Element-174 [Knotty Games] [v0.27]

"Element-174" is an adult sci-fi visual novel with a focus on choices and how our decisions cause ripples in our story. You play the role of the main character, a man who has just been accepted into Branchfield University. As he meets the various students and faculty, a mystery unravels which will change him and those around him forever. "Who will you choose to be?"

This game is designed around a deep and engaging story. Every choice you make will lead you deeper into the narrative with no early "game overs." There are 16 possible character routes available that play out simultaneously and even interconnect. Your choices will influence which characters will open up to you or may become your enemies. Due to these branching paths, this game will meant to be replayed in order to experience everything. New updates will be released about every 2 weeks. Each "episode" of the story will consist of 7 in-game days with 4 episodes planned.

Ok so this game. I went in blind thinking "cool sci-fi premise, 16 girls sounds fun" and left feeling... idk, mixed.

the good: story's actually decent, dev clearly planned stuff out. choices matter which is rare. characters have depth, some are genuinely interesting.

the bad: sex scenes are formulaic as hell. HJ -> BJ -> missionary -> different position -> threesome. every. single. time. writing during scenes is weird too, like dev couldn't decide if he wanted poetry or profanity. also outdated renders and those stupid black screens where he couldn't be bothered to render anything. oh and the routes? you need like 5 playthroughs minimum to see everything. locked out of half the girls unless you follow a walkthrough like a drone.

Overall, not very great, but not bad enough to ignore adding here.

It's a Straightforward VN with some time/schedule management tacked on.