Sunday 22 May 2016

1 TRICK & TREAT - FIRST VISUAL NOVEL BLOG!

Dear Readers,

I'm gonna talk about a visual novel today for the first time! I've written about text adventures already and about character interactions in recent Nintendo games like Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash and Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros., so why not write about these? I do love them and want to play them more, so I must blog about them!

Tablets are also a perfect fit for these types of games too. It allows me to read while on a commute! This is what I always loved about games like Last Window, Ace Attorney and Time Hollow for the Nintendo DS. These games tend to be about mystery and suspense though. On PC, the door opens to games that have romance and harem themes, which is what I'm looking for. With tablets, the door opens to playing them while out and about!

This is Trick & Treat by Eternal Night Studios. Its genre description is "Thriller, Mystery and a little romance". This is as good a place to start as any I suppose!

It's very dark. The forest in which the main character and his friends get lost exploring is all greys and blacks. Even their room in which they hang out is very dark. The music is sombre and moody. The font used for the game menu options are in a Gothic style.

The way the text reads is slightly odd but I really believe in the angst of the main character and his friends, as they hang out one night trying to figure out what to do, passing the time by playing video games and surfing the net. There's no excitement for them, no girls to hang out with, but they do learn about stories of people disappearing in the forest online, so they decide to investigate for themselves.

While in the forest, the main character becomes separated from his friends. There's a demonic looking cat that has a terrifying meow and a voice calling out to him. Also, the footstep sounds!

I love the usage of footstep sounds. It finally made me come round to buying a new pair of headphones! This time, I bought over-ear ones so that I could become more immersed in the atmosphere of these games.

I got four endings so far. My first was "Forgotten adventure". I got a little bored of the argumentative banter between the main character and Ashley, but there were some absolutely lovely tender moments such as the story about Ashley making her deal with the cat. Stuff like that just made me smile from ear to ear!

The second ending I got was "Unknown aggressor". WOW this got very creepy. That voice that called out to the main character, the disturbing cabin in the woods and what he found inside... it's Blair Witch levels of disturbing.

The third ending I got was "Surviving the cat's attack". Similar to one of the other endings, but without any of the other plot development. It just gave me the urge to jump back in and get more endings!

The fourth ending I got was "an eye for an eye". Oog... I really didn't want to take this path because its option was so grisly sounding. Visual novels often have an option for a very unpleasant path that you don't want to take, but you have to in order to see if it can lead to more endings and other options. These can be emotionally challenging to see through to the end.

So that's it so far! At a glance there are 3 other endings to get marked "Bloqueado". This game was translated from its original Spanish. Not sure how I'll get them yet but I'm looking forward to it!

I'm looking forward to meeting the cute looking blonde girl Lilian too. Ashley herself is very cute but can be a bit haughty for my liking. That cat is really cool; I like its weird powers.

I like the "Fin" shown in normal and bloody text, depending on which ending you get.

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