I have depression

Developed by calme and published by Sekai Project onto steam. KARAKARA is a short kinetic visual novel lasting up to 5 hours.[Based on my reading speed] There are no choices to be made at all and is available in English and Japanese. KARAKARA is made possible and funded through an Indiegogo campaign. KARAKARA is the sound of aridity. It is the sound of dry asphalt and sandy winds. It is the sound of relentless sunshine, as well as the sound of a withering race.

KARAKARA features 4 character. It is very lighthearted and has that slice of life feel, to put it in a simple term. I would say you will feel relaxed reading KARAKARA for sure because that is what I felt, its fluffy cute. Like really fluffy, the type where it will melt your heart and make you go *Hnnnnnnng*. In fact when I was reading it I think I was smiling like an idiot 85% of the time. There is no form of extreme drama in it like someone dying or anything crazy like this. For the whole time it’s just smooth sailing down a gentle stream, really a relaxing read through. Story scenario is by Kio Nachi – best known for writing Yumiko’s route in Grisaia, he has also written the scenario for Scarlett and Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm.

The “Age of Dusk.” It is a time of senescence for the human species, during which hybrids known as the “Others”—those who are human, yet not—exist in great numbers. On the windswept barrens of a land without moisture, a small gathering of people make their living in a world they no longer know. The story takes place in America after the “Age of Dusk” with a desert like theme. Down a stretch of highway and far from the heart of the town are two such people who run a small diner. To them, the circumstances that reshaped their world known as the “Age of dusk” is of far less concern than the number of lunch boxes they can load into their delivery vehicle. After all, leaving customers hungry is not good for business, and business keeps them fed. Day after day, they occupy themselves with the endless work of their store. However, the comfortable monotony of their daily lives is turned on its head when they discover a large suitcase by the roadside on their way home from deliveries. Lying on the suitcase, unmoving, is a young girl with pink hair…

Though parched, the three of them keep each other company, and while hollow, they fill each other’s voids.

Visual elements – The art of KARAKARA is what attracted me the most, illustrated by p19 a Illustrator known for the usage of soft pastel colors for her drawings. The moment I looked at the art I was just attracted to it like a magnet of opposing poles it just looks extremely gorgeous and smooth. Next up is the backgrounds they are absolutely just beautiful and detailed. It just compliments so well with the character sprites, colors so well that everything just looks extremely polished. As you can see in the above screenshots Lucia just blends perfectly with the background.

Audio elements – Personally I liked them as they fits in perfectly, 2 of the more notable soundtracks are Blue Horizon and Move On. The moment you start the game the very first soundtrack you hear is Blue Horizon.Though I honestly wish the OP “Rakuen” is in the extras sound gallery menu.

Next Onto the voice acting!! A topic which I really love talking about. [Side effects of idol games] I generally liked Lucia voice the most as it just fits her “motherly” image she has perfectly. Lets take for example at near the end of KARAKARA there is 2 voice lines where Lucia said “Asia, look at me.” and “Asia, do you like me?” those 2 lines is just filled with the tone of what a mother will say to her very own child. If you are curious Lucia is voiced by かわしま りの who also voiced 右田 真闇 from Maitetsu

Will I recommend this KARAKARA? Definitely a yes, I really do not see a reason for missing this visual novel, it is lighthearted, cute and a great experience to read through it. If you do enjoy slice of life theme and adorable yet memorable characters do give KARAKARA a go.

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I enjoyed this VN. Love the artwork, and the plot was rather interesting, but, it wasn't long enough. (Apparently, the scenes that were cut from the original give it longer length, but not by much).
Its good to see more VN's being made by lesser known companies. They should be supported as much as possible.

Good things

+ Very cute characters
+ Excellent voice acting
+ Slice of life
+ Not boring
+ Good Ost
+ Beautiful background artwork
+ CG and OST viewer included
+ General design looks nice

Neutral things

• Kinetic VN (No decisions)

Bad things

- Pretty short (around 4h)
- 10€ is a bit too much
- the disaster wasn't explained that much

I found out of this kinetic visual novel about week ago and after waiting for multiple reviews to come in I decided to give it a shot.
After playing it, I'd like to give this title a neutral recommendation more than positive or negative, but had to choose one.

To begin with, the characters are cute, art is good and the background story is told throughout the novel rather well BUT the story suffers from somewhat bad pacing, narration on few scenes were suddenly rushed ruining the feel for being a good romance novel and the content feels sometimes bit too oversexualized like countless Sakura -titles.

The R18 patch adds few scenes to the novel, but I wouldn't recommend it for the story's sake, but for supporting the artist.

