Re: Seeking Steam beta testers
#17 by somestrangecircus - Sep 15 2015
Wouldn't let me do one either; I am currently attempting to ferret out the cause through Internet research. If it's cool, I'mma just post the one I wrote here so I don't lose it and can come post it on actual launch day.
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Full review here:
http://somestrangecircus.blogspot.com/2015/05/circus-reviews-black-closet.html
Please note the above review is of an earlier version.
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Black Closet, the latest from Hanako Games (Long Live the Queen, Magical Diary) is part visual novel, part detective RPG. You play as student council president Elsa Jackson, who is tasked with quashing scandals and keeping up appearances in a sophisticated all-girls' high school. Also on the Council to assist you are your minions: popular flirt Althea, her stubborn and opinionated sister Thaïs, naive newcomer Mallory, unusually competent Vice President Vonne, and antisocial Rowan.
Each week, you receive a couple of cases and have to assign your minions to various tasks, such as questioning witnesses or searching crime scenes. The girls have different stats that will determine their success or failure when executing their assignments. In the background, you also have some overarcing plot cases to solve; one of your minions is a traitor, and you have a limited amount of time to figure out which girl it is and deal with her in one way or another. And then there are the outside enemies that your advisor, Miss Talmage, alludes to, such as a mysterious group called the Red Mask that seem to know lots of things they shouldn't, such as where you sleep.
It's a rather difficult game, difficult enough at times that you can tell it's made by the same developer as Long Live the Queen, but there are tricks to learn that make it easier, and the game also includes an easy mode (which was not included when I initially played waaaaay back in the pre-Steam days, but am happy to play with now). The mysteries are interesting, and your fellow council members are all well-developed. Elsa is somewhat unique in that you get to choose everything she says (from a visual novel list of options, of course), and what you pick will affect her characterization and what your minions think of you, especially if you're on a romance path.
And the art and soundtrack are both beautiful. You actually get two art sets to choose from, the original art set and a new one that was added in later versions of the beta. Truthfully, I prefer the first one and am not sure why the second one gets all the focus in screenshots, but both have their merits. (And you have to earn CGs in both art sets, so you'll be seeing a lot of them either way.)
Upon completing the game you unlock custom minion mode, which lets you create your own council and is rather fun to play around with. You also get the ability to choose who the aforementioned traitor is at the beginning of a normal game, which makes things easy for completionists.
All in all, another excellent Hanako Games title and well worth your money to pick up.
