Along the Edge Reviews

This is the first time I've ever played a visual novel and I am quite conflicted on this one. Because I really wanted to like it. Instead the game actually made me angry at its writers. But I'll start with the easier parts: + The artwork is obviously gorgeous and deeply athmospheric. And consistently so. Don't worry about any slips in quality here, what you see in the sample footage is what you get. The drawings tell the story almost on their own, and in a way, it would have been better if it had been that way. + The music is, to my surprise, absolutely on par with the visual presentation. That's not easy to achieve. And it carries a subtlety and indecisiveness that the writing sorely lacks. Unfortunately, the cuts between tracks and between music and silence/ambience are way too rough, which can kick you out of a mood. So. The story rests on intersting, albeit cliché premises. At this point there are probably more entries in tvtropes than the Encyclopedia Britannica. Few things have not not been done before. That's not a problem. Unfortunately, my issues with this game start right in the first scene, and I will go on from there, without spoiling anything (I hope): - The very first character talks in exposition. - The game utilizes a first person narrator... that frequently talks in exposition. - People are given only the bare minimum of charactarization and (his)story to move the plot along. - Scenes are written as a string of plot points, not as a naturally evolving story. This means a lot of time skips and time contractions that break immersion and leave the player confused and ungrounded. - Quite a small cast of characters making the place feel way smaller than it is supposed to be. - Important characters are not given enough history/characterization to care about them or make important choices regarding them. - Internal monologues tend to not reflect certain choices. Maybe the game has trouble handling conflicting inputs? Makes me think using the two dichotomies to define Daphnés character was a bad idea. I get the same cognitive dissonance and detachment from my character that I felt in Pillars of Eternity and that game, while belonging to a completely different genre, has a similar system to track your "reputation". - The game allows for little subtlety in expression and rarely asks you how you feel about a thing or gives you the chance to react to an event or situation that is not distorted by the need to interact with another character. - The mystery plot, while intersting in its own right, takes away too much focus from the interpersonal drama, which remains underdeveloped and doesn't do the subject matter enough justice. - Some characterization inconsistencies. Too little agency, both for the player and for the narrator. - The results of having Daphné make resolute decisions actually make her look like a pushover in the text that follows. While this is mostly done to keep the plot from imploding, it also is a problem at less critical junctions. - This ultimately suggests very, and I would have never thought that I'd say that in a video game review, problematic expectations of womanly behaviour and gender dynamics. Seriously, fuck you, boys. On the plus side, Along the Edge kinda manages to put me into the shoes of a woman, so to speak, and has me feel strongly about certain situations, even seemingly mundane ones. In the end, it might be worth checking out to form your own opinion, if you are interested in this kind of game. Just get it at a discount.

Wow I've just finished my first playthrough and it's really gripping. I love these types of games, which was what drew me to this game. You play Daphne who has just inherited her grandmothers house and is leaving her old life behind to try and start again. However her family name causes a stir in the town and leads to interesting developments. You then have to try and figure out your families mysterious past all at the same time as trying to save your home from those who want to take it from you. The choices you make will change Daphne and the way others look at you. This includes her personallity and appearance. Your choices effect Daphne are split into categories such as The Globe, The Moon, The Star and The Sun. One or two of these will be influenced by your choices. The game states that there are no good or bad choices they just effect how people and you look at yourself. The artwork in the game is stunning some of it looks like painting that I would gladly hang up. I would recommend this to anyone who loves visual novels and choice based games.

