I'll preface this by saying I initially scripted this out for a video but frankly my enunciation and overall narration leave a lot to be desired so I figured it'd be best to tweak what I already had so I could instead publish it as a written review. Note that I've been sitting on this for quite some time and my knowledge of the game extends as far as the current beta release-any additions or changes made since won't be referenced in this review. I've done my best to avoid as many spoilers or direct references to story events as possible beyond the basic premise and a handful of other minor things but if you're intent on going in absolutely 100% blind you might want to play it safe and skip over this. With all that said, here it is.
Take mystery, slice of life, romance, drama, add a sprinkle of horror and you have Password, a visual novel in the style of 999 and other such nonary games. It's very much a love letter to those titles and even uses the same pseudo-science concepts such as morphic resonance and metempsychosis. If that sounds derivative to you, it's really not-for example consider how Undertale was inspired by games like OFF and Earthbound while still managing to have its own identity-Password is kind of in a similar area.
The narrative follows Dave, a young man that, after graduation sets off for an all expenses paid trip to a mansion high amongst the mountains. He's joined by his 6 closest friends, with each one representing their own story route and potential romance. There's Dean, a lewd and flirtatious man's man with a green thumb. Roswell, smug and intelligent with a taste for both sweets and mischief. Sal, a meathead with a deep and introspective underside. Orlando, bubbly and sassy with a passion for all things baking. Hoss, a fashionable weeb with aspirations for the big screen. And finally, Tyson, aloof loner and bully with a penchant for violence, and something of a black sheep for the group.
Upon arriving things follow a pretty standard slice-of-life format for the first week as the story familiarizes you with the cast and the setting, an opulent manor that seems loaded with absolutely every luxury under the sun from a large outdoor swimming pool and hot tub to an expansive rec room with slot machines and much more. It's not long before the story takes a rather dark and grisly turn at which point you'll be handed a bad ending, along with a mysterious password. Said password can then be used to activate a mysterious basement-bound vault that can seemingly give Dave visions of the future, allowing him to avert disaster. What then follows is a multi-timeline plot that splits off in many directions as Dave resolves to save his friends from certain doom while unraveling the many mysteries surrounding the mansion, its reclusive owner and the vault itself.
Truth be told that's a gross oversimplification of the game's story-things get pretty thick especially later on and summarising it all in an expedient manner without spoilers is almost impossible. The complex narrative is one of the game's biggest draws; another is its strong cast of characters. They're a well-rounded and down to earth bunch with their own distinct traits, faults and baggage and I found myself often identifying or at least empathising with almost all of them, except for perhaps Hoss whose character always felt a bit anemic to me. What really stuck out to me was how quickly the cast is introduced, and how fast the story is to get the ball rolling, and in a way that doesn't really feel rushed. There's a real sense of believability to the cast and it's clear that great lengths were taken to make sure each one felt like a fully realised person rather than some cookie cutter husbando put up on a pedestal. Even main character Dave is a balanced and likeable individual, and his arc is the most compelling in the game, which is more than I can say for most other FVN protagonists that typically range from blank slate to utterly insufferable. I'm also fond of the game's habit of leaning in to the animal traits of each cast member, which is a cute touch that most furry visual novels sort of gloss over. Dave's nervous hyena cackling, Roswell's ability for sniffing out mushrooms, and Dean and Orlando's pet names for Dave are just a few examples-you might find it a bit cheesy, but that's exactly the point.
There are even subtle details in the game's art that help inform the player; for example, Dave spends much of the first half of the story donning his trademark orange hoodie, but after a pivotal moment mid-way through the narrative he discards it entirely, which helps play in to the idea that he's done putting up walls around himself. This storytelling can be seen in his body language as well-a few of his poses feature one arm crossed over his chest, a sign that he's still a bit defended but slowly opening up. There's even a cute "like father like son" motif running through most of his sprites. The game is filled with moments like this, some less subtle than others, but it goes to show how much attention to detail was paid to the story. Almost every single plot thread pays off in some way no matter how minute or insignificant and it speaks volumes to Grizz's ability to plan and organise a project. Even Orlando's JO crystal which one might reasonably assume is just a part of his design serves a purpose. A minor one, but a purpose nonetheless.
The art itself is certainly charming. You might call it simple or even amateurish but there's a certain je ne sais quoi it captures. There's an earnest quality that pervades the illustrations and it clearly comes from a place of wanting to improve. This does create a bit of a discrepancy amongst the game's CGs-it's clear that over time Grizz has grown as an artist and as a result some of the game's assets are of varying quality. There's a pretty clear gap between the completed illustrations featured on the itch.io page versus even some of the incomplete, late-game placeholder sketches. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little disappointed by the decision to drop NSFW but given that the game mostly succeeds on the strengths of its story and characters this isn't that big of a loss. Frankly art is the area I'm least qualified to comment on so I'll cut it off here and say I just enjoy it for what it is.
The game is also easy on the ears with most of its music mostly leaning on the visual novel staple of moody piano pieces. While the number of tracks might seem a little sparse, all of it is original music composed specifically for the game which actually makes it a bit of an outlier. I'm quite fond of Daffodil and I've caught myself quietly humming it more often than I'd care to admit. The same can be said for the game's title theme, a simple yet effective melody that I can still hear clear as day in my mind's eye. Or, ear. But the absolute standout track would have to be Goodbye, a sad and sombre piece that accompanies the story's most pivotal scenes. It only crops up a handful of times across the entire game but every time it does it hits hard and really elevates the dramatic impact those moments have (I may have sobbed like a big gay baby for some of those).
