Alrighty, since I'm doing my quarterly reviews of various visual novels, I decided to check this one out because nobody else had.
Time for the Triforce of Review! I'm ranting for the aid of both the general audience and the author, so I'll be keeping story details out of it.
Art:
I won't lie, the graphics did turn me off, and I am willing to put dollars to pennies that it is the major reason that there hasn't been many reviewers. While the 3D images were blended well with the 2D background, there were some moments when it very clearly didn't look quite right. Also, several of the 3D sprites scared me. That's right, scared me. I will be seeing them in my nightmares. Also, there were some continuity differences between the different sprites. It wasn't highly noticeable, but enough that it distracted me for a little bit. It's a different style and it just doesn't hold up well.
Music/Interface:
I was ready to say that there wasn't any, then I noticed that I had forgotten to plug in my speakers. Then there still wasn't any. I turned my volume up to be sure. Then, when I was totally least expecting it, the ghost sfx went off and made me jump out of my seat. Totally spooked me. Anyway, personally, I'm glad there wasn't any music. As I'll discuss later, I think it would have thrown off the feel of the story. Last music note, why were there a few voiced dialogue lines randomly at the end?
As for the interface, there were certain things that got to me, some of them that reside in Novelty. I like scroll-back, for one. I missed a line of dialogue, wanted to go back and reread it, and couldn't. It happened more than once and really got under my skin. In a mystery game, the inability to go back to missed lines can cause you to miss a key point. Enough ranting about that. I liked the mind-reading mini-games, but as there was only two of them, it kinda went to waste. The map was a nice feature, but I ended up missing the right spot a couple times. Also, a textbox would have been nice.
Edit note: The gray bars on the side look awful, especially without the textbox. I'd recommend making sure that you adopt a specific picture size, if possible, and make the game to that.
Story:
I've spent the last two parts noticing the flaws of the game, but now I get to change things up. I enjoyed the story. It reminded me of the Hardy Boys books I read a long time ago. It was fun, interesting, and not incredibly cliched. I have not read Vera Blanc, so I was hitting this story with virtual no knowledge of the backstory, but the intro made up for that and brought me up to speed quickly. There were only a few spelling/grammar errors, which is something I am not used to. It was a very pleasant surprise. The tempo of the story flowed very smoothly and everything meshed near flawless. The quips between the characters were enjoyable, even if there were some old school stereotypes. Since this is a fan-made work, gonna overlook that. Besides, the stereotypes wouldn't still be in use if they weren't fun.
Overall rating:
Pass: Story
Fail: Art
Abstain: Music/Interface
As someone who has absolutely no talent at art, I know how it is to try and make something with limited resources. Now, if your story would have been crap, there would have been no way I could have given any sort of recommendation. The 3D art is not something I'm used to and there were enough minor bugs in the interface that I was on the fence on which way I vote on that section.
Final verdict: The story makes up for it, to a degree, and definitely worth a look at. Just don't expect to see the shiny anime-esque graphics you've all grown accustomed to. Sometimes you just have to read a visual novel for just the novel part.
