HaloBlues
2017
I actually really enjoyed this. The setting gave it character and set it apart from all the other visual novels in my backlog and the ones I've completed already - before Beyond Eden I'd never played a game like this set in the 1800s so it was an interesting change of pace for me. The characters were all pretty engaging and varied, and I warmed up to all of them by the end; I went into it thinking Joshua would be my obvious favourite (and he was) and that I wouldn't like Theodore's route, but I actually grew pretty fond of Theodore as the game went on.
I really enjoyed playing as a morally twisted protagonist like Alex; I usually prefer customisable characters rather than pre-established characters with backstories and pre-set names and appearances in my games, but it worked really well here. There were at least a handful of twists in each route, some more major than others, and each of the characters worked into Alex's backstory neatly.
I did the routes in the order of Jeremy (non-romantic route, obviously - very wholesome) -> Morris (some uncomfortable moments, but decent endings) -> Theodore (this guy is so funny) -> Oscar (probably the route that felt most 'canon' and that would make the most sense to me if this were a novel rather than one where you could choose your love interest) -> Joshua (still my favourite both in terms of design and how his good ending plays out - I was pleasantly surprised by how genuinely sweet it was).
A few nitpicks, mostly minor:
- Morris is supposed to be 46, but he looks in his 60s, especially because the flashbacks from over a decade ago already have him fully grey-haired.
- There are also a hefty amount of spelling errors and typos, and I think this game was very much in need of another run through editing; it didn't ruin my immersion entirely or affect my enjoyment of the game, but if you're picky about or bothered by that kind of thing, it's frequent enough that it might be an issue for you.
- It commits one of my grammatical pet peeves, A.K.A. using "........." and variations thereof instead of the proper three-dot ellipsis ("...").
- FWIW, I also ended up skipping the NSFW scenes pretty early into the game. They just get repetitive and awkward, and I say that as a guy who really doesn't object to some NSFW in my games.
- More majorly, I also found the Edward stuff in Theodore's route somewhat uncomfortable - he's supposed to be an adult in the game (I gather about 18), but his design makes him look 14/15 at the oldest to me and he acts and speaks childishly, so Alex having a sexual relationship with him made me feel like I was suddenly playing Groomer Simulator. However, I can for the most part try to ignore that because it only occurs in one ending (I believe a bad one) of one route.
Overall, a genuinely enjoyable game with an interesting plot, characters I liked, and some nicely-done twists.
I really enjoyed playing as a morally twisted protagonist like Alex; I usually prefer customisable characters rather than pre-established characters with backstories and pre-set names and appearances in my games, but it worked really well here. There were at least a handful of twists in each route, some more major than others, and each of the characters worked into Alex's backstory neatly.
I did the routes in the order of Jeremy (non-romantic route, obviously - very wholesome) -> Morris (some uncomfortable moments, but decent endings) -> Theodore (this guy is so funny) -> Oscar (probably the route that felt most 'canon' and that would make the most sense to me if this were a novel rather than one where you could choose your love interest) -> Joshua (still my favourite both in terms of design and how his good ending plays out - I was pleasantly surprised by how genuinely sweet it was).
A few nitpicks, mostly minor:
- Morris is supposed to be 46, but he looks in his 60s, especially because the flashbacks from over a decade ago already have him fully grey-haired.
- There are also a hefty amount of spelling errors and typos, and I think this game was very much in need of another run through editing; it didn't ruin my immersion entirely or affect my enjoyment of the game, but if you're picky about or bothered by that kind of thing, it's frequent enough that it might be an issue for you.
- It commits one of my grammatical pet peeves, A.K.A. using "........." and variations thereof instead of the proper three-dot ellipsis ("...").
- FWIW, I also ended up skipping the NSFW scenes pretty early into the game. They just get repetitive and awkward, and I say that as a guy who really doesn't object to some NSFW in my games.
- More majorly, I also found the Edward stuff in Theodore's route somewhat uncomfortable - he's supposed to be an adult in the game (I gather about 18), but his design makes him look 14/15 at the oldest to me and he acts and speaks childishly, so Alex having a sexual relationship with him made me feel like I was suddenly playing Groomer Simulator. However, I can for the most part try to ignore that because it only occurs in one ending (I believe a bad one) of one route.
Overall, a genuinely enjoyable game with an interesting plot, characters I liked, and some nicely-done twists.
2020
Completed Sacha's route. I usually go for the 100%, but I can't make myself replay this one.
Positives:
- Generally wholesome and pleasant art style, aesthetics, and atmosphere.
- The backgrounds are pretty, particularly the apartment interiors. Was a big fan of the home your protagonist has with the fairy lights and the details like their collection of souvenir mugs.
- The variety in dogs is cool, with four to choose from, each of a different breed, personality, boosted stat, and backstory.
Neutral:
- The main focus is on the dog care rather than the romance for sure, so YMMV on whether that's a good or bad thing. I'm personally playing dating sims for the relationships and characters rather than the 'management sim'-esque aspect this has, so it wasn't the way I'd have preferred.
- The humour reminded me of Dream Daddy. Whether that's a plus or minus is subjective. For me, it was a minus; that kind of relentless, in-your-face goofiness that gets overplayed fast and makes it hard to take the game's attempts at heavier subject matter seriously.
Negatives:
- Why. Why. Why. Why isn't there a 'skip read text' button? Not only is that a mainstay feature of visual novels for a reason, I'd go as far as to say it's an essential one. The lack of one is the major reason behind why I'm not continuing with the other routes - I am absolutely not sitting here manually clicking through the entire story over again for the minute-long scenes you get with specific characters every so often.
- Dog events happen way too often. Like, within the span of about twenty seconds, I had to continuously stop progressing the story to comfort my cowering dog, then to pull it back from running away, then to pull it back from digging in the ground, then to pick up its poop. Begging you to let me read the damn dialogue.
- Continuing from the above, the randomised factor of when dog events trigger completely messes with the dating sim/emotional story beat aspect of the game. You'll be having your first kiss with your love interest or discussing their childhood trauma and your dog will be farting and taking shits that you have to stop to pick up. Is it funny to mention when you're not actively having it happen to you? Yes. Does it completely ruin it? Yes.
