Blankspace

Blankspace
N/A
Metacritic
91
Steam
61.5
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$9.99
Release date
23 July 2020
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
91 (61 votes)

Blankspace is an escape room visual novel with point-and-click elements. Interact with Beryl, investigate your surroundings, solve puzzles, and find your way out of a strange-looking room!

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Blankspace system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows XP SP1 and up
  • Processor: 1.7 Ghz Pentium 4
  • Memory: 1 GB RAM
  • Graphics: 1920 x 1080
  • DirectX: Version 9.0c
  • Storage: 1 GB available space

Recommended:

Recommended requirements are not yet specified.
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
1228600
Platforms
Windows PC
Linux
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Killy the Bid
Killy the Bid

It's alright. The puzzles are satisfying and the narrative lays a really good and interesting groundwork, but it doesn't really stick the landing in my opinion. I should say I got the true end, so the problem is not that my specific variation of the ending was unsatisfying, more that it set up a really interesting premise that never really got explored. In the sort-of pre-ending, if you will, there's a fairly powerful moment I think that's a little hampered by some... factors of the storytelling. Basically it is set up to be very challenging, in a good way, but it fumbles the ball a little (trying not to spoil here).

Part of it was that while the story is interesting, it wasn't totally for me. The characters are good, but not amazing. The romance is fine, not great. It feels like it's simultaneously too long and too short for my tastes, if that makes any sense. Like sometimes the story goes too slow when it should pick up a little and other times it speeds through what should be taken a bit slower, though most of that probably has to do with particular design choices they made to get around your character getting help with the puzzles.

Idk, it feels like it's trying to be edgy Phoenix Wright (though maybe that's just because I haven't played that many anime visual novels), but it feels like it stops right before the really interesting parts. As is we know a lot about one of our main characters, but almost nothing about the other.

Also, I'll admit it, I installed the 18+ DLC, and end result: it's a mixed bag. It adds a bit to the character interactions, and definitely reads as the way the authors intended for this story to be digested, but it's also a bit awkward due to how everything fits together. It's fine, unoffensive, but not great.

Overall? Better than some visual novels, the point-and-click puzzles are really interesting, but the end result is a story that's paced weirdly and wasn't fully developed.

PapaEthanF
PapaEthanF

The intended emotional payoff at the end fails to work due to a lack of time dedicated to giving me a reason to care about these characters. Try this dev's older work, SoulSet, for something that's slightly better but has a similar visual and writing style.

5/10

liuyiding5
liuyiding5

Warning: There are pixel hunts. Or something like that. Although you CAN backtrack easily so it's less of an issue than the problem was in older adventure games.

Good old 'combining thing with thing', 'using things on things', etc, are still there. So if you are here for the visual novel half, eh, just be ready.

The good thing is, puzzles are somewhat sensible and not 'all' moon-logic. Also, story made me feel something.

Five minutes in I start remembering why I hate puzzle adventures of the old, but an hour in I can appreciate it for what it is. If you can look past the usual..eh...inconvenience that comes with the genre, then it's certainly a hard recommend. It's good-ish for what it set out to do, it does not overstay its welcome, and it's quite cheap. I will certainly check the other works from the dev and I think that speaks of my opinion quite clearly.

Give it a go.

Abbyrin
Abbyrin

Once again NoBreadStudio has impressed me. I bought this game as soon as I finished Soul Set (another highly recommended game) and I finally got to it this week.
The characters and story were really good. Over the course of getting the first ending (the good ending) I really fell in love with both of them and just had to get all the endings. I loved the soundtrack too and that vocal song is going on my playlist!
Overall an amazing Vn if you wanna solve some puzzles (Very proud of myself for solving them all with no guide), read a great story, and just get immersed.

It does touch on some really serious subject matter but I think it does it well and the characters have a lot of depth to them. Wonderfully written!

And lastly I should mention there is an 18+ patch for an optional about 10 minute section near the end. So my short review for that section I feel like I was specially targeted lol. Chris we should hang out some time

Overall, an amazing game that I highly reccomend.

