Let’s get what they did right out of the way first. I backed Beach Bounce knowing full well that it wasn’t going to go into any deep philosophical debates. I backed it for face value, which was a slice of life game set at a beach resort with a bunch of beautiful ladies working there. And for that I wasn’t disappointed in the least. In fact, I found every single one eye catching and each had her own personality. Even if they seemed rather cliche.
But, unfortunately, it seems that most of the rest of the game fell flat on its face. I won’t bother talking about the repetitive music, which is pretty much standard for all visual novels. I tend to not really listen to it anyway. My biggest problem with Beach Bounce is twofold. The first is understandable due to the game being broken up into parts. It’s short. Incredibly short. I managed to finish it in just over an hour. $16 is a lot to ask for such little content. Even if more is promised in two-to-four months time.
The second major problem? The story. While I wasn’t expecting Shakespeare I was still holding it to at least the standards of most other dating sims out on the market. Beach Bounce in its current state has no substance. The characters are all one dimensional and fall for our protagonist at the drop of a hat. Even Rei, who can best be described as aloof, warms up to Tomoyo way too easily.
And don’t get me started on Sakura. She’s a lesbian. It’s stated more than once in the game, but when she suddenly takes a liking to Tomoyo it threw me for a loop. To try to fix this obvious problem Tilley, in his infinite wisdom, decided that she should say something along the lines of “I guess I’m just bisexual.” I’m sorry, but it don’t work like that. Trust me. And the sex scenes, edited for the Steam release, feel tacked on and just…weird. They either made no sense or made me so uncomfortable I wanted to stop playing. And as someone who doesn’t shy from the more risque games that’s saying something.
The scenes themselves are rushed. You barely get to know any of the characters during the first week and you’re supposed to spend several weeks together. I know it’s just a prologue of sorts, but for crying out loud try to make it so that the story flows better. It kept jumping around and I couldn’t tell what was going on half the time. That said, I don’t want to completely lambaste Tilley on a half baked game since it’s not even half done yet. At the same time, though, unless he ups his game the rest might fall as flat as this first part. I do hope that it does get better, but until then I recommend not buying Beach Bounce until the final part releases in December. For now it’s little more than an expensive demo.
Wow that sucks, that there’s not much depth to the characters, I can see this as a game that some might joke gift people on Steam if thats the case. If they lowered the price to $10, would you consider it a reasonable purchase, or would $5 be a better price due to its length and content?
As it currently stands I think $5 would even be too much. I’ve played free visual novels that are just as long, if not longer, and with much better plot.
Thanks Serena!
I told you that my scenario was going to be better :P.
Well, i had a very good laugh, thank you Serena! 😀
Then, i guess we can say that what we predicted became true. Splitting such a game in 3 just doesn’t make it..the plot is thin for god sake..it’s beach, girl, resort..if you cut that in 3 you end up with nothing..also from reading you the experience seems a lot worse on every level than i expected..
Fuck me. It sounds so bad i want to play it..grr..i don’t want to give AJ 10$ but i love bad movies..Z series and awful video games..
I played via Steam (it’s usually the best way to grab screenshots) and I was certain that I had patched the uncensored version in. With update 1.3, which was subsequently rolled back due to breaking the game, it might have caused my playthrough to revert to the cleaned up version. If it was still working then Tilley doesn’t know what “uncensored” means. Seriously, there was nothing in the sex scenes. Just talk about doing it and the girls in lingerie.
It’s a bit sad. I really did enjoy Sword of Asumi. It was a pretty decent game. Not perfect but still a visual novel worth playing. Beach Bounce is a mess, a wreck, and very much a disappointment. I’ll definitely be playing parts two and three and writing my thoughts on them when they release. I did pay good money for a bad game, after all.
can’t wait to read your thoughts about it when it’s out^^
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