What Did We Play Yesterday?

The Cinderella Phenomenon is a freeware English-language otome by Dicesuki, made possible by generous Kickstarter donors. It is quite robust for a free game, boasting 250-300k words, custom assets, CGs, and 5 routes/10 endings.

I liked the fairy tale mashups and the LIs have interesting personalities. I didn't necessarily like them as romantic characters, but I enjoyed reading their stories. The main character, Lucette, has her own story and different facets of it are revealed in different playthroughs. There are no yuri routes because God is dead.

The format is select-a-route. Two routes, Felix and Waltz, are locked until you finish the other three. This was done for story reasons and it's a standard convention but I still find it annoying. Waltz's story was the one I really wanted to read, so I cracked it diligently played through hours of content that wasn't of interest to me. The recommended order is Rod, Karma, Rumple, Felix, Waltz.

Karma's route was fun. There is a bit of manpain, which I always find lulz rather than whatever emotion it's supposed to evoke, but he wears a dress (and loves it) so I'll take what I can get. Rumple's route annoyed me and I didn't finish it. I tried, but I kept finding myself thinking, "Dude, why won't you stop bugging her?" and "Dude, get out of her face," which never bodes well. Waltz's route is the true route and it provided more backstory and had a different ending from the others.

CP still has otome boundary issues. More than once, I found myself thinking, "Dude, get out of her face," when an LI invaded Lucette's personal space. Waltz alludes to not being able to control himself twice while she's in his room, but in a vague muttering-to-self way and Lucette doesn't understand what he's talking about. So the tropes are still there, they're just diluted.

The only technical problem was a controller issue that annoyed me so much I patched it. A few things bugged me gameplay-wise. The difference between good and bad endings can be as narrow as one or two conversation choices and the storyline is linear, so it's a little frustrating to get to the end and wind up with a bad ending because of some minor conversation choice three chapters before. The game also blocks rollback after choices, which I oppose on religious grounds.

To compensate, there is a right choice indicator. Choices that contribute to a good ending will trigger a crystal in the corner of the screen. I've seen a 'choice signal' before with MoaCube's Cinders (on sale at the Humble Store for the next five hours, buy your copy today!), but in that case a growing tree branch is displayed when new story paths open up, which I didn't find particularly useful.

Anyway, Cinderella Phenomenon is a solid free OELVN otome. It's got a theme song, an animated intro, the whole nine yards. Based on what I have played, I feel like it's a good example of the genre.

I'd like to try the other routes eventually, I'm curious about Felix now that I've gotten a few hints about his storyline, but I don't know if I'll play too many more route-based otomes in the future. I prefer getting to know characters in a more organic way and I don't like being locked into a route.

Amnesia: Memories is an otome where the MC awakens with amnesia and must figure out what her life was like (read: who was she dating?) and what happened. Interacting with the LIs triggers memories that she can use to piece together the mystery. Also, there's some little invisible hair gremlin that gives advice. Just roll with it.

I played through this game about a year ago and never properly bitched about it. The premise and setup are kind of interesting. Each route consists of a version of that character's life in an alternate universes where different characters have different levels of significance to the MC.

Unfortunately, the game insists on being annoying about everything. You can't tell anyone you have amnesia, you just have to fake it until you make it. And you definitely shouldn't seek the help of a medical professional or confide in your best friend.

All the guys have personality disorders. So there is some amusing wtf mixed in with the usual casual conversation about date rape. Many of the "choices" consist of minor conversation variations that logically shouldn't matter. (Is there really a meaningful difference between "..." and "...Ah, um..."?) Just Otome Things.

Anyway, AM does a few odd things design-wise, like faux loading screens between days and lots of pointless "time passes" scene breaks. It has quality sprites, but terrible BGs. The most glaring issue is it doesn't have rollback or a history. I'm a fast reader, so I would skip over a line, then think--wait, what?--and... too late! It's gone bye.

The only character I actually want to date is the MC's best friend Sawa who, completely illogically, cannot be trusted or confided in even though she is very clearly THE BEST PERSON to confide in. If this game had a Sawa route I'd be happy.

Anyway, I decided to take the plunge and play through Toma's route. A friend already apprised me of the particulars, so I didn't go into it blind.

My favorite thing about the route, and this is a stroke of genius, is that Toma is the only guy who doesn't immediately set off the assholeometer. He actually seems like a decent guy, so of course he's the one who locks the MC up in a giant dog cage. Not just the bad ending, either. Apparently every ending. It's perfect. I nailed the bad ending effortlessly, just by acting like a rational human being.

