The visual novel genre is something that has never really caught on in the west, but in Japan it is a dominate force that spawns TV series, spinoff games, manga and more. In recent years, more and more of the titles have been receiving official localizations stateside, which is wonderful for anyone who loves the series. The question, though, becomes if SeaBed becomes the cream that will rise to the top of this emerging sea.
To start, there are two things that define the visual novel: the visuals and the writing. The first part of that equation is fine. It doesn’t do anything terrible, but that is also not a deal breaker as When They Cry looked like it was drawn on MS Paint and that was one of the greatest stories told in that format. The problem is that if one doesn’t compensate for the other, the flaws start to show in both. So with the visual styling of most of the backgrounds looking like some kind of visual mosaic over real images, and generic anime characters it feels that much more forgettable.
The problem with that is that most of the story being told has been done other places, and it has been told better. SeaBed is by no means bad, but the problem becomes that it is also not something that is going to have the player remember it weeks later. It isn’t going to leave a lasting impression. The things it does different from most titles, the characters being adults for most of it, isn’t that much of a departure from other titles that it leaves a lasting impression. Once again, it is another aspect of the game that is good, but doesn’t make up for the shortcomings in other areas of the game.
The problem becomes that it is just a game for people who really enjoy the Visual Novel genre. There is a ton of content that the player is able to sift through, if they want to. The only real drawback is that this is not ten years ago when this was a bone-dry marketplace that never saw any titles released. When there are better choices out there it is hard not to choose those for roughly the same price. The problem isn’t the game, it is the games that it is competing with.