[SciFi|Adventure]Adrift

[Taleweaver]

I've been reading Lemma Soft Forums for a while, but now there was no choice: I just had to register and comment directly in this thread. The Dreaming had already impressed me, so Adrift came as a thunderbolt of surprise. And I'm not talking about "Oh, they are good... for OELVN", no, they are among the best novels I've played so far. Sorry for not being very objective, but that's what I feel. Anyway, some more elaborate thoughts on Adrift:

- As a science fiction lover, the way you approached technology was quite engaging: solid explanations, imaginative uses and the initial interaction through robots. The highly technical language did get a bit confusing sometimes, but nothing outrageous.

- Wonderful setting. Exploring Bluetide was an amazing adventure, with intelligent twists to back it up and a nice contrast of utopia and dystopia.

- Every single ending was very well done. This is a pleasant surprise, as many projects tend to make half baked conclusions unless it's the true ending. Sachiko's normal ending was specially interesting, because it actually revealed some information you couldn't get otherwise and fleshed her character even more. Replaying value is very high.

Thanks a lot until here. It took quite some time to work that all out.

- And lastly... Sachiko, a very remarkable heroine. Her entire route consisted of a very fascinating intellectual battle and she escaped virtually all of character's stereotypes that one would expect. Sachiko can't be described simply as a villain, cunning woman or tsundere. Manipulative, yes, but ultimately not a bad person... and not a saint, either! That's what makes her unique.

Yeah... she's special. She has an agenda, and she follows it, and she wants to avoid being really bad if she can... but then again, she's just herself...

Also... I wonder if it's normal that I laughed at those two bad endings? I mean, the circumstances necessary to reach them were pretty silly, not something you get easily by accident.

You probably mean the two early bad endings. Both were necessary, for if they weren't there, a player could accidentally run into a dead end where he can reach no ending whatsoever. So they were means to an end - a bad end, that is

[Victory]

ummmm i just downloaded and tried to play the game...... i could hear the music but saw nothing just black

[DaFool]

ummmm i just downloaded and tried to play the game...... i could hear the music but saw nothing just black

Hmmm... the engine (Ren'Py 6.13.7) has problems with some built-in video cards. Try holding down SHIFT key while double-clicking on exe icon and select an alternate driver (e.g. OpenGL). We hope to remedy this with an updated build eventually.

[dott.Piergiorgio]

If you're into Interactive Fiction, try to find the game that inspired this, Suspended. But be warned: it's tough!

I was to asking, even from the blurb i thinked this !!!

For the rest, in the end, I noticed that the unexpected bounds & leaps of the Ren'ai scene has much to having followed the post-1990 IF scene path, a centralized repository/directory, a set of standardised programming/scripting languages and a forum (whose was until few times ago a usenet NG...)

a little question, I'm wrong or Adrift isn't also the name of an IF programming language & terp ?

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

[Taleweaver]

a little question, I'm wrong or Adrift isn't also the name of an IF programming language & terp ?

It is. ADRIFT is also short for "ADventure Runner and Interactive Fiction Toolkit", and I intentionally named my game "Adrift" to pay tribute to the IF roots I'm following here.

(Everything is a remix.)

[dott.Piergiorgio]

a little question, I'm wrong or Adrift isn't also the name of an IF programming language & terp ?

It is. ADRIFT is also short for "ADventure Runner and Interactive Fiction Toolkit", and I intentionally named my game "Adrift" to pay tribute to the IF roots I'm following here.

(Everything is a remix.)

I have inferred this (being an Adventurer... )

ADRIFT (the terp/devsys) has his merits in the pre-Ren'py age, IIRC there was an ren'ai developed with ADRIFT.

You don't mind if I relay about your release on the IF forum ? I'm not 100% sure of the good reception, not few will be surely delighted of the enduring legacy from the Infocom, but also I'm not 100% sure of the reception of the content and perhaps also of the name; for sure there's a debate on the moving to the graphic IF, the role of CYOA IF (known here as "Visual Novel...") and also on the viability or not of indie commercial graphic IF, and OTOH there's also an enduring hate, or at least strong disapproval on the AIF (Adult IF) but I suspect is rooted in that the AIF community has done some questionable (underage...) productions.

