I met the programmer from Shimmersoft
on the forums who is using the same visual-novel designer I am
(Tyranobuilder), and he recently finished his visual novel, a short
3-4 hour game called Paws and Effect. He sent me a copy of the game,
and so I decided to write a review after playing through it. I won't
give away anything about the story other than what is available in
his game description, but in short, this is a game about a dog
owner's two dogs suddenly turning into humans. Paws and Effect is available online here, for only $5:
From the opening of Paws and Effect,
the light-hearted mood of the game was clearly established, before
the game itself had even begun. The company logo bounced onscreen
with cartoony sound effects and was accompanied by cute dogs falling
from above to stamp it into the company name, Shimmersoft. My mouse
cursor became a dog paw, and somehow the menu felt of scrapbooks and
sketches. I instantly knew this was going to be a fun game, and
launched a “New Game” from the title page. Of course, you can
experience all this with the demo, so I'll avoid a play-by-play
description, but as I progressed through the first episode of the
game, I really enjoyed the little details. When my character's
smartphone rang, a little smartphone graphic slid onscreen with a
playful blip. A scene transition looked like a distant grainy photo
and then expanded to a beautiful art background that made me feel
like I was there with my dogs, enjoying the sunset at the end of a
stressful day. Short voice-acted phrases appropriately punctuated the
dialogue and thoughts of the protagonist. A relaxing, atmospheric
soundtrack gently reflected the overall mood. Yes, some of this is
standard fare for a well-made visual novel, but a lot of tiny
surprises really highlighted the experience for me.
As an example of the extra polish that
went into the design of Paws and Effect, I particularly enjoyed the
scene transitions. For example, instead of a typical fade or
dissolve, the closure of a scene used an iris-type wipe that
diminished into a little circle as another scene behind it took its
place. Yet the little transition circle didn't fully disappear,
lingering for a few brief extra moments as a black dot that pulsed
playfully—as if to wave a final goodbye--before “popping” out
of existence with a cartoony pop sound effect. There were many nice
little touches like this that added up to the overall “cute”
character of the game, and I was only just getting started on this
playful visual novel!
But how is the story, you may ask?
Instead of outlining the story for you—something I usually skip in
game reviews because I hate any and all spoilers—I'll talk about
things like pacing, character development, balance, and intrigue. The
story develops along at a very natural pace without lingering and it
moves along to establish who the protagonist is and what her daily
life is like. As the game advertises, the main plot really begins
when the protagonist's two pet dogs suddenly transform into human
versions of themselves. I enjoyed the humor and perspective of the
two dogs, observing the world in human form still from a dog-like
perspective, though they are able to speak English reasonably well
with a few comical errors here and there. I also liked the choices
available to the protagonist during this event, with her mind running
through a list of possible explanations while she wondered what the
most responsible, sane reaction should be to such a supernatural
occurrence. The prior set-up to this event alluded to several
upcoming real-world situations that the protagonist was already
stressing about, so I was intrigued to find out how she would handle
real life while trying to navigate the sudden appearance of her dogs
as real people in her life. Paws and Effect kept me reading and
clicking through each scene.
The comedy of this visual novel was
accented by the somewhat goofy expressions of the now-human dog
characters, with character art and expressions that communicated the
simple-minded, innocent, and literal minds of the dog people. Further
enhancing the humor was the background music, which mirrored the
light-hearted nature of the game. I enjoyed the writing because it
was obvious the writer was having fun with the concept and knew it
was funny without trying too hard to make it so. All of the
characters were likeable in their own way, and it was fun spending
time with them, seeing them interact with each other and reflect
their character backgrounds through their personalities. Putting them
in the same room together provided entertainment enough, especially
when the dog-humans innocently quoted their owner and referred to her
past behavior in ways that unintentionally shamed her—this reminded
me of parents not realizing how much their own children are listening
and observing.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of
kinetic visual novels because I like having choices in a game and
seeing those choices play out. I felt like there was a balance
between choices that altered events and choices that had only a few
different sentences ascribed to them. I played through different
situations several times, picking different choices. Sometimes only a
few references were made briefly to my choices, yet in other
situations, an entire sequence with new characters occurred. However,
despite this, things still cleverly looped back to the same point
eventually and the story rejoined the original timeline. There are 5
possible endings, which each have their own separate outcome, and
these endings are contingent upon a few of your previous choices. I
particularly liked the episode system in the menu, where I could
restart from a previous episode and toggle between different choices
I'd made along the way, seeing which character routes would become
available as a result of those decisions. It honestly surprised me to
see that seemingly innocuous choices actually made a difference.
The only small criticism I have is that
there were times when the dog people made statements that seemed a
bit too advanced for their intellect as dogs. For instance, at one
moment the male dog stated, “The universe is an inescapable vortex
of chaos.” Even if he had picked up some words from human
conversations, I felt a dog would have no concept of what a universe
even was. Keeping with the dog's “voice” throughout would have
enhanced the experience even more, because moments like this made me
lose my suspension of disbelief (which I preferred to maintain during
this fun, slightly absurd, comical story.) This was explained at the
end of the game, so I guess I can give it a pass, but at the same
time, those moments did make me feel that way during the game and
pulled me out of the immersion. I don't see a way that the
explanation could have come any earlier, however, and though it made
sense as an explanation, it also felt suspiciously like a plot device
to explain something away. Despite this, though, about 90% of the
human dog comments felt natural.
Overall, I found the game very
enjoyable and light-hearted, with an interesting contrast between the
realism of every-day life and the supernatural. This made the game
relatable and intriguing, because I wanted not only to see how the
protagonist would handle the dog people and their antics, I also
wanted to know why it all happened in the first place. I'm glad the
answer didn't feel like an afterthought but was instead given some
depth and presence throughout the game. Paws and Effect had great
presentation, style, flow, and just the right amount of comedic
seasoning to make it fun to play through on a lazy afternoon. Thanks,
Shimmersoft!
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