Nekojishi is a semi-linear visual novel based around being a young college freshman who gains the ability to see spirits in the form of anthroNekojishi is a semi-linear visual novel based around being a young college freshman who gains the ability to see spirits in the form of anthro cats. There are 12 (debatably) unique endings that can occur depending on what choices you make during the novel, these choices usually revolving around the three cats which you spend most of your attention. One shouldn't be fooled by popular VN convention however, as simply focusing all time and energy into a single character won't lead to that character handing himself to you on a silver kitty-dish. In fact, going in blind without taking into careful consideration your kitties' personalities and problems can quite quickly lead you to what only be described as a "bad ending".
The "true ending" requires a very specific set of choices to be made which can be quite frustrating to achieve without a guide. Fortunately, the game provides a few nifty tools in case you don't want to look up a walkthrough, including an autoskip feature which skips through dialogue you've already read, stopping only when there is a choice to be made or if there is new text that hasn't been read yet. There is also a standard save/load feature, containing 10 tabs of 4 slots each, meaning you can comfortably save at every major choice, and can also squeeze in many of the minor choices if you so please. There's also a "replay" section on the main menu which let's you view unique scenes and endings you've unlocked, making them easy to keep track of.
The game is very obviously made for a certain demographic in mind. However there's also a decent story behind the slit-eyed twitchy-tail exterior. Not going into to much detail, it requires you going through a fair bit of tragedy before you're able to go for what the game sells itself with. Though sells itself isn't quite the proper term, because the entire game is absolutely free.
However the game falls short on a few technical issues, namely blatant typos and audio mixing issues. The game is mostly viewed as a background image with various characters superimposed on top, their models only slightly changing expression every so often, along with a text box at the bottom and a much more expressive coin icon of the character currently talking. As you play through the game however, you can come across unique scenes and images. These unique images have a very obvious style-clash against the main bulk of the game, still keeping with the anime feel, but having obviously been drawn by different artists. Some of the writing can also leave a lot to be desired at times, sometimes falling just above 15-year-old's-fanfiction. Each character has a varying amount of depth, some of which can only be experience by going through a particular ending. This of course means that initial impressions may not be indicitive of one's true motivations (though sometimes they are).
Overall, it's a game that you'll know you'll like when you see it, and even if you're on the fence you should try out anyway as it's a completely free experience, with quality artwork and usually not-bad writing.… Expand
