Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. The basic idea behind this visual novel is interesting, the only problem is that it's not executed well enough. Essentially, it's Star Trek without the Prime Directive (the clause in Federation law that, in the series' universe, stipulates that neutral, pre-warp worlds cannot be interfered with, except in very specific circumstances). Instead, in this game's world, the utopian society from which the protagonist comes actively intervenes in the businesses of other worlds to - supposedly - improve their lot. The problems begin with this concept itself, which is somewhat reminiscent of the "civilizing mission" of 19th-century Europeans: if Star Trek's Prime Directive can be said to amount to a dubious stance on first contact, one that is perhaps too rigid for (literally) an entire universe of possibilities, it's nevertheless much wiser than the idea of purposefully going out of one's way to "help" less developed cultures. Still, this is a premise that, even if a little odd, could work out fairly decently, if it weren't for the story's many shortcomings. For starters, differently from Star Trek (whose creators possessed a superior level of intellectual cultivation), in which the approaches to first contact and the study of alien cultures were modeled after real, modern Malinowskian anthropology, in this game the procedures for interacting with other worlds seem to be defined almost entirely by the characters' whims. The idea that the protagonist could learn more about Brighton's culture and overall state of affairs by drinking at a bar than by going to a library, as suggested by her "mentor", is utterly ridiculous and completely unbelievable. Furthermore, his blackmailing her (a minor) into drinking, with the whole sexual innuendo that pervades this scene, as epitomized by the phrase "there'll be much worse things you'll have to swallow than alcohol, trust me", is artistically cheap and hard to digest story-wise, as it's very unlikely that someone like Cyrus would be trusted with "mentoring" a young girl like Winter in the first place. In truth, nothing about this story seems serious at all: the music is too up-beat and does not reflect the supposedly serious, grave mood of the events and occurrences; the political intrigue is too generic and artificial. The fact that any and all choices you're presented with lead to equally tragic outcomes appears to be intended to teach the player/reader a lesson, but this lesson, if there really is one, is severely undermined by the lack of seriousness that can be perceived throughout the rest of the work. It does, however, get positive points for its art and neat animated sequences.

Tried my best with this novel but maybe visual novel games are just not my thing. Spend 15 minutes only with text and long discussions about tedious topics and uninteresting characters. No choices at all. Music and graphics are beautiful though and maybe it gets better if you dig in, I couldn't. Unfortunately I read that the developer aleady abandoned the project and that it won't get any sequels.

Very few choices to be made. The story isn't particularly gripping, and the multiple endings aren't interesting enough to run through it more than twice. Skipping works wonders.

Well, this is quite the waste of potential, the setting was quite interesting, too bad it seems like there are no plans to ever finish the story. I cannot recommend it, but I don't think it would be fair not to give it a positive review.

A very well written story featuring a student and their mentor counselor from another dimension - descending to this planet to prevent fatal conflicts steaming from political issues.