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SoulSet (Western VN Review)


Plk_Lesiak

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Note: I was provided with a free review copy of this game by the developer. All opinions expressed here are solely my own.

The multi-route mystery VN is not a format easy to pull off properly and for that reason not many EVN developers even attempt to tackle it. It requires creating a number of paths and characters, all interesting on their own and complementary to each other, while also keeping the overall quality high enough to motivate the reader to go through all of it in order to piece together the overarching story. This is both a challenge from the writing perspective and requires a fairly substantial amount of content to communicate the mystery effectively usually, more than an average Western visual novel can provide with the humble resources at its creators' disposal. 

            Still, all this makes exploring the few examples of such games done right by Western devs that more interesting. SoulSet, developed by NoBreadStudio and released on Steam in late 2016 is a particularly “orthodox” implementation of the formula, with every route and ending (including bad ones) adding to your understanding of the story and culminating in an unlockable “true route”, which resolves the crucial mysteries and tie all the previous paths together. It’s also, as I will try to argue, a damn fine game that positively stands out in the EVN market, in a few ways.

Read the full article at evnchronicles.blogspot.com

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51 minutes ago, ittaku said:

Why would someone give you 1 star for this thread?

That's the first time I got a one star on a blog post here. Maybe someone really don't like SoulSet? 

...or, more likely, really don't like me. ;)

Not worried about it either way. ^^

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1 minute ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

That's the first time I got a one star on a blog post here. Maybe someone really don't like SoulSet? 

...or, more likely, really don't like me. ;)

Not worried about it either way. ^^

Then they seriously misunderstood the point of the star system. Then again I don't think hardly anyone uses it...

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5 stars from me ☆☆☆☆☆

Personally I wouldn't call the visuals good in a general sense, but they are above average tier for an EVN. I like being able to romance both genders and platonic friendship endings are a big big yes from me. It's something I'd love to see more of.

idk if anyone else on the planet would tho... 0.0

 

Edited by Zander
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8 hours ago, Zander said:

5 stars from me ☆☆☆☆☆

Personally I wouldn't call the visuals good in a general sense, but they are above average tier for an EVN. I like being able to romance both genders and platonic friendship endings are a big big yes from me. It's something I'd love to see more of.

idk if anyone else on the planet would tho... 0.0

Well, I wouldn't mind it too so there's at least two of us. :] 

The art can look a bit mediocre when you just look at screenshots, but the expressions and variety in visual design make it much more enjoyable while actually reading the VN. I think it does a better job of communicating the story than some "objectively" prettier games and this is something I feel few people ever talk about. Good stylizati9n can make a huge difference, especially with limited resources. :)

Edited by Plk_Lesiak
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3 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

Well, I wouldn't mind it too so there's at least two of us. :] 

The art can look a bit mediocre when you just look at screenshots, but the expressions and variety in visual design make it much more enjoyable while actually reading the VN. I think it does a better job of communicating the story than some "objectively" prettier games and this is something I feel few people ever talk about. Good stylizati9n can make a huge difference, especially with limited resources. :)

Make it 3 ;)

And I also super agree about the art bit. Something I love in those indie games is how stylish they can be. :wafuu:  And since it is a visual novel, visuals are important!! And Marco and Shira are nice in the visual department.

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21 minutes ago, MaggieROBOT said:

Make it 3 ;)

And I also super agree about the art bit. Something I love in those indie games is how stylish they can be. :wafuu:  And since it is a visual novel, visuals are important!! And Marco and Shira are nice in the visual department.

 

 

Spoiler

Marco and Shira are OTP and I adore that the game lets you explicitly bring them together as one of the "true endings" in the final route. :D

 

Edited by Plk_Lesiak
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45 minutes ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Marco and Shira are OTP and I adore that the game lets you explicitly bring them together as one of the "true endings" in the final route. :D

 

I never moved something up in my backlog faster. I love games that let you do something like that aaaaa :kosame:

Edited by MaggieROBOT
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15 hours ago, Zander said:

 

idk if anyone else on the planet would tho... 0.0

 

I see you're a man of taste.

This was on my radar for a while because of the otome and multi-route mystery aspects to it, good to see it has a lot of quality to it and interesting bad ends are always a big plus for me anyway, kek. Nice to see you're still hard at work on doing EVNs reviews, keep it up. :Chocola:7

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This is the best western VN I've read until now. The protagonist is maturely written, the relationships are handled in a straightforward way with no extra fuss. Art is good, story is intriguing, and most of all the mysteries in it are played well. 

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