Sonnyegg
Sonnyegg

Torn with this review. Both characters are really interesting but I think they revealed stuff a little too early. Have to stuff in gaudy drama to make it longer, but at that point I wanted it to be over. Moving through places takes a little bit to get used to and I'm not sure there's a minimap to show what part of the room I'm facing. Puzzles are okay. Not hard. What really weighted this review down is the ending (got both the good and true endings). Felt a little less rewarding than I thought it would be? I dunno, just didn't vibe with it.

Caseys2cold
Caseys2cold

Bought this a while ago on sale for a thing to help Ukraine, thought this would be more of an escape room than a visual novel and that was incorrect, not my style of game nor my taste in writing but glad to help the good cause at least

Amadeus
Amadeus

This was phenomenal. A big roller coaster of emotion swept through me as I played this. The puzzles were okay, not too hard but not too easy either. The dialogue was realistic in the sense that it is how I imagine they would act in that situation and with those personalities. I really hope for a continuation of their story.

Bluumberry
Bluumberry

Some of the best written character interactions I've ever seen. Really good writing in general.
I was left more than a tiny bit unsatisfied after the secret ending though, but I guess there's more room for growth there.

Anonymous
Anonymous

It was good enough. The puzzles were fun.

It's basically the equivalent of reading a short story if you have an afternoon to kill.

Luna
Luna

Although I'm not the biggest fan of visual novels and the game does have some quite long passages of dialogue only, I was hooked by the demo for I do love "Escape the Room" style puzzles.
With the price being quite moderate I decided to try out the full version, and I have to say I didn't regret it.

While one run through the whole game (getting the "True Ending" - out of six, I suppose?) was relatively short with about three hours I did really like the whole feeling of it, even though the warnings at the beginning of the game should be read carefully and, if there are problems with any of the mentioned topics, the game should be avoided, for it does get quite serious at the end.

On the other hand, I loved the rather dirty humour of it and the way Beryl and Chris keep flirting with each other and their interactions in general. It was quite satisfying to read!
The puzzles were not too difficult but I did sometimes sit on them a bit longer - it never got frustrating though, so some might find them a little too easy.

The only thing that really annoyed me was the navigation in the rooms themselves. I have no idea how often I tried to get to the door in the first room or a specific place required for a puzzle in one of the later rooms! The layout of the rooms felt weird to me and I couldn't always understand how exactly you were supposed to reach some screens without wildly clicking around until I finally managed. That was disappointing.

This is the only real flaw I found though, otherwise the gameplay was fun and the story was really interesting and had some unexpected twists in store for me, with some surprisingly cute romance.
Definitely a very interesting experience!

Ken Masters
Ken Masters

Honestly, I thought I would be reviewing Quantum Suicide before tackling this game. Funny how life works, huh? I found out about this Kickstarter game by complete accident too. To go on a slight tangent --> There may or may not be some sort of strange, wild Indie Visual Novel Cinematic Universe of Insanity(Pending Trademark) going on here. You follow the creator of this game, you're bound to find another developer just as passionate with a game that either references another or has a cameo for another. I've gotten myself into a hell of a rabbit hole here.

Anyway, actual review:
Anyone who knows me better than most people know that I absolutely adore the escape room puzzle genre, especially when there's a very well-made story behind it.(or at least trying to be a well-made story)
The first of its kind for this very specific genre was 999. The influences are worn on their sleeves here and that's far from a problem. I enjoyed this game. I enjoyed the hell out of the demo too. It was so cool, my mom wanted to play it. I'm dead serious.
No Pun intended.

I only got the True ending so far and I'm pretty satisfied with it, but the second it was over I realized I forgot one particular puzzle. One particular puzzle that I'm still not sure how to even do it. I'll definitely go back with a guide so I can properly get the other endings. The puzzles didn't make me feel like a complete PEPEGA aka The Rock Stupid version of Pepe the Frog, but they were fun. There were two in particular that made sit there for about an hour wondering what I was missing. Pro tip...DO NOT OVERTHINK THE PUZZLES. Otherwise, the difficulty is more than manageable and very fair.

