Game Thoughts - New Meaning by Brave Lobster Studios

Note: This is a repost from our Tumblr. Please take note that this has heavy topics, particularly depression and suicide.

When we decided to play this game, it has been in our library for a while, and it was the new year, and we kind of needed something sobering to start things right, in a sense. - Kochi

What’s It All About?

After giving your name to some unknown entity who seems to know you, you’re introduced to this high school kid named Luke, who starts off waking up and finding himself in a dilemma. Will he skip first period to study for his math exam, or just yolo it?

Turns out, it’s not the biggest problem he would encounter that day, as he learns that one of his closest friends is going to leave town soon, and his dad’s business goes kaput.

In a last-ditch attempt to save his own life from the seemingly crumbling world around him, he gives himself three days to “find meaning.”

The question is, will he find it?

Writing

Hooboy…

I believe this is where it more or less shines, which is pretty good if we’re talking about visual novels. If we are going to compare it to another game we’ve played, it would probably be Find Love Or Die Trying, where the story doesn’t quite play out as one would expect. In this case, though, while you think there may be hope, apparently, there isn’t any.

And it turns out, it would be “your” fault but at the same time not.

We like how Luke, in particular, was characterized (even though it doesn’t end well.) He really has that still-immature worldview that a highschooler would have, made worse by being in a dysfunctional family. Heck, everything was already unstable from the get-go, and you could see it from the little hints here and there. Then, suddenly, the external factors that he had unconsciously attached himself to for some semblance of stability started to give way, leading him down to that three-day ultimatum that he gives himself.

You could see the struggle that he has throughout the whole game, as he tries to seek help, but also rejects positive advances out of fear that he’d be a burden to others, and also becomes disappointed when certain people don’t respond to his cries for help in the way that he expected them to.

And you know what’s the worst part about it? After every day, he asks himself if he had found meaning, and while there may have been a chance that he could have, he ultimately dismisses it, in the form of the voice in his head.

The voice who has the name that you put in at the beginning of the game.

And I think this is why, even though you try to answer positively, by saying that he did find meaning, it all boils down to telling him no. Because, in a way, he had already decided. He just wouldn’t admit it at the start. And the lines coming from the “voice” seem to support that.

There was no control from you, the player, to begin with. And it’s genius. (lol unless there really was a good ending, but I think this bad ending was intentional.)

And you know what, we could relate to Luke. There was a time back then when we felt that everything was coming down on us, with all the family issues, our suffering academics… I’m just thankful that we didn’t go the death route and went through the harder “we need to get away from this but we’re gonna better ourselves” route.

At the end of it all, the devs leave a message for the player to take care. It’s just beautiful.

Art

Art is pretty okay. The backgrounds are nice, I guess, although the character art has a bit of an amateur feel to it. To those who want the more polished art styles of, say, Nekopara Catboys Paradise, Doki Doki Literature Club, or even I Love You Colonel Sanders, will be a bit disappointed.

And I know we dunked on the characters’ fashion sense more than once on stream, but we’re also walking fashion crimes, so heck. It’s okay.

And speaking of the backgrounds… They’re fairly ordinary, but an unsettling one in particular is Luke’s room. At first glance, it’s a typical room with a TV and a sofa and closed curtains. Then you notice there’s no lights, the walls are not as smooth, and it’s downstairs. So wait, is it a basement room??? And where’s the bed???

Audio

The music was okay. It fit the overall theme of the game, at least.

Oddly enough, though, even though there’s “voices” in the options, apparently, there aren’t? Either that, or there’s a bug somewhere. We set it to 50% and well, there was no voice acting or whatnot.

However, there was this heartbeat effect that played during certain scenes, and it was effective for making us rush through decisions lol

Gameplay

It plays out pretty much like your typical visual novel, where you advance dialogue by clicking and then making decisions when necessary. Well, almost, especially when you find that you’re left with only the negative choice after the positive one disappears…

Also… why in the world would you suddenly have people answer algebra questions at the near start of the game?! Ahahahahaha! I mean, we got em all, but man...

Yeah, if you’re gonna play this, be prepared for math. Specifically, algebra.

Overall

I would say that it’s one of those visual novels that really do have promise with their storytelling. And that literal twist of POV caught us off-guard. However, it’s bumped down a bit by the lack of polish in the other elements such as the grammar and possibly the character art. If you want to experience this game for yourself, provided you’re not averse to the topics of depression and suicide, you can get it for free on Steam.