Visual Novel Review: Destiny Voyage

12/11/2016

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Eden and her family are starting off Summer with a tropical cruise! Seven magical days and nights spent resting and relaxing aboard the SS Tranquility. And what’s better than tropical paradise? Handsome guys that is! She will encounter three eligible gentlemen on this journey, each with their unique twists and turns. But there’s trouble a brewing as the boat suddenly passes into a deadly storm! Eden, Eli, Leon, and Ryan get trapped in the elevator as the power goes out. Together they have to escape and discover why they are the only ones left on this haunted cruise…

GAME INFO

Name: Destiny Voyage
Developer/s: UsaBerryHime
Release Date: August 26, 2015
Genre: Romance

Hi everyone! It's my first day of my Christmas vacation (aka freedom) and I'm back to writing on my online visual novel journal (aka this blog), yay~

STORY & WRITING


visual novel review destiny voyage otomehaven otometwist
Man, these days, I can only dream of chilling, let alone travelling... *sigh*

Eli is just your average girl who happens to go on a cruise with her parents and little siblings. During the said cruise, she gets to meet a couple of random guys. But when a mysterious accident happens, she’s forced to pair up with one of the guys in order to find out what’s really happening.

Okay… even after my long break, I still suck at summaries so much, haha.

But still, I guess it’s fairly noticeable from the summary I made that I’m not such a huge fan of the story. For one, it’s feels a little out of the world, unrealistic, and not in a good way. I mean, it’s a fantasy story, so I guess it’s okay to expect it to be unrealistic, but at the same time, even fantasy stories should have some degree of realism to them, right? It does have a lot of potential, but I felt like it came a little short when it comes to expanding the world, the lore, etc.

visual novel review destiny voyage otomehaven otometwist
What's wrong with your right eye, bud?

At one point, it suddenly starts raining while they were inside the elevator… causing it to malfunction, causing them to be trapped inside. Which begs the question: just how long were they inside? I thought it only went a couple of floors up. After all, they were in a cruise, weren’t they? How long were inside that they actually got trapped?

And then, after that weird little incident, suddenly they find themselves left alone inside the ship. Yes, just the four of them together. Also, the ship is moving on its own… but where off to? Let’s just go and find out!

Okay, we all know that everything is a matter of preference, right? Well, one part of me thinks that the premise is quite cute. Haha, you know, going on a cruise, meeting some eye candies, and then possibly going on a magical adventure with them. How cool is that? But like I said, another part of me feels like it’s just wasted potential. There was so much that could’ve been done, but it simply was too short and thus, felt rushed.

visual novel review destiny voyage otomehaven otometwist
Is it my cue to fangirl now?

The actual story is divided into three: Part I, Part II, and Part III.

Part I is their time inside the ship. This is where they meet each other, where the accident happens, where they get left alone with just the four of them on the whole ship. Part II is when they finally arrive on a mysterious deserted island in the middle of nowhere. And for someone who’s in a deserted ship, with… practically no knowledge about what’s happening outside, the main character sure is lax and practically unworried. Isn’t {i}that{/i} unrealistic or what?

Part II is also where the real story behind the premise is finally revealed. Heads up though, you might to skip this part of my post if you don’t want any spoilers, because you can bet that the next few sentences are certainly spoilers.

visual novel review destiny voyage otomehaven otometwist
I did not just read that. No. Nope. Nah.

So it turns out that the island that they found themselves stranded on is actually a part of a group of islands that used to prosper in the hands of happy and satisfied people. Sometime over the years, the islands fell into disarray. Nowadays, only a mysterious witch is living on it, and she’s still out to find people to victimize. 

Part II is actually cool in a sense that it was a real adventure. If only the delivery was good… *sigh* 

Part III is where they finally get home and fall in love with each other.

Uhh… surprisingly, and disappointingly, the romance is actually the most unrealistic part of this whole visual novel.

visual novel review destiny voyage otomehaven otometwist
*nudges with my foot* Hellooooo?

The story as a whole feels a bit rushed, sure, but I feel more offed by the fact that not much attention was given to the characters’ relationships with each other. Because WHY? The guys seem cool enough, and I would’ve loved to get to know them better. However, I felt really disappointed that the romance between the main character and her specific guy very rushed, and there was almost no development whatsoever.

As for the writing, I found it a little bland, with some typographical errors (claspped, recieve, persue). Other than that though, I had no other issues.

ART

Quality-wise, it’s decent. It doesn’t feel as polished as some other visual novels, but hey, since it’s a free VN, I’m not really gonna be super picky or anything here. The guys were cute, at the very least, hehe.

visual novel review destiny voyage otomehaven otometwist
Hello, Eli.

But do you know what my first thought was, when I first played the game? Everything is so close up. With most VNs, you can at least see the torso and perhaps even the upper thigh, but with this one, you can only see like the chest area I think. As a result, only one sprite can be shown per screen, unlike other visual novels that can accommodate at least two. However, I did get used to it, and to be honest, I ended up liking it a lot near the end. Since only one character can be shown at any given time, it made it really easy to recognize who’s speaking. I never realized that it was something I could have problems with in other visual novels, but I really appreciated it in this one.

MUSIC

Decent, as well. Does their job well as background soundtracks.

GUI

Custom, but rather simple. Almost the same as the default Ren'Py UI, in fact.

visual novel review destiny voyage otomehaven otometwist
Hey, it's not so bad! You can't be the only one who gets to sleep beside your guy, MC! Hehehe.

WRAP-UP

If we go through the story part by part, I’d have to admit that I did have a lot of gripes. It felt very rushed, after all. The writing, at some parts, struck me as pretty bland. The story felt rushed. However, on a whole, I do like it. The art was decent, the music was decent, and the premise was interesting enough. If only it didn’t feel so rushed, I’m sure I would’ve enjoyed my sweet time with this. Believe it or not, it only took me like 30 minutes to finish my first play-through of this game. It was that quick, and I was honestly really surprised.

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I’d have to give this six out of ten strawberries. It’s not bad, but I can’t say it’s good, either. There was definitely a lot of potential though. Too bad.

DOWNLOAD



WALKTHROUGH

The developer was kind enough to provide a walkthrough, which you can access here! Thanks!

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