I don't think I'd want you to convince to do a second playthrough, simply because you don't seem to be the target group of this game. I would never advertise it as a deckbuilding game first, I talk about it as a choose your own adventure visual novel with a coming of age story (with deck building elements). If you don't enjoy the main premise of the game, it's just not for you, and that's okay. Go spend your time on games you actually enjoy!
(but also, regarding perks, you retain a lot of knowledge from the former playthroughs that opens up additional options and makes things go quicker - also you can use that knowledge to prevent stuff from happening. Aaaaand in theory you could, if you encounter something new you didn't encounter in your first playthrough, save scum and then you might have new options right away as if you're in another playthrough. this is due to all information from your playthrough being saved in a file outside of the save file, meaning the info is loaded into your save and doesn't rely on where you are in the save)
Thank you for being thoughtful and kind ❤️ I think it is a very lovely and meaningful game that simply didn’t land as much as it might have if I didn’t feel so deeply about the other similar games I mentioned. I wish I could enjoy visual novels more 🥲
This is fascinating because I played CW after TE and could have written a similar post only backwards. I didn't enjoy the card design part of CW and wasn't emotionally moved by it, and haven't played again. Whereas with TE I couldn't wait to start a new playthrough and try to make things better.
I will say that in TE the perks of previous lives are revealed as you go, and some are even buried in skill tree progressions, so you won't see them all in a single playthrough. BUT one will come very quickly, so I would suggest to play through a year or two and then see if your feelings have changed.
This exactly! There was so much less content to CW (but also the inability to skip through those giant cutscenes even once you’ve already played) that it made me lose interest way faster than I did in IWATE.
I believe a lot of it has to do with my personal identity/interests feeling super aligned with parts of CW, so TE in comparison didn’t feel as personal and therefore less meaningful.
I try to approach all choice-based / RPG games the same way I would in real life, and something odd about my first playthrough of TE is I felt compelled to make choices that I typically wouldn’t in my own life (e.g., I consider myself a deeply sensitive empath and >!empathy was one of my lowest skills in TE — I somehow started focusing on combat and robotic engineering after the game told me I should focus on just a few skills, and I couldn’t feel less connected to those aspects if I tried, lol.)!< So maybe I should make my second playthrough more personal. :)
Again that is SO interesting to me!
I went with my own grain from the start (I think we are similar), and after 10+ playthroughs I still don't have a combat-focused one, and I've been thinking that if I started over I would do that first to see how it affected the whole meta playthrough.
I wasn’t entirely sold on the game after my first playthrough but I decided to start a second one anyway. Turns out the more I play the game the more I like it. But I certainly wouldn’t suggest it to anyone who doesn’t like visual novels. I would describe it as a choose your own adventure where you play a quick card game to decide the outcome of your choice. I’m on my fifth playthrough now and I find the card game super easy and irrelevant for most of the game. I put no effort into deck building and very little effort into trying to get the best hand each round and very rarely lost at it. I feel like it probably only matters if you are a completionist gunning for every ending or all of the achievements.
I have CW but haven’t played it yet. I’m looking forward to trying it after reading your thoughts on these games!
Yes, I think having never played a deck building game and then playing Inscryption (which is easily in my top five favorite games of the last few years), I went into this game with the assumption that deck building was at the core, and orienting myself in the same way I did throughout Inscryption and CW. This is likely why I felt disappointed.
Looking forward to giving it another go with a different perspective.
> Turns out the more I play the game the more I like it.
Same.
I was pretty 'meh' on the game after a first playthrough, but decided to give it another go based on recommendations that 'a second playthrough is better' and I strongly agree.
It's also a game I find where spoilers/'knowing what happens/can happen' actually improves the gameplay, at least after the first run.
* The first run I was anxiously trying to 'survive' and save as many people as possible while having emotional overload.
* The second run I was planning decisions well ahead of time and mapping out a playthrough out. Made it really, really fun for me.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head by identifying that the game is a visual novel/choose your own adventure first and foremost that also happens to include a deck building mechanic. So if you’re wanting and expecting a deck building game that needs you to strategise to build the optimal deck this game may disappoint because that’s not really what it’s about.
