Qelochia

It is like a 5 out of 10, just barely passable. The romance feels super rushed and pushed for the main characters, same with the AI and the Bloodheart. Out of nowhere the AI just says that it has always hated the main characters and wants them dead, but they have never shown to be rude, mean, or malicious in any way. Feels like that was just tacked on to try and make them more relatable to each other. Same with the two woman as well. The Cyborg gets into drawing and the Flowerbed woman just instantly falls in love, and yes I know the excuse is because they are both "lonely" but it was not sold well enough. Interesting little story worth a quick read but do not expect more out of it.

A great story set in a very interesting world.

[i]Qelochia[/i] is truly a marvel of a visual novel, and it is going to leave a very lasting impression on me, both because it is very much my cup of tea addressing the concepts I’m fascinated with (artificial and alien intelligence, xenobiology, problems of consciousness, ethics of experimentation and survival, complicated relationships between persons in adverse circumstances, various forms of body horror, decision-making where there is no optimal option, etc.) and because it is objectively very well-written and impeccably designed, with the prose beautiful and meaningful, limited tools cleverly used to achieve the desired effect, and the structure of plot itself orchestrated for powerful impact. Two relationships run in parallel in an uncanny setting gradually uncovered–the full picture is never shown and remains quite mysterious, but gives just enough context to make the final decision absolutely heart-shattering. The first love story develops rather mundanely yet adorably–as much as a queer relationship between a researcher with flowers growing out of her flesh and a floating, non-human-born cyborg with only half of her body can be called “mundane”. The second love story was…

absolutely enthralling. expertly handled themes of existence, relationship, war and even yuri. phenomenal execution, wonderful prose that got laughs, gasps and moments of silence from me. played it with a friend and we voiced the characters, i would recommend anyone else to do the same. only problem is that if your computer's language is written from right to left you will have to switch to english temporarily because otherwise the game's interface is flipped in a way that renders most of the buttons inaccessible. it was a little inconvenient to switch to and out of english at the start and end of each session, but the game is short, sweet and extremely worth your while so i can't complain too much even if i wanted to.

this one's for the weirdgirls out there but also stands as a compelling work of romance and cosmic horror. do you like yuri? computer? meat? i like this concept of nation as a toy for inscrutable gods

Enjoyed the narrative and its unorthodox structure. Took a bit to understand what was going on, but it’s by design. I’d love to eventually discuss the story on the “Discussions” page once more people play it.