- Typos and spelling mistakes littered throughout the game; not frequently at all, but I noticed a fair few like "and" instead of "a", "through" instead of "throw", etc.
- When you're texting characters on your phone, the text speed of your replies is agonisingly slow and non-adjustable. With the main dialogue speed being adjustable in the settings menu, I don't know why this wasn't also affected by that toggle; no one wants to sit there and watch responses get typed out at less than one word per second for a whole conversation.
- Randomly tone shifts from cute slice-of-life in a utopia-esque town where everything is perfect to you getting violently robbed and knocked unconscious in the street out of nowhere. Huh? Huh???? Pick a vibe.
- The first scene on the bus leads you to think that the game is fully voice-acted, but as soon as the intro's over it shifts into only random noises and catchphrases being said out loud. They're incredibly repetitive and sometimes out-of-place, so I ended up just turning voice acting off.
Another negative point that is exclusive to Sacha's route is the handling of the trans themes. During his route, you meet his roommate who mentions Sacha's transition in front of you, and then the entire game grinds to a halt to force you to have a discussion about it. It was already obvious to me that Sacha was trans and I didn't really feel the need to question him about what his roommate meant by 'transition', because... I knew what he meant. So when given the dialogue options "Transition?" and something unrelated, I went with the unrelated one to progress the conversation, only for it to loop back around and force me to pick "Transition?" anyway. Sacha then acts shocked because "I thought you knew!" (I did), you ask him if his roommate was allowed to disclose that, and then all three of you sit down to have a PSA meeting about how you should never out someone without their consent but that it was okay for the roommate to do it in this instance because he had pre-received permission and Sacha isn't stealth but that in any other circumstance this would be bad and you should learn from this information. Later, you're also forced to confront Sacha's transphobic family and discuss his gender there too.
Throughout all of this, there is no option to say that you/your character is also transgender, despite the fact that you can choose a gender-nonconforming appearance and use they/them pronouns. You just have to stand there asking what a "transition" is like an idiot and have these characters explain surface-level facts about being trans to you.
I understand why it was put there - as a way to educate cis people - but it was clumsy and ground the whole game to a halt, and when you already know these things, it feels incredibly patronising to have to get 'taught' them by this game, especially with the sort of "You should never ever give away anyone's personal information without their permission!" tone it uses like you're a child at an internet safety lecture.
Positives:
- Generally wholesome and pleasant art style, aesthetics, and atmosphere.
- The backgrounds are pretty, particularly the apartment interiors. Was a big fan of the home your protagonist has with the fairy lights and the details like their collection of souvenir mugs.
- The variety in dogs is cool, with four to choose from, each of a different breed, personality, boosted stat, and backstory.
Neutral:
- The main focus is on the dog care rather than the romance for sure, so YMMV on whether that's a good or bad thing. I'm personally playing dating sims for the relationships and characters rather than the 'management sim'-esque aspect this has, so it wasn't the way I'd have preferred.
- The humour reminded me of Dream Daddy. Whether that's a plus or minus is subjective. For me, it was a minus; that kind of relentless, in-your-face goofiness that gets overplayed fast and makes it hard to take the game's attempts at heavier subject matter seriously.
Negatives:
- Why. Why. Why. Why isn't there a 'skip read text' button? Not only is that a mainstay feature of visual novels for a reason, I'd go as far as to say it's an essential one. The lack of one is the major reason behind why I'm not continuing with the other routes - I am absolutely not sitting here manually clicking through the entire story over again for the minute-long scenes you get with specific characters every so often.
- Dog events happen way too often. Like, within the span of about twenty seconds, I had to continuously stop progressing the story to comfort my cowering dog, then to pull it back from running away, then to pull it back from digging in the ground, then to pick up its poop. Begging you to let me read the damn dialogue.
- Continuing from the above, the randomised factor of when dog events trigger completely messes with the dating sim/emotional story beat aspect of the game. You'll be having your first kiss with your love interest or discussing their childhood trauma and your dog will be farting and taking shits that you have to stop to pick up. Is it funny to mention when you're not actively having it happen to you? Yes. Does it completely ruin it? Yes.
- Typos and spelling mistakes littered throughout the game; not frequently at all, but I noticed a fair few like "and" instead of "a", "through" instead of "throw", etc.
- When you're texting characters on your phone, the text speed of your replies is agonisingly slow and non-adjustable. With the main dialogue speed being adjustable in the settings menu, I don't know why this wasn't also affected by that toggle; no one wants to sit there and watch responses get typed out at less than one word per second for a whole conversation.
- Randomly tone shifts from cute slice-of-life in a utopia-esque town where everything is perfect to you getting violently robbed and knocked unconscious in the street out of nowhere. Huh? Huh???? Pick a vibe.
- The first scene on the bus leads you to think that the game is fully voice-acted, but as soon as the intro's over it shifts into only random noises and catchphrases being said out loud. They're incredibly repetitive and sometimes out-of-place, so I ended up just turning voice acting off.
Another negative point that is exclusive to Sacha's route is the handling of the trans themes. During his route, you meet his roommate who mentions Sacha's transition in front of you, and then the entire game grinds to a halt to force you to have a discussion about it. It was already obvious to me that Sacha was trans and I didn't really feel the need to question him about what his roommate meant by 'transition', because... I knew what he meant. So when given the dialogue options "Transition?" and something unrelated, I went with the unrelated one to progress the conversation, only for it to loop back around and force me to pick "Transition?" anyway. Sacha then acts shocked because "I thought you knew!" (I did), you ask him if his roommate was allowed to disclose that, and then all three of you sit down to have a PSA meeting about how you should never out someone without their consent but that it was okay for the roommate to do it in this instance because he had pre-received permission and Sacha isn't stealth but that in any other circumstance this would be bad and you should learn from this information. Later, you're also forced to confront Sacha's transphobic family and discuss his gender there too.
Throughout all of this, there is no option to say that you/your character is also transgender, despite the fact that you can choose a gender-nonconforming appearance and use they/them pronouns. You just have to stand there asking what a "transition" is like an idiot and have these characters explain surface-level facts about being trans to you.
I understand why it was put there - as a way to educate cis people - but it was clumsy and ground the whole game to a halt, and when you already know these things, it feels incredibly patronising to have to get 'taught' them by this game, especially with the sort of "You should never ever give away anyone's personal information without their permission!" tone it uses like you're a child at an internet safety lecture.
