Cheritz Brings Dandelion to Steam!

Steam continues to grow its visual novel catalog today with the announcement from South Korean developer Cheritz that the otome game Dandelion – Wishes Brought Unto You is now available! Originally published in 2012 for a Korean audience, it was translated for the West in 2013. Here is the basic premise!

“Hee-Jung is a 21 year old girl who pushes herself to be perfect at everything; yet she realizes that she does not know what she really desires. Although she lives a hectic life, she feels like she is on the road to nowhere. However, one day she encounters mysterious animals and decides to take them in. She doesn’t yet realize that this will radically change her life…”

The game is available for $29.99 on Steam. If you’ve already bought it directly from Cheritz, you can retrieve a Steam key here! As for whether or not a certain reviewer who once labeled this VN ‘that game where bunnies and kitties turn into hot guys’ will take this one on….stay tuned.

A Quick Look At: Skights, Episode 1

Despite popular public opinion, writing a review isn’t easy.

Not only must the reviewer must be a uniquely qualified, slightly maniacal Internet asshole, but there must also be enough information on the topic to fully flesh out what it either did right or wrong. However, in this particular gaming community, you won’t always get titles that are fit to do a full review on; which has been something I have been trying to address behind the scenes of the HQ. The best solution I could come up with is to just do a few quick points on shorter and episodic titles; mostly without scores and hopefully under one thousand words.

So, let’s get this thing rocking with Skights. What is Skights? Skights is a visual novel developed for Joilly, a flash-based visual novel engine. I have mentioned on Twitter that this game is basically Candy Land: The Game of Thrones Edition. Why? Well, let’s get started and I’ll tell you!

Autumn’s Journey Review

It’s good to be a part of the EVN community right now.

Between all of the new talent finding their footing through crowd-funding and the old guard stepping up their game, your favorite villainous reviewer has plenty to ease his appetite with in 2014. For those of you who remember my Most Anticipated EVN list, you know that three have already been delivered to my table: Asher by Sun Labyrinth, Icebound by Fastermind and Autumn’s Journey by Apple Cider. We’ll be addressing the first two in good time. Today, however, we’ll be discussing a title that has been eagerly anticipated by myself and others for over a year now.

Autumn’s Journey was originally announced for NaNoRenO 2013. Unfortunately, a good idea cannot be contained to such a short time period and what was originally a small feature that represented the first team up of artist Deji-Chan and writer KittyKatStarGal began to grow. After NaNoRenO passed, development of the game continued and the team grew into the coalition dubbed Apple Cider.

So a year has passed and now the tooth-rotting horror of Autumn’s Journey has been unleashed on the world! And while I enjoy the collection of young GRRMs this small corner of the Internet is supporting (looking at you Lore), no one ever died from the Power of Friendship…although apparently the Power of Love has laid waste to entire nations. With that said, let’s dive into Autumn’s Journey!

Pyrite Heart Review

You’d think I would’ve found a more elegant way to go about this by now.

I’ve tried writing this intro three times now and I have yet to properly get across what I want to say. I don’t consider completely inept but this game just confounds me. I may not be, and may never be, a die-hard anime or manga fan and I am certainly not the target audience for 70% of visual novels, but in the same vein I like to think that we can all agree on some basics that have become the foundation of this very website. That foundation is what separates all fiction across all genres between good and bad; regardless of personal preferences.

Which brings me to Pyrite Heart.

Released within spitting distance of the celebration of the birth of Our Lord and Savior, Pyrite Heart is a title that is slowly infecting the larger EVN community. I’ve personally been flooded not only with requests to play the game, but also nominations for it in the 2013 Best Ofs with only a few days of exposure to its name. But popular response doesn’t answer the question that is the keystone of this site, ‘Is it good?’

Strap on a helmet amigos, because we’re not all making it back from this one.

You Asked For It: Seduce Me

Well, welcome back everyone to You Asked For It: a feature on the site that is roughly equivalent to downloading a semester’s worth of World Literature 101 directly into your brain. So far in the history of this small feature, we have made it infamous. We were blamed for the failure of a Kickstarter AND demonized by an entire fandom for deriding the porcelain dolls called a cast in Starswirl Academy. But, despite my clever and acerbic wit, I do want to say for the record that this feature isn’t about mocking works in progress…despite the fact that I often mock works in progress.No, this is about a higher calling that will be put on display today as we dig into the festering, Technicolor underbelly that is Otome.

First Impressions: Backstage Pass, Pt. 2

Well we were going to get into this at some point. So before I get into why I like the boys of Backstage Pass, let me get into way I mock most romance targets: male or female.

