VTuber Connect, bir araç olarak VTuber'lara yazılmış bir aşk mektubudur. Hiçbir şeyi saklamayan ama her şeyi kucaklayan bir şey. İster VTuber ister izleyici olun, hepimiz kendi yöntemlerimizle bağlantılar kurarız. Nasıl bağlanacaksınız?

TW: suicide mention, death mention, depression

Shouma Hasegawa is a young college student spending most of his time following VTuber content online, instead of dedicating himself to real-life connections.

This happens to be one of the biggest concerns of his elder sister Yoko, who does often find herself reminding Shouma of the importance that is holding socialization in our lives. Nonetheless, the younger one after failing at many effort done in the past, is not willing to engage in such attempts so far.

One day, while deciding to take that so-advised step outside, Shouma spots a VTuber magazine featuring his favourite creator – Orihime Mana. As he is about to grab the item, he gets interrupted by a gloomy-looking girl who is also interested in the purchase, however there is a small complication… it happens to be the last one available in store.

The girl decides to step back and lets Shouma proceed with purchase, following later with different questions and speculations regarding VTuber media and what may be hidden behind the whole.

It is very interesting how the plot manages to insert within light dialogues philosophical discussions that are directly linked to Virtual Youtubers as individuals.

Starting with simple questions coming to VTuber characters, voices and behaviours of theirs, it was a matter of time for the conversation between the two to escalate straight to the point of speculating the existence of such personalities linked to the people behind the screen playing the personages.

When actually would it count as crossing the line of your own personality and start an act of pretending to be someone you are not?
An interesting curiosity that may pop into an individual’s mind – be it the VTuber themselves or viewer’s speculations.

In-depth analysis coming to VTuber media will be presented, as this title will mention all of the tiniest segments taking part of the whole idea of mentioned subject. This Visual Novel will keep you hooked if you enjoy indulging into logical and philosophical reasoning coming to simple things. The game will proceed by depicting realistically the viewer and creator’s point of view, accompanying both parts to a conjoint position.

A very interesting detail, in fact, is how the story pacing does manage to proceed smoothly, while at the same time being heavily expanded as often happens in Japanese Visual Novel titles. For example when it comes to describing personages’ feelings or the scenery at hand.

The flow is pleasant, soothing and nice to read overall. The story does present a casual everyday life setting, inserting at the same time realistic struggles that may result as heavy to the reader’s mind (it is advised to check the trigger warnings at the beginning of this review).

The game does proceed with Shouma and Makoto (this is how the girl does present herself) meeting each other regularly starting from the next day to the encounter – as Makoto is willing to get a copy of the magazine for herself as well.
The exchanges will be held for one week timeframe and the two gradually will come to understand each other better and slowly evolve this special relation they happen to share. However, in order to properly accept each other, it seems like both will have some difficulties to overcome…

Among nerd jokes offered within dialogues it is possible to view the differences, as well as the core, of the bond between the streamer and fanbase. Two faces of the same coin; looking for alike values while holding distinct spots at the unitedly held scene.

While the main topic of this game is VTubing, the discussed topics can still be relatable to public that is not aware of VTuber community and how the media works.

The writing flow is very smooth and pleasant to experience and the offered background music brightens up the atmosphere very well delivering each of the scenes in satisfying fashion to public’s eye.

No voice acting will be offered, still, sound effects will be enhancing the experience a bit. I personally found slightly bothersome to the eye the lighting effect featured upon all of the character sprites’ hair, which clearly does not cause any major issue here.

The sprites show a variety of expressions and poses during dialogues, but personally, I was craving for more variations coming to those for an even better experience!

Truly loved the detailed backgrounds that helped with self-insertion and appeased personal curiosity whims.

It is overall an interesting and partially-light read in case you are looking for a short Kinetic Novel (no choices will be offered within this title). A great message of love and gratitude towards VTuber community and media.

Recommended if you are looking for a relatively short free-to-play story featuring good art and personal growth as one of main themes.

VTuber Connect is a touching story about two lonely people finding each other, combined with an essay on on-line content creation and parasocial relationships. It has great artwork, loveable characters, and tackles some interesting ideas - I'm looking forward to future games from VerumVincula!