2013
I really enjoyed the art style (and aesthetic in general) of this one - it had a very specific, unique sort of vibe right down to the way the date looks in the top left corner. The characters being themed around both colours and card suits is interesting and hits on some tropes I love, and the visuals and art in general were pretty gorgeous; some of the proportions on the hands in certain CGs were questionable (and Kent's sprite makes his left arm look 50 metres long for some reason), but other than that they were great.
In the order that I did the routes:
KENT: I enjoyed this one way more than I thought I would. My general pattern with dating sims is to go for the one that least interests me first to a) get it out of the way, b) balance that out with the interest of seeing the story unfold for the first time, and c) save the best ones for last, but I think Kent might actually be my favourite of the options looking back on the game as a whole. He's endearing and very unintentionally funny in that sort of deadpan, dry way I love in my characters, and he's also very definitely a fellow autistic. This route was pretty sweet and low-drama from what I can recall, with the issues mostly centering around figuring out your communication with Kent, your amnesia, and how you'll approach him moving away at the end of the month.
IKKI: As a counterpoint to Kent's, I thought I'd like his route more than I did. The latter half of it somewhat made up for it, but the first half was pretty uncomfortable and wasn't particularly making me root for the relationship at all. I'm not a huge fan of Ikki's whole superpowered eyes thing he has going on - it might sound strange to say it considering there are other fantastical elements in the game, but it felt a little out-of-step with the tone of the rest of the story. His fan club is also cartoonishly evil and malicious, not just in his own route but in others too.
TOMA: Unfortunately I kind of knew the spoilers around this one before going into it thanks to recognising his name. Part of me wishes I hadn't so I could've experienced it blind, but there were still elements of it that surprised me, so I'm not too bothered by it. I'm pretty open to dark and toxic elements to fictional relationships - in fact, it'll probably pique my interest more than the alternative - but I will admit there were moments in this route that pushed a little too far into discomfort than I was anticipating. I'm not sure I buy his good ending and having him be forgiven so easily, but that's otome protagonists for you, I suppose.
SHIN: This one was genuinely pretty interesting. Each route has a slightly different genre focus - I'd say Kent's is more slice-of-life, Ikki's is romantic drama with some horror elements in the back half, and Toma's turns psychological thriller - and Shin's kicks off a heavier 'murder' mystery/detective angle that I thought was neat. I'm not entirely sure why he's so focused on in marketing and on the cover because there was nothing that made his route feel more 'canon' than the others, especially in comparison to Ukyo, but there were some good twists in here and I love Shin's design. He really was an asshole, though - there were a few things he said to the protagonist that were too far IMO and frankly crossed the line into verbal abuse for me.
UKYO: There's a lot I could say about the harmful and incredibly inaccurate depiction of DID here, but it's a game from 2013, so I'll try not to fixate on it (plus that would devolve into an entire generalised rant about its portrayal in media and I'm trying to keep this review more focused than that). This was a very different take than the other routes, which was to be expected, and I can see why he's a popular favourite, though he didn't quite take that spot for me. The ending ran into the same "forgiven far too easily" issue I had with Toma, but the good ending did actually make me pretty emotional (it was seeing Nhil and Orion in the human world that got me), so it was a pretty good beat to end on. It does leave some questions unanswered, though - to my knowledge, it's never specified whether 'the other Ukyo' is gone or not; there's no reason he would be, but he's never brought up again and it's treated as an uncomplicatedly happy ending with no more relationship issues, so is he no longer around? Is it not an obstacle anymore?
The only other criticism I have of this game is the frequency of the... I guess I have to call them loading screens? They're not there to actually load anything in, because they're instantly skippable, but for some reason the game has these fade-in fade-out screens pop up whenever a location changes or a new day begins, which sometimes results in you getting past a screen, reading 5-10 lines of dialogue, and immediately dealing with another screen, which gets especially irritating once the art on them starts to repeat as well. That's a minor nitpick, though, and once I figured out they responded to the skip function it was much less of an issue.
The minigames are pretty much nothing modes - it's a pretty tedious rock-paper-scissors game (that does admittedly get slightly more engaging once it speeds up, I believe once you've beaten 3 characters) and a clunky but minimally more fun air hockey contest. I'd only really advise doing them if you're going for the 100% like I was.
The soundtrack is also pretty ignorable - had some nice tracks, most notably the softer piano that played during more emotional moments and the more eerie chords that played during some scenes with Ukyo, Rika, or Toma, but it was mostly just inoffensive background tunes.
Favourite Male Character: Kent, but also shoutout to Waka who was hilarious. Almost regretted him not having a route, but I think I like him better as your mysterious manager
Favourite Female Character: Sawa and Mine, though I was pleasantly surprised by friendly Rika on Ukyo's route
First Character I Liked: Toma
Favourite Character Design: Shin
Favourite Moment: Seeing Nhil and Orion at the very end of Ukyo's good ending
Least Favourite Character: The random Ikki fan club girls, I suppose? It feels like cheating to say them, but there are no major characters I particularly disliked
In the order that I did the routes:
KENT: I enjoyed this one way more than I thought I would. My general pattern with dating sims is to go for the one that least interests me first to a) get it out of the way, b) balance that out with the interest of seeing the story unfold for the first time, and c) save the best ones for last, but I think Kent might actually be my favourite of the options looking back on the game as a whole. He's endearing and very unintentionally funny in that sort of deadpan, dry way I love in my characters, and he's also very definitely a fellow autistic. This route was pretty sweet and low-drama from what I can recall, with the issues mostly centering around figuring out your communication with Kent, your amnesia, and how you'll approach him moving away at the end of the month.
IKKI: As a counterpoint to Kent's, I thought I'd like his route more than I did. The latter half of it somewhat made up for it, but the first half was pretty uncomfortable and wasn't particularly making me root for the relationship at all. I'm not a huge fan of Ikki's whole superpowered eyes thing he has going on - it might sound strange to say it considering there are other fantastical elements in the game, but it felt a little out-of-step with the tone of the rest of the story. His fan club is also cartoonishly evil and malicious, not just in his own route but in others too.
