BURIED STARS

It's been a long time since I've played a game that was this up my alley.
A character-focused mystery that deals with the messed-up reality of social media and the entertainment industry? Yes, please.
Still, before I start with the praise, there is one major caveat that buyers should be aware of: The English translation for this game is not very good, to the point of making things difficult to understand at points. If, like me, you know enough Japanese or Korean to get by via the voiced dialogue, it won't be a big problem, but it is still bothersome at times.
That aside, though, the story is to the point, the characters are fascinating, the mystery is just enough of a challenge to be satisfying and the social commentary works well without getting soap box-y. The game play can be a bit trial and error in terms of raising and lowering affection, but the deduction sections all make sense.
If I had to sum it up in one sentence, Buried Stars is a game that knows exactly what it wants to be and achieves that very well, without unnecessarily limiting itself or getting overly ambitious.
Despite its rough edges, I would call this one of my favorite visual novels.

Game is excellent and is great if you're a fan of the themes of this game where a group of individuals are trapped within a limited space with a murder to solve and a culprit to catch (e.g. Danganronpa)
Positives:
- Good voice acting
- Character design/art style
- Music/Audio
- Writing is great and the motivations of why characters behave in certain ways is believable.
- Multiple endings and epilogues per character to unlock give a decent amount of replay value.
Negatives
- Localisation in 95% of scenarios is very good however it does suffer from grammatical issues here and there. Additionally the translation to English struggles in certain choices as the translator hasn't fully conveyed across the subtle implications of tone in certain responses. Occasionally you are given the choice out of 2 answers that seem practically identical - however they actually result in 2 different outcomes which is not possible to know until you've responded. Fortunately these instances aren't too frequent and don't impact the story too much.
- The fast-forward feature skips through EVERYTHING whilst most VNs give you the option to only skip text you've already seen. .
- This may be a negative for some but the actual deduction side of the game is extremely minimal - this is first and foremost a visual novel with few other gameplay elements.
- The game overuses the sinister sound effect a bit too much (you've probably heard it if you've ever watched an episode of American Kitchen Nightmares). This really ruined the immersion for me and I really wish the devs had opted to use a different sound cue.

It is so interesting!!! And after a while I totally got what some earlier reviews meant about the closest thing to a romance. I was surprised about how much I loved it, as I was just generally expecting a basic vn with pretty enough art and a little mystery. I look forward to any more games made by them if they'll be as well done as this. Thanks!

Each character has their own quirk and the storytelling's amazing! Translation's a bit wonky and I hope an English dub comes out soon.

This game is great. I enjoyed it a lot. Good characters, good art, good voice acting, a good story and a great ending.

Take this game as an alternative Danganronpa with a more straightforward story and rationale.
You don't confront each character for their testimony or prepare for any cross testimony comparison, rather, you collect evidence automatically by talking to each character, and then pick the right evidence to restore the scene and seek the reason for killing. Just remember what you choose leads to different endings, however there's only one true ending. Finishing the main game in 10 hours, I find it is fun, and a lot easier than Danganronpa - which burns my brain and can trigger a Gameover if I fail to follow the logic. If Danganronpa is a college entrance test level for the reasoning process then BURIED STARS is at middle school level.
Yet it is fun to play BURIED STARS, with a tight-knit plot the entire game keeps me interested. Danganronpa made it clear to kill to survive, but in BURIED STARS the reason is unknown. Set in a talent show gone wrong, buried underneath with limited help and knowing the killer is around the few survivors, the horror and anxiety exist all the time. What I like about the game is (1)I don't see plot holes. Though the reason to kill is not very convincing, but I guess it is a matter of personalityAs being Threatened to be exposed as an illegitimate child, and (2)Some memories like Lee's life experience about the family tragedy and the bitterness death of his mother. However it has downsides, like (1) You have to play at least twice to see the true ending, because for the first gameplay regardless of what you choose you always end with a bad ending. (2)The unnecessary and long walks with nothing actually happening. Besides, I am okay with gay relations but sudden gay dialogues with no reason is redundant.
Apart from the true ending, I also played a supernatural ending about a ghost test lab. It feels like a different game, if I were the devs I'd put it into a DLC than in the main game.
BURIED STARS is made by Korean game devs but has great Japanese voiced characters. I had fun finishing 3 gameplays in 12 hours. For 70% off sales price it's a good deal.
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Really good mystery, compelling characters, and on top of that a unique setting that goes into the intricacies and ethics of the Kpop industry