Recent reviews by woosk

https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/post/imaginary-future-review

Imaginary future is Seventeen horns's second RPG Maker-based game in Steam, featuring a young girl Gu Shuoye who changed her ways from a gang leader to become a freelance police officer after a crackdown on criminal elements in the steampunk nation of Serbia. As Gu Shuoye takes up her new role with the Serbian police department, she is dragged into a conspiracy that threatens the world, making some friends along the way, and falls in love with a female companion.

In the DLC expansion 耶尔与地底世界 (which means Yel and the Underground World), Gu Shuoye and her partner Banaime decide to visit Shiro who played an instrumental role in bringing the two of them together. Shiro will send Gu Shuoye's party to a different world in which they find themselves in a quest to save the world again while making additional friends and facing tougher challenges than before.

The English version suffers from a rough translation that may reduce the enjoyment of those looking for a compelling narrative RPG. Despite some pacing issues, text spilling out of page, and inconsistent dialogue, I was still able to follow through the story and complete all quests. I appreciate the developer adding a warning in the form of different coloured dialogue choices when the player has to choose between the routes for the normal ending and the true ending.

As yuri is part of the story, it will also have some adult content and fanservice elements that are mentioned in the text regardless of whether the uncensored patch on the developer's website is applied or not.

It is a bit disappointing to see some of the supporting characters and party members become virtually silent companions after completing their quest arcs though. This makes the player feel less invested in them. Although some attempt has been made to add more dialogue among the new companions in the DLC, the characters with CGs of them are more memorable than the rest.

The artwork and animations are the game's best features, as I also gave this game a try to see the combat animations in an RPG Maker game. The game boasts an updated title screen and a set of CGs that unlock in a gallery mode upon reaching the true ending in the main game and DLC. Every character also has a distinct set of combat animations to make the game stand out, although it suffers from frame rate drops on my PC which doesn't meet the recommended system requirements stated on the game's store page. I would have also liked the male NPCs to have proper artwork sprites instead of just black silhouettes.

I hope the game will qualify for trading cards in the future, allowing us to feature some of the game art on our personal Steam pages.

The base game and DLC both have a large variety of background and combat music to keep it interesting with different music being played in each area, fight, or cutscene. My favourite BGM tracks are Going to battle for you tomorrow (明日を征くあなたへ) that plays during the fast travel option and Mysterious realm (ヒキョウ) that plays in the crystal maze, both serving to highlight the protagonist going on her adventures for the characters she cares about and her newfound friendship with a major character in a mysterious realm, respectively. Although I like the inclusion of voice acting in the combat segments, they are in Japanese which might be difficult for players not versed in the language to understand fully. Furthermore, the significant frame rate drops during combat has the tendency to produce jarring noises in the various special effects or moves, preventing me from fully appreciating some of the combat BGM.

The game has day and night cycles which will have an influence on the type of enemies that show up in certain areas. Although the feature is nice, it is limited to only a few areas and quests, and the window which shows the time and day of the week tends to be hidden after certain cutscenes with no instructions on how to reopen it other than completing the chapter, which is permanently hidden in the DLC.

Gathering resources, cooking food, pastries, brewing potions, and combat are a tedious grind. Many of the lower tier craftable items and skills are too weak to be worth getting and training on because bosses and even some of the regular mobs have powerful abilities that could defeat the entire party easily. Therefore, it is important to save the game frequently. In the main game, defeating the regular mobs will not yield any experience, so the player has to rely on cooking food and pastries to raise the character levels to progress in the main story and obtain some achievements.

With that said, I like how the developer places certain epic items deep inside nearly every dungeon area to reward players who are thorough in their exploration of a mob-infested area. There is also an unlockable CG when a major character uses the highest-tier skill during combat.

The DLC is a large open-world dungeon crawler with challenging mobs, complex mazes, and puzzles that allows the party to gain experience and reach their maximum level cap from defeating the regular mobs, adding new and bigger challenges. It is only accessible after reaching the true ending.

Lastly, I did experience asset loading errors on multiple occasions. I will give big props to the developer as I contacted them for awareness, and they quickly responded with patches for the issues within a day.

