Last month, Ignition Entertainment sent me a copy of Lux-Pain (DS) for review. It was originally developed by Japanese studio Marvelous and uses a visual novel framework in concert with adventure elements. The following are my thoughts about the game after finishing the first four episodes and 5 1/2 hours of play. (I read online that there are 21 episodes in total so I still have much more of the game to play.)
The Basics:
You play Atsuki, a 17-year-old whose family was killed by Silent, a parasite spawned from hate and despair. Operating as part of anti-Silent group FORT (Force for Obliteration of the Rising Terrors), Atsuki goes undercover as a high-school student in Kisaragi City in an attempt to discover the original vector of the Shanghai Incident, which infected 10,000 people in just 3 months and led to thousands of crimes and suicides.
Navigation between areas consists of selecting highlighted regions on an isometric map. Once you enter a dialogue scene, you see shadows of the characters you’re talking to on the top screen. Color changes ripple up through the shadows in response to your dialogue choices and when a yellow gas appears, that means there are Shinen (thoughts) to be read. A “Signum Anima” warning shows up and activating it initiates a mini-game where you have to scratch the touchscreen in order to reveal the hiding Shinen worms. These warnings can also appear when entering unoccupied rooms.
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