Always The Same Blue Sky... Reviews

Bought this mainly because of the promise of "breathtaking artwork and an addictive soundtrack", I figured that, as a person who adores VNs, and it being only £1.69 at the moment, I had nothing to lose... ...yeah, I was wrong. Don't get me wrong, the story is okay (although honestly I was more interested by the "hidden" side-story) and the artwork and soundtrack are also okay, but that's it. Just okay. Nothing special, nothing that made me feel like this was different to other VNs I've played. I feel like maybe this VN would be better suited to someone relatively new to VNs. The dialogue, at times, also felt too poetic, like it was forcibly trying to be captivating. Instead, I just quickly got tired of it. Despite giving this a negative overall review, I would recommend it to people new to VNs.

Why you should buy this: The visuals and music alone are worth the meager asking price. The review: You don't really get to know Kira (the only character besides you) very much during the short 30-45 minute story and the ending, while it seemed rather rushed, was quite emotional for me. You do get a few choices during the story which will ultimately determine whether you get ending 1 or 2, but they don't really change the rest of the story much. All in all, its a good visual novel that maybe needs to let the pictures do more of the storytelling and increase character depth with a little more dialogue and little less poetry. If you want a lengthy and heartwarming VN, look elsewhere. If you want a short, emotional little trip, pick this one up.

Always The Same Blue Sky... is a very good visual novel game with a beautiful story. The graphics are nice and the soundtrack is Chill and relaxing... I highly recommend it. 💗💗💗

[h1]Pros[/h1] [list] [*]Small price tag. [*]Several different endings, has replayability. [*]Easy achievements and nice cards. [*]Colorful and fun artwork. [*]A very soothing musical soundtrack that is easy on the ears and fits the theme of the game very well. [*]Features no nudity or foul language. Appropriate for those who prefer a softer VN. [/list] [h1]Cons[/h1] [list] [*]Choices seem to matter very little. You are given a lot of choice in the game, but the main love interest (Kira) seems to adore you regardless of what you do. A bit confusing when trying to go for negative/bad endings. [*]Follows only one love option, which may be a bit of a disappointment to those used to VN's with several options. [*]While the story is nice, it's a little bit disjointed and the ending is mildly confusing and takes a bit of a strange dark turn that seems a bit out of place. [*]It felt a little too short. I feel as if the story really could have been fleshed out a bit more and the relationship between the player and Kira could have been more developed.

Extremely short, but interesting. I do like how the story surprised me a bit. I thought it was just going to be a slice-of-life story, but the ending(s) changed that. I do wish it had been longer and that the choices didn't just lead to two different endings (a good and a bad one). Overall, it was enjoyable but could've been better. The artwork was very pretty. I recommend it as long as you're okay with short VNs.

Consider this a thumbs halfway recommendation. Do look into the game if you're interested, but if the descriptive text above doesn't draw you in, the actual game is unlikely to change that. Terrible sales copy aside, Always The Same Blue Sky does in fact present nicely detailed art and a fitting soundtrack, both of which are used to good effect. It's easy to see the effort put into making things look and sound good, and Crimson Night’s team clearly have a good eye for what works, particularly with animations. But where Always The Same Blue Sky falls down is where a lot of first productions do: on the story. While the narration has some charm and wit, it's very much held back by trying to be as flowery as possible, often to the point where it's hard to know what it's describing anymore. Between a few straightforward lines or simple descriptions, the narration tends to go into purple prose overdrive about the simplest of things. It's hard to know what's important between it. In another visual novel this might be forgiven, but it's already a great struggle to understand what Always The Same Blue Sky wants to say. It could be apt to describe this game as a collection of vignettes, but thinking about it that way doesn't quite make the story any more satisfying. The glimpses into the setting and Kira seem too insignificant, the ending that joins them a bit confusing, the mystery behind mostly everything a bit too out of reach. Is it simply a story to make you think about humanity's destructive nature? Is it more a way to capture a certain feeling? Or are we supposed to think about or feel something else? It feels like there's more to what we're given; that, like the hidden story on the title screen, there's things left to discover that can help you piece it all together. But all of that seems to remain out of reach, so what's left is a very short collection of moments connected somehow that lead to an ending that might make you think about whatever you think the game’s getting at. Clearing the game once allows you to play through it again with more options, but being meek or assertive doesn't really reveal anything more about what's going on. You can also see an alternate ending where it seems the game really is all about your outlook on the world, but who really knows? In all, even though it looks and sounds well-produced and has hints of a good mystery/psychological story, Always The Same Blue Sky is as it's shallowly described on the store page and that's probably the most disappointing thing it could be.

