An Octave Higher

I wish I had played this sooner. The opening scene starts with a banger soundtrack and a fascinating magic system, which both lead to an immersion I don't really think the marketing captures. One small downpoint is that the controls are pretty mouse focused - you can't navigate the screen with keyboard/controller buttons. I definitely think this game is worth playing!

I should note that the story comes with some seriously mature and adult themes, which as one of the characters (E.) should show to you, has the potential to affect young people. Use discretion when playing.

After reading all the endings I have a mixed feelings... How glorious "So beautiful and lost" is, and how lame "Why not?" is, which is supposed to be the "true" ending. Don't get blinded by capitalists' propaganda, kids. Revolution is the answer.

A memorable game with simple choices

TLDR: Disappointing.

I really wanted to like this game. The main thing I enjoyed about this game was its interesting magic system that also included science. The game had so much potential, and while there were some good moments in the story, an interesting steampunk world, and a great opening scene, there were some things I just couldn't overlook.

One of my issues was the innocence of Elise, one of the main characters. She willingly went along with everything with little consideration of any risk, and the amount of times she trusts male strangers is unbelievable (it's not like she isn't aware of the risk either, she even acknowledges this isn't a good idea at one point,but it happens to be maybe the fifth time she's already done it!). The second is the conflict between the classes in society. The whole main plot revolves around a revolution beginning by the proles, however Elise, a prole herself, is willingly accepted and sought after by two bourgeoisie and an aristocrat, and she willingly accepts them too. If there is truly that much angst between the classes to start a revolution, then why would these characters instantly behave like they are good friends?

Convenience of the plot at times was another. One or two convenient things happening I can overlook, but not this many. Plus I'm not sure why a highly decorated commander would readily allow young inexperienced students to help her qualified and powerful team infiltrate a rebel hideout and rescue the son of an important lord. Things like this that had no valid reasoning or explanation made the story less believable for me, and ultimately took me out of the experience and made it difficult to enjoy the story. Just to name a few things...

Other things to note:
- On my first play-through, I got the neutral ending with no achievement, which was disappointing. Some of the other endings are also very short, whereas others have a whole lot more story (maybe an hour's worth?) to conclude with, though these parts seem to drag on.
- The skip feature is also a bit tedious, with every image and sound still needing to be displayed, so it takes a while to replay to get all achievements.
- The story changes between three characters' perspectives, and sometimes this was a bit jarring.
- There are limited choices within the story.
- Sometimes it feels like there is an information dump happening and it can be a bit of a draining overload at times.
- I personally felt like the true ending was strange and disappointing. Also, the short part with the piano after the credits should have been great, but with no context on how that intriguing mystery was solved and whether there truly is more to magic than just science, it just made me feel even more disappointed with the story. It felt like several parts of the plot were never fully completed.

I just wish this VN lived up to its potential, it would have been a nice breath of fresh air if it had. I don't think I'll be replaying it unfortunately.

I guess the writer wanted to create a legendary story, but the characters (except for Franz) are frustratingly undeveloped, and Frederic, in particular, sucks.

作者想要创作一个史诗故事，但是人物写得太糟糕了，Franz稍微好些，其他人物都不太行，而Frederic直接让人厌恶。

A needlessly verbose Steampunk Fantasy world with lots of pomp but no originality, plagued by predictable characters and plot and an extremely repetitive narrative.

The story is told by the most part in the University of Overture in a default Steampunk/Fantasy scenario. It is told from the eyes of three different Cookie-Cuter characters: one standard arrogant aristocrat, one standard naive prole, and one standard enthusiast scholar. Their lives cross paths and then the story drags itself, mostly unenventufully, but sometimes interwining with your standard Aristocracy vs Prole plot. Regardless of which one is in focus, it is extremely verbose and slow-paced. Perhaps in the attempt to make you empahize with the characters, their thoughts and situations are repeated over and over and over and over and over and over. This is agravatted by the fact this is your default troupe and that you could have guessed their personalities right out.

