Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Feb 12, 2022

  Great game. I felt the genuine passion worthy of the final project by Overdrive. It's a shame they won't make games like this anymore.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 22, 2022

  'Music touch deep, where words cannot' Musicus, is a story about a group of people forming bands and dealing with the trials and tribulation of the music industry. Begins with just an ordinary student achieving to be a doctor, which is the expectation of his father and his family. In certain circumstances, he met people, and through them, he discover a world that he did not know. Taught him and gave him a new kind of outlook on life, which began in a simple dream of starting a band. It talks all about how much you sacrifice to achieve your dreams or the path you want to take. 'Do I want to be a doctor?' 'Can I go back after this?' 'Is this what's best for me?' 'Is it worth it in the end?' Each character feels genuine and unique. How they deal with the situation, how they face challenges, and how they interact with each other, feels like you were also part of the band, watching it as it unfolds. Even not knowing the full background of each other, they trust each other as band members and knew them in how they are, also the term "friends" is rarely mentioned in this. There is no room to criticize the soundtrack, it complements the story. Not only are the typical backgrounds are good, but there are also actual tracks from the bands that play during the appropriate scene, which can also be streamed on Spotify. Overall, a wonderful visual novel with unique characters, a banger soundtrack, and a well-written story that takes you up and down through the ride of life and surely will stay in you for a long time. Caution: Bad end = PAIN
• gamedeal user

  Apr 11, 2022

  Musicus is an experience about a part-time student, who explores his local rock scene with the potential to go even further. I am honestly pretty on the fence with how I feel about this visual novel. It's innovative in it's own ways, whilst also being extremely lacking in others. It has nice moments of realism, mixed in with some dream-like events occurring. There were a lot of things I wasn't a fan of, but in the end if I had to choose if I enjoyed it and would recommend it or not, I would say it barely won out and I would recommend this. There is a lot to enjoy about it. The different philosophies explored, the effort in making rather real scenarios and the amount of effort put into making the music and keeping that band alive outside of the game itself. The writing I would say it generally good. The characters have interesting personalities, some that relies on tropes as a base while some are quite unique. Through a small bit of googling, though this is OVERDRIVE's last work, they are keeping the band from this game alive through VTubing on Youtube. It's rather lengthier than other visual novels, as well as having quite interesting routing choices. Now onto what I found negative about the game. The engine is okay, but I'm not a fan of how the text is displayed. The images get covered by a darkened overlay and text appears, just like the screenshots show. I don't really like this because they try to display actual paragraphs of texts at once, which is just a pain to read or want to read. It would be easier if there was just line by line, but there are so many paragraphs that make it harder to enjoy and look at. The art itself is fine, but the sprites for characters have quite a few different appearances, like they copy+pasted a base for the sprites and drew on new clothes and accessories for them. It's a nice change and adds nice variety that other visual novels do not have, but something about it also makes it less appealing? There are a few scenes that have too much CG, and some that lack them. I found myself getting lost as to how much time has passed in the story because the game just transitions and just says its this month now and it goes on, so the flow of time could be a bit more clear. The general routes are fine, but I wish the way that the story splits was done differently, because there feels like a much better story could've happened if they found a better way to mesh it all together. There are a few moments the writing took some mental gymnastics to figure out how things became the way they did. I feel the main character can be really inconsistent at times, beyond character development reasons. Some of the choices you can make are ancillary and don't really add anything to the story, but they not really fun either. There is one character that I absolutely despise, yet the writers decided to make him a core part of the entire thing. I wish they could have at least gave him more likable traits or just make him less him. Though I wrote much more strongly about the negative, I didn't want to write much about the positive because I didn't want to spoil it too much. But in my opinion, the positive just barely outweighs all the negative after one is able to spend time to read it. The overall experience was nice and I don't regret it. The price is a bit much, so I would recommend it on sale.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 30, 2022

  It's a real shame this didn't end up becoming much of a hit even among the very niche group of plot-heavy vn fans, because it's just a solid vn on all fronts, if you want a good vn, this is a safe choice. The one thing I'd have to warn people against is to not expect the wrong thing when they hear this one described as philosophical. Musicus doesn't explore its themes in a manner as mechanical and intellectual as something like Subahibi, it's more personal and muddled, so be aware of that.
• AcedLuD1ck

  Jun 7, 2023

  "Musicus," a visual novel game I'm currently playing, has already impressed me with its refreshing narrative and visually appealing design. While I haven't finished the game yet, I find its overall presentation invigorating and well-executed. One of the highlights of the game is undoubtedly its characterization. The characters are well-developed, possessing depth and intricacies that elevate them beyond mere props. This layered characterization creates an immersive experience, contributing significantly to the overall appeal of the game. However, the protagonist often comes across as slightly robotic. His lack of voiceover, presumably designed to facilitate role-playing, occasionally makes it difficult to connect with his emotions and thoughts. Though this does not fundamentally detract from the overall game experience, it presents an area that could have been handled better. The game's musical score deserves special mention for its captivating compositions. It not only complements the game's ambiance perfectly but also stands as an enjoyable listen on its own, outside of the gaming context. The game's text display is, however, an aspect I found less engaging. The unconventional manner in which it appears on the screen - where viewing clear colorfull images necessitates a right-click, causing the text to disappear - seems a bit off-putting. A more traditional approach, such as displaying the text at the bottom of the screen, would have been a more user-friendly choice, in my opinion. In spite of this, "Musicus" succeeds in maintaining an engaging gameplay experience that keeps boredom at bay. To conclude, "Musicus" is a unique blend of refreshing narrative, engrossing characters, and impressive music, only slightly marred by its robotic protagonist and unconventional text display. However, its strengths easily overshadow these minor flaws, ensuring an overall enjoyable gaming experience. I look forward to completing this musical journey and anticipate more captivating moments in the game.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 2, 2023

  - so fun to play, rating 94/100
• gamedeal user

  Apr 9, 2021

  This review may be a bit biased since I am a fan of overdrive’s adult visual novels, but if you love anime, music, and visual novels with great story then this one is for you. This is also overdrive’s final visual novel so you can rest assured that the quality of this visual novel is top notch! What’s more amazing is that there is a [u] free 18+ uncensored patch [/u] for this game and it can be found here: https://www.mangagamer.com/r18/freedownload.php?product_name=MUSICUS!%20(download) [i] Notes for the patch: If you don’t have a mangagamer account, you might want to create one, since the link will ask you to login your mangagamer account before you can download the free 18+ uncensored patch. Once you finish downloading the file, extract it and open the “readme” file for instructions on how to apply the juicy patch. You will know that you have applied the patch properly if the game title is MUSICUS(R18) when not on full screen. [/i] Overall, I’d say this game is worth your time You guys should definitely give it a shot ツ
• gamedeal user

  Apr 9, 2021

  For the first 4 hours, the knowledge of music production and character emotion are great. However, the full-screen text box and character voice cut instantly in the next scene even there is no voiced line coming up are questionable.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 10, 2021

  Overdrive really outdid themselves this time, it's a shame this is Overdrive's final visual project. The Japanese visual novel industry has been declining for years, making visual novels of this quality hard to come by.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 13, 2021

  Setoguchi Ren'ya literal god.