But for now
This was the very first Visual Novel I ever played. It's a true statis Visual Novel, no decision points, this is merely literally a Visual Novel. It is seen through the eyes of Yu Atou, a young, terminally ill man, assigned to the 7th floor of a Hospital, reserved for patience who have no cure and are waiting to die. It is portrayed as a very meek and cold place. In here he meets Setsumi, a young girl of similar age, who eventually opens up to him (slightly) and tells him the rules and purpose of the 7th floor. Yu's parents leave him his car and he seizes on this opportunity to escape with Setsumi to the Narcissu (Daffodil) fields, to see them once more before they die.
This is a very heavy, grim game, and it utilizes every bit of its limited resources to portray this; an old fashioned small landscape film template for its story telling; a GORGEOUS soundtrack
show cased to the max here. Much is made these days of cult indie games, this is an exact prime example of this, released in Japan in 2005, it was merely a "doujin" (fanmade) work, but it has such polish and immaculate presentation crossed with brilliant story telling that will bring you to tears as the adventure goes on.
It's been so long now... but I do recall it is only a couple of hours at most long. I will never forget the second to last scene in the game, it is chillingly well set, immaculately acted by the voice actor, with incredible, striking dialogue all to the most fitting of settings with an extremely emotional soundtrack overlaying it in the background.
A prequel has been released, that is far more lengthy than the first. You can legally download both Narcissu and Narcissue side 2nd here. I have yet to complete it because Windows stole my save data when I was 70% completed -_-. But I will finish it in the coming weeks, make no mistake ^_^.
Verdict: DOWNLOAD IT NOW, PLAY IT. It is the most politically incorrect approach to depression relating to terminal illness I have ever seen. It is moving, it is unique, it will take one nights playthrough to finish and less than an hour to download. Do please try it, I can not recommend it highly enough.
Just Cause 2 was sooo much fun! It's like Mercenaries 2, but BETTER in EVERY WAY!
ReplyDeleteAs for the song.. not my style. =P
The sound track enough is moving...I think I'm going to download this once I get a faster connection going.
ReplyDeleteI think I will check this out, once I manage to get Kana to work. Damn game just won't start...
ReplyDeleteCool, This game looks awesome man.
ReplyDeleteyou should give "deadly premonition" a try.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the review. I dunno if I feel like having a dose of sad right now though (^_^)7
ReplyDeletethe game seems cute but kinda boring, but man, i loved the piano in the video
ReplyDeletewell that was fun XD
ReplyDeleteI'll check it out. I'm excited for your Just Cause interview.
ReplyDeletenot my kind of game
ReplyDeletenice
ReplyDeleteNeat-o. I love the artwork that goes into visual novels.
ReplyDeleteNice, looking forward to more!
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in playing this, as I've never seen a decent visual novel in English reviewed before. I'm not seeing the first game on the site you linked though.
ReplyDeletesounds like a really good story, will definitely be checking this out.
ReplyDeleteI prefer the first one to the second somewhat, they're both really good, first one was more saddening though, apparently the author for it didn't want to make the second one as sad as the first.
ReplyDeleteThis game is sweet
ReplyDelete