Having played through Ken and the Ickster's routes, I appreciate it just for being different and unexpected and honestly pretty delightfully fucked up. The OMG HOW DARE reaction of some of the players is a precious bonus.

Yes, how DARE I revel in a dude locking the object of his affections in a cage. I am morally bankrupt I hmphgmmm **snarfle-shovels popcorn into mouth**

In summary: Paid $3, got locked in dog cage without a mat to sleep on, 11/10

VAL-11 HALL-A is a cyberpunk bartender simulator. (Ignore the url, there are no waifus.)

This game was originally developed in Ren'Py, but they ended up having to switch over to GameMaker. Having played it, I can see why. IIRC at the time the programmer cited performance issues but I can also see how the game's old school Adventure/Detective-game inspired design runs counter to some of the elements that are baked into VN engines.

It's a unique and interesting game that is ranked Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam in spite of being incredibly niche. The POV character Jill works at a bar and mixes drinks for patrons. Sometimes they ask for drinks outright and sometimes they say, give me something sweet and icy, and you look up the recipe and make the drink for them. The player is tasked with remembering what people like or being able to intuit what they'd like to try next.

Apparently the plot branches depending on what you serve people and how much alcohol you provide. This is a non-game example, but if someone is nervous for a meeting and asks for a drink to calm their nerves, if you got them really drunk that would presumably negatively affect that character.

You can save your game during breaks and at home. At home, you can do little things to keep Jill happy so she won't be distracted at work (like buy stuff), decorate her flat, and surf the internet and read blogs to get additional backstory. (I really love in-game internet elements.)

Basically, Valhalla is a cyberpunk slice-of-life simulator with world building and character development told through vignettes, meant as a way for players to unwind at the end of the day. In other words, a cyberpunk cozy.

And this segues into something completely different. I've been trying to get back into reading so I'm working on the Hugo list. I picked up Becky Chambers' A Closed and Common Orbit because it was listed as a space opera about an AI. ACCO is more accurately described as space opera cozy. The AI bits are extraordinarily mundane. "Comfort fiction has its place" blah blah blah, but I don't read science fiction to feel cozy, so I was a little put off by this. But if I can enjoy a cyberpunk cozy then I will try to give ACCO another chance.

The bear is going down.

I'll see you in hell, Monokuma.

I've been wanting to play more visual novels. Coming from Corpse Party, I thought a hybrid might be a good choice so I finally pulled the trigger on Danganronpa, which is an adventure/mystery VN.

DR was on my list because it I heard it was weird. I am happy to report it is unapologetically weird. The offbeat, garish art style and combination of 2D/3D Sketchup-esque graphics took a little getting used to, and at first I wasn't sure about it, but after a few days in-game it grew on me. I'm a little over halfway through (mid Chapter 4).

The exploration mechanic is okay. They wisely added a fast-travel map and there are indicators showing where the various students are hanging out, which is a boon for free time when you can socialize with classmates.

My big problem with DR is the gameplay mechanics. This is actually one of the big problems with hybrid VNs overall in my opinion. I think a lot of VN players don't care about game mechanics (at best) or hate them (at worst). DR incorporates an intense round of mini-games during the trial phase of each chapter. This includes shooter and rhythm games. For the first few chapters, DR insists on constantly introducing new moves and rules, so you end up with a list of controls and mechanics you have to remember to do really basic things like object to an argument. The mini-games are hands-down the most annoying thing in the game. It seems like most of the commentary about the trial games are people complaining about the trial games. So I like the dramatic tone of discovery during the trials and shooting down your opponents statements with bullets is fun, but the more elaborate aspects of the mini-games can be infuriating, especially when you know exactly how to refute an argument logically but you can't figure out how to do so mechanically.

DR is a linear game. There is only one path forward, so when you fail a trial game, you just keep playing until you get it right. Fortunately, they don't make you start the trial over at the beginning. There are three difficulty levels, so it could be the easiest setting, gentle, is actually closer to the gameplay I want, I haven't tried it yet.

The game does a lot of hand-holding where the mysteries are concerned. So far I've figured them all out well before the protagonist, and I'm not sure if that's because I'm the sort of person who considers Nero Wolfe novels cozies or if that's the case for most players. But this means there's a path of evidence and none of the mysteries are seat-of-your-pants last-minute-new-exhibit stuff, which I appreciate.

Overall, the game is a lot of fun and very different from anything I've played before. A couple of the characters are annoying, but most really grew on me, some in surprising ways. I don't think it's a spoiler to say each time a body was discovered I was happy if my faves didn't die, then unhappy because this meant one of them might be a murderer. The banter is a lot of fun, the disparate personalities work well together, and the perplexingly-weird antagonist (yes, the bear) helps keep things lively.