TOMA: Unfortunately I kind of knew the spoilers around this one before going into it thanks to recognising his name. Part of me wishes I hadn't so I could've experienced it blind, but there were still elements of it that surprised me, so I'm not too bothered by it. I'm pretty open to dark and toxic elements to fictional relationships - in fact, it'll probably pique my interest more than the alternative - but I will admit there were moments in this route that pushed a little too far into discomfort than I was anticipating. I'm not sure I buy his good ending and having him be forgiven so easily, but that's otome protagonists for you, I suppose.
SHIN: This one was genuinely pretty interesting. Each route has a slightly different genre focus - I'd say Kent's is more slice-of-life, Ikki's is romantic drama with some horror elements in the back half, and Toma's turns psychological thriller - and Shin's kicks off a heavier 'murder' mystery/detective angle that I thought was neat. I'm not entirely sure why he's so focused on in marketing and on the cover because there was nothing that made his route feel more 'canon' than the others, especially in comparison to Ukyo, but there were some good twists in here and I love Shin's design. He really was an asshole, though - there were a few things he said to the protagonist that were too far IMO and frankly crossed the line into verbal abuse for me.
UKYO: There's a lot I could say about the harmful and incredibly inaccurate depiction of DID here, but it's a game from 2013, so I'll try not to fixate on it (plus that would devolve into an entire generalised rant about its portrayal in media and I'm trying to keep this review more focused than that). This was a very different take than the other routes, which was to be expected, and I can see why he's a popular favourite, though he didn't quite take that spot for me. The ending ran into the same "forgiven far too easily" issue I had with Toma, but the good ending did actually make me pretty emotional (it was seeing Nhil and Orion in the human world that got me), so it was a pretty good beat to end on. It does leave some questions unanswered, though - to my knowledge, it's never specified whether 'the other Ukyo' is gone or not; there's no reason he would be, but he's never brought up again and it's treated as an uncomplicatedly happy ending with no more relationship issues, so is he no longer around? Is it not an obstacle anymore?
The only other criticism I have of this game is the frequency of the... I guess I have to call them loading screens? They're not there to actually load anything in, because they're instantly skippable, but for some reason the game has these fade-in fade-out screens pop up whenever a location changes or a new day begins, which sometimes results in you getting past a screen, reading 5-10 lines of dialogue, and immediately dealing with another screen, which gets especially irritating once the art on them starts to repeat as well. That's a minor nitpick, though, and once I figured out they responded to the skip function it was much less of an issue.
The minigames are pretty much nothing modes - it's a pretty tedious rock-paper-scissors game (that does admittedly get slightly more engaging once it speeds up, I believe once you've beaten 3 characters) and a clunky but minimally more fun air hockey contest. I'd only really advise doing them if you're going for the 100% like I was.
The soundtrack is also pretty ignorable - had some nice tracks, most notably the softer piano that played during more emotional moments and the more eerie chords that played during some scenes with Ukyo, Rika, or Toma, but it was mostly just inoffensive background tunes.
Favourite Male Character: Kent, but also shoutout to Waka who was hilarious. Almost regretted him not having a route, but I think I like him better as your mysterious manager
Favourite Female Character: Sawa and Mine, though I was pleasantly surprised by friendly Rika on Ukyo's route
First Character I Liked: Toma
Favourite Character Design: Shin
Favourite Moment: Seeing Nhil and Orion at the very end of Ukyo's good ending
Least Favourite Character: The random Ikki fan club girls, I suppose? It feels like cheating to say them, but there are no major characters I particularly disliked
2022
This is actually really fun to play with my friend groups. It could do with some ironing out the parts that occasionally act up or are unfair - e.g. there's a "don't move" challenge that you'll fail instantly if you happened to already be moving before the instruction appeared, which you most likely will be because you're probably not just standing still between challenges, and I'd say at least once a game there's some instance of one of us getting told we've failed or passed one despite blatantly not doing so. That aside, especially for a free game it has good variety to keep your interest and make sure it doesn't stagnate, and rounds are fast-paced so you're almost always moving and doing something. Games are also a good length - it's pretty addictive, so we'll almost always say "one more round", get to the end, and then end up playing more and more because, well, the next one is starting anyway and that one was short, so we might as well, and now the next one is starting, rinse and repeat.
Some gameplay elements can take some getting used to - I and a few friends found the strafe-jumping to be a pain in the ass to control at first - but it's pretty simple once you get accustomed.
Not sure what it would be like playing with strangers, but half the fun for me comes from the voice chat and jokes with friends while playing so I'd guess there's less enjoyment playing that way.
Some gameplay elements can take some getting used to - I and a few friends found the strafe-jumping to be a pain in the ass to control at first - but it's pretty simple once you get accustomed.
Not sure what it would be like playing with strangers, but half the fun for me comes from the voice chat and jokes with friends while playing so I'd guess there's less enjoyment playing that way.
Usual disclaimer that my experience with Jackbox is entirely dipping in and out of games at random with my friend groups, so my reviews are based only on the games I've experienced until I potentially update with the ones I haven't gotten to try yet.
I really enjoyed Trivia Murder Party - I didn't expect to, as I find the more personal games more enjoyable than the plain objective trivia ones and I didn't think I had a lot of general knowledge, but through pure blind instinct I've never lost a game of this, so I must be doing alright. The little minigames between each round are surprisingly fun and nicely varied.
Push the Button is one of my favourite Jackbox games of all time; Among Us-esque, but with much more to do and a pretty broad range of minigames. It can get heated, which is saying a lot because I'm very chill and not competitive at all, so if you're someone who gets fired up over games this may set a burning rage aflame within you, and the timer can make things stressful - I find that with a certain number of players the timer just doesn't feel like it's long enough to have any fair chance at deducing the imposters' identities through all the games because there are just too many people to thoroughly test, particularly when hacking and thus the uncertainty of any task failure comes into play. I enjoyed most of the minigames enough to actively look forward to being selected for testing. Overall, pretty creative and gameplay-heavy (as long as you're not being neglected in being chosen for games).
Not a fan of Joke Boat, personally. This game got complete crickets from all of us, and, not to suck the dick of everyone in my friend group including myself, I don't think it's because we're not funny people - every other game we've tried consistently gets us crying with laughter. The prompts on this one are just so, so bad, and I did not see a single good opportunity for a clever joke throughout this entire thing.
