Kino

Strange yet funny story. Not very long, but still worth the experience. I'd recommend.

Kino is a very short and very strange little visual novel that I ended up finding more interesting because of how unusual the whole idea is. I wake up in Odesa in 1929 and, almost immediately, get hit by a tram. After that I am forced to look back over my life by a strange all powerful film camera. The whole thing is based around Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera, so it has this odd mix of historical setting, surreal humour and experimental storytelling that makes it feel different from a normal visual novel. The main thing I like is how simple the choices are while still giving me a reason to keep trying different things. I am basically making decisions throughout the story and seeing where they take me, but the game has over 128 possible endings. That is a lot considering how short the actual experience is. I can play through it once, see one outcome and then go back to make completely different choices. It gives the game a small amount of replay value without pretending that it is a huge adventure. The writing is probably where most of the personality comes from. The situation is obviously quite dark when I think about it, because I am dealing with death and looking back …

Honestly 10/10 game. It is a short and interesting game that you can easily 100% the achivements within 30 min and while it is "just" a select your own adventure game the old school black and white artstyle combined with the music and the attention to detail makes this game quite the unique experience!

Short visual novel in which you die getting hit by a tram and then you replay your life to be a complete person.

Black Mirror Bandersnatch has got nothing on this. 10/10 would get hit by a tram again

Just way too short. Didn't really feel like I was going anywhere, considering most dialogue stays the same no matter what you choose, or in most cases, the choice doesnt do anything to effect the story. My real gripe is with the description of this game, advertising "turning the music on and off" which, guess what, isnt a feature: its basic game design. Not to mention their claim of 128 different endings. Literally in what universe does this game have 128 different endings?? Its barely 5 mins on every run, and even less when youre skipping past dialogue you've already seen. Had an interesting premise but that's quite literally it. While I didn't enjoy the game, it was funny and interesting enough to make me want to hunt down the movie it was based on, so at least it was a good promotion lol