So, I have put to you the pros and cons of relaying your product to the IF community (I don't hide that I suspect that communications between both communities can led to great, if not a massive improvement in both fields) but is your work, so I wait for your permission....

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

[Taleweaver]

So, I have put to you the pros and cons of relaying your product to the IF community (I don't hide that I suspect that communications between both communities can led to great, if not a massive improvement in both fields) but is your work, so I wait for your permission....

[Victory]

ummmm i just downloaded and tried to play the game...... i could hear the music but saw nothing just black

Hmmm... the engine (Ren'Py 6.13.7) has problems with some built-in video cards. Try holding down SHIFT key while double-clicking on exe icon and select an alternate driver (e.g. OpenGL). We hope to remedy this with an updated build eventually.

i tryed that but all it did was select everything before it and the exe icon...... uggggg i hate my gateway laptop

[Taleweaver]

i tryed that but all it did was select everything before it and the exe icon...... uggggg i hate my gateway laptop

Optionally:
- Download a current Ren'Py version
- Put the Adrift folder into the Ren'Py folder
- Run Ren'Py Launcher and start Adrift via the Ren'Py Launcher

[Ariasa]

I made a account to this site just to ask one question. What is the terminal that you have to connect the ...um... I forget what it is called, but it is on Hinami's route. It is after DMU? is destroyed. (sorry if I misspell any names, I suck at names) I am stuck right now because of it and my poor memory T_T Also it is a really good game. It is better than some of the actual commercial dating sims that I've played.

[Taleweaver]

I made a account to this site just to ask one question. What is the terminal that you have to connect the ...um... I forget what it is called, but it is on Hinami's route. It is after DMU? is destroyed. (sorry if I misspell any names, I suck at names) I am stuck right now because of it and my poor memory T_T Also it is a really good game. It is better than some of the actual commercial dating sims that I've played.

If you can't remember, then why don't you just admit that?

[dreamingdaze]

Very, very well done. One of the first visual novels I read on this site and easily one of the best. The story was original and compelling. The characters were strong and convincing. I failed probably five times in a row and had to keep trying to reach the good ending. I finally did and it was worth all that effort. I really liked the puzzles that not only made me feel incredibly immersed in the story, but really challenged the reader beyond the simple obvious right and wrong choice. Hinami's route made me laugh, Sachiko's route frustrated me to no end until I finally managed to reach a happy ending (and surprising revelation that made even me, a jaded reader feel something).

I can't criticize this visual novel in any way. Great job, I can see easily why people enjoyed this so much. I certainly did.

[Greeny]

Before I continue, I should say that it was a great game, I loved the concept, and it really stood out for me. That said, I believe the game does deserve a more in-depth constructive criticism. I mean, it deserves all the praise it's getting here, but if you don't hear about the bad you'll never get even better, right? (I say this because last time I did a review I feel I left the impression that I thought it was a bad VN.)
Onward.

- First, the first act was absolutely marvelous. "Wait, that's not a bad thing!" you say. But allow me to elaborate. The immersion it created was brilliant, and the problem with it is that it set the bar rather high for the second and third act. Not to say that those were bad, but it did provide a very big problem with the difficulty of the game. There was no real way of predicting the consequences of your actions, and it was only after replaying the whole thing a great many times that I was able to get a "good" ending. By the end of it, I was just skipping large chunks of text I'd already read and the immersion that I'd experienced in the first playthrough was completely broken. When I did get a good ending, I just didn't really give that much of a damn anymore, let alone having the motivation to try and get a different "good" ending.

- Second, it's got a bit too much of a "dating sim" feel, the old "pick your girl then follow that girl's story" feel. I understand that this was intended, but you have have to understand that this conflicts with the general theme of the story, and takes away a bit of the meaning each choice holds. Each choice becomes not so much an important decision as a matter of personal preference (in the beginning anyways). Of course, this is not entirely true. There was a scene, for example, where even though you'd gotten one girl to help you, you had two of them in a conversation and still got to choose who to support, which seemed a positive point. That was completely ruined, however, when it turned out the same thing would happen no matter what you chose. (Unless some hidden variable behind the scenes was altered)

Then there was another consequence of this. It meant you had to give each girl a way to conveniently restore your vision everywhere, which just isn't all that believable. Especially Hinami, which is never really explained properly. I know this because Hinami's was the good ending I got.

