Refraction (2020)

[h1]Quick thoughts with accompanying screenshots and video in Sinical Network[/h1] https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/post/refraction-quick-thoughts [i]Refraction[/i] is a free-to-play supernatural student life visual novel with romance by [i]Universe Zero[/i]. It features Jackie Shields, a female student at Big Lake University where she attends Intro to World Religions classes with her best friends Jun and Paul. She is also a member of the university's Journalism department and has an ambitious plan to do an exposé with her fellow department members on the university's president for corruption. Jackie wakes up one day to find herself in an alternate reality in which her friends, and the Journalism department's plans may have changed. She also has to deal with her double Jacqueline Shields who is taking her place and doing some things without her knowledge. After spending over 2 hours to read through the visual novel and obtaining all the achievements, I can confirm that [i]Refraction[/i] has interesting modern pop culture references with some choices that lead to 4 different endings. A Steam community guide is also available to help players get all the endings and achievements…

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Positive 📖 Refraction is a free narrative visual novel that places you between two parallel dimensions with Jackie Shields, weaving mystery, choices, and branching story paths. You explore relationships, hidden conflicts, and different outcomes as you navigate a world where nothing remains unchanged. 🎯 A set of 18 Steam achievements gives clear goals tied to story progression, exploration, and key decisions, adding replay value for completionists. Negative 🔁 Gameplay is almost entirely reading with choice selection and minimal mechanical interaction, so don’t expect action or deep gameplay loops beyond the narrative. ⚙️ The story and pacing are relatively light; some players may find the paths short or straightforward if they’re used to longer visual novels. 🏆 Completionists & Achievement Hunters There are 18 Steam achievements to unlock across narrative choices and routes. ⏱️ Fast players can unlock everything in a little under 10 minutes, while those who take time to explore all choices and outcomes may take ≈25–45 minutes. Overall Refraction offers an intriguing parallel‑world visual novel experience with a meaningful choice structure and a generous achievement set. Its…

Игра 'Refraction' — это настоящий бриллиант в мире инди-игр, который предлагает уникальное сочетание головоломок, платформинга и атмосферного повествования. Визуальный стиль игры завораживает своей минималистичностью и в то же время глубиной, создавая ощущение погружения в загадочный мир. Механика игры, основанная на управлении светом и тенями, гениально проста в освоении, но открывает широкие возможности для решения изощренных задач. Каждая новая локация бросает вызов, заставляя мыслить нестандартно и экспериментировать. Музыкальное сопровождение идеально дополняет геймплей, усиливая эмоции и создавая неповторимую атмосферу. 'Refraction' — это не просто игра, а настоящее художественное произведение, которое заставит вас задуматься и оставит неизгладимое впечатление.

Refraction 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. Once more we have a high school anime club dropout fan-fiction, this time a cringefest Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book all about the authors favourite subjects, his imaginary anime boyfriends. There's a subplot about alternate dimensions, but the core of the e-book is just a fan-fiction around dating the authors imaginary boyfriends. The cringe goes to 11 here, and the writing is so bad when combined with that cringe, it's guaranteed to make you nauseous. This was slapped together with the godawful Ren'Py visual novel construction kit... enabling terrible authors to publish books as if they were games when otherwise we might have been spared the p…