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This visual novel, despite all its tragedies, has won me over with its art and music. I consider it to be semi-linear because there are very few choices during the story, but the "branches" are really different. Recommended.

A nice point-and-click game. Fun to play.

A short hybrid between a walking simulator and a musical show. While the songs are superb (I really thought I was in a musical) and the story, no doubt inspired by a Chinese legend, is very good, the art style put me off a bit, there's a great lack of "gameplay", and its very short life span made me regret my purchase a bit. Yes, the game is completed in 20 minutes. Even if I bought the game + the dlc at half price, I found it too expensive. On the other hand, achievements are easy to get and I still had a great time with Yi. I leave the blue thumb, but I advise to take the game when he gets a big discount. UPDATE : I had bought the game before the price went down to CDN$ 3.39

A little textual story made with Twine (well I think it's Twine) wanting to get closer to a "video game". In a world where magic and technology mix, we embody a fire AI that must eliminate viruses/evil spirits. Over 8 days, we have to scan 4 different locations, find a virus and eliminate it somehow. The 9th and last day is the "final battle" against a very powerful entity. Although there are several endings, the presentation is superb, the characters are endearing, and the story has a superb concept, after 2 sessions of half an hour each, I didn't feel like continuing, because everything is so repetitive. We spend our time scanning for viruses and there's only one place infected per day. Also, without giving too many details, the final fight is timed, to give us suspense, except that it made me want to skip all the text so as not to run out of time, which spoils the whole thing. There's no background music, only a few sound effects from time to time. These tend to cut abruptly, which is a shame. No pictures either. Well, there are, but only at two moments during the game. Since it's a text story, it's not a big deal, but I would have preferred either more images, at key moments of the story, or none at all. In short, a nice little story, nothing more.

An erotic and horror-lite game. A funny bland of genres and yet it works. Varied naughty scenes, several endings, a short lifespan, but the DLC Dollhouse adds new content. On the other hand, the French translation is meh in many places, so I did my playthroughs in English.

«That ending!»

Initial 2: New Stage takes place in the same universe as the first game, but it’s not a direct sequel, since only two bad guys from The Initial appears - Kyuya and Ryuzaki - and their role in the storyline are different. This time, the game got English dub. The voices are nice, but the repeated lines during the fights get annoying fast. The story mode is longer than The Initial. The first game took me around 2.5 hours to complete. This game is a good 5 hours. The English text is… often very funny and the text warping in the boxes is off most of the time. So, if you are looking for a “perfect English” game, with a deep plot and character development, Initial 2: New Stage won’t meet that expectation. It’s rather a nice and casual hack’n’slash with two cute heroines - Belvia and Sera - plus Veritas. I think Sera’s habit of talking in the third person all the time is kind-of annoying. Anyway, I recommend it with a 50% discount, since its short.

What can I say? Hentai with very little gameplay. A simple rpg style fight, easy to win with a guide found on Steam. You can have all the endings in 15 minutes + 40 minutes to listen to all the sexy epilogues (audio only) and voila. Quite expensive price for an hour (or so) of content. (The rest of the time in the game was used for the cards.) If you're sensitive at heart, move on. Hentai scenes are non-consensual from the princess. Just look at the title of the game. If not, go ahead.

While Brilliant Shadows was excellent, Pale Spectrum blows the "I'm overdoing it!" syndrome. Too many characters, many of whom have no useful role in the story. I think most of them were Kickstarter awards... Too many "arcs" (important parallel storylines) in the script, all mixed up and hard to follow. Too many choices that don't seem to affect the story. I felt like I was reading a trilogy that an author would have wanted to write in one volume. I was lost at many moments, and many scenes made me die of boredom. Yet, in terms of presentation, it's great. The images are as sublime as ever. The dialogues are entirely dubbed in English, like in Brillant Shadows. The idea of wanting to make a bigger story than the first game, with a ton of endings, wasn't bad in itself, but the execution is a big mess. Especially since the endings I found seem to talk about parallel worlds / universes, with their own characters, magic system, etc... and there are already too many of them! It's hard for me to recommend it, although it has an excellent lifespan. From 6 to 13 hours, depending on the store page.

The first Orwell is excellent. This one... not so good. The lifespan is much shorter, the actions are more limited with the time limit, the characters are less endearing, the end that I had left me frankly disappointed. The nods to the first game, if you have a saved game on Orwell 1, were cool, but other than that, I don't recommend it.

An excellent game and a mix between a Sim-RPG-Visual Novel. With all its endings to obtain + all the random events + the "careers" for Olive (the default name of the girl to raise), you'll have hours of fun. Moreover, the characters have Japanese voices, contrary to the old version found on the Net.

The plusses:
+ Story and catchy characters.
+ Cool graphics.
+ No RPG combat. (narrative game)
+ Except in the "final fight" and during an event, it is impossible to die.
+ Several endings.
+ Good music.

The minuses:
- The game ¾ gameplay is to move from place to place to find or buy ingredients for spells. Very repetitive.
- The story seems to stretch at times.
- Short lifespan. If you're not stuck, you can end it in 3 hours.

The +:
* The characters' design.
* The universe and the scenario, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft.
The in-between:
* Its a linear story. It doesn't bother me personally.
* There are interactions (gameplay) but it's either "click on a dot to continue" or "click on x character to talk to him/her".
The - :
* The dialogues in CAPITAL LETTERS all the time! The text is also very small.
* Lack of options for a visual novel (history or return to previous dialogs, music volume control, skip text already read, text speed control etc.) due to its engine used: Tyranobuilder.
* Only one background music most of the time. It's annoying.
* A rather open ending, which hints at a sequel, but no news from the dev about that.
* You have to press F for full screen. It's only mentioned on the splash screen when the game open, not in the game itself (options menu).

A nice kinetic visual novel, while some “moments” made me very uncomfortable, the plot explain everything near the end.

While all the images, the music and the writing are great, the story line is disappointing. How matter what you do, there is only 1 ending. OK there is a bad end, at the start, but it easy to avoid.

A very good point-and-click, with a lifetime of a good 3 hours (with the soluce). Very good script and great pixel style graphics. On the other hand, I personally had to play it in window mode, because in full screen I had some small problems with the cursor.

Ah, Pathologic. This game that totally splits me in half. Its "art-story" side is excellent, but I can't say the same for the "video game" side. The good: The universe, the storyline, and the atmosphere are amazing. I felt really anxious in this city hit by disease. The soundtrack is exquisite, the characters are mysterious and the few voiced passages are good. The average: The dialogue is quite strong in English, and it's abstract and very vivid. This often made it difficult for me to understand everything and you really have to grasp everything to survive in this game. Also, there are a lot of them. So you have to like reading. The bad : The gameplay and the survival aspect. Our character walks slowly from point to point and there's a lot of back and forth. The places in the city all look the same. I had to open the map every minute so I wouldn't take the wrong path. Besides, there is a time limit for the 12 days. We also have to "survive" by managing our health (hunger, fatigue etc), which is not easy when money (and other objects) are hard to find. The fighting system is rotten. I've been massacred many times without being able to throw a single punch to my opponent. Also, the quests, starting on day 2, are not given to you like that. It's up to you to find them, by exploring the city and talking to x number of characters. Tough, with the time limit + health management. To conclude, I'm very mitigated by this game, and it's with regret that I can't recommend it. Its universe may be mysterious and excellent, but the complexity of the dialogues and the survival aspect spoils it.