Raining City: Millions Recollections is a mystery visual novel developed by Orca Layout. When a woman suddenly wakes up after being attacked by a creature, she finds herself thrown into a world of mystery. The line between science and the supernatural blurs as strange phenomena occur everywhere. Will you be able to stop the supernatural from interfering with your life or will the mystery keep you from escaping?
You follow Lyu Xian who is attacked by a strange creature at her home one night. She successfully fends it off after sustaining some injuries, but is left with a dark hole on her hand. That hole has apparently made her the recipient of a hundred million dollars, but it attracts a variety of supernatural threats. Lyu Xian must ally with scientific and supernatural experts to figure out what is going on and survive her predicament.
One of the story’s greatest strengths is its use of descriptive language that immerses you in the story, helping you imagine every detail. There’s intense combat scenes and moments where the supernatural becomes uncontrollable. With the help of the descriptive language, you feel like you are the target of the action. You can imagine having your arm pinned down or fleeing when something is strong enough to dent metal. The immersion is strong, helping you imagine what the characters go through and making it hard to stop reading.
However, the story does require time to truly find its momentum. There are times where it throws several concepts at you or acts as if you already know something recently introduced. While several plot points are reiterated, you may need to reread previous lines or pursue some side stories to process the details. It’s not the easiest story to understand, though the plot details do tie together if you hang in there.
The still images are detailed, giving you a good image of what’s going on at the time. Characters are also well-drawn to make them distinctive. Minor characters only get a small head-portrait, so it also serves as a way of telling who’s important to the story. The art also lends itself to the descriptive language, since you actually see what some of the gruesome details look like. This boosts the immersion and draws you in if you aren’t already wincing at some of the details.
However, the written text can let you down. If you are playing in Simplified Chinese, there are no problems. Playing in English sometimes gives you untranslated text or sentences that haven’t been proofread. It’s a shame because you can enjoy the experience only to have part of your understanding blocked off if you aren’t bilingual. Future updates may remedy the problem but it’s something to watch out for if you play in English.
The voice acting works well during serious situations but it doesn’t always match the emotional gravitas of a scene. For example, there are scenes where someone who is supposed to be fearful or worried sounds unconcerned and aloof. Even when force is used, the most anyone does is shout briefly. This breaks you out of the immersion because the characters don’t sound like they’re in a dangerous situation.
Raining City: Millions Recollections has its strong moments and when it succeeds, it’s an intriguing mystery tale. But it also stumbles at times, peeling back the layers of translation and snapping you from the immersion. Give the game time to develop its mystery and you will enjoy the story. There are some rough edges, but they don’t impede the story’s good points too often. With patience, you can enjoy the story and think about it for a few days after you are done.
Victor reviewed Raining City: Millions Recollections on PC with a provided review copy.
