I played this on a whim and I was pleasantly surprised. The writing had me hooked from the jump. The prose style, the characterization, the simplistic yet effective art style, it all added to overall experience in such a great way. I hardly ever see writers in this field who are this good at stylizing their prose like this so great job.
I did a video on it:
Well, I finally got around to playing the second build.
I'm honestly blown the fuck away by your artistic talent. It's fucking insane. The writing is the weakest part of this VN sadly. Your hamartia if you will. There's so much potential in this concept. I would love to see your love of the time period shine through your writing more than it currently is. The characters still feel like FVN stereotypes to me. What a shame.
Overall, I'm hoping this VN improves with build 3.
-Kallier
Overall, this is a very solid start for an FVN. The writing is pretty good, the characters are well distinguished from each other, the art is decent enough, and the music is honestly something I'd listen to on my own time! My main issue is that some sentences don't flow naturally. The best way to make them do that is to read what you write aloud and see if it flows in a natural way. As a writer myself, I do this all the time and it works wonders with my projects!
In conclusion, I'm definitely reading the next update of this! I'll link my video on this as well:
Once again I must say that I am impressed with the artwork and the fact it's not random Google Images. The writing is definitely competent and I saw basically no typos or misspellings which is a major step up from other FVNs. The characters are all very distinct from each other, they have genuine characterization beyond just one dimension, and they interact quite believably with each other based on their personalities and outlooks. The sprite work is amazing in just two builds. Overall, this is a solid FVN and I'm looking forward to the next update.
However.
I would remiss if I did not state my concerns as to the sketchy morality of this game. The entire idea that the rich are all evil supervillains out to torture the poor is insanely immature and I'm surprised grown adults wrote that. Actually, no I'm not. In this day and age, it makes perfect sense. I'm glad that Cedric is expressing realistic emotions from stealing and threatening these people, but Victor seems to be reveling in it, and that automatically make me hate his guts just a little bit.
I hope the writers of this game address this. Just because someone is rich, doesn't mean they're fuckin' Hitler. Anyway, here's my video on this update. I hope you enjoy it!
For a first build, this game is quite decent. The writing is leagues better than most VNs in their early stages. The art style is nice. All the characters have distinct personalities. However, I did notice quite a few errors in your writing. The stereotypes also abound here. I hope those go away as this VN continues.
This was quite the impressive build. Here's my series for those who haven't watched it lmao: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs_BZI-CHxZxDxPrcauJlOrcp1cZEA-Zh
Okay, so, to start off with: I am genuinely amazed with how fuckin' long this first update is; 6-7 hours of content. I'm just blown away by that.
Now onto the actual review portion: The art is well drawn, all the characters are well-fleshed out, and the story kept me intrigued enough to continue reading despite the majority of the update taking place in a single room. You seem to have taken aspect of both Adastra and Far Beyond the World, but have majorly improved upon those absolutely dogshit games by making the MC actually intelligent and not a piece of stiff cardboard. Amazing.
Now on to the critical side of things (And for those idiots who think being critical of something you enjoyed is a bad thing, you need to grow the fuck up).
The grammar and punctuation, spelling and syntax is at times fucking awful. The formatting of the VN itself needs a shit ton of work put into it. There were times were no name came up for dialogue, and other times where the wrong name came up. I don't particularly like the direction the VN is going in either. Romance furry VNs are so oversaturated and they get very boring after awhile.
Overall, I enjoyed this VN quite a bit. I'll leave a link to my series on the VN:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs_BZI-CHxZwTbXueujDVg-Hv6SZRny1M
Umm...okay wow. Amazing work George and Redd. That update was genuinely disturbing on a level I haven't seen since Cliff's last update. I guess I just respond with fear and uncomfortable feelings when real history is shown in a realistic light.
One issue I have is that the sex scene between Sam and Todd felt extremely contrived and it shouldn't be there at all. I have feeling you guys only put it in to satiate the Todd simps.
Overall, 9/10 update.
I'm not sure if I've given my thoughts on this VN yet, but here I go.
Overall, the basis for this story is quite unique within the furry visual novel community. The writing style is quite bland, but it suits the story well enough. I enjoy the somewhat original take on zombies, even if I wish it was a different version of an apocalypse. The MC is also extremely bland and has zero personality. I still enjoy the VN tho. I've noticed around 8 typos in the 3rd build that need to be fixed.
