Charade Maniacs
Charade Maniacs, développé par Otomate et édité par Idea Factory, est un visual novel otome mêlant aventure et simulation, sorti le 9 août 2018 sur Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch et PlayStation Vita. L'intrigue place Hiyori Sena, lycéenne en classe de seconde, dans un monde parallèle nommé Arcadia après son enlèvement avec son ami d'enfance et neuf autres personnes, contraints de jouer dans un « drame » imposé par un homme masqué afin de réaliser leurs vœux et de rentrer chez eux, tout en découvrant la présence d'un traitor parmi eux. La presse a salué des personnages magnifiques et une histoire intrigante selon Pocket Tactics, tandis que RPG Fan a jugé le titre imparfait mais non dénué de qualités, appréciant certaines routes de personnages malgré un sentiment mitigé sur d'autres. L'ensemble affiche une note moyenne agrégée de 70,00.
Médias
Avis des critiques et joueurs
Critiques de la Presse (Metacritic)
« Charade Maniacs isn’t a perfect game, yet I wouldn’t call it terrible. Even though I’m lukewarm about some of the character routes, I genuinely enjoyed others. Plus, the overall mystery is compelling enough that I wanted to solve all the mysteries presented to me. Charade Maniacs might be worth a few playthroughs if you’re a fan of suspenseful mystery otome titles, so long as you don’t go into it expecting greatness. »
« Charade Maniacs is a visual novel otome game with some drop-dead gorgeous characters and an intriguing story. However, with fewer choices than I’d like and numerous ambiguous endings, it may leave you feeling a little confused. »
« Charade Maniacs is an engaging visual novel with a rather sinister story, but it just doesn't let you make enough decisions while you play. »
« I wasn’t really feeling the romance elements in Charade Maniacs, though that may have been because I was trying to figure out the meta-story anyway. It’s a solid read that I’ll probably rip through again in a few months when they actually SLOW DOWN with these games. »
« Charade Manicas is two individually brilliant games that, combined, are the lesser sum of their parts. I can see why the developers would be intrigued by the combination of the otome and death game mystery genres. I can see the commercial appeal too, given what a runaway success the death game genre continues to be. However, despite excellent production values, a great cast, and a well-written mystery, this particular combination chills rather than delights. »
« Charade Maniacs has so much potential, but the cast becomes bloated, and the conclusion comes way too early without any level of fanfare to cap off the routes. The narrative ends up tripping over itself as it tries to balance all the relationships, causing Sena to be more of an everchanging object for plot progression instead of her own character. The translation also comes across as questionable due to the inconsistencies within the cast. Sadly, the few memorable routes aren’t strong enough to carry enough the flimsy plot. »
