BURIED STARS
How is almost any anime different, whether it’s an RPG, a TV series, or a visual novel? Excessive pop-eyed characters, frilly outfits / hairstyles, hints of sexual perversion and, in principle, bulging eroticism? Yes, including. But also – and this is much more important – they are very often distinguished by bright, colorful characters and an exciting, rich in surprises plot that can unfold in non-trivial places and circumstances. Like, for example, in the visual novel Buried Stars, which recently came out on PC.
Player cover
Show must go on?
And the story immediately grabs you. On the popular show of musical talents Buried Stars, a disaster happened, and in the literal sense – for unknown reasons, in the midst of the live broadcast, the scenery, walls and ceilings began to collapse. And if the audience and technical staff managed to be evacuated, then the five main participants in the action, who reached the final of the show, remained among the wreckage. And while the rescue team is trying to get to them, they themselves are looking for answers to the eternal Russian questions: who is to blame and what to do? And why is the voting on which of them is better still going on?
Meet the top five finalists of the show.
The company, it must be said, was notable – almost everyone has their own cockroaches and dark spots in the past. One girl, a former groupie with one of the bands, was involved in an unpleasant scandal and now suffers from panic attacks; the other, an ex-dancer with a great voice, shows herself to be a secretive and rather aggressive egoist, who seems to be being followed by one of her obsessive fans. One of the guys, as it turns out, had a tendency to violence at school. And we play for a young man who, in order to participate in the show, betrayed his group – in this, in any case, some of its participants accuse him, sending messages through a local social network.
And here is our main character.
By the way, not only the voting continues, but also the discussion on social networks does not stop for a minute – and our heroes can participate in it thanks to their smartphones, implemented in the form of watches. True, for some reason all external contacts disappeared from them – you can only communicate with each other. In addition, some functions are not available, the data about the participants is mixed up, and indeed a lot of strange things are happening.
Naturally, after a while, corpses appear, mutual accusations and suspicions begin, sometimes it even comes to assault. Cherry on this gloomy cake are messages from the seemingly dead character “You’re next!” and the sight of a hanged friend.
A guy who looks like the Joker? He will obviously have problems.
In general, a classic, but no less exciting and tense situation for this, which the scriptwriters very competently warm up – the one whom we most suspected might turn out to be innocent (although not an angel, of course), and the other, whom you think least of all, will be involved in something. But does this mean that he is the main villain?
The events of the characters’ past are shown with such stylish sketches.
As a result, the whole story is wildly addictive. Moreover, it’s easy to go the wrong way here and get the wrong ending in every sense from the series “Everyone died, she was left alone, and she needs to go to the hospital.” Therefore, you often have to start over or reboot in search of the right path and other endings for almost every character. At the same time, your previous actions can be taken into account in new attempts – not only events change, but already at the very beginning of the game, other things being equal, you will receive a message from an unknown person with hints that he knows what you did in another passage.
The art here is very nice.
You can help with a word
What actions determine the outcome of events? As with most visual novels, we mainly communicate and choose lines. In this case, you need to collect keyword topics for new discussions, including on social networks, where they also allow you to reply to messages. Or we find these keywords while examining a corpse – yes, there are light detective elements here.
Messages from people working on the show itself are especially valuable.
The main part is when we have to chat with each character in turn on almost all available topics. In the process, someone may not like something, or vice versa. Or we will be offered to make a choice – for example, to decide whether to pull out the found corpse from the rubble, or it is better to leave the dangerous place as soon as possible. Some are in favor of one option, while others are in favor of another.
We often have to comfort others.
These and other decisions, the topics chosen, what they answer us and what we see – all this affects the level of trust / distrust in the main character, as well as his own mind. If the latter drops to zero, then either the game ends or.
