22
Products
reviewed
0
Products
in account

Recent reviews by Mandz

< 1  2  >
Showing 21-22 of 22 entries
1 person found this review helpful
11.3 hrs on record
It's good!~

As much as I'd like to add more details as to why I do, I don't feel like I have to.

Just play it!
Posted December 10, 2016. Last edited November 25, 2017.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
1 person found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
15.7 hrs on record (12.0 hrs at review time)
I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but I might ramble on for a bit. So…

An emotionally compelling VN in wherein the story revolves around a boy who finds an abandoned robot in the junkyard. It’s a story capable of sending you in for a ride on a rollercoaster of emotions as it tackles the long-contemplated idea of “a robot being advanced enough to pass for a human” and how ‘she’ can find their place in a world when some people are not onboard with having her around. It’s a very polished visual novel that combines amazing aesthetics with a well written story that hooks you in and doesn’t let go!

Story
As with most visual novels, the story unfolds in a text-based manner, occasionally showing character sprites to help reflect their emotions visually as well as show crisp backgrounds to convey the locations. Animations are kept to a minimum, so as to not to distract from the reading experience, but still allow liveliness when a particular scene calls for it.

There’s also points in the game where it pauses and allows you to make decisions. After a few playthroughs, I noticed that some of the decisions doesn’t really impact the story that much, and while I was initially disappointed by the linearity, I quickly learned that it’s because the game simply took the effect of decisions in another direction: the decisions only affect how a certain scene plays out and mainly serves to show different reactions in respect to the characters currently in the scene. Add to the fact that this game eventually gives you extra content from the main screen as you unlock more scenes and you’ll find yourself replaying the story to find different scene outcomes and be rewarded with side stories.

And yes, the side stories. After finishing the story for the first time, you will find yourself having access to additional content that are just as equally heartwarming (and sometimes heartrending) as the main storyline. This side stories also provide more flavor and color to the rest of the game while supplementing some information not apparent on the main story.

Overall, a complete and satisfying experience.

Characters
The main cast is quite small actually, but vary enough in opinions, and character that they don’t feel redundant, one can even say that the number of characters in the story has been kept to an absolute minimum, since the story is told from the perspective of a normal person living a normal life. The circle of people around the player character carries different views with regards to technology, androids and discusses it to explore the game’s central theme from different angles.

In relation to the linearity of the game mentioned earlier, another good thing it added to the game is that it allowed the main character to have a certain degree of personality (despite being controlled by the player) as the decisions do not deviate too much from the main plot. Because of this, you are then given a front row seat as he changes from a person who completely despises machines and technology, to someone who forms a tight bond with his android as the titular character’s kindness, friendliness, and (sometimes irrational) selflessness slowly wins him over. It’s the wonderfully executed interactions between them that just make you care about them and gets you invested in what happens next.

Sound
So far, only the titular character is voiced across all the scenes though it is quickly compensated by the surreal, brilliant performance of her voice actors (both Korean and Japanese, and you can switch between them on the fly!). The voice acting singlehandedly gives Lucy life as well as allow a deeper level of immersion in the story as you read on. Add to it the background music that shifts, changes, and pauses depending on the current mood and you’ll find yourself in the moment along with the characters without ever being distracted by the seamless way everything works together.

Technical
I’ll be honest, I don’t really feel like I have to talk about the technical stuff – as bugs, if serious, will eventually be ironed out. But I guess it might help sharing some of my observations while I’m getting the game to run.

Game’s folder size is 846MB, not sure if it would very across different steam installations. But I may have to say this is a reasonable size, considering the game’s relatively humble scope. For users with moderate internet speed, this means that downloading the game from scratch would take from 25mins to 1hour, guaranteeing immediate startup.

I’ve read from some other users that they experience crashes while trying to run the game. I didn’t see my share of that thankfully (or maybe the issue was fixed when I got the game). The closest I got to an error was a single, crash-to-desktop moment when I was clearing multiple save files one after another, and I didn’t encounter it since.

Probably the only thing that bothered me was the fact that the Saves folder location is placed directly on the game folder, along with a single “Config.nkenv” that tracked both achievements and unlocks (as pointed out by developer ‘eeenseok’ on a community post). I haven’t personally tested it yet, but this may mean that the save files will be the same across multiple users on the same computer (it’s not like I mind sharing my save progress, but this a genre that derives merit by avoiding spoilers to users who are just about to test out the game for themselves, especially on a computer in which a friend may have previously played on before and has already unlocked crucial parts of the story).

That, or I’m missing anything regarding the Saves folder – in that case, just ignore what I said. :D

All in all, I’d like to thank MVIZLAB for bringing -Lucy, The Eternity She Wished For- on Steam. I wish the best for you guys, and may you guys become very successful as a company! Cheers~

On a sidenote: Any chance for the missed Kickstarter target (the 25k one) content to be released as DLC? Because .... you know, just sayin :D
Posted April 17, 2016. Last edited April 17, 2016.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
< 1  2  >
Showing 21-22 of 22 entries