Anonymous;Code Review (SAL)
As much as it pains me to say this as an absolute lover of the sciADV series, unfortunately I cannot recommend Anonymous;Code. And the worst part of it, is that it's not even for the game itself, but because of what Spike Chunsoft did with this game's launch regarding the pricing of it.
For starters, no matter how much I think about it, there's nothing that justify this game's 60USD full price (54 with launch discount). To my surprise, some people around here were saying the "VN is supposed to be priced like that", but they clearly don't know sh*t. There's just no way this is normal, and it's simple as that.
So you're telling me a 20-hour VN cost the same 60USD as Baldur's Gate 3? What exactly went through in your minds when setting this price up? The "awesome" and never-seen-before English dub that about 5 people will choose instead of the original voice-acting in japanese? The art style? The game's mechanics? The OST? I mean, whatever reason they chose, if you have decent common sense, you know that this is not even close to justify the price of it.
Up next, let's talk about regional pricing. I live in Brazil, and for some reason someone decided that both Brazil and Mexico should now pay for the sins of the entire human race when launching A;C, so they went ahead and came up with the brilliant idea to not add regional pricing for this game here and there. You know what this means, right? This means we are LITERALLY paying 60USD converted 100% directly into our currency (270BRL with the launch discount, and 300BRL for the full price). Just for comparison again - and for the sake of my sanity - please, read what I'm about to write now calmly and let that sink in: Baldur's Gate 3 costing the same 60USD's is priced at 199BRL here.
This is not Valve's doing, by the way. In case you didn't knew, publishers/developers can manually decide the price from each region based on Steam's recommended regional pricing. So the question is, why they opted Brazil and Mexico out of this? Was it a rookie mistake from the new intern they're having trouble paying? Or it's really just the mindset culture from Brazil and Mexico that can guarantee sales at those numbers because they're so confident that the people here and there are so passionate about things they will do anything to get what they want? Either way, I think we can agree that this is both very sad and disappointing to the VN industry as a whole.
And yes, I feel both regret and shame that I still bought the d*mn game at this price here, because unfortunately my love for sciADV series speak louder than reasoning.
Shame on you, Spike Chunsoft.