KARAKARA (PC) Review

KARAKARA is, unquestionably, one of the more unique titles to be reviewed, since it is, a visual novel that is, quite literally… a visual novel. Focused on the story of one young man who runs a diner along with his catgirl co-worker/girlfriend Lucia, things seem calm and fairly nice for the pair. Sure, the restaurant isn't the best, but it's also far from the worse and they are good friends among other things. Life is peachy - until they discover a young girl on the roadside named Aisia.

Aisia is unique in that she is oddly gifted and capable of learning at very fast rates, but is also frequently hungry, outgoing, and willing to push the other two along on their relationship. Yet things don't perfectly add up about her and, to make it more interesting, rumours of a vampire going around have surfaced. To top it off their world is full of artefacts from a time before the modern era, which the people of this world are busy trying to figure out more about.

So far, this sounds like a decent set-up. While some things are fairly transparent nothing seems 'wrong,' right? Well… there is one problem, and it is far from a minor one. Namely that it is questionable if KARAKARA can even be considered a video game. Why? Because there is literally nothing about it that requires interaction of any form. If one were to hit 'autoplay' right at the beginning, they could, quite literally, sit back and watch the story unfold without even an iota of interaction. There are no multiple paths, there are no branching decisions, there are no multiple endings, there are no decisions or interactions of any form to be found.

As such, and even for a visual novel, it is questionable if KARAKARA qualifies as a game as opposed to, well, a novel with visual aspects. In other words, this is a kinetic visual novel, therefore, the only way to judge it is on terms of story and presentation. So, how good is the story? Is it decent? Worth checking out? Well, nothing about it feels bad or irritating, beyond how certain plot points feel like they could have been figured out swiftly resulting in a shorter story. Nothing is actually really all that wrong with the plot, it can be enjoyed, and while some moments feel a bit more… obligated than natural, nothing is really bad with it.

However, ultimately this suffers from the exact same problem as Sakura Swim Club in that it targeted a certain niche, and makes no attempt to deviate, become deeper, or even really try harder. It has a storyline that is… okay-ish, no need for the player to do anything but read through it, and that's about it.