LeafCascade’s “Cerulean Days” is a poignant (and rather apt) drama visual novel, set in 2020 after a man-made virus wipes out most of the population of Inre Island.
And with the discovery that the attack was planned using the internet and the culprits caught and executed, the government of Inre soon extends an iron grip on the Internet and starts reconfiguring it into something else.
Anyways, after the rather wordy and dead-serious introduction. The game’s main story starts with the protagonist (Michael) who’s about to watch a news broadcast about how the internet on Inre is going to be restructured and all computer equipment will be updated. Eventually, requiring money, Michael gets a government job “helping” people.
The storyline is quite reminiscent of both “1984” and “I, Robot” (the film that is) – at least to start with, and proceeds at a steady, but slow pace, which borders on meandering.
Well…The one problem with the story is there is a lot (probably too much) unnecessary detail to it, and doesn’t really get anywhere particularly fast. There also isn’t much in the way of humour – the barbs between Michael and Severine are cute-ish, but that’s as far as it goes.
As for the character line-up in the game. Well, the characters that you meet are quite interesting – if somewhat generic. For example, Severine is a rather haughty classmate and a cake maker, of which the latter the protagonist is a great fan of, whilst Grace is government worker (and with whom you are staying), and gets you your first job, and who is also looking forward to the new government-appointed technology system.
However, she is also aware of the changes that the terrorist attacks had on people and subtlety forewarns Michael.
So, what about the in-game visuals then? Well, the game’s character graphics are certainly very nice, with simple animations, whilst the backgrounds are fine too, if not always overly detailed. There is also the occasional CG shots to be found in the game as well.
So, all in all, “Cerulean days” could certainly be interesting to see where the story goes. Well, as long as you don’t mind something that takes ages to start anything that is, as the game’s demo ends just at your first case.
Nevertheless, “Cerulean days” is still very much a promising and interesting drama/romantic visual novel for sure. So if you’re into games like that, then you should download and try the free demo for sure.
Pros:
+ Very nice graphics.
+ Music is appropriate. The odd sound effects is present too.
+ The story is very contemporary.
+ Cute girls.
+ Lewd content is coming to the full version of the game.
+ The dialogs are rather entertaining.
Cons:
– The story is also very slow with too much spurious detail.
– Occasional grammatical error.
Gameplay: 3/5
Graphics: 4/5
Sound and music: 4/5
Controls: 3/5
Replay value: 3/5
Story: 3/5
Verdict: 3/5
As it stands, right now based on the game’s demo, “Cerulean Days” certainly offers an interesting and very contemporary storyline. However, you have to wade through a lot of text that either could be removed or simplified to get to what feels like the actual story. The graphics and music are fine though. So “Cerulean Days” might be worth checking out mainly if you like slow-paced stories.
Title: Cerulean Days
Developer: LeafCascade
Format: PC
Genre: Drama visual novel
Resolution: Program Default
Release date: 2020
Difficulty: N/A
Spent time: + 2 hours (demo complete)
Average grade internationally: N/A Gamerankings.com
PEGI age rating: +18
Price: Kickstarter backed
Credit:
Robin Ek – Editor
Nicholas Kingsley
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @sku_te
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Tags: Anime, Cerulean Days, Indie games, kawaii, Kickstarter, LeafCascade, PC games, PC preview, Visual novel