Plot Twist, a Melbourne-based games studio, has announced that the visual novel Ashes will launch in Early Access this May, with a full launch planned for December. This period of time will be used to finish the story, refine the existing minigames/add new ones, and provide new narrative content. The game blends graphic novel panels with interactive puzzles.…
Not A Cat Studios has announced STARCULT. Night: Twisted Age. The dark fantasy romantic visual novel is set in a world on the brink of disaster, and players must use an Emotion Palette to read others’ true emotions and intentions, influence relationships, and uncover the truth behind a brutal murder.…
Publisher Idea Factory International has announced a preorder date of April 22…
The first otome visual novel that I played – in fact, the…
It hasn’t taken that long for visual novels to go from one of the most niche genres of all to being something that has a genuine and growing audience behind it. Where once we might get one or two efforts to localise one in a year, now dozens of these…
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I’m obsessed with the paranormal. The older I get, the more interested I am in it. It started as a mortality thing, but has expanded past that into sheer curiousity. I’ll read what I can, watch what I can, listen to what I can. I’m very open to what others…
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Wow did Lover Pretend have the potential to go places. Thankfully it doesn’t, ultimately, but there were more than a few moments on this game’s journey where I felt particularly uncomfortable about some of the flags that it was throwing up despite it being a narrative that is, by developer…
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Well, here we go. I guess this was always inevitable, but “VTubers” – Virtual YouTubers – are getting their own VNs now. I can’t say I can complain. After all, Dee Dee might not be a VTuber, but she’s our site’s mascot, and she’s got a VN on the way…
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I’m a big fan of itch.io for the freedom and open platform that it allows for developers to be creative, experimental, and directly canvas the audience for feedback for games that are not yet ready for primetime on Steam and its ilk. In addition, itch.io allows you to be transgressive,…
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I’m not sure how the initial launch of 7 Days to End with You slipped past me, but it did. The puzzle/visual novel game is all about language, and what does a games journalist love more than games and words? Very little. In a place where you don’t know the…
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The visual novel genre scene of gaming can, at times, be difficult to get into. Poorly made releases, carbon copies, and plainly obvious cash grabs are around every corner, but the good news is that this particular release we’re talking about here is anything but one of those. This is…
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Paradigm Paradox has a smart idea behind it: This is a magical girl story where most of the girls are, in fact, boys! The boys (and love interests) in this otome story magically turn into women when they are out there saving the world, before shifting back to male form…
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Fragment’s Note+ has some decent art, and a surprisingly good localisation for a project of relatively modest scale. I’m used to having to deal with translations that are barely better than a Google machine translation and this game is not that. Unfortunately, I’ve run out of good things to say…
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One of the joys of streaming things that you’re playing for the first time is that the audience can see, in real time, you come to the realisation that what you are playing is just terrible. Fragment’s Note Plus is just terrible. In the hour or so of this stream…
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