Vera Blanc: Full Moon Demo

Visual novels are mostly dedicated to a rather small niche of gamers, because not everyone is very excited at the idea of clicking through a few hours of dialog and static artwork. However, if you appreciate a good story and you want a break from all the shooting and the car stealing happening in all the other video games, a visual novel is probably the answer.

Vera Blanc: Full Moon is a simple visual novel game in which you play the role of Vera Blanc, the daughter of the richest man on Earth and a genius to top it all off. However, instead of driving Ferraris and sailing yachts around the world, she decides to become a private detective’s sidekick and travel the world in search of supernatural mysteries to investigate and solve.

The game does a pretty poor job of explaining the reasoning behind this decision, because the cutscenes that play the introduction is way too short and blunt. As such, Vera got very sick when she was young and her father paid some scientists to make her well again. However, a side effect of the operation now allows her to read minds, which obviously comes in handy during the investigations.

Part of a good visual novel game is the freedom of choice, meaning that you get the chance to pick the desired course of action. While there are some decisions you can make for yourself along the way, Vera Blanc: Full Moon doesn’t really take your opinion into account and events usually go along as the writers intended from the start. Thus, the illusion of choice is shattered rather quickly, which might prove to be a deal breaker for most gamers.

As far as the quality of the artwork and the rest of the technical aspects, it must be mentioned that the graphics are not exactly top-notch. The drawings are not bad, but they lack the potential to create memories. The sound is also quite mundane and boring every now and again, although you can easily ignore it if you manage to get into the story.

Vera Blanc: Full Moon is not exactly bad, but it’s basic and obvious, not to mention loaded with all the worst cliches out there. Hence, if you are on the lookout for something light to keep you company through a rainy afternoon, this can probably do the trick. Otherwise, there are far better alternatives out there.