Yurukill is a unique mix of Visual Novel, Bullet Hell shoot-em up and Escape Room game. Each aspect is solid, but aren't particularly amazing. That said, I thought it was a decent package overall.
The story is interesting even though it's fairly predictable. For a mystery story, it wasn't particularly complex with multiple layers or even many plot twists. Instead, it's surprisingly straightforward.
You'll understand 80% of the mystery by just the halfway point of the game. For what's it's worth, the resolution was solid and it ended on a high note while leaving a small hook for a possible sequel.
The characters aren't anything amazing and could even be described as tropey most of the time. That said, they are mostly surprisingly likable characters with a decent amount of depth.
Most of the gameplay loop starts with the Escape Room portion then shoot em up portion. The Escape Room as expected is full of puzzles to solve. They range from shockingly simple to some pretty difficult ones. Each puzzle gives you three hints that you can use anytime you want. There's no penalty on using them and they can be very helpful if you get stuck. For some puzzles, the final hint practically spells out the answer.
The shoot em up portion is an odd addition to a VN/Puzzle game, but there's a rationale for it in the story, as strangely as it is. The gameplay itself is fun and a bit difficult at times as par of the genre. In between the shoot em stages within the same chapter are the deduction phases where you need to use evidence to support a claim. I found this part to be tricky in an otherwise straightforward game. It's not always clear what the answer is which is annoying since every wrong answer causes you to lose 3 lives. On Normal, I lost more lives on these portions than the actual shoot em up portion.
The Visual Novel parts accounted for about 60% of the game which included the Escape Room puzzle portions. The shoot em up portion is about 40%.
The soundtrack particularly the shoot em up sections were great.
The VN presentation is pretty decent with the characters designs/sprites being a large standout.
Overall, the game was fun and the story was interesting enough to keep me engaged. It's not a long game though and it took me only 11 hours to clear the game. 10 if I didn't get a game over on one level and had to restart from the beginning of the shoot em up phase.
The story is interesting even though it's fairly predictable. For a mystery story, it wasn't particularly complex with multiple layers or even many plot twists. Instead, it's surprisingly straightforward.
You'll understand 80% of the mystery by just the halfway point of the game. For what's it's worth, the resolution was solid and it ended on a high note while leaving a small hook for a possible sequel.
The characters aren't anything amazing and could even be described as tropey most of the time. That said, they are mostly surprisingly likable characters with a decent amount of depth.
Most of the gameplay loop starts with the Escape Room portion then shoot em up portion. The Escape Room as expected is full of puzzles to solve. They range from shockingly simple to some pretty difficult ones. Each puzzle gives you three hints that you can use anytime you want. There's no penalty on using them and they can be very helpful if you get stuck. For some puzzles, the final hint practically spells out the answer.
The shoot em up portion is an odd addition to a VN/Puzzle game, but there's a rationale for it in the story, as strangely as it is. The gameplay itself is fun and a bit difficult at times as par of the genre. In between the shoot em stages within the same chapter are the deduction phases where you need to use evidence to support a claim. I found this part to be tricky in an otherwise straightforward game. It's not always clear what the answer is which is annoying since every wrong answer causes you to lose 3 lives. On Normal, I lost more lives on these portions than the actual shoot em up portion.
The Visual Novel parts accounted for about 60% of the game which included the Escape Room puzzle portions. The shoot em up portion is about 40%.
The soundtrack particularly the shoot em up sections were great.
The VN presentation is pretty decent with the characters designs/sprites being a large standout.
Overall, the game was fun and the story was interesting enough to keep me engaged. It's not a long game though and it took me only 11 hours to clear the game. 10 if I didn't get a game over on one level and had to restart from the beginning of the shoot em up phase.