Evening Surprise

A good story is the cornerstone of a memorable adventure or role-playing game, but it is even more important in the case of visual novels. This is because there are no other gameplay mechanics to keep you engaged, which means that the story is the only element that has the power to captivate you. Granted, some visual novels also feature branching stories and many decisions that change the course of the plot.

Evening Surprise is a kinetic visual novel that puts you in the role of Max, a young man living with his girlfriend, who lives a pretty regular life with nothing exciting happening to him. The game features a few choices every now and again, but they do not actually affect the ending, because there’s only one way the game ends. However, it’s a pretty nice plot twist, so it might catch you off guard.

As mentioned before, the main character’s name is Max, and you get to experience a few days of his life with Ann, his girlfriend. Everything goes fairly well at first, at least until Max spots Ann in the company of another man. Things take a pretty interesting turn after that, especially since Ann promises Max some sort of surprise, which makes things all that more exciting.

Even if your choices do not affect the course of the story, it’s nice to be able to choose your answer to certain queries. Things also get a bit weird after a point when Max starts dreaming of unusual stuff, but the ending is what makes the game. It also takes only half an hour or so to go through the game, which means that you do not have to clear an entire day to play it.

The graphics are also very impressive in terms of artwork, because every background is original and very nicely drawn. There are multiple poses for the characters, and the lighting also changes depending on the time of day, which is a nice touch. The soundtrack hits the spot as well, even if the tunes are far from memorable most of the time.

Even if Evening Surprise is fairly short and it doesn’t allow you to change the course of the plot, the story as a whole is very interesting, not to mention surprising once it ends. Thus, visual novel enthusiasts should have a blast with it, especially since it’s free of charge as well.