Changeling -- No Spoiler Review
Changeling
System: PC
Price: $19.99
Voice Acting: None
ESRB Rating: Not Rated, Reviewer suggests T (13+)
Overall Rating: Stole 8.5/10 ♥s
Pre-Game Perception: After some sort of event, MC finds out she is a changeling and discovers a world full of other fae-like characters who end up as LIs. I have a feeling it is going to heavily focus on relationships of every nature, not just romance.
Morning-After Reflection: A vast reaching story about a girl who is thrust into the world of magic and desperately tries to maintain her humanity while finding comfort and support in others previously thrown to the wolves, so to speak.
Story: “The human world accepted as reality is only a thin veneer under which lies a world of supernatural creatures, entities, and people. They live beside humans hiding their nature or walking among them unseen. And most people go about their lives entirely unaware of the dangers around them. Mysterious situations are written off as fake, or they're glossed over with some sort of mundane explanation.
The same was true for Nora, a normal girl struggling with the usual litany of everyday problems - including her crumbling relationship with an angry, resentful twin brother with whom she's nearly given up on reconciling.
But her family's return to the town in which she'd grown up set in motion a chain of events that would shatter every illusion she had about a world she thought she knew. Her eyes newly opened to the truth around her, Nora begins a journey to uncover the secrets of her own mysterious past and the reason for her brother's bitter hatred toward her. Alongside her best friend, and a group of unusual guys she met after her return, Nora begins to chip away at the lies shrouding her life. Lies that have been haunting her since childhood.
But in a world where Vampires, Werewolves, and Faeries are real, learning the truth may come at a high cost.”
Interest Rating: 2/10. Hear me out here, I was totally not interested in this game and now it is one of my highest rated ones, let me tell you why. I’m a horror fan (if you haven’t noticed from my game choices). I’m not a big fantasy fan. Changeling is a celtic folklore creature related to the Fae, which means fairies and magic and stuff - very fantasy. I begrudgingly started this game because I had a backing of friends suggesting I give it a try.
MC: Nora Lewis is our MC for Changeling, the fiery little red-head that’s full of snark and wise beyond her years. Both names are changeable, and since this entire game has no voice acting, changing it won’t alter the game play in any noticeable way. As much as I like voice acting and LIs whispering the MC’s name, I enjoy being able to change a name if I’m not missing out on anything, and the last name also being able to be changed is just icing on the cake. For now, though, I’m going to refer to MC as Nora because if I start throwing out random names it could get a little confusing.
Our heroine, Nora, appears in 90% of CGs. She also has a sprite by the text box (something I rather enjoy). She has an established personality that is rather strong, but able to be changed with options in the game. I was honestly impressed with how our choices actually shaped Nora. She didn’t necessarily change personalities during the game, but the writing allowed for the choice to fit well no matter which one you picked. Want to be hesitant in this choice? Be hesitant and the game remembers and won’t act like you were supposed to play Nora with all the gall in the world. Or vice-versa. Be bold and the game won’t make it seem like boldness was the wrong choice. There was literally only twice that I felt my answer was brushed over, but since most of these routes are 40 choices or so long, 2 out of… what? 250? Yeah, that seems reasonable.
So, who is Nora? Well, I gave a lot away in my introduction. Nora and her twin brother, Spencer, share some traits so you can just apply the physical features to both of them. She is short. How short? I’m not sure, but even her best friend also refers to her as being short, so I’m going to say she’s in the 5’ range. This, however, is a Western VN, so being that Westerners are generally taller than Eastern heroines, Nora may actually be 5’2” and still a shorty. She has curly, deep red hair. I’ve known red-heads in my life, but I’ve never seen a red-head quite this color, and I like it. I’ve also known those with curls like Nora’s, and the writer either did their research or has experience with the woes of thick, large curls in hair. Nora is 17 at the start of the game, with a birthday not far away, and boy does she have the most relatable attitude I’ve ever encountered for an otome heroine.
