My god. My heart after playing this game. This is coming from a man who has watched & played multiple Urobochi works.

The story is about a kid who is attempting to enact his dream - to explore Mars - through rapid accumulation of wealth utilizing the stock market. At age 16 he ran away from home, earned 1,000 mools (appears to have 1/1 exchange rate with USD) working, then multiplied it to 72,000 mools through margin trading.

While starting off slow, the story moves towards a powerful, deeply moving (and terrible) conclusion. I don't want to spoil more, so I'll end by saying World's End Economica (in Volume 1, at least) is the definition of the Linear VN archtype, unlike Fate/Stay Night you don't even get to make choices.

For those who want some action in their VN, Sunrider (a free game, and on Steam) plays very much like Fire Emblem with a dash of Mass Effect style morality choices.

Although I am recommending World's End Economica, it is emotionally traumatizing. Definitely not for everyone.

Interesting VN marred by some formatting issues, occasional typos and a lack of extra CG's to put some situations in context. In true Spice and Wolf fashion, it's a bit heavy on the technical jargon; prepare to be confused if you don't know much about the stock market and investing, though this is not by a lack of effort on the novel's part to teach you, at it does touch at least on the basics.

Clocks in at around 13 hours depending on how fast you read, it definitely doesn't overstay its welcome. Solid sci-fi human-colonies-on-the-moon setting, with interesting characters that unfortunately don't have enough time to be developed fully. The music score is solid for the most part, with special notion to the catchy main menu tune, Under the Net.

Fantastic ending, fitting for the end of the first episode of a trilogy. A great purchase if it goes on sale, though it is absolutely worth your 10 dollars.

Loved this. The story was very catching. Once i started, i could stop. It had its up's and down's, but overall i would recommend it to people who want a visual novel with a great plot. I greatly anticipate episode 2 and 3. Give it a go, you will then understand how good it is.

World End ECONOMiCA Ep.1
Genre: VN - Visal Novel/Reading Storytelling

Rating:

___________

Gameplay:
Having played several other VNs where the player can choose the fate and ending of the story, this one is compleatly linear. No gameplay at all. If you were looking for action or plot twists, look away, you will be reading a lot.

Rating - 8/10
Other - 5/10

___________

Graphics:
Grahpics are okish, capped normally at 1024 x 600 and fullscreened with little damage to the image of the storyplay. Anime style is a diffrence from S&W, more bold and less simple.

Rating - 7/10
___________

Instructions:

Need say more? Just click spam or right click to see the image, scroll button does something too, such as text history. No story reversal such as in Sunraider or other similar VNs however.

Rating 8/10

___________

Bugs/Glitches:

Despite being on Early Acess for about 4 months, they had several bugs on their story. Sometimes I will notice that a room was not painted dark but a filter was doing it, how did I know? Because the filter was misalined and so I saw that the regular room was underneath. Several english typos are seen throught the story, I didn't take pictures and report those typos because I was reading AND steam photo taker barely works(and when it does, it only works on the main screen). Some other bugs include repetition of entire sentences, it becomes more evident at the end of the story when Hal repeats some sentences over and over meaninglessly.

____________

Story:

Going down to the story (no spoilers I promise), Hal is a enterperneur trying to strike it rich in the stockmarket bussiness. While this does follow the theme of S&W of economy, the economy in WEE is much more larger than it would have been on S&W, which makes it diffrent than it. Story telling is engaging at times, but sometimes it can get very depressingly slow or anguishing at Hal's faliures.

__________

The ending of WEE is indiffrent for me, I didn't like it, I don't say I like it, its more of an attempt to make it better on Ep.2, perhaps it could have ended diffrently but thats how it was made. The story going more or less reading can take from 20 hours to 10 hours. I have 30 hours because I used to leave the game on for some particular soundtracks, not that many that memorable however.

I would probably had wished it had taken a route such as S&W, however it seems it won't be like that. I would probably buy Ep.2 to satisfy craving but meh.

Rating 7/10
Other 6/10

Thanks for reading these otherwise useless pixels and bytes. If you don't feel my review is good enough, search other similar reviews. Thanks.

