Advent: Dawn

[h1] My Experience [/h1] You play as Atlas, a neuroscientist who has been hired by a pharmaceutical company to join an expedition into deep caves in an uncharted island. But of course, things go wrong and now Atlas is stuck with several strangers beneath the surface. On one hand, there's the possibility of someone tampering with the expedition, on the other hand there appears to be supernatural forces at work... It's something somewhat familiar and fairly inspired by more popular VNs. For me, it was reminiscent of the Sci;Adv series. My general first impressions were okayish. There's not a strong hook from the first few minutes, but the mystery builds up quickly enough that it eventually kept me intrigued and pushing on to see more. It took nearly two hours -including AFK time- for to reach the common route and another hour to hit my first ending, out of 7 endings. But I have to note I'm quite a fast reader. There's a mix of science fiction, the supernatural and myths to keep you hooked. The art is nice and seems to have certainly improved from Synesthesia, but its not anything outstanding, and can look a little weird in places. Voice acting is overall okay too. I already played the previous game and understanding Spire's position so I wasn't holding very high expectations. I will warn that the fact not all of the lines being voiced can be disorienting to someone, and for me personally the voice blips were just too distracting and I ended up disabling them after barely ten or so minutes. A couple things do put me off about it though. The main character's lack of a voice is a serious detriment. After all this is not a self insert story. Atlas is his own distinct person with a face, backstory, personality... How come he doesn't have a voice to represent himself too? There are a few puzzles, but I don't have much input on them because I generally suck at puzzles. There is, however a hint and help system in the game that guides you through them if you're struggling without need for a guide. Not only that, but it can really go as far as just to straight up give you the answer if you want. Advent Dawn also utilizes something really helpful as well - A flowchart to help you backtrack story events and choices, making it easier to figure out which possibilities you've already explored or haven't yet unlocked. I can't really say much about the story directly because I don't want to spoil a story heavy game. I found that while it had a bit of a weak, murder mystery hook it does pick up the pace and become something much larger and intriguing. The routes vary in their tones and what they explore. For my first ending I hit something that was painfully bittersweet and hopeful but depressing. Sometimes it was the emotions that kept me hooked, and other times it was the mystery. The final stretch had a few ups and downs on the way, but it quickly becomes level and leads into a satisfying conclusion of the story that made it worth seeing through. [h2] Conclusion [/h2] I do recommend it! As long as you're not expecting a revolutionary or life changing experience of course lol. Anyways, Kimika best girl. No contest. Then again, I may or may not be a little biased in that regards... [i]Please remember to check other reviews to make a properly informed decision about purchasing this game. I am but one man speaking from my own experience and with my own preferences.[/i]

I really enjoyed my time with this one, it's an easy recommend for people who like mystery VNs. It reminds me of a mixture of Steins;Gate, Umineko, and Ever17. The plot will definitely keep you guessing, and it all comes together in a satisfying way that lies up loose ends well, which is a huge plus in this genre. Some reveals I had a solid feeling about early, while others gave me an "okay how was I supposed to guess that" feeling since it got so complex. Definitely don't hold back from big brain theories here. I love the setting, as well, it really sets the mood for the story. There are a few puzzles throughout, ranging from easy to obtuse. There is a really useful hint system in-game, though, so you shouldn't get stuck. The characters are good, but some of them I really think we didn't get enough time with. It's a shorter VN and the character routes split off pretty early. I didn't dislike anyone or find them annoying, though, which is a plus for sure. For the visuals, those are hit or miss for me. The CGs look like higher quality, but there is some wonkiness to some of the character art. For whatever reason Lyra and Amelia suffer the most from this. Feels wild to say this, but I actually prefer Amelia's art in VII Enigma? The backgrounds are solid and match the mood. The UI is very easy to use, fits the theming well. The timeline is really cool, since the routes differ for which path in the cave you take, the timeline charts the cave as you go. Really creative choice that I loved. The OST is great. It reuses some tracks from the VII Enigma OST but it's understandable since this takes place in the same universe. One thing I would've liked to see is some feature that lists out all the lore for the game. The world is pretty complex, and this would have helped me keep track of it all. Overall, the VN is pretty short and doesn't overstay its welcome. I played the dev's other two games, VII Enigma and Synesthesia. Somehow, this one felt shorter but checking my playtime it looks like they're all similar. If you end up checking this one out, take a look at the others, too. At this point I'm pretty much guaranteed to buy anything this dev comes out with.

