Kanna Maze

Overall, there's a lot to be said about this novel. A lot of things have improved since the release of «Mandemon», but some of the problems remain the same. Let's start with the pros. There is an astounding amount of visuals. Character poses in scenes, cinematics, backgrounds, some background animations were particularly pleasing. However, the implication is that some of the backgrounds seem rather “rough”, raw, but otherwise I would have no idea how one person could do them all. For the visuals in general, a big plus. There are no problems with the audio. The voice acting was very nice as well. The music didn't stand out much, but I won't call it bad either - 7 out of 10. The number of choices is pleasantly surprising, although most of them are empty, but still there were quite a lot of branching in the flowchart. I have one remark about it, but I will express it in the next paragraph. Now let's move on to the plot and here I have the most to tell. I want to say that everything that is described below is purely my subjective feelings and I admit that I may well be wrong. First of all I would like to mention a rather ambiguous point. Pacing. Unlike most of the comments on novels in this field, the problem with «Kanna Maze» is not the stretched plot, but the opposite. I saw the same problem in «Mandemon» - the beginning seems to be quite exciting, the novel doesn’t go too slow, but also doesn’t hurry, it reveals to you the events of the first third to half, perfectly immersing the reader in the atmosphere of its world. But closer to the middle or the end, the events accelerate sharply. The reader is not given a time to “feel the characters”, the novel quickly rushes to its end, too hurriedly and too sharply revealing all its plot twists. This creates a sense of confusion - the sense of immersion is abruptly lost and now you're just watching the events from the sidelines. It's a mixed point, because it's still much better than the much more common dragging, but it was still a major minus for me in both «Mandemon» and here. This is compounded by the fact that almost no twists in the plot feel foreshadowed at all. They just reveal itself when the time comes and that's it. This, unlike the previous point, is a much more unambiguous problem - and serious one too. Perhaps if the author had cut back on most of the “empty choices” and instead allocated the freed up time to the main plot line, things would have been better, but it's not for me to judge here. Another problem is that the story doesn't quite live up to the genre it seems to be. Sure, as a sci-fi adventure it has no problems, but it feels like it's trying to be a murder mystery too - here lies the big issue. There is almost no “investigations” of deaths in the story according to the canons of “murder mystery”, no searching for clues, the search for the culprit is going forward not because of the actions of the main character, but simply by the will of the plot, even the deaths themselves aren’t really interesting. The only death that was tried to be played according to the canons of the genre is the attempt to make “locked room”, but even that is solved too quickly (except that at the very end it is reinterpreted by the last twist, but even this didn't bring me the feeling of surprise or fascination. But more on that later). And finally, the last, most ambiguous, but for me the most important issue is the concept of the story as a whole. I'm not sure I can accurately express my thoughts (especially considering that English is not my native language)... But I think that the plot of the novel is… too pretentious? Too ambitious? I mean, it was obvious that the author strongly wanted to write something unusual in the ending, to end the story on the most extraordinary twist possible… without properly gradually leading up plot to it, explaining it and thinking how it should fit in the story... This makes the novel seem a bit... empty? I don't quite understand its idea (no…

Truly a beautiful VN that obviously was inspired by Kamaitachi no Yoru, however their premices are entirely diffirent so if you're looking for something similar to the Kamaitachi no Yoru(I myself bought it thinking that its going to be like one)this game sadly is not for you then. Yet i still sincerely recommed you to try it out if you are fan of sci-fi and theory of parallel universes this game will not leave you dissapointed(basic knowledge of the concept of physics is adviced for better understanding!but not required). Also kudos to the creator for setting up the right atmosphere, that changes with every walkthrough and can turn from serene sights and description of rural Japan to captivating mysteries. I want to say again that i truly loved this game even though it may be confusing at a times( i recommend keeping track of all your choices because you can forget them easily)

A hidden gem in VN's world I would rather not talk about the game itself, just buy it and play it blindly. You won't regret it.