I was skeptical when I accepted Manna for our Malices via Curator Connect. I didn't expect much of it at all, given how it looks. To put it bluntly; I'm simply no longer interested in playing a Visual Novel when I dislike the artwork, thus I was about to decline the offer at first. I already have plenty of bad Visual Novels, and I'm not eager to add more of them to my Steam library or to waste my time with them anymore. Even though I was sure that this is just another trash game, I still decided to give it a shot and, to my own surprise, I didn't regret it at all. The execution of the story and the decent writing totally took me by surprise. Judging by the store page, it's nothing I would have expected from this title at first or tenth glance.

I assume that Manna for our Malices is only around one hour short if you use the guide right from the beginning, which I honestly wouldn't recommend doing, it really takes away the whole fun. It took me about three hours and around sixty deaths to finish everything the game had to offer and to obtain all achievements without using the guide. To die sixty times in three hours is something you would rather expect to experience in a soulslike, less in a Visual Novel. You have to die a lot in order to check if there are new options that may lead you to a different path or that offer new dialogue choices. It's fun trying to figure out how you could probably discover something new that might helps you to proceed with the story and to experiment with all available options.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1664927138

Akagi Ai is your average student, she's attending classes and goes to school with her best friend Aoi every morning. Aoi seems to have a crush on Akagi Ai, but don't get your hopes up; it's not a Yuri game and romance is not part of the story, although the relationship between them does take a substantial role plotwise. After a rather uneventful school day, our first day ends abruptly when we get sneakily stabbed on our way home, and die for the very first, but certainly not for the last time. The story continues as we find ourselves once again at the beginning, waking up on the exact same day. The only difference this time is that the Aiko from the past, which just died, is now trapped in a time loop and the clueless Aiko of the present, that didn't die yet, are now able to mentally communicate with each other. The time loop of waking up in the morning, going to school, and getting murdered continues until you reach a true ending, meanwhile, one question remains; why is someone so obsessed to kill us?

Repeating the same day, our goal is to find new clues, new clues give us new options, and new options lead us to new clues, revealing the truth more and more, which is the only way to break free from the time loop for good. Despite being darker, the setting heavily reminds me of the comedy movie Groundhog Day where the protagonist is also trapped in a time loop and awakes on the same day and time again and again until he finds a way to escape from his fate.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1664926696

The avatar sketches from the text box remind me of an RPG Maker horror game called Calm Falls[i.ytimg.com] released in 2002 in Germany by Kelven, which I really liked back then. Granted, I was seven years old, and it was probably not so hard to impress me. Maybe the feel of nostalgia is playing tricks on me but I really enjoyed the transmitted atmosphere in this Visual Novel. The artwork which was probably drawn in Paint, is jokingly bad, up to a point where the question comes up if someone even put any effort into drawing the characters. I basically have two left hands when it comes to drawing, but I think even I could have managed to draw better-looking character sprites. While the art style does look hideous, it kind of has a charm I can not really explain. It's quite similar to the feeling I have about child drawings in horror movies. They have something eerie attached to them because they look amateurish and some low budget horror movies are more atmospheric merely because they are somewhat cheaply made. I do wonder if the artist made the characters look like this out of intent or not.

Since Manna for our Malices is extremely short and looks nothing like an appealing or enjoyable game at all, I think it would have been more appropriate to offer it for free or to sell it as a one-dollar game because if I'm completely honest with you here, I wouldn't have purchased it. I only gave it a chance because I was given a review copy and even now after playing and liking it, I still wouldn't pay more than $1.

While I do recommend Manna for our Malices if you take an interest in the well-thought-out time loop theme, I'd also suggest waiting for a sale.

