What is love?
What They Say:
Inspired by manga, abstract art, and the real-life experiences of its creator, experience a dysfunctional summer romance between Nuki and Sune, two young men whose passionate affair collides with their own psychological demons. Explore dialogue options and discover hidden secrets by using Nuki’s senses at key moments, sending the story down a series of branching paths toward multiple endings.
Content:
Abusive relationships are not fun. The developer of this visual novel will tell you the same thing as they’ve been through one themselves. In fact, the game’s story is based on that real-life experience. As you can probably imagine, this is going to be a rough journey. I must say that the developer is very brave to share what they’ve been through in their life and turn it into this unique visual novel experience. I don’t think anyone can ever be ready for a dysfunctional romance but let’s delve into this game, shall we?
Nuki is a boy who’s obsessed with stars. He really, really, really likes them. He loves them so much that he even has a pet starfish! Adorable. Sadly, he’s also very lonely. His life lacks purpose. Not even reading his favorite fairy tale “The Milky Way Prince” can fix this. If only he could meet his own milky way prince! Ask and you shall receive. While stargazing one night, he sees a star crash nearby. What are the odds? He goes to investigate and finds Sune, the star (pun intended) of this story. I say he’s the star of the story because, well, he’s an actual star. Trippy, I know. The moment Nuki lays his eyes on Sune he knows that he’s found his milky way prince. It was love at first sight.
Things get hot and heavy almost immediately. Hey, sometimes you can’t control your passion. It turns out to be an amazing night for both of them. It seems like this may be the fairy tale romance that Nuki wanted all along. But things never go as planned in life. From this point onwards, everything gradually goes downhill. Sune isn’t the nice guy that he appears to be. He constantly guilt-trips Nuki and takes advantage of his emotions. As the days go by, their relationship just gets more and more toxic. Nuki wants to make it work but Sune just keeps emotionally abusing him. Honestly, it was hard at times watching all of this unfold. I felt so bad for Nuki, especially when he started seeing himself as the bad guy. And that’s exactly what the abuser wants. Once you feel bad for them, you find yourself being trapped in the toxicity. You feel like you’re the bad guy. I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty horrifying to have your emotions manipulated like that.
As you near the end of the game, it’s clear that Nuki is depressed and probably hates himself. He truly thought he had found his milky way prince. Why did things end up this way? Again, I felt really bad for Nuki. It made me sad watching him be in so much pain. There are a few ways this game can end and it all depends on how you decided to deal with Sune. Were you adamant that you did nothing wrong? Did you become submissive? Were you aggressive? Did you think you were the bad guy? The answers to these questions will determine the route you take. I won’t spoil any of the endings but I will say that all of them are going to be intense.
Despite being a story about cosmic love, the world portrayed in the game is very small. What I mean is that the story only features a handful of locations and never strays away from them much. Besides an interesting character you meet at a bar, we only ever interact with Nuki and Sune. The game definitely takes a minimalistic approach. Honestly, I found it quite charming. When you’re madly in love with someone, it often feels like you’re the only two people in the world that matter. Whether it was intentional or not, I felt the minimalistic approach helped enhance that notion. Visually, the game is absolutely stunning. I can only describe it as a work of abstract art with a manga-style influence sprinkled in. I was a fan. The lighting and hauntingly enchanting soundtrack helped set a dreamlike mood throughout the story.
There’s an interesting mechanic that pops up in the game during the intense lovemaking sessions. You can enhance the experience by choosing one of your six senses. It sounds like a cool concept, but I feel like it never really added anything to these scenes. I think that it was a missed opportunity to really make these scenes feel more intimate. As for the actual story, I also feel like opportunities were missed here. It felt like things went by too fast and we never had a chance to really explore Nuki and Sune’s characters. And don’t get me wrong, it did an amazing job portraying their abusive relationship. I just wish we had gotten a little more time to get to know them, you know? On my first playthrough, I finished the game in roughly two hours. I think the story would have benefited from slowing things down a bit and maybe doubling that playtime. Just my opinion, of course. Despite my critiques, it was a story still worth experiencing.
In Summary:
This was a short game but one that definitely left a lasting impression on me. It was a unique visual novel experience that really took me on an emotional rollercoaster. Again, abusive relationships are not fun. I applaud the game for tackling topics that are tough to discuss. As I mentioned earlier, I think there were some missed opportunities. I felt like the story was a bit rushed and could have been slowed down to give us a chance to really get to know Nuki and Sune. I also felt that the senses system could have been utilized better. I liked that the game experimented with new ideas and I wish more visual novels would, too. The aesthetics and music were top notch. All in all, I don’t regret having the chance to experience this work of art.
Grade: C+
Publisher: Santa Ragione
Developer: Eyeguys, Lorenzo Redaelli
Genre: Visual Novel
Age Rating: M for Mature
Number of Players: 1
Release Date: August 13th, 2020
MSRP: $9.99
Platform: Steam (Reviewed)
This review was done with a review copy provided by the publisher. We are grateful for their continued support.
