In many ways, I do not recommend you play this game. So, you might ask, why did I click yes on this review to recommend it?

Because, as much as part of me hates what this visual novel dredged up, I am better for it. Make no mistake, this is not a 'game.' It is a story that will hurt you, if you understand it. If you haven't gone through anything similar, you potentially may find it misses the mark, or perhaps it soars way above your head. That's OK.

For those it does apply to, those who have gone through even remotely similar experiences, I sincerely hope you play this. Not because I hope you have a good time - I can't recommend this as a fun experience. But I can recommend this as something that many unfortunately need to hear and experience. Myself included.

Visually, it's a stunning and often confusing game. The artistic take is unique, though some might find it hard to follow (I know I did at times, even if I knew more or less what I was seeing). The mechanics aren't all too complex or breakthrough, simply being more of a point and click style visual novel, though the concepts are interesting from a story perspective. The sound design is excellent, just as everything else is.

Overall, it may hit or miss for you. I hope, if you do choose to experience this, it hits. I am sorry if it hurts, because it likely will if it does hit for you. But that's OK. It's OK for it to hurt, and above all, it's OK to walk away. Often, that's simply the best choice, even if we don't want to accept it.

The best money I've ever spent on something that made me cry after dredging up my past.

I can only recommend you play this, if you want to deal with what it will bring up to you. If you want to experience it, then by all means, try it. If you don't want to suffer any pain, or be reminded of past flames that may still sting, then don't play this. Or maybe still do - it's a valuable experience all the same.

This is my first review, and I have no idea if it's any good. But, regardless, this story deserves it. Take care of yourselves.

To be honest, even after completing Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star I still have no clue what I even played. But hey, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I like confusing and zany storylines at times... As long as they're well-executed. To be fair, as it tries to display the world of a person who suffers from borderline personality disorder, it's very likely intended to be confusing. Anyway, I looked forward to finding out more about the Milky Way Prince – And what's the deal with "vampires", by the way? – as I'm, admittedly, not very familiar with the star system. Regardless, I'm always excited when I get the chance to expand my horizon. After all, there is always something new to learn for everyone, right?


Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star revolves around Nuki who is obsessed with the star system. You see, he even possesses a fairytale-like book that is about the Milky Way Prince. Anyway, it's summer and Nuki happens to meet Sune. Despite just getting to know each other, Nuki starts to get attached to him right away which is greatly noticeable given they even hook up on the very same night in a public bathroom. Everything seems to be perfect and Nuki just knows that he is the right one. However, at this point he doesn't have a clue how their relationship will develop in the future.


Evidently, the relationship of Nuki and Sune is going to be the main theme of this game. However, that doesn't mean that the story has to be romantic per se. In fact, I never felt fuzzy during playing like I usually do with romance games but instead I constantly was on guard. I just had a hunch that something will happen later on in the game as everything just seemed way too perfect. I mean, both of them just met each other and honestly, something felt off the whole time. Anyway, the atmosphere stays gloomy throughout the whole game and it's immediately noticeable to the reader that both characters seem to be not very sane.

Sadly, this means that there is no real romantic development between both characters as well. They fell in love at first sight and thus, the relationship starts right away at the beginning of the game. Each time they're meeting up, there is no progress either but both of them are just communicating with each other. The problem here is that Sune is mysterious and doesn't like to talk about himself a lot, so I didn't have the impression that Nuki actually got to know him but instead just overly admired him, shoving his ideals on him. It becomes obvious that this aspect might become a problem later on during their relationship.


Well, there is no storyline going on in Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star either but the reader just goes through a few scenes where Nuki is meeting Sune. There are hints here and there available about the background story of both characters but it's presented very shallow without any depth. All in all, I still have the feeling that, besides both characters having mental issues, I don't know a lot about them. Character development is one of the most important aspects in a visual novel for me which saddens me even more that it's not in the foreground here at all. I wished the reader would find out more about the cast and their story as I found the setting interesting.


As aforementioned, the main purpose of Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star is to display the world of a person with borderline disorder personality. The game mainly focuses on this aspect and thus, the game starts harmless at first but gets very strange later on. Although I found it interesting that this visual novel thematizes such a serious topic, I feel like the execution is lacking. It's honestly hard for me to relate to a person who has this disorder, as I don't have it myself, yet this game doesn't explain anything to their readers but just throws them into a relationship where both partners are acting weird. I would go so far to say that if I didn't read beforehand what the game is about I would guess that they're both just crazy.

Dont get me wrong, I think it does a good job at showing that people with that specific disorder are unpredictable and have to fight their own demons. The issue I have here is that everything is so confusing. Of course, this game isn't meant to be informative but to a certain extent, I would have preferred to receive more explanation.


