Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - Hier 02:23

Universe for Sale – Review

As regular readers of our website know, we’re fond of all sorts of visual novels. And why wouldn’t we? We absolutely still love our regular old books, but through the power of music, visual effects, and interactivity, visual novels can create immersive experiences that paper can’t. At least in theory. In practice, many visual novels don’t go beyond a simple choose-your-own-adventure approach. If a visual novel goes beyond that simple threshold, it has our attention. Such is the case with Universe for Sale, a visual novel that managed to suck us in, after an admittedly rough start. Read on to find out what makes this one so special. Story Strap in, as we’re about to go for a ride. We typically try to avoid spoilers as much as possible when we review visual novels, for obvious reasons. In the case of Universe for Sale, however, there is a lot to take in before we can even get to the actual story itself. Universe for Sale’s setting is the Jovian Mining colony on Jupiter, an inhospitable post-apocalyptic wasteland plagued by dust storms and acid rains. Central to the story is Lila, a young woman with the skill to create universes from her workshop, located in the colony’s marketplace. She’s not our protagonist, though. That role is reserved for Master, a member of the Cult of Detachment. Cultists literally cut off their body parts as a way to detach themselves from their bodies. In the case of Master, he has removed his skin, resulting in him looking like a skeletal being. His motivation for doing so isn’t clear initially, but as Universe for Sale’s story unfolds, we learn more about what plagues him. Our story begins in earnest when Master and Lila meet for tea at Honin’s Tea House. What seems like a fairly innocuous meeting unfolds into a gripping story. Self-mutilating cultists and universe creation are already enough to take in, and we’ve barely scratched the surface. The narrative is non-linear and framed as a bedtime story told by a mother to her child, though this framework bleeds over into the events on Jupiter as well. Despite the sci-fi setting and the plethora of otherworldly elements, the core of Universe for Sale’s story is about what it means to be human. The game isn’t afraid to get philosophical or touch upon themes like running from your past, dealing with grief, and the role of religion in one’s life. The story is purposely told in a disjointed manner, which can get confusing during a first playthrough. This is by design, however, as Universe for Sale is clearly designed to be played multiple times, with your knowledge of previous playthroughs allowing you to connect the dots between the branching story paths. Graphics From the get-go, Universe for Sale impresses with its hand-drawn visuals. The game resembles a comic book, with the dialogue popping up in speech bubbles, and a deliberately limited but very warm color palette. The character designs are striking and memorable, from Master’s grotesque appearance to Lila’s signature tentacle hair. The environments are filled with lots of tiny details, and it’s worth just taking in a new location and admiring everything you can spot there. Universe for Sale isn’t entirely static either. Simple animations subtly add life here. Speaking of life, while you never enter Lila’s creations in-game you do get a glimpse at the pocket-sized universes she cooks up, and they all look fantastic. While Universe for Sale’s designs definitely have a distinct identity to them, they also take inspiration from other popular sci-fi series like Star Wars and Doctor Who. Sound The beauty of Universe for Sale’s audio lies in how subtly everything is implemented. A lot of care and attention went into the ambient sound effects. Whether it’s the sounds of nature or the busy chatter in the background of the marketplace, the soundscape feels immersive. There is no voice acting, but the dialogue is underscored through sound effects. When Master talks, for example, you’ll hear the rattling of bones, which is a nice touch. The music is subtle, and only really takes center stage during two key moments: when Lila creates a new universe, and during one other specific scene, which we won’t spoil here. At other times it’s present but in very subtle ways. Gameplay Although Universe for Sale is a visual novel first and foremost, it incorporates actual gameplay elements as well. We’re usually hesitant to label visual novels as games, but in the case of Universe for Sale, we’re happy to make an exception. There are far more interactive elements here than just making choices on branching story paths. The majority of Universe for Sale’s story is told from Master’s perspective, but there are points in the game where the perspective switches to Lila. The perspective switch happens for narrative purposes, but it also gives players the chance to try their hand at creating universes themselves. It’s a surprisingly simple process. You simply choose two ingredients, mix them in a bowl, and mold the resulting mixture into a shape of your choice. You’re not entirely free to just create any universe you see fit, however, as it must adhere to the preferences of the customer that walks into your workshop. In this way, creating universes is surprisingly similar to brewing coffee in Sunny Café. The interactive elements in Universe for Sale aren’t just limited to universe creation either. There are several mini-games here that tie into the story, like cutting body parts off of willing Cultists (yes, really) or climbing a tower. While we definitely enjoyed Universe for Sale’s willingness to step away from the traditional visual novel formula, the execution of these did fall flat, unfortunately, at least on the Switch. This is a game that was clearly designed for PC, and the console port suffers from some serious shortcomings. You’re still supposed to control everything with a mouse cursor, and dragging this across the screen with a joystick felt clunky at best. We tried adjusting the cursor speed settings to make things more comfortable, but proper controller implementation or touchscreen controls would have made a massive difference here. It’s not that these segments are unplayable, and in the grand scheme of things, the minigames don’t take up all that much of Universe for Sale’s four-ish hour runtime, but it warrants mentioning. Speaking of that runtime, those four hours refer to a single playthrough, but as we mentioned, this is one visual novel worth revisiting several times to get the full picture. We’d suspect subsequent playthroughs are going to be shorter as you skim through previously read parts, but you’re still getting plenty of reading time for your €14.99 here. Conclusion We initially felt overwhelmed by Universe for Sale’s manner of storytelling. The in-game universe dumps a lot of information on you early on and expects you to just roll with it. It’s a lot to take in, especially because the story is told in a non-linear manner. If you do persevere, you’ll start to see just how well thought out it is, though. Make no mistake: this isn’t an accessible tale or one that will be appreciated by everyone. But if you do happen to fall in the niche that Universe for Sale appeals to, you’ll want to revisit Jupiter over and over again. It’s a shame that the mini-game controls aren’t optimized for consoles, because these detract from the overall experience enough to take you out of the game’s carefully crafted atmosphere. We do recommend picking this one up, but maybe consider the PC version instead of a console port.