eden* is a story that will take you about 8~9 hours to finish.

It is a story that will take you on a wild ride.

An intense turbulent ride that does not stop until the bitter end. I'd stronly recommend having some form of tissue on hand.

This is the kind of story I'd recommend even at full price, but if it's on sale, I'd label it as a must-have.

My only gripe is how uncanny the animations look, but these can easily be disabled in the options menu to make the game retain a classic, immersive Visual Novel style that I'm sure many of us are used to.

+ Nice art and music, interesting setting, good story, fully voice acted (japanese)

- Starts out slow, sporadically boring, predictable, no choices, Ending: no happy ending

What to say about such an amazing story, frst off it was worth every penny and i loved every second of it... as i am writing this i am still feeling the feel, and strong feels they are....


10/10- Wish there was more

My mom came in my room this night and asked me why i got so many tissues in the trash and I straight told her i've been jerking more than usual lately... I just couldn't tell her i was crying my ♥♥♥♥ing eyes out sniveling and ♥♥♥♥♥ at 4 am because of an amazingly sad japanese cartoon game.
9/10 would play again

I wasn't entirely sure about a VN priced at $20.00, but after about ten minutes in, I realized why. It should be noted that I'm fairly new to VN games in general, having only played six or seven personally. That being said, compared to those, this blows them out of the water.

First off, the story is not only moving and impactful, but long. You don't actuall come across the intro until about 30~ minutes in. That's just a estimate, but it honestly felt the opening came in where other VN closing credits would start rolling.

Secondly, the entire VN is voice acted. Voice acted tremendously well, for that matter. Even the main protagonist has not only a voice, but a face as well.

Not only that, but the art in this game is amazing. At first I thought I was delusional, but every character's eyes and mouths move. Every character and background scene really immerse you into the story the developer wanted to portray.

10/10, only regret regarding this game is the fact that I didn't buy it sooner.

A short review with no story details.

eden* is a wonderful visual novel with brilliant art and a soundtrack that enhances the reading experience without being too overpowering. Simple details like having the characters blink add a nice touch to an already high quality work. This is by far my favorite visual novel currently (this review was created March 22, 2015) on Steam. The $20 price tag is quite steep, so I would wait for it to go on sale (mine was 50% off). If you're looking for a serious visual novel to start reading, I recommend this.

Notes:
- Length ~15 hours (assuming you listen to the voice acting)
- There IS voice acting
- There are NO choices/routes in eden* (Kinetic Novel)
- There is VERY LITTLE TO NO fan service
- This is the regular version of eden. The eden Plus+Mosaic version (not available on Steam) includes added blood to certain scenes and less censoring for certain scenes. It also includes an extra eroge side story that is not part of the main story. In my opinion I would have liked the added blood, but an eroge side story sounds incredibly out of place for this VN.
- I consider this a serious/emotional visual novel, unlike a VN such as Sakura Spirit. It tries to BE something and succeeds instead of appealing to absurd fan service.
- Originally released September 18, 2009

Almost as good as Clannad.

I laughed,
I cried,
I cried more,
then went to sleep with a smile, full of positive thoughts....

Excelent kinetic novel, very much recomended.

If you knew that the world was going to end soon, how would you want to spend your remaining time? What would change for you, how would your priorities shift? Assuming you'd find an opportunity to escape, would you choose a future of perpetual narrow walls and cramped spaces over a short time of ultimate freedom followed by certain doom?

For the people living in the world of eden*, these questions are no longer abstract.

MangaGamer delivers the English release of this 2009 title by minori to Steam. eden* is a kinetic novel (a story without choices or gameplay) about the last few people on a dying planet. Its most unique selling point compared to similar titles is its visual presentation: Instead of the waist-up character sprites positioned in front of static backgrounds that we are used to from most modern visual novels, it relies almost entirely on scene-by-scene custom images, each one carefully designed to take character positions and camera perspectives into account. This gives the experience a very cinematic feel, quite literally reminiscent of movies, compared to other titles of its kind. Most scenes also features blinking eyes and lip syncing with the Japanese voices, which makes it impressively lively.

Needless to say, the asset quality is excellent throughout, starting with the backgrounds ranging from the painterly to the borderline naturalistic. The same attention to detail extends to the characters who, despite the multitude of poses and perspectives, always appear consistent, unique, and alive. From what I can tell as someone who does not speak Japanese, the voices really fit well, and coupled with the competent sound design and the soundtrack by Tenmon (if you happen to enjoy Makoto Shinkai's movies: yes, that Tenmon), which expands a small number of recurring motifs into a gripping soundscape, this is an aural experience that you are unlikely to forget.

The story revolves around Warrant officer Ryou Haruna and his assignment to guard a remote research facility during the planet's final moments. A peculiar (but largely unspecified) astronomical phenomenon is going to wipe out all life on Earth, and humanity is putting the finishing touches on a centennial plan to migrate into space and search for a new home. One component of this plan are the felixes, genetically engineered superhumans whose intellect propels scientific progress far beyond its normal pace. However, there are dissenting voices claiming that humanity should face its ultimate fate head-on instead of trying to escape, so military protection is granted to essential actors within the plan – in particular to Sion, the supreme felix, mastermind behind the giant starships and humanity's savior.

The central themes of eden* include destiny and free will as well as the morality of living one's life for someone else. Ryou, as the self-described "military's attack dog," and Sion, as the people's only hope to keep on living, are both so devoted to their duties that they have fallen out of touch with their own humanity. Circumstances force them to confront their deeply buried sense of self and be thrust before the most pivotal decision of their lives: to keep on living in the narrow golden cages of their own design, or to choose the ultimate act of defiance and experience the freedom and joy that they had always denied themselves, living life to the fullest until the curtain falls.

The writing tends to focus on character interaction and personal growth over story complexity – eden* is all about the human condition, not about hard sci-fi. In fact, even the scientific details of the end of the world are almost completely glossed over. If you are looking for an apocalyptic sci-fi story with cool technology, this isn't it. Rather, the focus on the characters is so strong that it could be described as downright melodramatic in parts, insofar as that can be a good thing. It features countless goosebumps-inducing, memorable, quotable moments that easily smooth over the fact that some of the tension maybe could have been resolved in easier ways, or that there's a certain degree of plot convenience constructing the situations that are most interesting for the characters. It all ends up feeling very complete and satisfying.

All in all, I can recommend eden* without much in the way of caveats. If you dislike visual novels or anime-style art, odds are you have not read this far down. If you like visual novels but you're not sure if this one is worth your time, my answer is that it is. I also recommend avoiding playtime estimates. Reading speed varies from person to person anyway, but the later parts of this story work best if you can empathize with the sense of impending dread that the characters are feeling. For them, any day, any moment, could be the last one. It'll be more fun for you if you can get lost in that feeling as well, instead of calculating how many hours you might have left. Even if you have little to no experience with visual novels, this one is probably a better one to get started than most titles currently on Steam. With the above-mentioned reservations in mind, eden* easily gets a positive recommendation from me.

I was three and a half hours in and I thought it ended
it was actually just the opening
final fantasy/10