The authors also sound constantly proud of their world building, which is annoying at times. The aesthetics are those of a Steampunk, but everything else is your standard Fantasy with people farting spells right and left. They seem to be proud of their magic system and keep explaining its intricacies - it honestly reminds me stuff I was doing for PnP when I was 13, nothing to be proud of and certainly nothing new. The combats are long, plagued by shonen-like dialogues and in the end the victor is whoever the author wants to be. Some exchanges are presumptuous and cringy e.g. "You're here discussing philosophical politics with a rebel," after a mundane exchange of words.

The background art is pretty good, the characters are for the most part good too, but sometimes the artist seems to forget to follow basic proportion rules (e.g. some of Gesang's images). The engine is good too, Linux port flawless, achievements also okay.

I cannot fathom how this title has such good reviews. I can't classify this world building as anything beyond "okay", the writing as "verbose and unlikeable", the tone as "terribly presumptous" and the plot as "slow paced and predictable". I seriously question the sanity of whoever handed them a prize for "best narrative".

I'll just drop two cents here and say that, if you'd like to see this story, except that good, well executed and in a darker and cruel setting, you should check Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.

An Octave Higher tells the story of some people who can use magic within what is, for much of the game, an interesting setting. You switch between the perspectives of multiple characters (Frederic, Elise, and Franz) who occupy different positions within a stratified society that separates people according to their wealth. The wealthy and middle class have access to education, have less physically-demanding (or magically-demanding) jobs, and have much better lives in a general sense. The poor and impoverished are exploited in dangerous factories (the game's setting deliberately mirrors the disparities in wealth and well-being that existed during the industrial revolution), aren't protected by the police, are forced to live in areas more affected by polliution, and have a much poorer quality of life as a result of these and other factors.

Which makes it extremely disappointing that, near the end of the game, the narrative decides that it never intended to say anything interesting about the socioeconomic conditions of this society or the people in it. For the "true" end, the game shrugs and says "actually all violence is equally bad, no matter the circumstances. And it's unreasonable to judge political and economic systems as immoral, unjust, or violent (or any individual actors within those systems as such) because the intent of those systems (and actors) is more important than their actual effect on the people subject to the consequences of political decisions."

Everything goes back to the way it was. Maybe things will change some day, and people will stop being maimed in factories and dying on the streets. Maybe rich people will stop getting away with murdering anyone poorer than they are (yes, that's an actual plot point). An Octave Higher keeps setting itself up for a big climax that the game itself tells you isn't supposed to happen. Then it makes a really out of place Chrono Trigger reference, makes a pretty weird statement about martyrdom, and ends. Would not recommend.

This visual novel from Kidalang and AGM PLAYISM feature 6 different characters in a fantasy steampunk world of Overture with 2 different magical abilities in Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Kindness (shown in each character's enlarged trading card artwork). Amidst the backdrop of Overture's dependence on magic potions and magic to drive and sustain its economy and itself, the discovery of a broken piano by a factory worker lead her to an adventure with comedy, mystery, thriller and tragedy.

The game has more than 100 positive reviews at the time of this review, great soundtracks and is a short to medium length game with published community guides to reach all endings and get all achievements in less than 10 hours. Recommended when at discount or bundle offer. I am also recommending this game because the game has a main character introduce sayur lodeh, a spicy vegetable dish in Southeast Asia that is among my favourite foods. xD

A small but nonetheless magnificent masterpiece in its genre.
Well written, intriguing, with a masterfully managed original setting which will have you wanting for more.
The only thing more I feel obliged to tell the interested player is to aim at getting the true ending on a second playthrough, for it amounts to somewhat half more content to be discovered and for an unforgettable emotional experience.

This game had me vastly surprised at its finesse, despite its unpretentious appearance.
To the creators, truly: bravo!

I liked this game and finished it to completion.