Something I appreciated about Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star is that the game itself feels so lively. The player doesn't only read through a bunch of text but occasionally there are a few scenes where they can more or less decide what to inspect. This part of the game works out similary to a point and click and thus, I could even decide whether Nuki should shave himself, wear parfume or brush his teeth, although it doesn't change anything on his appearance. These actions are, however, very limited and only available in his room. Occasionally, minor objects are changing throughout the game so it's always worth it to check out everything. There is even a poster that shows the branches and the current chapter the player reached.

However, a downside with the gameplay is, once again, the explanation. During a juicy scene with Sune, the player can select between different symbols. What they do and what impact they have doesn't get explained at all so I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I ended up clicking on random symbols and it seems like they are changing the dialogue during the scene while a choice occasionally pops up.

That being said, there are choices available during the interaction with Sune which will have an impact on the end. In total, there are two branches and three different ends available the player can reach.

After completing the game once, there is a special feature that lets the player put the story on double speed. However, I still prefer the regular skip function in a visual novel as I still had to manually advance the text and it still took some time to get past the already-read sections. This might be tedious for those who are hunting for the other endings, as this game saves automatically and, therefore, it's not possible to load different save files.


Graphic-wise, Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star is charming. I like the zany style that utterly stands out of the crowd of anime visual novels. At times, the game even works with animations which made it feel lively. Overall, the presentation of this game is something I would like to see more often when it comes to visual novels. The – sometimes – crazy happenings just fit well with the weird, but charming art style. Thanks to the rather dark graphics of Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star, the gloomy vibe gets even more highlighted. As a piece of side information, this visual novel, unfortunately, doesn't contain voice-over which would have greatly improved the immersion.


Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star is one of the games that's tough to recommend. If you're looking for a visual novel that tries to thematize serious issues in a relationship, go ahead and give this game a try. However, as a visual novel lover myself, I'm positive that most people, who are into that genre, are expecting a lot of character development, or a well-executed story, which Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star, unfortunately, doesn't fulfill. It saddens me to say this but this game had a lot of potential but, ultimately, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

Got in a humble bundle. This is not my normal type of game. I don’t like visual novels as I want there to be some actual game of skill in my games. I don’t like the color palette used. I didn’t like either of the characters. But despite this, something clicked and had to keep playing to get all the endings. Everybody who has been in a futile relationship at some point will be able to relate to this. It hasn’t changed my opinion on the genre, but I enjoyed spending a couple of evenings on it.

This game brings up a lot of feeling from someone who has the disorder in which they are trying to portray. My issue is that people may not realize that both of the main characters have the disorder. It was beautiful in some senses, but in others, very hurtful. I am not a vampire, nor a demon. I do not suck the life from other people and go from the next person to the next taking their happiness and collect urns of my failed relationship. I don't have 3 or 5 arms and I don't turn into a demon when I have a breakdown... anyone with this disorder doesn't. And from my standpoint I would like to have something more positive about us rather than us being seen as 'vampires', hence the 'vampire star'. The only positive was that (SPOILER: one of the endings Sune realizes the only one who could make him happy is him) but to outsiders I feel that they might not understand that since if you don't know, then there are technically no positive endings if you expect the basic love romance happy relationship. This could have been so much better thought out and had a better story to clearly portray BPD. Both negatives and positives but the game seems strict on showing only negatives... I really really really want to like this game. But with the harm it's doing to the negative image people with BPD already have... I don't think this is the best way...

A beautifully made visual game, put together so very well. It is very deep and phenomenal piece, one that I relate too on many levels of the topics around it. This game brings a sense of closure for me as its narrative about relationships while it shows a resolution to it at the end. The music, illustrations and 3-D artistry shows more than a game, but a painting of a meaningful experience from the heart of its creator. A must play for 2020.

twinks in your area

I started the game with mixed expectation (a friend recommended me to play it), only to find myself overwhelmed by its intimate story and hypnotic mood. Somehow within it I found so much about myself and my previous relationships, that I started to feel naked, ashamed and redeemed from it. I will give it a second run once I manage to shake off the emotion from the first run.
10/10 for the music!

A short and painful journey, one that amoung many others i have seen and played here on STEAM makes me worried for where my PRIDE family is at mentally and emotionally these days.
I never had the chance to meet my Milky Way Prince growing up, or even as a young man. I was so worried about being found out, and then dealing with the consequences of being outed. I couldnt have any friends in school, cause I was always afraid they would find out, I got kicked out of the military, I couldnt get a job after that working any place decent, and Id lose any job id get within a few months when my employers figured out the truth. The first two and a half decades of my life were hll in a real literal sense,.. but I always had hope that things were gettting better. First there was DADT, then legally recognized partnerships, Open Service, and finally actual Equal Marriage recognized in countries all around the world. I had hope that my younger brothers and sisters in the PRIDE community would finally have the chance to live the kind of life I had only dreamed of.
But If you judge the state of our Family by the games we are releasing now, you cant help but really and deeply worry for us. Particularly for us Bois. The BL community is littered with scenes of abuse, self inflicted harm, denigration, and worse. Its heart breaking and so is the idea that another young man has lived a life painful enough to write this game drawing on his own personal experiences. I dont know where we are still going wrong, what it will take to make our stories happy stories, to make our Prince(ss)'s Charming too, when we will be allowed to write and read VNs and have dating sims that dont include guilt, shame and horror. I do hope if nothing else that atleast for the author writting this was at least theraputic.