I have spent more than one hundred hours in levelling up all characters and their skills, completing all quests, getting all achievements in the main game plus DLC.

Imaginary future brings some interesting new features to the RPG Maker genre with voice acting, combat animations, good artwork, a decent narrative despite the current English translation, some mystery, puzzle solving, and stealth-based segments.

Although, the tedious grinding mechanics, frustrating combat encounters, rough English translation, and high PC hardware requirements might also be a turn off for some players.

Therefore, I can only recommend a buy now for this game if you are a hardcore, experienced RPG fan who likes a good challenge with good visuals, background music, and would like to support the developer. Having some knowledge of the Chinese language is also helpful in understanding and appreciating some of the finer details in the story, regardless of whether you are playing the English or Chinese version. If you are on the fence about buying this game, I would recommend waiting for the English translation to be fixed to justify the long play time required for the game.

- Interesting new features in an RPG Maker-based game
- Good visuals and audio
- Interesting fantasy and mystery narrative
- Challenging gameplay and puzzle solving for experienced RPG fans
- Helpful and responsive developer

- Comes with the existing faults in an RPG Maker-based game
- Rough English translation
- Tedious grinding mechanics and frustrating combat
- Limited supporting character development
- High PC hardware requirements

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https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/post/impasse-journey-~kaohsiung-chapter~-translation-team-thoughts-and-thanks

I recently received a free key of this game from 李處守 through my friend ipa as a translator and beta-tester for this game. Impasse Journey ~Kaohsiung Chapter~ is Erotes Studio's seventh visual novel release (fifth in Steam) fitting into the post-apocalyptic, slice-of-life and thriller genre. This is a brand new story featuring a female protagonist Yang Qiongqi in a post-apocalyptic setting where the island of Taiwan has split into multiple autonomous regions after a nuclear war.

Yang Qiongqi planned to head north to fulfil a promise to her father. Unfortunately, she is forced to stop at Kaohsiung Autonomous Zone which has two factions at odds with each other. Along the way, she will make some friends and enemies as she tries to resolve the conflict to continue her journey.

This visual novel has near full voice acting, including the protagonist, which adds to the immersion by helping to bring out the personalities of the main characters in the story. As with Erotes Studio's earlier visual novels, Impasse Journey ~Kaohsiung Chapter~ has attractive artwork in the CGs, character sprites, and facial expressions, brand new theme songs and soundtracks, and the additional option to adjust font thickness, making it easier to read the visual novel.

In terms of plot, the story by scriptwriters Yin Fan-Ya and Gui Sen has a decent mix of the usual slice of life drama and comedy based on pop culture in Taiwan which features actual locations in the city of Kaohsiung itself, and some thriller to keep the novel interesting. With that said, the uneven pacing, local urban legends, and random philosophical, movie, novel and song quotes that make little sense in the overall storyline could create a disconnect where readers may not understand the origins and appreciate it fully, although it is an interesting way to introduce some of the songs, products, and culture in Taiwan.

Lastly, I would also like to share that I handled the English translation for Impasse Journey ~Kaohsiung Chapter~. I was motivated to do so for my friends in Steam, and members of my Steam group (Visual novel, JRPG, Anime) to bring an interesting post-apocalyptic, slice-of-life and thriller genre visual novel that explores the local cultural landscape in Kaohsiung to an English audience. Thank you to all my friends and family members who have supported me, and to Erotes Studio for giving me the wonderful opportunity to work on the English subtitles for the game before release.


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https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/post/vampires-melody-2-translation-team-thoughts-and-thanks

I recently received a beta key of this game for free from MyLifeForOliveira as a translator and beta-tester for this game.

AsicxArt has returned to Steam after a 3-year hiatus to release a sequel to its previous game with Vampires' Melody 2. It continues the story of the vampire couple Raylan Monroe and Yella Lester following one of the endings in Vampires' Melody in which they have been banished to a deserted island for failing a routine ID check. Raylan and Yella will have to learn to survive in a hostile new environment, and come to terms with the new reality after waking up from their slumber for 300 years.

