Ruler by Default Reviews

Good enough length to spend an afternoon. The story is fairly simple and straight forward IMHO but where it shines is the characters and the humour. It's one of the few VN that I've played where I am tempted to play each route and explore the various endings. Fairly choice heavy as well. Initial play through was about 3 hours for a generic ending. The way the game is structured the concept of more than 40 endings doesn't surprise me. In many ways it reminds me of the choose your own adventure books I read as a kid, mixed with a branching romantic comedy. I think I'll be playing through this one several times. Characters and chuckles are definitely worth $10. Of note, v1.0.3 has the occasional typo or missing sprite in a scene. Doesn't happen often enough to actually care but I assume those will be fixed in future patches.

So I only heard about this very recently, in a discussion of how development times can sometimes rather over-run original plans - and it turns out that this one really did spend rather longer in development than planned. But I have to say - I'm very glad that Pistachi Studios stuck with it, because they've delivered a game with some real charm. So what do we have? We have a protagonist who's yoinked out of the present day in the real world, and unceremoniously dumped into a fantasy world where he's fated to be the Evil Overlord. There's a funny mark on his back, you see, and you just can't argue with funny marks. Okay, so it turns out that it's not the [i]largest[/i] Evil Empire at the moment, but there's potential - right from the moment that you meet your loyal supporters. The art's bright and plentiful - there are SO many variations on each character's sprite to allow for different expressions and poses (and I love June's crossed-arms "NOPE" sprite), and there are literally dozens of backgrounds too. Story wise, the interactions with characters are what really make Ruler by Default a joy to read; it [i]does[/i] perhaps fall down a little in developing your interactions with the wider world, which largely take a back seat - but then with such fun characters to interact with, you can absolutely understand focusing on them! Choices are plentiful; some are just for a hint of flavour, but many will build - or break! - your relationship with one character or another, which goes to explain the plentiful number of potential endings. I've not seen them all (I'm not sure I have the heart to track down all the bad endings!), but there are some extremely sweet, and bittersweet, moments in there. All this, and for a very fair price too. It's not the deepest story in the history of ever, nor is it the longest (although I understand that Pistachi do hope to add at least one more route via free DLC, which is incredibly decent of them!) - but it [i]is[/i] very enjoyable. Worth a read. No, worth [i]several[/i] reads. (As always, ignore the low playtime recorded for me - I generally read my VNs while commuting on a tablet PC, which is offline, and so all that playtime doesn't get credited...)

Hello. I've played up to week 13 and I streamed this game. Almost everyone really enjoyed it! Can't wait to play more! I'll update my review then. Only problem I found is apparently a lot of the management plans in the trailer were taken out. But hey I understand, small studio hard to do everything you want.

This particular visual novel may not seem very notable at glance, but after taking the time to do the routes... it's definitely worth a read. The character sprites are simplistic yet very well done and do much to pair up the mood and direction this VN takes. The writing is short and sweet; while void of any notable spelling errors. Seeing the enthralling character chemistry and interactions are what really make this visual an engaging read. June and Mori in particular were loads of fun and it was hard for me not to get attached to them. To sum it up, it's a good read and definitely a breath of fresh as far as Visual Novels and dating sims are concerned. Sprites: 9.5/10 Writing: 9/10 Character Chemistry: 9,000/10 Length: 8/10 Waifu: June/10 It's clear the group put in an earnest effort in producing this and I hope this will help other people enjoy it too.

First game of this type I've played through, and it was very well made. I've completed only 1 route, which took me roughly 2 hours to complete (considering I mashed through dialogue because I'm a fast reader) I was honestly suprised by how the game will give you a lot of different paths to go down once you get through the first half hour of gameplay, which sets up the world and story. I initially thought the price point was too much, but after seeing how much content I missed (and will play through!) I definitely changed my mind. My only request it to get the artwork in the game as desktop wallpapers, considering how great they are.

Well worth the time. It might be a small studio, but you can tell a LOT of heart went into this game. I just finished playing through the Mori route (and seeing all the different endings), and I can't tell you the last time I got this attached to a VN character. There's just an unbelievable amount of charm, humor, and empathy. Looking forward to digging back in and seeing all that Summer, June, Miyuki, and others have to offer.