WOW! Just finished it.

Highly recommend if you like reading. There is no options, no choices. Rather I think this would of actually been better as a light novel, but the visual novel isn't so bad. Good artwork all around.

I was finish in 11 hours so expect a similar amount of story with a slightly faster default autoplay speed.

It does however have a somewhat draggy opening. About 3ish hours is spent with the characters and world building (which may be good or bad per person. Scifi Moon ish isn't so bad but some of the characters take some developing before you get interested). After that it was very enteraining as it starts rapidly spiraling towards the climax. I basically couldn't put it down in the last 3 hours before the end of the story. So much so that it rapidly ate at my sleep time.

Lots of economics involved with no requirement to actually need to know the real math or economics behind it to get behind the main character.

Without spoilers the ending was very well done and if I did not know there was an episode 2 would of been fine with that as the ending. But with knowledge that this continues I'm very excited for more.

Conclusion, If you like reading particularly with somewhat heavy world building; Perhaps a faint curosity of economics then pick this game up. It has well develop characters, interesting universe, and a good raising action till conclusion.

I was excited for this new work by Isuna Hasekura long before it was released and I was not disappointed. This is an advanced read and I learned a lot from it -- not just in terms of vocabulary, but also in how the stock market works. Told from the perspective of a runaway sixteen-year-old, everything was thoughtfully described like any Hasekura work, while maintaining the spunky additude of a male adelecent. And the stakes in the story? I think there are moments when WORLD END ECONOMiCA is equally humerous and even more thrilling than Hasekura's other series: Spice & Wolf. In short, the story itself is solid.

The two, maybe three, main characters are complex, some of the secondary characters could use a little more exposition, but I'm hopeful in the sequels to come. The music selections are very appropriate for each moment with a few particularly memorable tracks. The character sprites are decent, some better than others, the CGs are even better even though some are re-used in the story.

The complaints I have could possibly be linked to the switch to the Ren'Py engine in such a rush. In my Mac version of the game (Ren'Py was used to accomodate Mac and Linux), there were moments throughout when coding issues thew me out of the loop of the story. Lots of extra/missing quotation marks or periods, sentences that were chopped between one too many frames, missing nameplates when characters are talking, etc. Every song in the game had looping issues where it would play about 10 seconds into the loop and then jump back to the beginning again. The most heinous mistakes were when the character sprite was supposed to make a slight shudder or a nod and it ends up jumping around the screen sporadically. It was so bad that when a sprite actually made a reasonable movement, it made me sigh in relief, still removing me from the story.

In summary, WORLD END ECONOMiCA was a fantastically written story by Hasekura that is pleasing to the ear, the eye, and the mind, but the number of glitches throughout the game is criminal when coupled with a wonderful tale. I have e-mailed screenshots of all of the glitches I caught to their support group, and I hope they take the time to fix them in the future. If they ever do fix them that will restore a point or two in my rating, but for now, I anxiously await the next installment at the end of the year.

My score for WORLD END ECONOMiCA by Isuna Hasekura: 7.5/10

I was very reluctant to buy this game at first, it says episode 01 and I know there are more to follow. I was not sure how long it would be and if the story will end or just leave me hanging for a sequel that might or might not ever happen (been there, done that in the past).

However, I ended up buying it because of steam sales and oh boy was I wrong. Why did I not play this before?
The story is great, the artwork is amazing (aside for some secondary areas and backgrounds). This is not a "choose your own story" visual novel with multiple choices and paths, this is just a story. Do you like reading books? Do you like getting immersed in good stories? Then you will like this.

Do you play dating sims and visual novels with "routes" and choices? Do you just want some h-scenes? Then I'm sorry this is probably not to your linking.

The story is long enough to keep you entertained (I clocked 13-14 hours), it is very interesting and at times not so easy to follow so it will require your attention most of the time. If you think you might not like economics and stock trading... well, you might be surprised because this story really makes you want to get more into it. I myself do not really enjoy stock trading but this story almost made me want to get out of my way try my hand at being an investor,it really is that interesting.

