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BrokenFiction

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,319
ATL


Will buy immediately, of course, of course.

Eliza is a visual novel about an AI counseling program, the people who develop it, and the people who use it. Follow Evelyn Ishino-Aubrey as she reconnects with people from her past, gets to know the people of Seattle who use Eliza for counseling, and decides the course of her future.

After abandoning her high-powered tech career and a mysterious three-year absence, Evelyn Ishino-Aubrey resurfaces working as a proxy for a virtual counseling app called Eliza. Her job consists solely of reading a script provided to her in real-time by an AI, leaving her no autonomy over what she says. Is Eliza a technological marvel that brings therapy to those who otherwise couldn't access it? Or is it an ineffective replacement and another vector for technology companies to gain control over our lives and humanity?

As she reconnects with people from her past and gets to know the ordinary people of Seattle who use Eliza for counseling, Evelyn finds herself caught in the middle between differing sides of the argument— and as she begins to question everything about her past life and future purpose in the world, it becomes clear she must confront the turmoil and darkness inside.

  • A thought-provoking story told in the form of a visual novel from an award-winning indie team.
  • Follow Evelyn's journey through a present-day Seattle brought to life with beautiful hand-painted art.
  • Get to know Eliza's clients and the employees of Skandha, the technology giant behind it, with over a dozen fully-voiced characters and powerful performances from a highly regarded cast.
  • An evocative, ambient original score by the composer for Infinifactory, SHENZHEN I/O, Opus Magnum, and EXAPUNKS.
  • Is AI-driven counseling better than nothing? Is it worse than nothing? What responsibilities come with technical skills? Consider your own answers to these questions and more.
  • Counseling sessions getting a little too real? Relax with Kabufuda Solitaire, a new take on solitaire using Japanese kabufuda cards.
 

mclem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,456
Not what I expect from Zach... but I've got enough faith in him to give it a shot.
 

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,233
Wow, that's a really striking art style. I love it. I guess this will be the first Zachtronics game that's not too daunting to try for me.
 

stumblebee

The Fallen
Jan 22, 2018
2,504
"If I can just move this PTSD node and merge it with this Crippling Fear node, I can move it to the goal with five less moves than I would otherwise!"

edit: now that I'm done being smarmy, I can say that this looks really neat! Looking forward to seeing how the writing is.
 

Rover

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,420
I wonder if there's something under the table, gameplay wise, that they are being quiet about. This has to be the vaguest Zachtronics game description they've ever put out.
 

Kalor

Resettlement Advisor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,629
Their games usually have interesting storys so I'm curious to try this out. And it has a minigame as well, which they've all been pretty fun since they started doing them in Shenzhen.
 

Pascal

â–˛ Legend â–˛
The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
10,241
Parts Unknown
This seems like a really interesting new direction for Zachtronics. I'm curious to see how it will turn out.

It will probably be great.
 

Deleted member 20297

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
6,943
I had to write an "Eliza" back when I was studying. The main problem was it had to be a German version :-\ this means you fiddle a lot with special cases and the German grammar but it was a fun project. Weizenbaum was truly a genius and to think that he developed Eliza in 1966 still boggles my mind.
 

d00d3n

Member
Oct 27, 2017
908
Sweden
I will buy this for my Steam virtuallink money. I am really hoping that there are some programming puzzles in this visual novel
 

Twig

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,486
I uh... I don't like visual novels. But Zachtronic making one has got my interest piqued. Maybe I'll try this one.
 

MrKlaw

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,059
"I just finished the 5 stages of grief level"

:checks leaderboard:

"Toma managed it in 4 stages!? How the.."
 

Oreiller

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,841
Never got one of their games because they seem so intimidating but I might get this one. VN are my jam.
 

Dinjoralo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,148
Really looking forward to playing this. Later, I've got Danganronpa on my VN plate right now.
 

Drakken

Member
Oct 28, 2017
329
Heard about this on the Waypoint pod (they loved it) and have seen lots of positive impressions elsewhere. It sounds like a really interesting concept. Looking forward to checking it out (just as soon as I get through Anodyne 2).
 

GamerJM

Member
Nov 8, 2017
15,636
As someone who hates programming logic puzzles pretty much more than anything else that could possibly be considered interactive entertainment and universally praised, this sounds fascinating and like literally thousands of times more interesting than anything else Zachtronics has released.