on how the player interacts with the game and their perception of it, becomes clear. Presenting the option to skip content is always
Analysis

Science Fantasy – Genre Deep Dive

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Of Robots And Sorcerers   At first glance sci-fi and fantasy might seem incompatible with one another since the first focuses on extrapolations of concepts from our scientific present while the other deals with impossible events and powers. However, behind these differences they share a common desire to explore the nature of humanity through situations as distant as possible from our e
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Review

Irotoridori No Sekai – The Colorful World Review – Beyond The Other Rainbow

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Genre – Romance, Fantasy, Mystery    Play Time – 35 hours     Developer – FAVORITE    Steam     VNDB   Coming To Know Love   Everyone has a wish they want fulfilled before they die, this can be anything from unrequited love to becoming rich to seeing the world. However, the world is a harsh place and many of these wishes go unanswered as people pass from the moral coil. It is t
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Analysis

Multiple Title Screens – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here. The Many Faces We Wear   Upon booting up a visual novel, the first thing the player will see is the main menu. Over the course of their play time they will pass through it countless times and come to memorise its details. As such altering this key feature will immediately be noticed by the player and the more dramatic the change, the greater this impact will be. A wide variety of visual novels
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Fighting Games – Uncovering The VN Hybrid

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Fight Start!   As a style of gameplay Fighting Games are at once wonderfully expressive and yet incredibly restrictive and so combining them with visual novels make for an interesting hybrid. The primary feature which binds the two together is their heavy focus on characters and invoking strong emotions through their expressiveness. Visual novels offer the chance for fighting games to e
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Review

Synergia Review – Blurred Lines And Robotic Hearts

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Genre – Cyberpunk, Dystopia, Romance    Play Time – 5 hours    Developer – RadiArt    Steam   VNDB   Are These Feelings Real?   Dealing with romantic emotions can be a difficult and this is doubly so when the entire world seems to reject what you are experiencing. Such is the situation Cila finds herself in when she develops feelings for the mysterious android Mara as the powe
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Yaoi – Genre Deep Dive

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Love In All Its Forms   As a genre Yaoi has an interesting kinship with masculinity which leads it down some distinctive narrative pathways. In many ways it is a mirror of its stable-mate Yuri since it also has the two extremes of commercialisation and thoughtful representation. Much of the genre’s output tends to be aimed at a female audience with the characters and relationships setti
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Multiple Route Mystery – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.     Puzzle Pieces Scattered To The Wind   Putting together a mystery in order to find the truth is one of the most rewarding narrative and mechanical feelings it is possible to give the player. The route based structure of visual novels places them in a unique position to take advantage of this niche. They can spread their mystery over the course of their story in a non-linear manner
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SRPG – Uncovering The VN Hybrid

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Mixing Words And Chess   If you want gameplay that mixes the grand feeling of strategy while still maintaining a strong character focus then the SRPG is generally the way to go. Hence why visual novel developers find this style mechanics appealing and select it to form a hybrid with in order to compliment the visual novel's narrative tone. Here the SRPG will be defined as a strategy gam
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Review

Digimon Survive Review – Friends of Tooth and Claw

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Genre – SRPG, Adventure, Sci-Fi     Play Time – 23 hours    Developer - HYDE, Inc. and Witchcraft     Steam    VNDB   Of Harmony, Morality And Wrath   As a long standing franchise Digimon is no stranger to having games in all genres imaginable made for it and so the choice of a hybrid visual novel and SRPG should come as no surprise. For Digimon Survive the most important part
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Achievements – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   The Completionist Drive   It is human nature to want to be rewarded for our accomplishments hence why people are so happy to get a bit of paper at the end of a university course. Games love to tap into this emotional response through Achievements and visual novels are no exception. Achievements are generally used as both a system of rewarding the player and a means of encouraging them t
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Dark Fantasy – Genre Deep Dive

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.     The Dark Night Of The Soul   Dealing with the parts of human nature we would rather not look at can be difficult to fit into many genres due to audience expectations for heroic tales. As such if a story wants to tackle these subjects it needs to build its entire world and tone around them, thus was born the Dark Fantasy. This genre takes its fantastical elements and uses them to c
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Review

The Grisaia Trilogy Review – Fruits of Many Flavours

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Genre - Romance, Action, Drama    Play Time - 100+ hours    Developer - Frontwing    VNDB    Steam   The Blind Leading The Blind   Reflecting a character’s flaws back onto them through their interactions with the heroines has long been a core of the visual novel narrative design. However, few showcase the power of this approach quite like the Grisaia trilogy which takes it as f
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Timed Choices – An Anatomy of Visual Novels

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Under Pressure   As a medium visual novels lack many ways to get the player to make split second decisions and one of the few they do have is the Timed Choice. These are as simple as they sound, the player is presented with a normal choice but must consider and act on it under the pressure of a time limit. Some games show the timer ticking down while others merely state that the clock i
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April Fools – Genre Deep Dive

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   That Time of The Year   Once a year people come together to pull pranks or other humorous activities on each other in an effort to lighten up their lives and visual novels have become a vessel for this practice resulting the birth of a genre. The games which spawn from it are parodies of established titles or series where their essence is exaggerated for comic effect while keeping the q
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Review

Hoshizora no Memoria Review – Shining Amongst The Sea Of Stars

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Genre – Slice of Life, Romance    Play Time – 50 hours    Developer – FAVORITE    Steam    VNDB   A Boy And His Shinigami   If the plot of Hoshizora no Memoria were described to you in its most abstract and literal form then you might be forgiven for thinking of it as another run of the mill slice of life/ romance visual novel. In many ways that opinion is not entirely wrong, b
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In-Game Encyclopedia – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Knowledge Is Power   When exploring complicated ideas it can difficult to make sure the player understands what is going on while still making the dialogue and events believable and not an exposition dump, even more so if it uses a lot of in universe concepts. The answer which visual novels have come to is the inclusion of an in-game encyclopedia that unlocks new entries as the player e
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Thriller – Genre Deep Dive

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   The Enemy Within   Sometimes we just need a little danger to add some excitement to our lives, but do not want to actually put ourselves in harms way so we turn to the Thriller. This genre has had a long history of fiction covering everything from spies to crime in order to keep the reader on their toes. In many ways it is similar to another genre visual novels thrive in, Horror, since
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