Monday, 23 September 2013

Destiny Fails Us - Demo - Quick review

In the beginning of Destiny Fails Us, Idril's time is devoted to friends, video games, and a childhood crush named Vincent. Everything in her life gets flipped upside down all in one day. Suddenly, romance, school work, and friendships have become more complicated and as Idril takes a step back to reassess her life, You, the Player, take the reigns and decide what will become of Idril's teenage years.
Your choices will effect everything from your friendships, social status and love life, to your grades and what events you experience in the DFU world. Are you the type of person who strives to hold on to all of your friends and loved ones, or would you rather ignore the wants and needs of those around you to further your own gain? Either way, it's up to you to decide whether you would like to be the perfect angel, or feed your inner demon.

The demo for Destiny Fails Us was released on roughly the 14th of September and I couldn't help but try it out. I love visual novels where the heroin is a gamer. Idril also has pink hair that she wears in pigtails – My favourite hair colour and style. :D
Now I'm sure we're all painfully aware of how many Otome games are currently available that revolve around a high-school drama, so... what makes this one different? Well, as soon as you load up the game you are thrown head-first into the story. In the opening scene Idril is actually seen sharing a kiss with a special someone. Usually that would happen towards the end of the game once you've worked for it so I couldn't help but wonder where this story was going. The demo, though being short was full of sub plots, some crazy friends and a lot of drama. Now, the guy you share a kiss with at the beginning wont necessarily be the guy you end with. After an 'interesting' scene with the heroins mother, not choosing the right options can open up a scene where it feels like you will start to drift away from zed guy, opening up the option to pursue someone else instead. In total there are currently about five guys to choose from and each has their own personalities – some not being the norm. There is even one guy that has a strong obsession with Idril and he brings more drama and excitement to the table. Idril also has three female friends and usually in Otome games I let them take the back-seat and the game just seems to allow that too, but in the demo for DFU they were quite constant. One of them even has a weird trait where she would mooch food from her friends at lunchtime even though she had money to buy her own. This is defiantly something new in my experience. Another of her friends does come across as being really supportive and I could easily see her as being Idril's best friend.
The description for this visual novel describes Idril as being a gamer and you will get the opportunity to skip doing your homework (although you really shouldn't in Idril's case) to play video games. You're given the option of two – One being an Otome game and one that is described that made me think of 'Dota 2' which made me cringe a little bit as that is a game I loath! Ignoring that fact however, I did find it pretty neat you could choose.
 Another thing I really liked about the demo was that it has achievements. I really am the type of person who will spend a reasonable amount of time trying to get as many as I can and in this case I managed to get all of them bar one... I really couldn't figure out how to get the last one :(. Either way, this feature gave me extra motivation to play through all the options the game offered to this point – And on that note, there isn't a huge amount of replay value but at the same time, it isn't none existent either. That's kind of typical for a demo though if you ask me!

 So in short:
Things I really liked about this game:
Story wise there is a lot going on.
Some of the sound effect were quite cute.
There are a fair amount of unique aspects.
The female friends actually have a purpose.
There weren't that many mistakes in the dialogue.
All of the characters you interact with are rather interesting.

Things I wasn't to keen on:
Idril didn't really stand out on her own that much.
The art seemed a little lazy in some cases in my opinion, such as there wasn't much shading etc. but I guess that's just the type of art they were going for.