I wished the story leaned more into "showing" rather than "telling", though: the lead characters have some nice chat and chemistry, but often their conversations turn into a kind of psychological treatise, as if they're exchanging lines from a book, not talking like two people barely out of high school. These reflective passages slow down the pacing considerably and I think they would be more effectively told through events in the story itself (it's a story, not an essay after all). Tighter editing would help a lot.

For someone not familiar with the Vtuber scene, it's been an interesting read. Recommended.

For more reviews, feel free to look at my curator pages: Azar Reviews and They OK?

I really went into this thinking "A free visual novel? This probably won't be worth my time..."
And oh boy was i in for a suprise :O

I loved every single minute of the story, it was funny, wholesome, heartwarming but also sad.
The message that this game conveys is amazing and i bet a lot of people could relate to the characters.
I played for hours straight, and i'm that type of person who just skips through dialog in every game i play. So It was just that entertaining.

I also really liked the art and the background.
And BGM's were amazing! They made the moments seem very real.

Great game overall.
Solid 9.5/10
my first visual novel btw


props to people that woked on it i love it!

All in all a cute and nice game with a lot of thoughts in it. Worth playing! Take a few hours to finish.
Since it is a kinetic novel, there are no decisions by the player, so it's more like watching a movie (personally, I think that is a pity, but that's a matter of taste).

Pros: Interesting ideas; cute and relatable characters; some beautiful backgrounds

Cons: a bit repetitive and in the later parts lengthy; sometimes a bit unnatural dialogues; CGs are not great

Here are some more detailed points:
- Graphics:
Some of the background art is really beautiful. The sprites and CGs are okay, but not really that amazing. (Actually, the CGs are quite bland and uninspired.)
- Music:
It's nicely supporting the story, but I think it won't be something I will listen to anymore after playing the game.
- Story:
The topic is interesting, as VTubers are a new phenomenon. The storyline itself is rather straight forward (no spoilers here, but you can guess the approximate ending after half an hour of playtime already). There are tons of insightful comments on VTubers, their relation to their audience, "content creation" in general, the uncertainty of one's place and one's value in life, human relationships etc. I liked some of that a lot. Unfortunately, a lot of this gets watered-down, in particular after the beginning by too many repetitions and lengthy discussions. Cutting the dialogues short by *a lot* would have helped here! The repetitions are particularly annoying: Shouma thinks about something. Then later Shouma analyses this thought (and typically is embarassed by it), then he tells Makoto (or his sister or both) about it. Then they analyse it. And then they might later come back to the point and discuss it even more... You get the idea: that gets annoying! Indeed, I had to start skipping at some point. This is a pity: by editing the dialogues (and often inner monologues) better, the flow (that at the beginning is fine) wouldn't have been lost, and the game would be a much better experience. Also, sometimes the characters talk like a psychological advise textbook. That feels rather unnatural and this wise-sounding wording doesn't resonate well with their oftentimes immature teenage-angst about their own worthlessness.
I still recommend the game, since I think it is really interesting and I don't want to be a grumpy guy who demands everything to be perfect for a free game. :)
Oh, and if you expect romance: yes, there is some, but don't expect anything more than holding hands...
- UI:
Looks neat, but I wished it would be more transparent, as it covers a lot of the beautiful background art. Also, for the scenes when two characters are on-screen, a color code for who is saying what would make it easier to follow. Finally, a tiny suggestion: I found it confusing that after opening the options in the quick menu clicking on the X does not close the options, but closes the game (while the same X button closes other dialogues).

⠀

You know I came into this thinking, "man a free visual novel? I'm gonna laugh my ass of at this!" Alas, I got a well-written, compelling story that I couldn't help but to sink hours into.

I was waiting for a "I gently open the door" bait the whole game though and it never came. Missed opportunity imo

Vtuber Connect is a recent Vtuber-based VN that was made by VerumVincula, we would like to thank them for providing a copy for us to review

There are many rising Vtubers that have captured lots of fans. In Vtuber Connect, we follow Mana an up-and-coming Vtuber who also has gained her own fan base. With her extreme positivity and very creative talents, she has impressed many, including the likes of Shoma Hasegawa. Shoma is hesitant about forming a personal relationship during his first year of college. He is not immune though when it comes to Mana’s charms as he is already a really big fan of hers and takes comfort from her Vtuber persona.

Shoma’s sister requests that he goes out to try and get to know people and form relationships. Fortunately, he meets a girl who goes by the name of Makato, who has bitterness toward the world. They both seem to know Mana-chan very well and because of this, a special bond between the two begins to form.