Pros:
+A beautiful universe, with a complex and detailed explanation of magic, politics, and a lot of grey area with ideas about morality. It has all the basic components of a great fantasy/sci-fi universe.
+The backgrounds were visually pleasing, and set the atmosphere well
+Great Music
+The way it's written makes you care about the characters and its outcomes
+It made me laugh out loud
+It made me tear up
+It has a transcription feature as well as a skip feature, that stops at dialogue that you may have missed
+It has a save/load mechanism that allows you to see what particular prompt you saved on
+It has a gallery so you can look at previous scenes, and admire the cutscene stills

Neutral:
*I didn't particularly care for one of the heroines, but that's personal preference.
*The main characters had a very detailed and beautiful design, and the outfits were very well done. A few characters (that were infrequently featured) looked a little off, but it can be shrugged off, because the majority of the designs were amazing

Cons:
-(Infrequent) references and jokes about the modern day broke my story immersion

TL;DR Give it a chance. But also, buy it on sale.

An Octave Higher is a difficult game for me to review properly. Playing through the endings, with the exception of a few points in each, I really enjoyed the game. However, as the mixed review status of this VN may have hinted, the game isn’t without its flaws. Strengths in universe-building and the magic system are contrasted by a somewhat shaky plot and flat leads. But at the end of the day, I liked this VN a lot. For me, An Octave Higher is a nostalgic work. It reminds me of the sorts of artistic narrative-driven games I used to play as a child, like the Professor Layton series. It’s not perfect, but compared to a lot of other cheap VNs available on this site, it’s fairly good. While I find it does deserve a lot of the criticism I’ve seen other reviewers throw at it, it also deserves a chance.

After playing through all 7 endings, here are my thoughts:

[Spoiler Warning]
[Major spoilers are tagged, but general discussions are left. Read at your own risk. Discussed endings are named by their corresponding achievements]

Pros (+)
+Interesting primary universe. Overture shines as a fantasy city.
+Fascinating magic system. Applying science to magic makes it an actual, comprehensible field that makes readers feel a very real connection to it.
+Gorgeous background art and lighting choices breathe life into Overture.
+Soundtrack is great, especially the main theme
+Fights are clever and well-paced, as well as accompanied by relevant visual aid. Although nothing is strictly animated, the fights never ceased to have me on the edge of my seat.
+Thorough economic system, and clever world-building around a magic-based technological society. This especially as expanded by Janis Woolf in Why not?
+Addresses the good/evil divide in a more complex manner than simply claiming one side right and the other wrong. For a fantasy work, it’s a refreshing change.
+Characters are likeable despite a few flaws in their writing.
+As far as tradables go, this game does pretty well. Cards are pretty fair quality, although a bit expensive. Emoticons are pretty average, nothing amazing but nothing totally worthless either. What really shines is the backgrounds. Hope you get lucky and land one of the rares. And even if you don’t the common backgrounds are still really pretty.
+Everything following the timeskip in So beautiful and lost and Why not? is really good.
+Easy to get 100% achievements. Always a nice touch.


Neutral (•)
•A few other reviews cite the lack of music-related magic or the importance of music in the story as a major complaint. While they’re not wrong, most of this criticism is unfounded. Beyond the title (which is likely only used for dramatic effect) there’s no promise that music will be the unifying force of this story. And, quite appropriately, it’s not. Although in the Why not? (true) ending it does ending up playing a bigger role.
•The neutral ending, Your afternoon tea My Lord, Egregia cum laude, Whatever I know about magic, and the Hidden Achievement (Happily Ever After) are all parallel endings, with only minor variations between them. They also completely miss out on the back half of the game (post timeskip). If you get one of these endings, I urge you to keep playing for one of the others.
•Somewhat unsurprisingly, the true ending is objectively the best one.

