Anime style romance visual novel

Size: about 400 mb

Length: around 4 hours – 40,000 word story

Relaxing music

6 – 7 decisions to make in game

Slow start

Emotional rollercoaster towards the end

Nicely developed characters

Game page on Steam

WARNING: Visual novels are basically books with more pictures and music in the background. If you don’t like reading, visual novels are not for you, don’t even try them, you won’t enjoy them.

NOTE: This was my first time playing any sort of a visual novel, so it is hard for me to rate it properly since I can’t compare it to anything.

Introduction:

Like Dragomon Hunter, this is also an anime style game. Anime basically means cartoon-like scenery with usually cute characters. On Steam this game currently has 198 positive and 22 negative reviews and is therefore rated very positive.

Most of the bad comments are regarding too much reading, however, some of them were typical bull****. WARNING: If you are a proud male specimen (by proud I mean that you wipe dust from the floor with your ball sack) and you are afraid your manliness will fall off if you play or even see something cartoon-like, sweat or God forbid something romantic, Sepia Tears will certainly be your death. You should start with something basic. I recommend you some classics like Hello Kitty or Dora the Explorer.

For all of you confused of why did I just have to put that warning you see above, I didn’t want real males to be a dying breed. It is already too late for me, but if I can save even 1 life, I am a happy man.

First look – audio and visual experience:

First thing I noticed when I started the game was the soundtrack. There are few different melodies throughout the game, each representing different action. Main melody, which was on through most of the game, since it’s representing normal monologues, dialogues and thoughts of characters, was really relaxing. The melody I liked the most was sort of an action melody, mostly appearing before decision making, and the reason I liked it so much is because it reminded me of the „enter the battle“ sound from Pokemon.

Visual experience was nice. Background images were quite unique. They were nicely drawn, but the unique part was that they were blurry, all of them. I didn’t know if I liked it at first, but when I played a bit more, it was definitely one of its brightest sides. Main things, like content of a room or color of the sky was clearly picturable, but you still had the option to picture it in detail like you wanted to. It is like a memory if you think of it. When it’s all fresh we can see it clearly, but later it starts to get all blurry, and in time some details change, you don’t remember things how they really were, instead you picture them differently. Text was nothing special, font was big enough to read, and it was always very visible.

Main story:

I won’t go too much into detail not to spoil it to anyone.

The story is developing between a high school student named Mark and a mysterious girl named Myra who claims to be someone from his past but he can’t seem to remember anything about her.

The plot itself starts really slow, and I mean really slow. In first 15 minutes you still don’t know anything about anything. After first 30 minutes, to be honest, I was wondering if I really made the right choice to „play“ this game. But now when I look at it I guess it is normal. It takes some time to get to know each of the character and connect with them on emotional level.

After this first 30 minutes game will start to get better and better. I’ve soon encountered some humorous lines that almost made fall off of my chair from laughter. Also as I got to know each of the 5 main characters it made me more and more into the story. And let me tell you, characters are very well made. I could write an essay about each of their personality, but all you need to know is that everyone has unique and deeply developed one.

By the time I reached last hour of the story, I was on the edge of my seat. Plot was finally starting to unveil itself and I was so into the story that I have put myself into the shoes of the protagonist. By the time I had to make second to last decision, I was in real dilemma of which I should choose. I was feeling like it was really important not to mess it up and when I finally decided I caught myself thinking if that really is my choice, or I went so deep into the character that I picked the thing Mark would choose. That is when I realized the game was a success for me.

The end of the whole thing wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be, but that was one place where the decision making really mattered the most and shined the brightest.

After the story is over you unlock a journal in which you read what happened after the last day. It nicely rounds the whole story, ties almost every loose end together.

Overall impressions:

Overall I was nicely surprised by this game. Even though it started really slow, investment in the story and even more in the characters payed off in the end. I am the type of a guy who would always choose to watch a good movie over a good book. However, I am glad I stumbled upon this story and I would do it all over again. I only wish the story was a bit more interactive. In about 4 hours of gameplay I only had a few decisions to make, and most of them weren’t even that important.

Rate: 7/10

What do you think about visual novels? Do you prefer a good movie or a good book? Hit me in the comment section below.

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