Bookbinding – Dark Cozy Sim

I really did not like the characters. I wish that the devs had listed this as a visual novel because that is what it is. When I think of cozy dark sim I think of Do No Harm or Strange Horticulture. I just wish there was more bookbinding and I really don't understand how you would want to romance any of the characters... just as a preference I really wish it had been promoted as a visual novel, that's what ruined the experience for me the most.

It's a relatively affordable game so being harsh on it doesn't make sense. Here's my current thoughts after playing for half an hour. These notes are personal to me and would really appreciate it if the devs were to consider adding them in future updates. Cons 1. It doesn't have voice acting, It would be nice to hear the characters voices, I think it would add a lot more life to them and create an even more mysterious mood elevating the whole horror or mystery theme. 2. Controls: I noticed while playing the game I couldn't use space to progress the speech bubbles, this odd because most if not all visual novel or story driven games have that and as someone who prefers using the spacebar instead of my mouse it was a little disappointing. 3. Sound effects: Besides the music in the background and the ambient noises the UI doesn't really feel immersive. 4. UI customization: For a game with a looooot of reading since there is no voice acting, an option to increase or decrease UI/Text would be really handy. Pros 1. There are a lot of decorations for the books which is great since this is a book binding sim. 2. The character designs are interesting and makes me think about my characters…

It's a very cool game. I recommend buying it. I like creating my own books.

so far i have really enjoyed this games story and I am looking forward to finishing it

I'm on playthrough number 4 right now because going through different options to find different endings and conversations has been genuinely enjoyable. I do feel there is some lack in the book binding aspects, it's the same in every go, they ask for the same thing every time. I do wish you could "dim" the stickers and such, the colors are so bright in comparison to certain cover colors and it really feels limiting if you want it to look seamless and cohesive. All in all I think it's fun. The story has a lot of options and potential routes to be taken and while the book design aspects do have a few things left for me to personally desire, i still think there is more than enough to bite into and enjoy.

I loved my first playthrough and thought the creative element of decorating book covers was a great break from the heavy story (which I also loved, just appreciated that there was levity in between the sections). I loved it so much that after my first playthrough got an unsatisfactory ending, I did several more playthroughs to explore the storyline options (hence the insane play time). It is true that sometimes it didn't feel like there was a good dialogue option, and on one or two occasions I also got railroaded into plotlines that I was actively avoiding, but it didn't break the story too badly for my own enjoyment. I initially got the game for the bookmaking aspect, and would have like a bit more robust design tool, but eventually I figured out little tricks to getting it to do what I wanted overall. For a sub-$15 game I'm very pleased with the experience I had. I would have liked to see a few more story branches involving some of the central characters, but other than that I have little in the way of critique.