Always The Same Blue Sky…

Developer: NeoNight | Publisher: NeoNight | Release Date: 2015 | Genre: Visual Novel / Indie | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Always The Same Blue Sky is a visual novel that opens with the protagonist waking up from a rather disturbing nightmare while in transit to a remote island. It seems that you are transferring to a new school and that constantly moving to remote locations is not a new thing in your life. However, there is someone on this small island who makes life a little more interesting: a mysterious girl named Kira. She is one of your new classmates and quickly volunteers to show you around the island. Most of the game focuses on your character’s time with Kira, making it seem like Always The Same Blue Sky is just another typical slice-of-life visual novel, but this is not quite the case.

As far as visual novels go, there are a couple of things we like about Always The Same Blue Sky, but it also stumbles in a few key areas, which means it will definitely not appeal to everyone. First off, you get to pick the name and gender of your character, but apart from about one line of text, this doesn’t influence the story in any way. The game is also really short, and despite having two different endings, it won’t take players very long to see and read everything there is. However, the biggest problem with Always The Same Blue Sky is that it feels a little rushed and disjointed. Clearly, this visual novel’s author attempted to streamline the experience by focusing on key events in the characters’ lives, but a little too much was trimmed in the process. The transitions between scenes are not always as smooth as we would have liked, and it feels like the story jumps from one event to the other in a somewhat jarring manner.

While the game only features two characters, both are interesting, but the story never really fleshes them out in any way, which is a real pity. Some genuinely baffling things about the protagonist are mentioned in passing but never explained, which is a missed opportunity. Since the story is so short, we can’t reveal much without spoiling things, but the final act also feels a bit out of the blue, and the tone is entirely different from the rest of the game. This is obviously intentional, but it would have had a bigger impact with a couple more scenes to establish the characters and make us care about them. After completing the story, which can be done in under an hour, depending on how fast you read, there is one short “hidden” story to check out and a couple of achievements that require you to replay the game and make different choices. There are not a lot of choices to be made in the game, and the ones you choose don’t seem to influence the story too much, apart from the endings.

Like the story, the visuals and audio of Always The Same Blue Sky are also a mixed bag. The CG scenes featuring Kira tend to be good, and overall, the sprite work is also nice, but since the game runs on the RenPy engine, there isn’t much in the way of animations. There aren’t many locations either, and while the backgrounds show some of the interesting parts of the island, the art style seems to be a little uneven. It feels like different artists handled the sprites and backgrounds, and the styles don’t always mesh together so great. This game doesn’t feature voice acting, but there are a decent amount of language options to choose from, which is great if English is not your native language. We quite enjoyed the background music, although it is not available in-game via a jukebox option. Instead, the soundtrack can be purchased outside the game as DLC. From a technical standpoint, there is little to talk about. You can only choose between full screen and window mode, select the text speed, and adjust the volume levels of the music and sounds.

Despite all our gripes, Always The Same Blue Sky was an enjoyable enough read, and the price is low enough that it doesn’t feel like a rip-off due to the short playtime. On top of that, all the Steam achievements are easy to get, which makes it an appealing choice for those who care about 100% achievements in a game. There are certainly a lot of areas in which the game could have been improved, but for what it is, it really isn’t that bad. If you are looking for a short but engaging visual novel with a neat little twist and wallet-friendly price, then Always The Same Blue Sky won’t disappoint. Just make sure you don’t expect too much from it.