In which I ramble about visual novels a bit.
So, I've been playing a lot of visual novels and dating sims lately, and while I've been posting my thoughts on them on facebook, that's not really a great platform for reviewing stuff, since long status updates frequently just...don't get read. So I might start up a blog or something for reviewing games, but for right now, I'll probably just post my thoughts here.
Most recently, I finished playing Nachtigal by Cyanide Tea. Nachtigal is pay-what-you-want ware, which is kind of an interesting concept. Rather than having a demo to let you try before you buy, you simply decide how much you're willing to pay for the game at the time you download it. If you don't want to pay anything, you just enter a '0' in the price box; you can still download the game. (Of course, if you like it, you can always go back and donate later, too.) I paid $9, because I like to support developers who are making otome games in English, and it seems like a fair amount for a short game of unknown quality. (As a side note, I kind of make it a point not to buy games from Winter Wolves, because I feel that they WAY overcharge for what you end up getting. I'll probably make a full post about that at some point.)
Back to Nachtigal. It's a vampire game, but don't let that turn you off. I'm really, really over the vampire craze (as well as zombies, werewolves, etc) but I still enjoyed the game. The writing is decent, and the story is pretty good for what is essentially a freeware game. You play as Miranda, a girl who's on a trip to Belgium to study architecture, and somehow winds up lost in the forest. She stumbles upon a castle that wasn't marked on her map, and it is, of course, inhabited by vampires. Cue shenanigans. For some reason, the game makes a big deal of telling you that you're in Belgium, but that never really becomes a plot point. The setting, while definite, is never particularly important: Miranda communicates just fine with the game's two other characters (she mentions in passing that she speaks both English and German), and the history of the country is alluded to, but only vaguely, and never to any real purpose. I guess maybe the developers just liked Belgium?
I don't want to talk too much about the storyline(s), because the game is so short (about half an hour per playthrough) that I would be spoiling a fair bit if I did. Basically, the two vampires that Miranda meets--Luca and Adrian--are the youngest members of a larger family. With most of the family gone on some kind of trip, the two aren't really sure what to do with her when she stumbles upon them (apparently they're not allowed to just kill her) so they decide to keep her in the castle for two weeks until everyone else gets home. The whole situation is kind of like Beauty and the Beast, but with two beasts and no singing furniture.
The art is limited--only two characters with sprites, and a handful of backgrounds and CGs--but what there is is nice-looking and fits the atmosphere of the game. Said atmosphere is by turns moody and a bit silly, but quite likable overall. Of all the things about this game, what stands out the most to me is the music. Usually the first thing I do when I start a new VN/dating sim is to go to the options menu and turn the music off, but I actually left it on for Nachtigal It's very good, somewhat above your standard visual-novel fare. I liked it more than the music from some commercial games. (I'm looking at you, Scheherazade.) There's a good variety, and the songs that play during specific events actually fit the mood of those events.
Really, my only complaint about the game is the pacing. I don't mind short games, but this one feels kind of rushed. It's being sold to you as a romance game, but Miranda only has two weeks to get to know these guys, and that's with the threat of death hanging over her head. There are six named endings, plus two "bad" ends that you get by making the wrong choice when you first meet the vampires, but I honestly would have been happier if there were fewer endings, and more time devoted to fleshing out the relationships between the three characters. I'm supposed to believe that Miranda falls in love with, or at least comes to care about, Luca and Adrian in spite of the fact that they spend a lot of time either ignoring her, snacking on her, or (in Adrian's case) demanding that she entertain them? It's not just that it's a short window of time in which to build a believable love story, but the fact that there isn't a lot of emotional intensity in any of the interactions between Miranda and her hosts/captors really weakens the sensual or interesting moments that do occur. I can buy that Miranda feels compassion for the personal difficulties of the guys, but I have a hard time believing that she'd care enough after two weeks to die for them.
In terms of individual endings, I won't spoil anything, but while I like Luca's relationship arc better (it's more subdued, and therefore more believable), I think Adrian gets the more interesting characterization and backstory, by virtue of being the only character to have any kind of "reveal" in the story. There is a "menage a trois" ending (no, really, that's what it's named) but it's kind of bland, and doesn't really add anything to the game beyond a mildly titillating(?) CG of MIranda being bitten by both guys. My favorite endings, oddly enough, were the two "darker" ones, in which Miranda's fate is left up to the returning Nachtigal family, and they behave, well, like vampires.
That said, I definitely still enjoy the games, and I liked the endings; they just didn't provide the kind of satifaction that they would had the relationships been given more buildup. Nachtigal feels like a game that is trying to be a lot of things at once, and doesn't entirely succeed at any of them. It's a bit schizophrenic in execution: are Luca and Adrian standard dating-sim guy characters who happen to drink blood, or are they actually amoral monsters? Are Adrian's siblings a loving-if-unconventional family, or a collective of evil creatures of the night? Does Miranda even care whether she lives or dies? The answers to all of these questions seem to vary by ending, at least, and from scene to scene in a few places.
Although the site doesn't say so, I honestly wonder if this was a game created for NaNoRenO, and if that's why it seems so rushed. I haven't played the other two games by Cyanide Tea, though I probably will pick up Ristorante Amore in the near future, so it's hard to say whether the pacing issues I've noted here are specific to Nachtigal, or if they're something that applies to all of the developers' efforts. Either way, even with its problems, I enjoyed Nachtigal, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a quick VN fix. It doesn't have a ton of replayability once you've seen all the endings, but it's still a fun ride.
