About This Game THIS IS NOT YOUR TYPICAL VISUAL NOVEL. Always The Same Blue Sky approaches the medium from a fresh new angle, a gripping tale with no filler, no pretence. Complemented by breathtaking artwork and an addictive soundtrack, you can't afford to miss this amalgamation of young talent!You play as a thoughtful young soul, bumbling your way through late adolescence; you've been through a lot for your age and consequently are a little numb. This is why you don't bat an eyelid when, out of the blue, you're transferred to yet another school, in yet another remote location. Little do you know that this small island is nothing like the others, that the events that occur on it will change everything.In an already niche genre of storytelling, Always The Same Blue Sky stands out as a truly unique seaside adventure; a timeless tale of love, mystery and humanity. 1075eedd30 Title: Always The Same Blue Sky...Genre: Adventure, Casual, IndieDeveloper:NeoNightPublisher:NeoNightRelease Date: 21 May, 2015 Always The Same Blue Sky... Download Android Ok, I really enjoyed this VN. It's quite short but I thought it was sweet. The soundtrack is amazing plus the art is lovely!8\/10.. As someone who's played a lot of VNs, Always The Same Blue Sky did not win me over. Large spoilers ahead, so be warned.- The language came across as overly poetic to the point of being purple prose. For example, we get lines such as "The precious fabric was a rich shade of turquoise which transformed the glaring sun into a thousand stars." There's nothing wrong with clever metaphor, but it should be handled carefully, not swung around willy-nilly like a sledgehammer.- A great example of what the game does wrong comes in how it describes Kira, the heroine. You get a whole paragraph about how unbelievably perfect she is, from her 'porcelain face' all the way down to her 'piercing apple-green eyes, which penetrated through all pretense'. Firstly a character with no obvious imperfections is boring; secondly, it violates 'Show, Don't Tell' pretty horrendously.- Rather than a coherent story, the game seems to just be a collection of disconnected scenes scrambled together without much in the way of pretense. One minute you're sharing milkshakes with Kira by the seaside, the next you're talking with her about the selfishness of mankind. None of these transitions feel natural at all, and the supposed drama that emerges from them turns into overly-drawn angst. (Oh, hey, my girlfriend's on the roof of the school crying to herself! Better walk away and do absolutely nothing to help because somehow I know I'm not supposed to!)- Speaking of story, it feels like huge chunks of plot are missing. There are several topics that are vaguely touched upon but never see any sort of payoff. For instance, during the opening sequence, the protagonist takes a pill of some sort before rushing to school. Is this an indication of illness? It's never brought up again. Likewise there's a bizarre subplot about owls in the Mediterranean which again leads nowhere. And sometimes things just...happen, without any real context (OK, so we're being moved off the island...why, exactly?)- Finally the ending comes out of nowhere and makes very little sense. So it turns out Kira's some sort of sea spirit who's been killing people every month to maintain her human form. After a VERY heavy-handed moral about the destructive nature of humanity she's sucked up by the sea again, and we get a short epilogue of how the sea will always be with us and so Kira's never gone or whatever. DID YOU MISS THE PART WHERE SHE WAS A SERIAL KILLER, GAME?Perhaps the frustrating part of all this is that there is plenty to salvage. The art is excellent for the asking price, with a plethora of backgrounds and CGs, and the game does a few neat things with Ren'py you don't see often (blinking characters, walking animations, etc.) The music was forgettable, but I didn't mind it in particular. It's just that the terrible writing sinks the whole package and makes me feel like I wasted my money on it.In short, Always The Same Blue Sky is wonderful to look at, but absolutely miserable to play. Those hoping for a quick VN fix should look elsewhere. Consider the freeware game Voices From The Sea instead.. Well it's hard to vote down but since there is no "neutral" button i tend more to negative then positive...PRO:- Nice Art- Lovely peaceful SoundtrackCON:- Several decisions but effect only two events- Some decisions doesn't make much sense- German translation is full of mistakes- Very Short Story- Not very suprising ending - only two of them- Sometimes Kira looks like an Figure of PaperSo lets get some text.Always the same blue sky is a little VN wich plays on an island somewhere in the mediterran south. The player can name himself like he want and can choose if he wants to be a girl or a boy. And here comes one of the strangest decisions of the Novel. The whole story is written on the role of a boy. But it doesnt effect anything if you are a boy or a girl. So you decide if you get to a normal or lesbian romance? For what? Its one of the things i don't get. Nobody need a decision like this its just senseless. Art and Soundtrack ist well done. It fits and have some pretty CGs. The decisions you made are also a little bit senseless. It results in just