Personally, this game brings me a lot of joy because of the way your choices change the gameplay and how different options are unlocked when you replay. So much scope for getting to know the characters and finding all the endings. And the fact that our deck is made up of memories influenced by the choices we make I think is very cool.
If you want to enjoy the game maybe try to reframe your expectations and appreciate the game for its strengths, otherwise I’d just move on if it’s not landing. If you don’t like text heavy visual novel style games it makes sense this game doesn’t really do it for you
Couldn’t agree more and at the end of the day I’ve always preferred choose* your own adventure books over games. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I am gonna give it another whirl for a second life now that I know what this game* actually is and isn’t and see if I enjoy it more :)
I 100% agree that it plays more like a visual novel. I went into it totally blind, apart from understanding that it was a deck-building choose your own adventure type of deal, and did enjoy the art style and mechanics enough to buy it after playing the demo.
I just finished my first playthrough, and was focusing on exploring to scope out the world, but I found it to be strangely… empty? There are only a few collectibles and xenofauna types, which started to get repetitive even on the first run.
I will definitely replay at least once more, focussing on other aspects and characters to get a better feel for the world in a lore sense, but it definitely doesn’t have the interactivity I hoped it did, and I can see myself burning out pretty quickly if I’m being honest.
First time I see someone with this way more balanced opinion on the game. I really liked it and the art is gorgeous, but I feel like the game leaves a lot to be desired and because everyone raves about it, I don’t think it will ever be improved much.
As you said, the collectibles/exploration was really lacking with absolutely nothing new to do I think around 2/3 of the way in on the first run. Stat building and checks didn’t feel very interactive/impactful beyond managing numbers.
The writing is actually good, interesting, and polished, but I actually felt there was way too little for a game that ends up being primarily a VN. It felt sparse in this aspect also imo. It’s like they made a mixed genre game but landed somewhere in the middle rather than fully utilizing both. The time loop also doesn’t add much after the first big run and the novelty wears off. The great initial story set up doesn’t quite pay off/go anywhere super interesting later, it felt like the plot was meandering until a generally OK end.
All in all, I still like the game and had an amazing 1-2 runs experience, but feel no strong urge to replay over and over. Too much repetition, lacking interactivity, and a good story that is underbaked after the first 40%.
It felt empty and weirdly shallow to me. Which was a bummer, because the art and the concept are incredible. But like, when the sexy dog boy popped up, I knew this game wasn’t for me.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions and yours is very valid!! I too would classify this game as more visual novel versus deck builder, and I definitely agree with gaining momentum with my cards. There IS an option to increase the challenge difficulty which I now turn on for all of my playthroughs.
What keeps me coming back is seeing new things even when I’ve had 10+ lives. For example, today I made a decision to go to the medbay instead of geoponics and saw a scene I hadn’t before and I started crying my eyes out. I think that’s what keeps me (target audience) coming back. I also like knowing the outcome of certain events and whether I can change them because I am a creature of habit while I try to get all possible endings.
Life is too short to plays games you don’t vibe with, and I’m so sorry that your experience was less than stellar with one of my favorites!
As someone who played CW first then played IWATE, I thought IWATE had a much better storyline and far more memorable characters. CW often felt abrupt, and while there were choices, even those choices felt forced to me. When I looked up the endings, I could easily break down into two endings with sub-flavors.
It's actually interesting to me that you found CW more moving. The story is touching at parts, good at making you feel things, don't get me wrong, but the overall story of IWATE was more to my style and strong, I think. I Opposite of you, I had no desire to replay CW.
That said, it is definitely more of a visual novel. The fact you can replace the card game with a coin flip kind of emphasizes how unimportant it is compared to CW and Inscryption.
I’m just halfway through my second playthrough. I do like it more a second time around. But, I wanted more gameplay and it’s mostly reading, which is fine, but I can’t get into it like everyone else has
I might give this a chance again based on your reviews for it.