Cons (-)
-Out of the 7 endings, all but 2 (So beautiful and lost and Why not?) come about abruptly and are mostly unsatisfying. In each of these cases, after a certain event the story just…ends. A lot of loose ends are disregarded or swept under the rug, and you’re left with these sense of missing so much from the story and the universe.
-The ending for Your afternoon tea, My Lord was especially disappointing, especially given some tasteless and honestly out of place “fanservice” snuck in at the end.
-The two main leads – Franz and Elise – are pretty flat characters. Hints of potential development are scattered throughout the story, but unfortunately aren’t explored. While not unlikeable, on many occasions they only serve to advance the story.
-On the topic of flat characters, Franz didn’t get nearly enough development, or even express enough of an opinion about the bourgeoisie/proletariat divide to make his assuming the role of Amadeus feel natural. More development would have been appreciated.
-The plot involving Compassion magic that drives our 4 mains together doesn’t pan out in any but the Why not? ending. After all of the buildup, the outcome was pretty disappointing.
- The Libertad’s establishing characterization is weak. A greater connection to the initial plot or one of the main characters would have been appreciated. However, they do improve significantly after the timeskip in So beautiful and lost and Why not?
-No back button for dialogue. While there is a text log accessible through the menu, there’s no effective rewind button beyond loading old saves.
-The fast forward option for dialogue chooses what to skip through based on what text you as a player have or haven’t seen before, even if dialogue between different endings (given slightly different choices) is basically the same. A comprehensive, or at least less conditional, skip function would be appreciated.

Despite these, An Octave Higher is still a very good game. I urge you to give it a shot. However, as mentioned previously, buy it on sale.

For a game with music in the title, there is practically nothing about music in this game. While the magic system and world building are interesting, it's not what I expected or wanted at all. If you like pianos in limited doses (or the people who enjoy the presence of the pianos), and are not expecting this game to be about music, this might be the thing for you.

Some cool things:
Interesting world and magic system
Neat character design. They were a delight to discover.
Overall complex characters that you can grow to love or hate
Pretty fun to experience.
Aretha Lovelace Babbage - it made me lol
Easy to replay - great skip buttons and not a lot of choices.


Some not cool things:
The magic system is NOT music based.
There is little music in the story
Aretha Lovelace-Babbage - I take many issues with what she was trying to do and don't understand why any of her work was so groundbreaking if mechanical computers existed (they didn't when Babbaged invented the first one) and no mention of human computers
The story was pretty nonsense after a point. The foreshadowing fell short of hinting at how it would unfold (esp. on the path to true end), so it felt unexpected and kind of dumb.
There is no happy ending for noble x scholar. That is NOT what the character points are for (but they are for every other character, it's not romance, it's the level of how much they can stand to breath the same air as each other). I felt very VERY gipped.
The hidden achievement. Thought it would be more interesting. It was just nonsense.
Elise's musical ability was pretty nonsense.
I want to know more about Gesang. Why would we be told about a place we never visit?

This is a great story, not necessarily a great game.
Why is that? There are only a few choices. Most of the time you just read.
However, the world is complex. All the spells are described in detail (still, you cannot really use them). The plot is great, but extremely sad, and sometimes gore and vulgar.
I recommend this game to everyone who is in need of a depressing good story.

Though I have a fair share of problems with it, I can't really give it thumbs down.
The novel is a avarage 6/10 or 7/10 when you remember the best parts.
Cg and music is superb and it saves the later parts of the VN. The stories are pretty good until you arrive at the true ending and Why not ? route. It will become very generic and boring. After a 5 year timeskip you will only see character development with the one character whose life was destroyed. Though none of his friends and his dissaperence made no apparent impact on anything. I was fairly angry with the true ending and foun myself wishing for the end.
I recommend it if you can buy it discounted, as I did. I hope they make a little better Vn next time.

I have very mixed feelings about this game, and those feelings are pretty distinctly centralized around each half of the game. It's difficult to boil this down to a short list, but I'll try to make a TL;DR version for those who don't want to read my full opinion.

Long version:
This game has six different endings, all of which are mutually exclusive. Three of these are based on characters maxing out their relationships, and the fourth is a generic ending if none of the others are triggered. These are all what I call "first half" endings, in that they are endings received when the second half of the story is not triggered.

