Miniature Garden Review

Welp, where do I begin. In a somewhat typical visual novel from the get go, you play as Yasunari who is trapped in a school with your childhood friend Ayana, buddy Itsuki, and lower classman Sumika. An unknown silver haired female student seems to be connected, with the mysterious supernatural trapping and creeping memories that are best left forgotten in the past. If you can tell, it’s left feeling rather lukewarm.

Mechanics first, and well not much to say other than Miniature Garden is a competent visual novel in terms of mechanics. Nothing to write home about, and runs fine. Playing on weird resolutions like 1366x768 didn’t create any weird distortions, aside from the opening playing at standard 1280x720. In terms of quality of life features it’s bare bones. One bug bear I have is the lack of functioning shortcuts like key bindings for skip, auto, quick load and quick save. In terms of lack of function is the auto function which will cut the audio short, not a deal breaker but bears mentioning. Luckily due to the game’s relatively short story, this isn’t an issue although as I’ll detail later the skip function could be quicker.

Beware the cute ones, always. Are you my mummy?

Storywise, this isn’t the worst VN I’ve ever read. But it isn’t the best, just okay. After playing through the game more than seven times to get the different endings, aspects of what lets the game’s writing down can be boiled down to pacing and the main character.

What makes it underwhelming is the way the main character Yasunari effectively downplays events and almost invalidates anything the other characters says and doesn't remain consistent enough for me know him as a person. Assuming he is a trouser’s type of character, he’s too inactive and indecisive that makes other Anime main characters who have been criticised as trouser characters rather colourful. When the story is given is prompts in making a decision, the way he acts is somewhat distracting with his reactions varying to the point it doesn’t feel genuine. A let down when compared to the other characters that are genuinely interested when they’re conversing together.

Ah yes, the classic male Yandere main character.

That’s assuming the story gives them time to fully convey the emotion of a scene. By the third act of (what I believe to be the true route), the conversations feel rushed and lack a sense of build up. The delivery being similar to walking out the door and a parcel you forgot you order blocks your foot, as a terrible analogy. This problem is emphasised by the branching narrative, with some ends feeling rushed and repetitive for the wrong reasons. As per typical VNs, the bad end always involves the main character (Yasunari) suffering some form of death or worse. In Miniature Garden’s case, the dead end lacks sufficient build up because the pacing never sticks to a scene long enough to give the player an indicator on what to do.

The seven endings are drawn out, with maybe two at most feeling genuinely good. If the game gets extra content, I would definitely revisit this again because it has the trappings and gems to make this better than mediocre at best. But when I compare this to other VNs I’ve read which have dark, mystery and supernatural elements. This lacks things that’d warrant a full hearted recommendation, Saya No Uta being one of the best with the above things. Maybe the art lets this down, because when I hear people die I expect to see full on massacre like images. Corpse Party, which I reviewed, really drove home the horror elements with its art. A few blood stains, but no real mid danse macabre. And just before the score, along with the final nail to the coffin is the price. I can’t justify its (at time of writing) price of £14.99, when Steins;Gate and Higurashi are also available on Steam. They both offer a much longer read and better writing. Final thing to put this review to rest, that was originally going to be relatively positive. If you want a similar premise thing but with better overall content for its price, just get Danganronpa.