1997 Reloaded Review - A human indie investigative VN experience
by GamertechAUpublished on
That feeling when poking around a flea market leads to murder
Disclaimer: A review key was provided by the devs
Trigger warnings: Suicide and domestic abuse
I don't play a lot of VNs but when the devs reached out and I took a look at the game, it sounded pretty cool and a unique take on the genre. It definitely piqued my interest.
1997 Reloaded is Gaigo Studios' debut game and is termed as an "enhanced comic" by the creators. A visual novel using the style of graphic novel comics and features a crazy amount of hand-drawn illustrations and curated original 90's pop and alt-rock music.
For content creators out there interested in the game, the music is 100% stream-safe.
Plot
Three teens in the UK, Marco and Federico on an English summer course from Italy and Shirley, their host, are exploring a flea market when they discover an early answering machine with some saved messages still intact.
Getting it home they realise the messages point to the murders of a well-known 90's alt-rock star and his lover who were believed to have committed suicide.
The teens take it upon themselves to dive deep into the New York music scene, investigate the mystery and discover the truth of what really happened.
Gameplay
The base game follows the standard visual novel fare. Scenes play and you click to progress between them. You can also rewind if you accidentally click too fast or want to recheck something.
While the game is primarily in English, it has lots of thoughts and some conversation in Italian. The thoughts have a button in the top right to translate to English as needed. Federico speaks passable English, but often reacts in Italian. They usually show the English translation immediately under the Italian text. Sometimes they don't, but have them repeat in English or respond in English in a way that you know what was said.
Apparently my Italian is terrible, but I learned a few new words so winning!
There are also a few minigames as you progress to break it up. Listen carefully to the recordings on the answering machine and pick out the missing words (headphones help a lot but aren't necessary). Search through collected records to solve a logic puzzle and a simple drag-n-drop that rewards you with a musical treat.
As you progress, you unlock music, posters and news clippings in the Reading Room. You can open the menu and view them at any point to find and recall important details of the investigation, or just jam to the music.
Tech
I mean it's a VN, it could run on a potato. You wont find any performance issues here.
The game ran smooth as silk and the audio was spotless with great music to vibe to. Once unlocked in the story, you can listen to the music at any time.
It's too early to have a ProtonDB or Steam Deck rating, however I see nothing that would prevent it getting Platinum and Verified respectively.
Recommendation
Gaigo Studio's first game presents a well written and engaging story. 1997 Reloaded steps outside of the standard visual novel format and allows the player to experience exactly what the creators intended.
If you're into mystery stories and visual novels then I do recommend giving this one a look. One playthrough reached 4.5 hours on stream.