It’s not often I find a MC that I so easily understand, or reflects my own thoughts as much as I found Nora doing. I’m not sure if this is because I’m the odd one, or the writing usually doesn’t help me relate, or if the typical protagonist tends to be idealized characters that most people can’t relate to but want to be. Nora isn’t like that for me. Nora is a complex and thoroughly fleshed-out MC that tends to rely on sarcasm, finds humor in puns and wordplay, and cares for others but also doesn’t sacrifice her feelings for someone else. She fights for what she believes is just. She’s rather introspective and level-headed, though not infallible. Sometimes she panics and I think we can all relate to doing something that seemed like a good idea in that moment of panic, but turns out it was probably the dumbest choice to have made once we have a few seconds to think about it. And she certainly thinks about it. She overthinks, in fact. Another thing we share. I guess an easier way to think about it is what can’t I relate to when it comes to Nora? She’s a bit more argumentative than I am, but that’s really about it when it comes to personality. Oh, and I’m way funnier. Trust me on that.
Likability Rating: Shu. I appreciate a variety of MCs, but when I can picture myself doing the same thing, I find I enjoy those MCs a bit more. Nora is this type of MC for me. I’d gladly team up with her to chew gum and kick some ass, and no one seems to mention gum in this game, so...
Plot: The summary given by the developer makes the game seem rather fantastical, and it is, but it isn’t all Hogwarts and fairytales that I thought it was going to be. A friend said her impression was it was going to be like Buffy (the t.v. series) just in high school. And prepare to get up in arms I’ve never seen Buffy, but I know what it is and a lot of the plots due to it being popular when I was growing up. Did I date myself there? Probably. I’d say from my limited knowledge about Buffy that that is an apt description. Changeling is a bit more on the darker side of fairytales, but not a rebranding of Grimm’s original tales. Instead, it seems there was a lot of research and development put into the setting to make it seem incredibly feasible that this could be happening this very moment, in some Nor’ Eastern town where the leaves change colors and winters get cold.
Let’s get to the basics of the story if you’re like me and haven’t a clue about what Buffy is really like. Nora moves back to Pine Hallow after having moved to the city five years ago with her family. As they’re settling back into life in the quaint town, which seems to have one actual grocery store and only a few blocks of main street shops, Nora meets her soon to be romantic interests who all attend the same school she does. That isn’t the only new thing in her life. Something happens that causes Nora to discover that the world isn’t what it seems, and suddenly she’s awakening to all those things that lurk in the dark. Good news is that her love interests all belong to this world, and even her best friend who she kept in touch with even after she had moved away. Now she is confronted with a world full of ghosts and goblins, werewolves and vampires, witches and wizards, and all the things that go bump in the night when previously her biggest worry was getting her twin brother to just be nice to her every once in a while.
For serious, this was a well-written story with so many branches and attention to details that most otome overlook to make it easier on the writing staff. How many branches? Well, let’s just say you have barely less than 50 different endings for six love interests. Yeah, no, I’m not joking. Each route has around 40 choices in it that aren’t all life or death decisions, but nearly all of them matter in determining what ending you end up getting. Every LI route is different from every other route, in that they all have their own subplot and story to run along the main story. Every ending is different enough that I actually ran through every. Single. One.
Replayability Rating: ★★★★★ The ultimate game for the ultimate completionist. The only thing that is repetitive is the (very short) common route, and if you simply run through that twice, saving when the choice for LI comes up, you don’t have to play the same thing over again. Well, that and if you are attempting all the endings you’re going to be loving the skip function.
Love Interests: Always my favorite part about these things, the place where I get to gush about all the yummy men I add to my husbando collection-- I mean… where I objectively, and completely without emotion, evaluate the type of love interests we’re going to come across in the game. Who am I kidding? I love me some men and I’m sure everyone knows it by now. Changeling gives us the ability to romance six sexy studly sad… Hrm… Six supernatural seniors. Yep, that’s about all they have in common. Though their ages don’t come up, I assume they are all 17 since Nora is 17 and they are all in her grade-level. I’m pretending none have summer birthdays, or skipped a year or were held back. Anyways, if you had ideas of dating normal guys, get that out of your head right now. No one is normal in this game, except maybe Nora’s parents. Maybe.
