Suiren: Part 1 is an indie game created for RPG Maker VX Ace. It titles itself as a puzzle, but I would also say it has many visual novel qualities to it as well. The game has a very nice showcase of visuals. The developer has made busts, CG scenes, sprites, and tiles. I like the more visual novel portion of the graphics. I found a bit of a clash when the developer used some of the RTP. In addition not all the mapping is up to par with the visual quality of the characters. (I would almost to go so far as to recommend just making a visual novel in Ren'Py, because I think your talent would be strongly suited for something like that.)

The game starts out with just 4 characters who are celebrating a birthday party. They fall asleep and are now trapped in Suiren's realm. (That's the demon lady who has decided she wants to trap these 4 for her amusement.)



After getting trapped you need to put a teddy bear king back together because he was ripped apart by rabbits. A lot of this game will then involve interacting with different objects to try to find what you need next. (I have played other horror games that use the same mechanic, so I'm sort of used to this.) I, however, was not to pleased when I started seeing game over screens pop up very frequently. The first time this will happen to you will be at the guard. If he sees you, you die. Enjoy going back to the title screen and loading your game. (That wasted a lot of time because I still need to try to get past that guard.) This is totally the wrong way to approach this sort of puzzle. There's times to use instant game overs and there's times not to. This puzzles should have just alerted the guard and warped you back to the start of the room. There's a real annoying one right after that where a demon will ask you 4 multiple choice questions. Do you know what happens if you guess wrong? (Game over, title screen, reload game. This one seemed way too random and unfair.)



After putting the bear back together you'll be separated from your friends and get to meet some other girls in a garden. I hardly even got to know the characters I was with. I couldn't even tell you the character's names without looking at the game summary. I haven't established enough of a relationship, but here I am being introduced to more and more people. I'm finding it hard to keep track now.

This game both frustrated me and disinterested me in the story and its characters. The only saving grace that was left was your artwork, which I will commend is very good. For this reason I have decided not to rate this review, but I leave it as document you can use to help improve your game. Good luck.