The story? Well, I glossed over the warnings because I am a hard man. Nothing gets to me anymore....though this game came pretty close. It handles all the subject matter in a perfectly adult and even fashion. The romance was fine, it was quick due to the game's short length, and I decided to get that patch...you know the one. Since I'm NOFAP, I mostly glossed through the....raunchier parts, but holy cow. If those scenes got CGs...man. I didn't expect it to go that far, I'll just say that. Also they weren't kidding that those scenes have more dialogue than the demo! By the way, I still didn't break my streak. So yeah, cool stuff all around.

I would definitely recommend the game. It scratched an itch that I have been feeling since I finished Zero Time Dilemma. It didn't bore me to tears like SoulSet did(sadly), which is a huge plus. It's definitely worth the 8 bucks I paid for it and I wish I had known about it when it was an ongoing Kickstarter. I would have backed it. One more cool thing, this mad-lad...this absolute workaholic made this game in about 7 months. I know what you're thinking, "It's a VN, so it probably didn't need as much time" ...Oh yeah? Try to make a game in 7 months, I challenge you to do it and I challenge you to do it mostly alone. Nayru is a complete machine. Nayru is a beast. Nayru is love. Nayru is li-Ok, you get the idea.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be going back into my cave to wait for Quantum Suicide. CottonCandyCyanide, you're up next.

Order66MyDudes
Order66MyDudes

this visual novel is the bomb-diggity

CyberSe7en
CyberSe7en

Overall, a very enjoyable experience! If you enjoy puzzles, point-and-click adventure games, and/or visual novels, definitely give Blankspace a go!

Puzzle-based adventure game with a fairly simple premise, but with brilliantly written and fleshed out characters. The puzzles felt fair, and while I found a few of them tricky, they're all doable.

Possible TRIGGER WARNING for alcohol abuse, depression, and suicide. FYI, there was at least one point where I got hard stuck, likely due to my red-green colorblindness.

Spider
Spider

10/10 still need to get all the endings :p
Loved the puzzles, very interesting and not bullshit like in some other games. I recommend figuring them out yourself.
GIVE ME MORE PUZZLES!

There is a lot of dialogues... A LOT. I recommend saving 3-4 hours straight for the plot. I was playing multiple short sessions over a few days and got kinda lost :p

Berubi
Berubi

I can recomend this game to anyone interested i puzzles and visual novel type games. I have a lot of questions and I hope that playing again will solve them. The soundtrack is great, perfect ambient noise for work.

Alpharticle
Alpharticle

I played through it in a single sitting and got one ending in (going by Steam's timer) 2.5 hours.

Honestly, I enjoyed this quite a bit more than I expected. I would've gladly played a game ten times longer with a similar scenario, but it's a perfectly haunting short story as it stands.

The atmosphere is quite nice, and I enjoyed the writing. It's definitely quite stark in tone and subject matter, perhaps more than I initially expected.

Puzzles are quite simple for the most part, but they're still fun to solve, and quite cleverly designed.

The biggest surprise for me was the music, it's genuinely great, bought the OST as soon as I finished the game.

Overall, great short story to spend a day or an evening with.

cucksnipe
cucksnipe

Some questionable narrative decisions. Not many puzzles. Goes downhill fast after the demo. At it's core its a character driven story and they ruin it with a random out of no where choice.

Fatin'ma Bhutti
Fatin'ma Bhutti

Played on Itch. Recommend for fans of VN or Escape room.

kleebentz
kleebentz

I really enjoyed this game for several reasons:

First - art direction and art style are lovely and smart, if You are familiar with the creators work You see some great progress. I liked the "blank", simple, b/w backgrounds that bring the characters to shine - whose designs are very well made, as well as pleasing to the eye but also showing a deeper meaning with the contrast between the two heroes of this story.

Second - gameplay, VN and point and clicks aren't for everyone, but if You're a fan of this genre You shoul totally give it a try. The mix between VN/story progression and puzzles was a great choice by the author. VN parts kept me invested, yet the puzzles added great entertainment and mixed with the story and theme well - for me this format prooved to be very enjoyable :)

Third - story, I list this a s last because i wanted to mention it but not focus on it. Don't get me wrong - it's by all means not bad - just wanted to make it PURE SPOILER FREE :) I loved it, got all endings. Personaly I would make some things different, but it's the authors work and it works very well.

