The Paracelsian Project Reviews

It's a very "eh" game. I debated for a while on whether or not to give it a positive review, but there's certainly worse ways to spend $4 and 2.5 hours or so. There is some neat stuff here, like the neat foreshadowing between the routes and the plot not bogging you down with re-explanations of information like a lot of visual novels. However, this does lead to some jarring shifts with characters and their goals. By the end, I only really cared about one character out of the entire cast. If you've already played a lot of other mystery visual novels and are looking for more, this can work as a binge read. this Just don't go in expecting complex puzzles or choice-driven gameplay.

A typical ontological mystery "you wake up in a room" story with a weight reduction kit applied - all semblance of plotting, character development or narrative depth is tossed out to make for the breakneck speed it is going. Still, while looking cheap and feeling rough to play, this game cannot be called misguided and it still has ideas that other works of the genre have yet failed to explore.

A relatively short sci-fi story that scratches the "you wake up in a room" itch decently well. I personally enjoyed it, especially at the new price, despite its flaws. The story explores some interesting ideas and concepts, but everything feels rather rushed. The characters generally feel like plot devices, and they're not all that fleshed out. There are [strike]alot[/strike] a lot of typos in the script, so if that sort of thing bothers you, you're in for a rough time. The game does have a (very basic) flowchart, which is a plus in my book for games of this genre. Puzzles were nothing special, but it did add some degree of gameplay and interactivity beyond the branching dialogue choices - and ofc, it has an obligatory Periodic Table puzzle! 😂 (Thankfully, the game provides you with it so you don't have to tab out to look it up. 🙏) Also, the music is solid - that was one of the highlights for me. Paracelsian Project is pretty rough around the edges, but I still had fun playing it. Decent effort for a first time game developer! 💪

Wow... uh... I can see where the author was going with this, but it was absolutely NOT ready to be released. The text is so full of typos and redundancies that it doesn't seem to have had an editor at all. The dialogue is stilted, and characters seem to act without any motivation; events and actions are just forgotten. In fact, the characters keep admitting they've forgotten plot details, despite being in a life-or-death situation! Worst of all, the game can't decide whether the point of view is first person or third person omniscient (we should not, for instance, be able to see other characters' visions, because Elina can't see them). The characters talk incessantly about who they can and can't trust, and who the "puppet master" is. No one has any reason to suspect there's a puppet master at all, that they've been abducted, or that anyone actively DID something to them. They should be looking for an explanation, not immediately assuming they're in a death game or that someone can't be trusted; at most, only one character (the "suspicious one") should be jumping to conclusions. In better VNs in the genre, the characters in the game initially start as a cohesive whole trying to work together to attain freedom; some characters may be jerks, useless, or suspicious, but the idea of a traitor doesn't come up until there's some reason to think there IS one. Then we come to the puzzles. They're so elementary that they might as well not be there. You can achieve some seriously great things with this engine; games like [i]Trainwreck[/i] manage it. You don't even technically need puzzles; you can just have plenty of branching routes based on meaningful choices that send the story in very different directions. [i]The Zodiac Trial[/i] is a good example of that. Overall, this game shouldn't be for sale yet. There's the skeleton of a great visual novel here, but it needs work. A lot of work. The [i]story[/i] is great. The problem is the lack of writing ability to make the text itself work. I'd offer to do it myself, but that's a little presumptuous; I've worked as a professional editor, but that was a couple of decades ago. This review is subject to change if the above issues are handled.

