Disencounters

Everyone has a story to tell, and every story can be interesting if it comes at the right time. In fact, you can learn a lot from other people if you pay attention to what they are saying, especially if you aim to get close to them. Movies and video games always gamble a lot on this idea, especially when it comes to life lessons conveyed in the form of dialog between two characters.

Disencounters is an interesting visual novel that puts you the role of a man who’s in the position to find out things about a variety of interesting people. There’s not much interaction involved in terms of gameplay, given the fact that this is more of a kinetic experience that you are meant to watch and soak in, but that shouldn’t discourage you from giving it a try.

The man’s name is George Mint, and he is a theater director who is working on a new play for his audience. On the other hand, the actual story is more about his interactions with a group of people that share their stories, not to mention the fact that they also harbor a big secret. Naturally, by the end of the story George finds out about this secret and how it affects him.

Although there’s plenty of dialog involved in the narrative, it mostly takes place without your input, so you just have to click through it or wait for the text to advance on its own. This can be a bit of a bummer if you like to play an active part in the story, but then again it’s fairly obvious from the start. The plot is actually engaging if you give it a chance, even more so if you like to hear interesting tales.

Things are a bit rough and unrefined in the graphics department, but this is not a huge issue if you direct your attention to the story instead. The artwork is sketchy at best, and it’s difficult to say good things about the character design, but it’s not nightmare material either. There’s a unique feeling to this look, in spite of the fact that it may not be particularly pretty.

In spite of the fact that Disencounters can be a bit hard on the eyes, it still has the potential to keep you engaged from start to finish. To top things off, it can also make you think after you are done with the story, depending on how much it surprises you.