Now, I think of this first half as entirely distinct, as the tone and the focus is entirely different from the second half. The first half is fairly slow-paced, with a lot of worldbuilding, character exposition, and other introductory fluff. It can be a bore to read, but it's an interesting take on steampunk magic which I haven't seen before (though I'm hardly an expert). The characters are great in the first part, I think. It's a fairly short first arc, but there's enough personality that I kept going just to see more interactions between these characters. There's a fair amount of comedy, and it was pleasant and lighthearted for the most part. I wish that the first four endings overlapped more (They're relationship-based. That's this game's best part. You can't tell me that they couldn't have done more with this.), but I did appreciate how casual the endings were. We got a snippet of life after the story, and it was more than the usual "happily ever after" stuff. I just wish that there was more to this whole arc, both in the story and the endings. It cuts off fairly abruptly, and the conflict of the first arc is solved maybe five minutes before the end, leaving the last bit feeling incredibly rushed. But to be fair, that's probably because you're meant to continue past that, onto the "true" endings.

And that's where the story falls apart. The single choice that sends you onward to the last two endings takes the cheery tone and chucks it out the car window, then backs over it for good measure. There's one word that comes to mind for me when I see the transition: edgy. Someone's hands are cut clean off with a butcher knife, which seems unrealistic and doesn't really fit other than as a reason for the characters to act the way they do in the second half. In fact, everything changes in the second half. The characters aren't nearly as likeable, and the game makes the mistake of making an antagonist of the more likeable of the two characters involved in that spoiler, and the one you'd expect to be the antagonist becomes the closest thing to a protagonist. By that, I mean that no one's really a protagonist. There are just a bunch of morally grey people who barely resemble the characters we grew attached to in the first half. I'm convinced this part was written by a teenager, because it's less competently written and it's unnecessarily dark and the tonal shift was violent enough to give me whiplash. To be honest, I only finished the second act for the completion bonus. I didn't really give a damn about anyone by this point, because they were all so bland and lifeless compared to the first arc.

All this said, I still really liked the first arc. I don't think this game is worth full price (hence my rating), but if it's half-price or less, it's worth considering. I bought it at half-price, IIRC, and I'm not sure if the second half ruined it for me or not. If I had played just the first half, I would be satisfied with paying the $6 or so for it. Whether it's worth purchasing even then is your call, and it depends on what you want from a visual novel. If you like solid character dynamics, I'd recommend this. If it takes ten hours or more of enjoyable story to get you to part with your cash, then this is probably not for you.

TL;DR
Pros:
-Good first arc
-Interesting worldbuilding
-Good character dynamics and interactions
-Fair amount of comedy
-Lighthearted tone
-Fairly satisfying endings (even if I wasn't really invested in the last two)

Cons:
-Crappy second arc
-Feels little like the first arc
-Characters act very differently
-Dull, drab tone in an attempt at bleakness

Bottom line:
Probably too short for full price, but might be worth it at a discount if you're interested. I recommend the first half; play on at your own discretion.

(We played this 7.2 hours and 100%ed it on a different account, and not on mine.)

Truth be told, I don't really want to say anything like "stay away from this game, it's terrible, blah blah blah" because it's really not. It's a visual novel with multiple endings (although most of the story is the same between the paths, apart from the true ending with its two paths). There is no additional gameplay element beyond the game being a VN, so don't look for that kind of thing. Of course, that's not a problem. It's a VN.

Anyways, as a VN, it can be judged for its art, characters, story, and music. Art is fine, characters are mostly fine, music is interesting and fairly classical...

And the story had so much potential... And fell so flat on its face. The true path is literally the worst path among all the paths.
However, the magic system was innovative. This game was clearly partly designed by an influence of engineers in its writing, with a magic system driven by applying functions and magic being a series of equations; but also referring to control systems, and really heavy reference to digital logic / digital design on the engineering side of things. It's smart! It's really smart. And then some questions are asked... then Libertad comes in and leaves ALL other questions unanswered, while also leaving their own set of questions unanswered.

