Tag Archives: Dischan Media

Jisei, Kansei, and Yousei: an original mystery saga with room to grow

Jisei, Kansei and Yousei, are a series of fully-voiced visual novels in which the biggest mystery for you to solve is that of yourself: a teenage protagonist, who remains nameless throughout the entirety of the first game. You’ve returned to his home town to face his past, and while unearthing the deep, murky supernatural history that Sakevisual has crafted is mostly a good experience, design quirks, occasionally poor writing and continuity errors do detract from the series’ immersion.

First, I will that say that crazy things happen when a team of people dedicate themselves to a project for a prolonged period. Steady improvements are a given when you put in the time. And with each game in the Jisei visual novel series (JKY) developed and released roughly a year apart, experiencing the improvements upon the already competent narrative-foundation spawned in 2010, is enjoyable.

Though, I’m glad that these games are chapters instead of a conclusive trilogy, because three years later, there is still room for improvement.

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Dysfunctional Systems: Episode 1: an emotional start to a universe of potentials

When I take a look back at the quality of the products that Dischan Media has developed in the past, it blows my mind that Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos is the first visual novel they’ve decided to adorn with a price tag.

I don’t enjoy reading – rather, it’s not that I don’t enjoy the act, it’s more that I prefer to consume my information and entertainment through mediums other than pages and books. Why would I torture myself with solely the words of a few great writers when I could be engrossing myself with the work of a multi-disciplined team of talented creators?

DS1

Whether it’s the remarkably artistic menus that welcome you to the game when you first launch it, the persistently detailed, yet subtle, facial expressions that shift across the characters’ faces as they react to the situations around them, or the instantly enveloping soundtrack that nudges you along, Learning to Manage Chaos is “reading” done right. Continue reading →

Locked-In: an engaging sprint to the truth behind an afflicted executive woman’s life

When it comes to visual novels, there are a few critical pieces beyond stellar writing that need to be in place if you want a player to remain invested in your story. And Lucky Special Games’ Locked-In does a fantastic job of gathering assets to do just that.

It shouldn’t feel like a chore to watch the words crawl across the screen while a static image representing a character delivers their lines. The game has to engage the player and give them a reason to invest their time; there are many who might typically prefer to just read a book.

But I would find it difficult to believe that a player could run through a couple of Locked-In’s eight endings and still think they could get the same experience elsewhere. The combination of its eerie silhouettes with a dash of colour on an accessory to represent each, surprisingly, well-developed character really goes a long way to quickly make you care about their motivations.

Locked-In 1

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