I don't play many visual novels or dating sims, but I gave this one a try and I'm really glad I did! I haven't run every path of the story, so I can only speak to about two and a half-ish different runs' worth of content, but so far stories have been engaging and the characters fun and friendly. It reminded me of Arcade Spirits in that some of the paths seem more geared toward general friendship or finding your place in your life in the odd world that you're in. Unlike most other games I've played like this, the game almost takes a "Choose Your Own Adventure" path that allows you to just focus on the story line of one character at a time, or to diversify your approach with the limited time that the game allots for you. I think the closest analogue to something like it I've seen is Long Live The Queen, only here you pick who you spend time with rather than what classes you pursue. For a few quick pros and cons... PROS -Great story arcs and fun characters -Multi-tined story progression allows for quick dives into the game. -Varied endings, with different story paths allowing impacts in others (not sure how deep this system goes yet) CONS -A few grammatical issues here and there. -At a first glance, some of the story progressions appear to assume that you've gotten a certain distance in some others that you might not've. Summer's arc kicked off with a feat of magic that didn't quite seem to fit the general level of magical ability the rest of the story implied was available, though on a replay while looking for alternate paths through Summer's arc it didn't seem quite as off to me. -The visuals for the "scene selection screen" every new week don't quite match the rest of the game in a way that was initially jarring. It's not bad, but I wasn't expecting the character designs and backgrounds to suddenly shift, and it took some getting used to. -Broke my heart with, like, three different Summer endings, and then revealed that the game merely considers those to be Neutral endings instead of Bad endings, so now I'm terrified. All in all, it's a fun little set of stories.

Okay I felt like I wasted money in this game even if it was only $10 I saw a YouTube video that got me to play the game the guy was able to actually level up and character stats but there's no such function on a singing this game Puss his castle looks way different I feel like I paid for unfinished or incomplete version of the game and that's insulting I have the company goes Belly Up for wasting everyone's time and not giving a full product you going to put the game out there but the whole damn thing out I don't know what that one YouTuber seems to have more gameplay options but it's really annoying I hate buying a game and not getting the full game

After playing Cristalline and Assendant Hearts I was looking for any more Isekai (Differant World subgenra) stories. I came accross 'Ruler by Default' whlst going through a list of vissual novels in the steam store and I am very glad I did. While it can't boast the production value of games like Cristalline, or Nekopara it still exceeded my expectations. The characters may not be animated, but each one has more poses and expressions then I was expecting. The soundtrack may not be memorable, but it fits with the story and enhances it apropriatly. 'Ruler by Default' gave me exactly what i was looking for. A fun and funny story with a number of differant routs. I have very much enjoyed it, and would recomend it to other borderline western otakus.

I've played quite a few VN's, since I like a story which can help the imagination along with character imagery and scenery for backgrounds. At first, I wasn't sure what to expect, and if I was blatantly frank I wasn't sure I'd like the art style or the storyline much because I had the bias of coming from super-high-budget games... But I'm happy to say that feeling went away pretty fast. The artwork is surprisingly charming, you can tell each avatar and scene was made to detail and with care to convey a character or setting, instead of just copy+pasting 3 avatars over and over like some I've seen, so it's very well done! The story is also amazing, too many people go in looking for 18+ content or eye-candy moments, but this VN actually makes you (or me, at least) care about what the characters are up to, why they're different from one another, and fuels curiosity into how they fit into the story. The routes are all so unique as well, each story has something you will likely not expect! As a tabletop GM, I actually found it like I was playing through someone else's RPG in a sense... Decisions don't feel hollow (you can tell one or two are fixed, despite your choices) and the story really does change depending on what you choose to do. For the price, this will kill a few hours and entertain the whole way, I absolutely enjoyed it, and plan to continue. TL:DR section Pros: + Unique artwork, not too many recycled avatars like some VN's, characters all have unique appearance and charm + Good soundtrack + The dev's have an excellent sense of humor, it's not often a VN gets a laugh/chuckle from me as often as this one did + Characters are all unique, have surprises you won't expect + Good story length... Long enough to be interesting, short enough not to take weeks to play through Cons: - Some bugs here and there (history error, very rare avatar MIA), but I'm sure patches will solve this (not a complaint as much as an observation) - An occasional typo (self-admitted grammar fascist, but see above point about patches) - Still haven't been abducted to this game's world yet