Steam Prison

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

.

Review:

Steam Prison is a Visual Novel released on PC in 2019 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game takes place in an alternate reality where the world is separated into different realms where classes are separated from one another. The story follows a young police officer from The Heights, the home of the world’s nobility, who finds herself framed for the murder of her parents and sent to the penal colony below without trial in a clear miscarriage of justice. However, in being sent to The Depths (guess which class lives here), she comes to discover that things are not as clear-cut as she was led to believe, and in doing so has her black-and-white notions of justice challenged.

The presentation here is very good. While not quite on par with some of the best anime-styled Visual Novel games on the Nintendo Switch, the characters models are well-designed, the backgrounds paint a vivid picture of the world and its different locales, and the orchestral soundtrack does a good job of giving everything an appropriate level of gravitas. Also, pretty much all of the dialogue here is voiced (in Japanese), and from what I can tell, it all seems pretty good.

As for the story, it’s also pretty good, with a few caveats. The villains here are at times cartoonishly evil, and the story of segregated class-based societies built on extreme injustice is not only extremely unsubtle, but unoriginal. However, the writing is very good, and the story structure here is solid and keeps things interesting, making you curious to see what happens next and what new twist awaits the tragic heroine. And the characters here are well-written and memorable. Also, given the number of anime-style visual novels I’ve played with poor localization, I feel it deserves mention that the localization here is excellent.

Another thing this game does well is in actually giving players choices that have an affect on the story. More specifically, the choices players make will affect how others in the story see you, and how well you get along with each of these key characters can influence your options, with multiple potential story paths to take. While not exactly unique or original, it is nevertheless nice to see players given some utility in a Visual Novel.

The Nintendo Switch version of the game does allow players to use the touchscreen, but I honestly found the implementation of this feature unreliable, and the game doesn’t really need it anyway – I much prefer using the standard gamepad controls. In any case, the game doesn’t often have much interaction beyond moving the story forward, so this doesn’t really seem all that necessary.

Beyond the story’s lack of subtlety with its villains and themes, there is one other major complaint I have about Steam Prison – the price. At over $65, this is one of the most expensive games on the eShop (at least if you don’t count “deluxe” versions of games, and while I could go on a rant about those, this isn’t the place for that). This game’s quality and presentation are overall good, but there’s absolutely nothing here to justify that absurdly high price point. I’m frankly stunned that they’d have the gall to price a Visual Novel higher than the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey.

Make no mistake, Steam Prison is not worth the asking price. However, if you can get the game on sale at a significant discount, it’s well worth getting, especially for fans of the genre. The world, story, and characters are all compelling, and while they are at times overly blunt in their depictions of injustice and villainy, this game’s story nevertheless remains well worth experiencing.

tl;dr – Steam Prison is a Visual Novel that puts players in the role of a police officer in a world of segregated classes who finds herself framed for murder and banished to the literal depths of society. The game is at times over-the-top in its depictions of injustice and villainy, but in general the story, its world and its characters are all compelling, and overall this is a game well worth playing for fans of the genre… but only if you can get it in a really good sale, because that $65 price tag is absolutely ridiculous.

Grade: B-

.

This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Most Overpriced

.

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}