it's a pity this is the most viewed review out of the very few that are on youtube. I'd like to offer a few thoughts for those who care. The Sekimeiya is the most complex and layered mistery story I've ever read, I doubt you could make one any more complex, it wouldn't even be practical. It's fairly long, took me 45 hours (but there's more to read after); it's inspired by KID mistery novels like remember11 and ever17, but I think this game is on another level, and it addresses several problems I've had with the genre as a whole. The most admirable thing about Sekimeiya is the extent to which it seeks coherence and internal logic within its narrative and premise. The value of most mistery VNs is that they grab the reader's attention with crazy plot twists over the course of hours and hours of reading and looping routes; it builds up to something irrestistible, until it is revealed in the end that the writers didn't really know what they were doing, with nonsensical information dumps that are so improbable and ham fisted, they end up breaking your suspension of disbelief. The explanations of the mysteries that intrigued you for so long are always disappointing. These cheap explanations don't completely trivialize the entire narrative - the reading experience is still gripping to me -, but it somewhat diminishes its value. Sekimeiya on the other end is a perfect cold hearted mechanism where every part has been engineered to fit into the whole. Another aspect that Sekimeiya fixes - very personal I admit - is that in every VN I've read all the female characters spit sentences that only a male writer could put in their mouths. I think that's very jarring and immersion breaking; people praise the character development of so many of these games, but really the majority of the cast are girls whose every words and attitudes would never come from a girl, they only serve the purpose of endearing themselves to the male reader in a patronizing or erotic way, often emotionally exploiting the reader with their frailty and need for your protection. People want character development from these games, but I quite dislike it in the genre's current state. In Sekimeiya, on the other hand, the main female character is a fairly intelligent person, and the little romance that's there is even endearing. The characters have a lot of depth, just not in the way the reviewer wanted: they are defined by the layers of mistery built around them, as well as their complex train of thought through which their personality emerges. The game is definitely a challenging read that requires good attention span. It's not for everybody, but it was for me :)
Do not underestimate how stimulating the mystery can get. All the events are carefully constructed so that when you later learn how it all connects together none of it feels like it comes out of left field. As someone who can be amused even without amazing character writing I would like people to at least give it a try.
It does strike me as quite similar to Zero Escape, but it seems like an amazing game in its own right so far. You should definitely play it if you get the chance and you like that genre of games.
As interesting as it seems, I can't get around the fact that the Steam store page literally lists "40+ hours of compelling mystery". That amount of reading is insane. Combine that with the fact that several people have commented the the characters aren't interesting is what kills my interest in checking this out.
That's a pretty standard length for a Visual Novel, though. As for the characters, there are definitely a couple that could've used more personality, but people are definitely exaggerating. There are a handful of characters that I thought were really well written and consistently interesting
@@AlphaOblivion7 I've seen and played quite a few visual novels that aren't in the 40+ hour range. In fact, none of the ones I've played are in the 40+ range
@@nelsonw9483 Books that have images don't make the text cover the entire page. If they did, it would defeat the whole purpose of why they *are* picture books (It's not the norm but there might be one or two somewhere out there that do it that way).
@@redscience2117 Images in a Visual Novel are there to accentuate the story, not to be the main focus. That being said, just like with any VN, there's a hotkey to make the text go away so you can just see the image. You can also toggle the transparency to your liking, to make the image more visible
Keeping spoilers to a minimum, there are some story elements and twists that wouldn't work if the game was voice acted. But as the other person pointed out, even if they could do that, it would be insanely expensive and difficult. Especially for small indie devs
it's a pity this is the most viewed review out of the very few that are on youtube. I'd like to offer a few thoughts for those who care.
The Sekimeiya is the most complex and layered mistery story I've ever read, I doubt you could make one any more complex, it wouldn't even be practical. It's fairly long, took me 45 hours (but there's more to read after); it's inspired by KID mistery novels like remember11 and ever17, but I think this game is on another level, and it addresses several problems I've had with the genre as a whole.