Libertad and the revolution literally sinks the story completely. It just doesn't have a proper ending... and it doesn't have a direction. It just has a message, one that doesn't really know where it's going, considering the problem it asks ISN'T SHOWN TO BE RESOLVED. Barely ever have I seen a true path both heartlessly cruel and also unsatisfying due to the complete lack of closure.

So:

- PROS:
--- interesting world, innovative magic system (in terms of world design), in-depth explanation of how magic drives things (how the omnibuses fly and stuff, it's really cool)
--- fancy classical music
--- fun characters (excluding true path where everyone is either too verbose, naive, annoying or just stupid), Aretha is best girl
--- many interesting questions asked with a lot of intelligent facts thrown into the debate, there are quite a few things in here that are legitimately smart.

- CONS:
--- Libertad, anything in the story that has to do with Libertad, and therefore everything in the true path
--- Due to the excessive amounts of Libertad in the story, most other main questions are left unanswered, and the Libertad plot leaves even more questions to be answered that are left unanswered

- VERDICT:
--- If you like VNs, this one is set in a world that's driven by a REALLY interesting magic system, mostly based on engineering facts and aspects taken from the real world while also merging it the aspect of emotional intelligence. So it's worth checking out just for that.
--- The true ending is sunk by Libertad and is complete garbage from start to finish with no direction.

Overall? Worth checking out... I'd recommend to, actually, just for the magic system. It's an interesting thing to see Amplify(Transform(Willpower)) + Amplify(Transform(Courage)) as a means of casting Meteor.


But the endings might leave you frustrated, without a sense of closure. You ask, "wait, that's it? What the hell was the point? Why did that even happen? Did that achieve anything? Does anything change? Also, what was up with..." and you get no answers.

In the end, while the VN is pretty interesting, this review is a warning that the endings might not be something you like, and might not be something you expect, and you might not get the answers you are looking for. There's a bunch of other cool things here though! So don't be put off too hard by my warning.

---------

UPDATED VERDICT ABOUT 8 MONTHS LATER:

- Buy it on a sale. But the "true ending" path left us with a bitter taste. Even now, after 8 months, all I can remember is just how frustrated we were by the "true ending": a bitter emotion.

So with a minor spoiler here, the true ending is the one where you are a complete douché to literally everyone around you. Then there's a 5-year time-skip and all writing goes down the drain. You should probably avoid that path, because it sucks. If you avoid the "true ending" path, the game is pretty nice. Just don't expect to get answers to all your questions, because you don't. You wouldn't get those answers in the true path anyways, just more questions.

The drawing everyone need to decide self, but for the first game at steam from the developer i find it unique and nice. The character has a bit like Nintendo Advanced War. The sound is good till acceptable, the story has some parts you can get 5 endings (most are very sad) and a funny special scene after the true ending. I dont want tell to much, it has only 3 negative reviews now and many positives. I enjoy the characters and the little details. I only miss a german translation i need to use a translation side a bit often, thats not making so much fun, but for a good game i do this extra work. For the most visual novel fans it should be a good games, for others i cant speak. For the story i give 90 % because i dont like this double sad true ending but i hope i can play the prequel this year and its get so good again. Thanks for reading and i hope you enjoy it.

Okay this is the first time I reviewed a VN (I did one before with A Kiss for the Petals though that's not a 'proper' review imo) on Steam so bear with me, okay?

I count myself among the minority seeking out for more narrative-driven games and for better narratives within them. And in this sense, I adore visual novels genre. So, when this gem showed up on my recommendation list, I wasn't expecting much. Maybe some average story, a couple silly characters, that sort of thing. What I got, instead, was a journey to an entirely new and exciting world that left me with a feeling of intrigue and a longing to someday return. A story about how circumstances can divide people.

