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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

Review

Hello Lady! Review – Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Hot

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here. Genre – Superpowers, Action, Multiple Route Mystery.   Play Time – 50 hours.   Developer - Akatsuki WORKS.   Steam   VNDB   It Started With Fire   The quest for revenge is a time worn tale which has assumed many forms and is notoriously difficult to get right. It can be a struggle to get the audience to empathise with a character who is seeking revenge, especially when
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Review

A Clockwork Ley-Line Trilogy Review – A Mistifying Mystery

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here. Genre - Mystery, Fantasy.   Playtime - Roughly 20 Hours Each, 60 In Total    Developer -  Unison Shift: Blossom    Steam    VNDB   Three Ley-Lines Shall Reveal The Truth   Creating a trilogy of games is an ambitious undertaking and one where so many tiny things can go wrong and ruin the whole package. It needs a glue to hold it together and keep the player invested in the long term, s
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Analysis

Meaningless Choices – An Anatomy of Visual Novels

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Empty and Pointless?   The illusion of choice is one of a video game’s most fragile tools, a single contradiction or misstep in presentation and the whole thing shatters and the player feels cheated. As such the idea of a Meaningless Choice is one which is viewed in a negative light as something to avoid alongside the idea that all choices must offer some form of consequence, no matter
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Review

Kiss the Demiurge Review – Flowers in a Garden of Demons

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Genre – Yuri, Modern Fantasy    Play Time – 6 hours    Developer – YuriEureka    Steam    VNDB Note – I did receive a review copy from the developer. A heads up if that fact might bother you.   Something Wicked This Way Comes   In most settling magic is normally a force for good and even when it is not, the protagonist is special enough to make the most of it regardless. T
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Review

Gnosia Review – In Space No One Can Hear You Scheme

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Genre – Mystery, Social Deduction, Thriller    Play Time – 20 hours    Developer - Petit Depotto    Steam    VNDB   With Knives Out and Masks On   Trapping a group of people in a remote location and forcing them to into a game of social deduction is a premise with a surprising among of interesting scenarios to give despite how simple it is at its core. We have death games like
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Analysis

Horror VNs – Genre Deep Dive

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   There Is Something Behind You   Genres define the games they inhabit and how the game uses its unique features to achieve or subvert the expectations of the audience. This is especially true for horror which aims to invoke feelings in the player that many other genres deliberately steer clear of. As such it is an excellent candidate to begin to observe how visual novels adapt themselves
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Analysis

Yuri VNs – Genre Deep Dive

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Forbidden Love?   If there is one genre which thrives in the visual novel space it is Yuri. While other mediums and types of games touch on Yuri, there are none that put their entire focus on it in quite the all consuming way present in visual novels. Rather than being a sideshow for another genre to use as romantic fluff, it is front and centre in many of the best and defining titles y
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Review

AI: The Somnium Files Review – The Mysteries Of The Mind

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Genre – Mystery, Detective, Sci-fi    Play Time – 30 hours    Developer – Spike Chunsoft     Steam    One Eye Lost And Another Gained   Found wandering in the street with a missing eye and no memories, Date is taken in by a woman calling herself Boss, given a new eye/partner Aibo and takes up the role of detective. Now years later he finds himself investigating the murder of a
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Analysis

Hybrid Visual Novels – An Anatomy of Visual Novels

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   The Best Of Both Worlds?   When talking about visual novels there is a tendency to present the medium as pure and distinct from all other types of games. Of course the reality is that other games influence visual novels and visual novels influence other games in a cycle of mutual adaptation and growth. The most noticeable manifestation of this union is the hybrid visual novel. This bein
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Review

Kunado Chronicles Review – A Beautiful Post-Apocalypse With A Side Of Mechanic Menace

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Genre – Action, Post-Apocalypse, Supernatural    Play Time – 35 hours    Developer – Purple Software    Steam    VNDB   Beneath the Sakura   Once the apocalypse is over and all the damage is done, will the world be a peaceful place? And what of those who come after, how will they adapt? These are the questions Kunado Chronicles opens with and it uses them as the foundations up
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Analysis

Yandere Horror VNs – Genre Deep Dive

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Obsessive Love   The Yandere is perhaps the most iconic ‘Dere’, not just within visual novels but within the more general anime fandom, with their distinctive mix of love and violence, they have found their way into everything from Comedy to Slice of Life. It is the particular combination of Yandere and Horror that is the focus today and the way this niche aspect of visual novels has ca
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Review

9 -nine- Series Review – Fragmented Artefacts From The Beyond

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here. Genre – Supernatural, Action, Mystery    Play Time – 9 hours per game   Developer – Palette    Steam    VNDB   No Power Without Consequence   Everyone wants superpowers and think themselves far more capable of using them than the fictional heroes from comics or movies, but what they rarely consider is that for every hero there must be a monster and this monster will be destructive to
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Analysis

Gacha Mechanics – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   What Is In The Box?   One of the latest and perhaps most contentious recent development in the sphere of visual novels is the rise of gatcha mechanics as one of the prominent elements in the design space. Leaning heavily into the mobile market, they involve spending currency for acquisition of a selection of random characters and items from a set pool with rarities attached to them. For
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Review

Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon- (Remake) Review – Reimagined Under A Brilliant Moon

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Genre – Urban Fantasy, Suspense, Horror, Action    Play Time – 30 hours    Developer – Type Moon   VNDB   Will It Disappear At Dawn?   The remake of Tsukihime was once considered a dead project by the fanbase due to how long it took to show any results to the point of being a running joke. Even when it finally did produce something the resulting visual novel only covered the fi
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Review

Stella Of The End Review – Do Androids Dream Of Being Human?

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Genre – Sci-fi, Post-apocalypse, Journey     Play Time – 7 hours     Developer – Key     Steam     VNDB   How To Make A Human   Key has an interesting fixation with robots and AI and Stella Of The End marks their third notable attempt to address this subject matter. While their games all use it to showcase something about humanity, using the machines as a mirror, each individu
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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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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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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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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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Review

Himawari – The Sunflower – Review – Between Earth And Space

This is a condensed version of the full review which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   Genre – Mystery, Sci Fi, Slice of Life    Play Time – 40 hours    Developer – Blank Note & Frontwing    Steam    VNDB    Blooming Under The Sun   A girl mysteriously falling from the sky and changing the protagonist’s life is a well worn cliché. So when Aries crash lands the player likely thinks they already know where this is going, but Himawari has more than a few tricks
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Analysis

UI Design – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels

This is a condensed version of the full article which can be found on my Main Blog Here.   The Magic Of Buttons   One of the most underappreciated areas in a visual novel is the work which goes into its UI design. An ideal UI will never draw attention to itself and become a natural extension of the player’s engagement with the game. This is not an easy thing to achieve since a balance has to be struck between its presence on screen, its ease of use and its aesthetics. Over th
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