VN - Unity - Completed - Along the Edge [v2.0.0] [Nova-Box]

This is an excellent little game! I absolutely adore the art style and am heavily considering learning how to extract data from game files just to save some of the images as backgrounds. Such incredibly vibrant and beautiful art. I thought the music was also fitting, with some creal creepy piano pieces in there, but I wish there was more variety.

Like others have said, don't play this expecting a porn game. In fact, I got the 'like a virgin' achievement on my first playthrough (presumably for not going after any love interests) so I cannot yet comment on the quality of sex scenes. I do intend to replay this to find the other endings (and get some action), though I'm really satisfied with the ending I got. I guess my one complaint is that, even though I rebuffed him from the start, the MC's inner monologue seemed to fancy the blond guy. He was utterly rude the first time she met him, so I cannot fathom why she liked him.

I have to thank the "story-first games" thread for helping me find this gem.

I played Along the Edge on Steam and would recommend it for anyone who doesn't care about adult content (Sex) but wants to play a compelling branching story. AtE has only moderate character development to offer when it comes to love interests, and the VN is far too short for any meaningful back and forth. But the plot itself is mysterious and as the main character you have a lot of agency to develop in different directions. There is no good/evil dichotomy regarding the choices, but instead it is a kind of fluid RPG system.

So when I say that there is hardly any character development, I am not referring to the MC. Here you really have a lot of possibilities. You can be outgoing, very rational, or open to the occult and magical, you can be laid back or aggressive and dark. AtE therefore has some replayability. For one playthrough you require roughly 2-3 hours.

Pros:

The art is really nice.
Story is satisfying
There are many choices
High quality soundtrack
1st playthrough was extremely satisfying.

Cons:

No sexual content tag missing
Fairly linear plot
No real walkthrough (I really want to see all the endings)
Fast forward not as fast as renpy.
Save files are not accessible
My cpu usage went insane (had to change the affinity to 1 core in task manager)

Overall it's a very good game, but without save file access and higher speed fastforward exploring all the branches is quite hard.

edit: Found the savefiles in C:\Users\\[your_name]\AppData\LocalLow\Nova-box\Along the Edge\User

THIS GAME IS NOT PORNOGRAPHIC OR SEXUAL.
If that is what you're looking for, don't look for it here. You'll be disappointed.

That said.
The game is beautiful. Some might disagree, but the unique style is very appealing to me. But not as appealing as the studio's other game was. I won't mention it by name because of rules, but all I am doing is comparing art styles.

I have only done one playthrough, so I can't be sure what I am or am not missing. I found the story to be, unsurprisingly for this studio, well thought out and well told.

However, there was a slight shallowness to this game that I couldn't shake.

The MC should have been able to figure out who her father was. She was born in the village, so there are only so many candidates.

I had no interest in either love interest, for personal reasons that I'd rather not go into to avoid spoliers. I'd have much rather a lesbian route was an option with Yves's daughter. I do not strictly go for lesbian routes on female MC games, but I appreciate the option for one.

I felt not enough character development went into the MC's history with her mother, nor was there a chance to truly confront your mother about having your family and legacy taken from you, while also never truly being warned.

I don't know if all playthroughs are doomed to being infertile or if that is just the choice of not picking either love interest, but in my playthrough, the MC makes it clear she feels she has lost the ability to ever have children, and I am never told why or how.

Much of the time is skipped, which is frustrating because that passed time could have been devoted to building some character interactions, or expanding the lore. Especially after opening the tower, the MC could have studied family history.

In the end, I feel I experienced a well told, but incomplete story. It was beautiful, and had a beginning and an ending... but I feel it could have done more.
I'd still highly recommend it.