When I read that the game is set in an “adult universe” I took this to mean that it features a deep storyline told with multifaceted, original characters, touching on important existential problems. What I got was a promising setting with an interesting protagonist and beautiful art, but mediocre writing, a story circling around an old feud that I failed to feel invested in, somewhat jumpy responses to my choices, and an ending that leaves me with many open questions. Another playthrough may have answered some of these questions but I have little confidence it would do so convincingly enough to warrant starting another playthrough from scratch. Note that manual saves that would allow reassessing some key moments are not possible. I will discuss some of my concerns in more detail below, with only minor spoilers, unless otherwise noted. [h1]The Art[/h1] It's beautiful, it conveys the mood, and there is lots of it. Just look at the trailer: The vibrant colours, the composition, the lighting. It all fits. [h1]The Language[/h1] Sadly my French is not good enough, so I had to make due with the English version. It seems the translation was not done by a native speaker, or at least not a native writer. The different characters all have a similar manner of speaking and little is conveyed through choice of vocabulary, for instance. In a few places the wording sounded questionable in my ears, and with the exception of the poetic retelling of Daphné's dreams, descriptions remain purely functional. [h1]Variation vs Consistency[/h1] The game responds to your choices. However, there is not always a logical causal relationship between the choice and the consequence (1) and some sequences of choices sum up to an overall implausible dialogue (2). (1) Choosing certain dialog options influences Daphné's alignment in a two-dimensional personality space. Between rationalism (globe) and mysticism (star) on one hand and empathy (sun) and self-centredness (moon) on the other. This alignment, in turn, affects the events of the game (as well as Daphné's fashion choices). This sounds alright on paper but in practice this means that advertising a particular metaphysical opinion in one part of the game (e.g. witchcraft may exist) makes you be fail at some other challenge (e.g. teach at the local school) with no direct causal link. The indirect causal link via the personality wheel was not apparent to me at the time making such consequences feel oddly dissociated from the plot. (2) [Spoilers ahead!] I had one conversation with one of the possible “romance options” that went from breakup talk “You've changed, Daphné. I don't recognize you anymore.” over “Things will have to change, and change drastically” to “Daphné Delatour, will you marry me?” in one conversation of hardly a minute. I assume this almost bipolar mood swing is a consequence of the dialogue having more ways of playing out than the developers had the resources to polish. I would have preferred a more linear plot line with the freed resources invested in making each possible variation more consistent. [h1]The Characters[/h1] The premise of the story is promising. It may sound unoriginal that we get to know yet another protagonist that leaves everything behind to make a fresh start after a personal crisis, but the game managed to find a way to convey the peculiar mixture between anxiety and hope in Daphné's situation and got me genuinely interested in her. The other characters where occasionally quirky but not over the top. Not particularly original but (mostly) no walking tropes either. They would have made for an adequate canvas to tell a rich story. [h1]The Story[/h1] [I'll try to keep it abstract, but there are vague spoilers ahead.] Unless my play through omitted the [i]Grand Conclusion That Explains It All[/i], it's about a rich and powerful evil guy doing evil things to obtain more power (and no ulterior motive). To this end he needs access to the mysterious MacGuffin-location in the possession of the protagonist. With the power of kindness the protagonist manages to unite the people against the evildoer (who they were too afraid to confront alone) and even his close associates realise in the end, that they were deceived. While there were some hints to suggest that the evil guy is, in fact, only part-evil, that there is more than meets the eye, or that he may be willing to settle the conflict, these aspects remained largely abstract. I failed to see any real ethical dilemma or a serious conflict of interest so if it wasn't for the guy being evil for no reason, everyone could just have been on their merry ways. This shallowness is, in my eyes, the biggest weakness of the game. There just was nothing it had to [i]say[/i]. [h1]Final Verdict[/h1] I'm not a big visual novel player, and if you are, we may not share the same opinion on what makes a great game. What I can say with confidence is that, if you are just looking for a casual game with a good story regardless of genre, there is much better stuff out there (“To the Moon“ and “Life is Strange“ to name two popular ones). And if you are interested in a visual novel featuring rich and meaningful character customisation options, then “Long Live the Queen“ does a much better job at it. This game did neither of the two convincingly which left me with little but pretty pictures to look at.

This is a great game. A visual novel telling the story of Daphne Delatour, who finds herself embroiled in the middle of a supernaturally fuelled age old family feud, after inheriting her estranged grandmother's castle. It's a good length to tell a decent and compelling story, without ever feeling like it's dragging on too much. No filler material. The story has several twists and branches, with the choices that you make being rather important for the outcomes that occur. I've played it through enough to get almost all that could be seen (just missing two achievements). I think they do it well in making the choices less about you the playing picking what happens, and more so you making choices that reveal the type of personality that Daphne has, and letting the plot progress from there. You're not choosing what she does, you're choosing who she is. I really like that from a VN. The art direction does a wonderful job of setting the tone of the game, truly making you feel immersed in a surreal experience. The soundtrack is simple, but likewise helps set the mood. This is a game that makes no effort whatsoever to adhere to the typical anime tropes that always seem to drag down most visual novels out there, and for that I absolutely applaud it. We need to see more of this.

Very good game - but I cannot recommend it because it has no save feature, or skip feature. So you have to sit through the entire run again and again to pick different answers. And I don't have the patience for it, or the emotional investment to care about the other options that much to repeat it. I like that your character physically changes based on choices too. But I don't think it's worth the price, and I would rather recommend Demon Heart - a much better, polished similar version of this game with a better plot, characters, and mechanics. This review might change if they decide to add a save or skip feature.

This game is exactly what i expected when i bought it: It is a relatively short (first playthrough took around two hours), visually appealing interactive novel with interesting side and main characters. Towards the end of the game the choices you made will have influence both the main character and the storyline in a mayor way which should lead to a fair amount of replayability. If you like visual novels with mild occult themes (degree varies with your choices) you will most likely enjoy this one.