As with AsicxArt's earlier titles, Vampires' Melody 2 retains many of the charm and highlights from its earlier releases by featuring cute well drawn artwork and having great musical compositions for its accompanying background music. The art will look very nice on any visual novel fan's Steam profile. In addition, this title features fun, casual minigames that add some interactivity and make the player feel invested in the game and characters without being too difficult.

In terms of plot, Vampires' Melody 2 retains many of the cute, comical moments, and fan service as Raylan and Yella work together to survive in an island adventure with a comedy, fantasy, science fiction and mystery narrative. Some players may not like the fan service and romance tropes with a female vampire domineering over a cowardly male protagonist, although I still think the way the script is handled came off as very funny, and the scriptwriter has also given the protagonist several chances to save the day over a vastly more powerful supernatural being which saw me rooting for the protagonist despite his inherently weak and cowardly nature. Many of the scenes are also brought out very well by the excellent voice acting and artwork. They help to lend immersion into the game, bringing out the tense moments during minigame challenges. There are numerous references to events in the prequel, so it is recommended to finish the earlier game first before starting on this one.

Lastly, I would also like to share that I handled the English translation for this game. As a long-time fan of AsicxArt, I was motivated to work on this project after following feedback from my friends in Steam, members of my Steam group (Visual novel, JRPG, Anime), and fans of AsicxArt over a weakness in AsicxArt and SakuraGame's earlier games. The game's excellent production quality and feedback from fans of AsicxArt, together with support by SakuraGame and my friends in Steam helped to build up the sense of pride and excitement to bring a cute and interesting comedy to an English audience. I hope the English translation for this game is an improvement over their earlier titles that will not disappoint fans' confidence in the games by AsicxArt, and would like to thank all the fans for their patience and support all this while.

Thank you to all my friends and family members who have supported me, and to SakuraGame for giving me the wonderful opportunity to work on the English subtitles for the game before release. It was a pleasure to work on this project and we hope you will enjoy reading this cute, funny story, along with the cheery upbeat opening theme song Seaside Melody by idol group Luce Twinkle Wink☆ to lighten your day.


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https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/post/your-smile-beyond-twilight-黄昏下的月台上-quick-thoughts

Your Smile Beyond Twilight: 黄昏下的月台上 is Lingtan Studio's second visual novel in Steam. It is a slice of life drama with supernatural elements featuring a young male protagonist Yunshan who recently lost his job in the city and decided to return to his hometown Tangyin with his girlfriend Jingxuan to visit his mother. While paying a visit to his father's grave, a mysterious girl suddenly shows up, claiming to have waited for him for a long time.

As a kinetic visual novel, there are no choices to be made, although the story is nice enough to keep my interest from start to finish. A volunteer translator fixed the English subtitles in 2017, and it is quite easy to obtain all Steam achievements with a published Steam community guide to help players with this part. The artwork and audio are also good, and the game comes with a free soundtrack DLC, leading me to write this quick thoughts blog post.

With that said, I feel that the achievement that requires using up all 30 save slots is a little redundant as the game is rather short with no choices that can be made, and a few save slots would suffice as it takes about an hour and a half to read and listen to all the text and dialogue. The short length also means not enough time is spent to develop some characters properly.

Overall, Your Smile Beyond Twilight is a short kinetic visual novel with nice music and well drawn artwork that I can recommend at any time despite a few minor complaints.

- Easy achievements
- Good visuals and music
- Reasonable price (comes with free soundtrack DLC)

- Rather short with no choices or routes
- Underwhelming character development


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https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/post/porcelana-quick-thoughts

I received a free key of this game in a giveaway at Sinical Network from my friend SinicalGeek. Porcelana is Pandita Studio's first visual novel in Steam with a dark slice of life narrative. It features a male protagonist with a customizable name attending college with a mysterious classmate Isabella. As Isabella drops subtle hints to the main character, he begins to take an interest in her.

It takes around two hours to read through the visual novel, do another playthrough to reach an unlockable good ending, and obtain all achievements. There are published community guides and posts to help players with this part. I also like the developer's decision to allow some player interactivity by asking the player to write something on a blank TXT file in the game directory to start a different playthrough, find some hidden objects in three different scenes, and access certain inventory items in backpack. The artwork and background music are decent, simply fulfilling the role where it is needed, so nothing more needs to be said about the topic.