two ends: A "good" one and a "bad" one - but i think they are predictable and not well written. This is a pity! There is so much potential to make a very good Novel with serveral decisions but most of them are not effect something big. There are one or two diffrent scenes you can get but with all ways you come down to the same endings...My first walkthrough was made in 45 minutes... sry this is too short for me... The price ist ok i think if you want something you can read in between times its a choice. And: Read it in english! The german translation is just a joke - in english you'll have no problems. All in all its a little Novel with good Art and Soundtrack but much mistakes and strange decisions. You can buy it but don't expect too much. For the price it's ok.4\/10. Personally, I enjoyed this visual novel. I bought it despite some of the bad reviews, as it was cheap, and was pleasantly surprised.The writing does lean towards excess, and could do with some editing - for example, a lengthy description of Kira's appearance is not necessary, as we see her sprite and already know about her apple-green eyes.I loved the odd sense of place this game had. It felt somewhat familiar, yet alien. I also liked the way the story emerged as a series of vignettes - again though, there are some loose ends and the transitions in some places were a bit confusing. In one instance, art appears before the writing has caught up, leaving me confused as to why the protagonist was talking about Kira walking away when the art shows her smiling with a fishing net.I liked the ending, but the lengthy explanation Kira gives felt a tad clumsy. I also disliked how every ending has Kira deciding to be good, either before or after she murders the protagonist The game is very short, it took me under an hour to 100% it.All in all, this is just what I think. The bad reviews raise good points, but for me the good outweighed the bad in the end.. Always the Same Blue Sky is a short game, but this is not a mark against it; it tells its story in a succinct and satisfying way that certainly doesn't drag on. I would recommend this game primarily if you are interested in a visual novel that lets you role-play the main character a bit; there are many opportunities to decide how you want to handle a situation, even if these don't always wind up too differently from one another. Although I put in multiple playthroughs, I believe it would be best enjoyed with a single straight playthrough and no going back for achievement hunting.This is largely because the game is a lot more linear than it lets on - there are a refreshing amount of decisions, but all of these simply add points to the summation of a single "good" or "bad" ending with a complete lack of actual branching paths. I will admit that the story itself took some very welcome unexpected turns, especially after starting with the painfully boilerplate trope of the protagonist sleeping in on their first day of classes only to meet the girl of their dreams. There are a handful of cringey lines of dialogue to be sure, but for the most part the writing did not get in the way of the story.I played through this game 4 times in total but there were only two endings (general idea but no spoilers): - "Honest" playthrough, making decisions as I felt them to be in character - "Reverse" run, same as before but with all of the opposite decicions to see how it affected my outcome - "Good" ending, following a guide to get one of the last two achievements for answering the questions 100% consistently in a certain direction - "Bad" ending, following a guide to get one of the last two achievements for answering the questions 100% consistently in the opposite directionAnd to be clear, those last two runs were entirely my own fault, self-inflicted for the sake of achievements. I have to believe I would have enjoyed the game more without replaying it so many times, if only to let myself believe it had more depth than it actually does. After getting middling results on my first two playthroughs (and to be fair, there is some particularly arbitrary logic for either path, such as expecting you to ignore a sound effect you can clearly hear) I had really expected a more illuminating ending for maxing out the morality system one way or the other, but the game does not deliver. That said, I do appreciate the game (which lasts 30-40 minutes on first play) being easily re-run in 5-10 minutes for those of us who do go back to try alternate routes. It also features a save system courtesy of the Ren'Py engine, but the game was short enough that I never felt compelled to use it.If you can resist the urge to replay for completion and just enjoy this as a one-off narrative experience, I think you might be pleasantly surprised by Always the Same Blue Sky; and if not, it's still a worthwhile experience, even with some shortcomings.. Was not a fan of this game it reminded me a lot of Voices from the Sea which is a free to play game here on steam and a lot better.. Great Visual Novel by Crimson Night and published by Flying Interactive, on steam. This Visual Novel was very short but very enjoyable with choices with 2 endings 1 being a bad ending and the other being a good end. Another Visual Novel with easy achievements.
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