Not all games are created equal. Some are quite good and others, well, they are pale shadows of their potential. Vera Blanc: Full Moon falls squarely into the latter category. This visual novel from Winter Wolves is a study in what not to do in a modern game. That might be because it’s not a modern game though. Vera Blanc is over a decade old and ported from mobile platforms to the Switch by Ratalaika Games. And despite its age and lack of polish, there’s a certain charm here that’s at least worth a glance.
You play Vera Blanc, the daughter of a billionaire. Your life was saved with an experimental treatment that left you able to read people’s minds, or at least their surface thoughts. You’ve joined up with a detective to investigate weird phenomena because, well, you have. Your dad wants you to, but the whole impetus is mildly unclear. That’s how a lot of the game feels, possibly because it’s translated from Italian. The dialogue doesn’t come through as well as it could, giving the entire story a rough, unfinished feel. That’s not to say it’s not interesting, just that the characters get jerked around like puppets.
Regardless, your job is to investigate a small German village which has apparently been plagued by a werewolf. Nothing is as it seems of course and in short order, you’ll likely die. One of the central gameplay themes of Vera Blanc is that you need to use your psychic abilities in the right way or you suffer a sudden and generally violent death. Make the wrong choice and die, just like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Fortunately, White Wolves tossed in possibly the most broken mechanic ever. Made a wrong choice and died? Just hit L and back up, no matter what you’ve been doing. You can literally reverse from a game ending and make the opposite choices, taking away all stress of failure in the process. You can even back up if you make a mistake on a puzzle or event. This strips away the false pathways of the game relatively quickly and somewhat ruins the impact of the narrative, but at least you don’t have to waste too much time reliving the corny script.
Speaking of mechanics, the main gameplay element of Vera Blanc is the psychic investigation, where you’ll play a game not much different from the games of hangman you may have played in grade school, or even Wheel of Fortune. Simply select a letter from the alphabet and all instances of that letter show up until you can determine what the person is thinking (Protip: Start with vowels). Make three mistakes and you fail, but hey, you can just hit L, back up, and try again, this time knowing at least part of the puzzle with no penalties. Conveniently, the devs also enabled touch screen control on the entirely of Vera Blanc, so you can just tap the letters instead of using the stick to select them if you’re in undocked mode. This goes for the entire game in fact, and makes Vera Blanc much more approachable.
As stated previously, the plot is decent here but the dialogue is a bit thin at best. If you’re sensitive to sexist statements and women behaving like they’re incapable of handling stress, this might not be the game for you. Vera Blanc is inconsistent in how it handles the main character’s emotional state. Sometimes she’s tough and determined, other times she bends like a flower in a strong wind at the slightest amount of stress, throwing herself sobbing into her partner’s arms. It’s an odd dynamic that doesn’t work all that well and comes off more than a bit sexist.
This is not particularly helped by the visuals in the game. Vera Blanc is drawn in an 80s comic book style, one you might find in a generic low-demand Marvel or DC comic of that era from an unknown artist. The women are *cough* generously proportioned, the angles are provocative, and the clothing that the women in the story wear is questionable at best and unrealistic at worst. Vera Blanc presents its women as cheesecake, and that would be acceptable, except that that’s not really what the plot and story read like. It’s a mixed message and on top of that, the artwork is amateurish. Some scenes are painfully out of proportion to the point where the image simply looks wrong. Others simply lack enough detail to have the punch they should. It’s low-end artwork that accompanies an equally low end soundtrack. The music and sound effects of Vera Blanc are almost unnoticed and when you do notice them, they’re mostly just irritating filler. You could play the entire game with the sound off and it would be perfectly serviceable. From a visual and auditory perspective, this is an utter failure.
But despite all the criticism of the dialogue, art, and sound, Vera Blanc manages to be weirdly endearing. You’ll find yourself wanting to know what happens next, where the werewolf might strike, why the suspicious villagers are hiding things from you, and what the heck is going on. And honestly, that’s the mark of a decent game. So sure, it’s not a pretty game wrapped up in a pretty package, but the puzzles are kind of fun and the storyline is just provocative enough to keep you playing for the 2-3 hours the game might take you. For a bargain game priced at only $5, you’ll get your money’s worth even if there’s not much replay value. Vera Blanc: Full Moon is a bargain game with bargain quality, but it’s definitely a fun, quick little title!
This review is based on a digital copy of Vera Blanc: Full Moon provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and is noticeably better in undocked mode due to touch screen compatibility. Vera Blanc is also available for Android, iOS, PS4, Xbox One, and Windows via direct download.