Set in the city of Overture, a large city in the midst of an industrial revolution spurned by the discovery and implementation of magic, An Octave Higher comprises a nest of concrete and steel itself governed by the marriage of science and magic... that you might even call it magical science. From scientific theory to engineered machines, mana and the powers it provides Overture in its entirety. As you can probably tell, the story revolves around magic, where it is the key to it all: education, industries, to the country’s militia, and is even used in everyday livelihoods for the upper districts and for those who can afford mana potions. Anyone with a mana potion can cast spells, and must do so if they want to live comfortably. Heated water? That calls for fire magic, born from the Courage attribute. Want healing? Summon your Compassion. Omnibuses, the flying taxis of the city, operate on wind and gravity magic (Faith and Willpower).

But magic is far from a catch-all solution if not without costs... It’s borne problems of its own as the city is divided into a three-class system. The Aristocrats on top are the wealthiest, living in their manors and are in charge of most industries of any and all magic machines. The Bourgeois are the middle class where most can afford to use magic and to go to schools that teach the usage of magic. They primarily live in the middle city that takes care of itself. Lastly, the Proles, who make up the poor class that you will usually see in dead-end jobs, are rotting in the shanty towns that make up the lower quarters of Overture. Where the lower class is consistently in awe of the magic and machinery that the rich take for granted, the upper-class look down upon the proles, who grow more and more resentful. Poor citizens are reduced to being compared to simple parts in a machine, and at a certain point in the game we overhear a conversation among factory owners who weigh costs between buying new machinery or hiring more workers.

And this is where we meet our three main protagonists and their respective roles in society. There's Frederic, an aristocrat brat who is pretty much awful to everyone he interacts with despite being a great sorcer player. Soon after, we meet Franz, a well-off student and researcher at the local university. And finally Elise, a young factory worker who lives at a brothel and in a few short months is expected to join the ranks. The narrative jumps around between these three characters liberally and it does effectively convey what everyone is thinking about in any particular situation.

At this point, I can't say enough about the writing. The pacing is excellent, and it encapsulates world building to an almost perfect point. In every instance, the writers find ways to explain details to players. Questions such as: what does the average factory worker's day entail? How does this machine work? What are the rules of the arena sports game, Sorcer? All of these details are provided in context. Another aspect of the game I really loved was the complex theories of magic layered within it. I have no doubt that the game developers spent many hours getting the magic theories down to a science (like its clever use of using magic theories in place of real mathematics), and the end result presented to us definitely allowed me to further immerse myself in the rich fantastical world of Overture. I do wish there was voice-acting in the game though, as that would have definitely aided in the immersion experience.

The music, while a bit lacking in variety, is pleasant and soothing. This gives gameplay a relaxing and calming effect, which in turn causes the hours of playtime to quietly float by. Sound effects within the game have a tendency to fall flat, but they aren't distracting and don't take away from the experience.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing this visual novel and it is undoubtedly one of the better visual novels I've played in recent memory. I grew really fond of the game's setting and characters by the end of the story, and I believe that the game's world still has a lot of potential left to be explored. This visual novel is one that fans of fantasy stories should definitely give a try! And by the way, the developer, Kidalang, already announced a prequel to this game called A Small Fire at a Time so make sure to look out for it!

A really good genuine VN made by my local developer.

+ Good & Engaging Story
+ Different Ending
+ Different POV in between 3 main char
+ Nice artwork
+ Nice music

- Voiceless

AOH is a really good VN with its story. I do reccommended this game to all of you.
The story is good, full of unexpectation, intrigue, betrayal, and friendship.
For all of you who loves VN then it's a must to play, and it is good for all of you who want to start playing the VN genre.

==EDIT==

Finally finish the game with 100% achievement.
All of the Ending is so good, even though the other ending beside 'true ending' very short, but it's unexpected.

You will get a lot of fun from trying and finishing each ending. Highly reccommended to get all of the ending.

