Genre: Casual Adventure Indie Visual Novel
Developer: ebi-hime
Publisher: Sekai Project
Release Date: Sep 2, 2016
Recently, I was given the opportunity to take a look into This World Unknown, a new Indie VN that came out in the beginning of September. With a strong love for both Indie games and Visual Novels, I was excited to get a chance to play this game, and through playing this game, I can’t say I hate it, but I don’t love it either. Though it does have a unique art style, original world and backstory, there were certain aspects that felt quite lacking.
The story takes place in a far off country by the name of Aslande, which has been at war with the neighboring country of Eressia for centuries. You take on the role of Rhea, a young girl born in a small village who works as a nurse at the local hospital to aid those wounded by the war. During the time you play through the story, you find out that Rhea had a childhood friend by the name of Luca who went off to the war, and she has not heard from him since then. One day he returns, only for there to be a drastic change in his relationship with Rhea. The story focuses around unravelling what happened, and the relationship of Rhea with Luca among other characters you encounter in the game.
Graphically, the game is quite charming. The art style is not one that I’ve seen among other Visual Novels and each character is unique in design. The music is light and fitting to the mood of the story as it progresses further and further, immersing the player deeper. There isn’t any voice acting which may seem as either a negative or a positive, but that depends on the player themselves. The story is quite light, though at times is a bit repetitive with the flashbacks, and it felt like they went on too long for the information it gave. But with that in mind, the story is still quite delightful and you get quite a few hours of content and story.
I do have a few complaints with the game. I’ve noticed that there are quite a few grammatical errors, ranging from lack of proper punctuation, proper capitalization, and even a few misspellings. Though it doesn’t take away from the story itself, it is noticeable enough when following along. I’ve also found this game to be lacking in choices. From most visual novel games I’ve played, I’ve been given quite a bit of options in decisions. This World Unknown gave me barely any choices. This game definitely reads more as an actual novel than a game. To those out there, it can be seen as either a plus or a negative, but it’s worth knowing before purchasing.
As a whole, This World Unknown is not a bad game at all, but it needs a lot of work. A revision for grammatical errors would definitely help it out. Personally, I was entertained, but I didn’t feel like my attention was truly grabbed and I got bored with it after a while with most of it being a lot of reading only. If you’re still interested in the game, you can purchase it now on Steam for $7.99
Pros:
- Unique Artwork
- Great BGM
- Interesting story and world background
- Quite a bit of humorous moments in the writing
Cons:
- Barely any choices in the game
- Grammatical errors
- Characters at times seem very flat and borderline stereotypical
- Flashbacks were too long and repetitive in information
Bijouxdemon gives This World Unknown a Drastik Measure of 7.6 out of 10 (76).
