The story is important for Zoey and so every word is
This is the point I always harp on.
My favorite games are the ones where the developers have a clear vision of what they want to say and how they want to say it. My least favorite games are those where I disagree with their visions and just don't play them.
My point being that developers should stick to their guns and change things only when it makes sense to them, and the success or failure of any particular game should be that it appeals or does not appeal to a sufficient audience.
There are also games whose developers have no plan, have great ideas for the beginning and no clue as to where the game will end up. We all know developers like that. Their games start and draw players, but are soon abandoned. Only to have the developer start up another one, which follows the same path. Those developers soon gain a reputation that attaches forever.
And there are developers who just listen to their audience to tell them what to do next. I try to avoid those games.
I like to compare a VN to making a movie. No director in his right mind starts to make a movie with only a basic premise and just wings it. No, they storyboard before they even start.
Which brings me back to this game. It is refreshing to find another game where the developer has a story to tell and has thoroughly mapped it out.
As to whether there is too much or too little text in this game, if the text is interesting, which to me it is, the length is of little consideration. [I have read an unabridged version of War and Peace, just because I wanted to. Don't recommend it though, because I don't agree with Tolstoy's view of history, which he throws so heavily into the narrative.] Is this game perfect? Not to me. I think Zoey (like Tolstoy perhaps) preaches to me too much. However, this is his game and his story, and I am never going to ask him to tone anything down. The good outweighs the bad so heavily that I will continue to place this game at the top of my list of games to play.
