https://store.steampowered.com/app/2316290/Cerulean_Days/
Cerulean Days is a poignant (and rather apt) drama visual novel, set in 2020 after a man-made virus wipes out most of the population of Inre Island. With the discovery that the attack was planned using the internet and the culprits caught and executed, the government of Inre soon extends an iron grip on the internet and starts reconfiguring it into something else.
After the rather wordy introduction, the main story starts, with the protagonist, Michael about to watch a news broadcast about how the internet on Inre is going to be restructured and all computer equipment will be updated. Eventually, requiring money, Michael gets a government job “helping” people...
The storyline is quite reminiscent of both 1984 and I, Robot (the film that is) – at least to start with, and proceeds at a steady, but slow pace, which borders on meandering.
The one problem with the story is there is a lot – probably too much – unnecessary detail, and doesn’t really get anywhere particularly fast. There also isn’t much in the way of humour – the barbs between Michael and Severine are cute-ish, but that’s as far as it goes.
The characters you meet are quite interesting – if somewhat generic. Severine is a rather haughty classmate and a cake maker, of which the latter the protagonist is a great fan of, whilst Grace is government worker (and with whom you are staying), and gets you your first job, and who is also looking forward to the new government appointed technology system. However, she is also aware of the changes that the terrorist attacks had on people and subtlety forewarns Michael.
The character graphics are certainly very nice, with simple animations, whilst the backgrounds are fine as well, if not always overly detailed. There is also the occasional CG shot.
It certainly could be interesting to see where the story goes – as long as you don’t mind something that takes ages to start anything – as the demo ends just at your first case.
As it stands, there is certainly an interesting and very contemporary storyline, but you have to wade through a lot of text that either could be removed or simplified to get to what feels like the actual story. Graphics and music are fine though.
Be worth checking out mainly if you like slow-paced stories.