The ending fits well with the story and provides somewhat of a closure so you won't be left hanging in the middle of the plot only to be told "yo sorry, go buy the other episodes". Without spoiling anything, it leaves enough space for the following episodes, but at the same time you will feel content with what you have. Just like reading a good book of a trilogy, so do not be afraid to give this game a go. It is totally worth the money in my opinion.

This is a very compelling visual novel, with characters that are quite complex and detailed. It covers many aspects of the stock market, and was very inspiring (because I invest in stocks as well). Many of the techinques, and terms used, relate to the real stock market. Hasekura combined these characters struggles with the ups, and downs of their lives and the market, perfectly.


I Highly Recommend this Visual Novel, and my only complaint is that they don't have the soundstrack on here :)

As far as i know, this is the only straight up visual novel on steam that doesn't have any dumb choices/decisions. It's literally just a book with visuals/backgrounds. While there are a couple typos/grammar issues that I would have fixed if I was able to, overall it was very clean and a good translation. I'd say it's worth a read if you have read or seen and liked Isuna Hasekura's previous works, or are interested in a story with lots of character interaction.

The story was well thought, and immersive. The characters are fleshed out rather well, which adds depth to the story. The pacing keeps you on your toes especially closer to the ending of the game. Many details about the world, characters and otherwise setting is given in a pleasant way as well. All in all, great writing which feels like a novel. It is quite lengthy as well, a bit shorter than 14.5 hours Steam recorded for me.

There were many times when the drawings and music was reused throughout the game, which sometimes didn't even match the story. The music was rather repetitive, and wasn't really enjoyable in my opinion. The effects used through the game were a bit uninspired, to say the least. The drawings aren't particularly memorable as well, though still fine. My final complaint would be the lack of resolution and v-sync options, it would be nice to run the game in my native resolution with 60 fps, rather than 1280x720 and 300 something fps.

While I don't want to give any spoilers, the story was heartwrenching. Beware.

Pretty good story so far, makes me want to reinvest / learn day trading. Although there were quite a few English typos and the music almost sounds cut-off / glitched at times.

First things first. If you just stumbled in here this is not for you most of the time. I am recommending this based on the assumption you got here because you liked Spice and Wolf. There are no choices here, this is 100% story.

That being said, I enjoyed it enough to come back for the next episode. It doesn't hold up compared to Spice and Wolf, but it is worth reading/watching in its own right. The story takes its time to go anywhere, but as a result you become more attached to the characters, I prefer these types of stories. If you are a die-hard fan of Spice and Wolf, get this on sale. It has similarities in characters and economics focus. At my reading speed it took just over 7 hrs to get through it, mileage will not vary.

As for the application/visuals themself, it does leave something to be desired. The artwork is good, but it seems very static and repetitive. You will be seeing the same character models and backgrounds for the majority of your time. The music is good. Transistions and black screens are really poorly done from what I experienced, if I had a complaint that would be it. Way too many black screens and the transistions had a tendency to loop on me.

Overall I doubt you stumbled in here randomly, if that is the case I feel you are better off looking elsewhere. If you came in here due to loving S&W I would like to recommend at least trying this story, it has its own merits.

I'm not extremely far into the game, however so far its plenty enjoyable.
There are a few noticeable flaws; like being able to notice that the music loops constantly, it doesn't flow well.
Secondly there are some errors in the translation but hey that just happens.

Aside from that this is a pretty good story so far and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who seems interested in it.

Happily accounting a comment for another solid novel,
At last i'm writing down this moderately short comment.
Good does not express the complete foundation that has been planted for the story.
As well as keeping the story going, i have once again am glad to have played it
Neverthless, it's the first episode it has no explicit cliffhangers included necessarily.
And there were no spoilers intended from this comment, But i might have.
!! have fun !!

I give this game a 8.5/10

Gameplay - 1/10
This is a "game" in only the loosest terms possible. It's more like a picture book than a game, there is no interaction from the player other than advancing the words. Unlike most other Visual Novels there aren't even choices to make. Overall this makes for a very boring time if you were looking forward to actually playing something.

