RB: Axolotl Reviews

I really enjoyed this game! All the twists and turns it took made it a very fun experience. Though the visuals can be a bit tedious for the game's considerable length, its well worth a buy! Nio is the best character by the way

Absolutely phenomenal story. If you love intriguing mysteries and lore with flawed, lovable protagonists, please don't overlook this game. It's an absolute triumph and I can't recommend it highly enough. I'm serious. Everybody needs to hear about this game, it's so good.

An underrepresented gem of a game. I don't really leave Steam reviews, but I feel the need to help bump this game up from just having a 'Positive' rating. It's an absolute masterpiece. Keep it up, Acta!!

a fantastic visual novel that focuses on psychology, the nature of stories and what they provide and more importantly cute little axolotls having fun and being adorable. highly recommend it. 9/10

(I got this game through a bundle on itch.io, played it beginning to end, and then loved it so much that I bought it on Steam at full price. That should tell you how good it is right there, but feel free to keep reading.) This is honestly my favorite visual novel now. It's one of those games with a story that grips you, hits you hard, and refuses to let you go. Its got all sorts of twists and turns that are brilliantly set up, and when those narrative puzzle pieces finally slot into place its just...ITS SO GOOD. I hope my own VNs are one day this great. I wish I could go into it more, but really this is one of those games you should experience as blind as possible. Not only is the story great, but so are the characters. The five axolotls each get a nice character arc that evolves naturally throughout the course of the game. They're all charming with booming personalities, and you can't help but root for them. Even Enc - the one who lets players know EXACTLY what kind of game this is from his very first scene - has his own merits and intrigue. They're all very well done. The art is lovely all around, and the game uses character placement very creatively to really get the emotions and actions across. The soundtrack fits each scene nicely, inspiring hope and creeps as needed. There's a sense of humor that fits well (despite all the, let us say, drama of the game), with several jokes that landed at just the right time in just the right way. If I had to give any cons, it would be that Act 3 feels like it drags a bit (but it also sets up a lot of lorebuilding, so I really don't know what else could be done about it). But honestly, though, the pros WAY outweigh the cons. If you're a fan of narrative design, visual novels, or axolotls...get this game. Read it all the way through. Get your life changed. Okay, maybe that last one is a bit extreme, but seriously the game is good and you need to experience it yourself.

This story is very slow paced, but knows how to spike in some tantalizing mysteries to keep you reading. If reading something slow paced is fine by you, this game will reward you with an incredible unique story from a rare perspective.

A beautiful tale of overcoming pain and struggle with life. I especially recommend this to everyone living with chronic mental/physical pain.

This won't be a cute little game about colourful funny axolotl living in a tank. Well, mostly not. It will hit you hard from the get-go and I would say it's more of a hit or miss game, as in you either love it right from the start or you don't. This said I thought RB:A would be way darker later on (which I'm kind of glad it wasn't) and totally didn't expect it to be so wholesome and therapeutic. So let's get to the point, why do I recommend this game? I won't compare it to Hatoful Boyfriend (which I do love but nope) if anything it's closer to When the Darkness Comes but either way this game is not about suffering, at least not about suffering as a goal. So if you're here to see characters on the verge of breaking and in pain they will be but the main point is how they will deal with that. And the very best point is they will. Next thing I want to note is writing. One of the reasons I would prefer a game with literally anything as main characters to regular human-like ones is that it's actually harder to make the story flow smoothly and be engaging without visual distractions in the form of, well, [i]forms[/i] if you get what I mean. [strike]Still guilty as charged: Best. Axolotl. Waifu. Ever.[/strike] And this game didn't prove me wrong - characters are quite complex to begin with but they grow and evolve, no one is out of place or just filing in the gaps. And lastly the main message of this game (nope, won't spoil it for you) is something that goes beyond a good story. I mean we don't have that many of those in the first place but very few go to the level when you take a little bit of the story itself with you like a seed to nourish and grow, knowing that this story didn't end with closing credits and afterword, it tried to make this world a little bit better and that's not something you can easily forget.

There is a certain extremely non-specific type of games, which are usually grouped together,—not for the reason they are similar enough to warrant such categorization but rather because they are [i]that[/i] dissimilar from anything else and share [i]some[/i] characteristics, like fourth wall breaking, meta-narrative shenanigans, plot twists of ultimate proportion and general mindf++kery. So, precisely this way [i]RB: Axolotl[/i] can be compared with other visual novels like [i]Hatoful Boyfriend[/i] that is mentioned in other reviews quite a few times. However, frankly, I don’t believe that such comparison does [i]RB: Axolotl[/i] enough justice. [i]RB:A[/i] excels in doing its own thing and I find this thing pretty much unique. It tells a story, which, at first, looks whimsical but soon shows its darker underbelly and glimpses of underlying logic. One should beware: some places it takes the characters (and, therefore, us) are neither comfortable nor pleasant to stay or inhabit. It is ultimately uplifting, very much so, but it takes time to get there. And what time that is! The amount of effort, soul and lived-out experience poured into [i]RB:A[/i] is, honestly, astonishing. It is stunningly inventive, it engages its reader in unexpected ways, it deconstructs tropes and then reconstructs them, and it handles narratives-within-narratives ingeniously and vertiginously. I adored every minute of it! Moreover, [i]RB: Axolotl[/i], as it deals with some visceral topics, touched some corners of my psyche that fiction rarely does; its take on immortality (which is not viewed as something inherently bad) and finding meaning through connection with people and experiencing the events that could be considered “simulated” (but still changing and enriching your mental landscape) feels very validating! Some parts of this story resonated with me deeply, especially with my own experience of living through difficult times. Saying anything else would be spoilery as all heck, so here we are. [i]RB: Axolotl[/i] is a genre-bending meta-narrative gem, full of everything—nods to popular tropes and works of fiction, zaniness, misery, truest human emotions, multifacetedness of personality, knock-knocking at the fourth wall—wrapped into a superbly crafted form. So, so unconscionably good! I am grateful to the creator(s) from the (rock) bottom of my heart!

Not the first VN to with the conceit of "looks cute but actually is actually scary/serious" but unlike weaker examples, it doesn't rely solely on this "trick." It's able to jump between these different moods without one invalidating the other. The dark moments don't make the light moments feel insincere, and going back to the light moments doesn't reduce the tension of the dark moments. And when the novelty of the dissonance wears off, the core mystery of the setting and charming interactions still keep you engaged.