品玉庵异谈 PinYuAn Tales

Played this using machine translation (https://www.reddit.com/r/vns/comments/ru4yj3/how_to_text_hook_translate_renpy_games/) as it's only available in Simplified Chinese. There are a few text messages and other images that can't be translated, but overall the writing seems pretty straightforward and it was easy enough to follow. An episodic paranormal investigation visual novel set in Shanghai. Each individual case is pretty short, but I liked how they built on each other to an ending that felt sufficiently foreshadowed and thematically satisfying. The BL content is very low, but it's labeled as "bromance" so that's about what I expected. There's just a bit of subtext as well as hints of a future relationship in the happy end. The sound design could be more interesting, but the artwork is gorgeous, especially in some of the gory bad endings. Hope this game gets an actual English translation, but even if not, I'm looking forward to more from this developer in the future!

While I've read "Curse of the Shadow" due to it getting an English translation, this one, however, did not. But seeing as the characters from "PinYuAn Tales" are IN "Curse of the Shadow", I was really curious about them! So what is one to do... When one really wants to know something... But cannot speak/read said language? One finds a way to read it anyway!!! And I did. And... I finally know... How it all started. ^-^ This story is more supernatural/paranormal than horror. Sure it has "some" horror-like elements, but it's mostly focused on investigative elements/character development and twists. The artwork is really cool. And QingQing should've kept his shirt/shorts for the second book. Haha. XD Also this book is less BL and more "bromance". Still got a kick out of it and thanks for writing these. Appreciate ya!

Although I had assistance of LunaT due to insufficent mandarin reading skills, I loved reading through every bit this visual novel had to offer. Bai Qiming is a very relatable character through a series of global lay offs and personally one of my favorite visual novel protagonist I've witnessed in a while. Yang Qing quickly became one of my favorite characters of all time. The art is gorgeous in all ways. The game is rather short but contains plenty of enjoyable materials for those who love supernatural elements. I think my favorite nunnery chapter was the tea set one. If you love horror with a slice of bl(I hope Bai Yang becomes a canon couple QaQ) and tears in your eyes this game is for you. Overseas fans would love an English release but we respect that this is a small team(about two people if I read this right) if I knew enough mandarin I would've loved to volunteer as a translator. A third game is on the way, and it looks amazing from the little teaser we got!! I'll be sure to support the game the way I can. I wish there was a way to directly fund a game development as Steam only allows you to repurchase it as a gift. Thank you for such an amazing game!! Feedback for futur…

6/10. Every choice matters.