Dysfunctional Systems: Orientation

Was looking forward to this when it first came out but upon seeing it for the first time I was put off. Art is nothing close to the first game and while the soundtrack is good it also doesn't come close the the first game. Sucks that the series was cancelled.

A surprise prologue episode for the Dysfunctional systems series, which seems to have come out of nowhere and is an attempt to give some backstory to Winter Harrison from Episode 1. After a fully funded Kickstarter, the series was cancelled in 2015, so when I saw this on Steam I decided to give it a purchase as I enjoyed the first episode. I don't think disappointment even begins to cover this brief and tedious visual novel. This game was created to attempt world building for the Dysfunctional systems series, however most of the game is sub-par in comparison to the previous release. The plot is joining Winter Harrison for her first week at Mediator school, the classes she attends and the people she meets. It took me 81 minutes to complete this and in all honesty it felt much longer with how dull, monotonous and repetitive the story was. I appreciate the first 3 days of a new school a teen attends might not be the most thrilling on plot starts, however the most interesting thing about the episode is left toward to end and as quickly as the twist arrives, it is dashed with a rug pull end of episode screen looms over you. In all honesty, most of the episode is a major downgrade from…

Art is bad. It's no good

A short kinetic visual novel. For the current price (75% discount), totally worth it, for the full price, maybe not so much. So, this is an out-of-the-blue prequel to the previous Dysfunctional Systems VN (Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to manage chaos). Most of what it does is world-building. Since it is a kinetic VN, there is no branching, hence the replay value is nonexistent. Art is serviceable, but not great. Music is not annoying but not particularly memorable either. Writing is a little stilted compared to the first installment, but it's fine for what it is (i.e. exposition dump). The philosophy it kind of tries to push is slightly annoying, but probably that's the point [spoiler]since it gets subverted by the end.[/spoiler] Overall, this is at the same time encouraging and disappointing for the fans of the first installment. It's a mediocre kinetic VN set in an interesting multiverse, but here we mostly get to see the boring parts. Overall, if you're interested in anything I described, it's a fine 1.5-2 hour read. But it's not something you'd really want to read unless you're somewhat invested in the first game in the series. This does make me hope that other (hopefu…

The story is quite an interesting premise. Really short, 2 hours for me and I take my time with games, so a $5.00 price point is kind of up to you if it's worth. The interface looks quite pretty.

Dsyfuntional Systems: A game series with a troubled past, but one that I believe still shows its potential... Once upon a time Orientation was never going to exist nor any other future episodes. Money was gained, money was mispent, refunded, and that was the end. Then seemlying out of nowhere, Dysfunctional Systems: Orientation was released. This visual novel is enjoyable, though most likely only if your interest in the series already exists. By itself, Orientation, gives a gimplse into a world and a even smaller glimpse into a possible story, but with the knowledge of the first episode (Which is very much worth playing) Orientation offers background into future characters and builds upon the series' world and thus will allow possible future episodes to purely continue with the story by not having to worry about establishing certain fundamentals to the background. All of this is of course a repeat of the description offered on the store page. That's a good thing as that means the description is truthful and explicit. So assuming you're interested in the Dysfuntional System series, what does Orientation offer as a visual novel in my opinion? PROS: - Setup (Setting up characters a…