Playing status: 100% achievement
Grindy Achievement(s): No.
Optional Achievement(s): Yes (~12 achievements).
Difficult Achievement(s): No.

Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star is a visual novel about a toxic relationship. It tells the story of two young men that are interested in each other, revealing their secret from time to time from a short encounter.

Pros:
- 3 endings
- Nice representation of how the character feels

Cons:
- The symbolism might make it hard for those who never experienced the issue to relate
- No fast-forward on subsequent playthroughs

Specs
Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

No.
Unless if you have experienced similar problems, I don't think you should buy the game. You'll just be confused about the story otherwise.

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The game uses a mix of 2D and 3D models. Characters are drawn in monochrome, 2D visuals while the rest are represented in 3D models. The contrast between the two doesn't look odd at all, especially with the visuals that are focusing on white, black, and red color. It's nice to see the animations that are shown whenever the game tries to express something. However, some animations are redundant. It's boring to see the same animations over and over again whenever the characters are trying to get a feel for each other.

The story confuses me. It starts normally with an encounter of two men that become interested in each other. You'll soon realize that both sides are mentally unstable with their obsession and depression, which might be the reason why it's hard for me to relate to the topic. The dialogue sometimes steers off into them talking in their fantasy, making it hard for me to find a common ground. I took some words at face value at first, thinking that the other man was a literal star. It took me a while before realizing that everything is just a part of their symbolism, and I was already too deep into the story to realize my mistake.

There are a lot of problems that the couple faced, but there isn't much information that you can get off of them. The developer might be meaning to tell the story about someone who obsesses over other people so much without even knowing full well of the other, and how unhealthy that kind of relationship is. I liked how everything was presented though - the animation looks cool with the relation to the star and other astrology-related terms. I could feel the emotion that the developer was trying to convey from them, but sadly, I didn't get much on the narrative part. The good ending might be trying to send a moral message to the players, but that's everything that I could get from it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2571367187

Gameplay
As a visual novel game, the game mostly revolves around the conversation between two people. Dialogues are light and full of small talks, making it easy to digest for those who are new to them. You'll also have the chance to interact with your surroundings in between as a breather.

The game does a lot of reference to sex. There are 4-5 encounters between the couple in the game which always end with sex. Although I liked how they are represented, it feels redundant, especially since you'll do the same thing with a different flavor text. It's nice to see that you can choose 3 out of 5 actions every time though.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2519728940

Length and Difficulty
I finished the game in 1.9h. The rest of my playtime was spent looking for the other 2 endings. There is no way to speed up the text on your subsequent playthroughs - you'll be forced to reread the same text just to experience the other endings. You still can speed up the animation speed, but that still wasn't fast enough to me. To be honest, I wished that I sped it up in my first playthrough; the animation speed was very slow by default.

Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star is a unique game for sure. It does a good job of conveying the emotions of the characters, but it was buried beneath a lot of symbolism that doesn't make sense. It was hard for me to make out what the game was talking about, and the only thing that got in my head was how to get out of a toxic relationship. It might be what the game was trying to convey, but with how bizarre and confusing my experience was, I don't think I could recommend it for now.

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I normally don't leave reviews on Steam, since I'm already writing them for a separate site. But for Milky Way Prince I just had to make an exception. I admit I went into this game with some reservations. As somebody who suffers from Borderline myself, after a childhood of abuse and trauma, finding out what this game was about filled me with trepidation. Most mental illnesses are already stigmatized to hell and back in fiction, and i'm sick of narratives that paint mentally ill people as dangerous, manipulative and purposely hurtful.

That is not what this game is.

This game is an honest telling of the burden of Borderline. I related a lot to Sune, who harms himself and those around him almost naturally, like it's something he can't help but still does. The struggle to connect and the constant shifting moods and fluctuating self-image was something I recognize a lot in myself. But I also recognized myself in Nuki, as somebody who spent their entire childhood at the mercy of a father who was suffering from untreated BPD. In the end, this game tells a realistic, raw, disturbing but honest story about BPD and how it affects both those who have it and those who come in contact with people who have it. The beautiful art and amazing music was really just the cherry on the cake of a game I could not recommend highly enough. The subject matter is heavy and I imagine not everybody will be interested in such a game, but it's one that desperately needed to be made and I can't thank the creator enough for putting himself out there like this.