I really enjoyed Trivia Murder Party - I didn't expect to, as I find the more personal games more enjoyable than the plain objective trivia ones and I didn't think I had a lot of general knowledge, but through pure blind instinct I've never lost a game of this, so I must be doing alright. The little minigames between each round are surprisingly fun and nicely varied.
Push the Button is one of my favourite Jackbox games of all time; Among Us-esque, but with much more to do and a pretty broad range of minigames. It can get heated, which is saying a lot because I'm very chill and not competitive at all, so if you're someone who gets fired up over games this may set a burning rage aflame within you, and the timer can make things stressful - I find that with a certain number of players the timer just doesn't feel like it's long enough to have any fair chance at deducing the imposters' identities through all the games because there are just too many people to thoroughly test, particularly when hacking and thus the uncertainty of any task failure comes into play. I enjoyed most of the minigames enough to actively look forward to being selected for testing. Overall, pretty creative and gameplay-heavy (as long as you're not being neglected in being chosen for games).
Not a fan of Joke Boat, personally. This game got complete crickets from all of us, and, not to suck the dick of everyone in my friend group including myself, I don't think it's because we're not funny people - every other game we've tried consistently gets us crying with laughter. The prompts on this one are just so, so bad, and I did not see a single good opportunity for a clever joke throughout this entire thing.
Hard to review Jackbox game packs because I dip in and out and only play certain games with friends and never experience others, so my rating is never going to be accurate to the entire package. That said, Fibbage: Enough About You is exactly up my alley (I get to talk about myself and force everyone to get to know my life in order to win? Count me in), and general Fibbage is fun in itself as per usual.
The one I find myself playing with friends most often is Monster Seeking Monster, and it's not uncommon at all for us to boot up this game purely for that. I'm not sure how much I'd like it if it wasn't for the group I have, but they love it and actively ask for it, and it's always incredibly fun with them. The various monster types and secret abilities keep things interesting and change the vibe up per game, and the way the scoreboard can change so drastically and suddenly is always a trip. We like to use anonymous names so we can't cheat the system by going for people we know better than others, people we know our humour lands with, etc.
Personally not a fan of Civic Doodle, but not because it's a bad game - it takes a pretty damn good drawing-type game to engage me because I suck at drawing in a way that is less "funny bad" and more just "impossible to enjoy bad", but some of my friends do like it, mostly the artists.
Love Survive the Internet, especially in larger friend groups; I'm lucky enough to have some hilarious people around me, and we always end up cracking up with some of the shit that comes out during this one. Quality varies heavily depending on players and the categories you're sent to, but overall it's a fun game with a lot of potential for shocking humour.
May update this if we do end up dipping into Bracketeering, but until then this score is based solely on those four games.
The one I find myself playing with friends most often is Monster Seeking Monster, and it's not uncommon at all for us to boot up this game purely for that. I'm not sure how much I'd like it if it wasn't for the group I have, but they love it and actively ask for it, and it's always incredibly fun with them. The various monster types and secret abilities keep things interesting and change the vibe up per game, and the way the scoreboard can change so drastically and suddenly is always a trip. We like to use anonymous names so we can't cheat the system by going for people we know better than others, people we know our humour lands with, etc.
Personally not a fan of Civic Doodle, but not because it's a bad game - it takes a pretty damn good drawing-type game to engage me because I suck at drawing in a way that is less "funny bad" and more just "impossible to enjoy bad", but some of my friends do like it, mostly the artists.
Love Survive the Internet, especially in larger friend groups; I'm lucky enough to have some hilarious people around me, and we always end up cracking up with some of the shit that comes out during this one. Quality varies heavily depending on players and the categories you're sent to, but overall it's a fun game with a lot of potential for shocking humour.
May update this if we do end up dipping into Bracketeering, but until then this score is based solely on those four games.
2011
Guilty pleasure-ass game.
I've been playing this since I was... 14? Which you'd think would mean I'm pretty far into it, but you'd be wrong because I had zero commitment and kept getting a few chapters in and then abandoning it before coming back on a fresh account. A couple of years ago I decided to actually get stuck in and try to finish it so I could move onto the sequels (which look genuinely kinda interesting and have some really cool character designs going on), and the QoL updates it's gotten since I last played are great.
The sprites and art were all updated and animated, translation was improved, and the one I most appreciated - the Action Points have been changed so you no longer use up AP by moving room to room, but per dialogue choice. I've seen a lot of people complaining about that and asking them to bring back the previous system, which genuinely surprises me because this means I've been using up way less - before I'd find myself going from room to room and back again in repetitive cycles because the characters weren't appearing in locations until a few tries in, whereas now I can wander around as much as I want and not have to worry about unlucky RNG fucking me over and using up my points.
The first few episodes are really rough - immature writing, cliches, wonky dialogue - but it really improves the deeper into the game you get. I'm around Episode 31 now and I've been genuinely enjoying it. Having to log in to get the free daily APs and coins is a bit of a pain, but it takes a couple of minutes max and within a month you'll have about 600 AP which, along with the fact that most episodes give you a bonus amount at the start to keep you going, should be enough to clear a full episode or two each time which works for me.
Castiel is my favourite, predictably, and always has been, but I think once I get to the sequel I'll really like Priya's route too.
Favourite Male Character: Castiel
Favourite Female Character: Kim, though Priya might take it once I get to the sequel
First Character I Liked: Castiel - if I remember correctly he's why I became interested in the first place
Favourite Character Design: Kim
Least Favourite Character: Capucine
I've been playing this since I was... 14? Which you'd think would mean I'm pretty far into it, but you'd be wrong because I had zero commitment and kept getting a few chapters in and then abandoning it before coming back on a fresh account. A couple of years ago I decided to actually get stuck in and try to finish it so I could move onto the sequels (which look genuinely kinda interesting and have some really cool character designs going on), and the QoL updates it's gotten since I last played are great.
The sprites and art were all updated and animated, translation was improved, and the one I most appreciated - the Action Points have been changed so you no longer use up AP by moving room to room, but per dialogue choice. I've seen a lot of people complaining about that and asking them to bring back the previous system, which genuinely surprises me because this means I've been using up way less - before I'd find myself going from room to room and back again in repetitive cycles because the characters weren't appearing in locations until a few tries in, whereas now I can wander around as much as I want and not have to worry about unlucky RNG fucking me over and using up my points.