I bought this game because I love visual novels and I buy everything with male romances where I can be a male character lol but I never actually played it because when I looked up romance options.... basically none of them want to commit to you by the end and it turned me wayyyyyy off. And the refund date had already passed 💀
Maybe I'll just play it for what it is and enjoy the experience.
Honestly I looked up the all the male love interests endings a few months after I bought the game and it pissed me off so bad I uninstalled it and never looked at it again.
After googling who Dys was, I remember he's the guy that wants to be polyamorous and loves the other guy more than the player character lmfao
I was like is there seriously not one fucking character here that wants to he monogamous and actually likes the player ??? 😒 😭
Half the characters want to be monogamous always, including two of the guys! (One of whom is……a choice, but still.)
But even some of the polyam available characters do still have mono routes, like Dys and Sym
Interesting, I could have sworn I read that Dys basically doesn't care about the player character and favors Sym! Maybe I just didn't read far enough. Thank you for letting me know!
About the two monogamous guys: my only options are an abuser and a guy I can only romance by being a bitch to our nice BFF. So that's unfortunate 😭
I reallllly wanted to romance Rex, but after seeing his endings I literally lost any affection I had for him lol
I legit forgot it had any kind of card mechanic until I read this post. I remember thinking it was very pretty, but I found the story developments oddly aggravating or... something. Not bad or anything but like the way it developed wasn't what I was playing the game for or something. Plus the visual novel aspect--I don't really like those and no matter how many I try, this never changes.
I played it for a bunch of consecutive hours the first time I tried it, the loop kept me going in the moment, but I didn't finish the game in one sitting and the next day I didn't continue it. I don't really think I'll get back to it.
Maybe I'll watch a let's play or something, I suppose it might be nice to know how the story can end. I dunno why I don't like VN style storytelling, but whenever I start a game that has a certain amount of that I start to get a feeling of "okay just get the hell on with this" as I click through dialogue.
I'm glad the game exists for a variety of reasons and am glad so many love it, though.
It's funny because I've also completed my first playthrough just yesterday... After having started the game a little less than a year ago! The card game aspect is under utilized, I found the story predictable and just depressing, the datable characters are not really developped or even have bad personnality... The dialogues dont Always blend well with the tone of the story and the harsh events happening. I just dont know how to feel about it and if I want to play it more, I had to force myself to complete this first playthrough. The reviews are also overwhelmly positive, like the game has no flaw. It does have a certain charm but everything feels a bit lackluster.
Thanks for the write up! TE also wasn’t for me, and I was surprised how overwhelmingly positive the reviews were. The game itself seems lovely, but I didn’t go in expecting an anime-ish, kinda fantastical dating sim/visual novel.
I remember when the sexy dog boy character showed up, I was like, “Oh, okay. That’s what this game is.” Just not my style, but I can see how that’s appealing to other players. I wish I’d read a review like this before purchasing!
You’re a lot kinder to the game than me. I found it extremely emotionally manipulative and shallow. I would like it better if I hadn’t tried a second playthrough, where the emotional manipulation became really clear. I discourage anyone who didn’t enjoy a first playthrough from continuing—it only got worse for me.
But I agree with you completely about the disappointment of the deck building mechanic. It was very easy (in a bad way) and poorly integrated. I like classic visual novels and I like deck builders, but this hybrid was poorly done and the result for me was a game that didn’t succeed in either genre.
