＜/reality> Demo

Video games have been a way for people to escape reality for decades now, and they are getting better and better at it as technology evolves. However, even something as simple as Asteroids or Space Invaders was enough to make a man forget about sleep and food, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that games like World of Warcraft or Minecraft have the same effect.

＜/reality＞ is a role-playing visual novel in which the concept of VR is approached from a unique perspective, while also discussing the nature of reality itself and what it means to be aware. You get to interact with the game world in the form of choices that your character makes, choices that impact the story and decide the fate of everyone involved. Granted, don’t expect anything too hands-on either, since this is still a visual novel.

The story puts you in the role of Lilya Martel, a girl who enjoys playing a VR MMO and escaping her rather disappointing life. When a new VR console by the name of Penta is announced, Lilya gets to be one of the beta testers and enjoy the simulated reality. However, things go pretty wild once some of her online buddies run into trouble with the simulation.

The game approaches a couple of tough subjects, such as what is the nature of reality and how can we ever be certain that what we experience is indeed real. Naturally, the demo is a bit too short for these questions to be answered, but we can only hope that the final version is going to feature a few satisfying explanations, or at least a convincing fate for the characters involved in the ordeal.

As for the artwork, the game does a wonderful job when it comes to relaying a convincing atmosphere, mainly thanks to the great character design and wonderful backgrounds. Moreover, the developers took the time to include a few pre-rendered animations of the MMO everyone is playing in the game, making the experience feel that much more exciting.

All in all, ＜/reality＞ appears to be a very refined and polished visual novel, especially when you consider the small development team behind it. Thus, you can support the developer and help the game be released by backing the Kickstarter project.