Overall this is a rather short, well made story and game experience. If you like this type of game or are just curious about this title - give it a try - if You don't love it, I still doubt You'll be disapointed and feel bad for wasting time. If it turns out You liked it - You can always replay for more details and experience the story even more like I did :)

Tarkus2000
Tarkus2000

If you like escape room/puzzle games then you'll love this game. For me the puzzles were just about the right level of difficulty. Hard enough to make me think (and struggle at times), but not hard enough for me to give up or resort to cheating by looking for walkthroughs - most enjoyable game, well worth the money...

GameWave
GameWave

Review 2020:

Its a really great little game :) The puzzles are sometimes a bit confusing but there enough hints for the answers :)

NEED FOR FEED
NEED FOR FEED

A really great VN! Got it to scratch the 999 itch but was really pleasantly surprised at the story aspect.

TKAM
TKAM

I love this game so much, I spent so many hours trying to get the other endings (I have problems with getting bad endings because of my sensitive self) and the story turned out waaaaaaay more different than I first guessed it to be, which revealed a very interesting lore. I look forward to any more games the developers make ^^

Snek
Snek

Puzzles were a bit challenging the biggest hint is to not over think them and explore everything. I had to get hints on occasion through the forums when the dialogue wasn't enough. Everything else just sort of makes sense as far as inventory is concerned.

Story was great and emotional it left me wanting more. The game maybe gives away a bit too much in the beginning.

Music started to grow on me once learning the story and it fit well with the story and mood. I'm considering getting the sound track.

The only sexual content is text and a panty shot and you only get the text if you get the patch.

It's a bit short if you're good at puzzles and read at a decent speed. It's something that can be beaten in about 3 hours.

I hope they do more with this.

jawnhenry3rd
jawnhenry3rd

Ok, here goes: the story is messed up, but it's good. I didn't feel it was some cheap-candy story. Top marks for that. The puzzles will probably kick you butt at one point or another. They're well done, but they aren't ridiculously over-the-top difficult, either. Top marks again.

Moral Wiz
Moral Wiz

Oh, the puzzles that lie ahead.

This is a short but well made Escape Room game, in the style of the Zero Escape series. There are three rooms to go through, and multiple endings based on how your choices go and what puzzles you are able to solve. Take your time, think things through, and I hope you enjoy

Green&purple2015
Green&purple2015

So I've gotten all the endings except the secret one but I feel like giving this a review for now.

This is a rather interesting and fun escape room VN. It consists of only 2 characters which are Chris and Beryl. The story is interesting, the mystery slowly unveils itself as the game progresses. The banter between both of them are snarky and fun and has a lot of adultish humour. It has puzzles that you need to solve. The puzzles itself are fun and not too easy nor are they too difficult.

Overall, I enjoyed this game a lot.

paiteft8
paiteft8

Intriguing. Good puzzles. It does touch on serious issues, such as suicide, but pleasant overall. I found myself at the "good ending", and I don't need to see any other.

MsAries
MsAries

First review... and gotta say I'm not very confident I can leave a review that will satisfy it's readers, nor give the game the actual credit it deserves... but here I go any hooo....
This game, in my opinion, was AWESOME! It made me laugh! It made me mad! It made me cringe! It made me gag! It even made me tearful! Lol!
Even though the game is quite short (but not too short that you wanna refund every game in your library, just to make a point), the story line itself makes up for that tenfold! And even though the story is bitter sweet with no real "happy ending" in the true sense, the happy endings it does offer are still worth the effort of replaying and getting them!
I love visual novels, and I love escape games, so no need to tell you how much this game satisfied my every gaming desire.
I even played with the ... ahem... patch... and although that didn't include cgs, in all honesty (and my personal opinion), it really didn't need them! In fact, including illustrations would have probably made the whole situation more on the lewd side (if that makes sense lol), where as just reading it seemed to make the whole thing more intimate and delicate (although they were anything but delicate lol)... I dunno, I guess you could just feel their connection and feelings a lot more, and having illustrations showing them in questionable positions and stuff, would have ruined that.
The puzzles weren't too hard, but they definitely weren't too easy either (not gonna lie, I did need a guide at one point... but I'm terrible with maths and equations and what not, so that doesn't mean the actual puzzle was hard, it just means I'm terrible with maths and equations and what not lol).
Anyway, there is definitely space for more games like this one... DEFINITELY! And if there's one thing I can say with full confidence... it's that anyone who gets this game, WILL NOT be disappointed! :)