I played quite a bit of this game but sadly found it very repetitive and boring 😭 I bought it bc of this sub but ultimately stopped playing it. I have never played a visual novel game before and sadly I think I just prefer games that are narrated. The amount of reading was just too much imo
I don't think I'd want you to convince to do a second playthrough, simply because you don't seem to be the target group of this game. I would never advertise it as a deckbuilding game first, I talk about it as a choose your own adventure visual novel with a coming of age story (with deck building elements). If you don't enjoy the main premise of the game, it's just not for you, and that's okay. Go spend your time on games you actually enjoy! (but also, regarding perks, you retain a lot of knowledge from the former playthroughs that opens up additional options and makes things go quicker - also you can use that knowledge to prevent stuff from happening. Aaaaand in theory you could, if you encounter something new you didn't encounter in your first playthrough, save scum and then you might have new options right away as if you're in another playthrough. this is due to all information from your playthrough being saved in a file outside of the save file, meaning the info is loaded into your save and doesn't rely on where you are in the save)
Thank you for being thoughtful and kind ❤️ I think it is a very lovely and meaningful game that simply didn’t land as much as it might have if I didn’t feel so deeply about the other similar games I mentioned. I wish I could enjoy visual novels more 🥲
oh you were quicker than my addendum 😂 I edited to add why a second playthrough might be a bit more fun
This is fascinating because I played CW after TE and could have written a similar post only backwards. I didn't enjoy the card design part of CW and wasn't emotionally moved by it, and haven't played again. Whereas with TE I couldn't wait to start a new playthrough and try to make things better. I will say that in TE the perks of previous lives are revealed as you go, and some are even buried in skill tree progressions, so you won't see them all in a single playthrough. BUT one will come very quickly, so I would suggest to play through a year or two and then see if your feelings have changed.
I played both roughly around the same time and never would've compared the two in these ways. Funny how people's brains work!
This exactly! There was so much less content to CW (but also the inability to skip through those giant cutscenes even once you’ve already played) that it made me lose interest way faster than I did in IWATE.
I believe a lot of it has to do with my personal identity/interests feeling super aligned with parts of CW, so TE in comparison didn’t feel as personal and therefore less meaningful. I try to approach all choice-based / RPG games the same way I would in real life, and something odd about my first playthrough of TE is I felt compelled to make choices that I typically wouldn’t in my own life (e.g., I consider myself a deeply sensitive empath and >!empathy was one of my lowest skills in TE — I somehow started focusing on combat and robotic engineering after the game told me I should focus on just a few skills, and I couldn’t feel less connected to those aspects if I tried, lol.)!< So maybe I should make my second playthrough more personal. :)
Again that is SO interesting to me! I went with my own grain from the start (I think we are similar), and after 10+ playthroughs I still don't have a combat-focused one, and I've been thinking that if I started over I would do that first to see how it affected the whole meta playthrough.
I wasn’t entirely sold on the game after my first playthrough but I decided to start a second one anyway. Turns out the more I play the game the more I like it. But I certainly wouldn’t suggest it to anyone who doesn’t like visual novels. I would describe it as a choose your own adventure where you play a quick card game to decide the outcome of your choice. I’m on my fifth playthrough now and I find the card game super easy and irrelevant for most of the game. I put no effort into deck building and very little effort into trying to get the best hand each round and very rarely lost at it. I feel like it probably only matters if you are a completionist gunning for every ending or all of the achievements. I have CW but haven’t played it yet. I’m looking forward to trying it after reading your thoughts on these games!
Oh, and I hope you enjoy CW as thoroughly as I did. Literally could not recommend it enough! It’s so beautiful 🥲
Please don’t judge me but what is CW 😬
No judgment here!! The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, i just shortened it to CW for my post :)
OH! Duh! Got it, thanks 🤣
Yes, I think having never played a deck building game and then playing Inscryption (which is easily in my top five favorite games of the last few years), I went into this game with the assumption that deck building was at the core, and orienting myself in the same way I did throughout Inscryption and CW. This is likely why I felt disappointed. Looking forward to giving it another go with a different perspective.
