r/visualnovels

saya doll on the left has been sold❤️

Can't be more KINO...

Switch (14 hours)

Finished this a few days ago.

An alternate 2006. A series of murders that oddly resemble ones from the Meiji era. Hunting for clues, Detective Katsuki dives into augmented reality "Echoes of Kyoto". A time-bending murder mystery unfolds.

Dusk Index Gion is a 2026 kinetic visual novel. The premise immediately caught my attention, and I was fully invested after the demo. Midsection had a somewhat sluggish pace, but the final chapters were an exciting and suspenseful payoff. Main characters are a joy to spend time with. By the closing moments, I didn't want it to end.

Music is fitting, and CGs are pleasing. Only issue was the frequency of typos. Story topics include a little bit of everything (mystery, romance, anxiety, grief, family). All of them well-executed, and shown the proper respect.

While not perfect, Dusk Index Gion is worth the investment. Story can get heavy at times but what VN doesn't.

8.4/10

Hi everyone,

This is actually not meant to be a self-promotional post but since I name our project and redirect to its Steam page to show my point for discussion, I've ticked the Self-promotion fair just in case.

We recently launched our debut indie project, ‘1997 RELOADED’ (a kinetic mystery novel set in an alternate ‘90s rock scene).

Throughout development, we always referred to it as an "enhanced comic" rather than a traditional VN, because we built the experience around 2,000+ hand-drawn panel-like illustrations, stylized dialogue balloons, and heavy audio design instead of standard sprites-over-backgrounds. 

Now that the game is out, we’re noticing a fascinating response from professional critics.

Yet, casual players at large are still hesitant.

What we've realized is that the "enhanced comic" format has zero friction once you actually start playing. When players finally dive into it, they get the vibe instantly, understand what it is, and completely fall in love with the experience. But reaching that point is the real battle. It’s as if the unfamiliarity of the hybrid format makes casual players hesitate to even try it, and the algorithm doesn't know how to categorize it.

As readers and developers, how do you feel about this? Why is it so hard to get the casual audience to take a leap of faith on narrative games that challenge traditional UI layouts (like using comic balloons instead of a bottom text box)?

* For reference, our project is listed on VNDB here: https://vndb.org/v66739

* You can check the storefront presentation here to understand what ‘enhanced comic’ means de facto: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4389350/1997_RELOADED/

Thanks for any insight.

I am once again feeling brave, and honestly it's more of a waifu tierlist because of the added characters but yk. I haven't read Sankaku Ren'ai or Ren'ai Kilometer yet so please keep that in mind.

Also, even if she's technically a side heroine, Yuna carried Ren'ai Royale on her back. Fight me.

Idk if anyones uploading event media anywhere so I'm dropping my screen recordings here and maybe Youtube
Edit: forgot to title as (OP) and not (MV) whoops (;° Д°);;

I can't do this.

I love both of them in the end.

Another typical dating simulator... it is a weird mix between moege and nukige... surprisingly? when I replayed it again to pick my 2nd choice for the h-scenes (this is pretty much the only choice in this game and they don't matter), I realized that this game legit got lots of CGs that are not made for the h-scenes... something I have never seen before for any other nukige @_@ this is why I consider it a mix between both genres... honestly? I was happy they did this. This made the game have less h-scenes, and more story building... I appreciate this. For sure wished for more story and less h-scenes than we got, but I understand this is not the type of game to do this for me...

The story was just your average nothingburger moege story. The issues the heroine had were solved by the MC just existing and you can pretty much say they got solved by her maturing more with time after having a boyfriend?...

The protagonist's character is not bad. He is quite realistic, not much personality but that is fine... the heroine on the other hand? I liked her for most of the time. The way she speaks and lots of her quirks and personality are very realistic and similar to real-life girls! something I rarely feel from moege. But I truly hated that lack of self-trust she got and the wish to please others... I know this is her whole thing in this game, but because of it, we got her buttering up the MC so much it disgusted me... the way she spoke made me feel like she was a hooker trying to please some dirty loser pig otaku... like, the writer was going for the realistic approach in her writing and then they just turned to this?... her h-scene dialogue and some of the outside ones were so painful to read... she was going like "Your way of breathing and intaking air is so great and cool and hooot please dooo mmeee~~~~" or some equal level of cringe... please, what is this? I can see girls going for this approach with an older guy if they wanted to like scam him, yes, we are cunning like this when it is necessary for survival... but to do that with some poor virgin salaryman? wwww? why... ~_~

Writing had some funny bits. Weirdly, I liked the side characters and found them to be interesting. One of the rare times those spriteless characters were worth a damn @_@

The h-scenes were just boring, not necessary at all. The rest of the CGs were fun, not sure if they used them in the best places possible but they were fine. The biggest problem with them was the art itself... same with her sprites, they are good in quality... for most of the time @_@ sometimes it legit just looks weird or uncanny... it has got to do with something with the way they draw her mouth? I have noticed some weirdness throughout the whole game and on lots of occasions... this is one of the reasons why I couldn't take lots of reaction images here...

The translation is sadly too localized. Like most cases in this industry, it is 100% avoidable but we got localizers who are legit untalented. The OST of the game is fine for it, you forget it the second you leave the game, nothing worthy of mentioning.

My biggest shock in this game was... how short it was @_@ legit ended up so surprisingly and at a certain point where it felt like they baited me for a future story arc... I never believed it was over until I made sure it was by searching online... I knew it got a Drama CD that is pretty much a sequel? I tried to search online to find it but I couldn't... tbh? even if I found it, I wasn't going to waste 2 hours of my time on it... I really didn't care about this game, what can a voice-only sequel do? xD

/ourverdict/... 3.2/10~ it wasn't the worst game out there... but... why waste 5 hours of your life here? @___@ just play something good...

I'm feeling brave today and I'm not afraid to call you favorite waifu shit. (It's all fun and games dw)

I purely ranked heroines from routes I remember or actually read.

I came to realize my favorite heroines are the ones that have some kind of back and forth with the protagonist. Be it gentle ribbing, amusing banter or downright antagonistic. Here are just a few that come to mind

Feel free to add more