Story - 9/10
So I don't really know how to judge the entire story at once so I made subcategories

Characters - 6/10
Near the beginning most of the characters seem rude or immature. This is in part due to the players view being the same as the main character who is a young kid and thus has a warped view of his importance and of how others treat him. Due to the MC's lack of understanding he acts like a jerk for about 3/4ths of the story and ignores the other characters as best as he can. Luckily as the story progresses he matures and most characters become a lot more complicated and understandable.

Setting - 10/10
The setting is probably the best defined part of this story. The setting is really at the heart of this story and even with the limited parts we see and read about seems quite well thought out. I mean its the freaking moon how awesome is that? but anyways I like the way your idea of the setting changes over the story. It starts out at a high tech moon city where those skilled with money move closer to the center but one misstep and you can be on the outskirts with all the other failures. This makes for quite the interesting place however as the story advances you learn more about the outskirts and those who live there.

Plot - 8.5/10
Plot, the most important part of a story. The plot starts out with a kid who wants to earn enough money to make his dream come true but this story is really more about growing up and realizing you aren't the most important person in the world. I can't really go into details for spoiler reasons but I think the plot did a good job in the end.

Music - 7/10
I'm not really a music fan so my opinion here isn't worth much. I think the music did a good job of conveying the overall feel of the scene. There were 1 or 2 songs that I enjoyed but most where just background sound that helped show the mood. Overall the music was mediocre to me but I'm not a music fan.

Art - 8.5/10
I'm not really an art enthusiast either but I enjoyed the pictures in this game. The setting shown by the art was very good and painted a nice picture of what the different areas of the moon city looked like. The character were pretty much just generic Anime style art not really a surprise at all.

Translation/Text 9/10
When I looked at the other reviews I saw mentions of things being poorly translated or glitches causing lines to repeat. I only saw one slight translation error and considering I have forgotten what it was it didn't bother me too much and I figured out the meaning of that area. The main thing I felt was lost in translation was more of a cultural barrier, some of the characters interacted with each other in ways that I as an American would consider odd but would probably be normal in Japan.

Overall if you want a pretty good story I recommend this game. However if you want a "game" game or a normal visual novel I suggest you look elsewhere.

got it loved it enjoyed it

My rating: 10/10

one of the best author i prefer to read from

It was on sale, I'm happy that I bought the game and went through the story. I choose to believe it was less about the "boy meets girl," and more of having self worth in your own thoughts. With technology advancing, rapidly replacing labor that was once done by humans; this rather alternative view gave me some comfort.

Currently only a portion into the visual novel and I'm hella disappointed. As a fan of Isuna Hasekura's beloved fanchise Spice and Wolf, I am disappointed over the weak characters. The focus point of Isuna's novels was never the action but the characters and so far this game has no deliver. Only purchase if you are a Isuna fan.

I really enjoyed the VN for what it was for what it was but there's no question the translation is quite shoddy in a number of places. They say they're going to fix it but it' Simple mispellings that could be found with a spell checker like "sandwitch" are all too noticable, and there's plenty of questionable sentences that don't really flow right/are mistranslated. Sekai Project's stopgap port to Ren'py is kind of buggy with the music.

I definitely liked the script though. It certainly feels a lot like Spice and Wolf and no amount of mistranslation can change that. It's really difficult to write about a VN without spoiling it but like most VNs I've read this one starts out pretty slowly, but picks up eventually. My only complaints are the cliffhangar ending and the relative lack of scenes with other characters. It kind of feels like Hal and Hagana live in a vacuum at times, and that's a problem later on as the plot develops.

Overall I'd still recommend it. It's certainly the best VN I've played on Steam so far. That translation pass couldn't come sooner though.

Pretty decent read. The characters are okay, the story is non-interactive and the music doesn't loop right. Translation quality is questionable though, i.e. "Haru -> Hal", "Risa -> Lisa," "Cerrow -> Serrault" despite the fact that English names are clearly listed on the Spicy Tails website.

I just bought it because F9 sings the ending theme.