Playing games with an emphasis on story.

The tl;dr of this one is: The story was alright. Maybe a bit disjointed and linear at times but it was interesting. There's more filler than I would prefer but skipping was easy. The characters were interesting and I liked the LI in the route I took, but I wasn't really feeling it overall.

I would warn for spoilers in this review but the spoiler is in the title, so I'm not going to bother.

Changeling is an otome game where the MCs is a changeling who doesn't know she's a changeling. She moves with her family back to her old hometown to be closer to an ailing grandfather, and on her second day back at school gets pushed into a magic clubhouse and told she's a "cryptic". It turns out that a large portion of the population in the little town where she grew up are also "cryptics," or supernatural beings of one sort of another. Most are either werewolves, vampires, fae or some sort of wizard/witch. Although the MC's friend immediately realizes that MC is a cryptic of some sort, exactly what sort of cryptic she is is uncertain to the characters through most of the game. The plot mostly revolves around the MC trying and failing to get a clue about herself, while also getting involved to various degrees with the story of the LI you've chosen to pursue.


 

I'm not really sure what to think about Changeling in the end. I sort of didn't have all that much fun with it, but it's also not significantly flawed outside of the tedium. I think if you want a long play where you can date guys and kind of like the supernatural but more as sprinkles on an otherwise mundane story this could actually be a game that goes down pretty well.

This is a stat building raising sim where you play a cat spirit who has left faerie in search of your absent prince. While searching about the city of Verona, you run into a collection of interesting characters, all taken from Shakespeare.

I honestly haven't played that many stat building VNs, so I don't have much to compare The Nine Lives of Nim to. Even though there felt like a lot of down time at certain points I kind of liked the exploration involved in trying new jobs or learning new skills, meeting new people, visiting new places, and so on and so forth. And there are ample tracking elements to tell you what you've missed or what you might want to try for. There are dozens of story lines to pursue, and many different endings for Nim, so if you are an exploratory gamer you might find a lot to do here.

Name: Animal Lover
Status: Complete
Site: https://trainwreckstudios.itch.io/animal-lover
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: F/M
Description: Animal is a double entendre. The game is kind of about toxic masculinity and forgiveness.

Animal lover is an otome game, so F/M, where 6 guys have been cursed by a witch, and the MC is the only person who seems to be able to temporarily turn them back by kissing them.  You run around the first part of the game trying to find as many animals who are actually guys that you can, and then the latter part is figuring out how to permanently undo the curse and keep them human forever. Each guy was cursed at a different time. The eldest is Edmund, who is an actual prince from many hundreds of years ago. The rest of them come from America in the 20th and 21st centuries, including a guy from the 50s, 80s, 90s, and then one from very recently. They all have stories and personalities that are tied to those times, which is a neat way to provide variety.

I would say that this was a firmly OK game. It doesn't do anything particularly badly, but it also doesn't take too much advantage of a VN's strengths. Playing it was also a little weird, because Aadara's argument for why the LIs should be cursed to live out an eternity as hamsters and ferrets was pretty strong. If you romance a guy he is able to express real remorse for his behavior, but it still feels kind of weird to be okay with them after having only known them for a little while. Did any of these guys really learn their lesson? The game ends before I'm able to say.

Name: Arcade Spirits
Status: Complete
Site: https://fictionfactorygames.itch.io/arcade-spirits
Rating: PG-13, light romance, light violence, some mental health talk
Pairing: options for gen and any pairing configuration
Description: Someone who loves arcades made a game about loving arcades and finding love at arcades




Arcade Spirits is a professional and polished game, which is a rarity in these reviews. Tl;dr it's a great little VN, with good writing and very nice art, a personable cast of characters, great mood-setting music, and a decent system that both helps you control the plot but also lets you make choices without feeling that you are obligated to say one thing or another to get the ending you are seeking. The length of the game is also decent. I thought it was going to be the end twice before it actually was. Retail cost of Arcade Spirits is $20. That is always going to feel a little steep for me when it comes to VNs, but this is because I am cheap, not because the game doesn't deserve it, and I think in this case the game is definitely worth that if you are a VN fan.