It's been quite a while since I played a visual novel, so when twitter followers voted for 'Strawberry Vinegar' I was quite pleased. This will be a pretty short Spotlight review, as this is quite a short game, as much as the copious amounts of writing drag the game time up.
To be honest, I didn't find it enjoyable to play - the story is fine, artwork is verynicely done for the most part BUT the music, dear Gods the music. IT NEVER ENDS. IT NEVER CHANGES. IT GAVE ME A MIGRAINE.
A really bad one at that!
Sound is an unmissable cornerstone for games. You're making a game - put sounds and music in it. 4 out of 5 people can hear and hearing is one of the strongest senses along with sight and smell (there's a whole thing about scratch-n-sniff ads from the 90s there, it works). Do not screw up your music, especially to this degree. One very short, squeaky track on repeat for almost the entire game is very bad design, and extremely bad for my brain. So I stopped playing. I just couldn't continue with it.
'Strawberry Vinegar's dev has made much better games previously, but the sound being such a massive issue is a bad sign for this game.
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