Title: Dysfunctional Systems | Episode 1: Learning to Manage ChaosDeveloper: Dischan MediaHaving won this game in the latest monthly contest in the
Wuufu Warble, I thought it would be cool to give this title a review!
An IntroductionDysfunctional Systems is a (planned) series of interactive visual novels, where decisions in previous novels are planned to reflect in future episodes. The episode, and perhaps the series from what I've read, focus on the character of Winter, a sort of student or trainee paired with a mentor to learn how to do their job, which is...manage chaos and bring forth stability. Cryptic, I know, but considering how the episode plays out even explaining the basic premise of the plot could be considered giving spoilers, which I shall not do.
Episode 1, which is what I'm reviewing here, was released last year, while Episode 2 is in the process of being developed after a successful Kickstarter campaign raised $67,000. As with most visual novels, there is very little opportunity for user input in this "game", so it lives and dies by the setting, plot, story, as well as the art and music to a lesser extent.
Pretty Things: Art and MusicSpeaking of the art, it's obvious that a lot of time and effort went into it...yes, they're static graphics that change as the scenes or situation changes, but there are a number of scenes drawn for any particular part of the game. For example, one may have one of the characters looking a different way or with a different emotion on their face, so they can change the scene graphic when something particular is said to show the character responding to it. Also a neat little thing I noticed is that there is a particular scene where our character is walking and the camera moves with it to simulate movement...buildings move in and out of range, which I thought was a nice little touch. The music was overall pleasant and seemed appropriate to the situations and settings that arise in the game, but weren't horribly memorable.
Not like they had
Morrowind's budget for music though, I'm sure.
The Meat and Potatoes of Visual Novels, the Story:As for the story, I like the premise a lot...without saying what it is, it makes for a lot of potential variety in the game as other episodes are made, and I thought the characters were well-written as well, with unique personalities. My problem here is that much of the game comes off as feeling static, like it's a teaser or tutorial level instead of a paid game. It's not the lack of interactivity that bothers me, it's the lack of variety. Most of the game is spent having discussions between the same two characters, and there's precious little breaking all that dialogue up. It also made the story feel like it was proceeding slowly, even when urgent events were building up...a very odd feeling in those instances.
Also, I know this was an introductory episode and they wanted to focus on the two main characters, but it's disappointing that there wasn't much interaction with the actual game world, especially given the game's main premise of dealing with worlds and systems. I think two birds could have been killed with one stone by having more scenes that focused on the world they were in, such as the bar scene where Winter meets David and a game event happens. To me that was a standout part of the game that temporarily broke the monotony. Another standout part of the game was during the epilogues, because the character interaction between Winter and her roommate was just so damn good, and it was nice to get a taste of Winter's life and the people she's around. In fact, I wish the game had started out this way...I think being able to be introduced to Winter and her friends before the events of the story start would have been a nice touch, too.
I want to stress, it's not that I found the story
bad...quite the contrary, I thought it was quite good. It just would have been even better with more variety of things interlaced within it. There's only so much you can do in a visual novel that mostly involves the same two people talking with each other.
Overall, I suppose I find the implementation lacking, but the concept promising. From what I've read, the developer is improving on many of the issues I'm pointing out here for Episode 2, and it already sounds like it's going to host a much more vibrant world than this episode did.
In SummaryMy recommendation? If you like visual novels, go ahead and get it! $5 isn't a lot of money, it's hardly a bad game, and I have enough faith that Episode 2 is going to be so great you're going to be glad you already know the basic premise of the series. Otherwise, wait for Episode 2 to come out...Episode 1 at least is definitely not for people who don't like the genre, so it may be worthwhile to see exactly what Episode 2 has to offer before putting down money.
If I were to give a rating, it'd be 6/10, a rating that I'm almost certain will go up when Episode 2 comes out, which I am looking forward to.
Thanks to Wuufu for running the contest and gifting me the game! It was a nice way to spend an evening, and my appetite is certainly whetted for more of the series in the future!
