Train of Afterlife

(Review copied from my Backloggd review.)

This game is a work of art. It is thought provoking and philosophical, and at times feels very personal.
Some of the story-telling is presented in a nonlinear way, which made it feel a bit like the writer dropped me into the deep end suddenly, where I floundered about in confusion for a while, trying to make sense of something I didn't yet have all of the necessary pieces of (which I suspect is similar to how the protagonist feels). This felt very intentional, and kept me interested in gathering all of the pieces — most of which, I couldn't make sense of until I neared the story's conclusion. The game in general all feels very intentional...

Unfortunately, I did struggle with the repetitiveness when I was playing through the latter half of the endings. There *IS actually a way to skip text*: by holding the down arrow key on your keyboard. That single feature would have left me with nothing to complain about, had I known about it! It's not explicitly indicated anywhere within the game, so I did not learn about it until after I completed the game. Clicking repeatedly to skip lines I'd read many times before sometimes caused me to accidentally select a choice, or miss a variation in the text that wasn't there before, so I'd have to reload. I grew pretty tired of it. But if you're reading this review, you've been saved! (The only thing I'm not sure about is whether this method allows the player to skip unread text too. Which would be concerning. Unfortunately, I can no longer test this.)

The true ending was very impactful for me, and it's a bit of an understatement to say that it had me in tears. I immediately felt that it was worth pushing myself to reach. It made me very glad that I didn't abandon the game earlier because of the aforementioned struggle. I already want to replay the true ending (which is also something that can be instantly skipped to once it's already been reached, via the Password tab). The feeling it gave me is something that I think (and hope) will stick with me.
As the game went on, I grew to like the characters. The story doesn't delve into most of them deeply, and keeps things brief (it's not a long game). I would be interested in reading more of their stories (there is a side story to unlock). I also felt like the game messed around with my expectations regarding the characters, which I liked.

There is an in-game guide for ending requirements, which is nice for people who want to play without a walkthrough. But there is a good English language walkthrough posted on Steam as well.
The artwork in the game is lovely. I especially really like some of the character art. The music, visual art style, and limited use of colors effectively set a simultaneously dull and intriguing tone.
I'm a horror wimp, so I was worried about that while playing. It gets kinda freaky here and there, but it was never too much for me. I don't recommend approaching this game for want of horror specifically. But if you like some milder horror vibes and the occasional tone shift, I think this does nicely.
There isn't much in the way of disturbing imagery, but the game does deal with sensitive topics like mental illness and suicide. I personally felt it was tastefully done overall.

The game has "mixed" reviews on Steam, but it was due to an issue with Steam keys being revoked, which the developer reinstated. A lot of people left negative reviews about that specifically, which have nothing to do with the contents of the game. So don't let that deter you!

kinda sad that this game got mixed reviews due to what seems to be mostly related to activation keys being revoked, which isn't something I can comment on.

I really liked this game, sure it is repetitive at times due to the different endings - to me it was still a very enjoyable experience accompanied by beautiful music, an intriguing story and interesting art.

I decide to try the game out since it is part of Zeiva games series, this game is sort bare minimum which exact hit the style. Unlike other games which are colorful and detailed, it is vague, mysterious and bleak which fit the game theme color and setting. To be honest, when I reach the nightmare ending, I became a coward and watch YouTube video to see how it ends. Regardless, the game is good. The story have quite a plot twist as it is Yan Yi purgutory or nightmare for losing her loved ones. I already feel sad for the twins' little sister Yu death, to the point that she hate her previous life and surpress it. The Chinese characters made me think that this take place in China although maybe it is in a fictional world with Area-X and Dragon Essence along with Natural. I am tempted to draw a fan art of all of Yan Yi loved ones together. Although Moair die a good death since he is getting too old but at least he save the twins. All the people in the train are all good people and despite Yi thinking that she only care her twin Fei, she still care for others. Reminded me of Mikasa Ackerman. I hope that Yi have a good life after her train trip. The side story is interesting, I thought Mari was in a nature state to kill herself but in reality, it was her mother who gave the nurture to kill herself. Quite petty to make her own daughter kill herself just because she hate the situation and the girl. Does give the author note a thought about a soul saved.

