Chronotopia Demo

Many classic stories have made it over the years because they talk about the human condition, which is why they still apply today, regardless of the world we live in. Naturally, people have managed to include concepts from these stories in many other works of literature, as well as adapt them into movie tropes or video games ideas.

Chronotopia is a unique visual novel that aims to retell the story of Donkeyskin, as well as combine it with a few other ideas in order to obtain something much darker than the original. The gameplay is pretty straightforward for a visual novel, but there are a few interactive sections as well, which allow you to explore the environment as you see fit and even conduct mini-investigations.

Since this is not a kinetic novel, your actions and choices affect the outcome of the story, meaning that you have the liberty to replay the game multiple times and reach a different ending every time. You also get to control your character’s reactions during a dialog scene, but don’t expect a plethora of options in this regard, because most of the reply options are pretty basic.

As you’ll notice from the first few minutes, the story is much darker than the original, which means that you can get to a really bad ending if you don’t watch your step, or if you wish to see your character suffer. The characters you meet along the way are pretty interesting as well, especially since many of them are inspired by those from the original tale, or from various anime series.

The graphics go very well with the atmosphere, especially since they are pretty dark and moody most of the time. The characters are superbly designed too, which makes it easier to interact with them over the course of the story. Many good things can be said about the soundtrack as well, even if it can get repetitive after a while.

In the end, Chronotopia may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s certainly a unique visual novel with a very interesting story and a gorgeous visual style. Thus, if you are interested in anime and visual novels in general, you can support the developers by backing their Kickstarter project.