One complaint I have with the latest build is that Xavier's monologue near the end feels extremely forced and out of character. It genuinely just feels like the author spouting a bunch of nonsense, and not the character trying to explain his mental ills. Mayhaps, you should rewrite that section to sound more natural and in character for Xavier.
In conclusion, I'd give this VN a 3/5. Also, I'll attach my playthrough of the game here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs_BZI-CHxZw45igG8Sw4WUJx5-k95nkp
-Kallier
Overall, I wasn't expecting to like this VN as much as I did. It just looked a stereotypical "fuck the character of your choice" VN. Oh boi I have never been more wrong.
The characters are strong and they have great chemistry with each other. The mystery is genuinely intriguing. The art style is unique and immediately appealing. The writing is very strong with some sentences making my writer brain turn on and cheer at them.
I'd give this VN 5/5 stars. I just hope the author doesn't fuck it up in the homestretch.
Here's my playthrough of it for those interested: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs_BZI-CHxZxtKzATe1uIVTrMVWF9Ac-f
This doesn't excuse bad writing, and I'm beginning to think quite a few Echo Project fans are illiterate. That's the only way I can think of that explains this lack of critical thinking skills when it comes to writing quality. Yes, the world these games are set in is full of paranormal events, but that doesn't mean you forget to write a coherent and logical story in said world. Flynn's route is my favorite in the original game not only because I love Flynn, but also because the writing quality skyrocketed during it. McSkinny, who wrote Flynn's route, is an amazing writer, sometimes better than Howly.
In conclusion, a story having unrealistic elements doesn't excuse it from having bad writing. I will still point it out and hope the creator listens to my advice. That's the entire point of critique: to improve an artist's work.
I....I cannot fathom this mindset.
Yes, I am aware that Echo as a town is a paranormal hotspot, but it still doesn't excuse poor writing which, as I said in my comment, this update is not poorly written. In fact, I enjoyed the majority of it. My problem is that I can foresee a potential fatal flaw in the writing. Psychic powers are notorious for being used in a Deus ex Machina type way. I trust Howly and hope he doesn't fuck it up big time, but I'm not a blind Consoomer who gobbles up whatever cud is given to me for supper.
As for the second part of your comment, I genuinely chuckled when you mentioned my reviews. Yes, I called Virginia what I did cuz it's true. She's an entitled spoiled bitch who complains about being born into a rich and powerful family despite a large portion of Adastra being in major poverty. She's a feminazi at worse, and a Karen at best. As for the "sLuR" part, grow the fuck up. It's the Internet and you will see this shit all the damn time.
So I played the 6th build of Arches on the 14th and I have a major problem with the way the story going.
It was amazing for the majority of the build until Cameron was canonically confirmed as a psychic. Basically, the last 10 minutes or so were dogshit cuz of this reveal. Ah yes, let's have the ex-drug addict realize he is a psychic and that taking hallucinogens and other drugs is a way to increase his powers......excuse me, what the actual fuck?
Aside from the obviously fucked-up message, the problem with this reveal is that is can lead to terrible writing very fuckin' quickly. Cameron's in a bind and needs to get out? Just use his Deus ex Machina psychic powers to escape!
I trust Howly as a writer and he's given me some of the most impactful moments in fiction I've ever experienced, but I'm not about to sit back and ignore his decrease in writing quality like a sheep chewing cud laced with poison. I really hope he manages to find a way to fix this aspect of the story before it destroys any good will I have for this game entirely.
[P.S. I know for a fact the Echo Project simps will attack me for this comment saying bullshit mantras like:
"Stop being so negative!"
and
"It's a free visual novel made by a small team!".
So to address those sniveling simps, I'm being critical because I fuckin' love The Echo Project and don't want to see it go downhill and become bad. I've been reading their VNs since before Adastra was even a thing, and I have immense passion for some of their games. I'm so fucking sick of people thinking being critical of something you love is inherently a bad thing. It's not and if you think it is, you have the mental maturity of an 8th grader snorting glue. Sorry, not sorry.]
-Kallier
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs_BZI-CHxZyPjon4I6N2m_oGb79fHqTY
Right off the bat I have to say that I am very much biased with my review of this VN. I had been part of this VN's fandom since 2018 and only recently fell out of love with the fandom's complete saturation of man-children who can't seem to understand basic narrative threads.
However, I will attempt to avoid mentioning that further within this review. I will now start the review proper.