As it stands at the moment though, there is no guarantee that this visual novel will have a full release. The person responsible for this novel is currently requesting a kickstarter of at least $3,000 or it wont be finished.
“This project will only be funded if at least $3,000 is pledged by Monday Oct 14, 9:59am EDT.”
As of writing this, they currently have funds of $1,900, 70 backers and 20 days left before the kickstarter is closed. So from this, I don't see a problem with the $3,000 being reached in that time. You can back the project for as little as 1 dollar but if you're willing to pledge $5 or more, that's when you start getting a little in return.
While on the subject of the kick starter I noticed that if you pledge $10 or more you will get “One Digital Download of the Full Game” as well as something called a 'special thanks pack' but when the game is ready to be released, it will be available for purchase at $15. So by donating $10 to the kick starter you're not only helping make sure the game is finished but you're getting a small discount too really. There are of course, risks to the kickstarter which you can view on the main website (link at the end) but like I said, I don't see why they wont be able to raise another $1,100 in 20 days if things keep going how they have been!
To me however, asking for a $3,000 kickstarter sounds like a lot when I've played freeware visual novels that were on par/better than some commercial ones, but at the same time, having never made a whole visual novel myself, I'm unaware of how much these things really do cost to make!

The kickstarter goal has now been reached with several days still to go :D Really excited about that and congratz to the creator – I'm sure they are quite happy about that too!

 For anyone wondering where the money is going, see below.

Any excess donations will also be put to good use. Again, you can see more about this on the main page.

So with all that being said, I'll be offering up my pledge pretty soon and I truly hope this game will be complete as I'm really looking forward to seeing where the story will go.

If you're interesting in trying the demo for yourself there is a version for Windows, Mac and Linux currently available. For more information on the kickstarter, what you will be offered for your pledge, the risks and the download links, check out the web page here!

Saturday, 14 September 2013

Aloners - Demo - Review

One day, the last man on Earth came home to find a girl sleeping on his bed.”
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Release Date: TBA
Rating: Mature / Teen
(explicit content can be switched off at start of game)

"Story:

The Dust Bowl: ground zero for the event that wiped civilization from the face of the earth. Plagued by toxic gas clouds and once-human monsters, only one man survives to call this wasteland his home.

Trash takes his name from his lifeblood, scavenging and restoring what he can from the rubble in order to live another day. He lives alone in his self-made shack, surrounded by the machinery he loves and hidden from the world that wants him dead...

Until the day he finds you, a young woman somehow untouched by the harsh reality of the Dust Bowl.

As he teaches you how to take care of yourself in this new and brutal world, you might just end up teaching him something in return."

"Info:
Aloners will be a free, highly interactive visual novel with a female protagonist and one supporting male character. The emphasis will be on exploration of the post-apocalyptic setting and on building a relationship with a character who remembers what you’ve said and done in the past, and reacts accordingly.

There will be no stat-raising, and protagonist auto-dialogue will be kept to an absolute minimum. The aim is to immerse the player in the world and let them roleplay the main character their way."

Credits:
Character art by PeriwinkleImp
Background art from Morgue File
Music by Kevin MacLeod

Man, I've been dying to play this visual novel since I came across it back in February-ish on the Lemma Soft Forums. Finally I got a chance to get my hands on the demo and it did not disappoint. The main reason why I kept such a close eye on this particular game is because of this: “The emphasis will be on exploration of the post-apocalyptic setting and on building a relationship with a character who remembers what you’ve said and done in the past, and reacts accordingly.” That sentence gave me the impression that Trash – the only guy of the story would be far more realistic than anything I've come across before. I was also under the impression that there would only be one obtainable guy so that you could explore his background and character in a lot more depth than would be possible if there were several guys. I also haven't been able to play a game of this setting type yet.
The demo is pretty short and lacks a GUI that isn't the basic for the Ren'py engine. I was a little disappointed by that but I have read on Sonnet's tumblr the following: “I am currently looking for someone to work on customising the GUI so, in that respect, this demo does not reflect the final game.” I can't wait! I really hope she finds someone that does an amazing job but also keeps in theme with the actual game itself.
I've played through 'Rei' which was also created by Sonnet but while playing through Aloners I noticed how great of a writer she is. The way she words everything was truly something to admire. To me, it was as thought she put a lot of time and thought into her dialogue. She really does posses a high standard of writing!

