Troubled Legacy
- Midplayz
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
And People Say Photography Is A Pointless Profession
I was surprised to find out that this is a seriously long visual novel. With roughly around 30 in-game story days & a huge amount of content, you're surely getting your money's worth in terms of playtime. I think you can easily invest 30+ hours in this game!
The game revolves around a pretty young photographer who lives with his godmother and her two daughters while trying to help his younger sister financially. From there, his life gets slowly more & more complicated thanks to new people, relationships, secrets and a shit tonne of drama.
It's a mostly linear story with choices that influence certain scenes, dialogue and relationships rather than completely changing the main plot. That approach won't satisfy everyone, but it works reasonably well for a VN of this length.
About This Game
Storyline
The basic premise is actually pretty decent. The protagonist has enough going on in his life to give the story a foundation, and the combination of family issues, financial struggles, photography, new relationships and unexpected events gives the developers plenty of material to work with.
Unfortunately, the execution is where things become kinda inconsistent.
There are moments where the story is actually entertaining, but there are also stretches that feel unnecessarily slow or tedious. Some characters become interested in the protagonist incredibly quickly, which can make the relationships feel more like classic harem tropes than believable connections.
That said, I wouldn't say the story as a whole is bad. There are enough strange and weird situations, side events and unexpected moments to keep things moving. In fact, some of the ridiculous dialogue and situations can be unintentionally hilarious.
There were several moments where I genuinely wondered whether I was watching a serious visual novel or an accidental comedy.
The game also has a large cast, giving you plenty of different personalities and relationship possibilities. Unfortunately, the writing doesn't always give these characters enough depth to make their relationships feel as meaningful as they could.
Another issue is the writing quality itself. There are quite a few spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes, and they become more & more noticeable as the story progresses which can eventually become really distracting! (Especially for me…)
Gameplay Mechanics
Gameplay is straightforward visual novel territory. You're reading through the story, making choices and occasionally deciding how you want certain relationships or scenes to play out.
The important thing to understand is that this isn't a heavily branching visual novel. Most choices don't completely change the direction of the story. Instead, they tend to affect specific scenes, dialogue, character reactions or relationship paths.
Personally, I don't mind that approach too much. A fully branching story of this size would probably be an absolute nightmare to develop and keep coherent. Still, if you're expecting every decision to dramatically reshape the narrative, you'll probably be disappointed.
Some choices can also feel a little pointless because the game occasionally makes the intended option fairly obvious. There are situations where you're essentially choosing between continuing the story or seeing an alternative scene.
So while the choices are there, I wouldn't call Troubled Legacy a "your decisions completely change everything" kind of VN. It's much closer to a linear story with a handful of interactive detours.
Visuals & Audio
The visuals are probably the most divisive part of this game. There are plenty of locations and characters, and while some environments look pretty good, others feel noticeably more basic. The main characters generally look better than the secondary ones, so the overall quality can be a bit inconsistent.
Personally, I wouldn't call the visuals terrible, but they definitely look dated compared with newer visual novels. Some scenes look perfectly fine, while others remind you that this project has been in development for quite a while.
The animations have a similar issue. The earlier ones aren't particularly impressive in terms of smoothness or length, but they noticeably improve as the game progresses. You can actually see the developer's skills developing throughout the game, which is pretty interesting. The later animations are considerably better, although I'd still like to see more variations, camera angles and overall polish.
The audio is where things really fall short, though. There is no music, meaningful sound effects, or voice acting. For a cinematic visual novel with plenty of drama and emotional moments, that leaves a pretty noticeable hole in the presentation.
It's basically like watching a dramatic movie and realising someone forgot to turn on the speakers.
Even some simple background music and environmental sounds would make a huge difference. Hopefully this is something the developer addresses in future updates, because the game could definitely use more atmosphere.
Pros-
Very long experience with 30+ hours of content
Interesting basic premise with a large cast of characters
Plenty of story and sex scenes
You do get to make a few choices
Animations improve as the game progresses
Large variety of locations
A mostly linear structure keeps the long story manageable
Active development and updates
Cons-
Story can become slow and tedious
Writing quality is inconsistent
Lots of spelling and grammar mistakes
Choices don't significantly alter the main storyline
Visuals look a bit dated
Secondary characters aren't always as polished
Early animations are weaker
No music, meaningful sound effects or voice acting
Conclusion
Troubled Legacy is a pretty lengthy visual novel with a decent premise but inconsistent execution.
The sheer amount of content is impressive, and there are enough entertaining moments to keep things interesting for quite a while. The story isn't terrible either, but the writing, presentation and lack of meaningful branching hold it back.
The funniest thing is that some of the game's most ridiculous moments might actually be its most memorable. Whether that was intentional or not, I definitely had a few laughs.
I'd recommend it mainly to players who don't mind a linear VN and are willing to overlook dated visuals, questionable writing and the complete lack of audio. If those things are deal-breakers for you, there are plenty of better-polished options out there.
For me, it's interesting enough to recommend with reservations, but there's a lot of room for the developer to improve before this becomes a truly great visual novel Playtime: 15hrs+
Rating: 7/10
I don’t have enough patience for long games…😔