---
Echo. What can be said about this absolutely amazing horror experience? The way the creators use the VN format to effectively scare the player is damn genius and one of the reasons this story could never be told outside of that format.
The set-up is simple: You are Chase Hunter. A otter who grew up in Echo and are coming back for spring break to do a school project and a chance to reunite with your childhood friends: Flynn, Carl, TJ, Jenna, and Leo. You get to Echo and everything seems fine for the first 2 days of your trip. On Monday however, you and your friends go to a river near Lake Emma, the place where your friend, Sydney was found dead. This sparks an argument between Flynn and the rest of you. After said argument is over, all but you and Carl have left the area and you must make a choice: Which one of your friends will you go after?
This is where the route choice presents itself. And I must say, it is an excellent set-up. I will review each route individually and give my opinions on each.
Carl's Route:
Carl's route is the one I played first. Before I get into the nitty gritty of the route, I must mention how you begin his route. You sit down. That's it. You just click his name and sit down next to him. It's a very passive way to begin a route and matches Carl to a T. You see, Carl lives a very sedentary life. He plays video games, eats, smokes weed, and sleeps. But beneath that exterior of laziness is a great character who I fell in love with.
This route consists of Chase attempting to mediate between Carl/James Hendricks I and Jenna/John Begay. The nightmare dimension part of the route is expertly written and I seriously love it to bits. Except for one detail: Raven. Raven is a useless "character" who also ends up in the nightmare dimension with Chase, Carl and Jenna. His contribution to the route essentially boils down to: be a plot device and help Chase separate Carl and Jenna. That's it. For this reason, Carl's route is my least favorite of the routes in the game.
Overall, Carl's route is well written and intense, but is taken down a few notches by the presence of Raven.
Leo's Route:
Oh boi. Leo Alvarez. A character I greatly despise and am sick of seeing everywhere. Anyway, Leo's route was the second one I played. I fell for the trick of thinking Leo was buff wolf husbando and was quickly proven wrong by his actions before and after the hysteria starts. He manipulates Chase into believing that the rest of their friends know they are together when in actuality Leo lied to them as well. He behaves like an absolute fuckin' psycho for the majority of the hysteria. And he's just overall not a good choice for husbando. We'll get to who is soon, don't worry.
Leo's route has some of the most terrifying moments in the game for me. Brian's torture of Chase, the mine scene, the bad ending. All of these moments gave me legit fuckin' nightmares and I'm still scared of Brian. The writing in this route, as usual, is amazing. Howly and McSkinny utilize the visual novel format to great effect here. This is also the first route where we get a hint that we're actually playing as Samuel Ayers from The Smoke Room.
Overall, I think this route is quite good. It's better than Carl's by a long shot, that's for sure.
TJ's Route:
Fuck man. I don't even know where to start with this one. This is my second favorite route in the game. Solely for the emotional impact that the ending had on me. This is one of the only routes in the game that has a single ending. And it's a banger, lemme tell you.
The main reason you would pick TJ's route is to comfort him after Flynn yelled at him. I should know, this is why I picked it! But the game skillfully turns this desire against you over the course of the route. The way the writing slowly turns your own desire to protect TJ against over the course of six hours is nothing short of fucking incredible. I went from enjoying TJ's company, to being unsettled by the intrusive thoughts choice, to being freaked out by the diner bathroom scene, to being horrified by the hotel bathroom scene, and finally to crying my fuckin' eyes out by the end. I will never experience this route for the first time ever again. And that fact makes me very sad.
TJ's route is fucking amazing. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk!
Flynn's Route:
Flynn Moore. The black sheep of the Echo fandom. It would seem Flynn ignites rage in the majority of the fandom for simply having trauma. But that is neither here nor there. I shall simply say that Flynn's route is my favorite in the game.
This route is the only one with overt sex scenes. I was surprised when I experienced this because I had thought Echo to be a mature game that knew senseless NSFW content ruined good stories. But I was proven wrong! The sex scenes in this route serve the purpose of showing Flynn's main coping mechanism: Sex. Flynn was the closest in the group to Sydney before he died. Syd's death greatly effected him because of said closeness. However, he was never able to express his grief over his best friend because his other friends made him bury it deep down to avoid hurting TJ. This lead to an embittered man with deep-seated issues that were never resolved.