Certain stereotypes and clichés are going to be a part of every fictional genre; it just comes with the territory. But in romance breaking out of those clichés is like climbing K2 without an oxygen mask, Sherpas and in your underwear. The roads of romantic attraction are well-worn and deviating from that path is dark and uncertain: which leaves many writers with one option – stay the course. This leads to the same bland, underdeveloped cast regardless of their target audience. Like I joked about in the teaser for the AMG Reviews, when you cut down to the marrow, there really isn’t a lot of difference between Exhibit A and Exhibit B: it all comes to your POV.So what does this have to do with Backstage Pass?

First Impressions: Backstage Pass, Pt. 1

For the better part of this year, I have been arguing that the EVN community needed to begin discussing the concept of ‘Mario’. If you haven’t read anything on that, allow me to suggest you do so or be branded a traitor. But, for the benefit of time, the short version is that I believe that within the next year or so the genre of visual novels, at least in the West, will begin a sort of ‘golden age’. Why? Because it costs nearly nothing (in corporate terms) to create a high-end visual novel, which means there really isn’t a reason not to exploit the medium by creating the highest quality on the cheap and marketing them to fans of the Telltale line of games.

SO, my argument is that the medium needs to define itself before said exploitation happens. This is done through a game that unites the hardcore and casual fans, as well as be a standard for what the genre is capable of. In other words Mario. Again, to keep a long story short, some thought I was insane. The regulars of this site know any question of my sanity is old news, but it was actually a debate for a while with me still ringing the bell on it until recently.Why? Because after talking about it all year, I think the launch of the EVN Mario is upon us…and of course it would be spawned from otome.

JP’s Nachtigal Review

I like vampires.

Considering the current trend in popular culture of turning this particular legendary monster into a toothless Abercrombie model for tweens to fawn over, that statement probably seems a bit strange. But as a classical literature guy, I know the roots of the vampire and its origins connect to humanity’s most obsessive thoughts on faith, youth, death and sexuality. And yes I can back them all up and I didn’t take a master’s class on Bram Stoker.

So how does that fit into this particular review? Well let’s discuss the subject itself. Nachtigal is an ambitious title from Cyanide Tea: the group that has brought us Ristorante Amore, the Elevator and the upcoming Break Chance Memento visual novels. It’s ambitious, even for them, because it wants to tell an old-school vampire story but within the realm of ‘otome’. Yeah otome: the genre not exactly known in the West for avoiding the ‘toothless Abercrombie model for tweens’ stereotypes. BUT even with CT’s track record, considering my reputation on otome this can only turn out bad for yours truly right?

Days of the Divine Review

Well kids, I think this is what my brothers and sisters of the Catholic faith would call a mea culpa.

Circle Pegasi isn’t new to the EVN scene. In fact their first kinetic novel, Firefly, was released three years ago. So, why is this the first time your humble host has ever discussed the label? Two reasons: first you should probably take a long look at their web address because you’ve seen two-thirds of it before. The second reason is that their last release before today’s subject, Nanolife, bored me.

‘Wait, what?’

Yeah it’s probably shallow but I had no intention of playing through something where my biggest complaint would be, ‘Yeah I barely paid attention because I was bored, so 5/10’. I’m not sure how other critics address the issue and I’m sure I will have to adjust my view at some point. But, the plus of not talking about what bores me means that when I do go negative, I really do think it’s a negative that has to be taken seriously if the writer wants to improve. At the very least, it means that even if I’m talking about an EVN that’s outside of my interest, I’m usually not bored by it.

But that’s not what you want to hear is it? Fine: Confiteor Deo, Omnipotenti et vobis, fratres quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo, opere et ommissione: Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa. There; happy? I should have talked about Circle Pegasi WAY before now and Days of the Divine gives me an opportunity to correct that. So let’s talk about this great game shall we?

Fate/Knight Rhapsody Act 1 Review

So, anyone here ever guessed I’m something of a fan of the Fate/Stay Night franchise?

I’m still not sure how it happened honestly. And yes the storyline is a bit ridiculous, but the characters all found a way to grow on me. So I kept an eye on its prequel Fate/Zero and I’m anxiously awaiting the day I get the nerve to play the original visual novel…yeah I gotta work my way up to it.

In between all of this, I recently found out that a Chinese group of artists and writers are working on a series of visual novels inspired by Fate/Stay night. Or, to be specific, inspired by one of the major characters of Fate/Stay Night: Saber. In the franchise, Saber was the legendary King Arthur who passed herself off as a man to rule Britain. For those who know the legend, you know this ends rather tragically. This visual novel series hopes to explore Saber’s past and add another element to the experience that isn’t completely foreign to the Fate franchise: romance.

Does it work? Well let’s take a deeper look at Fate/Knight Rhapsody and find out.