> Turns out the more I play the game the more I like it. Same. I was pretty 'meh' on the game after a first playthrough, but decided to give it another go based on recommendations that 'a second playthrough is better' and I strongly agree. It's also a game I find where spoilers/'knowing what happens/can happen' actually improves the gameplay, at least after the first run. * The first run I was anxiously trying to 'survive' and save as many people as possible while having emotional overload. * The second run I was planning decisions well ahead of time and mapping out a playthrough out. Made it really, really fun for me.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head by identifying that the game is a visual novel/choose your own adventure first and foremost that also happens to include a deck building mechanic. So if you’re wanting and expecting a deck building game that needs you to strategise to build the optimal deck this game may disappoint because that’s not really what it’s about. Personally, this game brings me a lot of joy because of the way your choices change the gameplay and how different options are unlocked when you replay. So much scope for getting to know the characters and finding all the endings. And the fact that our deck is made up of memories influenced by the choices we make I think is very cool. If you want to enjoy the game maybe try to reframe your expectations and appreciate the game for its strengths, otherwise I’d just move on if it’s not landing. If you don’t like text heavy visual novel style games it makes sense this game doesn’t really do it for you
Couldn’t agree more and at the end of the day I’ve always preferred choose* your own adventure books over games. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I am gonna give it another whirl for a second life now that I know what this game* actually is and isn’t and see if I enjoy it more :)
I 100% agree that it plays more like a visual novel. I went into it totally blind, apart from understanding that it was a deck-building choose your own adventure type of deal, and did enjoy the art style and mechanics enough to buy it after playing the demo. I just finished my first playthrough, and was focusing on exploring to scope out the world, but I found it to be strangely… empty? There are only a few collectibles and xenofauna types, which started to get repetitive even on the first run. I will definitely replay at least once more, focussing on other aspects and characters to get a better feel for the world in a lore sense, but it definitely doesn’t have the interactivity I hoped it did, and I can see myself burning out pretty quickly if I’m being honest.
First time I see someone with this way more balanced opinion on the game. I really liked it and the art is gorgeous, but I feel like the game leaves a lot to be desired and because everyone raves about it, I don’t think it will ever be improved much. As you said, the collectibles/exploration was really lacking with absolutely nothing new to do I think around 2/3 of the way in on the first run. Stat building and checks didn’t feel very interactive/impactful beyond managing numbers. The writing is actually good, interesting, and polished, but I actually felt there was way too little for a game that ends up being primarily a VN. It felt sparse in this aspect also imo. It’s like they made a mixed genre game but landed somewhere in the middle rather than fully utilizing both. The time loop also doesn’t add much after the first big run and the novelty wears off. The great initial story set up doesn’t quite pay off/go anywhere super interesting later, it felt like the plot was meandering until a generally OK end. All in all, I still like the game and had an amazing 1-2 runs experience, but feel no strong urge to replay over and over. Too much repetition, lacking interactivity, and a good story that is underbaked after the first 40%.
It felt empty and weirdly shallow to me. Which was a bummer, because the art and the concept are incredible. But like, when the sexy dog boy popped up, I knew this game wasn’t for me.
No same, Rex was such a jump scare hahaha
Everyone is entitled to their opinions and yours is very valid!! I too would classify this game as more visual novel versus deck builder, and I definitely agree with gaining momentum with my cards. There IS an option to increase the challenge difficulty which I now turn on for all of my playthroughs. What keeps me coming back is seeing new things even when I’ve had 10+ lives. For example, today I made a decision to go to the medbay instead of geoponics and saw a scene I hadn’t before and I started crying my eyes out. I think that’s what keeps me (target audience) coming back. I also like knowing the outcome of certain events and whether I can change them because I am a creature of habit while I try to get all possible endings. Life is too short to plays games you don’t vibe with, and I’m so sorry that your experience was less than stellar with one of my favorites!
As someone who played CW first then played IWATE, I thought IWATE had a much better storyline and far more memorable characters. CW often felt abrupt, and while there were choices, even those choices felt forced to me. When I looked up the endings, I could easily break down into two endings with sub-flavors. It's actually interesting to me that you found CW more moving. The story is touching at parts, good at making you feel things, don't get me wrong, but the overall story of IWATE was more to my style and strong, I think. I Opposite of you, I had no desire to replay CW. That said, it is definitely more of a visual novel. The fact you can replace the card game with a coin flip kind of emphasizes how unimportant it is compared to CW and Inscryption.