These issues fuel the main conflict of his route: he wants to find out how Syd died all those years ago but he's unable to because of his trauma. He spends his nights trying to wash away his problems in the arms of strangers but nothing works. Even The Smoke Room isn't enough (Speaking of The Smoke Room, that scene made me extremely uncomfortable.) Eventually, he does discover the truth and the POV switches from Chase to Flynn. And here is where I realized this route was my favorite. Everything after the POV switch is 10 times better than what came before solely because we, the readers, get to know Flynn quite well, but the in-universe characters still just see his emotional shield. It's a genius way to get the audience to empathize with Flynn while at the same time not ruining the story's continuity.
The scene in "The Smoke Room" with "Sydney" is still one of my favorite moments of the entire game. The monologue that the Echo entity gives to Flynn and us is nothing short of masterful writing. And the ending happens. Flynn becomes the very monster that haunted his friends as children. He becomes part of The Amalgamation as I call it. A collection of all the souls that died violent deaths in Echo. The final part of Flynn's route is surrealistic writing done to amazing effect. The final line made shivers go up my spine.
I love Flynn Moore. He is an extremely well-written character and his fate in both this route and TJ's left me feeling empty inside. I love this fucking route so damn much.
Jenna's Route:
This was the final route to be completed. Therefore, it was the one I played the last. I really like this route. It tied a lot of stuff together. Jenna is a character who I personally dislike. She is a manipulative cunt who uses her traumatic family life as an excuse to talk down to all the other characters and I just found her to be insufferable.
However, playing this route gave me a new perspective on her. This route focuses the most on the Tetanus Alley gang: Micha, Heather, and Jeremy. Thus this route also focuses the most on Jenna's traumatic family life. The writing of this route is, as expected, amazing. Howly and McSkinny never disappoint, well Adastra sucked ass, but they still can write good shit.
I now must talk about THAT scene.
Lemme me set the scene: You've been playing this game since 2018 and you're slowly realizing the fact that you're almost done reading the entirety of it. You start reading the latest update and get to the hotel scene where Jenna and Leo argue over Chase. You get caught up in the moment and then HE appears: Chulpa. He just FUCKING WALKS ONTO THE SCREEN IN THE ONLY CASE OF ANIMATION IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING GAME! I shat my fuckin' pants and screamed like a banshee.
And from there Brian enters the scene again and tortures Chase and Leo in quite possibly the most graphic scene in the game. But then Brian is killed by The Amalgamation and Chase and Co. leave his trailer only to find the truck that killed Samuel Ayers in the '60s.
Here Leo delivers a speech that semi-redeemed him in my eyes. Not fully. But I sympathized with him at the very least. And yes, there is a distinction between "empathize" and "sympathize". Maybe look it up yourself, you dolts lmao.
Overall, Jenna's route was a perfect conclusion to a 6 year in the making visual novel that changed me in ways I never thought possible: I'm a furry now! *le gasp*
Thanks for reading my review of Echo the visual novel.
-Kallier
P.S.
If you want to watch me experience the game for the second time, here's my 37 part, 48 hour long series I did on my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs_BZI-CHxZwiWUQYaahpfPKj2aF5-7DI
Polar Night seems to be quite a promising VN, even just from a demo. All of the characters are fleshed out, the art is great, and the writing is decent. I did notice a few typos here and there, but overall great start to what I hope will a genuinely scary VN.
I just hope you don't give the idiots what they want and add in needless NSFW content. I feel liking adding a "Date The Character!" thing to this would ruin what you're going for. Just my two cents.
-Kallier
Arches has had four updates released for it and I think I can properly enumerate on my thoughts regarding this VN. To begin with, while this VN is a sequel to Echo, the developers have made it clear that this is a separate story from the aforementioned VN, so don't expect to see Chase or any of the other main 5 from Echo in this one.
Arches as a standalone story is fucking incredible. Howly and McSkinny have really come a long fuckin' way in terms of programming and all that technical jazz that wasn't so good in their first VN. As for the writing itself, it's amazing. If I had to describe it, I'd say its told from a 3rd person omniscient narrator that switches back and forth between Cameron and Devon over the course of the VN (Think Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse). This is quite an interesting choice considering Echo was entirely 1st person present tense for the majority of the experience.
The effect this has on the narrative is amazing. We get to see both Cam and Dev's mindsets and thoughts as they experience all Echo has for them, both great and terrible. I particularly enjoy seeing from Cam's eyes. Just seeing from the POV of a person who has severe trauma as he experiences Echo's horrors is amazing. It's almost as if we are seeing through TJ's eyes, which was something I very much wanted to do in Echo.
