Repurpose Review by Amjara
Repurpose is a game where death is just the beginning of a whole new journey. Traverse the trials and along the way find love & purpose.
The Story
You have died but that is not the end of your journey! You find yourself waking up in the Garden of Eden along with many others, confused and intrigued. You are met with a demon and an angel who offer you trials based on if you want to ascend to heavens or dive into the depths of hell. You might think who would pick Hell but the demon is pretty good at selling it up with 4-D theatres (I will let them explain what 4-D is), vast shopping centres, and Starfuxxs ;) You can also not decide and stay in Limbo if that is your desire as well.
There is ample amount of good humour in this game. I personally loved the "Get to know your Demons" guide! Also that jab at Florida being the centre of Gluttony was great.
Gameplay
Right when you boot up the game you are given the choice to choose your identity (male, female or non-binary). The game is written from a non-binary perspective to reflect any choice the player choses. I love how this game/dev commits to inclusivity, it is not just a choice of who you are but it is baked into the writing and the experience of the game. It is a game that respects who the player is.
While you play you will earn "love points" that guide your path to unlocking the various endings. I also like how the game will advise you when making a choice if the choice will or will not affect the characters affection level or alter the route of the game.
The settings are your usual finds (display, rollback, skip choices, volume, and text speed). The extras you can find as you play are a gallery, music, and a about section. You can also press "H" to hide the hud to take screen captures (always a great feature for us screenshot lovers). Also lots of save slots and you can save right before making choices.
The game's text is easy to read and the options are all conveniently below the text bar for easing saving and traversing the menu.
The game has sexual themes, strong language, mild violence, and suggestive imagery but no straight up nudity or explicit images. So a hint of spice but not spicy.
The Visuals & Audio
Amazing artwork that is vibrant, colourful and charming. Each character has their own unique style and identity. Also the backgrounds are also hand done and fit with the artwork of the characters. I truly appreciate the hand-drawn artwork in this game, it is refreshing and enjoyable to see it in a recent visual novel where so many lately seem to turn to AI for backgrounds.
The ambient sounds in this game are great such as crowds talking or the ground crunching as you walk. The soundtrack is upbeat and very retro sounding (like the retro 8-bit games).
There is some voice acting interwoven throughout the text. The voice acting is a personal preference. I liked some characters' voices and not others. Some of the characters that are more upbeat can be overly hyped up but some like Mitts and Faye I prefer more.
Overall Experience
Overall I really enjoyed this visual novel. I had a good ending in my first play through (I did choose the going to hell route for those curious). The characters are memorable, vibrant, and each have their own backstory. They are well written, not extremely flushed out but enough to care about them. I thought the humour was well written and cheeky at moments. There is lots of potential romantic routes so a lot of room for replay-ability.
Below I included some of my favourite screen-captures from my first run-through of the game and choosing Ramon (the demon). 💘
Otome Lovers wishes to thank Repurpose Studios for providing a free review copy for this game.
Be sure to check out Otome Lovers other excellent review of this game by Francisca
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