[h1]It's the journey, not the destination[/h1]
[i]Sunset Drive[/i] is a visual novel/jigsaw hybrid with a cosy atmosphere.
We play as the third-person looking in on a young city couple on a lengthy road trip to watch the sunset at the beach, experiencing their conversations, banter and quiet moments in the car during stretches on an animated road in between picturesque stops.
Every so often, two or three conversation options are presented for the male character/driver, and through these, the stops made along the way may alter and ultimately lead to a different, and apparently emotionally rewarding ending.
When the car makes a stop, the game mode shifts to that of a jigsaw, initially presented as a faint scenic picture with clearly blank spots in which to place a series of loose pieces, offered a few at a time in a row at the bottom of the screen. Successfully placing one will see it replaced with a new one not previously visible, until there are less pieces remaining than will fit in the available display area at the bottom of the scene being shown.
These scenes are delightfully brought to life using a paint-on-canvas style which is a perfect fit for the game's ambience and are clearly its biggest selling point. Once each jigsaw is complete, the colours within become more vibrant and provide a pleasing reward for seeing it through.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3782900353
There follows a brief text exchange on site before return to the car motoring along the road, and this process is then repeated (with different locations/jigsaws) through to game completion.
[h1]Features and experience[/h1]
Settings are kinda limited, with options being restricted to text in Japanese or English, a choice of different car (this is [i]only[/i] a visual alteration though) for repeat runs, and an “album” to view, which is essentially a map showing the stops that you have made along the way to date.
The visual novel aspect of the game is perfectly fine for the first run. Text prints swiftly but not instantly, and captions are exclusively brief so waiting time isn't painful. The jgsaws are their own reward once completed. For the art style, offering anything less than 10/10 for results would be churlish. For repeat runs, the player is not expected to complete the same jigsaw again, which is a clear plus.
Despite a personal issue which I'll address in a moment, on the whole my initial run through the game was a fairly pleasant experience.
[h1]But there [i]are[/i] negatives[/h1]
• When first encountering a jigsaw, the scene is presented in pale colouring with clearly greyed out shapes for you to try and fit the loose pieces into. I found the first scene quite enjoyable to complete and appreciated the vibrant full screen visual result. But for later scenes, with more pieces to fill, I found that the “empty” spaces merged with the background picture to such a degree by the time only a few loose pieces remained, that those gaps were all but impossible to spot.
I found this akin to hidden object puzzles where you have to really study the screen hard to try and spot a specific area but don't know where that area is. I intentionally avoid that genre because it gives me eye strain, and [i]I had exactly the same experience with this[/i]. I was relieved to step away on more than a couple of occasions.
• As mentioned, the game requires repeat plays to see it all, and upon restarting, the flaws in the visual novel text presentation become more apparent. Whille the protagonist couple's exchanges are relaxed and entertaining first time around, they are not interesting enough to want to sit through them repeatedly.. and this is where the non-instant text delivery and absence of a skip feature for read text deliver an avoidable burden.
For sure it could be argued that it isn't [b]a lot[/b] to sit through repeatedly, but that still does not excuse the unnecessary time and click burden placed upon the player. As text delivery is not instant, you must, in the case of the guy's captions, wait for it to finish or click to force instant display, and then click again to move it on. Weirdly, for the girl's captions, your only option is to wait for it before clicking. I don't want to keep doing this for text that I have already read.
• The only save option in the game is when you quit a playing session, and even then, it restores you at the “last checkpoint”, which appears to be immediately following a jigsaw scene. Therefore, you can never save at an options moment within a conversation to branch more easily.
[h1]Getting to the crux of it[/h1]
Or, perhaps, the beach.
This is done by selecting the right sequence of chat options. For my first run, I chose all of the first options presented, and for my second, made every one different to my first attempt.
On both runs, the journey ended for me with three stops not visited, and no sunset at the beach.
Unfortunately, with the repeat text annoyances and the narrative just not being interesting enough to truly engage me, I didn't want to run through a third time, which means I never saw the emotional ending hidden away somewhere behind player persistence.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3782900187
I'm afraid that if you desire player dedication, you have [b]got[/b] to provide continued interest over repeat runs and/or maximum user convenience. Sunset Drive hasn't attained those essentials.
Also, as has been mentioned elsewhere, the English translation is respectable, but you can tell that it isn't natural. I've certainly experienced a whole lot worse, but this does serve as a further pointer that this game has been released as a finished product without quite fulfilling its potential.
[h1]Verdict[/h1]
Despite personal reservations, I am still going to award the game a tentative recommendation as I believe that its actual target audience will continue to find its relaxed gameplay and impressive art enough to satisfy their hopes for the experience – and at just £3.39 full price, it is certainly not an unreasonable ask for the content.
I'd also recommend to the developers that you revisit what should be the number one objective – user experience – don't sit on your laurels based on no negative reviews to date, but indulge in a little more development to tighten up those weaker areas, and then you'd have a very nice little game on your hands.
Otome Lovers wishes to thank Klapanom Games for providing a free review copy for this game.
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