It is what it is…

Kidnapped Girl is a short little visual novel that will take you half an hour or so to see in its entirety. The story concept is pretty decent but let down by a lack of experience on the writer’s part. As a result, the game fails to handle its subject matter in a meaningful or even original way.

I don’t want to be too harsh on what is clearly just some dude’s passion project but the writing is sloppy. Exposition of character backstories in particular is handled in a heavy-handed manner, though one could argue that it was an inevitability given the short length. There are also some aspects and specific scenes that some people would only describe as edgy and/or problematic. The English translation could also use some additional passes but it’s readable enough.

The art was actually pretty decent, especially for a doujin project. I appreciate that the backgrounds were actually drawn by someone and not just pictures with a Photoshop filter over them.

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for; it’s free, doesn’t take up much of your time and doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not. Take it or leave it as you will. Just be warned: if you already hate what’s in the game’s description, the execution will not convince you otherwise.

P.S. I hope you degenerates — who are reading this and seriously considering playing Kidnapped Girl on your own time — appreciate the fact that someone bothered to write an actual review on this. Other reviews weren’t exactly informative so I hope that risking losing whatever non-existent respect my peers on Backloggd had for me was worth it.