This review contains spoilers
Very conflicted about this.
This is very much a game that is wildly all over the place with it's ambitions, and while it definetely lands on some of them, the ones that it does not feel lacking.
I liked the overall story. While it's obviously very much infused with modern China, and it's not even very subtle about it (out with the old, in with the new, the HK protests, etc.), it still manages to tell a somewhat cohesive story, barring all of the sci-fi mcguffin that's happening all over the place (for example how did a teenage girl from school with barely any information managed to clone a human from hair? whatever, it's sci-fi, and maybe it's a metaphor, who knows).
The music is very much well done and fits a lot of the sequences in the game.
The more abstract and imo better sequences start from chapter 2, and I'm glad that I managed to power through the very slow chapter 1, it definetely "got better".
Some pretty cool shot composition and work with the camera.
Now for the things that are not quite to my taste, I guess.
The actual text - was sometimes really hard to go through. I'd probably say that it's a localisation problem, but most of the dialogues don't read that great (or maybe the game is going for something, after all, people in THESE circumstances are not exactly the best chatters).
The voiceover - IMO - pretty bad. It might be a language barrier problem, since most (?) of the VO credits are asian, but they probably should've hired someone native for this. Don't get me wrong, it's good that it's here, it helps with the text, but a VO supervisor in me is dying inside most of the time. I would probably not ship it with these voices. But i guess for an indie production, that is very china-adjacent - it's alright.
The hub. You'll get it when you get there. It's probably the biggest piece of friction in this otherwise almost VN-like game, and I'm not sure if it's intentional. Even the Old Town is better than the hub.
The "future" visual aesthetic plays a role with giving colors and distinct understanding of wtf the charatcter is supposed to be, but I feel that this style is very uninspired, and could be done better. But i guess it helps with the metaphors. (Red = bad).
Anyway, I still think that I liked it overall, and with maybe a bit more money and a more diverse team it could be even greater, but it is what it is.
This is very much a game that is wildly all over the place with it's ambitions, and while it definetely lands on some of them, the ones that it does not feel lacking.
I liked the overall story. While it's obviously very much infused with modern China, and it's not even very subtle about it (out with the old, in with the new, the HK protests, etc.), it still manages to tell a somewhat cohesive story, barring all of the sci-fi mcguffin that's happening all over the place (for example how did a teenage girl from school with barely any information managed to clone a human from hair? whatever, it's sci-fi, and maybe it's a metaphor, who knows).
The music is very much well done and fits a lot of the sequences in the game.
The more abstract and imo better sequences start from chapter 2, and I'm glad that I managed to power through the very slow chapter 1, it definetely "got better".
Some pretty cool shot composition and work with the camera.
Now for the things that are not quite to my taste, I guess.
The actual text - was sometimes really hard to go through. I'd probably say that it's a localisation problem, but most of the dialogues don't read that great (or maybe the game is going for something, after all, people in THESE circumstances are not exactly the best chatters).
The voiceover - IMO - pretty bad. It might be a language barrier problem, since most (?) of the VO credits are asian, but they probably should've hired someone native for this. Don't get me wrong, it's good that it's here, it helps with the text, but a VO supervisor in me is dying inside most of the time. I would probably not ship it with these voices. But i guess for an indie production, that is very china-adjacent - it's alright.
The hub. You'll get it when you get there. It's probably the biggest piece of friction in this otherwise almost VN-like game, and I'm not sure if it's intentional. Even the Old Town is better than the hub.
The "future" visual aesthetic plays a role with giving colors and distinct understanding of wtf the charatcter is supposed to be, but I feel that this style is very uninspired, and could be done better. But i guess it helps with the metaphors. (Red = bad).
Anyway, I still think that I liked it overall, and with maybe a bit more money and a more diverse team it could be even greater, but it is what it is.