I enjoyed the story, personally I really liked the Kimika route. Although, other than her, I'll admit all the other characters are generally fairly dull, with none of them being an interesting take on their character archetype at all. All the characters (save for one, at the end) are perfectly reasonable and well behaved. Someone else in their review mentioned it, and since it was something I noticed too that really bugged me, I'll include it too. The protagonist is not a self-insert blank slate character, he has a pre-existing personality, backstory, and motivations are important to the plot and his relationship with the other characters. Despite this, unlike the rest of the cast, the MC isn't voiced, and I felt like there were many scenes where this was detrimental. The twist was something I was able to guess really early on, although, the particulars of the twist I couldn't figure out until it was revealed, so despite being rather predictable I still enjoyed it. If you enjoy science fiction stories with flowchart looping mechanics, then you'll like this well enough. It's not very long. My playtime is only as high as it is because I set the game aside and left it running for a couple hours lol.

Spire Games continues to improve with Advent: Dawn! The VN has a relatively unique underground setting. Neuroscientist Atlas Everly arrives at a remote oceanic island to do research in a cave, but after a cave in kills his boss-to-be and blocks the exit, he and his brand new coworkers must find a way to escape while uncovering the mysteries of the cave. Advent: Dawn makes use of a variety of common sci-fi and mystery (and even a little fantasy!) plot elements, but synthesizes them in a fresh and interesting way. It falls into the frequent multi-route mystery VN trap of early routes not standing on their own,—and they feel somewhat samey—but what they set up is ultimately worth it in the final route. Other minor nitpicks are: 1.) the speech synthesis is a weird half-measure. It's better than in SYNESTHESIA, but I'd still rather not have it at all. 2.) The story relies a bit too heavily on the events of The VII Enigma. 3.) At times, the prose is purple. Overall though, Advent: Dawn is a fun time! I said it in my SYNESTHESIA review, but after this, I would still like to see what Spire Games can do with a longer script. It's not that this VN needed to be any longer,—I think it's nearly the perfect length for what it is—but sci-fi mysteries are often at their best when the mysteries are given more time to deepen. 7/10

I'll be honest, the ONLY reason I blindly bought this game was simply because I saw a mysterious door (which turned out to just be a door) that reminded me of ever17. Naturally, it never became that, but I can't say I was disappointed. My feelings are more positive than negative. I enjoyed the characters overall, though the art in general was hit or miss, and not to my taste. Felt like the story could have allowed itself to be a little more unhinged, as the sense of how deep the cave was was a bit underwhelming, as I felt there was untapped potential. There was too little 'voice acting' to really comment on whether it had an impact, and I had mixed feelings on the flowchart. Having a non-standard flowchart was nice, but I felt it was a bit messy (at least at firest) to get through. And the puzzles were simply there. I'm also kind of over having routes split up with only the women pretending there to be romance, and would have liked splitting up with the male characters as well. Not every path needs to diverge from a single gender, especially when it's not a romance game! Not important, but a thought that crossed my mind. I was a bit annoyed that I kept right clicking by misclick though, and that using my wheel didn't bring up the backlog, but trivial that was. 8-8,5/10

Was waiting for this game for months, being a big fan of Steins gate and anything Uchkoshi makes (Zero Escape, Never7, Ever17). I was dissappointed when I heard about AI had been used for some Background CGs, and later on synthesized voice acting at time. Having completed the game now, it definitely subtracted from my experiences being almost paranoida bout AI-usage, and questioning every em dash(-) I saw in the text, which there were a lot, especially early on. With all this said, I think this game was really great, and I enjoyed my time with it a lot. Every route felt great in a unique way, with new reveals and answers. The epilogue felt satisfying and worth it. I had never played any of the previous Spire Games, games. I felt they got referenced a lot this game, so I will be checking those games out aswell, and hopefully any new installments in this series.

Still playing but i really like where the story are going. The mystery story really hit the spot for me Kinda remind me of first time playing 999.

The initial concept of this game was intriguing and full of promise, but the actual execution frankly disappointed me. The biggest issue is the absolute lack of pacing or meaningful events. While the developers included multiple story routes, it quickly feels like a cheap illusion of choice. Regardless of the path you take, nothing genuinely interesting happens. The entire gameplay loop boils down to endless, dry conversations with characters and monotonously wandering through the exact same cave over and over again. To make matters worse, the writing suffers heavily. The characters' decisions and inner thoughts often feel illogical and leave you with more questions than answers, making it impossible to care about the story. It is simply a boring and tedious experience. I really wanted to like it, but I cannot recommend this game.