If I had a choice, I would really give this a neutral review. But since I had to decide - and considering that this game already has quite a few positive reviews - I'll be going for a negative one. [b]Game Length[/b]: Completing the game took about 3.5hrs for me. Considering the current price, that's just too short. Way too short. [b]Story[/b]: I found the story to be quite mediocre. While the story had some good parts, a good chunk of it is just unimpressive. There are also no big twists... well, not exactly. There was one twist, but it was very predictable. The whole "humanity is done for" plot line has also already been explored many many times before and its execution in this VN felt also kind of... unbelievable? I don't know, the story was just kind of mediocre. It was not totally bad, there were some good parts, but it was far from amazing. [b]Writing[/b]: The writing had some typos. Other than that, it was okay. Also nothing amazing and sometimes the writing definitely felt a bit stiff, but overall it was fine. I couldn't do it better. [b]Characters[/b]: The characters were also okay. Again, nothing amazing, but it was alright. However, since the game is so short, we barely get any information about them. Most scenes are too short to get me invested. I feel like there's some potential there, but it was never fully explored. I think 6 (8) characters were just too many for this project. Less characters and more dialogue with them maybe would've been better. But again, it's not awful. Elina, Tomoki and Stefano (and maybe Mari) definitely have been better explored. The other characters were just... there. [b]Art & Music[/b]: The art is solid. The music also fits and is also quite solid. Nothing is particulary spectacular, but they do their job. [b]Puzzles[/b]: The puzzles also could've been done better. They are all a bit too easy. I would've preferred a higher difficulty, but maybe that's just my preference. No puzzle is really memorable and there's probably nothing you've never seen before. Overall, the game falls right in the mediocre category. It's not awful, but it's just also not amazing. For a 5 to 7 euro price tag, that'd be fine. But for 15 euros, I really can't reccommend it. It's just too expensive for the length and quality. If the price is lowered in the future, I might change this to a positive review. I don't regret buying this game, since I believe supporting indie VN developers in the mystery genre is a good thing. So if you're like me and you want to try out some indie mystery VNs, you can give this game a go. The game is not bad and I was really hovering between giving it a positive or negative review, especially because I don't want to discourage indie developers from creating these games. But for 15 euros, I just can't bring it over my conscience. So yeah, if the developer reads this, i just want to point out that I did enjoy some chunks of the game. But there's always room for improvement. Thanks for writing this VN :)

I really don't want to give this a negative review... but my heart kinda wants to . Paracelsian Project is a very short VN, WAY too short for the price and the quality you're given... The visuals are simple but nice, though very barebones (i did like some of the backgrounds!) The music is definitely the best part of this game, it's really incredible, each track has a lot of vibes , it's very space-y , and it gives a huge claustrophobic feel to the game... Too bad we either can't buy it or listen to it anywhere online... Characters were a bit flat and very tropey, the game is trying to force emotions through scenes (like with Aaron and Akio) but the game and the scenes are so short, you really can't feel anything for those characters ... I LOVE flowcharts, and the one in this game is ... not that impressive, very simple and not that interesting to look that, but it does it's job. The story is ... kinda boring. The whole "humanity is dead and we must save what's left of it, oh also amnesia" has been done so many times, and this game doesn't really give anything new, though i did like some parts of the true end . The plot is quite predictable, and a bit nonsensical at times (the main villain is ... something) i honestly can't say i enjoyed it at all. I will give bonus points to the UI, the tablet , while mostly useless, was really cool and well designed, there was even a moment where [spoiler] someone breaks the tablet, which makes the button on the screen shatters, that was kinda cool [/spoiler] ; I liked the cypher puzzles, there were easy but simple to understand , i wish more VN had puzzles like that but that's more my own preference. But fuck the 2nd puzzle for route 1 where [spoiler] you're given "paracelsius" "exodus program" and other things, but the answer is "paracelsian project" , which is both very specific and NOT written like that in the hint, i just typed that out because it was the name of the game... very stupid [/spoiler] ; I kinda wish there was more puzzles through the true end , and that the puzzles were harder overall because they were VERY easy, but oh well. Also , if you're missing the last 2 achievements... I had to look up with an external software that there is a secret bad ending where you have to be unfriendly with everyone... cool idea, but there was no way to know that unless you "cheat" to see the achievement, as far as i know nothing in game tells you about it... oh and the last cheevo is for getting all endings, so you might have to restart the game to get it. Speaking of the "friendly" system, i wish it was more developped... It basically was useless, most endings being dependant on a single choice ... There is quite a lot of typos too, but i will give it some slack, though be warned they ARE here ; I got some weird bug during ending 1 where the background was just black, for both variations of the ending too ! Loading the scenes fixed it , but it kinda ruined it because things were happening on screen, and i couldnt see anything, and i had no idea at first it wasn't supposed to be like this... I do love small VN like this one, and i want to do my best to support them and show appreciation ... but yeah, it's not worth the price at all... I will recommend it if you just want a quick VN that's visually quite pleasing , has some crazy good music, some cool UI, and some decent puzzles. But other than that... everything else kinda falls flat. Hopefully the devs improve and make better VN (and story) ,i sincerely hope the best for them !