The Orchard of Stray Sheep Reviews

You play as the protagonist Ichirou! You are hired as a teacher to teach at an amazing Island academy with only 4 students! You work with the beautiful principle Matsuri and two other teachers, Liang and Tsuji, to keep the students happy at all costs! The four students are Peeler, Mincer, Oros zester and your own assigned student, Casserole! It is your duty to make sure that Casserole is ready for her ‘graduation’ from the academy! Will you really be able to do it, though? The Orchard of Stray Sheep is a surprisingly dark and yet incredibly interesting kinetic novel. I say Kinetic, but there are only 3 choices that lead to 3 endings, 2 bad endings and 1 true ending, and it’s kind of obvious what the bad choices are. The art style is phenomenal and the music is just exceptional! The only downside is that there is no sequel!

This game, to my surprise was completely different than expected, here I thought I'd be a generic shepherd herding waifu sheep or sheep in the bodies of women, turns out that wasn't the case, and found 3 different endings, however, I won't spoil the rest, I thought it was a different take on selective subjects that are controversial, but each is to their own. If its on sale, get it if you can, can also get it at normal price if you wish.

OK. I think I get it. This is basically 1984. You are 'Ichiriou' who is basically the Japanese version of 'Winston Smith'. Someone who is a product of the New World Order, Where you will own nothing and you will be happy. And so he is weak, twisted & broken. But he tries to do the right thing anyway, because despite the best efforts of the WEF, he is still, deep down, a human being. OK. Cool.

A really interesting premise, but the ending completely falls through. I thought that you'd have an ending with each character and that we'd see all of the girl's get some character development/back story but you really don't. You have one choice in the game that determines if you get the good ending or if you get a second choice after a few more screens of dialogue that leads to immediate game overs. You never really learn anything about one of the girls. It's just super disappointing.

The Orchard of Stray Sheep is a relatively short (can be finished in 4 hours) VN where you're drawn into the mysterious workings of the Academy on this island and discover some Dark Secrets (although anyone with sense can see the twists coming from a mile off). I recommend this game, but with some caveats. The artwork is lovely, the music is very nice, and some of the characters are interesting, but the game has a rather slow start, which means more of the game is slice-of-life, atmospheric stuff than conspiracy, intrigue, deception, etc. There's only two choices in the VN, both of which are very close to the end. The plot is...well, some people may like the writing more than I did. There's a lot of things happening in short succession with very little rhyme or reason, and the worldbuilding doesn't make a lot of sense when you think about it. Also the MC is a complete prick. But besides that, as I said, the music and art are nice, and the slow build of the mystery is interesting. My rating would be maybe a 6/10--recommend it, but just barely.

I really enjoyed this virtual novel. I admit the end was kinda abrupt and the 3 different endings was a joke as well, basicly they should've left the two bad ones out, only 2 (or 3) choises to make, sheesh. But all in all it was okay, I don't mind loose ends on books or movies, so I am fine with the loose ends in stray sheep as well. Music was really boring imo. One thumb up, another down.

I'd say overall this was pretty good. The main character was interesting (if kind of a terrible person) and I thought the story wrapped up quite well. It had kind of a mix of light and dark themes not unlike Higurashi. It doesn't have any H-scenes in it, but it is also most definitely not for those who are sensitive/easily offended. I really enjoyed the OST and the art is also pretty decent. The only real issue is that there are some typos in the translation, which seems rather odd. Also, there are certain parts of the translation where I had to wonder if that's actually what was said. I can't read Japanese, so I can't comment further on the accuracy of it. From what I can tell, there are three possible endings. Each of these splits off about 20 minutes to an hour from the end. The two bad endings are very, very abrupt while the true ending is a reasonable length. I also have to give it props for running flawlessly on Linux. The main downside to this is that the developer seems to have abandoned it, so I wouldn't expect a fix for the typos or any technical issues that could arise. Overall I'd give it a 7/10. tl;dr Good characters, good art, great OST, decent story, iffy translation.

There was definite potential here, but there's just too many things holding the story back. The MC is just intensely unlikeable and a creep even if he may have his reasons for some of his actions and mannerisms, it's just not enough. There are character interactions that don't make sense, developments that don't go anywhere and the story is rushed to a shoddy open ended conclusion before you can blink. There is the illusion of multiple routes and choices but they quickly deadend to bad endings. Furthermore, the dialogue just doesn't flow properly- not sure if this is a translation issue or just a lack of follow up polish before release but it's noticeable throughout. The redeeming qualities are the excellent art, decent soundtrack and the build up to the reveal of the big mystery but it's not enough to hold this together especially after the mystery is revealed and you can analyze the plot as a whole.

This isn’t your average happy VN, there’s mystery, violence and death. I enjoy those things, so I liked The Orchard of Stray Sheep. It’s a very short (mostly kinetic, with only a few choices, branching into 3 endings: 2 bad, 1 true ending plus epilogue) visual novel, and the truth about the girls surprised me a lot. The art style is absolute lovely. It’s what caught my attention at first, then there’s the BGM which is also pretty good. The story was a bit rushed, but still managed to surprise me. I just wished that the developers would have explained more about the “Academy” and its system since it was interesting. The English translation is a bit weird, there’s some typos and grammar mistakes. It didn’t bothered me so much since English isn’t my native language, but it might bother other people. I just have one problem with this game: its endings. This had a lot of potential, but I felt that the endings were so… blah? Even the true ending and epilogue. It would be interesting to see a spin off or a similar game tho. 5/10. Overall, I do recommend this VN on a good sale, and if you like short & weird stories like I do.

This visual novel by Namaage and Sekai Project feature a male protagonist Yamada Ichirou who took up a teaching position at a secluded academy on an uninhabited island which consists of 4 female students Casserole, Mincer, Peeler and Oros zester, 2 male teachers Tsuji and Liang Hai and a female principal Matsuri. Upon witnessing the graduation of one of the students, Ichirou begins to question the validity of the practices in the academy. I have mixed opinions on this visual novel. Having played through and reached all 3 possible endings in this visual novel, the game started out too slowly as a typical school life drama and only after episode 5 out of 9 possible episodes in this visual novel did it build more suspense and thriller and develop as a mystery visual novel and there are only 1-2 choices to make in the entire game which are near the ending and lead to a different ending each(The game storyline could do with a shortening of the school life drama section in the prologue and first 5 episodes if the mystery and thriller part could expand and develop more). Furthermore, although the game had nice anime artwork on the cover, CGs and character sprites, this is one of the few visual novels on Steam that did not have achievements which would further reduce the appeal of this visual novel. On the plus side, I would definitely say that the game in using music by Patirchev and Ara Hiroshi to produce a great opening and ending movie, theme song and BGM probably saved this visual novel from being just another forgettable visual novel I would uninstall after finishing this game. I managed to get the game on 60% discount in Steam store and I liked the soundtracks in this game enough to give this game a recommended review. It would also be nice if a soundtrack DLC were to be released for this game in future. The Steam profile backgrounds are also attractive and will look nice on a user's Steam profile. Overall, this game is recommended only for those who like a short mystery visual novel featuring a futuristic dystopian Japanese setting that is easy to reach all endings, nice anime artwork in the game or great BGM and soundtracks in the opening and ending movie(My favourite BGM is F.G as a soothing and inspiring soft music that is played only in the true ending and end credits). In which case, the game is recommended only when at good discount or bundle offer or when soundtrack DLC, and/or achievements are added to the game in future.