This one's an awesome indie visual novel from a small European studio that well, I enjoyed months ago and of course I forgot to review. It's definitely quite short, but on the other side it's well worthy to be played in my opinion. That's why I'm replaying it after many months right now :P And while it's true that often a game with lots of endings is usually lengthier and more developed, with many characters and so on, it's never automatic the connection between many endings and a beautiful game. There are lots of visual novels, like this one, with few endings (yes, just two!) and with a short playtime, but with a nice replayability value and many positive aspects - outstanding, too! Always The Same Blue Sky, too, features a really well-made personal user interface, for what concerns dialogues and choices, but also the text position in the bottom part of the screen - it's clear from the first sight that much work has been put into this novel (which had been approved firstly on Steam before being published) and you can see this from the menus, the graphics and every small aspect that many other visual novel use to standardize (like the auto, skip, pause etc. buttons that look all the same in dozens of games). RenPy engine, if you're wondering :) Plus, here we have outstanding graphics in my view, and an awesome soundtrack which can be bought as a 1€/$ DLC - even if the game's short (two-three hours more or less if you wanna read through it all), you'll hear almost 15 different songs and the DLC also contains non-published tracks and mixes :) I also found the story very charming and nice, soothing I'd say. Nothing complicated at all - it's a romantic and peaceful one - but definitely enjoyable. It's clearly indie, and maybe some scenes aren't perfectly linked one to another, but overall nothing mines (is this English? I hope so xD) the game's quality. As I was saying, we won't face sexual contents or magical things, or even complex storylines.. the world is quite "late teenager" as your main character (you choose your sex ^^) goes from school to school and well, you'll find yourself on an island which is quite the context in which everything will take place, good or bad. The fact that your main character is put finally, after what he/she went through his teenage years, on a remote island of course opens tons of different possibilities and this is probably one of the reasons why the game suffers from some plot holes and jumps from one theme to another one, but as I said, nothing too bad to say it's rushed or even hard to enjoy in my view. Yeah, the writing isn't always perfect, but to me it's really okay. And it offers you way more than a good and a bad ending - although on one hand there are many choices that aren't really "important" for a different outcome, on the other one you can do multiple playthroughs and see the reactions if you're playing positively, or if you want to behave the opposite way. This is great, since you can still make a "wrong" decision if you feel that it suits your mood, and still stay on one of the two routes :) The too long, did not read version of this is: there are lots of choices, but they will lead you to two endings only; though, they will still affect many small bits of dialogue here and there. With Kira being the only character you'll get to know, of course, the game limits itself a bit but well, it'll be ok :P For the sake of completion, there are something like, 15 choices per playthrough if you really wanna know xD I just can't speak about the language options - there are many translations, but of course being Northern Italian and knowing only my native tongue and French I went for English.. but you can also play the game in German, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Russian - there's no voice acting at all, so nothing will change and trust me, the music and the full OST are really charming and interesting even from an amateur musician's point of view ^^ I just can say that the English novel is great apart from some bits of dialogue, but I generally write my reviews only for the English versions of the games since well, I still have to find a nicely translated game into Italian or French and my knowledge of Spanish is too bad to enjoy everything. Not to speak about other languages I should have studied or learned years ago.. I think I made some mistakes and errors and I'm too stupid to go through the review once again but I hope I gave many nice ideas on what you're going to play. Few characters but greatly made, a nice and charming seaside/island romantic story, awesome artwork and music, and an overall short time needed for every choice, ending and such. For its price and its indie development, in my view this one's really a great visual novel in its genre. And it's suited for every age too. Lots of details in the artwork. Worth every single cent :) And well.. I "tricked" a little bit talking about the branches the story will take.. there could be some magic in the.. water.. :)

