Donutal

Donutal is a game like lighter version of Papers, Please. Instead of checking documents, you interview aliens to understand their true intentions and determine whether they are just normal visitors, beings that could help solve Earth's problems, or threats to humanity and the planet. It's more of a visual novel (VN) than a traditional game, with simple and uncomplicated mechanics. It's quite bug-free and well-optimized, except for one fatal error I encountered during my playthrough that caused the game to crash. The soundtrack is also very nice, especially during the emergency sequences. One negative thing I can mention is that I wish the stories were much deeper and more meaningful rather than simply being a matter of talking to someone and moving on. There are a few stories that expand over a couple of days, but that's about it. I also think it would be nice if the game forced the player to make moral vs. logical decisions, with meaningful consequences based on those choices. Lastly, I hope Arc can add a romance and marriage system to the game. AVA, Rico, Lillil and Maru deserve better! Let my waifus be happy!

I bought this game hoping for a sci fi "paper please" game with the backing of an entire studio. This game is nothing like that. they didnt say it is anywhere, my assumption was 100% wishfull thinking and they put out a demo you can check before buying. But still, if you are like me and looking for beurocracy or some time based pressure, this game is not for you. I still dont reccomend the game even besides that, because I gave it an hour or 2 anyway hoping to find some other fun in this game and I just couldnt find it. At least in the first hour or 2 the writing is completely vapid, there are no dillemas, no puzzles, no characters to get invested in, just diffrent aliens each day and an empty main loop. My only emotions are boredome and bufflement that this thing was actually put out by a serrius publisher, this feels like some indie developers first game, something I would see on a flash games website for free 15 years ago, try for a few minutes and forget about it immediately.

Lots to love here. This is a game that explores its subject matter thoroughly, with care, sensitivity and humor. I never saw it doing anything new but if you want to play a game about immigration, it's up there. Lots of cute, hot and cool alien designs. A lot of them are human scale Star Wars-ish guys, but there's also a lot of cosmic horrors that can instantly end the world if not for your permit rejection and/or vent button. One complaint I have is that it was kind of unintuitive to unlock the true route. The mechanical keystone of the entire story is the fact that you can put two aliens together in the same room to see what happens, which means [i]combinatorics[/i] rears its ugly head. I know why they did it, it's a narratively rich idea, but some frustration is inherent. Some reviews have stated there are no moral dilemmas: this is false, as it does attempt some "heart vs brain" choices, which DOLPHIN will signpost loudly. Example: [spoiler]the wanted killer[/spoiler]. The issue is that outside of the main plot, the stability and relations mechanics always suggest one correct option, although you'll be given an interesting news article for picking the wrong one. Similar games…

Have you ever wished for someone to sell you a lemon by dangling choice in front of you, before pulling the rug from under you by telling you "wrong" whenever you are not picking their very narrow path of what they think you should have taken and ending your run in this visual novel masquarading as a game? No, that being still to entertaining? Well how about a visual novel that forces you into certain picks by ending your playtrough soon if you don`t, and then still laughing in your face for having sold out earth to the obviously evil aliens that you were forced into by the game design itself? Sprinkle some of worst, laughably blatant writing on it, and you get this "game." Here, someone`s idea of subteley was to give too little to no information to work with, and then have the hostile intentions of characters be blurted out or just told by another character. I could forgive this if you could have interacted with the world a bit. If the visual novel in question was even a little bit interesting. If there were characters, or anything at all to be invested in. Maybe just a skip button for dialogue that lets you get past the same trash the 6-th time? This game commits one of…

A rather interesting expansion on Papers Please, except with aliens! You interview aliens to see what they want to come to Earth for, and to make sure they have only good intentions so as not to make the world worse, or destroy it! You do so by asking them various questions like the purpose of their visit, are they affliated with anyone, where they're from, diet, etc. Or scan them to see their belongings and special species. But what makes it much more interesting is that you can interview *two* aliens at once, and can mix-and-match any species of alien (and some are very different, from garden-eels in a mech suit to floating rock people to intergalactic three-eyed salesmen and more) together, or keep them alone (like to ask certain questions to a shy alien). Some aliens with be working together for a bad plot you need to uncover, others will help you out by making another unintentionally reveal their plot, some are foolish enough to reveal it to you with little prodding, and some have dialogue options you can only specific interactions you have to puzzle out who needs to talk with whom or with what other dialogue! Through this, if an alien is outright hostile, you can vent them ou…

Pros: Life and Death as Alien Immigration Interviewer Lots of aliens and dialogue Unlockable content in the diner Many Endings Good Art Writing Music Sound Cons Hard to Finish Gets Somewhat Tedious after 3 hours Hard to Save the Earth Don't feel like finishing it i say buy it on sale. 8/10 - too many similar cases and too hard to finish. Still Loved it absolutely.