Recent reviews by KawaiiFiveOh

Rooty Tooty Point And Shooty

Art and animation is lovely.
Gameplay is fun, if a bit simple. Very reminiscent of the top-down handheld Legend of Zelda games.
Storyline and dialogue is great, genuine laughs at plenty of points.
Music is okay at first, but gets pretty repetitive quickly.

The Novelist is a visual novel set in a 3D environment, that's what it is. The 'stealth' section of the gameplay is barely present enough to register. It is also short, less than 3 hours per run through.

That's just about the only caveat I'd give to anyone considering buying it.

There's a lot more happening in those three hours of point and click than I've gotten out of some much longer AAA games recently. By the end of my first playthrough I was totally emotionally drained, on par with, if not moreso than, a playthrough of The Walking Dead.

This is a game about tough calls in the life of a family over the course of a Summer break; a struggling writer, a full time mother trying to get back to life after putting it on hold to raise a kid, and a child with a learning difficulty in need of some extra attention from his parents.
There are no right answers at the end of the day, you're going to end up making someone miserable no matter what decision you make and, for me at least, there were never any instances of an obvious 'best decision'.

If you're looking for an excellent player driven story or if you're the type to get emotionally involved in the lives of characters then I cannot recommend this game enough. Each playthrough may be short, but there's plenty of replay value in seeing how different choices can affect the outcome.