a waste of a sunday – Neo Cab Review

i have to start off by saying this: i appreciate the world building and the graphics, style, and animation of this visual novel. it could have been an amazing experience. i appreciated the diverse array of characters, especially that the main character was a woman of color with agency and that a non binary person was at the center of a political movement. neo cab had so much promise. the effort that was put into each part of the background of this game alone makes the end result even more disappointing. it’s beautiful and obviously created with care, and i appreciate the hard work that it must have taken. i loved allie and azul and carlos wong, oona, liam, and even the potential lina had. i would have even loved to continue taking rides with people without savy in my life, maybe pursued all my potential friendships. maybe liam laying out that he was only in town for a short amount of time should have been a giveaway for the skeleton of a plotline. i’ve been reading other reviews, and i understand that savy is meant to be the problem in lina’s life. i understood that as soon as she started texting lina and couldn’t stand her. i wanted to use the options given to me to be upset with how she was treating me: a capricious white girl using and ditching her so-called best friend of color to pull herself higher because of the activist role she wanted to play that week. i felt the most immense dissatisfaction i’ve ever felt with a game/visual novel/whatever today. why give me the option to walk out on her or be upset with her, only to force me to give in to her? i wanted to feel empathy for savy as lina forced herself to, but i really couldn’t. clearly from what i see of other reviews, being in a different mood did not actually affect the choices i could take. in another circumstance (another timeline? sorry it had to turn out this way oona), this could have been a cool concept. the way it made me feel jerked around and frustrated? not at all cool. i don’t even care about the mechanics of the game, or the fact that other people found it mundane or monotonous: if it had been a good game, i would have come to it strictly for that mundaness and that monotony. even the quick ending would have mattered less to me. why was i stuck bailing this woman out over and over again when i didn’t want to? and given the illusion that i could’ve walked away and been happier or more satisfied with myself? i want to be excited to see what else this studio comes out with, but it’s safe to say i’ll be a lot more cautious with it in the future. especially if it’s under a paid service like apple arcade.
Review by sekaifilm on Neo Cab.