K*A*O*R*I - Review
‘She became my dream girl. And also something I always returned to. Something inspiring.’
Warning: This review contains spoilers
K*A*O*R*I (hereafter KAORI) was one of the earliest OELVN’s, and for me it seems to be one of the most important, not just for ATP projects, but also for OELVN’s in general. Being able to tell a story in an original, effective way using minimal resources has become somewhat of a hallmark for the Lemmasoft communities VN’s, and KAORI was one of the first games to demonstrate this.
KAORI was created as a prototype for what mikey describes as ATP’s ‘simple games’. Compared to River Trap (which is still one of the most complicated and graphically intense OELVN’s), KAORI is about 1/15th its size. To reduce production time (and to keep the game small), there is only one pose per character sprite, no music and a rather low resolution background photographs. There is still a strong atmosphere created by the minimal resources used, particularly the filter of the backgrounds, which for some reason reminds me of yellowing paper.
One of the most unusual features of KAORI is the characterisation. None of the characters’ personalities are described to a significant extent, even when they engage in conversation. The characters function more as inspirations to each other rather than as people, and because of this, in some ways they become 'idols' for each other.
The other strongly innovative feature is the overall structure of KAORI, in particular the way that 5 out of the 9 of the Endings (where some or the entire Kaori/Inami story is revealed). By constructing the game in this way, the reader is forced to read most (or all) of the endings to discover reach the True Endings. KAORI’s choices are structured such that each ending can only be reached in one way, which combined with the newly added keyboard support, allows the player to easily retrace the paths to the password endings. Additionally, the decision points in KAORI are well thought out – one choice in particular seems rather ambiguous, but makes perfect sense after the whole story is revealed.
KAORI differs from most of the other ATP games, as a (slightly) greater focus is placed on the storytelling rather than the emotions attached to it. Overall, I didn’t find KAORI quite as successful as the other early ATP games – but it still integrates gameplay and story in a way that’s perfectly suited to the VN format.
Review by Ignosco
Warning: This review contains spoilers
K*A*O*R*I (hereafter KAORI) was one of the earliest OELVN’s, and for me it seems to be one of the most important, not just for ATP projects, but also for OELVN’s in general. Being able to tell a story in an original, effective way using minimal resources has become somewhat of a hallmark for the Lemmasoft communities VN’s, and KAORI was one of the first games to demonstrate this.
KAORI was created as a prototype for what mikey describes as ATP’s ‘simple games’. Compared to River Trap (which is still one of the most complicated and graphically intense OELVN’s), KAORI is about 1/15th its size. To reduce production time (and to keep the game small), there is only one pose per character sprite, no music and a rather low resolution background photographs. There is still a strong atmosphere created by the minimal resources used, particularly the filter of the backgrounds, which for some reason reminds me of yellowing paper.
One of the most unusual features of KAORI is the characterisation. None of the characters’ personalities are described to a significant extent, even when they engage in conversation. The characters function more as inspirations to each other rather than as people, and because of this, in some ways they become 'idols' for each other.
The other strongly innovative feature is the overall structure of KAORI, in particular the way that 5 out of the 9 of the Endings (where some or the entire Kaori/Inami story is revealed). By constructing the game in this way, the reader is forced to read most (or all) of the endings to discover reach the True Endings. KAORI’s choices are structured such that each ending can only be reached in one way, which combined with the newly added keyboard support, allows the player to easily retrace the paths to the password endings. Additionally, the decision points in KAORI are well thought out – one choice in particular seems rather ambiguous, but makes perfect sense after the whole story is revealed.
KAORI differs from most of the other ATP games, as a (slightly) greater focus is placed on the storytelling rather than the emotions attached to it. Overall, I didn’t find KAORI quite as successful as the other early ATP games – but it still integrates gameplay and story in a way that’s perfectly suited to the VN format.
Review by Ignosco
posted by Reviewer at
1:28 AM
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