Most recently, I finished playing Nachtigal by Cyanide Tea. Nachtigal is pay-what-you-want ware, which is kind of an interesting concept. Rather than having a demo to let you try before you buy, you simply decide how much you're willing to pay for the game at the time you download it. If you don't want to pay anything, you just enter a '0' in the price box; you can still download the game. (Of course, if you like it, you can always go back and donate later, too.) I paid $9, because I like to support developers who are making otome games in English, and it seems like a fair amount for a short game of unknown quality. (As a side note, I kind of make it a point not to buy games from Winter Wolves, because I feel that they WAY overcharge for what you end up getting. I'll probably make a full post about that at some point.)
Back to Nachtigal. It's a vampire game, but don't let that turn you off. I'm really, really over the vampire craze (as well as zombies, werewolves, etc) but I still enjoyed the game. The writing is decent, and the story is pretty good for what is essentially a freeware game. You play as Miranda, a girl who's on a trip to Belgium to study architecture, and somehow winds up lost in the forest. She stumbles upon a castle that wasn't marked on her map, and it is, of course, inhabited by vampires. Cue shenanigans. For some reason, the game makes a big deal of telling you that you're in Belgium, but that never really becomes a plot point. The setting, while definite, is never particularly important: Miranda communicates just fine with the game's two other characters (she mentions in passing that she speaks both English and German), and the history of the country is alluded to, but only vaguely, and never to any real purpose. I guess maybe the developers just liked Belgium?
I don't want to talk too much about the storyline(s), because the game is so short (about half an hour per playthrough) that I would be spoiling a fair bit if I did. Basically, the two vampires that Miranda meets--Luca and Adrian--are the youngest members of a larger family. With most of the family gone on some kind of trip, the two aren't really sure what to do with her when she stumbles upon them (apparently they're not allowed to just kill her) so they decide to keep her in the castle for two weeks until everyone else gets home. The whole situation is kind of like Beauty and the Beast, but with two beasts and no singing furniture.
The art is limited--only two characters with sprites, and a handful of backgrounds and CGs--but what there is is nice-looking and fits the atmosphere of the game. Said atmosphere is by turns moody and a bit silly, but quite likable overall. Of all the things about this game, what stands out the most to me is the music. Usually the first thing I do when I start a new VN/dating sim is to go to the options menu and turn the music off, but I actually left it on for Nachtigal It's very good, somewhat above your standard visual-novel fare. I liked it more than the music from some commercial games. (I'm looking at you, Scheherazade.) There's a good variety, and the songs that play during specific events actually fit the mood of those events.
Really, my only complaint about the game is the pacing. I don't mind short games, but this one feels kind of rushed. It's being sold to you as a romance game, but Miranda only has two weeks to get to know these guys, and that's with the threat of death hanging over her head. There are six named endings, plus two "bad" ends that you get by making the wrong choice when you first meet the vampires, but I honestly would have been happier if there were fewer endings, and more time devoted to fleshing out the relationships between the three characters. I'm supposed to believe that Miranda falls in love with, or at least comes to care about, Luca and Adrian in spite of the fact that they spend a lot of time either ignoring her, snacking on her, or (in Adrian's case) demanding that she entertain them? It's not just that it's a short window of time in which to build a believable love story, but the fact that there isn't a lot of emotional intensity in any of the interactions between Miranda and her hosts/captors really weakens the sensual or interesting moments that do occur. I can buy that Miranda feels compassion for the personal difficulties of the guys, but I have a hard time believing that she'd care enough after two weeks to die for them.
In terms of individual endings, I won't spoil anything, but while I like Luca's relationship arc better (it's more subdued, and therefore more believable), I think Adrian gets the more interesting characterization and backstory, by virtue of being the only character to have any kind of "reveal" in the story. There is a "menage a trois" ending (no, really, that's what it's named) but it's kind of bland, and doesn't really add anything to the game beyond a mildly titillating(?) CG of MIranda being bitten by both guys. My favorite endings, oddly enough, were the two "darker" ones, in which Miranda's fate is left up to the returning Nachtigal family, and they behave, well, like vampires.
That said, I definitely still enjoy the games, and I liked the endings; they just didn't provide the kind of satifaction that they would had the relationships been given more buildup. Nachtigal feels like a game that is trying to be a lot of things at once, and doesn't entirely succeed at any of them. It's a bit schizophrenic in execution: are Luca and Adrian standard dating-sim guy characters who happen to drink blood, or are they actually amoral monsters? Are Adrian's siblings a loving-if-unconventional family, or a collective of evil creatures of the night? Does Miranda even care whether she lives or dies? The answers to all of these questions seem to vary by ending, at least, and from scene to scene in a few places.
Although the site doesn't say so, I honestly wonder if this was a game created for NaNoRenO, and if that's why it seems so rushed. I haven't played the other two games by Cyanide Tea, though I probably will pick up Ristorante Amore in the near future, so it's hard to say whether the pacing issues I've noted here are specific to Nachtigal, or if they're something that applies to all of the developers' efforts. Either way, even with its problems, I enjoyed Nachtigal, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a quick VN fix. It doesn't have a ton of replayability once you've seen all the endings, but it's still a fun ride.