Every guy has a Best Ending, a Friendship Ending, and then a number of Bad Ends in which something unfortunate happens to someone (typically the heroine). I’m really not big on the friendship route nonsense when it comes to dating games, but given the plots of Changeling, I was totally cool not getting the Best Ends for some of the routes. It didn’t feel like I was being punished for sucking at picking the right answer, it felt like a completely natural turn of events. If you must have the Best Ending and no other, I suggest you use a guide since there are so many choices that it’s easy to get off the golden brick road. However, some Bad Ends, and at least one Friendship Ending requires a playthrough if you wish to get all the CGs.
Enough about the game, tell me about the game! Meaning boys. Tell me about the boys. Right, right, you’ve got your six fellas that are all (sort of) unlocked at the start of the game based on the choices you make through the common route. Without knowing any of the characters, though, you have to guess on your first LI choice who is who, or just look up what choice relates to which character because they aren’t clear-cut like “Pick Elliot” instead it would be “Infected Vampires”. On that note, Elliot is recommended by the dev to be the first route you play, with Ewan recommended as the last route you play. The other four can be thrown in in any order, and I determined mine by a vote (with some friends) on who people wanted to play when. This gave me Elliot > Corvin > Marc > Danny > William > Ewan. Honestly, this was such a great order that I’d recommend you follow suit, but pick whomever you want inside the Elliot/Ewan sandwich. Mmm, what a nice sandwich that is too.
Without further ado, let’s get started on Elliot, the Infected Vampire of the group. I don’t count that as a spoiler as it is literally stated before you get on his route, so I’ll be giving away the answer choice relating to each character to make it easier for you to know what to pick to get whom.
Elliot is just my style. Crazy hair-color? Check. A purple/black theme to express the edgy/emo boy he is? Check. Not emo at all but instead one of the chillest people you’ll ever meet? Check! Wait… what? For serious, I thought Elliot was going to be all poetry and woe is me. An edgy vampire that stays inside and deplores people, since that seems to be the trope nowadays with teen vamps. Elliot is about as far from that as possible. He kind of takes everything in stride and just does his best. He tries. Oh boy does he try. He’s awkward, and constantly concerned about everyone; the sweetest, softest cinnamon roll that’s just trying to make it through life. This route literally gives away the least about the overall plot of the game, so I see why it is recommended first, and I really enjoyed it as a first route. It touches on so many things that will come up later in other routes, while maintaining its own story that only endeared me to Elliot. Awkward boys are always good boys. Get you an awkward good boy.
Corvin, on the other hand? This Wizard looks entirely too upbeat and preppy for me to want to put at the top of my list. He flits around and is so accident prone that I thought he’d be some sort of hyper fairy. I don’t know, he just seemed very energetic, and then I found out he was a wizard and I was suddenly not interested anymore. But I was going to try his route out and I’m glad I did. Corvin ultimately still isn’t my favorite, but he is much more than what you see. His route is a lot like him, in that it seems sporadic and unrelated, but everything comes together and there were some feels that came with it. There were a lot of questions I had at the end of Corvin’s route that were never explained in the story, though it seemed like the dev had intended to. But the game is already long, so I can’t imagine being able to delve into all the explanations I wanted.
The Natural-Born Vampire of the group is Marc. You want a tsundere? Marc is a tsundere. He’s mean, but nice; he snaps at Nora, but he cares. He comes off snobbish, and won’t ever understand what the everyday average Joe goes through, but Marc has bigger things to worry about than who’s dating who and school politics. Nora gets a taste of the world that Marc is constantly treading in, and it’s one with a lot of history and conflict behind the scenes. We get a rundown on the basics, and some nuances, but it isn’t an info dump and I liked that about Marc’s route. It was very much a good “digging deeper” route for the middle of the game. As for Marc himself… :sigh: I mean, he’s fiiiiine. He really is fine. He’s just cranky, and I don’t like cranky. Especially after getting to cuddle up with Elliot and Corvin, both of which are completely unlike Marc. Cranky or not, this route has a lot going on and was well paced.