On the other hand, Porcelana can be rather short to justify buying it at full price. The other supporting characters are also often one-dimensional characters, or only show up near the end of the story, making it difficult for the player to feel invested in learning about them.

Overall, Porcelana is a dark slice of life visual novel with mature 16+ themes and some player interaction to help carry the story. I enjoyed my time with Porcelana, but it is fairly short, so I recommend buying when it is discounted to $2 or less to be more proportional to the playing time.

- Allows some player interaction
- Easy achievements
- Satisfying true ending

- Rather short to justify buying at full price
- Limited supporting character development


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https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/post/wish-review

Wish is Momentum Games's first adult Match-3 RPG style strategy game with visual novel elements. It features a male protagonist Soma Garnish Darkeyon on a quest to gather allies and lead a rebellion against a tyrant empress consisting of 8 different Match-3 opponents.

In Beyond Fate DLC, Soma has become a king, although he has not lost that wanderlust in him. He embarks on new adventures to deal with 4 additional threats to his kingdom.

Although this game comes with a free adult uncensored DLC, some of the Steam achievements require installing the DLC to unlock, and some of the adult content can be extreme. In addition, the story in English at the time of this review may be difficult to follow from time to time. If you don't mind these, then read on.

The story is mostly fantasy setting with one sci-fi story in Beyond Fate. In the main story, the premise of a male protagonist gathering a harem of allies to have a chance at surviving the wrath of a powerful empress in one narrative encompassing 8 story arcs could have the potential to be a big draw in the game.

Unfortunately, the English translation is quite rough with numerous errors and inconsistent naming of characters throughout the story. Furthermore, the protagonist is also sometimes revealed as a dirty protagonist who resorts to blackmail, and other questionable means to become intimate with some of the heroines, a stark contrast to his heroic and selfless actions when he tries to convince them to join his cause.

As with most nukiges, the artwork and animation tends to be the main highlight, and Wish does not disappoint in this part. The artwork and fanservice for most of the heroines in the main game and the DLC are very good, although I did notice an inconsistency in which Soma has fair features on his portrait, whereas he has a tanned complexion in the H scenes.

The artbook DLC contains all the in-game CGs (including R18 content), character sprites, and concept art.

The voice acting is a bit soft compared to the background music under default settings, making it hard to hear the voiced dialogue, although it helps to make sense of some of the English translation errors in some parts, and bring out some of the better moments in the story such as when a heroine expresses her concern, surprise or is moved by Soma's actions.

Among the soundtracks, the theme song Moonlight Destiny and the PC88 version are my favourites as they describe a heroine's affection for Soma in a melodic musical composition. Erica's battle theme - Return of love is also one of the more stirring tunes among the Match-3 battles.

The match-3 battles have some variety in which every opponent has around 3 different moves, although it can be hard to figure out for players who have not played Match-3 games before as Wish does not have a tutorial, and it can be hard to figure out how to get skill blocks and super blocks without referring to published Steam community guides. Also, there is one luck-based achievement that require creating 10 super blocks in one battle that may be difficult if the player chooses to level up Soma's physical and magical attack powers early on, although there is a published community guide with helpful tips for this achievement.

Once you obtain all the match-3 battle related achievements halfway through the main story, it is possible to speedrun through all the battles by levelling up Soma's physical and magical attack to maximum level, and clear a level within 5 rounds or less by using specific items.

It took about 15 hours to read through the visual novel, obtain all achievements, and unlock all CGs. Wish has great ecchi/adult artwork and animation, a good theme song and BGM, and decent gameplay mechanics. The harem fantasy storyline featuring multiple girls accompanying the the hero was compelling, but there are some drawbacks in the inconsistent art, storytelling, and rough English translation.

Given that the Steam community (including a friend who recommended this game to me) has complimented the developer for fixing some of the bugs and formerly broken/buggy achievements, it would be nice if the developer could consider engaging with the player fanbase to fix the English translation and improve the visual novel aspect. If you don't mind the listed drawbacks, and some of the more extreme adult content if you are going for all the Steam achievements, I can recommend Wish and all its DLCs at any time.

