Time's Tear - Synopsis

Story: Kazuhiko and his brother Hideo are orphans living under the supervision of their caretaker. Then, one night, Kazuhiko has a dream. Will it help him pass a test in school?

Relationship Type: BxG

Length: 1-2 hours

Positives: Very well told unusual story, outstanding music, vast amount of artwork which is stylistically ideal for this sort of game, several unexpected plot twists, adventure-style mini-games.

Unusual Features: Young protagonist, user-friendly and children-friendly game, quasi-linear VN.

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Time's Tear - Review

Warning: Some spoilers below

Ostensibly, the Visual Novel genre at present is a rather adult form. A majority of VN’s deal with romantic (or perhaps not so romantic) relationships, and a majority of these games contain adult content. Although, arguably the VN is in some ways like an interactive children’s picture book, at present there are very few VN’s which focus on a younger audience (Hikari no Ribbon, in the Ren’Ai Archives is one of the exceptions). Although many of the games in the Ren’Ai Archives for example have an all-ages rating, this more relates to the lack of any potentially objectionable content, rather than implying that the story might appeal to pre-teen children. Generally, these games also have teenage or adult protagonists too, which might also make the games difficult to relate to.

Time’s Tear is a game that goes outside many of the standard conventions – the protagonist Kazuhiko is 10 years old, and the story in some places (though not always) feels like it is being told from a child’s perspective. As well as this, the romantic elements, whilst not insignificant are fairly downplayed compared to some of the story’s other themes. In many ways it feels like Time’s Tear has been designed to appeal to a younger audience. Whilst there is a lot of reading involved in many places it plays more like an adventure game. Probably for Time’s Tear to be successful with a younger audience, it would have to be approached as a computer game, rather than a 20000+ word interactive book.

One of the most innovative components of Time’s Tear are the mini-games. For me, they reminded me a lot of some of the adventure games from the early 90’s (choosing the right object or combination of objects to perform a task). All of them are well integrated into the story, and in some ways act as a substitute for a branching storyline. The mini-games will vary greatly in difficulty from player to player – but the game gives unlimited retries (and a hint when you don’t succeed). In this respect, the game is much more forgiving than most VN’s difficulty-wise, making it ideal for a younger audience.

Like most other ATP games, there are some subtle clues in the story that suggest what will happen in the ending. The ending manages to tie together almost all of the story’s elements, and was completely unexpected for me. What impressed me most was seeing the complete Time’s Tear poem on-screen after finishing the game – it really made the ending feel complete by having the game come full circle.

The main reason for this game’s success is probably Lordcloudx’s artwork. As Mikey mentions, the ability to draw anime-style children purely as children (without any of the common extraneous connotations), is rare among artists. His art fits perfectly with the game, and really captures the personality of each character. The amount of artwork for Time’s Tear is vast (58 images in the CG gallery for example) and processed background photographs - in the extras section, there is the expected CG gallery, but also a CYOI (choose your own image), where you can superimpose your favourite character sprite over any of the game’s backgrounds. I’ve never come across a CYOI gallery in a VN before, and it’s a very nice addition to the game. Because of the large number of resources used, the download is unfortunately very large for users who are on dial-up connections.

As with O3 (and a few other games), Renesis’s trance/ostinato driven music is outstanding, and is at least the equal of the music from an average commercial VN. The soundtrack (which comes with a printable CD cover) can be listened to in ogg format.

Despite Time’s Tear being a children’s adventure (and to some extent an adventure for children), there is just as much content in the game for older gamers (besides possible nostalgic feelings it may induce). It’s one a few VN’s that almost anyone is likely to enjoy.

Review by Ignosco

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Wings - Synopsis

'To be always alone, but never lonely...'

Story: A mostly emotional and psychological drama told from the point of view of two characters.

Relationship type: Friendship (BxG)

Length: Both versions are approximately 15 minutes

Positives: Honest storytelling, very effective use of artwork, extensive author’s notes, solo project, two protagonists

Unusual Features: Protagonists appear as sprites and have very strong personalities, story exists in two versions, minimal dialogue, linear visual novel.

