Cerulean Days Reviews

Garbage.

good vn

I remember seeing the reviews on steam before starting which made me skeptical but i like supporting indie devs and there good rep on kickstarters and the art looked good and gave it a shot it was a nice ride of a reveal that gave it a cozy feel while something was looming in the shadows especially in the social climate in Irne island, some things a bit short but it resolved itself fast. I only wished they added a gallery and a ost list after clearing it its nice

(My playtime is actually 10+ hours but my house's internet broke down so I just played this game while I'm on offline, I've indeed finished the game.) I think the concept, setting, character design and arts are really cool. I wanted to loved this game, but I just couldn't bring myself to love the writing and the presentation for this game. For short, It felt kind of effortless?. I didn't intended to say that the person working behinds it isn't talented or anything but It just felt soulless? Coming from an Indie developer, I expected more love and care putting into more than this but the result is... underwhelming... Weirdly enough, Blue Archive (a mobile gacha game) is my base line for a good presentation in visual novels. When your game doesn't have such thing as the voice acting going on, at least you should consider some sprite animation/reaction or even some sound effects that would makes this game more bearable to me. Even Doki Doki Literature Club had more effort put together more than this. As I said this game had an interesting concept and setting but being written out in the most frustrating boring box of text I've ever seen. Many characters, sentences combined into a large wall of text, many words with a little meaning to them, it just felt really dry, I felt nothing while I'm reading this game. Also If you're going in for an H-Scene, I'm going to say that the CG is indeed beautiful, but again, almost to no variation, only had one per route and it's being too short. What is the purpose of these scenes anyway? No one would be satisfy with this half-baked H-Scenes. I didn't say that it shouldn't have been there, but it should've been got more attention and care to it. Otherwise what the point of it? Overall: If I'm going to be real here, it's not good, Can be improved in many places, at least by putting more effort into smaller details. Which in my experience, it's at most a really dry experience. Not worth 10$.

Cerulean Days is an EOLVN, is unvoiced, and does have an 18+ version (with 1 H-scene per route). I had some issues with the writing and a bit with the art, but I would recommend the VN to anyone interested in the premise of it as a multi-route mystery type of VN, especially if it can be grabbed at a discount, if you're able to look past some of its flaws I'll outline shortly. It is decently written, but it largely feels like it didn't have an editor of any kind as there are some odd phrasings, typos and grammatical errors that likely would've been caught by a second pair of eyes. It also has some issues with continuity that I don't think should happen in a plot driven novel. These issues should be caught and handled either by the scenario writer or the editor (if they exist). For instance, there are time inconsistencies throughout, but it is the worst in Severine's route - arguably fairly major spoiler: [spoiler] you spend 3 days in one location, 3 days in another, but when you return home you've "only been gone 3 days", 3+3=6. This is arguably a major plot point as it starts to strain credulity about their plan being able to work. [/spoiler] However, the VN is interesting in that its premise is trying to look at an artificially internetless society after dealing with a biological attack on a small island. It's trying to do so from the perspective of one largely unaffected by these events - an anti-social bookworm who barely used the internet to begin with. The VN in the early stages even states that it's looking at loneliness, and makes an argument for technology ultimately making us more lonely. I think if it had stuck more with this premise rather than trying to go into the mystery route, it ultimately would've been more interesting. You get to see how these things have effected the other characters, a snarky, intelligent baker, a bubbly ex-streamer, and the MC's guardian, an extremely kind and protective teacher. The characters are interesting and I feel that they were written with their own motivations in mind rather than to just advance the plot, which may be the best part of this VN. The art for the most part is pleasant, especially for an EOLVN. There are some issues that drove me a bit insane though. First is there are multiple scenes with a character driving the car, and when they state they turn the car around, they literally just reverse the CG. So their car turns from being a LHD vehicle to being a RHD vehicle all of a sudden. The vehicle stays the same no matter which direction you're driving in. There were also scenes where they were supposedly at or immediately after work, and one character would be in uniform but the other wouldn't without any explanation at all - no line or anything saying x person went ahead and changed, just completely ignored. These issues kept cropping up and led to some immersion breaking times that made it really hard to stay involved in the VN as a whole. Ultimately, Cerulean Days was interesting to me, but it has some issues that make it hard to look back at fondly. Instead of remembering what I do believe was a fairly interesting - especially at the beginning - but somewhat standard story, I will mostly remember it for the plot holes / continuity issues and CG mishaps. I do still think this would be an enjoyable read for anyone who likes multi-route mystery types if you can look past its flaws, especially if you can grab it on sale.

I wanted to push through this novel before I wrote a review, but I just couldn't. I didn't mind the 'reddit tier dialogue' so much, these are people who were apparently terminally online, so it makes sense that dialogue is awkward in that sort of sense. I didn't mind the grammatical mistakes either- what I did mind is that the narration and dialogue meanders. It meanders a lot. The main character will waffle on and on. He'll waffle about how the waffle exploded in a burst of rainbows, electrifying his brain, his spine, his mouth, the sensation caused by the waffle creeping slowly though his body. Waffle. It is the only thing that now exists in his world, and he's addicted to it like a drug, needing more and more of it. He'll need to keep going on and on about the waffle, adding absolutely no extra detail whatsoever. When all you needed was just to say 'It was incredibly dry monotonous waffle, which you could only extract the tiniest drop of meaningful exposition'. This is an exaggerated example, but there's a lot of it, at least in the first two chapters. Even worse, waffle that could've been used to say- detail a tense argument between two characters, is instead shortened to - 'They yelled a lot, exchanged a lot of emotions, then made up'. There could've been an opportunity to develop either the main character or lead, with their opinions, thoughts, reactions or actions based on what the other two characters were saying- alas all we have is waffle. Show don't tell isn't really being used here, and sometimes there are scenes which I struggled to find the point of- i.e. the main character and secondary lead go hiking, get sweaty, then go to a spa. Thinking about it now, maybe there was meant to be something like an 18+ scene, but then it got removed? On doing the research, there was apparently an 18+ version floating around somewhere on kickstarter, but there doesn't appear to be any 18+ content for the steam version. So definitely don't buy this if you're looking to [b]*ahem*[/b] [i]coom[/i]. Music is fine, nothing ear grating, nothing particularly memorable. Art is serviceable too, nothing particularly amazing or off model. There's better VN's out there, that's for sure.

