Recent reviews by Xiris

Fairly short visual novel with, as far as I noticed, a single choice so really more on the Novel end of Visual Novel, Fault - Milestone One is the first half of an interesting story which asks what it means to be human told from the eyes of two cute girls from a land of high magic suddenly and violently transported to a part of their world that is practically without magic.
At the time of writing, I have not played part two yet but am eagerly looking forward for the installation to complete so I can. As is, my only real complaint is about the two hidden achievements as they are quite odd, and impossible to obtain if you don't know about them. That said, if you like sci-fi/fantasy stories with a good bit of philosophy in them, be sure to check out Fault. It's not long, took me about 4 hours to read through, but it was entirely worth my time if you ask me.

Emily is Away is not a light hearted or kind game. It is a game which plays very true to the lives of those of us who cut our teeth on the AOL IM craze, and as was commonly true to life, there is no storybook ending for the beginning of life's journey. Instead, we are given an almost maddening glimpse at the life of our subject Emily and her charming personality coupled with poor decision making. It is sad that ultimately, there is but one path for the relationship, but at the same time, this rings so true to life too. It all boils down to one single choice (really two, but one happens before the game even begins, in the realm of backstory) which sets into motion the ultimate ending of the game, and when you look back, it both seems to make so much sense and seems so teenage headstrong as to have been obvious. Could you have made a better choice? Of course. Did you think of it at the time? Of course not. And so, life happens.

Despite its failings, I did enjoy the game, though it was not the story I was hoping for. It does hold itself true to the era to which it ascribes itself and while not joyous, nor even satsifying, the game as a whole feels right. Do I wish there was a way to avoid The Event? Of course. But then I feel that way about a lot of things in my own life as well. Ultimately, it is what it is, and while not perfect, it does a great job at creating an emotional bond and utilizing those emotions well. If anything, really my only complaint to the game is that you have to mash the keyboard between each option in order to "type" your reply. While this is as close a facsimile as you can get in an AOL IM simulator, it is a fairly jarring disconnect as mashing "f" (or any combination of letters) does evoke the care in penning even a simple "emily. hey" let alone any of the longer responses. That said, while frustrating, the options where you type one thing only to delete it or part of it is also strangely evocative of doing much the same with friends, family and lovers on that aged messaging platform.

And in the end, there is little else to say but simply this: goodbye.