We’ve had vampires and wizards, so why not add Werewolves into the mix? Danny is the mixer we all wanted. Even if we didn’t, we did. Trust me. Not only do we get to see this considerate and friendly jock aim that charisma at us, but we get to see him with his shirt off. I’m diggity-down for that. Danny is an infected werewolf that is just wonderful, imo. He’s supportive of everyone, and much like Nora, he fights for what he thinks is just. He wants a better world for everyone, and it’s a rather fitting story to go to after we find out some of the politics in Marc’s route. Despite them being from different social circles, they face a lot of the same issues. Though I’d argue that Danny’s are larger, or at least more pressing, and we don’t get to get that fully fleshed out despite it seeming like there was so much the writer wanted to go into. That’s fine. Danny more than made the route for me, and I’m down for this doggy’s style.
William is the most normal not normal character out of the group. This sweet bb is the only ESPer we’ll meet in school, which is another way to say Psychic. He rarely shows up outside of his route, and for good reason, no one really… is friends with him. What a bunch of jerks, right? Well, you can be his friend, and you will, even if you don’t want to, you’re going to push into his life much to his chagrin. But why wouldn’t you want to? William is not only subscribed to the Sad Bois Club, he’s the President. This route gets a bit more nightmare-ish than other routes, so if you’re a fan of a more horror-esque story, William is ya’ boy! I really enjoyed both William and his route. I really enjoyed Nora in this route too. I mean, I enjoyed Nora in every route, I just thought this one was the best for me. Give William a go, he may not be surprising, but he was worth the time spent playing all his endings.
Lastly, we have Ewan, who is the most noticeably “different” LI in the game, though not the most unique character, for sure. If you haven’t guessed, he’s the Dullahan. Apparently he’s super tall, and hardy because Nora calls him a giant on many occasions. He also has pointed ears and heterochromia. As I said before, the dev suggests you leave this for last, mainly because it has the most detail on Nora’s circumstances and those surrounding them. I really liked this route, though I didn’t think I was going to. Nora is pretty great in it, and the route goes hand-in-hand with Nora’s own plot naturally, so it really felt like it was all about Nora, but also about Ewan, and I liked it. I also liked Ewan, being the kinda gruff, stand-offish Fae he is. I mean, he’s wearing all black and lots of leather, he’s going to be all hardcore, right? Of course he is! But those hardcore characters tend to have a nice sweet and soft middle, and we get to see that with the right choices in this route.
Boy Crazy Rating: 92% I may not have liked all the relationships or routes, but each guy was someone I was willing to go the extra mile for. Some more than that. Nora too! Those that were good, were really good. And those that weren’t really good were still good.
Romance: Changeling is a great balance of plot to romance, I think. Instead of plot-heavy games where you get roughly 80-95% plot to 20-5% romance, it’s more a 55%/45% split. Every route is deep and bordering on dark, but the relationships Nora forges during the routes play a role in her overcoming her conflicts. You get some cute moments, and at least once a route someone teases Nora about liking or dating the guy whose route you’re on. I mean, that’s pretty typical for high schoolers, I think. It’s almost always awkward and cute, because you’re dealing with teenagers who are oftentimes outcasts for one reason or another from the normal population. And the time window for the blossoming romance is quite short - a matter of weeks - so things don’t really progress past “I like being around you. Let’s make it official? Maybe?” As much as I want to shudder at the thought, it was incredibly realistic to what I remember high school days to be like, I mean, minus the whole supernatural aspects and choices that lead to death. Honestly, it was kind of a breath of fresh air from teen dramas I’ve seen which do little to depict a relatable high school experience for me… what does that say about me?
