I’m alone in a dark room. A beam of light from the sun is slowly making it’s way across the room towards me. I hear feet outside the door. They burst in with their guns pointed at me. The light reaches me and they look shocked.
Code Realize: Guardian of Rebirth is a visual novel set in fantasy version of 1850s United Kingdom. A young girl, Cardia, can only remember two years of her life. She is told not to leave her house because she is a monster but she doesn’t listen and becomes the target of a secret organisation called Twilight.
Twilight is a British task force who’s main goal is inelegance. Captain Leonhardt is sent on a search and capture mission to find the monster in Wales. He was shocked to find a young girl but it didn’t take long to find out what she was capable of. I liked the introduction of Twilight because you are unsure if their intentions are good or bad. I enjoyed learning about Twilight and it’s backstory through the dialogue and glossary.
The game has a built in glossary that reveals information about key aspects of the story. When there are people, items or lore mentioned in the game there is an option to view the glossary. You need to press down on the d-pad. It gives you a small read but gives you vital information. I found that this was a great way to introduce backstory without it sounding too out of place by being brought up randomly. I also liked that it teased future glossary descriptions so it left the game with a bit of mystery and kept me intrigued.
The art work for the game reminds me of anime. It is a simplistic but beautiful design that is built up of layers. There is the background which is a solid layer that doesn’t move. Then the foreground layer which is used for characters to appear the only movement is the character reactions changing. Even though it was simplistic I found the use of these incredibly suitable for the game’s genre. I also loved the backgrounds and found myself getting distracted by looking at the intricate features. I could just sit there and look through the art for this game all day it is that beautiful.
The audio for the game was used really well and sounded like it was polished. I kept finding myself admiring the music for this game because of how well it fitted with the game. The music made me feel much more relaxed and I enjoyed reading the dialogue. One of my main issues was that it was originally a Japanese game with the other characters having voice actors. However, in the English version the spoken dialogue was still in Japanese. This meant that when I was not up for reading it was unable to play the game.
When I first heard of the game I was expecting much more decisions but it took me a good 45 minutes until I was presented with my first choice. I loved the artwork and the audio. I also really enjoyed the story. I felt like it was well thought through and the glossary was used perfectly to add to the backstory.
GameCritUK 