@TheRealSirPanda
@TheRealSirPanda

The ending tho ...worth every penny

rettshift
rettshift

I'm a fan of visual novels, but something about this one made me hesitant. However, after playing just a few minutes of the Demo, I bought it immediately. The writing is good and engaging, and the Escape the Room puzzles are good without being too frustrating. There were very few times were I was tempted to look up a guide, and each of those times I was able to figure it out eventually.

The story is focused and tight, but well done. The art is good, the soundtrack is decent, and overall I had a fun time playing it. It says my playtime is 5.7 hours at the time of writing, and that's enough to replay it enough times to see all the endings and get all the achievements, but those six hours felt like much longer. 100% worth the money and time.

ebihime
ebihime

Very nice, stylish visual novel with a lot of effort put into the presentation. The UI is sleek, the backgrounds are numerous and detailed, and the character sprites have a lot of different poses and expressions. Aesthetically, it's all very satisfying.

The puzzles require a bit of thought, but they aren't hard enough to be unsolvable, and they break up the dialogue nicely. The VN is paced well, it doesn't overstay its welcome, and the character dynamics are enjoyable.

Overall, I enjoyed the game a lot. It's clear the devs put a lot of love and attention into it, and it's well worth the asking price!

KhajiitWerewolf
KhajiitWerewolf

Puzzles were challenging to figure out, but you could record the solutions and use them for quick replays. All in all, an enjoyable escape game, with an excellent plot, and it interested me enough to make sure I saw all the endings.

DocWyldeCard
DocWyldeCard

This is a really cool game! Its endings are all unique to the choices made, there's all kinds of branching dialogue, just in general a bang-up job on the parts of the devs.

Highly recommended.

kadawson
kadawson

I haven't played this through to all its endings. I generally am not a huge fan of the dialogue style here, but I was glad it wasn't all-out dating simulator or a hentai game. Puzzles were compelling and difficult, although not so much that I wanted to break things angrily. The story was more deep than I was expecting, and I didn't expect to get as emotionally involved in the game as I did. I got the true ending, and it left me a bit misty. This definitely needs its warnings about self-harm and substance abuse, but I found it touching that there was an absence of graphic sex and violence. As Alfred Hitchcock demonstrated, what you can't see is scarier than what you can. Also, some things good and bad are best left to the imagination.

Bravo to the developers. I hope you make more titles like this, and I look forward to playing them. If you can keep this recipe fresh, it's a nice take on the escape room genre. Worth every penny, better than a lot of the movies I've seen lately, and cheaper. Thank you for tugging at my heartstrings with this little visual novel.

Capt. Pottypie
Capt. Pottypie

Solid puzzler, good atmosphere, good story. Me like.

Seiyashi7184
Seiyashi7184

A very well-written and engaging story, with the bonus of a fairly engaging (i.e. no bat logic) escape room puzzle on the side as well. An excellent fusion of two genres.

♥愛莉子♥
♥愛莉子♥

Absolutely gripping. I bought and booted this up for the art and was sucked into the world and could not put it down. This game has definitely made a fan of the development team out of me!

BunnehBunnBunn
BunnehBunnBunn

Uhm... Wow... This is actually pretty darn good! When I first started it up, I was surprised it looks like an "Escape Room" game. Silly me... That's what it was. I don't think I ever read a "VN" + "Escape Room" style game. I gotta say that I am okay at puzzle solving and the Developers got me three times >.< Especially that tile puzzle... XD

If you played "Escape Games" you know whatcha getting into... Except this time the people talk and have a story and it's actually really interesting. I saw that the Developers went all out for it and that's what made me want to play it... Because it really shows!

