No:Worse

Excellent anime visual novel with a good story and beautiful art.

No:Worse is not a game, it's an e-book that's been dumped on Steam masquerading as a game. As a visual/interactive novel, this doesn't feature any notable gameplay, it's just a lot of clicking through badly written dialogue that would never have been accepted or published in print, which poses the question, "How did something this badly written end up on Steam?". When someone hoping to become an author is unable to get published in print, they spend $100 and dump their high school fan-fiction onto Steam, under the guise of a game. This Russian E-book has a lame anime theme and features Google Translate and a bunch of VN character/visual generator tool generated imagery... the visual presentation should be generally disregarded, it's the E-book equivalent of an asset flip. Visual novels/e-books are tedious at best... imagine the best novel you ever read, be that Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or 2001: A Space Odyssey or Twilight (if you have terrible taste in literature), but then translate that to a format where the words dribble out and you have to click your mouse every time you wanted to read the next sentence, instead of just turning the pages. You'd think it was garbage.…

I am sure there are people who like this one. There is some edgy writing, though it is somewhat innocent.

No:Worse, developed and published by Aleksey Izimov, is a character-driven visual novel that leans into themes of uncertainty, ambition, and emotional dependency, presenting a story that feels grounded in the everyday struggles of young adulthood. The game follows Natsu, an aspiring artist who finds himself stuck between creative aspirations and the realities of financial instability and lack of direction. Rather than building its narrative around grand events, it focuses on personal dilemmas and the quiet tension of trying to figure out one’s place in the world, giving the story a relatable and introspective tone from the very beginning. The narrative unfolds through a branching structure that allows players to influence how Natsu’s relationships develop and, ultimately, how his story concludes. Multiple characters play significant roles in shaping his journey, each representing different emotional paths and possibilities. Through dialogue choices, players can guide interactions in subtle ways, leading to a variety of outcomes that reflect not only romantic preferences but also the protagonist’s personal growth—or lack thereof. While the branching paths add replay value, they ten…

Can't recommend it. Technically speaking: It's technically better than the earlier work but still less practical than Ren'Py. Graphically speaking: Pretty generic. If it had been released two years later I would have thought that it was AI graphics. On the plus side the faces are animated (not very well but still). The voices: well not everybody is made to dub an anime character. There's got to be emotion in there. But the Russian accents are less noticeable as before. The dialogs: The translation could be better. But at least the obssession for breasts seems to have disappear. The story: Pretty short. The price: Really not enough content/quality for that price. Story pretty confusing due in part to the not so good English translation.

First and foremost, I'm writing this as a writer for Fuwanovel, but my opinions are my own and I'm not sugarcoating anything. However, I'm writing this expecting the author to do better next time, and not to insult them in any way whatsoever. When I saw the art and overall presentation for this VN, I was expecting a generic story. It wasn't too generic, but it was just as bad: there's not one better-than-average aspect and even the things it didn't completely fail at aren't anything to write home about. For starters, the English is very awkward to read through and is full of typos and incosistencies. The game has an English dub, but it clearly either tuned text-to-speech or it was recorded by non-native speakers; it was so bad that I enjoyed the game more without voice acting at all (not even the original, Russian one). The visuals feel very generic, like a VTuber model without any personality. It's like the author slapped different fashions on the same face and voi-la! A waifu was created. The soundtrack was "alright", but it wasn't anything too grand, so I won't dwell on it. Now, the most important aspect of any (well, most) visual novel: the story! I will admit that I was genui…