Always the Same Blue Sky is a short (30m - 1hr) visual novel with a lovely aesthetic and a nice if simple soundtrack. Well written with interesting characters, it's biggest issue is perhaps that it's a little -too- short. Character relationships progress in between the scenes and it feels like it's missing some of the content that would really pull you into their interactions and give them more weight. It's lovely to see more original English language VNs on Steam, and for three bucks you can't really go wrong. Treat yourself to a short break with Always the Same Blue Sky, feels for three.

As someone who's played a lot of VNs, Always The Same Blue Sky did not win me over. Large spoilers ahead, so be warned. - The language came across as overly poetic to the point of being purple prose. For example, we get lines such as "The precious fabric was a rich shade of turquoise which transformed the glaring sun into a thousand stars." There's nothing wrong with clever metaphor, but it should be handled carefully, not swung around willy-nilly like a sledgehammer. - A great example of what the game does wrong comes in how it describes Kira, the heroine. You get a whole paragraph about how unbelievably perfect she is, from her 'porcelain face' all the way down to her 'piercing apple-green eyes, which penetrated through all pretense'. Firstly a character with no obvious imperfections is boring; secondly, it violates 'Show, Don't Tell' pretty horrendously. - Rather than a coherent story, the game seems to just be a collection of disconnected scenes scrambled together without much in the way of pretense. One minute you're sharing milkshakes with Kira by the seaside, the next you're talking with her about the selfishness of mankind. None of these transitions feel natural at all, and the supposed drama that emerges from them turns into overly-drawn angst. (Oh, hey, my girlfriend's on the roof of the school crying to herself! Better walk away and do absolutely nothing to help because somehow I know I'm not supposed to!) - Speaking of story, it feels like huge chunks of plot are missing. There are several topics that are vaguely touched upon but never see any sort of payoff. For instance, during the opening sequence, the protagonist takes a pill of some sort before rushing to school. Is this an indication of illness? It's never brought up again. Likewise there's a bizarre subplot about owls in the Mediterranean which again leads nowhere. And sometimes things just...happen, without any real context (OK, so we're being moved off the island...why, exactly?) - Finally the ending comes out of nowhere and makes very little sense. [spoiler]So it turns out Kira's some sort of sea spirit who's been killing people every month to maintain her human form. After a VERY heavy-handed moral about the destructive nature of humanity she's sucked up by the sea again, and we get a short epilogue of how the sea will always be with us and so Kira's never gone or whatever. DID YOU MISS THE PART WHERE SHE WAS A SERIAL KILLER, GAME?[/spoiler] Perhaps the frustrating part of all this is that there is plenty to salvage. The art is excellent for the asking price, with a plethora of backgrounds and CGs, and the game does a few neat things with Ren'py you don't see often (blinking characters, walking animations, etc.) The music was forgettable, but I didn't mind it in particular. It's just that the terrible writing sinks the whole package and makes me feel like I wasted my money on it. In short, Always The Same Blue Sky is wonderful to look at, but absolutely miserable to play. Those hoping for a quick VN fix should look elsewhere. Consider the freeware game Voices From The Sea instead.

Great Visual Novel by Crimson Night and published by Flying Interactive, on steam. This Visual Novel was very short but very enjoyable with choices with 2 endings 1 being a bad ending and the other being a good end. Another Visual Novel with easy achievements.