VANILLA - GARDEN OF JUDGEMENT Reviews

Vanilla- Garden of Judgement is a short visual novel experience. Fair warning, it’s written to be pretty bleak, don’t go in expecting slice of life or true happy ends. Looking at the lovely character artwork and gentle music, I often felt extremely at peace and contemplative reading this. At other times I just found everything very haunting and mysterious. The backgrounds are mostly just real life imagery with a strong blur effect, but it works very well here and sets the mood nicely. There are three main girls you interact with, in order, followed by a kind of epilogue tying it all together. I didn’t like the way the interactive parts were handled, as you’re essentially railroaded into making heartless decisions to continue. If you choose the kinder options, you get a bad end with that particular girl- which actually reads more like a good, if vague ending- it’s a little confusing. It’s not that I’m against the MC doing bad things, but at the times they happen, they come completely out of the blue and seem to happen just because the author needs them to. I also felt that there were a couple of brief scenes that were written as crude for the sake of being crude, but there’s not too much of that. It’s nice to have a more contemplative story that doesn’t follow all of the standard progression, although some of the standard anime tropes (tsundere, etc.) still apply. There are myriad technical issues such as the script being unable to properly deal with an apostrophe, causing extra spaces to appear. The visuals are either viewed in a small window, or if maximized, you get a larger picture but it’s set all the way to the left of your screen with a large black bar on the right side. You’re unable to take screenshots through Steam. I’ve heard, but not confirmed, that there was supposed to be more voice work but it wasn’t implemented properly in the English version. All in all, I found this just unique and enjoyable enough that I feel it’s worth pushing past the technical problems and giving it a try.

It's a shame that this version doesn't have voice.I'll probably reread it once the patch is released. If you're familiar with other Charon's work,this will blow your mind.Not only does it retain all the unique traits of Charon's previous novels,the story is also deep and meaningful.I felt Charon has improved over the past 5 years.Reminiscing the past,Yanderella was the one that caught me in love with their work.It was once Charon's most popular work,and if you're looking for that similar,crazy feeling that run chills through your spine,you won't find much here.Vanilla - Garden of Judgement is calm and sad,the feeling when reading You,Me and empty words.The harsh and cruel reality,one could not turn their back from,which somewhat reminds me of Mix Ore.However,it would be naive for me to say Vanilla is a combination of Charon's previous works. The plot is much more well developed.The character's back story,are not just fillers or left empty anymore.They're relatable,reflection of society in author's point of view.This strikes me the most,since Charon had always been so...secrective in the past,I could hardly grasp their thoughts.Like why was that ending considered "bad" when it seems so fulfiling?The art is gorgeous,similar to Tsukimi Planet art style.The music,if you're familiar with Presence of Music,who composed most of Charon's songs in previous works,and like me...fed up with replaying the same rhythm over in your head for the past years,will surely enjoy the new breeze that Ryo Lion brought about. If you're a fan of Charon,I highly suggest you should pick this up.Though it's a bit over-priced,but looking at other free stuff we got over the past years,I think it's reasonable.Plus this is the best way to show support for the author who gave me such unforgettable experience. I really hope this game sold well,and I'm really looking forward to their next game on Steam.

The story take place in hell or heaven? It's up to your decision. Meet 3 girls with their weird backstory. Music is good and the art style is nice. But Voice acting doesn't work if you are playing on ENG

Recommend for Charon fan. Personally, I took interested in her work since the classic "The Dark Side of Red Riding Hood", and I'd played most of their translated game since then. I would say that this game shows the improvement in her writing. The dark theme seems more fitted to the story. The characters are not over the top like most of her old work. For me, a scenario [spoiler] which protagonist punch Sayo angrily [/spoiler] seems a little out of character, tho I guess that'll be fine for someone who familiar with Charon's work. There are some technical issues too. Voice acting isn't in English version of the game. There're also some noticeable translation error but it wasn't so bad. Still, recommend for Charon fan. This is a good one!

