Rating and reviewing 3 different visual novels!! (≧◡≦) ♡

2/3 of these will be horror visuals novels, since those are the ones I like to play the most! These are not in any particular order btw!!

First off, we have John Doe/John Doe+. This is my favorite visual novel, so I may be a bit biased with my opinion. John Doe is a part of the Uncanny Valley game series developed by mortisfox, which I believe has 2 games so far. (John Doe and House Hunted, and 3 if you count John Doe+.) The main plot of the game involves the player being trapped in a time loop that John Doe created, while he tries to win the heart of the player. This involves breaking into the player's apartment, following the player home, leaving a meat blob in the player's kitchen, and more. There's 4 endings in the original game, and 7 in the extended version. (John Doe+) Honestly, I think the story is pretty good! The first time playing had me instantly hooked on Doe's character, which is actually really interesting once I did further research on him. The art is done very well, and most of the backgrounds are AI generated, which gives it a more uncanny and disturbing feel to the game. The only problem that I have with Doe's character design would be his color pallet, I can't really explain it very well, but it's not my favorite. The music also adds to the uncanny feel of the game, and provides a creepy ambiance while playing. Overall, I would give it a 9/10!

Next up, ERROR143. ERROR143 was developed by Jenny Vi Pham, with 3 endings. To be honest, this one is a bit of a mess. To be brief, basically the love interest of the game, Micah Yujin, starts texting the player after beating them in a hacking competition. Depending on the route you're trying to achieve, you and Micah slowly fall in love with each other through the course of your playthrough. At first, I actually enjoyed playing this game, but that was because I was too blinded by Micah's appearance to actually pay attention to how mediocre this game is. I'll start with one positive thing. The art is very good in my opinion, and Micah's character design is what drew me to playing the game. But oh my god, this game is basically a Discord dating simulator. Speaking of Discord, that's pretty much where Micah's humor stems from. He uses the word "poggers" unironically, he said LMAO (Said it as la-mow) out loud, and he named his cat Skrunkly. Sure, I use the word skrunkly from time to time, but naming your cat Skrunkly is a bit odd in my opinion. In the "bad" ending of the game, after Micah makes a joke about stalking the player, and the player is uncomfortable by this. Instead of Micah listening to the player's boundaries, he acts like the player is in the wrong, plays the victim in the situation, guilt trips them, and stops contacting them altogether. So yeah, the bad ending is basically the player having boundaries. This game definitely could've been better. There is a paid NSFW spinoff game, but it's just 10-15 minutes of voice acting playing over a singular picture of Micah. It's definitely not worth the $10 that it's priced as, and the entire thing was leaked on Twitter if you're willing to check it out. There's a whole lot of things I never covered, but this section is getting a bit long. Overall, I would've given this game a 2/10, but I'm feeling generous. So, I'm rating this a 3/10. 

Finally, we have Sunny Day Jack. (Or, "Something's Wrong with Sunny Day Jack" if you're not in a rush.) This game was developed by SnaccPop Studios, and is currently a demo. Despite this, it's actually surprisingly long and packed with extra content! Basically, the player is being "haunted" by the ghost of an 80's children's show host, Sunny Day Jack. Jack has developed intense romantic feelings for the player, and he is determined to get rid of anyone who gets in the way of he and the player's relationship. Two other important characters featured in this game are your ex-boyfriend Ian, and your best friend Shaun, who are both love interests as well. The art is great, and I like the details of the textboxes. The character designs also very well done, and the only "bad" thing I find about them is the intense similarities between Jack and Ian's hairstyle. The voice acting is done very well for the most part, but I don't really like Ian's voice. Despite him being an adult, he sort of sounds like a prepubescent teenager. I feel like they could have given him a deeper voice, but still keep it soft. Other than that, this game is pretty good! There's a ton of plot that I didn't explain here, so I recommend playing the game for yourself. There's extra content that you can find on the game's itch.io page, such as the Sleepy Time Jack sleeping aid app, which is exclusively available to members of the game's Patreon. (Luckily the lowest tier is only $3 a month.) I give this game an 8/10. Keep in mind, this game is still a demo, so I do believe that they will fix any mistakes the game has in the future.

Overall, these games are pretty good! (Well, ERROR143 isn't as good.) Definitely recommend playing John Doe and SDJ, they're both pretty underrated in my opinion!