Orion: A Sci-Fi Visual Novel Demo

Space may look like a dark vacuum with nothing of real interest to people, but it may be our only hope in the future. Thanks to technology, spaceships and space stations can keep humans quite comfortable out there even today, although it’s only possible for a handful of persons at once right now. With enough resources and will, humans should be able to construct much more roomy ships if the need ever arises.

Orion: A Sci-Fi Visual Novel gives away its entire agenda right in the name, because that’s exactly what you get if you decide to give the game a try: a visual novel with a science-fiction theme. Basically, most of the time you just sit around reading the dialog on the screen, although sometimes you are asked to make a decision and change the course of the story somehow.

Speaking of which, the said story revolves around a teenager by the name of Sam, who is not yet fully aware of how the world around him works. Thanks to a handful of interesting characters, he finds out more than enough over the course of the game, both good and bad things. You also get a taste of the utopian society that lives in a huge space station, complete with a belief system that involves unionism.

Every visual novel game claims to allow the players to change the outcome of the story through choice, but that is rarely the case. In the game at hand, your choices do sometimes affect the course of events, but probably not as much as you would wish. Most of the characters seem a bit generic and boring, although maybe some people may be able to relate to them better than others.

Lastly, the visual quality is quite important in the genre, because you get plenty of time to look at the environments and analyze the setting. In this case, artists did a splendid job when it comes to backgrounds and character design, although you still have to put up with the usual anime style. The music is decent as well, and it also oscillates depending on what’s happening on the screen, which is a nice touch.

All things considered, Orion: A Sci-Fi Visual Novel is not a gem of the genre by any means, but you can get quite a bit of fun out of it. Moreover, if you are a fan of the sci-fi medium, this should satisfy your cravings for a while, although there’s very little exploration involved.