Heart Palpitation Rating: B. It’s a cute romance wrapped in the darker plots, and surprisingly relatable. Not sure if we want a romance we believe, but I like ones that could possibly exist and aren’t only in fantasy. It gave me the warm and fuzzies.
Spice: Yeeeeaaaaaaah, there’s little to no spice here. It’s not a bad thing-- something I never thought I would say in one of my reviews. You know me, I’m all about hot and heavy scenes. Give me porn with a plot and I’m all over it. But for Changeling, I’m totally cool with a kiss being the big thing for this game. Maybe because I loved the characters and plot much more than I often do with other games. Maybe it was because the game was already long enough and full of lore that I wanted to dive into that I didn’t care that these high schoolers weren’t making out in the closet. There is the occasional thirsty scene, especially when we get to see a certain hotty shirtless, but it’s so mild on the spice. Sooooo, so mild on the spice.
Cold Shower Rating: Fail. You’re not going to even need a fan for this game. Changeling is rather chaste, but in a way that I didn’t find annoying. The lack of the pushing of bodies together didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the game. But, seriously, don’t expect any burning loins here.
Angst: So, I’ve reviewed games about terrorists, games about ninja, games about demons, and games about the mafia. I’ve reviewed some really emotional stuff, and some really moderately fluffy things. I’ve done all sorts and I tend to enjoy the angsty stuff. I did not expect Changeling to have the amount of mature drama that it does since it is set in a high school with teenagers as the main cast. I suppose I should have taken a cue from London Detective Mysteria in that age and setting isn’t always the best judge on how angsty a game appears. But I guess I haven’t learned my lesson yet. Changeling promises some drama, what with words like “shatter”, “secrets”, and “bitter hatred” used to describe the game on the official store pages. And it delivers that drama while only wading a few inches into the petty problems that can plague high schoolers. Hey! If high school drama is your thing, that’s totally fine! It’s not meant in a negative way. People find entertainment in a variety of things; I just prefer death over friendship woes, and that’s also totally fine. Interpersonal relationships were never my thing… yet I’m reading romance games-- I know, it makes little sense.
Point is, Changeling brings in the big girl issues like the end of someone’s existence rather than focusing on ending someone’s social life. And I dig it. You’ve got your angsty story steeped in darkness. You’ve got your love interests that all are masquerading as normal humans, so you’re bound to find angst amongst the boys you date. And you’ve got some bigger things at play that extend way beyond our heroine and her friends, so there’s plenty of angst to be had. This game was tense in some routes. I certainly felt the creep factor and enjoyed the horror aspects that the story brought to us.
Drama Llama Rating: 8/10. The drama llama wants to introduce you to its family of little llamas. Be wary, for drama llama crias (baby llama) are little bundles of drama waiting to become big problems.
Voice Acting: There is no voice acting in the game.
Expression Rating: N/A Nothing to see here, move along.
Art: If you skipped directly here, I get it. Changeling doesn’t follow the typical flat paint, Japanese anime art style that we’re so used to seeing with otoge. Changeling is an OELVN, and even if that weren’t the case (as so are other indie games that go more flat Japanese anime-style) the story is very European in origin. Sure, you can do European stories in a less Western art style, but after getting into Changeling I realized that the art really did add to the story more than detract from it because it wasn’t something I typically saw. The sprites are heavily detailed and shaded, and honestly they’re all rather attractive. If I were to approach this as not an Eastern dating sim, but instead a Western fairytale, I found that the art is incredibly suiting. Not just to the setting, but to the general feel of the story.
Just spending time looking at the amount of care that went into the backgrounds (which are absolutely beautiful), and detail that went into each character, I can almost feel the love that the devs of Changeling put into the game. Blood, sweat, and tears went into this game. The art tells me that. And speaking of art speaking volumes without saying anything, the sprites express a lot of emotions and interact with the story more than I’ve seen any other game coded. When someone is talking, or something happens, the sprites on screen will react with facial expressions even without it being “their turn” to talk and be part of the story. It feels a lot more “real” with both the art style and the added nuances of involvement from the characters not currently at the center of the stage.