Download Wings here.

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Wings - Review

'To be always alone, but never lonely...'

Wings is a rather unusual VN in several respects, as there are two versions of the story included in the one download, two protagonists and a storyline conveyed mostly through internal thoughts.

In a few places the writing doesn’t flow particularly well, feeling at times like a compressed list of facts. However, what really stands out is the overall honesty and immediacy of the story. Both protagonists convey their thoughts to the reader very frankly, without an attempt on the author’s part to express any moral judgements, leaving the ideas presented open to a personal response. What I also found interesting was the personalities of the protagonists, which are quite likely to rile the players. While their thoughts are often highly arrogant and condescending in their thoughts, it is unlikely that they will completely distance anyone. On a personal level, at times my thoughts have drifted down those lines, and I imagine that this is true for many other readers, making this a somewhat confrontational VN.

As Lordcloudx mentions in the authors notes, there is a strong influence of some of the translated doujin VN’s, particularly Narcissu and Until We Meet Again. The influence of Narcissu is particularly evident, through the tightly squeezed backgrounds and Kotori’s appearance (which resembles Setsumi’s in Narcissu).

While the other elements of the game (art, music etc) aren’t quite on the same level as the story, they are still well done and effective. The art in particular is an essential part of Wings, as there are minimal character descriptions, which I think is why the protagonist is also presented onscreen. In the ending of the revised version the use of art is highly effective too.

It’s difficult to say which version I prefer, as the primary difference between each story is the artwork, with only a few sentences of the original storyline being changed. If you enjoy the story, it’s definitely worth playing through the other version to draw comparisons between them. Additionally, Lordcloudx’s comments in the author’s notes and in the Completed Games section of the Lemmasoft forums are well worth reading. It’s also hard to say who this story might appeal to as it operates on a rather personal level. However, I think Wings is well worth downloading if you are looking for a slightly different VN experience.

Review by Ignosco

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Lucy's Revenge - Synopsis

Synopsis:

Story: So, Eileen has been getting all the spotlight, all the fame and all the credit for Ren'Py, has she? Well, it's time to turn things around...

Relationship Type: BxG

Length: 10 minutes

Positives: Excellent art and use of Ren’Py features, very funny, full script can be viewed with Ren’Py.

Unusual Features: Completed within 1 week (!), the most ecchi game in the community at the time of its release, one of the few comedy/parody games in the Archives, (essentially) a linear Visual Novel.

Some background information: The Ren’Py demos up to the 6^th version have featured Eileen almost exclusively, as she describes introduces the viewer to Ren’Py. Lucy’s appearance in the original was only on the ‘Make a Choice’ screen in the Ren’Py demo, used to demonstrate Imagemaps. She ended up being dropped from the 5.6.3 demo.

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Lucy's Revenge - Review

Review:

Potential spoilers below:



(The Ren’Py demos up to the 6th version have featured Eileen almost exclusively, as she describes introduces the viewer to Ren’Py. Lucy’s appearance in the original was only on the ‘Make a Choice’ screen in the Ren’Py demo, used to demonstrate Imagemaps. She ended up being dropped from the 5.6.3 demo.)

Lucy’s Revenge is parody at its best. When I first played this, I had never seen Lucy in the Ren’Py demo, and after I’d downloaded an earlier version of Ren’Py, I was impressed by how mugenjohncel developed such an ‘interesting’ character out of the one ‘Make a Choice’ screen. Many on the jokes are tied into particular features in Ren’Py, but even without knowing about these, the humour is still apparent.

Aside from the wacky and somewhat perverse humour the other element that really stands out is the art. For a game produced in a week, there are a lot of high quality CG’s, sprites, as well as several animations. The ‘grabbing’ one in particular is very well done.

