Athanasy

Athanasy is a visual novel taking place in a depressing dystopian society, existing within a city that's entirely separated from the rest of the world. The game's world hits us with two obstacles at once - a deeply totalitarian system, where a minor mistake leads you to a catastrophic fate, and horrific biopunk elements and body horror, where disfigurement and mutilation are a normal part of the system. This VN features choices, and they do begin to branch out from early on, leading to entirely different story paths. However, some of those story paths can be accessed again, and your first-time playthrough might vary differently. For example, one of the story paths could be accessed very early in the game, but that same story path can then happen much later into the game too. In the former case, you could end up missing a good 50% of the game's content. For this reason, I recommend to save your game just before each choice, and then try them all out. It's hard to predict which choice will "work out" in particular situations without you being taken in by the authorities. It helps to try out different paths in order to really get a grasp of what's going on and what happened in the …

This is a very difficult review for me to write. On paper I love a game like this & I explicitly bought it because it was recommended to me. However ... this is no Steinsgate be that positive or negative. For starters, the game doesn't really let you emotionally bond with any character - it tries to but it doesn't quite work. The encounters are too brief, the characters too somber & unengaging & the few people you can get "close" to even at the best outcome, don't add a lot of emotional weight. The game basically banks completely on the "horror" theme & uncovering the truth. Except that's where it also fails. You see, what the game doesn't tell you is that almost every choice you make pushes you down a specific path to a specific ending. Some early endings are already incredibly revealing & ruin a lot of the mysticism that you can uncover in the much longer paths. It doesn't take a genius to realize that this is bad game design! And this is why I cannot really recommend it. The game fails to properly pace how it reveals the truth about the world. It reveals stuff in giant floods at a time where you suddenly learn far too much based on "wrong choices" instead of giving a fast "b…

I enjoyed Athanasy. It’s a dark visual novel set in an underground city, with a pretty grim premise about life and death. If you’re up for plenty of reading and a bleak setting, it’s worth a look.

A really great visual novel here. I'm one of those freaks who's really into stuff with a biopunk, biomechanical, H.R. Giger vibe so I especially really liked this. But I think the writing here is really great, even considering I'm the playing the English translation and not the original (Russian?) version. I thought there was a lot of good depth and ideas the story played with that made me stop and think. This felt like one of those classic sci-fi novels that presents a lot of really creative ideas. But even aside from the crazy mind-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I was engaged and wanted to see what would happen next. The characters and protagonist were likable, the pace was fast and the world was really interesting. I wasn't bored and I'm planning on going back and getting more endings. Choice was utilized really good here. Basically most choices led to a different story path, and even if I was on the route to an ending I already got there would be new dialogue. I enjoy how one playthrough won't be super long but making different choices will let you see entirely new content. Also being able to fast-forward dialogue you've already seen very quickly is a godsend. The artwork and music were really imp…

I don't know what I expected, but it certainly wasn't that. I was as interested in the mystery as our protagonist and, by design, fell into the route of the bad ending. Now not only was I invested in the initial mystery, but I had to know what the heck I'd just witnessed. This visual novel really isn't complete without seeing multiple endings, and I'm so glad I didn't stop after the first two I got. Most of the routes had something interesting to say, and I'm left with a lot to chew on. Coming to understand the world and what it meant is something that will stick with me for a while. There isn't much in the way of strong characters, but as a sucker for sci-fi and horror, the story doesn't feel lacking without it. Kind of feels like a slightly less depressing Song of Saya.

Very cool dystopian body horror VN. The plot is very good, as is the art, and there are a good number of endings to sample. A lot of the story paths overlap with each other and intersect at several plot points, so I didn't care to go for every ending. The story kind of jumps right into the universe and does a bit of worldbuilding before the real narrative begins, but the lore is very well thought out.