Universe for Sale lets you mold universes and solve a mystery or two.
Universe for Sale is a point-and-click visual novel game developed by Tmesis Studio. The studio is based in Turin, Italy, and was founded in 2021 by Federico Chiummento and Zeno Colangelo. Universe for Sale is their first title.
The publishers are Akupara Games. Akupara Games is primarily based in Los Angeles and helps publish and develop games. They’re known for games like Hooked on You: A Dead by Daylight dating sim, Zoeti, and Ghostwire: Tokyo – Prelude.
Visual Novels have been around since the 80s as they were mostly text-based; you get two different types of visual novels: Narrative branches and RPG hybrids. Most narrative branch visual novels have a linear story with different paths you can take by making choices.
Under Narrative branches, you also get Kinetic novels; these games don’t have many different paths and instead have a more graphic novel look to them, for example, games like Higurashi When They Cry. RPG Hybrids combines both narrative branches with RPG elements. An example is Lost Odyssey and Sega’s Sakura Wars series. While most visual novels tend to keep to the same pattern, Universe for Sale took it to a whole new level.
When you first start the game, it begins with a cutscene that is confusing at first but will make sense later on. The game opens up with a scene of a young girl asking her mother to read her a story. The story the mother reads is split up into bits and pieces that get told as you progress through the game.
As the first part of Universe for Sale’s story comes to an end, you are greeted by a cutscene where you are zooming in on a planet and, more specifically, an almost rundown but thriving colony nestled deep in the clouds of Jupiter. We are greeted by a figure lying face down on the floor in an alley, and acid rain steadily pouring through the colony shields. As we walked our way through the streets of the Jovian Mining Colony, we came across a small tea shop, the Hinon Teahouse.
When we enter the Teahouse, our character takes off their hood. This is Master, a member of the cult of Detachment. He came to the Teahouse in order to meet with someone. This Teahouse is where the story’s many twists and turns start. You meet a few people here in the Teahouse: a priest and a cultist, some robots, and a simian, to name a few. You can briefly chat with them before sitting down and waiting for some tea.
After waiting for a while, Hinon, the owner of the Teahouse, brings you your order, and the guest you were waiting for appears. Lila is the other playable character in the story. She can craft small universes from different items, such as rust or crystal; each universe is unique to the items they are made from. For example, depending on the tea you order from Hinon, you will get a different universe for each when Lila demonstrates her ability.
Most of the game is played from the Master’s point of view in Universe for Sale, but there are times when you will play as Lila. Her gameplay is more routine; she’ll wake up. Get dressed and create universes that she’ll sell. While you won’t be able to enter any of the universes you can create, it is interesting to see how many unique universes can be created from the many different ingredient combinations. You can also decorate Lila’s home with the money you earn from selling universes.
Throughout Universe for Sale, there are many choices to make when interacting with other characters. There is no way of knowing if the choice you made is the right one until you reach the end, which keeps you guessing through the many vague answers you give and receive.
The mini-games and puzzles that break up the usual monotonous feel of a visual novel are well done. However, if you get stuck on a puzzle, there isn’t a way to leave or get a hint for how to solve it. With the mini-game that you play with Lila, there isn’t much of a guide on what to do besides the initial explanation at the beginning of the game about how Lila can create her universes. It’s not a difficult mini-game; however, it can become a little tedious, even with strange requests like giving the universe the shape of a banana.
Universe for Sale is extremely rich in both story and art style. The story has enough details and lore-building to keep you playing for hours on end and wanting to know how it ends. The hand-drawn art style of Universe for Sale is reminiscent of older visual novels and shows the amount of detail that went into creating the game. It also shows that a lot of care went into the design of the characters and backgrounds, as each character has their unique design and a personality to match.
One of the characters you meet besides Lila and Master is Bandar. Bandar is a simian, but he’s also one of Lila’s friends. Simians are ape-like beings looking more like an orangutan. Bandar knows about her past and gives Master the push he needs to ask her. Although the writing of how he speaks could be a little hard to understand, he means well and is protective of those he calls his friends.
The Animations of the Universe for Sale are exceptionally well done. It’s smooth and makes it feel like you’re watching an old animated movie rather than playing a visual novel. Besides playing the various mini-games, the most you will do is walk around and explore the old mining colony you find yourself in.
The music in Universe for Sale is soft and changes subtly throughout the gameplay. While it doesn’t make a huge impact to be noticed, it adds to the mysterious atmosphere the story creates. On the other hand, the rest of the sound design is phenomenal. The sounds build up the feel of a busy colony going through its day-to-day habits, from busy marketplace noises to the sounds of the ships taking off. While the art and animations created the base for the game, the sound engineering brought it to life.
Overall, Universe for Sale is a one-of-a-kind visual novel that breaks out of the usual visual novel mold. The game is excellent for those who enjoy a good story, as well as the unique mini-games that break up the usual gameplay. Well, it has its shortcomings, with some of the more difficult puzzles not having a small hint button, but the story, art, and music more than make up for it.