The first few episodes are really rough - immature writing, cliches, wonky dialogue - but it really improves the deeper into the game you get. I'm around Episode 31 now and I've been genuinely enjoying it. Having to log in to get the free daily APs and coins is a bit of a pain, but it takes a couple of minutes max and within a month you'll have about 600 AP which, along with the fact that most episodes give you a bonus amount at the start to keep you going, should be enough to clear a full episode or two each time which works for me.
Castiel is my favourite, predictably, and always has been, but I think once I get to the sequel I'll really like Priya's route too.
Favourite Male Character: Castiel
Favourite Female Character: Kim, though Priya might take it once I get to the sequel
First Character I Liked: Castiel - if I remember correctly he's why I became interested in the first place
Favourite Character Design: Kim
Least Favourite Character: Capucine
2023
is that ada fucking wong and ashley graham in the cover picture
2020
Someone else's review said "Words are sometimes not enough to describe something" and frankly I concur.
This game was rough. I like to push my limits a little with visual novels sometimes, so I saw everyone talking about how fucked up this one gets and figured I'd give it a shot. I got all the endings, and one of them was so genuinely depressing and bleak that I immediately rushed through every other outcome so I could palate cleanse my brain and forget about that one. It's been a few years since I played it, and so normally I'd replay it again to refresh my memory before reviewing, but I can't bring myself to get through this one again - it's definitely a 'play it once and then put it down forever' kind of experience.
There were some scenes I had to physically look away from and just mash skip until it was over (I'm thinking specifically of one moment where one of them has to hammer a nail through the other one's hand), and I was so incredibly not a fan of the enema scene, but at least there's a handy 'no visuals please' button for that one.
I found the psychological elements of this one really interesting, the question of whether physical trauma vs. psychological trauma is worse and which one you'd choose to go through if given the option (though I do think it would have been more engaging to get to make those decisions yourself). You can get some pretty varied endings, and I found it interesting to see how earlier scenes and the dynamic between the two main characters changes subtly depending on the 'route' you're on.
I don't think I can put a star rating on this one. I kind of like it, I kind of hate it, I still think about it often, I never want to play it again.
This game was rough. I like to push my limits a little with visual novels sometimes, so I saw everyone talking about how fucked up this one gets and figured I'd give it a shot. I got all the endings, and one of them was so genuinely depressing and bleak that I immediately rushed through every other outcome so I could palate cleanse my brain and forget about that one. It's been a few years since I played it, and so normally I'd replay it again to refresh my memory before reviewing, but I can't bring myself to get through this one again - it's definitely a 'play it once and then put it down forever' kind of experience.
There were some scenes I had to physically look away from and just mash skip until it was over (I'm thinking specifically of one moment where one of them has to hammer a nail through the other one's hand), and I was so incredibly not a fan of the enema scene, but at least there's a handy 'no visuals please' button for that one.
I found the psychological elements of this one really interesting, the question of whether physical trauma vs. psychological trauma is worse and which one you'd choose to go through if given the option (though I do think it would have been more engaging to get to make those decisions yourself). You can get some pretty varied endings, and I found it interesting to see how earlier scenes and the dynamic between the two main characters changes subtly depending on the 'route' you're on.
I don't think I can put a star rating on this one. I kind of like it, I kind of hate it, I still think about it often, I never want to play it again.
2016
Well, the original release of the game had a man raping the lesbian protagonist and her deciding she enjoyed it, and when I tried to play the patched version Without that scene I found out it still has the lesbian enjoying sex with a man (but consensually this time).
So there's that.
So there's that.
I'll just copy and paste my initial post on the forums after I first finished it:
I’m late to the party, but I just finished this for the first time and… I’m honestly incredibly let down. I’m a long-time fan of the author - Heroes Rise has always held a special place in my heart as the first CoG series I got emotionally invested in, and I really enjoyed the first two Versus books, enough to keep up with their development via his other platforms. I’ve defended his writing for years. I also have pretty chill standards for games - I enjoy a lot of things other people dislike because as long as I have fun playing it I don’t really care about technical flaws - but…
Firstly, I agree with the person earlier in this thread who said the Heroes Rise tie-in was essentially false advertising. We were promised a continuation, closure, and answers - instead, we got an unnamed brief cameo in a single optional paragraph right at the end that answered nothing and had them not contributing at all to the main story.
The sheer laziness and rushed feeling of some parts of the book were impossible to ignore. On multiple occasions, entire event-filled days during the lead-up to the climax were skipped over in veins such as “a lot of dangerous and important trials were faced yesterday but honestly it’s just too overwhelming to think about in-depth so let’s move on to the next day” - what? The hyped-up Deathscapes journey is integral to the atmosphere and story. If you’re not going to bother to tell us what we did during it, don’t insert an itemised list of Awesome Things that supposedly occurred but that we’re missing out on. Just say nothing important took place until now. And the sheer arrogance of little asides such as “well, if you really want to know what you all did, maybe you should write the story for yourself” - we’re paying for the story here!
The romances were so empty and thrown-away, and it’s bizarre that Heroes Rise, a years old trilogy, had more in-depth and well-written relationships than this did. I tend to do one playthrough of a game for each romance option because I love experiencing them all and focusing on every character one by one, but after finishing this one, for the first time I honestly feel so unmotivated to do that here. My first playthrough was with Lady Venuma and Breeze, and the ending had my character Reborn to Prisca, Lady Venuma promising to find me and stick with Breeze but then being Reborn to her own area and remaining there without contact, and Breeze remaining stuck on Versus alone for the foreseeable future. I honestly tried to ignore that and told myself after the “we’ll meet again someday” conversation that it was still fulfilling, but it wasn’t.
Even the friendships were hollow - at the end of the game, I was told I was best friends with Pinkuju and that she’d been there every step of the way, but we’d barely interacted all series! It suddenly decided we were close because I happened to pick her for one single “who do you want to talk to?” option right at the end. The choice to brush off all of the major characters from the first two books in one fell swoop and make us play the entire last book with side characters was incomprehensible. It only resulted in the characters we’d bonded with and were interested in (and potentially had romanced) being pushed to the side, while after so long of waiting for this finale we had to experience it with new characters we’d barely spoken to and had far less personality.