The most admirable thing about Sekimeiya is the extent to which it seeks coherence and internal logic within its narrative and premise. The value of most mistery VNs is that they grab the reader's attention with crazy plot twists over the course of hours and hours of reading and looping routes; it builds up to something irrestistible, until it is revealed in the end that the writers didn't really know what they were doing, with nonsensical information dumps that are so improbable and ham fisted, they end up breaking your suspension of disbelief. The explanations of the mysteries that intrigued you for so long are always disappointing. These cheap explanations don't completely trivialize the entire narrative - the reading experience is still gripping to me -, but it somewhat diminishes its value. Sekimeiya on the other end is a perfect cold hearted mechanism where every part has been engineered to fit into the whole.
Another aspect that Sekimeiya fixes - very personal I admit - is that in every VN I've read all the female characters spit sentences that only a male writer could put in their mouths. I think that's very jarring and immersion breaking; people praise the character development of so many of these games, but really the majority of the cast are girls whose every words and attitudes would never come from a girl, they only serve the purpose of endearing themselves to the male reader in a patronizing or erotic way, often emotionally exploiting the reader with their frailty and need for your protection. People want character development from these games, but I quite dislike it in the genre's current state. In Sekimeiya, on the other hand, the main female character is a fairly intelligent person, and the little romance that's there is even endearing. The characters have a lot of depth, just not in the way the reviewer wanted: they are defined by the layers of mistery built around them, as well as their complex train of thought through which their personality emerges.
The game is definitely a challenging read that requires good attention span. It's not for everybody, but it was for me :)
Do not underestimate how stimulating the mystery can get. All the events are carefully constructed so that when you later learn how it all connects together none of it feels like it comes out of left field.
As someone who can be amused even without amazing character writing I would like people to at least give it a try.
The amount of text is somewhat scaring me but I'm thinking about giving it a try anyway, i just love a good mystery
And here I thought I was finally done with all the Visual Novels.
Seems like someone trying to emulate KID's Infinity Series or Zero Escape.
"All the visual novels" Lmao
I have been playing it and it seems inspired by infinity and umineko, but at the same time it is a very original game.
It does strike me as quite similar to Zero Escape, but it seems like an amazing game in its own right so far. You should definitely play it if you get the chance and you like that genre of games.
As interesting as it seems, I can't get around the fact that the Steam store page literally lists "40+ hours of compelling mystery". That amount of reading is insane. Combine that with the fact that several people have commented the the characters aren't interesting is what kills my interest in checking this out.
That's a pretty standard length for a Visual Novel, though. As for the characters, there are definitely a couple that could've used more personality, but people are definitely exaggerating. There are a handful of characters that I thought were really well written and consistently interesting
@@AlphaOblivion7 I've seen and played quite a few visual novels that aren't in the 40+ hour range. In fact, none of the ones I've played are in the 40+ range
Really don't like how the text can take up the whole freaking screen
It's a surprisingly common thing for story heavy VNs
That's my preferred way to read. That's literally how books are.
@@nelsonw9483 Books that have images don't make the text cover the entire page. If they did, it would defeat the whole purpose of why they *are* picture books (It's not the norm but there might be one or two somewhere out there that do it that way).
@@redscience2117 Images in a Visual Novel are there to accentuate the story, not to be the main focus. That being said, just like with any VN, there's a hotkey to make the text go away so you can just see the image. You can also toggle the transparency to your liking, to make the image more visible
Shame there's no voice acting. I'd have bought it otherwise.
It's a small indie project. The story is so massive that Voice Acting would be a massive (and unrealistic) undertaking.
Keeping spoilers to a minimum, there are some story elements and twists that wouldn't work if the game was voice acted. But as the other person pointed out, even if they could do that, it would be insanely expensive and difficult. Especially for small indie devs