1bitHeart

I finally got around to the third and last of Miwashiba's games - 1bitHeart. They also make Alicemare and LiEat, the latter of which I rather enjoyed the story of. 1bitHeart is by far the longest of the three at 8-10 hours total, but also the least popular.

The game is almost entirely story-based, with you running around town, talking to a bunch of colorful characters, trying to make friends, and solve a mystery of a hacker taking over people's minds. The story's very lighthearted, definitely tries to be funny, and comes off as over-the-top and weird at times. Still, there's a charm to the eccentric behavior of just about all the characters, and it creates interesting dialogue of its own right. The art and music are enjoyable as well. Not amazing, but still good, and I have to give extra points for being rather distinct.
The game is divided into chapters, with each chapter starting with a phase of talking to just about every character, collecting useful (or not so useful) information, followed by an interrogation portion where you use the collected information to interrogate people and solve part of the mystery. Between chapters you can go around and talk to the characters around town some more. Sadly, due to the UI being very unclear, I was asked if I wanted to skip this phase, and I had no idea which of X and O were supposed to be yes and no, and I accidentally skipped it. Apparently you can take the time to increase your friendship here and play minigames, but I'm not sure if this ever ties back to the main story. Probably not.

I liked the unique setting and characters, but I can't really say the overall story was that gripping. It wasn't bad, but since I refuse to give any points for the nonexistant gameplay, I judge this entirely on its storytelling merit, and it just wasn't good enough. Again, it's not bad, and if the setting or plot sounded intriguing, you might enjoy it, but I can't really say I recommend it.