I don’t know if it’s because I’ve frankly grown out of his writing, but I also tire of the clunky pages of unnatural exposition and childish, made-up names for things and fake swear words. Like someone said earlier, I can’t take things seriously and be emotionally devastated if you’re throwing words at me like “blerg”, “Blots” and “Cadet Gadget”.
The rail-roading, and the fact that many players experienced an ending that outright stated “this wasn’t canon, try again” and sent them all the way back to the beginning of the lengthy book, is awful. If you want to write a set story with set events and a set outcome, write a novel. I truly think it would be a great one. Perhaps that’s what his writing is suited for. But if you’re going to write an interactive, choice-based game, this is not how you do it. You don’t promise choices and consequences, freedom and independence of action, and then throw out retcons and “no that wasn’t the right route”s. His games ultimately don’t let you choose what you do - they tell you what you do, and if you’re really lucky, you can decide how you feel or think about the fact that you did it. Often, though, he’ll just tell you how you feel too.
Sergei’s world-building and lore continues to be amazing, and I’ve never minded the long detailed run-downs because I was truly interested. His concepts and ideas for stories are also amazing. But that’s just not enough to pull me through anymore. I’m a character- and relationship- oriented person, and it seems that with every instalment in his repertoire, those fall more and more by the wayside to service his decided-upon ‘true route’.
I see that he’s continuing the series with a comic book, but sadly I won’t be continuing with him. We’ve been promised closure and answers multiple times now, and honestly it really does feel like we’re borderline being scammed into buying more and more books looking for continuations we’ll never get.
I’m late to the party, but I just finished this for the first time and… I’m honestly incredibly let down. I’m a long-time fan of the author - Heroes Rise has always held a special place in my heart as the first CoG series I got emotionally invested in, and I really enjoyed the first two Versus books, enough to keep up with their development via his other platforms. I’ve defended his writing for years. I also have pretty chill standards for games - I enjoy a lot of things other people dislike because as long as I have fun playing it I don’t really care about technical flaws - but…
Firstly, I agree with the person earlier in this thread who said the Heroes Rise tie-in was essentially false advertising. We were promised a continuation, closure, and answers - instead, we got an unnamed brief cameo in a single optional paragraph right at the end that answered nothing and had them not contributing at all to the main story.
The sheer laziness and rushed feeling of some parts of the book were impossible to ignore. On multiple occasions, entire event-filled days during the lead-up to the climax were skipped over in veins such as “a lot of dangerous and important trials were faced yesterday but honestly it’s just too overwhelming to think about in-depth so let’s move on to the next day” - what? The hyped-up Deathscapes journey is integral to the atmosphere and story. If you’re not going to bother to tell us what we did during it, don’t insert an itemised list of Awesome Things that supposedly occurred but that we’re missing out on. Just say nothing important took place until now. And the sheer arrogance of little asides such as “well, if you really want to know what you all did, maybe you should write the story for yourself” - we’re paying for the story here!
The romances were so empty and thrown-away, and it’s bizarre that Heroes Rise, a years old trilogy, had more in-depth and well-written relationships than this did. I tend to do one playthrough of a game for each romance option because I love experiencing them all and focusing on every character one by one, but after finishing this one, for the first time I honestly feel so unmotivated to do that here. My first playthrough was with Lady Venuma and Breeze, and the ending had my character Reborn to Prisca, Lady Venuma promising to find me and stick with Breeze but then being Reborn to her own area and remaining there without contact, and Breeze remaining stuck on Versus alone for the foreseeable future. I honestly tried to ignore that and told myself after the “we’ll meet again someday” conversation that it was still fulfilling, but it wasn’t.
Even the friendships were hollow - at the end of the game, I was told I was best friends with Pinkuju and that she’d been there every step of the way, but we’d barely interacted all series! It suddenly decided we were close because I happened to pick her for one single “who do you want to talk to?” option right at the end. The choice to brush off all of the major characters from the first two books in one fell swoop and make us play the entire last book with side characters was incomprehensible. It only resulted in the characters we’d bonded with and were interested in (and potentially had romanced) being pushed to the side, while after so long of waiting for this finale we had to experience it with new characters we’d barely spoken to and had far less personality.
I don’t know if it’s because I’ve frankly grown out of his writing, but I also tire of the clunky pages of unnatural exposition and childish, made-up names for things and fake swear words. Like someone said earlier, I can’t take things seriously and be emotionally devastated if you’re throwing words at me like “blerg”, “Blots” and “Cadet Gadget”.
The rail-roading, and the fact that many players experienced an ending that outright stated “this wasn’t canon, try again” and sent them all the way back to the beginning of the lengthy book, is awful. If you want to write a set story with set events and a set outcome, write a novel. I truly think it would be a great one. Perhaps that’s what his writing is suited for. But if you’re going to write an interactive, choice-based game, this is not how you do it. You don’t promise choices and consequences, freedom and independence of action, and then throw out retcons and “no that wasn’t the right route”s. His games ultimately don’t let you choose what you do - they tell you what you do, and if you’re really lucky, you can decide how you feel or think about the fact that you did it. Often, though, he’ll just tell you how you feel too.
Sergei’s world-building and lore continues to be amazing, and I’ve never minded the long detailed run-downs because I was truly interested. His concepts and ideas for stories are also amazing. But that’s just not enough to pull me through anymore. I’m a character- and relationship- oriented person, and it seems that with every instalment in his repertoire, those fall more and more by the wayside to service his decided-upon ‘true route’.
I see that he’s continuing the series with a comic book, but sadly I won’t be continuing with him. We’ve been promised closure and answers multiple times now, and honestly it really does feel like we’re borderline being scammed into buying more and more books looking for continuations we’ll never get.
The high point of the Versus series before the next game brought it all crashing down.
The sci-fi/extraterrestrial meets Hunger Games premise continues to be interesting and full of potential, and in the hands of a better author it might have capitalised on it. I enjoyed the new range of romance options introduced in this one; none of the choices in this series really reached out and grabbed me above all others, but they were all decent enough and pretty varied in personality/outlook.
