Untale: King of Revinia Reviews

Medieval setting is my cup of tea, no doubt. I like all the stories which describe castles, nobility and tournaments. This one meets all my criteria concerning medieval plots. Pros: + well-thought story with a lot of sidelines + diverse characters + very detailed arts + "true-to-life choice influence" (I describe it below) Cons: - I don't like the music (It makes me bored) But it's the matter of taste P.s. "True -to -life choice influence" The thing is that you don't see the consequences of your choices immediately. You have to spend more time playing just to understand how your choices contribute to the storyline (Like in real life, you know). Sometimes you make "wrong" decisions and you die. But I truly liked it. This game is for those who prefer thinking to blind-clicking on the choice options.

Однозначно рекомендую. Великолепное повествование. Буквально лучшее, что я видел в своей жизни. Визуал, будь то бэкграунды или персонажи прекрасны. Намного привлекательнее, чем в большинстве визуальных новелл, которые даже не стараются над этим.

First of all: I bought the game long after it was released, although it was on my wishlist, and at a big discount. It is a visual novel with very pleasant graphics and an acceptable soundtrack. But it is not a fairy tale! Your true purpose in this game is to (as the game title hints) [b]un[/b]tale the fairy tales told by one of the characters to uncover the true (hi)story of Revinia and not to write your own "happy ever after". A story which, I have to admit, I didn't like at all. Not because it is bad written, far from it, but because it is just - at least from my point of view - sad, unworthy and "not fair" [spoiler]The king must be blind with love to marry Erlene after all of this and to live a life that has no other meaning than her.[/spoiler]. So try to distance yourself from the player character; he is not you after all. A lesson I learned while playing it, but should better be teached before playing it. The many tales and the one true story will show you the many facets of human (mis)behavior and are frighteningly realistic (and mostly logical [spoiler]As said marrying Erlene is a decision only a person in love can possibly "understand". For a machiavellistic mastermind like Norbert Kollas it is furthermore not plausible to allow the last king to have offspring and deprive his son of a bride like Erlene; or is Norbert just human(e) in the end? He still remains unlikeable.[/spoiler]) in it. There are many harsh topics you won't like if you're of mild-mannered nature. On the downside there are some untranslated fragments in the game dialogue and I didn't like the attitude towards some of the female characters. But all in all and counting the big discount in, it was worth playing it.

I heard about this novel a long ago but only now I’ve had enough time to play it. And it's horribly amazing. Short non-spoiler summary of a playthrough: - Admirable art style, the characters impressed me the most. - Beautiful music. Especially, Norberts theme and... well ... the horror-end theme I guess. I don't know how to call it alternatively. I even tried to google the composer's name I saw in the credit sequence but I found nothing. Pity. - And absolutely briliant story with so many details interconnected. That's just insane. Maybe at least a little to much for the VN genre. Well-written characters and dozen of storylines completing each other. Actually I had an opportunity to play Untale in both languages, English and Russian. But since it has only an English voiceover, I decided to choose it and therefore to write a review in the same language (it's kinda logical). And yes, it has some minor issues with the translation. But, frankly speaking, I have never seen the gameflawlessly localized if made by developers from non-english speaking country. Each of them has some issues. Nothing was ruined for me by it. Definitely, it’s worth playing. I had bought the game just before the sale (of course, how else could it be). Right now, it's my number one game for those who want to play something with a deep gripping story.

