The Stolen Diamond Ring, the first visual novel by Nekomura Games is finally released!
Description
You play as Katharine, a young woman invited to her friend's engagement party. The atmosphere is getting awkward during dinner and worse yet, the next morning the pink diamond engagement ring is missing! While a bitter ex-boyfriend is an obvious first suspect, everyone in this close circle of friends and relatives seems to have something to hide.
Just finished playing this with my boyfriend. It was fantastic! I'm obviously a little biased, so I'll just pass along his reactions. He had a whole lot of fun trying to figure things out (and he was super proud of himself for figuring out the true culprit). He laughed a lot at the humorous dialogue, and he said that everything about the game was very professional. Thank you for making something we could enjoy together. ^_^
I finished this just a few moments ago, and it is a great little gem. I have to second the dialogue. It has this flair to it which is really hard to come by sometimes. Even if the mystery itself isn't too difficult, it still is a really entertaining piece. Maybe making it not-so-difficult is a good idea too, though, to make it more accessible to people. It finally feels like a much welcome solid piece in the infant EVN marketplace, so I'm very glad it was made and even more glad I had the chance to play it ( thanks for the coupon, it really made the decision for me, ahaha~ ).
Eagerly looking forward to your future works!
http://www.twitter.com/drakeynv
The Compendium of Drake:
Starlit Sky ~ Songs of Araiah ~ Mirai Imouto ~ Temple Glen ~ Fuyu no Tabi
Well, I think it's pretty veiled until the end, but there are enough clues given at the last minute that if someone takes time to think about it, they should get it right.
(I took zero time to think about it and just did trial and error. I guessed everyone else before I got the correct culprit.)
I checked out the demo, and it's really quite a pleasant surprise.
Couple of points:
* sprite art is really quite excellent for what it is. I'm a bit tired of the high-gloss Japanese look, but at least here it does not only try, but succeed in meeting the usual pro standards.
* The background art, when not blurred, belies its 3D roots a little too much. Thankfully, you rarely see it that way. The blur/depth effect is very nice on its own too. I actually prototyped something like this, but you beat me to the market.
* Music is similar to what I can say about the art, it's really nothing special but for being the kind of music you'd expect to find in a VN, it's of very high quality.
* The directing is workable (expressions match very well, good use of sound effects), but I find it a little choppy due to lack of transitions at most instances. I'd put in a very quick dissolve almost everywhere. Same with the music, while generally used well it could be faded better.
* The UI is also quite good, with two caveats: One, even with its customizations, its still very noticably the default roundrect, which I find a bit of a letdown. And more importantly (for non-Ren'Py developers at least), the color scheme in the preferences does not have different states for active and inactive selections, which is annoying. The little 8-bit sequences between scenes are a very good and cute idea though, and the updating relationship graph is also excellent.
* The writing is good. It doesn't really captivate me with brilliance, but it's pleasant to read without trying to hard, and that's a real plus. Characterization seems solid, as far as I can tell, and if the scenario holds together it's probably a winner.
In general it's really good so far, and it's nice to see a game where you can even point out these detail problems without tiptoeing around gigantic problems with everything. I'd say it's worth the asking price.
Thank you for the detailed review!
Those are all valid points and we will try to improve some of these issues in our next VN (the rest will probably take a few games to fix).
Hey! I just finished the game (an excellent $5 spent in my humble opinion.)
I really liked it! Nice writing, good suspects all around. A lot of different mysterious plot lines kept me engaged. The art is beautiful, the characters are very well done (although I'll admit Mia got on my nerves after a bit...)
The pacing was really nice too, and it some scenes really got my heart racing with excitement!
Just one quip having to do with the ending:
So I guessed the right suspect on the first try. But the ending was so...blah that I didn't even know I had won at first. It just sorta...happened. D: And I was like "umm...wait, did I really win?" I was expecting something with a little more umph! to be honest. Maybe a special CG or a dramatic scene?
I literally went and tried every other option after I had beaten the game to try to see if there was "another" ending, but all I ended up doing was trial-and-error until I was sure I had been right the first time.
That's the only thing that I thought was lacking. Other than that, great work, great game!
Hey, I am kinda interested in buying, but I wonder what's the length of the full game? The demo is a tad bit short, and it doesn't seem to offer different endings.
Sorry about that ^^;; We will try to improve that aspect in the next game.
Guest
The full game is around 1.5h long (or at least that's my result, testers took longer - can anyone who played the full version confirm?) and has 1 ending - solving the mystery.
The demo is far to short for me to decide If I should buy it. I think the demo should span at least one more chapter. (but of course you don't have to listen to me )
Good:
- Great graphics, I am quite impressed. Characters and background are all very well done. I like the swimming pool the most btw.
- Story is short and sweet. It's very engaging, so once I started, I can't stop playing till the end.
- Dialogue is well written. I like Katherine inner monologue. They are quite funny.
- The character relationship chart really helps a lot!
- The animating in between is very well done. I really like them.
Neutral:
- The characters sprite although professionally done, there are parts that bother me. In particularly I found Mia being 22 is hard to believe. She looks like she is the same age as Valarie (Which is 14/15) But this is anime so I can understand if this isn't a big deal.
- I would prefer if the guys look prettier =P (Well, I am female after all) This isn't a big thing, but you might be surprised that having bishonen will attract more female players/potential buyer!
Bad:
- I have to say the ending is disappointing. I would prefer a more developed character to be the culprit, so I find the real culprit is just so weak. No interesting motive whatsoever nor any character development/revelation. There are just so many other more interesting characters, so that is kinda a waste.
- I would prefer if there is some CG. Like maybe Katherine pointing finger at the culprit (ala Phoenix Wright) with glorifying music. That would make the ending much better.
- More endings will increase the replay value, or perhaps penalty if you choose wrong culprit. I find the game severely lacks replay value.
Other:
- I see plenty resemblance to Phoenix Wright, including the heroine sarcasm, notes, the item placement and the sound effects. Since I am a huge fan of PW, all this resemblance is definitely a plus.
Possible Bug (?):
- When Mia called Walter, the sound effects repeat non-stop when I back roll.
- I found a typo "thought" was spelled "thoght" instead. I don't remember exactly where ^^;
Overall:
It's an enjoyable little game. The presentation is top notch, the accompanying story is fun. What's more to ask! I recommend this for people who like to spend an nice and enjoyable 1-2 hours game/VN.
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