Recent reviews by Lyonesse

"Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons" is an amazing indie puzzle storytelling with beautiful graphics and a touchin' plot mixed with funny moments. It's game control mechanic is creative and transmits a powerful message: you need to control both brothers together to progress through the game. If they don't work together correctly, you'll fail and will be stuck. They need to work together properly during all the game - and isn't that what a good brotherhood is all about? Also, it can be played as a local co-op game with a friend - each one of you controlling one brother.

The world is detailed, charming and vibrant. Despite the game story being only 3-4 hours long if you have good coordenation (I've a pretty bad one, so I've suffered a lot and spent like 10 hours to full complete the game and get all the achievements), it takes you through a multitude of environments and a rollercoaster of feelings. Every chapter feels fresh, compelling and interesting.

Sometimes in a adventure, we grow stronger but there is so much that we lost along the way... "Brothers" showed us how immensely powerful a game can be, when it's gameplay and story complements each other perfectly.

[Neutral Review]

First, I need to say that I don't know why this Visual Novel is so underrated. It has a lot of defects - and I'll talk about some below - but it's still an average Visual Novel. There's a lot of crap Visual Novels out there made only for the sake of the fanservice and they have tons of positive reviews. That seems pretty unfair to me.

The game is kind of short, so it might be a good game to get in a bundle or a good sale. I've seen it in bundles pretty cheap a lot of times. It can be classified more as an Otome Game than as Fantasy Visual Novel, because only a few after the game starts, the main plot is a bit shoved aside to focus more and more in the romantic relation between the characters. Or I should say between Lena and the one you'll pursue as her love affair in game. Also, many people related that they couldn't get attached to any of the characters even with the lots of interaction between them. And yeah... some characters are pretty standart and cliché at all, in my opinion. So it's easy to feel nothing for them.

Another boring thing is that the "replayability" of the game sucks: most of the game parts will be pretty much the same if you decide to start a new route after completing your first one.

The art style is decent. It’s not amazing, but it has a certain charm. BG was ok, BGM was fine too. That being said, Blue Rose is a nice Visual Novel overall and you can have fun with it.

A Bird Story is a short (about 1 hour long) but touching storyteller game about loneliness and friendship between a lilttle boy and his bird pet. The entire story contains no dialogues, which makes the game's art and beautiful soundtrack to send an even more powerful message.

Definitely worth your time.

Bad End is a horror Visual Novel within a horror Visual Novel. You'll play as Kyuuhei, a boy who tries to uncover the mysteries behind his best friend sudden death. The only thing he knows is that his best friend played "Bad End" - a Visual Novel that is supposed to kill you in real life after you get a bad end in it - in his last night alive. Has the game anything to do with his death...? Are the rumors true or not?

This game is a short non-kinetic Visual Novel that's not frightening nor too exciting, but I still liked it. It's unintentionally funny and there are quite a few mistakes in the translation, but nothing too serious to affect the plot comprehension. You can get multiple "bad endings" and one "good ending" based on your choices. I recommend you to play it trying to get as less "bad endings" as possible before getting the good one, so it can be more challenging.

It was a short but pleasurable experience.

This game is pretty different from the usual visual novel formula. It isn't focused in dating or romance, but it consists in a needed and mature cross-cultural reflection with elements of feminism all over the main plotline.

You will play as a space explorer who was hired to investigate the wreckage of a long lost space ship whose disappearance has been a mystery for ages. The ship is inhabited, it's crew is long dead. The only remnants of life are two AI programs called Hyun-ae and Mute. Together, you will dig through the archives, records and digital letters from old members of the crew trying to piece together where and why everything went wrong.

If you're a fan of Visual Novels with deep plotlines, I definitely recommend you to give this dramatic masterpiece a try.

WARNING: Avoid this game if you don't like heavy reading, because this game is all about reading (and re-reading) tons of texts and try to put small pieces of plot together.

Amnesia could be another decent-but-nothing-exceptional otome date-sim game, but it isn't. The deepness of the game is only revealed in it's true ending (Ukyo's route), that gives the player a full comprehension of the game events but is only available after you finished all good endings of the other four routes. That being said, I concluded that for a better enjoyment of this game, you must play all routes. I was really thinking the game was kind of above average before I've played it and I've changed my opnion completely. It's a must-play Visual Novel.

"I've lost the count of how many times I've met you and lost you..." - Ukyo

Always the Same Blue Sky is a very short Visual Novel with a shallow plotline.

I finished both routes and got all achievements in less than 1 hour. It has cute graphics and a lovely soundtrack. However, I was expecting a deeper and heart-moving plot though... the ending comes out of nowhere and makes very little sense. It seemed like the game rushed to it's end due to lack of interest of the developers to make the story more longer, deep and consistent.

An amazing mix between a great storytelling Visual Novel and a classic RPG. A true rollercoaster of emotions.

If you're inclined to play a mature game with mature decision-making, I highly recommend Always Sometimes Monsters. The game smartly tests how effectively your choices were: it contains some "dead ends" if they were too bad and the outcome of your choices will influence deeply the final act. It has a very deep and moving plotline for self-reflection and melancholy. A true masterpiece.

---

"We both needed her love, but in the end she didn't choose me.
Perhaps because in wanting her so bad, I had become something less than human.
(...)
Without that love in my life, what happiness is there for me?
There is no other for me, there never would or could be.
(...)
I came out here to die.
(...)
So here I'm, at your mercy.
I'm ready to be judged, the choice is all yours!
(...)
Do I deserve the death I long for? Or are we always sometimes monsters?"

A very fun RPG, that was cleared inspired by the traditional Pokémon games and some collectable card games.

Battles are turn-based with both characters acting simultaneously. Aside from RPG stats, the order and effectiveness of the character attacks are decided by an advantage/disadvantage system based in "Rock-Paper-Scissors", a game mechanic pretty simple to assimilate.

This game was developed by Orange Juice and contains a mix of the main characters of all their games. That being said, for a better enjoyment of the game, I recommend you to play at least one Orange Juice game before this one, so you can get familiarized with the Orange Juice universe. In that sense, 100% Orange Juice is your best shot since it contains a mix of characters from Orange Juice universe as well.

The main story is short, but very funny in a humorous way. 200% Mixed Juice also has competitive multiplayer mode, that is - sadly - kind of underused. But to compensate that, the forums community is always creating online championships/tournaments of the game.

If I could, I would rename the game to "200% Pokémon Juice!" for obvious reasons. Great game.

100% Orange Juice is the funniest board game available on Steam for you to play alone or with your friends in Multiplayer Mode (supports up to 4 players per match).

Even though it relies heavily on luck, all the strategies and choices made by the player are decisive in the matches. The game has a vast array of well-balanced characters, each one with unique stats and abilities, all drawn from games made by the publisher (Fruitbat Factory) and the developer (Orange Juice). The game grants a great variety of events per match due the combination of cards, field events and dice rolls, making each one (even the singleplayer matches) fun and unique.

Playing 100% Orange Juice never gets boring, you know? But please be careful, Poppo can drive you mad.