Quantum Suicide

Quantum Suicide by Cotton Candy Cyanide (isn’t hard to guess what their whole aesthetic is) follows the crew of a research space ship with a corrupted A.I. who regularly subjects said crew to a murder game from which they cannot escape; as if space needed any more reasons to be scary. Take off that space suit and settle in for one bizarre story.

Gameplay

This is a thriller visual novel, meaning it’s a whole lot of clicking and reading. This game is fully voiced, save for your character, so it’s your job to sit and listen to everything that is said in an attempt to figure out how to get through the challenges that await.

The gameplay is very simple and the majority of it just requires you think about what people say and profile the other characters as you ask a lot of questions and you try not to die. This doesn’t provide a great deal of freedom in what you do and where you go: unlike the AAA title Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, a game with a similar theme. Although Quantum Suicide does give you the option for multiple endings and romance; it lacks the spice and quality of delivery that Danganronpa has.

Characters and Plot

So the plot in this game is some wacked out bananas crazy nonsense but then again, so are most visual novels. You play a recent addition to a crew that is floating around in space, the ships A.I. is balls to the walls crazy as she regularly makes the players engage in a game that causes you to collectively cull the crew.

There is a lot of intertwining relationship options that show up through the game which I really appreciated. Furthermore, the characters all have their own sexualities; you can’t enter a straight relationship with someone who isn’t straight. It added a surprising amount of depth to the characters and, given that you can choose your gender, added a lot of replayability for going back through and getting the person you like.

The game approaches more adult themes, if in a somewhat clumsy way, like sex, alternate realities and death which are always a bizarre mix.

Visuals

The environment is clean and well designed, as you would expect in a futuristic spaceship, it’s really nice to look at and helps set the scene really well. It’s easy to tell exactly what room you’re in and everything fits nicely but given how nice it is, it’s hard to convey a threatening atmosphere.

The characters are also pretty good, perhaps not as good in looks. All the characters are unique and well designed, but it frequently feels like they are lacking a bit of finer detail. They are all well done but in contrast to that clean, well shaded background, it can be jarring at times. Also, a few more poses might have been nice but that doesn’t really detract from the experience.

Pros

• Decent plot
• Charming art style and colour schemes
• Multiple endings

Cons

• Poor voice acting
• Endings sometimes felt quite abrupt