Still Picture Rating: ★★★★☆ Many expression. Such trail blaze. Very detail.
CGs: As much as I appreciate the basic art for the game - sprites and backgrounds - I didn’t feel as strongly about the CGs. Some are really cute. Some are really creepy. Some perfectly encapsulate the moment. But most are inconsistent. There are anatomy errors in several of the CGs, while at other times some are incredibly rendered to the point I want that art on my wall because I find it beautifully done. If I hold it to the same scale as other games, it falls short in some cases, but exceeds in others. Thus, inconsistent.
There also aren’t many CGs. I do understand that full pictures take time and effort and typically money to create, and I understand that indie games don’t have the luxury of the big bucks that come from the big titles out there. However, there are 33 unique CGs in the game across six love interests and many, many hours of playtime. The store page averages 40 hours. I sunk more into it, of course, because I’m the slowest of the slow. That’s roughly 5 CGs per LI or about 1 CG every hour. That’s a relatively small number. This isn’t a complaint so much as… a reason for the lower score. I’m happy that we got 5 per character, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not a greedy hoe and want more. Because I am, and I do want more.
Look at this Photograph Rating: 76%. Limited CGs and inconsistent quality bring this rating down. Pretty cool scenes for most routes, so I’ll give them that. I might keep one or two per route to remember these boys fondly.
UI/Mechanics: Changeling is your basic VN-modeled game with choices that determine what story branches you go down. There are no extra mechanics to this game outside of the VN gameplay. The main menu is designed in a way that suits the game, with basic choice options consisting of SFX, BGM, and ambient volume controls; text speed, and skipping functions are also included. There is an Ending List, which I enjoy because then I can see what endings I’m missing. Really, very much standard UI with a few extras that I like to see. The skip function is hella fast, and I really like that. Also, for a low budget game, they implemented skipping only read text as the default, and that was super nice to have included.
There’s not much to say about the UI. There isn’t a button map inside the game, but there are buttons you can click on that will control the majority of actions you need to take. I found a few other things such as hiding the text box, moving from fullscreen to a smaller windowed mode, and what some of the mouse-clicks do. The dev did list these in a guide, but I didn’t look at that guide until I had already pushed through a full route. The UI itself is pretty and gives a storybook feel to the game, which is in-line with the art. I think it’s not bad overall.
What’s this button do? Rating: B. A more personalized UI for the game gives this rating some brownie points, but it isn’t exceptional with all the bells and whistles; just a few extras that prove to be nice to have.
Errors: Changeling is an OELVN (Original English Language Visual Novel). Meaning you should expect very few grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors since there is no translation needed. However, sometimes a period is misplaced in everyone’s writing. Even mine. I’ve come back to some of my reviews and realized I used the wrong word and it had been sitting there for months. Jesus, that incites some anxiety in me. Anyways, the point is that Changeling has some errors when it comes to the writing, but very few. For the averaged 40 hour game, there were maybe two-dozen errors in total. I caught some of them, with a missing word in this sentence, or the incorrect use of “me” or “I” when adding another person to the action (since many people struggle with when to use which, I know it isn’t a BIG DEAL, but I still notice). There were three instances that I believe the correct background wasn’t coded into the game, because Nora certainly was in a different location than the background showed. And one time when I didn’t trigger the CG from a route because it was only given to the gallery in another ending, despite me getting to see it in the branch I was on. Very minor issues that most might overlook. Nothing game breaking at all, and so few of them to even name.
Here there be Bugs Rating: Pass. Looks like you’ve got some quality work here. You might find an occasional pest that has moved in, but you’ve sprayed for bugs and you’re living a life without worry of the big baddies.
Background Music: It is BGM. That’s about all I have to say about that. I might not have given it enough of my time to make an impression, as I switched it off rather early in the game to listen to my own music I’ve collected from other scores. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t really draw me in either. I thought it was pretty generic so I moved on.
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