...that GoG started to expand their portfolio of visual novels. That's still a genre where it's hard to avoid steam if you can't read Japanese. Idk the sales numbers, but the audience is there and it's very active considering the many projects on kickstarter etc. Good for the quality of new games. That said, there's still a long way to go until GoG catches up. @elmusafir: This is supposed to be the mangagamer version, which I own. It is voiced. @prudes&homophobes: just go where you belong.
Full of big surprises, Ch.5 offers many explanations, but also raises several big new questions that may or may not be resolved in the following chapters. While I would call Satoko's chapter the most moving chapter so far (I really cried a lot), Ch5 is probably the best one story-wise. Without revealing too much, Satoko's resolve and strength is even higher and sadder than before. What a girl! Satoko now is my favorite character by far followed, by Rena and Mion (yes, Mion - read this chapter). This is an absolute must read! 5/5, 100/100, 100%.
* Start early in the morning -- you won't stop before you finished it. * Have a full Kleenex box by your side After Ch.2 it was hard for me to imagine it could be topped. I was wrong. They did. This time the main story line is centered around Satoko's sad life. It is written very realistic and with savage honesty. Everyone has heard or read about these things, or experienced them themselves. This story is the best they wrote so far. The final act has so many plot twists that you will beyond any doubt lose your sense of reality. And the /finale grande/ is the least supernatural of the three chapters, and simultaneously the most tragic one. For all fans of the first two chaptes this chapter is a must-play.
This time the 5 protagonists (plus a new supporting role) the history of the 3 leading families of Hinamizawa, lead by the Sonozaki family whose heiress is Mion. It's set at the same time as Chapter 1, with Keiichi having just moved to the village and the Festival coming up. As in Chapter 1, things get messy during and right after the Festival. Really messy this time. And by saying that, I mean really, really, really messy. The story is even better this time, the characters better worked out, and there's much more suspense, much more horror, many more questions. As in Ch.1, the first act is slow, mostly in school, setting the stage. It's shorter this time, and that's good. The third act might shake up what came to know and love in Ch.1 quite a lot. Enough said, any more would be a major spoiler. Just so much: I shed quite a lot of tears in Ch.3. Anyway, as in the previous chapter, once you finished, the Extra unlocks, which discusses the events from the view of the actors playing Mion and everyone else (that's what they say they are and what's reasonable considering it's a different story and the dead have risen) who get together to read the scipt for Ch.3. Of course, many questions remain unanswered to tease Ch.3, which I will buy right now. Strong suggestion! But if haven't yet, play Ch.1 before starting this one.
While this is only the first chapter in the Watanagashi series, it is a complete story in its own right. And what a story it is! Starting off *very* slowly as what seems to be the simple slice-of-life story of a young man/boy whose parents moved to a small village with a dark mystery. In his new school he befriends 4 girls and joins their very competitive game "club". But when a man is found dead after a yearly religious ceremony/festival, things quickly take a turn to the dark side... To be honest, I almost quit after 3-ish hours because it seemed cute and occasionally funny, but the characters were (still) flat and boring. Background art (real phoptographs with a few photoshop art filters), music score (if you can call it that), and generally everything seemed put together quite lackluster. This impression quickly changed after the incidents at the festival and I couldn't wait to finish this vn. Total reading time: around 12 hours. I'm eager to get to the next chapter. strongly recommended!
I had played milestone one right after eden* (mangagamer.com version), which plays in a league of its own. Perhaps that's why I gave only 4* there. Milestone two was really great fun and a thrilling story. It's a bit longer than milestone one and deals with societal problems. Early industrialization inequality, exploitation and discrimination versus peaceful and egalitarian quasi-communism. strong recommendation
I'm 3 hours in and can already say it's one of the better and more interesting vn's. The characters are just a tiny bit bland so far, but that may change later on. Their appearance fits their roles very nicely. Having started playing it immediately after finishing eden* (mangagames.com version), wich in my opinion plays in its own class far above other vn's, fault:ms1 was at a natural disadvantage. I might have rated it 5 stars otherwise.
Although the game is free at time of this writing, that's still too expensive. It costs you the time to install it, run it once, find out that the controls are crap and uninstalling it. At the rate I charge my customers, that would be worth about 15-20 €
This game is so much fun to play. I did consult a walkthrough from time to time just to discover there is a really logical solution I could have found myself. Follow the developer's hints and talk to everything you encounter. It's a lot of fun and sometimes can contain small hints. You can also use the pen on every clickable in the game. Mostly it's only smiley faces, but sometimes its funny and may contain hints. Some critics have said the English translation and narration is bad -- I thjink it's the other way round. The voice acting in the original German version is so bad I didn't stand it and switched to English. Much better voice acting, so the jokes are much more believable than in German; also, they have been translated very well. This is by no means a short game. It's easy enough not to get angry at it, and it's hard enough to keep you at it. To sum it up: Edna&Harvey: The Breakout is one of the best and most relaxing point&click adventures I've ever played -- and I played a lot of them. A very relaxing experience. I bought it on special offer for 1.99, but in retrospective It's also worth the full price here on GoG. HAVE FUN!