I was skeptical when I accepted [i][b]Manna for our Malices[/b][/i] via Curator Connect. I didn't expect much of it at all, given how it looks. To put it bluntly; I'm simply no longer interested in playing a Visual Novel when I dislike the artwork, thus I was about to decline the offer at first. I already have plenty of bad Visual Novels, and I'm not eager to add more of them to my Steam library or to waste my time with them anymore. Even though I was sure that this is just another trash game, I still decided to give it a shot and, [i]to my own surprise[/i], I didn't regret it at all. The execution of the story and the decent writing totally took me by surprise. Judging by the store page, it's nothing I would have expected from this title at first or tenth glance. I assume that [i][b]Manna for our Malices[/b][/i] is only around one hour short if you use the guide right from the beginning, which I honestly wouldn't recommend doing, it really takes away the whole fun. It took me about three hours and around sixty deaths to finish everything the game had to offer and to obtain all achievements without using the guide. To die sixty times in three hours is something you would rather expect to experience in a soulslike, less in a Visual Novel. You have to die a lot in order to check if there are new options that may lead you to a different path or that offer new dialogue choices. It's fun trying to figure out how you could probably discover something new that might helps you to proceed with the story and to experiment with all available options. https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1664927138 [b]Akagi Ai[/b] is your average student, she's attending classes and goes to school with her best friend [b]Aoi[/b] every morning. Aoi seems to have a crush on Akagi Ai, but don't get your hopes up; it's [b]not[/b] a Yuri game and romance is not part of the story, although the relationship between them does take a substantial role plotwise. After a rather uneventful school day, our first day ends abruptly when we get sneakily stabbed on our way home, and die for the very first, but certainly not for the last time. The story continues as we find ourselves once again at the beginning, waking up on the exact same day. The only difference this time is that the Aiko from the past, which just died, is now trapped in a time loop and the clueless Aiko of the present, that didn't die yet, are now able to mentally communicate with each other. The time loop of waking up in the morning, going to school, and getting murdered continues until you reach a true ending, meanwhile, one question remains; why is someone so obsessed to kill us? Repeating the same day, our goal is to find new clues, new clues give us new options, and new options lead us to new clues, revealing the truth more and more, which is the only way to break free from the time loop for good. Despite being darker, the setting heavily reminds me of the comedy movie [b][I]Groundhog Day[/i][/b] where the protagonist is also trapped in a time loop and awakes on the same day and time again and again until he finds a way to escape from his fate. https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1664926696 The avatar sketches from the text box remind me of an RPG Maker horror game called [url=https://i.ytimg.com/vi/iH5a7rP26u4/maxresdefault.jpg]Calm Falls[/url] released in 2002 in Germany by [b]Kelven[/b], which I really liked back then. Granted, I was seven years old, and it was probably not so hard to impress me. Maybe the feel of nostalgia is playing tricks on me but I really enjoyed the transmitted atmosphere in this Visual Novel. The artwork which was probably drawn in Paint, is jokingly bad, up to a point where the question comes up if someone even put any effort into drawing the characters. I basically have two left hands when it comes to drawing, but I think even I could have managed to draw better-looking character sprites. While the art style does look hideous, it kind of has a charm I can not really explain. It's quite similar to the feeling I have about child drawings in horror movies. They have something eerie attached to them [i]because[/i] they look amateurish and some low budget horror movies are more atmospheric merely because they are somewhat cheaply made. I do wonder if the [i]artist[/i] made the characters look like this out of intent or not. Since [i][b]Manna for our Malices[/b][/i] is extremely short and looks nothing like an appealing or enjoyable game at all, I think it would have been more appropriate to offer it for free or to sell it as a one-dollar game because if I'm completely honest with you here, I wouldn't have purchased it. I only gave it a chance because I was given a review copy and even now after playing and liking it, I still wouldn't pay more than $1. While I do recommend [i][b]Manna for our Malices[/b][/i] if you take an interest in the well-thought-out time loop theme, I'd also suggest waiting for a sale. [h3][quote]𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 [url=https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/curator/33853800/]𝐎𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐤𝐚𝐢'𝐬 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞[/url] 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐉𝐑𝐏𝐆 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬[/quote][/h3]