“The
end never justifies the means because there is no end; there are only
means.” - Penn Jillette
Title Screen
Chasing the Stars is
a BL (Boy’s Love) Ren’py visual novel created by Ertal Games. I played
their previous game A Hand in the Darkness, which was also a BL
visual novel, you can find my blog entry about that game (here). I
backed this game on Kickstarter and I waited some time for it, so I
was happy when I got the email saying that it was finished and got my
keys for it. However, I was changing jobs and had a lot going on so I
didn’t get the chance to play it until now. Everything has sort of
been on hold, and even after I said I was coming back there was a
major crisis and I had to bail again. Sorry! But I’m here now, and
let’s talk about Chasing the Stars.
In Chasing the Stars
you play as Tirs, a young man who has a dream to be a part of the
team that is Terraforming the new planet Alaya. Tirs had an
opportunity, but declined, not wanting to leave his boyfriend at the
time Nil. Tirs bore resentment over his decision to give up his dream
to go to space, and it impacting their relationship in a way that Nil
breaks up with Tirs. The game starts just after the break-up when
Tirs has to come face-to-face with how he got to where he is, with
the help of his friends Pol and Lila. Pol suggests that Tirs try to
join the terraforming project again, and after some debate, Tirs
decides it’s worth a shot. How will his life change if he’s able
to follow his dream?
If only, if only.
I like the cast in
the game, particularly Dr. Rossell, but as someone who’s had a lot
of crushes on teachers through the years it’s sort of a thing with
me. Although Rossell’s character is rather predictable and I knew
where his arc was going, that doesn’t mean it was bad by any means.
Perhaps I’ve just watched too many anime have have a knack for
seeking out the bad boys. The dynamics between Tirs and his teammates
and friends are well formed and the dialog feels natural and smooth. There are more than a couple spelling or grammatical errors, much like in their last game. I hate to harp on such a thing, but when you're paying for a game those little not so polished features really can stick out.
There is partial
voice acting in the game, and while the voices all fit the
characters, at times the written dialogue and the spoken dialogue
didn’t match. It didn’t change the meaning of what was being said
in any way, except for one time it sounded like Tirs called Lila
“Linda”, but it was just a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Also there was one time that
Tirs was speaking, but it had Mark’s name on the dialogue box.
Something that
really bothered me was a section of the game that involved inputting
a code by selecting, “Up”, “Down”, “Left” or “Right”
to open a computer. If you don’t input the code correctly the first
time, you get stuck in an endless loop of “It doesn’t do
anything. The cursor blinks, unmoving, so I type another arrow”.
This apparently is a feature, not a bug. As Ertal stated in their
forum for the game, “Not an issue, sorry: if you fail the right
order of the arrows, you get into a loop. You must load a saved game
to repeat the puzzle (psst, there's a guide in the game folder).”
This is bad game design(not everyone immediately thinks of the Konami
Code when they see arrows), and irritated me that there isn’t some
out or restart to this.The guide is nice, but it shouldn't be a required tool to play a game.
Poor Biel has tried so hard
In all fairness I
only played through this game once, so there are tons of branches
and decisions that I didn’t get to explore before writing this. I
slept with Marc (Dr. Rossell) right away because he was my favorite,
and I also had the opportunity for a threesome with Marc and another
character named Biel that I came to really like through the course of
the game too. I unfortunately didn’t get to see any romance with
Pol this time around, but perhaps I’ll swing through it again on my
own time to see how that goes.
Despite any flaws in the game, what Ertal excels at is really the love scenes. I really enjoyed the scenes I saw in my play through. They're well written and descriptive. Much like A Hand in the Darkness, their writing skill shows more in these parts of the game than anywhere else.
Something else I
appreciated in this game, and many other BL games I’ve played too,
is the ability to set whether you want the sex scenes or not. Chasing
the Stars gives you an option up front to decide whether you want
them all, you don’t want any of them, or if you want to pick and
choose as you go. I appreciate that. I also enjoy getting to choose
top or bottom for those scenes. I do wish there was a gallery available though.
All is well that ends well... right?
Overall Chasing the
Stars is well-written and I like the Steampunk theme, the character
designs, and the story of going into space is one that I can relate
to. I’ve always loved the idea of going into space and seeing what
is out there. Perhaps someday. I got End 8, which tells me there are
at least 7 other endings out there that you can get. I imagine not
all of them are as happy, either. If you enjoy BL games, and
especially if you enjoyed Ertal’s previous game, then I think this
one is work your time as well.
Thank you all so
much for joining me here for this, if you’ve played the game, let
me know what you thought of it. Who was your favorite character? Who
did you romance? Do you think Marc deserved what he received? Let me
know in the comments, and I’ll see you all next time!
Pol is honestly so cute though...
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