- Unique documentary-style speculative biology experience
- Exceptional, detailed, and immersive world-building
- Compelling narrative with excellent narration
- Melodious music and effective sound design
- Minimal interactivity, primarily click-through
- Development seems abandoned, part 2 uncertain
Emotions
Players felt satisfied due to the game's high overall quality, encompassing its immersive world-building, compelling story, exceptional art, and engaging narration. The game's unique concept of speculative evolution presented as a documentary, combined with its free price, significantly contributed to a positive and valuable experience.
Excitement stemmed primarily from the game's high quality, unique concept, and the anticipation for future content, particularly Part 2. Players were eager to recommend the game and looked forward to experiencing more of its captivating world and story.
Admiration was driven by the game's exceptional artistic quality, including its beautiful visuals, detailed world-building, and compelling storytelling. The effort, originality, and scientific grounding in its speculative biology were highly praised, showcasing the creators' skill and passion.
Awe was evoked by the game's stunning visuals, intricate details, and scientific authenticity in its ecosystems and creature design. The brilliant presentation, narrative, and world-building created a deeply immersive and thought-provoking experience for players.
Joy was experienced when the game aligned with personal interests, particularly in speculative biology and unique visual novel formats. The overall high quality of the story, art, and the atmospheric experience, especially given the game was free, contributed to a delightful and unforgettable journey.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 97% ¡ Negative 3%. Score: 3 / 100
Positives:
- The game's unique pseudo-documentary style, particularly focusing on speculative biology and alien whales, is a standout feature. Players appreciate its resemblance to nature documentaries, finding it fascinating, educational, and a fresh take on storytelling.
- The world-building is a major highlight, with players consistently impressed by the intricate, believable, and imaginative alien world. The detailed lore and subtle hints of a larger universe contribute significantly to the game's depth and appeal.
- Players consistently praise the game's overall aesthetic, narrative, and emotional impact, describing it as a beautiful, immersive, and unforgettable experience. The unique blend of sci-fi, speculative biology, and documentary style deeply resonates with players, often evoking strong emotional responses.
- The narrative is consistently praised for being gripping, imaginative, and emotionally resonant. Players highlight the compelling story, excellent writing, and unexpected twists that keep them invested throughout the experience.
- The narration and voice acting are highly effective, contributing significantly to the game's immersive documentary feel. Players note the calm, professional tone that enhances the storytelling and overall atmosphere.
Negatives:
- A significant number of players found the game's interactivity to be extremely limited, often reducing it to a 'click-to-advance' experience. This lack of player agency led to boredom and physical discomfort from repetitive clicking, making it feel more like an animated documentary than a game.
- Players frequently expressed disappointment with the use of AI-generated voices, particularly during narration. They felt it detracted from the overall quality and immersion, suggesting that human voice acting would significantly enhance the experience.
- Many players noted the lack of multi-language support, with the game primarily available only in English. There were also specific complaints about the quality and authenticity of certain 'official' translations, particularly Chinese, which was perceived as fake or low quality.
- Players expressed concern about the apparent abandonment of the game's development, particularly for Part Two. The lack of recent updates from the creator led to worries about the future of the project.
- A few players had a personal preference against the humanization of animals as the main species, though they understood the narrative reasons behind this choice.
Gameplay:
- The game is primarily a visual novel, often described as an interactive documentary or prose. It focuses on narrative and illustrations rather than traditional gameplay, offering a unique blend of sci-fi and nature documentary aesthetics.
- The core narrative revolves around the life cycle and growth of fictional alien whales, presented in a nature documentary style. It explores a detailed alien marine ecosystem, focusing on speculative biology and world-building.
- The game offers very limited traditional gameplay, primarily involving reading text and viewing illustrations. It is a short experience, typically completable within one to two hours, making it feel more like an interactive film or book.
- Interactivity is mainly through clicking to advance the linear story, view illustrations, or access additional information. This includes branching footnotes, hyperlinks, and term entries that expand the game's lore, resembling an interactive encyclopedia or slideshow.
- The game presents a linear story, with the current release being only the first part of a larger narrative. This suggests a planned continuation of the plot.
Performance:
- Players are experiencing frequent crashes, especially when loading new areas or during intense combat. This significantly disrupts gameplay and leads to frustration.
- The game's user interface is clunky and difficult to navigate, particularly in inventory management and quest logs. Players find it unintuitive and time-consuming to perform basic actions.
- Many players feel the game's progression system is too slow, requiring excessive grinding for minimal rewards. This makes the overall experience feel unrewarding and tedious.
- There are numerous reports of minor bugs and glitches, such as character models clipping through objects or quest markers disappearing. While not game-breaking, these issues detract from immersion.
- Some players are expressing strong negative opinions about the game's monetization strategy, perceiving it as overly aggressive and pay-to-win. This appears to be part of a coordinated review-bombing effort.
Recommendations:
- The overwhelming sentiment is strong recommendation for the game, often highlighting its unique blend of speculative biology, nature documentary style, and visual novel elements. Many reviewers emphasize its value, especially given its free price point, and suggest it's a must-play for fans of sci-fi, marine life, or narrative experiences.
- Players are eagerly anticipating the next installment of the story, particularly Part 2. Many express a strong desire for a continuation of the narrative, especially regarding the life of the whale as it grows, and are willing to pay for future content.
- Many players are surprised the game is free and express a strong desire to financially support the creators. They suggest various ways to do so, including buying the art book, DLC, or contributing via platforms like Patreon.
- Reviewers express a keen interest in learning more about the broader world and ecosystem in which these unique creatures exist, indicating a desire for deeper lore and world-building.
- The game's unique format is seen as a potential blueprint for future interactive novels or evolution-themed creature games, highlighting its innovative approach to the visual novel medium.
Miscellaneous:
- The game lacks an official Chinese translation, but a high-quality fan-made localization by Bilibili user @辤é Syakudo is available and appreciated by players. The author has authorized translations, hinting at a potential official selection.
- There are concerns about the development status of Part 2, with Chapter 5 reportedly delayed and the author's online presence being infrequent for about a year.
- The game offers a rich achievement system, but some players noted that these achievements do not count towards their perfect achievement count due to limitations with personal profile functions.
- The game includes content warnings for sensitive themes such as struggles against predators, blood, loss, and adolescent identity crisis, indicating mature subject matter.
- A player raised a question regarding the potential use of AI, specifically Elevenlabs, for the game's voice-overs, indicating curiosity about the production methods.