The art here is quite minimalist and I kind of like it, gives me imagination to draw and really fit the game. The nightmare ending scare me with the music, also good choice of music when I especially like the darkness theme (You can get different music theme depending the level of Enlightnment and Darkness. Overall, I like the game, it is ashamed it is only mixed with some debacle I don't understand about key bundles.

Train of afterlife runs in adobe flash and doesn't like to run in full screen mode (at least not for me) so I already knew I was going to be in for a questionable experience before it even really got going. The game takes place on a train after the main characters death. You can walk around the train, you can talk to people, you can look out the window.

Eventually you are able to remember some things that happened while you were still alive. The key to playing this game seems to be to remember these memories in a particular order with no clues that I could find on how to do that. These memories are also way less interesting than what's going on aboard the ghost train. Also apparently I looked out the window one too many times and got sent to hell. So yeah, not playing this thing again.

I enjoyed the idea of the game as well as the art. I achieved several of the endings including a true "horror" one, but I just didn't care enough to continue replaying to get every ending. And that is the real downside to the game for me.
Instead of coming away from it thinking of the characters and wondering about their lives and deaths, I just didn't care. I felt no bond with any of them; several had little to say and their stories didn't really alter no matter what choices I made. And there were very few choices.
The dialogue, while interesting, became a "click Next" spamfest because so much of it including the Tarot Card memories, is just repeated over and over. The game badly needs a Skip function and perhaps more than 6 characters. Because I felt bored playing even though I love the subject matter is why I regretfully can't recommend this game.

(Be gentle, it's my first review ;D)

I really need to say this: I cannot understand why there are any negative ratings for this visual novel! All of those complaining about how the characters are shallow and without depth have NOT played the whole VN! In case you have no idea how to reach all of the 9 (!!!) endings, use the walkthrough the developers provide on their website!

Well, now about the actual VN and what you can expect:
+ beautiful artwork
+ nice soundtrack
+ interesting characters (who all have their own story to share if you dare to find it ;D)
+ abstract storytelling (loose threads that don't connect until the very end)
+ some horror elements
+ heavy topics (life & death, suicide...) -> trigger warning!
+ many secrets (side story, gallery etc.) unlocked by passwords you gain by reaching all of the endings

I simply love it. There's truly nothing negative I could tell you about it. Maybe the story builds up a little too slow in the beginning and there are to many loose threads you need to connect BUT it's all worth it!
I REALLY recommend using the walkthrough guide on the developers' page of this VN, because it's really hard to reach all of the endings and understand the story.
Oh and I played WAY more than 2 hours. Probably around 5 hours total including the special content I unlocked by collecting the passwords :D

I bought this game for full price and unfortunately I have to say that it wasn't worth it for me. All in all it's not a bad game, nevertheless I was pretty disappointed. There are many better and longer visual novels for that price so in my opinion you should get this on sale if you really want it.

Pros:
- interesting setting, story makes you curious
- nice, calming music
- some nice artwork
- most of the endings add something to the story
- many things you do or don't do change something...

Cons:
- ...but the changes are either very insignificant or it only affects the ending
- consequently you have to go through the same dialogues over and over again without any changes
- although the idea with the Tarot cards is interesting you have to go through them over and over again too
- the characters are not very deep so I found myself not caring about any of them
- some of the endings are very abrupt and out of place
- I did 9 playthroughs (all 9 endings) and only have about 7 hours of playtime, so one playthrough is pretty short

This visual novel would have been far better as a kinetic novel. I was rather enjoying the first half when I got an abrupt bad ending that seemed so arbitrary and out-of-place that I considered abandoning the visual novel right there. Since I had paid thirteen dollars US for this, I went back and reloaded from my last save point. As I continued, I started to get the feeling that I was being herded toward a specific path. I did make it to the final hour and got a mysterious, unsatisfying ending. I decided that once through was enough. I went to YouTube to see the "true ending." Thirteen dollars is too much for this visual novel. The time it would have taken to get the true ending would have been too much. If it had been a kinetic novel with the "true ending" selling for US $4.99, then I would have given thumbs up.

