Sound of Drop - fall into poison -

I don't usually write Steam reviews but someone asked for horror recs, and this one immediately came to mind. I played it 8 years ago and I still think about this game. As a horror enthusiast, not a lot unsettles me, but the atmosphere here is just genuinely unnerving. The art, the soundtrack, the dialogue - they just combine in a way that few VNs (or horror games in general) manage to pull off to immerse you in the story. Well worth the read.

先说一下游戏本身，总体是不错的，bgm优秀，像开局的音乐就令我印象很深，菜单界面小细节也很多[spoiler] 有人够不到吊环说是[/spoiler]，以及凑的翻译真的难绷，有股味儿说是 然后剧情方面的话，本作围绕水族馆，以悬疑作为主卖点，各个结局之间差距相当大，个人很喜欢这种完全不同的可能性。剧情的刻画基本是围绕女主的成长的，虽然很多推理部分有点不明所以，几个反派还一直神神叨叨的[spoiler] 结果决战也是一边在疯狂输出一堆形而上学的概念，一边满脑子只有我要带我老婆和闺蜜出去，说明论战本质果然应该是你说你的我说我的[/spoiler]，但整体剧情还是很是很流畅闭环的，从一开始软弱的形象到“你有为了真相献出生命的觉悟吗”到塔塔开，一自摸塔塔开“全给你们超度了”到最后走在一条不回头的路，没有走到终点绝不认输😡！“一定要带老婆出去”的强大意志，能够很明显的感觉到真弓的成长[spoiler] 以及后日谈从姬乃和砂夜认识开始的两个人就往死里拌嘴是真不错，死傲娇就是该被姬乃轻松拿捏啊我说，未来：享受 啊 享受😋[/spoiler] 百合方面的话，有一点个人觉得是雷的地方，就是宪二这个角色，个人觉得他的塑造完全是意义不明，既然想要卖百合那塞个男人干什么，虽然就没几句话，还都是坏女人动摇真弓的手段，但故意搞个对男人的感情还是很膈应，你都写这感情在察觉前就消失了你就不能直接不写吗😡😡😡 抛开这点来说个人觉得本作浓度还是有的，不管是病娇骨科还是真姬两人我觉得都很好吃😋可爱小真里举起双手一跳一跳、鼓起脸颊变得通红和病娇大真里疯狂的占有欲之间的反差更体现出妹妹对姐姐疯狂的爱😋真姬方面虽然最后是用友情来写，但很多台词像““和我最喜欢的姬乃，吃最喜欢的曲奇冰淇淋” “-为什么会当我这样的人的朋友？-我可不只是想和你当朋友哦” “我可是恨过你一回的！尽管我是非常喜欢小真的，我却讨厌了你”“ 你快好起来，不然纱夜不舒服”等等我觉得还是有明确的感情的，尤其是姬乃和真弓，有的人真的是三句离不开姬乃“姬乃会这样想”“姬乃的话会这样做”不是，你台词都这样了，结局还是包饺子，那你不能大大方方再写点幸福生活😡唉，屋檐了，勉强给你给好评吧😡😡😡

[도전과제 100%] 수면 위로 떠오르지 못하는 이야기 --------------------------------------------------- A story that cannot surface above the water.

Recomendo

好烂，好无聊的故事，纯闹鬼毫无任何科学推理。

[h3]Help! I've been Ass-Slapped with a Portuguese Man 'O' War! and ~30 other half-baked stories that probably aren't worth your time.[/h3] Play experience: I got through maybe 3/4 of it, dropped it, read all of Umineko, contemplated buying more VNs, then started back from the beginning 5 years later to clear out the VNs I already own. I got through one ending: -Himeno-. Maybe I'll go back to try and figure out what was going on with Kenji eventually, but this game has bored me away from it. Music was pretty good, visuals were overall great (I'm not the biggest fan of how non-chibi characters are drawn outside of maybe Kenji though that's obvs subjective, the backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous), translation was discernably B-A-D BAD, and the mediocre plot doesn't help. I actively felt this game try to kill any interest I had in it every time Mayu opened her mouth. Not that Mayu is an unlikable character, on the contrary, I REALLY wanted to like her as a protagonist! But all of her growth (and she's really the only character that seems to GET "growth") is very tell-don't-show-or-do. She's very flimsy as a person, and so is Himeno. I just can't get over how unrealistic the both of them feel as middle school girls (I was one of those once, I should know). They have a conceptually sweet dynamic, but this game is OBSESSED with tell-don't-show. A lot of the game's problems lie in that you just can't feel a lot of the things that they want you to with characters as flat as this. I can feel the narrative slowly try and destroy itself the further on I read. Despite my initial wonder at the gorgeous backdrops of the mysterious Manten Aquarium, what we have is a collection of setpieces and the little one-note goonies that run around it to TRY and make it work, through clunky-sounding exposition. And, considering my dwindling lack of interest as the game went on, it sadly failed. My favourite scene was probably the ominous opening story Himeno was telling Mayu--the horror writing in this game isn't bad, per se, but I do think that scene is at least *one* of the best examples. Considering a lot of the game's advertisable meat is supposed to be this horror writing (ie, the bad ends)...that's not good! It works in certain RPGMaker games but MAN, the bad end-focused gameplay does NOT feel like it works particularly well here. Sort of just yakking my jaw, but this game wasted my time pretending that it had something to say, and that always kinda frustrates me. [spoiler]Seriously. That clunky, stupid title drop at the end of -Himeno- is probably the entire reason I'm bothering to write a negative review.[/spoiler] . If you want a sorta mysterious slightly unfamiliar world-feeling game focused on girls with loads of bad ends, just play an RPGMaker game at that point. Play Pocket Mirror.

This stuff is from 2014. Plays like a 2010 horror pixel 2d RPG, which I very much adore, but in VN form. Think of Ib and Mad Father... but boring. I just cannot bother with the mediocre writing + bland scenarios to be honest. Not my cup of tea, probably.