- Third point. One important theme of the game is control; you start out having lost all control and then work your way to regaining that, which is captured pretty nicely in the first act. Unfortunately, as soon you get to the second act, you have your vision restored everywhere, but the game actually takes away all control for you. Of course, it makes sense that from that point on, you want to have a more linear progression of the story, but I can't help but feel I've lost control if you first give me an elaborate system of moving robots around and then take that away from me. This isn't a simple matter of "you could've done this better", I realise. After all, there were times when the player was meant to feel like the situation had gotten out of control. But it's still something to think about. Also there were many times when I wish I could send my dog to weld Sachiko's ass. Bitch.

That's about it for the negative. I think the positive has already been summed up quite nicely in this thread.
But, in any case, keep up the good work.

[Taleweaver]

Before I continue, I should say that it was a great game, I loved the concept, and it really stood out for me. That said, I believe the game does deserve a more in-depth constructive criticism. I mean, it deserves all the praise it's getting here, but if you don't hear about the bad you'll never get even better, right? (I say this because last time I did a review I feel I left the impression that I thought it was a bad VN.)

I can probably tell you the reason why you left this impression, at least if you did the same in that last review as you did here:

You went into the good things in one general paragraph and then spent five times the effort to point out the flaws.

Not that you're wrong about any of them. There's a huge difference in gameplay between chapter 1 and the rest of the VN, and the only way to get rid of that would have been to allow for free exploration throughout the entire rest of the game too. At heart, I still wanted to tell a story, and giving the player too much freedom would have made this much, much more difficult. Adrift was pretty much a compromise between the interactive fiction I wanted to hint at and the VN I was able to make. That compromise shows.

The "dating sim" part was entirely intentional. Adrift is my first game with multiple "winnable" characters; all others had one love interest only, if any at at all. So I went for pretty much set paths, with a little variety in the endings, and that was that. I didn't want to go for "classic romance"; this was an adventure plot, mostly.

Hinami was the light-hearted element of comedy I felt was necessary in an otherwise dead-serious setting, so she became the game's "magical girl". She's capable of incredible feats and doesn't even know it; that was her "theme", if you want to put it like that. She isn't meant to be explained; she just is. (Which makes her a love-or-hate character, I guess.)

And about control: see above. I am planning to write a game where the player has much more control over everything. But this is beyond my own capabilities; I need help to do that, and time. Adrift isn't that game. It's the best I've been able to do until last year, though.

Thank you for your in-depth criticism. I'll keep it in mind.

[ludeshka]

I'm still quite unable to get ending 1 or ending 4 (any help with that? XD), but I played this game enough to post my thoughts on it.

I really enjoyed this game.
From the very beginning, you can see so much work went into it, and it shows. I mean, Bluetide is a really vivid setting. (I like thinking that stories go on and on. I like thinking the Supervisor really kept overseeing the city and making life better for everyone there ^_^)The music is a really strong point for this game. Erika's and Sachiko's themes are beautiful, I would really have them on my playlists if I could.

My favourite heroine was Sachiko. Her good ending is the most emotional for me, perhaps because it's such a contrast to

the thousand times where she got robots to fry me XD

When I finally made a connection with her I really felt the payoff XDDD

I really like the Supervisor, almost up there with Lord Frederone from Winter Shard on my favourite OELVN main characters list (Right, like it's a very important list or anything ^^)The first part of the game, exploring with the robots and everything, was very enjoyable (I'm another person who really enjoyed Dru's dialogues ^^)

I can only think of one thing I didn't like about this game, and it's a very subjective one, not a mistake or anything.

I don't like that the supervisor has to lie to Hinami to get a happy ending. Lies for someone's "own good" are not a theme I enjoy. For that reason, Hinami is my least favourite of the heroines.

But really, a very good game, I'll recommend it to my friends