I did figure out one twist moment, but that's actually a good thing... Like when you solve a hard puzzle and feel really good about yourself. Oh and the soundtrack is a delight... Especially the intense one from the beginning of the "VN". :D

Oh right, there are dark topics here... BUT it's approached in a way that I haven't seen anyone else do it. I am still uncertain if I want to know what's in the bathtub though... Maybe some things should remain a mystery...

And there is definitely replay value... Different endings... Finding logos... Finding all items... I was actually worried when it was near the end and I had to walk to that one final door... in that hallway... Good job on the intense moments! :>

If anything, there is a Demo there for you to try out. Everything is well written and I like how some words were used. Oh how can I forget...? The characters are really well drawn! I like their looks and design. Especially when "Chris" went to search the tub. :D.................

Who wouldn't want to read this if they like supernatural mysteries and some good puzzle solving and also intriguing dialogue? ;) THANK YOU!!! :> =) :3

P.S. There is an adult scene... But you don't get to see anything, so if you feel ashamed playing this game because of that, don't. It sure makes you use your imagination... Ahh...!

Brutalista
Brutalista

Solid, compact and relaxing VN/escape room game. Puzzles are not that hard but fun to solve which is quite reasonable within the setting of its story. Reccommended for VN fans.

GKslice
GKslice

Really strange but great game. Puzzles are generally interesting and not the insanely annoying type.
Definitely worth playing!

Nota
Nota

A good, brief and engaging character driven story interwoven with escape room segments. The demo will give you a solid idea of the kind of experience you're in for, and it carries the quality through to the end. Easily recommended.

Raindewpandaa
Raindewpandaa

I was drawn in by the escape room factor to the visual novel, but I actually really loved the story. The story is fucked and pretty sad BUT it was a good story, not what I was expecting had happened. I loved the puzzles but while I was able to figure out the individual things I needed to do to solve the puzzles I could not finish a lot of them without looking it up for help. But that's just because of how my brain is, I ended up looking over a lot of small things I needed and then would get stuck because I didn't find the object I needed.
Overall I think I'd give it a 10/10 for me :)
I feel like I should also mention that I bought it on sale for $4 but for me I'd say its worth the $10 it normally is

Niandra!
Niandra!

BlankSpace was a pretty solid visual novel that took about 3 hours, and I would recommend it on sale. The characters are fun and interesting, visuals/soundtrack pretty good and the puzzles are solid. However the short run time means that a lot of areas weren't explored as much as I would have liked - for example, Beryl is the only character we actually interact with (besides our protagonist Chris), which is fine/understandable but means we don't get to learn much about Chris' ex who is mentioned a few times

One negative I would like to mention is this visual novel takes place in a series of escape rooms and the navigation of them - aka pressing arrows to check various areas of the room - is kinda bad/disorienting. This is especially an issue on the last room, which is way bigger than the rest and very confusing to move around properly.

The other issue is that there are multiple endings but I don't think you have the option to skip puzzles on second+ playthroughs, which means I probably won't bother trying to get them. I got the true ending on my first playthrough and it does the usual visual novel thing where the ending is quite open ended and doesn't really tell you what happens to the characters afterwards which I will be honest, left me pretty unsatisfied and tempted to leave a negative review

Overall, I think I'd give this a 6 or 7 out of 10

Brody Gam3s
Brody Gam3s

Blankspace is a short, well written puzzle game with an interesting central plot and themes. The art, character design and soundtrack are excellent but the real star of the show here is the characters and dialogue. Every interaction between Chris and Beryl was very entertaining and their dynamic is great, despite the games length you'll definitely find yourself growing attached to them. This game is well worth full price, and I'm definitely looking forward to the studios next project.

jester
jester

This publisher has made two outstanding sleeper gems so far. Blankspace is a short but memorable game that I think back to months later, with a puzzle difficulty just right even for someone who does not usually enjoy puzzles. You can slog through triple A titles with half-baked stories but Blankspace is concise and impressive for anyone who enjoys character development and believable dialogue.