- Good visuals and audio
- Engaging harem and fantasy narrative
- Decent gameplay mechanics
- Free uncensored DLC
- Reasonable price

- Adult content required for all Steam achievements and may be controversial
- Rough English translation
- Inconsistent artwork, character personality, and names


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https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/post/refraction-quick-thoughts

Refraction is a free-to-play supernatural student life visual novel with romance by Universe Zero. It features Jackie Shields, a female student at Big Lake University where she attends Intro to World Religions classes with her best friends Jun and Paul. She is also a member of the university's Journalism department and has an ambitious plan to do an exposé with her fellow department members on the university's president for corruption.

Jackie wakes up one day to find herself in an alternate reality in which her friends, and the Journalism department's plans may have changed. She also has to deal with her double Jacqueline Shields who is taking her place and doing some things without her knowledge.

After spending over 2 hours to read through the visual novel and obtaining all the achievements, I can confirm that Refraction has interesting modern pop culture references with some choices that lead to 4 different endings. A Steam community guide is also available to help players get all the endings and achievements. In terms of artwork and background music, they are nice enough in bringing out the humor in the story, and I hope this visual novel will qualify for normal Steam profile features in future.

On the other hand, the short length of the entire visual novel cause the romance routes to feel rushed with little time to develop the character relationship properly. This is a bit of a pity as the characters have interesting personalities, backgrounds and hobbies that makes it worthwhile to try every character route and ending.

Overall, Refraction is an interesting supernatural student life visual novel with some comical artwork, background music, and pop culture references. If you like the genre and the story description looks interesting enough, this is a nice free to play game to read for a few hours.

- Interesting story
- Cute, funny artwork and BGM
- Guide available
- Free to play

- Rushed romance options
- Some coarse language

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https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/post/stellaren-ii-review

Stellaren II is part visual novel, part dating simulator, part turn-based strategy role-playing game, part dungeon crawler with reaction-based action mechanics, and part horizontal bullet hell shooter. This is ninedux's third title of the Stellaren series featuring a male protagonist with a customizable name (John as the default) and two stories in the sci-fi/thriller genre with optional minigames.


In Rene's story (prologue), it starts with John committing a murder at a starport in the mining colony of Horus after his Neuro was hacked, erasing his memories and allowing the hacker to take control of him. Thankfully, his murder attempt was foiled, and he was apprehended by private investigators employed by Weber Industries, the largest mining corporation on the planet.

As the investigators try to piece together the evidence after reprogramming John's Neuro, other terrorist attacks and mysterious disappearances force the investigators to bring John along and see him more as a teammate than a prisoner, and John will also get to know a diverse array of characters. Their investigation leads them to a powerful entity behind a series of abductions, and a desperate bid to rescue a close family member.

In Len's story, John is brought onboard as part of Len's team. They embark on an adventure across various planets and space installations to find Len's missing sister, meet some characters from the Stellaren series, and save humanity itself.


The plot is ninedux's strongest suit with an emphasis on story-driven narrative, mixing the thriller genre with some dating elements in-between. The scriptwriter does an excellent job of combining these two genres by introducing the player to a variety of tense combat situations and having some time off to interact with certain characters and build their affection points without slowing the pacing of the story.

Although the visual novel has two routes with one optional romance ending at the time of this review, the affection system and certain storyline decisions can affect the story in terms of whether certain characters would live or die later on with a slightly different script and dialogue. These characters also have a significant background story and relationship with other characters, making the player feel invested in them and giving the player an additional motivation to try out a different playthrough to see how the story would develop if they are kept alive. Thankfully, the developer has published a full walkthrough at the developer website forums to help players with this part.

There are some cons though. The protagonist is a faceless male protagonist, and in the dungeon crawling and combat segments, he is relegated to a lamp drone operator role in which the robot is portrayed as his avatar. Besides a short mention that he used to be a researcher at Weber Industries, there is little else to expand on his story. I also noticed some spelling and grammar errors here and there, along with some coarse language.


