The perennial challenge of doing a kinetic novel is always how to keep players engaged - after all everyone is just reading words with some pictures and animations passively most of the time.
Along comes Mist, presenting a way of playing a kinetic novel through a tightly integrated series of map hopping, mini-games, resource management, battle system and POV animations that makes you feel like you are role playing the MC instead of just being a passive third party.
Story
MC rescues a girl from a shadow monster while chilling out in a mountain hut. Very soon he discovers the entire mountain save for his cabin is surrounded by an ominous mist, thus beginning his adventure to survive, fight off shadows and unravel mysteries of the mist.
The story is a good combination of dystopian survival, paranormal mystery and romance. The pacing is consistent and well done punctuated with appropriate humour to balance out the dark mood. The adventuring is far more expansive than I signed up for as the game page makes it sound like most of the action will be surrounding the cabin. Trust me, you will be travelling to many places ;=)
Game Mechanics
This is where Mist really shines. The developer has curated multiple simple game elements seen in RPG, visual novel, resource management, sandbox and traditional game books into a highly interactive experience even though it’s a kinetic novel at heart.
Calibration is also done exceedingly well, you simply level up and get resources during the course of the game by playing normally i.e. no BS grinding for exp, chalking up love points or clicking around random locations in sandbox waiting for something to happen.
Background / Character Renders
Each background is detailed, uniquely designed and well rendered and the sheer number of backgrounds in this game is staggering as MC will be travelling to many rural and urban places during the game. Many venues will even have various zoom ins and camera angles that can look very different.
Character models are rendered in a unique style that might take some getting used to - somewhere between a Pixar 3D movie and claymation. I was a little apprehensive at first, but once you get immersed in the story the style grows on you.
Character Development
There are four LIs and each of them has a particular personality that sort of plays into certain kinks: Robin is submissive, Mia is a wild and resourceful teen, Lily is smart without being nerdy and Noreia is motherly.
Character development however is a little thin - MC is pretty much the same from the first scene to the last while the girls’ transition from strangers to lovers is stiff and not very convincing. Good thing is while most harem games leave little or no interaction between the LIs other than during sex, Mist does spend time building up the rapport between them.
Sex Scenes
Very well animated with each scene having 3 - 4 sets of animations and for those into cum shots many of the scenes end with a long and titillating creampie close up animation. The dialogue and variety is there and some of the places where sex takes place is ahem… quite…. unique.
The quantity is just nice and well spread out to spice up gameplay just when things get a bit dull without being intentional or disruptive.
BGM and Sound Effects
BGM is mostly mysterious and gloomy and supports the story well while there’s quite a fair number of sound effects compared to other AVNs, so all in it works well.
Conclusion
Mist has a good story going - the logic holds up well, the characters are likeable and the unraveling of mysteries and introduction to new characters are well paced out.
What truly stands out though is how deeply engaged one can get while playing. The purists will argue these are just cosmetic devices to dress up a kinetic novel, but to me they represent an innovative approach to enhance the gaming experience beyond reading dialogue and clicking choice boxes.
Along comes Mist, presenting a way of playing a kinetic novel through a tightly integrated series of map hopping, mini-games, resource management, battle system and POV animations that makes you feel like you are role playing the MC instead of just being a passive third party.
Story
MC rescues a girl from a shadow monster while chilling out in a mountain hut. Very soon he discovers the entire mountain save for his cabin is surrounded by an ominous mist, thus beginning his adventure to survive, fight off shadows and unravel mysteries of the mist.
The story is a good combination of dystopian survival, paranormal mystery and romance. The pacing is consistent and well done punctuated with appropriate humour to balance out the dark mood. The adventuring is far more expansive than I signed up for as the game page makes it sound like most of the action will be surrounding the cabin. Trust me, you will be travelling to many places ;=)
Game Mechanics
This is where Mist really shines. The developer has curated multiple simple game elements seen in RPG, visual novel, resource management, sandbox and traditional game books into a highly interactive experience even though it’s a kinetic novel at heart.
Calibration is also done exceedingly well, you simply level up and get resources during the course of the game by playing normally i.e. no BS grinding for exp, chalking up love points or clicking around random locations in sandbox waiting for something to happen.
Background / Character Renders
Each background is detailed, uniquely designed and well rendered and the sheer number of backgrounds in this game is staggering as MC will be travelling to many rural and urban places during the game. Many venues will even have various zoom ins and camera angles that can look very different.
Character models are rendered in a unique style that might take some getting used to - somewhere between a Pixar 3D movie and claymation. I was a little apprehensive at first, but once you get immersed in the story the style grows on you.
Character Development
There are four LIs and each of them has a particular personality that sort of plays into certain kinks: Robin is submissive, Mia is a wild and resourceful teen, Lily is smart without being nerdy and Noreia is motherly.
Character development however is a little thin - MC is pretty much the same from the first scene to the last while the girls’ transition from strangers to lovers is stiff and not very convincing. Good thing is while most harem games leave little or no interaction between the LIs other than during sex, Mist does spend time building up the rapport between them.
Sex Scenes
Very well animated with each scene having 3 - 4 sets of animations and for those into cum shots many of the scenes end with a long and titillating creampie close up animation. The dialogue and variety is there and some of the places where sex takes place is ahem… quite…. unique.
The quantity is just nice and well spread out to spice up gameplay just when things get a bit dull without being intentional or disruptive.
BGM and Sound Effects
BGM is mostly mysterious and gloomy and supports the story well while there’s quite a fair number of sound effects compared to other AVNs, so all in it works well.
Conclusion
Mist has a good story going - the logic holds up well, the characters are likeable and the unraveling of mysteries and introduction to new characters are well paced out.
What truly stands out though is how deeply engaged one can get while playing. The purists will argue these are just cosmetic devices to dress up a kinetic novel, but to me they represent an innovative approach to enhance the gaming experience beyond reading dialogue and clicking choice boxes.