Otherwise about the novel; it's positive that male protagonist was shown in the drawings and whole novel is properly voiced and "dual-text" as English & Japanese at same time was an interesting feature to have, but compared to it's length and for those above said reasons I would've hoped bit more detailed animations or more different art to fill that gap of longing something more.

KARAKARA is good novel to players who haven't read much visual novels so far, but for one seeking a fluent, heartwarming story more than abundant figures I would recommend to think another time. It might be a wonderful novel for you, or not - you're the one to make that decision of getting it.

Steam really needs to let reviewers specify "mixed" or "neutral" in their recommendations for games like this.

First the good, the art is excellent and the game is fairly well voice acted. The experiment with putting both the Japanese and English text on screen at the same time was inetersting, and I'm glad that experimentations like this...even though I don't really feel that it worked; it was distracting and I turned it off about 10 minutes in. The music is pretty good, though there isn't much variety.

The story doesn't really feel like it forms a cohesive whole, and if you perform even the most cursory poking at the backstory, everything falls apart. The largest human settlement has 2,000 people in it...and yet, the American continent still has international trade with the Japanese isles. "Sagami Fancisco" has 2,000 people in it and the main character owns a car(!!!). That's nowhere near enough people to maintain a petrochemical industry, or any sort of manufacturing base that could support an auto industry. Even weirder, the main character (or at least his parents) chose to set up a dinner 50 miles outside of the nearest human settlement. And they still...get buisness?

"But it's moe! You aren't supposed to take it seriously!"

I am totally on board with that! Really! The problem is that the game puts its setting front and center, again and again, at the expense of the moe characters. Nekopara mumbled "something something genetic enginering, now stop asking about it," and then never brought it up again so we could enjoy the catgirls in peace, without bringing up things that would break immersion.

And despite that criticism, when the world takes a back seat to the character interaction between Lucia and Aisia and the MC, it sorta works. Which sucks, because you then have the other half of the story dragging the moe character interaction down.

It is a good VN made by professionals. Characters are cute, and plots are funny. In an interview, the writer said the story is short (the length of a volume of light novel), so it doesn't really have a story. Rather, it served the purpose of introducing the universe, which is some sort of bigger plot in a post apocalyptic world. For its length, it may be better to get it when it goes on sale.

The bilingual option in config turns the game into a good reading to learn Japanese. I wish they will keep it in future development.

Hope to see a sequel.

Looked at it at first and downloaded the demo.

Got ineterested and bought it, even though there's a seperate patch for the adult version(didn't purchase that).

Found out it only has two chapters...

Still enjoyed it, even though it was short.

I rate this an 8/10

Supported in part by a successful Indiegogo funding campaign earlier in 2016, Japanese developer Calme’s debut title is a short visual novel centered around the daily life of Leon, who struggles to keep his café open in a post-disaster era.

Visual novels — games which are essentially watching anime at your own pace, with little to no actual gameplay — are often a difficult genre to do well. Their simplicity means that storyline often makes or breaks a game, and a market saturated by home made, amateur titles can often overwhelm new developers. Luckily for KARAKARA, this isn’t a problem, thanks to strong personalities for the main characters.

KARAKARA tells the tale of Leon, a down on his luck guy who is struggling to find success with the café he owns and runs with long-term employee and friend Lucia — a catgirl in a world where they are the dominant race rather than humans, thanks to an unspecified past disaster.

One day while delivering supplies to one of their customers, the pair come across a stranger in the desert, changing their lives forever. Thanks to the the mysterious and exuberant new woman, Leon gets the help he desperately needs around his store — while also sparking a rivalry between her and Lucia.

Elsewhere, Leon occasionally runs into local policewoman Cullen, who is often upbeat, but something is bothering her lately; morbid rumors of malevolent ghosts and vampires have been spreading around the region, and while those are likely old wives tales, it’s clear that it preys on her mind.

KARAKARA explores themes of family, love and compassion, lightly dancing over more adult themes while still providing ecchi-style fan service common to the genre. While the game contains no nudity and much of the romantic interest activity is subtly hinted at, an adult version will be on offer at additional cost.

This is a hard game for me to review. I'd give it a neutral if I could, but that's not an option. I really did love it. The art and setting were superb, and the characters were interesting.

The problem was its length. The whole game only took me 2.5 hours to get through (including the 15min of optional content), and even a very slow reader could finish it in under 4.

There was so much they could have done with the setting, and so many interesting plot elements that were introduced but never explored. I would have gladly paid more if they would have spent more time developing the story. I guess I'm somewhat disappointed, and hope the developers come back to this setting sometime in the future.