Just imagine it: We jump from Chase's mind to TJ's as Chase heads to Lake Emma to confront Flynn. Can you imagine the utter horror of seeing your friends fight over something that you know the answer to and then seeing one of your friends kill the other one. TJ's psyche is something I strongly wish we got to experience, even if just for a brief moment.
Arches has a completely different art style compared to Echo. Personally it has never bothered me in the slightest. In fact, I actually love the art style in this VN. If anything, the somewhat cartoonish art will only make the horror that much more potent. Sure, I love the janky ass art style of Echo, but it was very inconsistent and that was a negative for me. The art in this VN doesn't have that issue. And I fuckin' LOVE it.
Overall, Arches only proves to me that Howly and McSkinny both still have it. I'll give this VN 5/5 stars.
-Kallierhttps://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs_BZI-CHxZyPjon4I6N2m_oGb79fHqTY
After 3 updates of this VN I think I can further elaborate on my likes and dislikes in regards to it. To begin, this VN is advertised as a horror VN, and that is very much true at times. It's not at the same level of scariness as Echo is, but it does have scares that most VNs shy away from and I commend the creator for not pulling any punches with the horror.
The story is fairly simple in concept: In 1928, a possum named Grey is suicidal and plans it out, but is stopped from committing the act by Virgil, an enigmatic rabbit who seems quite sinister in his plans. He teleports Grey to different time periods and Grey must save other people from something.
So far in the story, we have 1960s New York and 1980s Los Angeles. Both settings are very fleshed out and feel alive in their own ways. The backgrounds are quite creative in their additions of certain aspects of these places and time periods. Two of them have made me laugh a bit out loud. Maybe I'm just easy to make laugh, so knows lmao.
The characters of this story are extremely fleshed-out and are very distinct from each other with amazing sprite artwork to bring them to life. Grey, the protagonist, is exceptionally well written and I felt attached to him by the end of the first update. And the two route choice characters currently available: Mark and Gabriel are also very well written and I love them both for different reasons. This shows extreme writing prowess and I love it. Nikko has shown a keen understanding of how to properly write characters and I personally applaud him on his efforts.
Now we move on to the art style and art itself: It's incredible. Genuinely some of the best I've seen in any VN. The fact there are so many different expressive sprites for basically every single character is insanely commendable. The amount of care and effort put into this VN shows in spades and I majorly respect anyone who works this hard on anything.
In conclusion, Burrows is a genuinely amazing VN that has insane potential to enter the ranks of best furry VNs of all times. I'm not being hyperbolic when I say this VN is very good in pretty much every aspect.
-Kallier
P.S. Here's my series on this VN:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs_BZI-CHxZxDxPrcauJlOrcp1cZEA-Zh
Here is my review of Adastra from when I first played it:
Last week I finished reading Adastra, then re-read it this week, and I felt like it was a big letdown after being so hyped up to me: the greatest VN, the most popular, emotionally intense, heavy subjects, politics, inspired by Roman theater. So, yeah, it had some big boots to fill, which was too much for this project. As a consequence, this game didn’t live to expectations, which I think I shouldn’t have had in the first place. This game used the Roman culture of ages ago as a loose inspiration mostly for aesthetics and nothing else really, there is very little to nothing that is a good representation of their culture, again, a mistake of mine. Then, please, take into account that my opinion was affected so much by the high expectations people gave me, the description of the game and also my liking for Roman tragedies. With this said, let’s begin:
Art:
The best part of the game and that is not a good sign. Now, HAPS is a good artist, he really did a good job with the characters, they all look pretty good and they are very expressive and full of life. The problem is his art style doesn’t fit this story at all, unless I’m supposed to not take the story seriously, which I doubt. My issue with his art style comes from the cartoony look of everything, and especially the baby face that Amicus makes every time he gets angry, making him look like a huge baby about to start a tantrum than a grown-up man taking things seriously. Again, the art is good, especially when it comes to the backgrounds, but they end up being too cartoonish for me to take the characters of the story seriously, I don’t think this art style was a good fit for this VN.
Music and Sound:
I will be honest, I only remember one track, from the final fight, mostly because most of the game doesn’t really use music as much as it uses background noise to fill the scenes, which sometimes is used well, but most of the time it just comes off as a bit flat, and there are also those awkward long silences that I think are supposed to build tension, but kind of failed. The music is serviceable, but it needed a better use, but the game has enough tracks to fill the blanks. It’s ok overall.