Pros

• The message that is delivered about Vtubers is very touching and well done
  
• Nicely done art style that most will appreciate

Cons

• May not fully appreciate the characters if you are not familiar with Vtubers
  
• Pacing issues cause the story to drag on longer than needed

Let's talk about the characters, there are only two main ones (Shoma and Makato), and two side characters, one being Shoma’s sister, who does not appear until later, as well as the character Mana, who is also a Vtuber.

Shoma is a big fan of Vtubers and whenever he talks about them, he reminds me of the father from the Inuyasha skit from Robot Chicken. Like I picture him and Makoto in this scenario like this. Vtubers are my life’s work, while Makoto herself is just shocked by the whole thing. I myself, will only watch an occasional Vtuber stream, so I feel as though I may be missing out on some of the humor or relatable aspects of his character interactions. I would imagine that those who are true Vtuber fans would get more out of the characters than what I experienced.

One thing I will give Shoma credit for is that he has very good taste in anime as he has a Roxy Migurdia figure from Mushoku Tensei on the right side of his room, along with other references to different anime, games, and Vtubers. Also, Shoma has enough time in his day to watch Vtubers and play games, something I'm personally jealous of.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2909906165
Makoto is the next character who has a different outlook on life, which is somewhat negative, but still has meaning to it. Like, if a Vtuber acts differently outside of their stream is it really a bad thing? Questions I bet some of us have asked ourselves a few times. She is also a fan of Mana-Chan and seems to know a lot about her.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2922837770
Makoto comes off as a mysterious character, but she does bring up a lot of good points when it comes to life as a Vtuber. Overall, I would say that both Shoma and Makoto actually are pretty good characters.

Lastly, there is Shoma’s sister Yoko, who supports her brother and tries to find people to talk to. She does not appear until near the end of the visual novel, leading her to be the least developed character out of the three.

The message that the game tackles is worth bringing up as it tells us the struggles of what it’s like being a Vtuber and I definitely applaud it for doing so. It takes dedication, talent, and a lot of hardships to be a Vtuber out there in the world. Vtuber Connect contains some extreme themes of depression, self-hate, and anxiety, but just not in the same way as Needy Streamer Overload.

It also portrays how not every Vtuber is happy behind the scenes as they are probably going through hardships as well.

One of the glaring issues with the story in this visual novel has to do with the pacing. At times, I felt as though the dialogue was a bit too slow, dragging on for far longer than it needed to.

The art style for Vtuber Connect is very well done and is bright and colorful, while there are only a select few scenes available in the visual novel as a whole. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM. I came across no issues whatsoever while I was playing it.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2922837955
All in all, despite not being able to fully relate to the characters as a true Vtuber fan may, Vtuber Connect was still a worthwhile visual novel to play. With an absolutely free price tag, you are definitely not losing out on anything and if you are a fan of Vtubers then you will definitely find enjoyment in this visual novel.

Looking for more reviews like this one? Then follow Life Needs a Little Sin

This game really touched my heart, and I utterly fell in love with the characters.

The main girl, Makoto, is a wonderful and relatable character who you want to cheer on throughout the whole story. She is so witty and constantly made me laugh at the funny comments she made. Also, her relationship with the main boy, Shouma, feels so natural and watching them grow together and is something I thoroughly enjoyed and loved. Despite there being some predictable parts in the story. The whole game works together incredibly, and is a great love-letter to Vtubers as a whole. (Also Yoko is hot)

For this developers first game, It's definitely worth reading and following them. Just for the two main characters relationship and how they grow together over time. Really, really, lovely game.

I initially skipped this one when it got recommended in my new releases queue due to not really liking the concept. After seeing it again months later while sorting I decided to give it a try. What I expected when I initially ignored it was present, but it also was more psychologically driven than I thought it would be. It jumps right into and focuses on VTuber culture and tackling self-mindfulness. Both of those are the driving force for the narrative with a focus on character growth. This kept my interest and made it a decent 4-5 hour read.

Sometimes it gets to be a bit much with its psychological ideas, sometimes recycling the same ones into multiple conversations throughout the read. I felt like a lot of them had already been thoroughly explored and established, but it would then repeat itself making it feel like it was going in circles.

Like the creator noted at the end, not every part of what it covers is dazzling. Though I'd say this Visual Novel did well at making it at least digestible.

-Free Game Amasser