Milky Way Prince - The Vampire Star Reviews
A game with a very strong personality, which it can reject for the ways in which it chooses to tell its story and is certainly much less immediately "readable" than many other narrative adventures but offers maturity and depth of content in dealing with not simple themes.
Review in Italian | Read full review
As an experience, Milky Way Prince is experimental, entirely unique and one that I’m glad exists. I imagine it’ll hang in the subconscious of most people who give it the time of day, but the subject matter will be too much for some to bear.
Even considering its minimalist intention, Milky Way Prince: The Vampire Star is too simple in some of its visual aspects, such as the backgrounds, and the story could have been a little longer and more polished to better develop characters. Its senses system is interesting and offers a unique experience, but could have been more developed. Generally speaking, the game design is coherent and well made to represent a dysfunctional relationship, giving it strong personality, expression and immersion in a work with dense symbology and psychological themes of great relevance. The title is recommended for fans of experimental and reflective games, especially fans of romance VNs with a focus on psychological aspects.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Milky Way Prince - The Vampire Star is unconventional, adult, bold, and aims quite high, maybe even too high for the first experiment of a one-man studio.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Milky Way Prince - The Vampire Star is a Graphic novel that tells a story about a morbid story about an ill love and a partner with bipolar disorder.
Review in Italian | Read full review
So overall, this will NOT be for everyone. It’s well done, it’s well designed both graphically and audibly, but with the subjects that it touches, it could very much be too much for a person to handle especially if they’ve been in that sort of situation before. To counter this, what the Milky Way Prince: The Vampire Star does is both list exactly what it’s about in the description as well as give you a very upfront disclaimer before even hitting the main title screen. While the first time through was impactful, I just wish that the subsequent playthroughs carried the same weight.
Milky Way Prince - The Vampire Star is a strange game. It mixes visual novel with point-and-click elements and psychological horror to represent a toxic relationship. Many of his ideas work, but he has serious problems with pace and interest despite their short duration.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
With some creative mechanics and interesting subject matter, Milky Way Prince - A Vampire Star was good but I wish it had been done better and handled with more care.
Only for fans of the genre, specially if interested in LGBT themes and stormy relationships.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star is an artistically impressive visual novel that compliments the darker narrative and theme. A theme that is rare to come by, that many people will relate to on some level. Unfortunately, this narrative is presented with a lack of depth, and the slow pacing harms the user's overall experience. Additionally, the 'sex sense' sections could have been presented far better, and just come across a little hollow.
Milky Way Prince: The Vampire Star uses an experimental visual style to tell a story about a topic that is very tough to talk about. While it exceeds in conveying these themes, it feels empty and pushy. All of the actual content in the game is condensed into the first few hours, and then there’s really nothing more to it. I enjoyed the artistic approach and themes, but the execution makes it tough to recommend.
Ultimately, Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star is too outlandish for its own good and doesn’t make for a satisfying game in its current form. Its audiovisual design is commendable, but with awkward dialogue, peculiar scenes and a hard to follow story, it’s very hard to recommend.
Overall, Milky Way Prince feels like an art piece. An outlet for Redaelli to tell his story, and craft it such a way to communicate his feelings and experiences to the player. In its visual design, this work succeeds in spades. As a video game and visual novel, though, the full experience is weak. I was unable to connect to the story of Nuki and Sune, and the writing didn’t seem to want me to.
That, above all, is the reason to play Milky Way Prince, and the reason why it exists. Games of this subject matter can at times feel like a kind of development-as-therapy, where the creator exorcises a daemon through the retelling of a personal trauma. That can be an almighty powerful experience; it can also, on occasion, feel a little crass. Milky Way Prince moves somewhere beyond that, to a place where it can resonate with, and ideally also challenge its audience. But subject matter aside, you should play this for the same reason you might watch the early, uneven short-features of great directors, or read the first scrappy, hundred-page novels of a favourite author: to experience a prodigal talent, just as they begin to discover what they can do.