While I can praise the game for its intriguing story, its strong characterisation and its bottomless charm, there are some definite shortcomings. I'll start off with what I think is the game's most significant problem, its writing. Or more accurately, the prose. To be frank the dialog and narration are pretty plain and lacking in style. The story is filled with unwieldy sentences that are pretty awkward to read through and give the narrative a sort of impersonal quality, with many lines feeling overly long and wholly unnecessary. Many are totally extraneous and could quite easily be eliminated entirely with smarter word choice. A lot of this could be chalked up to the fact that the writing has an unfortunate habit of recycling the same phrases and words quite frequently, sometimes within the same dialog box. For example a bit of narration that occurs on Day 8 after successfully entering a valid password in to the vault is a good example-"down here" is used three times in a row and the overall sentence structure is awkward and unnatural sounding. The game also has a handful of phrases it reuses ad nauseam, such as "I sighed out" "I couldn't say" and "gestured vaguely", and a lot of descriptive text is oddly vague, often to no end. This gives the narrative a repetitive and sort of stale quality-early on this is a minor annoyance but by the end it started to turn in to a frustrating distraction and kept taking me out of the story every time I noticed the same words and vague phrasing being used. The game also has an unfortunate habit of treading the same ground-though this happens across most of the routes to some degree it's pretty notable on Dean's where he and Dave have the whole "I can't be intimate with you because I have baggage" conversation innumerable times. Even after it becomes clear why this is it still keeps getting brought up. There are also a couple of flat-out odd lines, such as one during an early-game flashback when Dave reminisces on how he met Dean: "Something about how they make the coffee here just beats all that mass-produced stuff from those fast food places that also do coffee of a morning" which makes sense but sounds...strange. Another that I can think of comes from Orlando on of the game's many offshoot bad paths, where he rather flatly reveals his family's history-from an expository standpoint it functions fine, but it feels strangely clinical and out of character. There's also Tyson saying wimp later on which...honestly, just have him say pussy.
There are more examples I could cite (Dom uttering "not that I mind getting messy, mind you") but I think you get the idea; for all these reasons I feel as if Password could benefit greatly from some outside editorial work by a professional-I'd almost suggest a certain monkey man for the job but knowing nothing of his current workload, I can't fully commit to that recommendation. It's clear Grizz has definite strengths in story telling, those being lore, planning, logistics, attention to detail and character development. It's the actual delivery of those things that are in need of some work. In that sense the game is almost like an inverted Echo-a messy, mixed bag of storytelling that still managed to squeak by with its writing and atmosphere. It's the difference between a story striving to make sense versus one trying to engage the reader. I could make the argument Echo can get away with it more by virtue of being a horror story, but now I'm getting off-track.
Another thing that I take issue with is the game's true ending, which honestly felt like a bit of a let-down. Unfortunately I can't really delve too deep as to why without heavily spoiling the plot so I'll need to save specific criticisms for another day. I honestly prefer the A path ending for the much wider variety it provides-it's a less tidy conclusion which, depending on your preferences might be a good or bad thing-but it also accounts for pretty much every character route in the game. In addition, while the game really has a way of sucking you in to its mystery a lot of the reveals are a bit underwhelming. Again, these revelations are sensible, but they aren't exactly exciting or surprising, and a fair few are pretty easy to see coming if you're decent enough at picking up on subtext clues.
The game's password system for which it was named is a fun and novel idea that forces you to pay close attention to the dialog but having completed the story now it honestly felt a little under-utilized. On a successful run the vault is only activated a handful of times and all of the passwords are pretty easy to figure out. The game practically beats you over the head with the first few-you'd have to be a bit daft to get stuck on any of them.
I'm fully aware this was more of a conscious decision to keep the game as accessible as possible-some of you might remember that earlier builds simply dumped you back at the title screen after receiving a bad ending. Apparently highlighting the first set of passwords in bright red capital letters that get repeated multiple times was a little too obtuse so in an attempt to foolproof things as much as possible the game now gives you the choice to "resonate" after getting a bad ending-which essentially places the player right in front of the vault on the appropriate day for that password. While I don't doubt that this'll help broaden the game's appeal it also steals away some of its fun-even if the words themselves aren't hard to sus out there was still always that "ah-ha!" moment. Frankly I'd like to see this idea revisited in a future project because it definitely still holds some promise.
I could probably nitpick a handful of other things but none of them are particularly glaring or deserving of mention. At the end of the day the strength of Password's story, characters and all-around uniqueness are more than enough to earn it a strong recommendation for anybody looking for an engaging FVN, whether you're a newcomer to the genre or well versed in it. With some editing it could easily become something quite special. I can't really bring myself to dislike the game in spite of its faults-that might be because of my own personal bias towards the project and the happy memories I associate with it, but I think it runs deeper than that. Simply put, the game has a lot of heart. Grizz took something he liked and tried to make it better-or at the very least put his own spin on it, and that comes from an honest place-there's nothing really cynical or misleading about the game, and I can admire that. No matter how you slice it, Password's heart shines true.