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Trash... As I said, he's the only guy in the game which might discourage some people from this title. I know I really like to have my options open to me but again, I wasn't disappointed. He can be a bit of a hard-arse on our MC but with good reason – At the end of the day, this is a post-apocalyptic story and the dangers are very real. His appearance is also quite unique. I don't believe I've come across a guy with dreadlocks to be honest. There seems to be every type of guy around, with all sorts of hair so I'm not sure why no one has thought of it before. I guess it might be a little weird for him to have anything but dreadlocks if you think about it. Trash can be bold as well as pushy in some places. He also has the cutest face when he blushes! I'm really looking forward to being able to see more sides of him in the future!

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Because Sonnet is trying to create a game where you can play as the protagonist you want to be the heroine is faceless and you get to choose her name. Unlike most games where you get to pick a name, this doesn't happen before the story actually begins, it happens during it! I thought the scene where this happens was quite endearing as well as a little funny! Again, because the MC is going to act the way you want her to, every time there is an opportunity to pick a response, those options are quite varied. I really liked this because it gives you the freedom to really play the way you want as oppose to picking the correct answer to end with the desired guy.
The story for this novel was interesting from what I saw. I can't say I gave it to much thought of what I was expecting it to be like and I don't usually like to give much away when it comes to demo games. So what I will say is that I'm really interested in learning more about how the world ended up the way it is and how the MC found herself where she did!
As for the art, I really liked the way Trash was drawn. Even in the demo you get to see a lot of different facial expressions and posses. I guess that's another advantage of only having one guy in a story – you really do get to spend more time on him. When it comes to the background art though, I'm really not sure what to think about it. It's not that I didn't like it – It certainly seems to fit the theme and maybe that's where I'm a little torn. As I said, I haven't played a game with this setting before so I’m use to seeing pretty colours and fancy buildings. At the very least, it appears that a lot of time has been put into the art!

I must admit that when a demo is released for a game I’m looking forward to playing I usually only play through it once so that it is still somewhat 'fresh' when the full version is available, but with Aloners I just couldn't help myself. I spent my time combining all the options and seeing where it let me. Overall, the replay value for the demo wasn't very high but I'm still under the impression that when the full version is released and I'm able to play through the later chapters that this will not be the case.

As of yet, I don't believe there is an ETA on when the full version will be released but I would suggest keeping an eye on Sonnet's tumblr if you're interested as that's where she seems to post most of her updates. There is also a topic for this title on Lemma Soft Forums if that's more your thing!



I can't help but post this from Sonnet's tumblr – Look at that adorable face!

Suki Dayo: “I love you” - Walkthrough

sukidayo.jpg

I reviewed Suki Dayo: “I love you” back in June and since then have been asked about a walkthrough so this is what I've managed to put together. I think there are more bad endings but this guide should cover the basics for you guys. Hope it helps!

Naru Endings

Good end
Ask him nicely.
Stay a little longer.
I just don't want to.
Break the curse.

Friendship end
Ask him nicely.
Stay a little longer.
I am desperate to know more about the creatures here.

Bad end
Ask nicely.
Stay a little longer.
I just don't want to.
Think of a plan.

Grey Endings

Good end
Explode
Yes.
Let him sleep.
The School's Yard
Look for it.

Bad end
Explode
Yes.
Let him sleep.
The School's Yard
Run

Very bad end
Explode
No.
Go Home.
Let it slide

Arashi endings

Good end
Explode
No.
Go Home.
Do Revenge
He told me you have a brother complex.
No Thanks.
Forget it.

Friendship end
Explode
No.
Go Home.
Do Revenge
He told me you have a brother complex.
Of Course!

Bad end
Explode
No.
Go Home.
Do Revenge
He told me you have a brother complex.
No Thanks.
Confess to Arashi

Ayu endings

Friendship end
Explode
Yes.
Let him sleep.
The Classroom

Landlord endings

Good end
Explode
No.
Run for it.
The Forest.
Go to the forest.

Bad end
Explode
No.
Run for it.
The Forest.
Stay in the Schools Yard.

Random bad endings

Ask him nicely.
Go home.

Explode
Yes.
Wake him up.