Eliza

I'm left with so much gratitude at having been able to play this game. Will be turning this one over in my mind for many moons.

This game is very much like a Therapist (We know, it says counselling in the outset). I'm going to quantify that for you, this game raises a lot of VERY serious, very pertinent and topical questions that much like a therapist it never truly answers, however unlike a therapist it is in no way equipped to answer in the first place. I don't shy away from games with difficult, mature topics, or games that have a significant lack of achievements to track progression which is why I undertook "Eliza". It's a Visual Novel, we know that, again, we knew what we were getting into but perhaps the most worrying aspect of this game isn't that it has a pre-determined ending, which, of course it does, but it's that it doesn't even lull you in to a false sense of thinking there's other ways out by giving you lots of choices and branching paths before ultimately ending up where you do. At least if I had sweeping paths leading to other areas with other characters or choices that determined who was still around towards the end I could forgive it, but it doesn't. It's very paper-thin. A Route or B Route. It's always A and B and no matter what you do you arrive at the same pre-determined point. You know what I spent most of my NINE hours doing? The Achievement. Playing on Expert. I spent the better part of an afternoon on that. Was it fun? No. Why did I do it? Because i'm a glutton for punishment who likes to catalogue his games across multiple categories and I wanted to stick this in "Visual Novels - Beaten". Recommending the game is difficult for me and I wish there was something in between a Yes and No that I could select because the Subject Matter is Good. The actual story is good. The characters are... ok. They're not good, they aren't really fleshed out anywhere near as much as you'd want to actually care about them, but there's an attempt made. The sound is good. However where it really falls down is at its fundamental level, it's Gameplay Feel. It's just boring. There's no need to replay this over and over, it's not going to be anyone's favourite game, it simply is just something you play through, appreciate and move on.

Eliza is short and quiet but everything it doesn't, it does right. It's been sitting in the back of my mind for years now. It is one of those rare visual novels that has a more "mature" approach to offer. It has a dark, yet gentle sort of ambiance. Also the art is neat, while the game is to the point and invites to reflexion without forcing jugement. Last but not least, it also has great voice acting.

Хорошая визуальная новелла - ничего особенно, но сюжет и персонажи достаточно интересные, чтобы удерживать внимание на протяжении нескольких часов. Хотя концовка, конечно, подкачала. Но это нормально - даже самые сильные истории часто страдают недожатыми или даже слитыми концовками. Особенно любопытно в этой игре то, что она в некотором роде предвосхитила будущее, практически один в один описав направление развития искусственного интеллекта из языковых моделей, которые будут анализировать огромные объемы информации и строить свои рассуждения с помощью предсказаний. Элиза - это по сути chatGPT версии 1.0, ещё немножко тупенькая, но уже способная понимать человеческую речь и как-то участвовать в диалоге. Может, поэтому мы не очень понравилась явная предвзятость, с которой были прописаны диалоги протагонистки. Да, в конце вам формально дают сделать выбор, но на протяжении всей игры вас очень настойчиво подталкивают к тому, чтобы вы сделали вполне определенённый, правильный, выбор. Это было слишком грубо. Опять же, сеансы с Элизой выглядят чудовищно нелепыми и бесполезными. Если бы я не знала сейчас, на что способна языковая модель - а ведь ей до настоящего AI как до Европы раком - то подумала бы, что да, действительно, зачем обществу настолько примитивные, скверные инструменты, которые не только не способны выполнять свою функцию, но ещё и наверняка вредят нуждающимся в помощи людям. Но я-то уже знаю, поэтому всю дорогу закатывала глаза каждый раз, когда очередной персонаж начинал катить телегу про весь тот вред, который бездушные машины и управляющими ими корпорации приносят обществу.

Great game, lackluster endings. The concept is explored very interestingly and I want to highlight the impeccable voice acting. The end decisions felt shallow compared to the nuanced choices and dialogue in the rest of the story, but I definitely recommend it overall.

A great Visuelle novelle. The artstyle is good. The voice acting is more then fine. The music also works. The characters is fine and I quiet liked espeially Nora, Evelyn, Rue and Erlend. I found the story good. While the choices is a little minimum it still works especially since you have give a choice about how you want the game to end. Anyway a good story with a good themes with Ai. Humans place in the world. How to solve depression or people being sad , unhappy etc. Recommended. Well worth a buy. PS: My 750 different finished game now.

Good overall, very entertaining that this hit the scene right before ChatGPT and Co. barged into the scene IRL. It got a lot of stuff right, but it completely missed a lot of things as well. Pacing is a bit slow, and it can get a bit... Well, the game dumbs things down for you too much at times. But still interesting, and a bit emotional at times as well.