Divination is… a ummm… well, we’re going to go to Steam and check it’s game page and just list that info for you instead, it’s a science fiction, visual novel. I wouldn’t have personally considered it a visual novel because it’s like a ten minute game at MAX per playthrough. Though you do get a flowchart after you beat it the first time, not that it makes it any easier. You play as a pair of robotic hands divining things with runes for four different people. At the end of those divinations you see the ending. Now I want to make a note here for everyone, you’ll notice a distinct lack of pictures in this review, as you all know that’s not how I usually do things; however, this is a fucking ten minute game, so no pictures.
It’s hard to have much to say about the game, cause again, it can be beaten in ten minutes. I spent about an hour to get every single different choice you can make in the game, however the flowchart is weird. I started from the last person and found every option, moved to the third person and did the same, then the second person, etc. Now the flowchart gets weird when you do what I just said, cause you see the same people no matter what your choice, however the flowchart doesn’t connect everything normally. Okay, let’s go with this to explain it. First person has two options, second person has six options, third person has four options, and the last person has five options. Now with this information let’s say first person you chose option one, second person you chose option one, third option one, last person you work through all five options, when you go to the third person, you choose option two, now suddenly, the flowchart dies as there’s nothing done for the last person. You have to redo all five options for the last person now, and every time you change the third’s answer, all the answers for the last one disappear. When you go to the second person and choose option two, now you have to choose option one for the third person and go through all the choices for the last person, then do option two for the third person and all of them for the last one again, etc.
Let me tell ya… That’s boring as shit. Getting every possible option in the flowchart is an annoyance, and it’s painful. I didn’t notice this til I decided to choose each option that seemed like the best one for each level and found that, after choosing the good option for the first person, all the others weren’t choose-able. I was like, “Shit something’s wrong.” So I chose the bad option, which is what I chose for the whole game, then went to person three and changed which one I chose, and saw the last person was blank and I was like, “Yeah no, fuck that, not doing this all over again”. This is how they’re getting the maximum amount of playtime out of you, and that… kinda sucks. This is a fairly cheap way to do it, in my opinion anyways, and I don’t like it.
Other than that, the game is great; it’s an interesting premise, though I expected it to be longer. Though, as pointed out previously, there’s a way they get the most amount of time out of you as possible to 100% that flowchart if you actually want to. I decided I didn’t want to do that, cause fuck that. The art is nice, the conversations are cool, and thanks to the options sometimes causing an outcome difference, there are multiple conversation endings for each character. There’s also ‘cutscenes’ which show up before each divination as well as at the end. The cutscenes also change based on your divinations. All the changes in conversations are just good or bad, but the cutscenes have a bit more to them so there’s sometimes more than just a binary choice of good or bad which makes them interesting to watch.
Divination was developed by Mojiken Studio
$2
A review copy of the game was provided by the devs via Xinthus during the #IndieXmas event
darkmikasonfire awards Divination the Indie Gamer Team Seal of Approval.
Indie Gamer Team 