The artwork is nice with a small amount of fan service at certain parts of the story. Although this is not the main draw of the game, the portraits and character sprites are attractive enough that I hope this game will consider adding Steam achievements and trading cards in future. Some of the CGs also help to portray the tense and emotional moments in the game well.

My only complaint is that the visual novel has very few male artwork sprites compared to female sprites, and only Aris's special move animation in the turn-based strategy segment, Arisgun, looks more impressive. Unfortunately, she will only appear in two battles in the entire story with little else in terms of combat animation.


The background music and sound effects help to add a degree of immersion to the story, featuring a variety of soundtracks that match the futuristic sci-fi themes in the visual novel. The Rise, The Fall, Cast of Pods and Light Years Away are frequently used in the combat segments to bring out the tense moments, while I Don't Want to Do This Without You and Resolution help to bring out the touching and emotional moments.

In terms of sound effects, I like the sound effects of moving drone robot parts, automatic gunfire, spent shell casings being scattered, and destroyed enemy spacecraft as they add to the tension and thriller aspect of this visual novel.


The minigames are entirely optional with the option to skip it in the Steam or paid Android version without penalizing the player too much. Although there is little incentive to play through the minigames because it does not significantly influence the outcome of the story, and the enemies in the repeateable turn-based strategy battles will scale up according to the party level, I played through all of them without skipping because they are fun enough to play.


After spending close to 30 hours to read the entire visual novel and play through all the minigames without skipping, and another 20 hours to attempt another playthrough with no character deaths after referring to the developer's walkthrough, I feel that the visual novel could have more character romance options and possibly some bonus CGs to increase the replayability because the scriptwriter has put a lot of care and attention to character detail where the character dialogue will properly reflect their near-death experience that it truly feels rewarding to save even a minor supporting character from being killed in the story.

Despite some faults in the game such as no option to skip only read text, and the game crashing if I bring up the menu to check on character affection during a dialogue choice, Stellaren II is an interesting science fiction thriller visual novel with some romance, minigames, and a little fan service that will keep the player interested to see what happens in every chapter and how the story will develop. Hence, I highly recommend this title if you are a fan of the Stellaren series, or you are simply looking for an interesting science fiction visual novel with a thriller narrative that will keep you entertained for many hours at a very attractive price.

- Engaging story with good visuals and audio
- Guide available
- Fun and optional minigames
- Very good value for money

- Some typo errors and coarse language
- Minor gameplay problems


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https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/post/when-sword-sinks-into-flowers-translation-update

When Sword Sinks Into Flowers is an adult otome visual novel featuring romance and fantasy set in a medieval Western period. The game runs on RPG Maker assets by MagicHouse that features a female knight captain Adelaide Devondell who was inspired by her father's heroic deeds when she was young. Hence, she followed in her father's footsteps by training hard to become a knight captain.

Her childhood friend Yufia Langerton was jealous of Adelaide's combat prowess, rank, and status among the knights. Adelaide was the only woman to have surpassed him at their knight academy, and the two have been exchanging snide remarks whenever they meet, although he also secretly cared for her safety and well-being.

One day, her father tasked Adelaide and her devoted squad member, Phil Cross, to investigate a merchant. The trader, Marlowe, revealed himself as a magician and cast a curse on Adelaide that could eventually kill her as part of an ongoing feud between knights and magicians. The story follows Adelaide as she grapples with her curse, and develops a special relationship with a junior knight, a knight captain or a magician who try to save her from death.

My Steam group Visual novel, JRPG, Anime and Sinical Network worked on an English fan translation patch for the Japanese version of this game, Ken ga Hana ni Shizumu Toki, in May 2021 after the English and Chinese version of the game Les Fleursword was removed from Steam a couple of months earlier. Now that the developer has brought the Japanese version of the game back to Steam, and my group has obtained permission from the new publisher to publish the fan translation patch, we hope that players who expressed disappointment at the game being removed from Steam and not giving it the English translation it deserved could give When Sword Sinks Into Flowers a try with our fan translation patch. The subtitles can be converted by installing a set of files that are available for download with installation instructions in my published Steam community guide, or at the Sinical Network translations page.

