Love is Blind || Out of Sight (PC)

"Loving someone can blind you, just as easily as losing them can open your eyes." --Unknown

Source: Screen Capture in Game

Out of Sight is a romance visual novel created by Selavi. You play as Lina, a bookworm who enjoys spending her afternoons reading in the park. Today, she’s decided to settle in and finish her latest book by the lake, since the book is about a blind man at the lake. 

Lina finishes her book and decides to relax, so she removes her own glasses and takes a short nap. However… when she awakes, her glasses are nowhere to be found. Lina can barely see anything without her glasses. You get the choice to either look for them yourself, or ask for help/ This is where the branching seems to begin for the two different characters—Orion and Caleb.

Source: Screen Capture in Game

I found both Orion and Caleb to be interesting, but I like Orion a little more because of his fun having nature. Plus, playing pranks of people is what I would do in his situation. Caleb seems a little more straight-laced and serious. 

The sprites are nice (if/when you get to see more than a blur), and I love the background and the faux painting appearance. The music is relaxing and I enjoyed it also. There are 7 endings in total, plus a bonus ending you can get if you get all the others first. The developer was even nice enough to share an endings guide so that you could get them all if you had trouble, which is nice. 

Source: Screen Capture in Game

Overall, I think that this is one of the better VNs that I have played lately. I enjoyed it enough to play through all of the endings, even. I also enjoyed all of the endings, so I would recommend it to anyone who likes visual novels and a little romance. 

You can download the game free from Itch.io *here*. As always, be sure to leave feedback for the developer. Thanks for sharing some time with me, and happy gaming!

Bell

Trapped! || Beyond These Walls (PC)

“Peer beyond the wall of doubt to embrace the possibilities.” –Truth Devour 

Source: Screen Capture in Game

Beyond These Walls is a short visual novel style game created by Samantai. You play as Prince Wysp of the fairies, and your entire life has been spent inside “for your own protection”. As you grow older, you become resentful that you’ve been kept inside, and seek to get out. The urge to escape becomes even greater when you find there is an intruder who seeks the Prince’s life. 

There are 4 different fairies that you can interact with throughout the game: Shimmer, Rust, Acacia, and Ash. You speak with them to try to get more information about the outside, and why you have to stay inside. However, none of them are particularly helpful. You learn there was a war of some kind, you get a hint about Wysp’s mother, but nothing concrete. 

Source: Screen Capture in Game

I played through the game 3 times, during which I got 2 bad endings and Ash’s good ending. I didn’t go through to try with the other 3, although I am interested to see if the plot twist is the same, or different with each character. 

The art style of the game is pleasant. The sprites are all cute, and the backgrounds are vibrant and nice to look at. I liked the color palette overall. I particularly liked the Prince’s room, with the waterfall and small river. The music was alright, but the sound effects were loud to me, I was startled a couple times. 

Source: Screen Capture in Game

Overall, it was a short, but not unpleasant game. At the end, I felt like I needed more information. I wanted to know more about the war, and about how it all fit together. I realize that it may have been left up to the imagination or intentionally left vague, but the knowledge seeking part of me wanted to know. 

You can find this game free to download on itch.io *here*. Give it a try for yourself. Let me know what ending you got! Thanks for sharing some of your time with me, and as always, happy gaming! 

Bell