The Universe:
I have to be honest about the fact that the sci-fi aspects and the Parent’s whole mythology exist only to facilitate the story since we never take a deep look at this. The technology is mostly used to make things much simpler like not having servant characters, having drones with cameras, using it as some kind of cellphone, and using it to travel across space. But, we never really get to understand the technology nor is it very well explained, using the excuse of being too advanced because those devices were made by the Parents. Also, the Parents, the “Gods” only have one reason to exist: to give the reader the perfect ending regardless of how undeserved it is. The Parents teach nothing, the Parents only talk once, and they reveal themselves to be the Master Minds behind everything. And, man, they ruined the story so much for me, especially because everything they do is so convenient, so convenient I know our protagonists cannot lose in any way, and Deus Ex Machina at the end just took any kind of tension for this story and any sequel. But, I will explain more of this later with the characters… speaking of which.
MC: Marco:
Boring and very annoying. He does nothing during most of the story other than be a pain in the ass for Amicus, then the Parents come and declare him “Jesus” (let’s be honest, Marcus is Jesus). The fact that he acted like an idiot most of the story and sat around doing nothing while the story plays off screen makes me wish we had another MC and not be anchored to this doormat. I honestly don’t get what Amicus sees in him. I know he is a blank slate so you can project yourself on him, but even other games with the same concept try to make you do stuff to get the romantic interest to like you, Marco does nothing but complain about the Wolven culture until the end of the story, when the Parents come into his mind and literally spell out for him what he has to do. He must be worst protagonist I’ve seen in all the VNs I've played.
Amicus:
Well, if I don’t get what he sees in Marco, I definitely don’t get what people see in him other than being cute and handsome. He is a huge man child who throws tantrums every time he doesn’t get his way, he never thinks things through and he is never shown to learn a single lesson (we are just told he matured). Then we have his conversations with Marco than can be summarized thusly:
“Your culture sucks”
“Yeah, but you shouldn’t say that, baka”
And the writing really did dirty to him, we never see how he falls in love with Marco, since it happens off screen and we only see the results of their falling in love; we never see him mature and being a good politician, we are told that happens off screen; and worst of all, he never learns to think things through, again, we are told that off screen, and we literally never see him take a decision while thinking things through, unless you consider his conversation with the Parents to be proof of that, despite the fact that the only options given to him were “Do you want a happy life or no?". Not only that, but Parents took all the merits away of him, him not thinking things through and him being immature was recompensed with a literal eternity of happiness with his one true love, making any progress he made invalid.
All of this as well as the fact of how useless Amicus is: he failed to get a good pet to impress, failed to take care of Marco, failed to properly teach him the dance, failed in the debate, failed in a fight with a literal blind grandpa and was held hostage by a puny human. Man, the fact that he is alive by end of the story, or even at the beginning, must be a huge miracle from the Parents.
He is just so average, even characters who are just fucktoys have better character development, a better dynamic with the MC and are more useful than him.
Cato:
Who is Cato? Really, who is he? The worst antagonist in a FVN I’ve seen, that's who. He's evil just because he can be. (Well, you could make the argument it is because of his old beliefs and his desire for revenge over the war against the Khemians, but the story never explores that front). He “manipulates” people, which, to be honest, tricking the cast of this game is not a great achievement, especially with how obvious it is from the beginning that he is the villain.
Then, he wants to marry Virginia… because evil dictators do that, mind you, I'm pretty sure an actual evil dictator would choose something better than Virginia. Speaking of which....
Virginia:
Why do you exist other than being a plot device? She does nothing of value in the story other than being a convenient extra character. She is there to bring Neferu, an actually good character, and… I guess she helps taking down Cato, mind you, the human could have used Neferu’s help since all sapients have the same machine. Also, I guess we can add that we learn about the triumvirates because Cassius talks to her, but consider that she does nothing with that info. I really find no justification for her existing in the story other than being a token female character to have the token gender inequality and men are stupid lines.
Alexios:
He is interesting even if the plot twist of him being a spy is kind obvious from the beginning. It is obvious he gave the info the Triumvirates, and he is the first example of this game not having the guts put a finger on the characters. His story is good until we reach the end when we learn that he truly loves Cassius and gets no punishment for his actions, which is essentially the story telling to your face that "Consequences don’t exist". The worst part is that him loving Cassius for real makes him look like an idiot, there is no way he didn’t know about Cato killing Cassius, and the story really makes sure to show that Cassius was more important to him than the mission.