Either written with AI or the dev has never talked to a women before. Dialogue is cringe and feels like you are reading a reddit thread. Since it's too late for a refund i shall keep playing. Partly to see if it gets better so this review isn't unjustly written, but mostly to feed cringe screenshots to twitter Oomfies

I have some mixed feelings about this VN. Cerulean Days is a strange visual novel. It’s set on the isolated island of Inre, which becomes even more isolated after a terrorist attacked organised via the internet results in the government banning the internet on the island altogether. After the internet goes down, life changes for the residents of Inre. This VN showcases how the lives of the main characters shift after this huge upheaval, for better or for worse, and how their interpersonal bonds alter now they can no longer seek anonymous solace on the world wide web… At least, that’s what this VN is supposed to be about, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Cerulean Days is actually about the main character, Michael: a fairly generic VN protag who likes books and women with big boobies, befriending the haughty, sadistic, wealthy pastry chef, Séverine, who proceeds to spend most of the story engaging in light S&M roleplay with him. Huge swathes of text are devoted to Séverine calling Michael her ‘dog’, asking him if he’ll wear a collar, and telling him he disgusts her in various ways. Occasionally, Cerulean Days remembers it’s actually supposed to be about a governmental conspiracy, but these occasions are brief and fleeting, and it soon reverts back to being the Michael and Séverine two person comedy show. I felt compelled to read this visual novel because the first review said it read like AI had written it, and I was curious to see if that was the case… and I don’t think that’s true. On a technical level, I think the writing in Cerulean Days actually pretty good. The sentence structure is varied, the vocab used is rather evocative at parts, and there’s a playful undertone to all of Michael and Séverine’s interactions. Some of the slice of life does drag on a bit, but I did find the comedy genuinely entertaining (for the most part). The government conspiracy plot line, by contrast, feels pretty under-baked. We’re given some backstory at the beginning of the VN about why the internet was banned in Inre, but it’s all very vague. Michael and Séverine later apply to work in the government themselves, to help rehabilitate people whose lives have gone off the rails after the internet’s abolishment, but this is also glossed over. The readers don’t get any insight into the actual test Michael and Séverine have to pass to get this job, which removes any emotional impact from Michael’s failure, because there’s no real sense that he tried on this test at all. The nature of the job is also glossed over, and we only see Michael and Séverine help three people in the common route: one of them being the secondary love interest Rose. Rose was a popular streamer back when Inre still had internet access, and she loses her will to live once the internet is shut down. Without a regular income stream or an adoring fanbase, she becomes a shut-in who doesn’t want to interact with anybody. Fortunately, Séverine is able to take Rose around into rejoining society by… saying she wants to be her friend once and giving her a can of instant coffee. After this gesture, Rose is completely recovered: her depression after her life having been upended healed. Séverine is an angel and she has saved the day with her immense kindness! Yippee! \o/ …So, yes, this VN has some pacing problems. The supposed crux of the plot (how do we live without the internet after being so dependent upon it?) isn't given much screen time when compared with all the Funny Jokes About Masochism, and the fact the story keeps going between the two so much in the common route feels disorienting. While the writing is technically accomplished, I feel like the plotting could have used some work. Either the slice of life should have been pared down to give the conspiracy plot more breathing room, or the government conspiracy angle should have been cut altogether and it should have been a fully-fledged comedy/fanservice VN. I’m not big into fanservice stories, but I actually think going all-in on the wacky antics would have been to this VN’s benefit. I found Michael and Séverine’s banter the most entertaining part of this VN, even if it does drag on a bit, and I don’t think it really ‘works’ when framed against such a serious backdrop. If the story took itself less seriously, its sillier aspects would have been even more entertaining. I’ll give the VN a thumbs up because there is some good content here, and it’s obvious the creator put a lot of work and passion into the story, but it wasn’t wholly to my tastes. Also: I feel like Rose is a completely superfluous character. She’s so forgettable the dev even forgot to code her expressions at numerous points in the VN, so there’s a fair few scenes where she’s described as blushing, pouting, or looking sad, while her sprite remains fixed doing a :D face throughout. Actually, there’s a few other things in this VN which bother me, like the use of the stock Ren’py UI for certain screens, the character sprites fading out completely before fading back in when they swap between different poses, the secondary poses of the characters barely being utilised, and the author himself interrupting the story to tell you how visual novels work and that your choices can result in different endings midway through the story… But this review is getting quite long, so I’ll leave it at that!!! If you think Séverine is pretty (I know I do; the art in this VN is really nice) and you want her to verbally abuse you, then you should check this out! If you’re a filthy pig masochist all of her banter will undoubtedly be very enjoyable. Otherwise, you might want to read something else.