Also, the soundtrack is very memorable.

morphogenetic-simon
morphogenetic-simon

I loved this game, in particular the writing was great. The characters were written well, the story was good and emotional, and I really appreciated how the devs treated topics about sex and relationships, they did a great job with that. I also thought the puzzles were fun. Also Chris is one of my favorite game protags to be honest, and maybe slight spoiler? it made me sooooo happy that he's dated men and women before, like, it's kind of rare for us to get that representation, especially with the protagonist!

whatthefudge64
whatthefudge64

Decent game, payoff not as much. Worth playing though as an intro to mystery VNs (also the game is cheap so that helps).

dondonpatapon
dondonpatapon

This story is deceptively character-driven, and I mean that in the best way possible. The core of the story is the relationship between Chris and Beryl, as well as their own relationships with themselves. And it is in these interactions where the story shines!

The puzzles themselves are interesting in and of themselves; personally I found it interesting how well they incorporated the previous areas of the game the further you advanced in the game. So it's not as if you're moving from room to room, but more like the world you're in is growing larger-

Plus the amount of variation in the game based on your relationships is seriously impressive. It's worth replaying and trying to change your dialogue options, just to see how the shape of the story starts to change down the line... And it'll be worth striving for the best possible ending in the end!

Reccomended, do enjoy!

JayCihns
JayCihns

Always appreciate when devs bring something new to the formula. A VN at it's core but also an escape room with stimulating puzzles. It does have some moderately dark content. Might not be for everyone so please note the the 'Mature Content Warning' in description. While not particularly long, having some engaging gameplay makes this VN stand out.

The sprites are well drawn. Any animations are limited to just some fluttering eyelashes but that small subtlety can sell a scene. Background environments might be a bit simple but the reasoning is also part of the narrative. The use of lighting and shadows do give it a certain "life" though. Original score is essentially a blend of synth jazz; emphasizing the dramatic moments and providing light ambiance while working through the puzzles.

Despite not being able to really relate to the characters I could at least empathize with them more as their backgrounds were unearthed. Left with wanting more as it came to an end, but alas, the narrative had been told. Look forward to what NoBreadStudio has in store with their next title, The Elevator Game with Catgirls.

Game does feature multiple as well as a True Ending. A minor subjective complaint, but would have preferred being able to unlock the True Ending by just finishing 2 or 3 normal ones and not ALL of them. There's no real replayability in regards to the puzzles and main story is essentially linear. The additional dialogue is welcomed but asking to NG+ for mostly minor changes is just a bit much. Also would have preferred the the Art Puzzles to be tied into the persistent save for NG+.

Space Diva Kirstin
Space Diva Kirstin

First I want to say that you should heed the warnings and if you are in a fragile mental health state, PLEASE make sure you take care of yourself. This game touches on some very heavy topics.

With that said, this game BROKE me but in the best way. I'm a huge fan of escape rooms, and of visual novels, AND otomes, and this kind of rolled everything I love about all of those into one beautiful game. As you progress through the rooms, you learn more about Chris and the reality of his situation, and how they both got into the room in the first place.

The more you learn, the darker it gets, but it also gets raw. The writers invoked emotions that left me feeling devastated but also like I'd made two friends for the few hours while I played this. The glimpses into their experiences were so vivid and touching that I didn't want to let them go, thus playing 3 endings back to back and breaking my own heart over and over. That sounds dramatic, but by the end of my first playthrough I was ugly crying. But again, in the good way. As a gamer I always crave games that will make me feel something, to bring some sort of emotion into the space between mindless shooters and other various silly games.

So if you're looking for a game to make you ugly cry but also love it, PLEASE play this game and support the devs. I had to review it right away because these devs deserve to know how touching this game truly is and how much I loved it. But now I'm going to go ugly cry myself to sleep and try not to think about the sad endings.

Aceusius
Aceusius

I clicked for the character design, was pulled in by this beautiful song that played and finished the game because it turned out to be quite relatable.