I mean this is a probably one of the best visual novels ever made…like easily. I think the only visual novel that is better is Seeds of Chaos. If you are going to make a visual novel you have to dedicate considerable time to the story, art direction, and ability for the player to make choices that have an effect on the story. For some reason I don’t understand, almost no visual novels can meet that minimum standard. Untale doesn’t just meet those standards it exceeds them. The amount of different choices you have in this game is quite stunning and it’s clear a ton of work was put into making the outcomes of these choices make logical sense. Even the music here is great, I think they could use more music, but it’s probably the most robust visual novel soundtrack except for probably Lady Killer in a Bind’s amazing jazz score. However, this game has some pretty serious issues that make it very hard to recommend. I don’t know how the game is in its native Russian…but the English translation is easily the worst translation of any video game I have ever played. It borders on incomprehensible…in almost every scene. You can figure out from context clues such as the art direction…but to rely on art direction to fix a translation issue is problematic. It is especially problematic in a game with such a complex political intrigue plot. I feel I probably missed what was happening quite a bit. It certainly is to the game’s credit that I was so enthralled with the story I played a game that was almost incomprehensible, but I badly wished the game did not have this issue. Please for the love of god fix the English translation, it literally feels like you used google translate. I even noticed a few scenes were literally still in Russian and weren’t translated. My other main issue with the game is that it’s hard to call this game a murder mystery and I badly wanted a murder mystery. For one it’s exceedingly obvious who the murderer is…so that’s not great…two it’s just straight up revealed who the murderer is at day 5…despite the fact the game lasts for 9 days. I wanted a game where I spent the whole game talking to different characters and making different choices allowed me to find new clues that would help me eventually figure out who the murderer is at the end of the game. I think it would have been better if at the end of the game you are asked to put all the clues you’ve obtained over the roughly 15hr game to deduce who the murderer is and if you get it wrong you are simply killed and the murderer is not revealed and you start back at square one and hence need to make different choices to find different clues to help you deduce the correct murderer. While the writing in this game is superb, the plot simply has two few characters as suspects to tell a compelling murder mystery. I get it, it’s hard to write a murder mystery…but it’s even more disappointing in this game because the political intrigue/thriller plot is so engrossing that it’s clear that the writer is extremely talented and should have been able to tell a compelling murder mystery if that had been their goal. In the end this game is more about you figuring out all the different ways other characters are trying to assassinate you and trying time after time to avoid those pitfalls that result in your death. It’s a lot of fun, but not what I was hoping for. The rest of the issues I feel are going to be spoilers [spoiler] So I think so many decisions ending up with your death on day 5 is a serious error. I get the developers wanted like a roadblock where if you upset Kolas he kills you or if you upset Wile his inaction kills you…but you have to make so many correct decisions to avoid death on day 5 it really narrows down what your actual choices are later in the game. I think it would be better if maybe each day starting on day 5 requires just having one major choice result in your death. Perhaps if you don’t appoint The General to lead the investigation and interrogation he could move up his time table to overthrow you and kill you on Day 5, then on Day 6 if throughout the game you didn’t make enough decisions supporting Kolas he kills you, and then Wile on day 7, and Day 8 Gerald, and Day 9 Your mother finally gets fed up that no one else has killed you yet. Those obviously would require more work and make the game longer because it would mean more branching narratives…but I think it would make an overall better game. It was a real hardship to get over day 5 and once I realized I had to ignore the bulk of decisions I was being given in order to make it passed day 5 I was very disappointed. I think overall I would have just liked this game to be longer with more love interests and more time to get to know the characters more. The ultimate ending where you have to side with Kolas to avoid death is fine…but I disliked the framing device for this game. The idea that all the times your character dies is simply the fantasies of Nero (he sure is a psycho to imagine so many intricate ways for you to die) as he tells the real story to the “legate” I feel takes away a lot of the impact of player choice. The player isn’t actually choosing what happens to the King, it’s simply Nero’s fantasy, there is only one real solution and every time you die the legate insists Nero stop lying as everyone knows what really happened. I also feel it was a misstep that the legate never appears as a character in the game, I was utterly unaware who this person was until one of my final playthroughs when Wile finally brings up that the legate works for the Order…but you never even meet him in the game. I think he should have been a character from the start or at least the framing device should have also explained better who the legate is. I’m also still confused what the point of the introduction is that so heavily focuses on Gerald Kolas when Gerald barely plays much of a role in this game. [/spoiler] Overall even with all my issues I’m very impressed with this game and hopefully in the future they put out something amazing like a 30hr murder mystery game with multiple branching narratives. If the translation issues weren’t so egregious I would easily recommend this, instead #Worth $10.

Well, I'm not an avid fan of visual novels and that is why I don't play very often. I came across Untale:King of Revinia on the day of its release, but I hesitated wether to buy it. Now I understand that I did it right when decided to play. To be franck, I wasn't grabbed by the plot in the beginning. Many characters made me a little bit confused and really tested my memory. But further, when I got deeper, I was really impressed by the well-developed logics of characters' interactions and attitudes towards each other. Also I liked the point that some of the decisions have long-lasting effect. Some can say that it's a flaw of saving system, but I appreciate the intention of developers to provide players with a deeper insight into the story. Also I like the mini-games, combat system is my favourite! The others are no worse, but this one made me glued to to the screen. All in all, I liked the game. I can't say for now if I continue following this developers, but this game is to be worth playing.

I have a few bones to pick with Untale but I'll start with the positives. The setting itself is interesting, I do like the addition of dialogue choices (more of those later) and the art style is appealing enough. Sadly though that's where the positives end for me. While Untale does offer choices to build your character as you like the story feels way too disconnected compared to the choices you make. Everyone seems to do whatever they want regardless of your choice. It feels too much like you are witnessing the story instead of impacting it. There is also way too much extra dialogue, the writing could definitely do with a shortening of the script. Such a shame as I was intrigued from the get go. For Gameplay of Untale: King of Revinia check out my video here: https://youtu.be/IyqJ-X__JVI

I would not recommend this game. You are forced to play a main character that lacks intelligence and your influence over the story is somewhat limited. You are constantly forced to find the "right way" forward and the choices during the story have a correct answer and many wrong ones. The battle system is boring and it is impossible to win a fight by winning in the battle system. Why even add it at all? All around a waste of time and not a very interesting story

The art of the game is good, the story/plot is interessing and the characters are quite interessing. Why I do not recommend it ? Because playing a "power less" guy that just do is best to survive is frustrating. And the save mechanism really help to keep the frustration very high.. ( please restart from the beginning and remember you choice... such a pain... ). I also dont like the "combat" behavior ( being able to skip the minigame once done was a good idea... why keeping the combat ? ). I'm sad because I really find the ambiance good but keeping trying to find the less bad ending is not where I take pleasure to play. and if your are searching for a romance story... you will fill even more "powerless" and "dummy" protagonist...

I would advice against buying this game. I haven't finished it, because the game basically force you to a certain choices if not you will die - game over - . It is fun to have consequences in those choices but to get kill every single time you dont follow the developer road is boring. Choices are not simple branching, they are allowed player to chose what type of characters that they wanted to play - Good , Bad, lawful, chaos,...- Forcing player in a narrow road eliminating how player want to be. No matter how good your story is, this is a game, if you want to make kinetic novel, dont put in choices.