Parascientific Escape: Crossing at the Farthest Horizon

 3DS
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  1. FNintendo
    Nov 11, 2017
    70
    While it could feature more puzzles and there are some visible English language mistakes, this is a game that most fans of the visual novel genre will surely appreciate.

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  1. monkeysaru
    Feb 27, 2020
    5
    Oh boy, where do I even begin? My anticipations were high following Gear Detective. The first game was good, if a little empty and short. TheOh boy, where do I even begin? My anticipations were high following Gear Detective. The first game was good, if a little empty and short. The second game expanded on the first, and was objectively better (although I personally prefer the first). I was hoping that this would continue, and that the third game would be even better still.

    Now I was hardly expecting a masterpiece of storytelling brilliance from the Parascientific Escape trilogy. That being said, I was at least expecting something that didn't read like it was written up on the fly. Unfortunately, that's precisely what the story of Crossing At the Farthest Horizon feels like. It feels like the writers were really bending over themselves to try and form a coherent plot-line that connected the previous two games, while also tying up the loose ends, and doing so without contradicting any lore they had already established. Now, taken on its own, the story of this game is far from bad. However, as a fan of the previous two installments, the structure of the trilogy begins to fall apart when you really stop and take a look at certain key details. I won't spoil anything, but little bits and pieces of lore are really obviously shoe-horned in, in a really obvious attempt to bridge gaps and fill in plot holes. None of these really felt natural, and they always stuck out like a sour thumb.

    Again, the standalone plot is far from bad, but when placed into the context of the trilogy, it never really felt like I was getting answers that had been there all along, so much as I was being told answers that the writers had thought up after they had already set up all of their mysteries. One of the characters, the game's main villain in fact, feels particularly shoe-horned into this particular game. And the game's attempt to connect something that the villain of Cruise in the Distant Seas had said about Hitomi's sister, to the actual truth behind who Hitomi's sister is, as revealed in this game, was so absurdly desperate. I'm not sure if this was a problem with the English localization, or an original script problem, but either way, it was such an absurd stretch of logic. It tries to invoke the same "metaphorically true" thing they did in Star Wars with Luke's father, only this game does it far less nuance. It just ends up giving you the impression that they didn't have any of it planned.

    Okay so the story doesn't connect well to the previous games. But at least it's decent on it's own, right? Well, that depends on what you mean. I said that the story isn't bad on it's own, and that's true, but even so, the story is not really friendly to newcomers either. On the plus side, the game gives newcomers a chance to turn on Character & Story explanations when they start a new game. These basically interrupts the story, whenever a returning character or key story element is brought up, and gives you a brief explanation about that person or thing. It's a handy thing for them to have included. But on the other hand, I REALLY wouldn't recommend playing this game unless you have played the other two. If you do, you'll probably become really confused really quickly, or at the very least, you'll be missing a hell of a lot of context.

    I also have a issue with the game's multiple ending. I don't want this to be a spoiler review, so I won't go into too much detail, but I will say that I think that, considering the nature of the game's endings, that they greatly suffered by sticking to the "good ending", "bad ending", "special ending" system from Gear Detective. The endings push their own perspective, to attempt to establish the events of the endings in this way, but in my opinion the outcome in each ending, especially the good & bad ones, are morally ambiguous enough from each other to be seen as both good, and both bad, in various ways. I would've preferred if the ending you get is more meant to signify what appeals to your own morals, as apposed to just being a "right outcome" or "wrong outcome" thing. It is, after all, your answers to specific questions that determine the ending you get. It would've given it some much needed complicity, instead of simply telling the player "you have the wrong opinions & so you got the wrong ending"

    One other thing I want to talk about is the typos and grammar errors. There's a LOT of them. As in a freaking TON. It was getting to the point where there would be some kind of mistake, be it spelling, grammar, or basic punctuation, on every fifth line of dialogue. No, that isn't hyperbole. It was at the point where I stopped noticing them after a while. My brain had just zoned them out. The typo minefield here is extremely peculiar, because the previous two games were competently translated. Sure, there were weird grammar quirks, and some mistakes here or there, but they were decent for budget games on the 3DS eShop. I don't know what happened here. Maybe the proof-readers had the day off.    … Full Review »
  2. Godlygamer
    Aug 16, 2017
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. *No plot spoilers are contained within*
    The final entry in the Parascientific Escape series has arrived, and I must say that this may be the best one plot-wise. However, there are some major bugs presented within the game that prevent me from giving the game a higher score than 7.

    Like the second entry in the series, the plot in this game is very strong. It connects the two story arcs presented in the first and second game, bringing about a satisfying conclusion to the series as a whole. The writing is quite good, and it surprisingly provided some decently funny and tense moments. However, this also brings about one of the major flaws of the game-the spelling is terrible. CIRCLE (the publisher) has always been known for having spelling mistakes in their games; I have played many of them myself, and the spelling was never too bad or abundant. They were there, but they were only minor mistakes, and were not presented often. In this game, though, the spelling mistakes are everywhere. Sometimes it's just the same word twice, other times they forget to include words in a sentence. Then there's the mispelling of words and grammer issues...it gets very ugly, very fast. It definitely hampers a good Visual Novel experience, which is a shame, since this game is quite an enjoyable experience.

    The escape-the-room type gameplay makes a return, and it's quite the mixed bag. On one hand, the puzzles presented are the strongest and smartest in the series, but on the other hand there are only three of these on offer. Speaking of the puzzles, they are also the hardest in the series. You'd be hard pressed to get through one without using the in-game hint system.

    Unfortunately, another big flaw within the game is that the very first escape room in the game is broken; in other words, one of the puzzles in the room does not work. You have to unlock a vault using a four-digit passcode, and all the hints are provided for you: on the vault there is a picture of an upside-down yacht, and there is a bottle of wine in the room with the same yacht on it (not upside down, though) and the year '1569'. With this information, you'd think the password is '9651', right? Well, it should be, but it isn't. The actually passcode is '6951'. I can only chalk this up as a bug, a major bug that doesn't look to be patched out of the game anytime soon. Unfortunately, this may prevent players from making any progress in the game, which is another reason why I cannot give this game a score higher than 7.

    Visually, the game looks ok. The backgrounds are nice, and there are some new character portraits, but otherwise there are many reused assets in the game. It also reuses the same music from the first two games which, while good, have definitely overstayed their welcome at this point. On a more positive note, multiple endings have made a return, which adds an extra incentive to reply the game and try to get a better ending.

    Parascientific Escape: Crossing at the Farthest Horizon is an enjoyable Visual Novel. However, spelling mistakes galore, reused assets, and a game-ruining bug hamper the experience to an incredible degree. It's only $7 CAD, so the price of admission isn't too high, but you'll have to play the other two games in the series to understand the plot up to this point. It does include an explanation for the world and characters if you haven't played the previous games, but I feel as if there explanations don't do the other games plots justice. If you've played the first two, you'll definitely want to see how things end; however, for those who are not interested or have not played the first two games, you'd probably be better off spending you're money elsewhere.    … Full Review »