Foreword: A few hours ago a friend of mine logged to tell me about this visual novel. I checked the game title, I never heard of it. I checked the development company, I never heard of them. I looked at the trailer, and the art style intrigued me enough to try it out. Along the Edge is a visual novel that tells the story of a Ph.D. student that due to certain circumstances is forced to give up on her research and move from the city to a town. It is a fairly interesting story of self-discovery, of family grudges - possible ways to solve them (Stabby! Stabby! Or other more boring venues of conflict resolution...) and between scientific reasoning and the occult. Aesthetics: Along the Edge has an interesting aesthetic to it. The graphics are very good for its genre. They fit the story and do not disturb the reader. The choice to use pastel paintings as the imagery and the piano notes that play as we are reading help cement the rustic feel of the setting and enforce the idea that we are in a small town. The characters portrayed fit their environment and act in a logical manner fitting their constructed personality, depending on your choices their reaction to the reader will change in a believable manner (events do not feel forced upon the reader) and depending on your choices the character's appearance will change to fit the reader's decisions (a nice touch for immersion). The characters are not voiced (some might find this a plus for immersion – imagining character voices or a minus, I have no stance on this). Functionality: The game has a well thought out alignment system that helps define the character using four symbols: the sun, the moon, the globe and the star. You gain points in a certain alignment depending on your decisions. Points are granted per choice. The alignment is bidimensional, it affects your attitude (sun or moon) and beliefs (globe or star). The consequences of those choices are visible and change the way your character looks and how she acts in certain scenes (the changes are noticed are just in small segments of text but affect the overall feel of the story). If you are positive to people and conciliatory you gain sun alignment points (no numerical value is given - they are lit after making a decision, I use the term points because it is easier for me to explain the system); if you are direct and focus on your views, even if they hurt the interlocutor or damage your social position, you gain moon points; if you are rational, a sceptic and follow the scientific method you gain globe points and if you believe in the immaterial and occult or have an inclination towards intuition and instinct rather than the concise you gain star points. I did not encounter any game breaking technical issues (I encountered issues with steam overlay getting stuck while in fullscreen mode and using the F12 key to take screenshots only worked after alt+tabbing from the game and alt+tabbing back - 16.10.2016) or glaring spelling mistakes while playing. The game does not have a skip functionality, it might be a bit tedious for some after multiple playthroughs. The game's options are very limited. You can choose between sound or no sound and the display settings are either fullscreen or windowed mode. Achievements are granted after finishing a route. Enjoyment: I found myself taking it very lightly while reading and before I knew it... it was over. Before I knew it a good hour has passed and I was very satisfied. The developers tell a concise and well-written story. Conclusion: The pricing on this game is adequate for its genre and for what it has to offer (finishing a route is 1 hour – 1.5 hours, judging from the achievements there are at least four routes). It is not a monumental work like G-Senjou no Maou, Steins;Gate, Muv-Luv etc... but it has its place. It is a very good western visual novel and I think most of the fans of this genre would find it very enjoyable. Other notes: None at the moment.

I'm pleasantly suprised, my first visual novel and I ended up loving it. As someone who enjoyes games like Life is Strange, I'm glued to the monitor, carrying the laptop around and playing. Story is well written and really interesting, choices matter, excellent visual style and touching music. Played on an openSUSE Tumbleweed laptop (native Linux version) with an HD 4400, runs perfectly. Tried it on my Arch/1660 Ti machine and works fine as well. Just finished it. It was amazing. Bought all the other Nova-box games and can't recommend it enough to anyone looking for a good story.

[u][h1]Style[/h1][/u] [u]Art[/u] Watercolour art, very well done. [u]Eroge Content[/u] No. [u][h1]Music and sound[/h1][/u] Suitable for the setting. Decent. [u][h1]Story[/h1][/u] [u]Basics[/u] Well written, no glaring mistakes. [u]Characters[/u] Flat and completely forgettable. [u]Plot[/u] Meandering, obtuse and boring. [u][h1]Gameplay[/h1][/u] No game elements. Autosave system forces you to start new game to see other choices. [u]Replayability[/u] More than one route, but again, see the above issues.

"Along the Edge" was a great experience for me. I've played it twice already and I will surely play again in the future, just to see more of the possible outcomes. The game itself is short - one playthrough takes about 2 hours, but in my opinion, it's well worth the price. Writing is solid, protagonist is interesting, choices are not obvious (no morally good or bad decisions) and lead to various consequences (including protagonist's personality, responses and looks). Every character has something redeemable about them, everyone has some sort of motive and goal. I love the art style - there are so many various CGs, that this itself, should justify the price. Also, music is absolutely stunning and adds to the atmosphere. My only complaint would be lack of skip option - replaying the game would be much more enjoyable experience if I could skip seen text. Other than that - I strongly recommend it.