Oh, Alexios, you were so close to being good.
Neferu:
The second best character of this game not only because he moves the plot, not only because he is active in the storyline, not only because he points out Amicus's behavior, not only because is he so damn hot, not only because he has to put up with Amicus and Marco’s dysfunctional relationship and fix it like a pro, but we also see different sides of him and he is the second closest the game comes to a tragedy. We see how he struggles with his mission, being so close to suffer consequences and actually having to suffering some of them and we see him at a very low point in the story. He is a very well rounded character and while he doesn’t develop throughout the story, we explore him as a character and what is said is set in stone with him, we see him taking action and we see him having to deal with his decisions. He really deserved much better than being in this game surrounded by the bunch of idiots. I guess his family really did give him a proper punishment.
Cassius:
My favorite character in the entire game by a long shot and that is just in concept. Cassius is truly the most interesting character in the game. He is the runt of the family, he is ill making him much weaker than everyone else, his siblings don’t support him, his father neglected him, his mother (the only person who seemed to care about him) is dead, he has to hide or reject his love for Alexios because of the social stigma, he is a joke to the empire, and even the Gods of his world reject him and yet he gives a good fight for the throne. He has empathy for his people, having them as a priority, understanding how lucky he is to be born with privileges (unlike his sister), and he loves his family and Alexios and he did want the best for the moon and its people. But then he was killed by Cato, someone I think he really trusted, and is betrayed by his lover, dying alone and being remembered a mere joke of an emperor in the annuls of time.
Or I would say that if the story didn’t spend most of the time showing how he is emotionally unstable, a big manchild like his brother, and taking away of his merits and giving them to Cato at the last minute. He didn’t even rule, he just warmed up the chair for Amicus. And, as if that wasn’t enough, he didn’t die and Alexios did love him.
This was the biggest let down of the entire game for me. This was such a great character, a well-written morally grey villain to defeat, which was hard because he is straight up a better ruler than Amicus. He thinks things through, he planned, he manipulated, and he took advantage of the culture of the Adastra. The story needed two ass pulls to defeat him: Alexios starting the rumor about him dismantling the triumvirates (which would have made much more sense if Virginia did that) and then the Parents rejecting him. And the story, in yet another example of how it didn’t have the balls to tell this story, made him survive the poison and even get his own political role, which again, undermines his whole conflict with Amicus. The whole competition could have been solved with Cassius asking for a position to take care of social health. The entire part with the trials was waste of time and energy.
And I think this leads perfectly into my biggest issue with this game:
The Shocking Lack of Balls:
This game pulls so many punches, and decides to do nothing interesting with the plot at all.
We have a whole new universe to explore and a whole new mythology, but instead we are trapped in a palace with the most unrepresentative population of the moon. We learn little to nothing of how the technology works or how the Parents work beyond surface level. We learn little to nothing of Adastra’s culture (even though they say wolves are very emotional and like to make a show they really have flat dialogue most of the time and that's not even mentioning how most of the debate is skipped), we never learn anything about the politics at a deep level, and instead everything is reduced to “I’m betraying you” and “I’m a spy”. It’s so boring, and that’s just the worldbuilding.
The characters get an even shorter end of the stick, no one suffers consequences, in fact, Amicus is recompensed for his bad behavior, no one that we care about dies, and most of the character exploration is done through exposition instead of looking at it. And man, this could have been one of the greatest stories in the VN field if only the writing dared to put a finger on the characters for more than just shock value.
No, I don’t this game handles any heavy topic right. Marco dies, but no consequences comes from this. Amicus mixes alcohol and pills, no consequences. Amicus makes stupid decisions and he is granted the love of his life. Alexios betrays everyone but gets to keep his boyfriend and not suffer at all. And the only one that dies is the flat 1 dimensional evil villain. This is not a VN for adults, this a Disney Channel show with sex, but Disney shows at least have good comedy, fuck, Disney shows kill characters that the people love.
Conclusion:
A total letdown. I liked little to nothing of this game and I would never regard this as a top FVN in any way, it’s so completely average. And I would really like to know why people put this game in such a high regard since I don’t see it. The art is good, but doesn’t fit, the writing is decent but wastes a lot of potential, the music is ok but not that good either. And, yes, I have to admit I was expecting too much from this, I had the quality bar set too high for a project like Adastra to meet, and that’s my fault, not because it can’t but because it didn’t want to.
