Friendly Facade Reviews

(SPOILERS). I just finished day 2 and I think that the game was very fun, it felt as if I wasn't being punished too much for mistakes and that it has repeatability if you choose too. I enjoyed the plot and some of the characters are really fun to interact with. I think some of Maggie's relationships are a little forced example: Finn... :) and some of the results also feel like i'm being pigeonholed or feel too predictable. I did really enjoy the mystery aspect, and especially Blake's character, in addition the weakness files are a great aspect but I think they were given away too quickly. Overall this was a game that my girlfriend and I enjoyed playing together and Rain is the best character no cap #teamgoth #teamgirlypop #Williamsucks :).

Honestly, so far it's engaging. The art style is...different. I think it's not everyone's cup of tea but...I actually like it. There's something kinda messed up but satisfying about something drawn to give off airy/sweet childish vibes turning out to be sinister that really gets me. The characters are all interesting--much like other 'survival / death contest' type visual novels, we see the emergence of strong personality types meant to fill various niches. Alex is the intellectual, William is the arrogant leader, Maggie is our kind/ordinary protagonist, Rain is the 'rebel,' but a few characters don't quite 'fit' niches easily, like Mason and Calvin, who both seem to fit the 'goofy madman' role. I don't think I've played far enough in to get to the especially 'bad' parts. But because of that, I can tell you that I see the foreshadowing--I can tell the game will get dark, because it's laying good groundwork. There's fractures/betrayals over 'small' stuff at the very beginning, which is interesting. I would need to play through a new playthrough to know whether or not it will have replayability. I do get the sense that there's going to be major differences in routes depending on some choices (not quite a spoiler but for example: the 'power plant' game where a character will encourage you to 'push' someone. I will simply say you don't HAVE to do this necessarily, so my guess is that the route can change here. If it doesn't I'd be so disappointed!) My only real criticism so far is the damn boating game. God, I was never good at Dance Dance Revolution as a dancer or on a keyboard. That was kind of a nightmare. I think this game is a bit of a slow burn. I can see how certain characters are being built up (Patrick, Rain, and Mason got the most development early on, in my opinion, given the choices I made), but some of them aren't as clear-cut (Mackenzie, for sure.). I'm interested enough to keep playing. Given the art style, I think the closest comparison might be games more like The Zodiac Trial or Head AS Code rather than the bigger 'known' ones like Danganronpa. Anyway my ratings breakdown: [b]Art:[/b] 3/5 (Simple, but it gets the job done! It's not bad, it's just not...polished. I think some of this art would be easy to improve, like the 'town' background menu or certain character faces) [b]Story:[/b] 5/5 (Ropes me in. I'm super interested. I can see where it's gonna get weird/messed up) [b]Characters:[/b] 4/5 (one of the weaknesses of games like this is that the cast is so large that we inevitably are just not going to get to 'see' everyone properly) [b]Minigames:[/b] 2/5 (the 'matching' game is ok to me, I felt like there was enough characterization to easily guess clues. The boating game is so frustrating I considered not playing anymore though) [b]Replayability:[/b] ???/5 (I have yet to replay, but if I do, I'll update my review. But if this game doesn't have good branching routes I will be so upset) [b]Price:[/b] 5/5. This is a good deal for the $5.00 I bought it at. [b]Overall:[/b] Currently this game sits at 3.8/5 for me, but I think once I replay it or get further into the route I am, this may change. This review was made during Early Access so please keep in mind that not only is the game not finished, it's got a ways to go, so my review does reflect that. I think this game is going to polish up nicely and become at least a solid 4 that's worth playing. I'm happy with what I paid and I feel I have been entertained so far. I think that's the main takeaway I'd like people to see. The game isn't perfect but it is definitely satisfying that 'survival / death game' itch I get sometimes. An enjoyable affordable experience.

"Friendly Facade" is an indie mystery visual novel that is taking some inspirations from games like "Danganronpa", but is fundamentally different. For the current price it's sold at, I'd definitely reccommend this game. It's still early access, but chapters are getting uploaded quite regularly. Currently (up to day 5), about 7-10 hours of gameplay are available - depending on how fast you read. So yeah, 16 study participants take place in an isolated research study by a famous company and experience some rather interesting days. Each day includes some kind of minigame, which are quite fun and consist of (actually) meaningful choices that influence character relationships and your ranking. However, note that since there are 16 participants, some characters are more, and some are less fleshed out. The game is mainly linear and thus decides when to give you backstory of characters - you don't really actively choose which character to explore, which is one of the weak points of this game. The mystery aspect of this game is also pretty good. Especially days 2-4 introduce some great plot points. While the stakes are not that high at the beginning, the stakes do massively increase at the very end of the current early access build. We'll just have to see what the developers do with that in their next update. I'd reccommend this to anyone who likes mystery games with some light tension. The price is not expensive, so just give it a try if you want to support some indie games. In my opinion, it's worth it. I'm quite intrigued how the developers will continue the story. However, don't expect the game to be perfect. It has some flaws.

I personally really enjoyed this game! It's a good character-driven mystery VN that I personally found intriguing, especially with how things ended off when I finished playing (I got to the end of Chapter 5). If you're interested in structured death games like Danganronpa I think this could scratch a similar itch. There are some pretty big key differences, but if I was going to summarize my thoughts it'd be that. Now, I think it's important to note that this game has a slow start. It takes several chapters to ramp up and focuses on interpersonal conflict. I think this works well for the game, but definitely don't be expecting any bloodshed right off the back. This game slowly builds up the feeling of things being "off" while fleshing out the characters and their relationships before things really hit the boiling point. This is something I actually really like, since it allows the characters to go into the death game portion of things as acquaintances rather than complete strangers. It'll also allow any bad blood from relatively minor disputes to carry over into the more serious things, which i think will be really interesting. Basically, the slow burn style of things works really well for the story at hand. Speaking of the characters, they've got me pretty interested! Like the games story they take some time to really kick off, so don't go into this expecting them to shine from the get go, but after a couple chapters I really did get invested. I don't think the demo does a lot of them justice because of how slow-burn things are, but genuinely I can say it's worth holding out. Overall I think the demo really only scratches the surface of things, and while I suppose that is how a demo tends to be, it just doesn't have the time to pull you into the story. Then again, this game is really cheap for the amount of content it has, so I wouldn't particularly consider that a downside. Gameplay/visuals-wise, it's good! There's actually a ton of art done for each chapter (like, I was surprised by how many things had visuals instead of being just described in words), and the UI is super cute. The log function is unavailable during gameplay segments which definitely caused me some difficulty at times, and I was foiled in my attempts to savescum (it sends you back to the beginning of minigames if you try), but those are honestly nitpicks that didn't majorly affect my enjoyment. Speaking of gameplay, while there isn't a ton of it, when it does come up it's actually pretty fun! Nothing groundbreaking but I found it investing enough that I didn't find it annoying to do, and it made certain challenges actually feel like you had an impact from a player perspective. Most of it I didn't find frustratingly difficult either (except the rhythm game but I think I just suck at those so it doesn't count). Overall, this game is really solid so far, and the price is well worth it. I'm honestly really interested to see where things go from here, and I'd definitely recommend it!