Charon's writing is as great as always in this relatively unique story. In Garden of Judgement, Charon explores some themes that hadn't been seen in previous games, while still keeping it in a familiar format for previous fans. My particular favorite part of the story is Sima's backstory, which can be relatable to most story writers (especially female ones). A small issue is the lack of voice actings in the English version (there are voices in the Japanese version, but they're absent in the English release), as well as how the text is spaced in the choice bubbles, but it's just a minor nitpick. Strongly recommended!

Vanilla Garden is one of my all time favorite Charon novels. Even if it's not as polished as newer works, the art and writing is still very pleasant experience. I'm not one to shame graphics or quality after all, as long as I am having a good time. I re-read it together with my partner, and they also enjoyed it. Amazing quality as usual from Charon <3

OMG this game is so sad and depressing and yet so beautiful. I really enjoyed this game and cried with the story. I must try another CHARON games for sure =)

The Audio and Visuals are good to be sure. I'm a fan of this type of art style, which was primarily what got me to buy the game. Despite the theme of the story being interesting however, I'm not sure I like the lead up to the True End. Particularly, I didn't understand why [spoiler]condemning the three other heroines[/spoiler] was necessary. And if it wasn't necessary, calling the non-Trued Ends "Bad Ends" seemed a bit much for me. I felt like these plot points could have been justified more if the story was more fleshed out, but given the length of the game, there couldn't have been enough time. There's also the matter of typographical mistakes in the English translation. The backlog text is also hard to read because of the background image. I also don't hear the JP voice acting, even though I heard voice acting exists in this game. Despite my complaints though, I've overall had a good time reading through the game. I really liked reading [spoiler]Hakana's back story, and was disappointed at Shirou's, perhaps understandable, lack of backbone when it comes to defending her lover from his mother[/spoiler]. As a matter of fact, the backstory of each girl was pretty interesting for me. It was the [b]red choices[/b] part of the story that I really had trouble agreeing with. Perhaps with a more fleshed-out story, this game would be easier to recommend.

Wish I could recommend a "maybe" on this one. Definitely a far cry from the brilliance of some of CHARON's other works like Menherafflesia or Cradle of Ruin, but it wasn't terrible. The strength of this game definitely lies in the endings, bad ending 2 and the true ending were pretty good. The game starts out strong and ends strong, but the midsection has some pretty glaring issues. Also, CHARON. Why does this game have like 10 songs but for 90% of the game only a single one plays. It gets absolutely grating after a couple of hours. What were they thinking.

[b]I finally understood the meaning of regret when I bought this VN.[/b] The story writing is simplistic yet carries a great deal of depth with it. Seemingly shallow characters are given substance through compelling narrative and story telling. Much like many of Chara's other works, it fills you with a sense of awe and a bit of fuzziness inside. [b]Then it punches you in the face. Again. And Again. Then it cup checks you. And you love it.[/b] The dark theme that follows most of Chara's works, is ever prevalent in this short story. There are seldom "good endings" in Chara's works. Only true endings and (holy why do this to myself) bad endings. For the most part the endings are generally bittersweet, which are consistent with Chara's other works. I can't recommend this one enough, as I love the story and Chara's other works. Hopefully there will be other steam releases in the future. Ratings: Art: [+] Cute and simplistic sprites that are well done and polished. Music: [+] Easy on the ears and appropiate with the VN Story: [+] Comprehensive dialogue and narrative (GJ translator: Cherry ) Writing : [+ -] The only qualm I have is that there are occasionally strange spaces after apostrophes which become an eye sore in the text. In its current state I'd give it an 8/10. Try to check out Chara's other works, it can give you much more appreciation on Chara's work and style of writing. Side note: Much of these short stories have really hit me where it hurts, it has broached topics of right and wrong. And how the world isn't so black and white. It has allowed me to challenge my own views of the world. I hate reading these dark stories but I don't regret ever had read them. This one in particular really hits hard as it is truly a rollercoaster of emotions for me. The dread of expecting a twist and being blindsided all the same. It's almost like i've become a masochistic reader of sorts. Thanks Charon.