Posted on: December 28, 2022
Flashman85
Verified ownerGames: 297 Reviews: 19
Experiment failed
Two things to note: (1) Valerya Chapter is a separate executable, not something you unlock from the main game. (2) Unlike the main game, it's a straightforward visual novel. No stats, no combat, no shopping. Valerya Chapter falls extremely short of the standards set by the main game, to the point where I wouldn't even recommend it to diehard fans. First, it lacks the same polish in the dialogue. The writing/translation/editing of the English text is very rough; there's a distracting number of glaring typos, the phrasing frequently feels unnatural, and the characters don't have the same personality. Valerya in particular doesn't have much of a personality at all, and she's the central character! Second, it feels like a collection of deleted scenes that were deleted for a reason. Valerya Chapter adds nothing of value to the story, extensively rehashing and even retconning cutscenes and plot points from the main game. There are only four new CG scenes, three of which are the same image with a different number of donuts on a tray! What little genuinely novel content there is feels like filler, and Valerya feels less like a new love interest and more like a parrot repeating things you already know. Her revised role in the story strains credibility, too. Third, the whole game only has two dialogue options, which are presented in quick succession and are absolutely pointless. They barely affect the next sentence, let alone the rest of the game. This should've been a kinetic novel instead. At least there are new options to control text speed and enable auto-text, but the options pertaining to text skipping seem to be broken. Fourth, it's missing the voice acting and some of the language options of the main game. Fifth, the Gallery is incomplete. Finishing the game unlocks a character bio for Valerya, but there's no Wardrobe tab to view her different poses and outfits like in the main game. The whole thing feels ill-conceived, contrived, and unfinished.
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