Genuinely, wholeheartedly, I recommend you play the first book and this one and then just stop. Make up your own ending. I guarantee it will be better than the official one.
The sci-fi/extraterrestrial meets Hunger Games premise continues to be interesting and full of potential, and in the hands of a better author it might have capitalised on it. I enjoyed the new range of romance options introduced in this one; none of the choices in this series really reached out and grabbed me above all others, but they were all decent enough and pretty varied in personality/outlook.
Genuinely, wholeheartedly, I recommend you play the first book and this one and then just stop. Make up your own ending. I guarantee it will be better than the official one.
Written by the same author behind The Hero Project/Heroes Rise, so if you weren't into the more railroad-y aspects of that one, you probably won't be converted by this series.
Having said that, Versus had so much potential. It's really hard for me to recommend the series wholeheartedly anymore because of the absolute garbage fire the third game was, which has retroactively left such a sour taste in my mouth over the first two as well, but I'm trying to evaluate this one in itself right now.
It still has that annoying Sergei trait of him randomly throwing in the worst sci-fi words you've ever heard (why are the villains called "Blots"? Why is "blarg" a swear word? Why do you think I'll be able to take your game seriously if I'm in some sort of emotional final stand battle and a character's yelling, "Oh blarg, the Blot Emperor is coming to suck our souls out, we have to run for the Bliffenship and escape to Planet Bonk"), but if you try real hard to ignore that it's a pretty alright experience. I prefer the sequel to this one, but this has some interesting set-up and introduces a lot of pretty unique and cool concepts and ideas.
The setting is interesting - sort of sci-fi/extraterrestrial meets Hunger Games. I've always wanted more Hunger Games-esque plots in my interactive fiction, so it's pretty up my alley in that sense.
Having said that, Versus had so much potential. It's really hard for me to recommend the series wholeheartedly anymore because of the absolute garbage fire the third game was, which has retroactively left such a sour taste in my mouth over the first two as well, but I'm trying to evaluate this one in itself right now.
It still has that annoying Sergei trait of him randomly throwing in the worst sci-fi words you've ever heard (why are the villains called "Blots"? Why is "blarg" a swear word? Why do you think I'll be able to take your game seriously if I'm in some sort of emotional final stand battle and a character's yelling, "Oh blarg, the Blot Emperor is coming to suck our souls out, we have to run for the Bliffenship and escape to Planet Bonk"), but if you try real hard to ignore that it's a pretty alright experience. I prefer the sequel to this one, but this has some interesting set-up and introduces a lot of pretty unique and cool concepts and ideas.
The setting is interesting - sort of sci-fi/extraterrestrial meets Hunger Games. I've always wanted more Hunger Games-esque plots in my interactive fiction, so it's pretty up my alley in that sense.
A step up in quality and choice from the first game, though still behind the general CoG standard. I actually really liked the reality TV show angle this one went for; participating in the competition was fun, unravelling the conspiracy at the heart of it was interesting, and meeting a broader cast of characters, both new and returning, was great.
The Hero Project also introduces a new major romance option in the form of Lucky, and allows you to begin to feel out a relationship with Jenny, though the two most interesting options still don't come into play until the third game.
However! This one does have the infamous "LGBTQ+ exposition/debate dump" midway through, which I always thought people were exaggerating about, but no, it genuinely is that bad. As an LGBTQ+ man who LOVES inclusivity and diversity in my games and has absolutely zero patience for anyone who refers to that as 'pandering' or 'forced', trust me when I say this isn't the typical "baaah gayness exists in my game get it away from me". It's, like, three pages of a completely out-of-place argument between every character present about the correct terminology to use and fighting about which LGBTQ+ stereotype is more damaging and which of them has it worse. Relatedly, Sergei (the author) seems to think having his stereotypically attractive cis white gay man respond to every criticism from any other character he offends with "Oh yeah? Well I'm pretty and that's hard for me too! Didn't think about that did you!" is some kind of slam dunk gotcha every time. That exact conversation happens twice in this book and makes the same point each time and it always ends with this guy getting the last word. I don't know why you're trying to get me to side with the guy who refers to a trans woman character as "just a gay man trapped in a woman's body", but it's not working, my dude.
The Hero Project also introduces a new major romance option in the form of Lucky, and allows you to begin to feel out a relationship with Jenny, though the two most interesting options still don't come into play until the third game.
However! This one does have the infamous "LGBTQ+ exposition/debate dump" midway through, which I always thought people were exaggerating about, but no, it genuinely is that bad. As an LGBTQ+ man who LOVES inclusivity and diversity in my games and has absolutely zero patience for anyone who refers to that as 'pandering' or 'forced', trust me when I say this isn't the typical "baaah gayness exists in my game get it away from me". It's, like, three pages of a completely out-of-place argument between every character present about the correct terminology to use and fighting about which LGBTQ+ stereotype is more damaging and which of them has it worse. Relatedly, Sergei (the author) seems to think having his stereotypically attractive cis white gay man respond to every criticism from any other character he offends with "Oh yeah? Well I'm pretty and that's hard for me too! Didn't think about that did you!" is some kind of slam dunk gotcha every time. That exact conversation happens twice in this book and makes the same point each time and it always ends with this guy getting the last word. I don't know why you're trying to get me to side with the guy who refers to a trans woman character as "just a gay man trapped in a woman's body", but it's not working, my dude.
I'm so fond of this funky little series. It's more railroaded than most CoG titles are, and I have my issues with the author, but this was the first title I played on the website so it has a special place in my heart. The first game is kind of shallow in comparison to where the story would go in The Hero Project and Heroes Rise: HeroFall (the sequels), and the romance is essentially not present at all here unless you count Black Magic who is basically forced upon you (BIG no-no in CoG games, they're all about choice and player agency), but in my opinion it doesn't deserve the sheer level of mockery directed at it these days.
Other CoG games are much better and offer much more player choice and variation in routes, but this is a good first experience of the genre to get used to the playstyle without getting overwhelmed, and it's still a story worth experiencing.
Other CoG games are much better and offer much more player choice and variation in routes, but this is a good first experience of the genre to get used to the playstyle without getting overwhelmed, and it's still a story worth experiencing.