Operation: Future Domination Demo

One thing people miss about being in school is the summer break, because you never get three months off work later on in life. Hence, being able to enjoy the whole summer with no responsibilities whatsoever is what makes being a student worth it, especially if you have some sort of hobby to keep you busy, or some friends to hang out with and have a good time.

Operation: Future Domination is an interactive visual novel that puts you in the role of a girl who just graduated high school and is looking forward to her summer vacation. The game looks fairly simple and joyful at first, but the truth is that the story gets pretty dark later on. Don’t expect new or ingenious gameplay mechanics, on the other hand, since this is still a basic visual novel in that regard.

To begin with, it would appear that Rin - the main character - is living in some kind of time loop, because the summer keeps on repeating. Things also get more complicated once you come in contact with some shady characters, some of which might hold the answer to this weird time loop. Thus, the goal is to investigate the mystery and interact with a variety of interesting characters along the way.

Every now and again you are put in the position to make choices that affect the story or the fate of certain characters. Some of these decisions have interesting psychological implications, so the game can really make you think sometimes. Naturally, this is still a demo at this point, but the full version promises multiple endings that you can reach based on the choices you make along the way.

As far as the artwork is concerned, some of it looks rather sketchy and unrefined, but it creates a dark mood in the process, which is a plus. It would be nice to see something more polished in the final version, especially when it comes to the characters, because they deserve a bit more attention. There are some animations in there too, but don’t get your hopes too high up.

All things considered, Operation: Future Domination has a pretty solid foundation, but it needs a lot more work to really make an impression on the players. Thus, we can only hope that the final product is going to be a lot more polished and refined.