Sepia Tears

Love is at the center of most movie and video game stories, unless it’s war. Over the years, people have come up with all sorts of romantic entanglements, some of which were inspired by reality, while others were just ludicrous. Nowadays it can be pretty difficult to portray something like that on screen, mainly because it’s an impossible task to avoid all the cliches everyone hates at this point.

Sepia Tears does not seem to try very hard when it comes to originality, but it features a couple of unorthodox approaches in certain regards. Hence, this is a visual novel game in which you watch a relationship form and unfold between two teenagers. You do not really get to interact with them, nor are you able to influence the story in any way, but it can be a relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

As such, the plot revolves around Mark, a boy who’s trying to forget something and get it out of his head. Unfortunately for him, a girl by the name of Myra is there to constantly remind him of it, so things do not go according to plan. The relationship between them is quite bumpy as well, in the sense that it doesn’t work as they hoped. There are even some twists and turns you have to be prepared for along the way.

Since you’ll be watching the screen for the majority of the gameplay, it’s important that the artwork speaks volumes, otherwise you cannot really be in tune with the atmosphere. In Sepia Tears this is more or less true, although there are instances when the background art is a tad oversaturated with Photoshop filters. Even so, most of the backgrounds are at the very least decent.

As for the character design, it is quite clear that the artists put a lot of work into it. Some of the lines appear sketchy and unfinished in certain cases, but the overall quality is quite good. Facial expressions change between scenes and even between individual slides. Thus, the action feels a bit more alert, albeit not by very much.

All things considered, Sepia Tears is obviously not the best story ever told, but it can be exciting enough to keep you engaged for an hour or two. However, this may only work if you are an avid anime fan, given the art style and the plot.