Concealed Reviews

Concealed is a horror VN, but really it's more of a murder thriller coated in supernatural elements. Based on player choices, one of four endings can be reached. Honestly for all its flaws, the mysteries had me hooked enough that I'm writing a review. Pros: >Interesting vibe/atmosphere due to the manga-styled presentation, OST, and of course the art style itself >Somewhat diverse cast of characters; I also liked the time set up and how days progressed. It reminded me a bit of Persona 4 >Player choices (kinda) matters Cons: >Bad localization; really needed someone level-headed to translate and proofread... *Please* get rid of the internet slang (i.e. "roasted," "swag," etc.), it ruins the script. This is particularly notable at the start, then gets tame from mid to end game >Game's overall janky (fast mode doesn't work all the time, for example... more on this below) >No voice acting, but I understand this is an indie game with a limited budget >Text log access is behind menu The game offers character profiles, but they're only useful if you stop playing the game for some time and need to relearn things when you come back. I think it would've been a no brainer to update these profiles with more information as you learned more about these people as you play the game. Similarly, I wish the player was rewarded more for collecting analogies in the analogy glossary in conversations or other investigative scenes. The fast forward/acceleration thing is activated with the P button but unless the prompt shows up on the left of the screen, it just doesn't work; I don't know how to get it to show up other than reopening the game and hoping it shows up. When it *does* show up, it's a bit of a bit nuisance on the screen, since can't get rid of it on will. This sucks. For the text log, please make it easy to access, like with the scroll bar similar to most VNs. Additionally, please keep day opening names, dates and chapter breaks in the log. It feels bizarre not seeing the dialogs in the log broken up with scene breaks, start of days or start of chapters. Still, I like Meng enough that I want to see more of her. Perhaps in a future game or a DLC that continues her story, she gets inspired to be a detective and solves crime and mystery, both mundane and supernatural. I know it's based on existing comics but it felt like wasted opportunity that Meng couldn't romance any of the boys; meanwhile I have to play as a creepy-looking guy in the new game to romance some cute girls. I didn't try all the endings yet... but I think there's some things shown that should've been used in the game, since otherwise they were just there for the sake of being there. Look up the concept of Chekhov's Gun. Speaking as a writer here: if you show something, you *need* to make it relevant later, or at least use it to develop character. Also, while it was nice to get to know that one rich girl, I don't know what the end goal was. It felt like the game was cut-off midway and headed towards the ending. And about the ending I did get, [spoiler]I cannot say I appreciate the subversion with the ghosts. Why sideline them? They're ghosts, they could have any amount of motive to want to cause harm. Some people saw the crouching girl... and for a while it was hinted they'd get cursed... then the story doesn't follow up on it anymore. Really, it came back to the one guy I hoped *wouldn't* be the murderer, ah well; predictable. Was interesting to know the Class President was involved, though.[/spoiler] Anyway, if you're grabbing this, there will be a lot of seemingly unimportant conversations; they kinda aren't. Everyone's personalities are being laid out quietly and eventually their quirks, and what they did at what times, would become relevant.