Raining City: Millions Recollections is a dark visual novel developed by Orca Layout and published by 昆布科技 along with 2P Games. The game tells a story of Lyu Xuan, a young woman that one night woke up at her house soaked in blood. However, this wasn’t a classic crime scene, but a mysterious event she has no memories about. The only evidence left – a black hole in her palm and the strange numbers dancing around it.
To find out the truth behind that fateful night, Lyu Xuan has to look for clues, but that task isn’t an easy one. The creepy hole in her hand begins to attract creatures from another realm, who see these numbers as precious wealth. Navigating the gloomy city and making difficult choices, Lyu Xuan starts her journey through the new reality.
The plot summary sounds intriguing, but did the authors manage to carry the mystery and tension till the very end? Well, let’s take a look at the game through the prism of my experience.
The main plot of the novel is separated into several big chapters, the first of which is available as the game’s demo version. It seems to be the shortest one, mainly introducing the protagonist and the main set up of the story. We take a role of Lyu Xuan, a female agent or detective of some secret organization, who lost part of her memories due to mysterious events. She remembers who she is, what her life is, but not the events of the past twenty-four hours, with only a feeling of something being missed left behind.
The game throws us straight into action, as the first creepy creature appears right in Lyu Xuan’s apartments out of nowhere. However, our protagonist is extremely calm in the face of danger, and immediately fights back instead of flinching away. As the battle resolves not entirely in Lyu Xuan’s favor, we learn that the numbers coming from her palm are the source of the problem.
They become a main currency of the entire game, which reduces when the mistakes or, rather, bad choices are made. At least that’s how this ‘wealth’ is supposed to work according to the game description, and its level should affect the ending.
In the first chapter, we also meet a few side NPC and one of the main characters – Paleon. This strange creature appears to be something like a chimera that has a human body, lion paws and an enormous maw on its head. One moment it looks like a cute monster, but the next it can devour those who dare to threaten Lyu Xuan. For an unknown reason, Paleon is drawn to the main character, but not like others. It doesn’t try to consume the wealth, but tries to protect it and its owner.
The first chapter ends after this fateful encounter and Lyu Xuan’s decision to take Paleon home, and that’s the piece available for everyone in the demo. However, since for every novel the plot is the main driving force that makes players interested, I will try to avoid any major spoilers from this point. But the partnership between Paleon and Lyu Xuan becomes one of the main lines in the plot and one of the most charming parts of the entire game.
As the plot progresses, we meet more different characters, which have their own unique stories and backgrounds. At first, it’s hard to say what is relevant to the main plot and what is the side quest, but little by little the pieces begin to fall together.
In general, the game consists of many short stories, related to different characters Lyu Xuan meets and befriends. Some of them are entirely irrelevant for the main story line, but the game will still force you to play every single piece of each chapter before allowing it to progress further.
Mainly, the game will insist on finishing the story lines of the pursuable heroines, which don’t have much influence on the main story. The presence of these two girls only gives Lyu Xuan an additional option in the finale – to stay with one of them or embrace the truth and follow the wishes of her past self.
While the stories of these heroines are intriguing at the start, closer to the mid-game they become a bit awkward and even uncomfortable for some people. The problem lies in the fact that Lyu Huan is in her late 20s, while both Su Lingxi and Huang Yijun are on the edge of being underage.
Their relationships with Lyu Huan start more sisters like, but then progress to some more suggestive and provoking lines. I have nothing against yuri content while it is wholesome, but some moments felt completely awkward. Thankfully, Lyu Huan is allowed to be a responsible adult and not do anything against the law.
To be entirely honest, after finishing the game, I’m not entirely sure why these two characters were chosen to be the pursuable heroines, while there are others with great potential for this role. For example, Lu Wengsu, the sarcastic scientist, has really nice chemistry with Lyu Huan, and openly admits that our protagonist is hot. Moreover, their fates are tied more closely together than with the others. These relationships would have so much potential and certainly would win over many players.
In general, if anyone wants to play this novel for the romance – you won’t find much there. Yes, there are still three options to choose from, but all of them appear either awkward or strange due to circumstances around them. Perhaps this novel didn’t even need these options at all, but the developers decided otherwise.
Aside from the romance, there are quite a few moments when the story doesn’t truly deliver. Many quests end with nothing or leave many questions behind. The game leaves many loose ends and at times you’ll just have to accept things the way they are because no one would bother to explain what exactly happened and why.
The best example would be the storyline of the shop, the twins and Pre-Jasper. While the main canvas of the story is clear, through the quest it’s possible to see many holes, that would benefit from explanation or expansion. Yet authors seemed to decide that it wasn’t the story they want to tell and just cut it off with some vague explanations. Sadly, there are many moments like that.
However, that problem with the messed up lore and unclear explanation might come from the fact that I’ve played the English version of the game. The localization of this novel seems to be one of its weakest point so far. Perhaps it would be fixed in the future or had even been patched since I’ve played, but while I was playing the game, the translation looked like a machine one. Often the gender of the characters was misplaced, the pronounces were out of place and the sense of some sentences was completely twisted.
The issue strikes the most in the Su Lingxi’s quest, when her father kept calling her late mother not his wife but Lyu Xuan’s then randomly switching to Chinese. This dude was a true headache to deal with.
Another thing the novel lacks is the personal touch to the entire Lyu Xuan story. She solves everyone’s problems, deals with mysteries, searches for answers, but in the end she lacks the emotional attachment to the entire thing.
While being all cool and calm by personality, she remains the same even at the difficult final moment, just taking everything as inevitable. She is a cool Mary Sue with a little character development. While it’s fine enough, it just makes the story a little hollow, just like her memory about her beloved one.
However, the biggest disappointment of the plot is the value of wealth. In the end, it doesn’t affect much. Through the entire game, there were only a few moments where I directly could affect the loss or gain of the numbers, but the rest of the time it was simply related to the plot moments.
At the final choice, the numbers were still incredibly high, and I’m not even sure it’s possible to drop them enough to lose the game. And this kills the entire point of the replaying the novel for a different or better ending.
While the narrative falls behind, there are still sides of the game that manages to shine. The entire atmosphere and style are among them.
Everything in the game feels new and familiar at the same time. The mysterious shop, that reminds of the XXXolic, the mysterious twins which remind of Kaî to Otome to Kamikakushi, strange events that appear like city legends – all that builds up a nice sitting. At moments the game gives the same vibes as Tokyo Dark, or even Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, yet Raining City still remains its own outstanding title.
The art and visuals in general have a unique style, where 2D and 3D blend together for a disturbing atmosphere of the world full of dangers. The dulled palette creates a nice mood of the rainy city, where mystery waits behind every corner. The character design reflects their personalities perfectly, while sets of sprites and timings of their changes bring them to life. The CG arts of the key scene points are stunning, while monsters can give some chills at one glance.