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I would like to thank ichinarisoft for bringing this visual novel back to Steam, and for giving me the permission to keep the English fan translation patch available for players. I would also like to thank my friends in Steam, and the Steam community for encouraging me to work on this project, and the kind comments regarding the fan translation patch.

My blog update for Les Fleursword:

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561198006413390/recommended/689650/


https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/translations


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https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/post/dead-wishes-review

Dead Wishes is independent developer VIOLET Studio Games's first visual novel in Steam and itch.io, featuring an adult romance thriller supernatural narrative, a genderless protagonist with a customizable name, and a large cast of male and female characters.


The story begins with the main character (default name is Dante) on the verge of being kicked out of their rented apartment for being late in their rental payments. Dante will then get to know the residents of the unnamed city and develop a relationship with them, taking you through various scenarios depending on the choices you make. Maybe you will join the mafia where you uncover a heated love affair gone wrong, become allied with a team of murderers, serve as a caretaker for two dysfunctional sisters, end up on the streets, or become an honest man yourself. Your decisions throughout the story will dictate whether you find love and happiness, or face a dire outcome, but playing through all the routes will piece together the full story.

The characters are sufficiently different from one another, each with their own backstories. Some characters will know others to varying degrees, and they will react differently to Dante depending on the route chosen. Some romanceable characters may also turn up as enemies in certain character routes, adding to the thriller aspect, and the degree of immersion into the game.

I must admit, I love romantic comedies, honest to goodness stories, and happy endings, so I like Clement and Festus's routes for fitting into this category. Most of the other character routes and endings tend to be darker and may involve killing other characters or Dante. Still, I can appreciate the scriptwriter for taking the time to explain the character motivations for killing someone, giving each character variable shades of grey in their personalities, and allowing Dante to change that character for the better to add a further degree of immersion into the story. As such, I also like Allegra, Anise, Eira, Nanako, Ophelia, and Sergio's routes despite the darker and violent storytelling. The remaining characters are too dark and yandere-ish for me to appreciate fully, although I would still give props to the scriptwriter for exploring this aspect.


The BGM is decent with each character having their own musical track, and over the course of the story, there is a mix of pleasant, sinister, or fast-paced music appropriate for the amount of tension in the scene. I like Morning Espresso (Allegra's theme), Omertà (Sergio's theme), Snowy Fair (Eira's theme), Baked (Clement's theme), and The Last Dance (Anise's theme) for bringing out the respective character's mystery and nature. The other BGM such as Twelve, Introspection, Past, A Moment's Peace, A Lonely Alley, Mistake, and One also help to convey the mood in the story.

The CGs are fine for the most part, although since this visual novel places more emphasis on storytelling, each character is limited to 3 CGs that are more or less predictable after completing a few character routes.

I also like the developer for using a different coloured diamond shaped icon with an arrow moving to the left or right when a dialogue choice is made to show the change in that character's disposition towards Dante.


This visual novel has 12 character routes, most of which have 3 endings altogether, and a memories section to help players keep track of the endings unlocked. A downloadable PDF guide is also available at the developer's website to help players obtain all endings and learn more about the characters. As the story progresses, the mysterious person on the title screen will show themselves and reveal a surprise and additional post-ending story for all 12 characters, giving that motivation to attempt all the endings and enjoy the high replay value in the game, despite the absence of Steam achievements. It is a shame that the game only has 24 save slots even though there are so many routes, dialogue choices and endings in the game.


After spending close to 10 hours to read and listen through the text and dialogue, Dead Wishes is an interesting plot-focused adult thriller romance visual novel with dark supernatural themes and additional surprises spanning multiple playthroughs in a modern Western setting. Although this visual novel is hardly ever discounted on Steam to attract attention from players who only buy discounted games, the engaging plot, diverse cast of characters, replayability and playing time is worth buying anytime if you like this genre of storytelling and can forgive a few minor issues in the game.

- Interesting narrative
- Diverse cast of characters
- Unlockable post-ending surprises
- Guide available
- Decent CGs and BGM

- Limited save slots
- Some players may be offended by frequent use of coarse language


http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/groups/vnislife

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/groups/Sinical