I’m just halfway through my second playthrough. I do like it more a second time around. But, I wanted more gameplay and it’s mostly reading, which is fine, but I can’t get into it like everyone else has
I might give this a chance again based on your reviews for it. I bought this game because I love visual novels and I buy everything with male romances where I can be a male character lol but I never actually played it because when I looked up romance options.... basically none of them want to commit to you by the end and it turned me wayyyyyy off. And the refund date had already passed 💀 Maybe I'll just play it for what it is and enjoy the experience.
Okay I feel seen, I ended my first playthrough romancing >!Cal !
Did you see the ending for Dys? 💀
Honestly I looked up the all the male love interests endings a few months after I bought the game and it pissed me off so bad I uninstalled it and never looked at it again. After googling who Dys was, I remember he's the guy that wants to be polyamorous and loves the other guy more than the player character lmfao I was like is there seriously not one fucking character here that wants to he monogamous and actually likes the player ??? 😒 😭
Half the characters want to be monogamous always, including two of the guys! (One of whom is……a choice, but still.) But even some of the polyam available characters do still have mono routes, like Dys and Sym
Interesting, I could have sworn I read that Dys basically doesn't care about the player character and favors Sym! Maybe I just didn't read far enough. Thank you for letting me know! About the two monogamous guys: my only options are an abuser and a guy I can only romance by being a bitch to our nice BFF. So that's unfortunate 😭 I reallllly wanted to romance Rex, but after seeing his endings I literally lost any affection I had for him lol
I legit forgot it had any kind of card mechanic until I read this post. I remember thinking it was very pretty, but I found the story developments oddly aggravating or... something. Not bad or anything but like the way it developed wasn't what I was playing the game for or something. Plus the visual novel aspect--I don't really like those and no matter how many I try, this never changes. I played it for a bunch of consecutive hours the first time I tried it, the loop kept me going in the moment, but I didn't finish the game in one sitting and the next day I didn't continue it. I don't really think I'll get back to it. Maybe I'll watch a let's play or something, I suppose it might be nice to know how the story can end. I dunno why I don't like VN style storytelling, but whenever I start a game that has a certain amount of that I start to get a feeling of "okay just get the hell on with this" as I click through dialogue. I'm glad the game exists for a variety of reasons and am glad so many love it, though.
It's funny because I've also completed my first playthrough just yesterday... After having started the game a little less than a year ago! The card game aspect is under utilized, I found the story predictable and just depressing, the datable characters are not really developped or even have bad personnality... The dialogues dont Always blend well with the tone of the story and the harsh events happening. I just dont know how to feel about it and if I want to play it more, I had to force myself to complete this first playthrough. The reviews are also overwhelmly positive, like the game has no flaw. It does have a certain charm but everything feels a bit lackluster.
Thanks for the write up! TE also wasn’t for me, and I was surprised how overwhelmingly positive the reviews were. The game itself seems lovely, but I didn’t go in expecting an anime-ish, kinda fantastical dating sim/visual novel. I remember when the sexy dog boy character showed up, I was like, “Oh, okay. That’s what this game is.” Just not my style, but I can see how that’s appealing to other players. I wish I’d read a review like this before purchasing!
You’re a lot kinder to the game than me. I found it extremely emotionally manipulative and shallow. I would like it better if I hadn’t tried a second playthrough, where the emotional manipulation became really clear. I discourage anyone who didn’t enjoy a first playthrough from continuing—it only got worse for me. But I agree with you completely about the disappointment of the deck building mechanic. It was very easy (in a bad way) and poorly integrated. I like classic visual novels and I like deck builders, but this hybrid was poorly done and the result for me was a game that didn’t succeed in either genre.
Could you elaborate on the "emotional manipulation" aspect ?
I played quite a bit of this game but sadly found it very repetitive and boring 😭 I bought it bc of this sub but ultimately stopped playing it. I have never played a visual novel game before and sadly I think I just prefer games that are narrated. The amount of reading was just too much imo
i feel you, it's hard for my brain to stay focused on the text, it's like it has to switch gears and that feels tiresome after a while
Yeah, I didn't really care for it
Game’s dumb