It’s definitely worth downloading if you’re interested in seeing what can be done art-wise with Ren’Py. As all of the script and images are accessible from the game directory, Lucy’s Revenge is almost like another Ren’Py tutorial, featuring several of the more advanced features in action.

Mugenjohncel’s upcoming VN, My Dear Teacher – Mr. K (there’s a demo available on the Lemmasoft forum in the Works in Progress section) will have Lucy (and maybe Eileen?) in it - so if you enjoyed Lucy’s Revenge it’s definitely a game to look forward to.

Review by Ignosco

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Starlit Sky - Synopsis

“… when people die they become a new star in the sky and live out a second life as that star, shining down upon their sleeping loved ones.”

Synopsis:

Relationship type: Essentially non-romantic (BxG friendship)

Length: About 60-80 minutes

Story: A story about a boy named Jack who is trying to reach the stars.

Positives: A very well told and moving story, highly effective and well utilised artwork and music, excellent ending.

Unusual features: Linear Visual Novel (no choices), two main and equally important characters whose relationship develops into a deep friendship (as opposed to romance).

Download Starlit Sky here.

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Starlit Sky - Review

“… when people die they become a new star in the sky and live out a second life as that star, shining down upon their sleeping loved ones.”

Spoilers Below

Starlit Sky is the story of both Jack and Marivel as they work together to fulfil a promises they have made. This is one of the first games to explore a relationship purely of deep friendship, rather than romance. It was originally conceived as a NaNoRenO game (made entirely in 1 month), but ended up being completed in May.

Describing the setting is difficult – it’s partially a combination of a (roughly) 19th century like world with a world of magic, where fairy tales can be real. Perhaps there is a degree of incongruity in this unusual setting but for me it never really detracted from the story – especially since many scenes in the story can be seen somewhat allegorically.

The protagonist is a fairly unusual age (13) for a VN – for much of the story, the slightly older Marivel is a more dominant character, due to her magical abilities and greater On the other hand, Jack is much more level-headed and in some ways wiser, enabling their characters balance very well with each other as they solve the problems they encounter together. As their friendship develops, they begin to share more of their pasts with each other, which for example reveals why Jack is always looking at the sky. Marivel’s story is only explained fully in the penultimate scene – although there are some clear hints given throughout the story as to why she forgot so much about her sister, I was very surprised upon reaching that scene. Significantly, the relationships Jack and Marivel had with their siblings, closely parallel their own friendship, except here their ages are reversed. The relationship they develop through the story seems to replace their previous friendships with their siblings.

Although Starlit Sky is mainly the story of Jack and Marivel, the secondary characters they encounter on their two side-trips are also very well developed. The theme of friendship is strongly prevalent again, as Jack and Marivel work together with Violetta, and then Kareena to solve the problems they encounter. For me, what was especially significant is that all three characters in each encounter were needed to best resolve the problem – for example without Jack, Violetta would have ended up taking the memory potion. I guess it was primarily because of the strong emphasis on friendship, that the story never felt sad for me, but instead was more of a heart-warming tale.

When I first discovered VN’s about 8 months ago, one comment I read (I think it was relating to Kana – Little Sister), emphasised that in a Visual Novel, you are playing primarily for the ending. From me, it is mainly (though not exclusively) the games with really well done endings that stay in my mind well after I’ve finished them. The ending to Starlit Sky is fairly short, but it is very moving and it really gives a sense of hope for the future, as Jack and Marivel both fulfil their promises together. Having the two stars showing at the end is a very effective artistic touch.

The character sprites in particular are utilised very effectively, with horizontal positioning and flipping used to show both the positions and emotions of the characters (ie facing away when they are angry or leaving the scene). I particularly like Violetta’s facial expressions, as they strongly enhance her personality. The music is also very well chosen – as a fairly small number of tracks are used, when certain pieces are repeated they link between sections of the story and emphasise the unified moods these sections share.

Overall, Starlit Sky is a beautifully told and moving story of friendship. As long you don’t approach the game expecting a story of romance, you are likely to enjoy this VNReview by Ignosco

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