The Cards Never Lie by saguaro
The Cards Never Lie is a mystery predicated by lies and sustained by them. Solve the crime using your fake psychic powers and some old-fashioned snooping.
Ratings
| Coolness | 100% | 1 |
| Overall(Jam) | 3.98 | 8 |
| Audio(Jam) | 4.02 | 7 |
| Fun(Jam) | 3.33 | 64 |
| Graphics(Jam) | 4.04 | 50 |
| Humor(Jam) | 3.50 | 35 |
| Innovation(Jam) | 3.27 | 84 |
| Mood(Jam) | 4.35 | 3 |
| Theme(Jam) | 3.36 | 150 |
Due to its quality, I'll critique it as a normal visual novel instead of a jam game.
The writing is really, really good. Seriously, I don't think I've ever read such good writing in an OELVN before. It was really interesting to read and had a lot of charm. The style and atmosphere were also fantastic, using limited resources to great effect.
However, while the plot starts off promising, it ends up being incredibly shallow and disappointing. The detective work is limited to reading each person's profile, having a single conversation with each person and getting a couple of lines of information from Archie. While in a mystery you'd expect some hints, foreshadowing, red herrings and the like to keep you guessing for a bit until the answer is revealed, The Cards Never Lie presents all information so clearly you make an immediate correct guess as to who the culprit is, and the story never adds anything to it - in the end, you have to 'solve' the mystery with the vague guess you get as soon as you have the relevant information. There are no suspicious people and there are no misunderstandings - there's some information implicating someone (the kind that usually is either a misunderstanding or a part of a larger whole), and all of that information turns out 100% accurate and can be taken at face value.
For that matter, none of the other suspects matter to the story, only serving as a distraction. Nothing of what they say or do has anything to do with the case, their backstories not only never become relevant but are never really revealed (why waste the reader's time with something that both isn't relevant and will never become interesting?), and they don't even serve as convincing suspects. With the little character interaction you have with each character, most feel very shallow as well - their personalities are limited to the things that happened in their backstories, and they don't really feel like more than walking plot devices.
Still, I again have to commend your writing skills - with a better plot and characters (probably more likely when you aren't on a strict time limit) you'd probably be capable of making a masterpiece. I'll definitely have to check out your other works. (Though it may be a while until I do, since the next translation patch for Rewrite is just around the corner and that will probably eat up a LOT of my time.)
Graphically, it's really good (except Collen who scared me with her deadly smile....)
Music and sounds are coherent with the mood.
The story is well written but there is no really puzzle to find the culprit. Also, your character is not really a villain. She lies/tricks people to make money but she doesn't have a morally questionable goal.
Anyway, good job :)
The writing kept me very interested from the beginning to the end and the last part with the misunderstanding was genius.
Also, I really liked the font you used and the "card" theme in the visuals.
I only didn't give a 5/5 for everything because Claire isn't very villainous.
I'll admit, I found myself reaching for the Load function more than I probably should have. Take that as you will.
Nevertheless, one of the best entries I've played yet.
Good Job!