Pros:
- Atmosphere. Be it calm or horror, Train of Afterlife knows how to evoke it.
- Strong soundtrack and minimalistic, effective artwork
- The story, while not exactly the most complex one, is well told. Strikes a good balance between showing and telling.
- Everything ties together in the true ending

Cons:
- Repetition. The story doesn’t change a lot in the different playthroughs.
- Certain endings are more effective than others.

I would recommend Train of Afterlife for its atmosphere and storytelling. However, if you value length or dislike rereading/skipping, then it may not be for you. Train of Afterlife probably has more in common with experimental short stories than it does with the typical video game.

A game with interesting ideas that fails to capitalize on any of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8yShQCL6Ac

Really much better than I had anticipated. I was afraid of getting stuck in a loop of ending searching but the developer has been kind enough to spell out the ending requirements, and the payoff is worth it.

I really enjoyed this story... the feels... lots of decisions and right/wrong choices. Music, art, good too!

BUT...

There's no save feature. Which means you have to play the entire game through at least 9 times to get all the endings. I like it, but theres really no need for that.

In its current state there's just no way I could recommend it. You can actually save the game, but when it ends the game wipes all the saves. Plz add a REAL save feature and then I can recommend this.

The developer has fixed the save bug and that was the biggest problem with the game. Now you can just mess around and try out different dialogue easier without worrying about having to replay the whole thing if you screw up.

I'd still recommend following a guide to get all good endings, its very tricky.

This game takes a perspective of the afterlife. The train stands as a common ground of a setting where you have windows and other passengers. Each one having their own existence shadowed. In this game, you are caught between decisions and if you like fortunes (Tarot Cards specifically) or have an interest in them; making a psychological aspect of who or what you are. The story resolves around hours and you are drawn to specific cards, these cards you choose also grant you the cards in Steam for players unless you idle and lose the choice of chance then. You have to get through those points. The cards all have an interesting connection of past. The more you go through you find a way to identify the people around you as well as yourself. For instance, these people/shadows leave and move around. DIfferent choices lead to different status and depending on them, the choice shows a significant effect on dialogue. If you are to think of VNs and routes this has a very basic but understandable concept. However the text shows deep insight into the creation or "memory recall" of yourself or another. Basically you got to play it a bit to understand what it gets at. Summarizing it so far it's one of those games that it's a choice that can matter. As stated you can only choose 9 cards but events and discussions show up that will make you go along the story. However as for anymore to spoil, the game shows it's bits of mystery and suspense. For those seeking a good read and play evaluation, try this. However if price is not for you wait. It doesn't have to be rushed this game is a patience on time and sadly there is no Screen shot button as well as an auto play. So you'll be clicking quite a lot. Enjoy it if you do. The game makes you view death in a certain way as well as questions of life. Throughout the game on each end you get the password. I will not spoil it for you however there are some online guides. Although there is an extras gallery it cannot be unlocked without a code. Alas this game trult did play quite a bunch of high replayable moments. If you take the time to decipher and figure out all the characters and names in the story while playing the routes. You will find a deeper appreciation.
Tips and Hint: Check your stats and decisions. Save before them to understand and save yourself the trouble. Although some choices just change a few things specifically. Your stats make a difference to the ending. Also there are passwords in the main menu continue screen and endings can be replayed there. *I HIGHLY RECOMMEND FOR THE IN-DEPTH VN route takers you take the time to read.









-SPOILERS-
There are two protaganist routes(Wind and Wing, you start as Wind)! As well as a side story.
Watch the Opening if you want to figure out the true end "phase". If you are looking for passwords. I will include a guide later. However they will just spoil it for you.