Black Pencil - Review
Back in the Dawn of Time, when dinosaurs walked the earth and The Ren’ai Archives were still only a distant idea rising in the horizon (i.e. January, 2004) there came to be a game called Black Pencil.
Forgive the strange words of the previous paragraph, but I thought they were necessary for a number of reasons. One of them is that it was the first game created by ATP games, which would later contribute with other 11 games in the following three years, an impressive number in the free English visual novel scenario. Other is that it was the second game to be created and posted in the Lemmasoft Forums, right before Tales of Lemma. But if you think that the game is old, and therefore bad, think again.
The game IS old. And it shows. The Ren’Py engine still hadn’t its popularity and so the game used a different engine, different controls (it’s impossible to rollback or skip) and no music. The art is also quite sketchy and has no colors, just black and white. But Black pencil somehow manages to get these things, which some would consider drawbacks, and make them part of the game. Actually they ENHANCE the experience (ok… Maybe except for the inability to skip).
But first you must understand the mood of the game. When mikey wrote the game he had one emotion in mind: Loneliness. The game focuses only on the main character, Kiyoshi, and Yuki (a name that, incidentally, means “snow”. I don’t know if that was intentional or not.) There is only one character graphic (Yuki’s) and no dialogues with any secondary characters. In the game there’s Kiyoshi and Yuki, no more no less. The sketchy art gives a somber tone to the whole story and reminds the player of the game’s title, which will only be understood in the ending. Indeed the game seems like it was entirely sketched with a black pencil, giving it a very different and meaningful atmosphere. Some of the backgrounds, especially the windshield and the fog, defy belief in sheer melancholic impact.
The story also shines as original and true to its theme, with many characteristics that would later become iconic in most ATP’s games. The introspective, somewhat passive hero, only one heroine per game, the heavy focus on atmosphere, the plot showing small and simple things in the everyday lives of the characters and of course, the twist ending. Getting the “true” ending in this game may not be so easy, but it’s worthwhile, and even the bad ending has the merit of its tragic impact. The manga version of Black Pencil in fact focuses on the bad ending, which proves its value and importance for the player. Even the good ending is not a “happily ever after”, although much more cheerful than any of the others, which just reinforces the theme of the whole game. The whole script may be a little short, but says what it needs to and works.
Black Pencil is a classic. It came from a time when creating a game was an astounding feat and resources were hard to find (both of these are still true today, but less so. Ren’Py and a strong community have done wonders for the game creators and now that the Ren’ai Archives holds 76 games creating one more doesn’t sound such a Herculean feat, although any creator will readily tell you that it’s no bed of roses either). It also hails from a simpler time, when any good graphics and music were a pleasant surprise. But now that age is gone, for better or for worse and the Lemmasoft Forum right now has more than 800 members as I write these words.
Why am I writing about the changes in the Visual Novel creating scenario, you ask? Because Black Pencil IS an iconic example of the games in that period. Some would call them bad-quality but I, unashamedly and in a completely biased way, call them unique and personal. Of course, limited resources and being old doesn’t render a game automatically good, just as being new and having professional-quality doesn't nescessarily mean game is good, but Black Pencil WAS good and still is, even today, which was the whole point of this review anyway...
Although I cannot deny I liked the old period, I don’t regret the new one. Interesting things show up every time and the quality of the average games improves more and more. Time moves things move forward, never backwards.
The king is dead, long live the king.
Review written by Mr. E, archaic teenager
Forgive the strange words of the previous paragraph, but I thought they were necessary for a number of reasons. One of them is that it was the first game created by ATP games, which would later contribute with other 11 games in the following three years, an impressive number in the free English visual novel scenario. Other is that it was the second game to be created and posted in the Lemmasoft Forums, right before Tales of Lemma. But if you think that the game is old, and therefore bad, think again.
The game IS old. And it shows. The Ren’Py engine still hadn’t its popularity and so the game used a different engine, different controls (it’s impossible to rollback or skip) and no music. The art is also quite sketchy and has no colors, just black and white. But Black pencil somehow manages to get these things, which some would consider drawbacks, and make them part of the game. Actually they ENHANCE the experience (ok… Maybe except for the inability to skip).
But first you must understand the mood of the game. When mikey wrote the game he had one emotion in mind: Loneliness. The game focuses only on the main character, Kiyoshi, and Yuki (a name that, incidentally, means “snow”. I don’t know if that was intentional or not.) There is only one character graphic (Yuki’s) and no dialogues with any secondary characters. In the game there’s Kiyoshi and Yuki, no more no less. The sketchy art gives a somber tone to the whole story and reminds the player of the game’s title, which will only be understood in the ending. Indeed the game seems like it was entirely sketched with a black pencil, giving it a very different and meaningful atmosphere. Some of the backgrounds, especially the windshield and the fog, defy belief in sheer melancholic impact.
The story also shines as original and true to its theme, with many characteristics that would later become iconic in most ATP’s games. The introspective, somewhat passive hero, only one heroine per game, the heavy focus on atmosphere, the plot showing small and simple things in the everyday lives of the characters and of course, the twist ending. Getting the “true” ending in this game may not be so easy, but it’s worthwhile, and even the bad ending has the merit of its tragic impact. The manga version of Black Pencil in fact focuses on the bad ending, which proves its value and importance for the player. Even the good ending is not a “happily ever after”, although much more cheerful than any of the others, which just reinforces the theme of the whole game. The whole script may be a little short, but says what it needs to and works.
Black Pencil is a classic. It came from a time when creating a game was an astounding feat and resources were hard to find (both of these are still true today, but less so. Ren’Py and a strong community have done wonders for the game creators and now that the Ren’ai Archives holds 76 games creating one more doesn’t sound such a Herculean feat, although any creator will readily tell you that it’s no bed of roses either). It also hails from a simpler time, when any good graphics and music were a pleasant surprise. But now that age is gone, for better or for worse and the Lemmasoft Forum right now has more than 800 members as I write these words.
Why am I writing about the changes in the Visual Novel creating scenario, you ask? Because Black Pencil IS an iconic example of the games in that period. Some would call them bad-quality but I, unashamedly and in a completely biased way, call them unique and personal. Of course, limited resources and being old doesn’t render a game automatically good, just as being new and having professional-quality doesn't nescessarily mean game is good, but Black Pencil WAS good and still is, even today, which was the whole point of this review anyway...
Although I cannot deny I liked the old period, I don’t regret the new one. Interesting things show up every time and the quality of the average games improves more and more. Time moves things move forward, never backwards.
The king is dead, long live the king.
Review written by Mr. E, archaic teenager
posted by Reviewer at
10:20 PM
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