PC Critic Reviews

I typically give visual novels with poor localisations 1/5. After all, the exclusive point of the game is to share a story and if the localisation is bad it has failed in that task. The score I’m giving The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty should highlight just how disappointed I am by the localisation, because this could have very easily been one of the most powerful stories in video game history.

That said, I can't get too upset about anything in this translation. It is obviously the work of someone passionate about the story they were telling and wanted to share it with the largest possible audience they could. It's also someone with a degree of reverence for the story, as I've seen the translator respond to numerous bad reviews across the English apologizing for his work if it has caused them to misread the story. In a world where games and anime are often mistranslated to include irrelevant political messages or jokes about Gamergate, I cannot hold the rough but faithful work of this translator in much contempt.

The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty is a VN with great potential. It has all the foundations of an engaging story about the darker side of the human condition during times of pure and utter desperation. But it struggles to deliver on the promise of its characters, leading to a relatively flat reading experience overall. For its price point, I think it’s worth a shot if the aesthetic or setting piques your interest, but those seeking a deeper, more fleshed-out roster of characters might find themselves disappointed.

As a visual novel, it’s serviceable at best. If you can ignore the poor translation, there’s a good story in there somewhere. I enjoyed the endings. Going through the whole game again wasn’t too much of a pain and there’s a relatively satisfying, not too depressing, conclusion. Unfortunately, The Hungry Lamb just makes too many slip-ups on the way. If you’re looking for a polished and thought-provoking piece, this lamb may just be a bit too overcooked.