I think that it's best to go into this VN blind, that's why I'm putting part of my review in spoiler tags. These aren't really spoilers but rather surprising things.
An Octave Higher is an interesting VN, I could recommend for anybody, mostly because it's not a dating sim, it's not lewd, it's not gory or depressing, nor silly.
It is a branching story about people, music, magic, science, revolution, betrayal and life.
It has multiple main characters, or rather story is told from point of view of several characters, what's unusual for a VN.
There aren't that many choices, but most of those matter. As the story is branching, there are several endings.
A game is accompanied by classical music, what's also somewhat unusual. Music is definitely strong part of An Octave Higher.
It's rather long, takes about 10 hours to finish.
Visual part is weak, though. While backgrounds are nice and detailed, characters are somewhat simplistic and don't go well with those backgrounds, also there is certain lack of variety here.
OTOH writing is not bad, even with some mistakes there and here.

This was truly a big surprise. I like visual novels despite that a fair amount of them have weak storylines, but this visual novel's story was not weak at all. It was surprisingly well-done and just awesome. Honestly, it could've made a decent storyline for a RPG, but I know indie companies don't always have the money for that.

The point-of-view switches between three different characters. I like this because it allows the reader to see from different story perspectives. It also doesn't cater to one character's biased interpretations of events. After playing through the game a lot, I must say that I think Elise is supposed to be the main character of the three.

The achievements for this game comprise of 5 endings and 1 easter egg. There is also a 6th ending that doesn't yield an achievement (because it's neutral/generic). The easter egg is hilarious, by the way.

The artwork of this game is impressive. Although, sometimes the characters look a bit awkward in how they're drawn.

The music is lovely. Quite lovely. This is to be expected considering the title of the game.

I definitely recommend this game for those who like visual novels! It might also serve to be a good game to introduce someone to visual novels, since it's definitely one of the better ones out there.

Really enjoy my time with "An Octave Higher". Espically a story about flaws of a system that can't easily be change but that is not fair. How you go through the perspective of people living on both sides of the system on where the rich keeps get richer and the poor ends up suffering more and more. How people keep suffering until they can't handle it no more. Also really enjoy the art and piano scores through out the game. If I have to point faults there are a few but my opinion. Sometimes they lose story on spending so much time on one side of the system. There is no window mode as far I can tell. When you hide the text try to take a screen shot the text pops right back up while your doing it. Outside of that would reccommend this to anyone. Plus one of the achievements is misleading the "Happily Ever After" one. Kept going through the game thought there was a dialogue combo I was missing but it was something else completely

This is a fantastic game with a fantastic story.
It's a long visual novel, a single playthrough with the non-canon ending was three hours, and it's not like most games (even most visual novels that I've played) in that you make very few decisions. I believe, on my first playthrough, that my first decision didn't take place until about 45 minutes or an hour into the game.

Which brings me to my larger point: this is a game for people who like to read and really enjoy a story. Decisions are fundamental to the game and many of them directly impact which ending you're going to experience, but you won't be choosing little things all the time. You'll be making big decisions, the narrative will be allowing the characters to make the small decisions.

That said, and it's said simply to inform so as to help those who might buy the game to avoid any confusion or frustration with the style of the game, and as I said before: the story is fantastic. There was a great deal of care and consideration put into the writing of this work, there are moral and social quandaries and complexities which are shown to the player and, depending on player choices, the player gets to see the difficult (and not wrong) decisions and opinions formed based entirely on the perspective of the character.

As one character says in the game, in a battle there are no good guys and bad guys. We all go through life convinced that we're right. Those of us who fight do so because we believe we'll get justice. Gilligan suggested that all violence is created by people seeking justice who believe they deserve something which they're being deprived of: be it respect, objects, or any number of other complex social equations. Violence is the attempt to replace feelings of shame and inadequacy with pride and worth. The writing in this game is good enough that it successfully creates multi-faceted characters who always have reasons for whatever violence they might create, and the game creates such a complex social tapestry that it's easy to see how the individuals (on both sides of the conflict) are, in their own way and with their own limited perspectives, right.