Review of Operation Eventide (contains spoilers)
Short version without spoilers:
The story and characters are very interesting, and I think the protagonist with the whole cyborg theme is extremely cool. However, the narrative itself is written in a very complicated way, and the plot often gets lost in what I would call philosophical rambling. Still, I had a lot of fun and would recommend it to anyone who doesn’t care about multiple routes, selectable heroines, or adult scenes, to give it a try.
Now with spoilers:
Characters
Adelle:
I thought she was great, and it was very well explained why she behaves the way she does and how she regains her will to live.
Celia:
I didn’t fully understand what she did or why she acted the way she did in the story. For me, the reason behind her actions was either missing or just never came across clearly.
Miriam:
She was my favorite and also the most interesting character. The only issue was her tendency to ramble for pages about something – after a while it felt pretty weird and disconnected from the story. But I guess that’s just her character.
Akira:
For me, she was the weakest of them all. I didn’t understand why she suddenly attacked Adelle or why she was so disappointed that Adelle hadn’t told her she was a cyborg after they had only known each other for maybe two or three days, or even just a couple of hours.
Story, structure, and writing
I liked it overall. The worldbuilding wasn’t particularly original, but I still found it solid and interesting with the Arbiters and the Aberrations. I wish there had been much more information about how and why all of this came to be, and also why the characters acted the way they did. To me, it all felt way too vague and open to interpretation.
I also found it a bit disappointing that there wasn’t really any romance, since those moments always got cut off before they could actually develop. Replay value is also low: you make a few different choices and get slightly different answers, but overall, the progression stays pretty linear. Most of the endings only change at the very end, and only two of them actually make a real difference depending on your choice.
Another negative point was the writing itself. I found it very complicated and confusing. It’s hard to describe, but I think you’ll notice it when you read it yourself – it’s extremely different from normal VNs, books, or games. I personally thought it was cool, but it was also very exhausting to read. On top of that, many words came up that I, as a non-native English speaker, had never encountered before.
I really loved the character design – the sprites and CGs were all great, and you could clearly tell everything was hand-drawn, which I found fantastic.
Conclusion
I really enjoyed it. Since I’m a slow reader and wanted to see everything, it took me about 40 hours, and I actually binged it in just 4 days – which already shows how good it was. Still, it definitely has its flaws, as I’ve described above. I’d give the game a 6-7 out of 10, because it was something truly different, and I’m sure it will stay in my mind for a long time. I’m also looking forward to reading Dolorosa and seeing what else the author comes up with.
One more thing about the endings: there wasn’t a single happy end. A lot of them left me feeling really betrayed and confused, and I just sat there thinking: “WTF, why? You bitch!” (no offense :P)
PS: THX kolulu for this story and experience !