Arc System Works is a name many within the fighting game community will be familiar with. Not only are they the developers behind legendary series such as Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, but they've also made a name for themselves with licensed titles such as Persona 4 Arena, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Granblue Fantasy Versus, and more recently Marvel Tokon. Outside of the world of fighting games, they are known for developing titles such as Another Code: Recollection after Cing's former staff members joined the company. While titles such as these have their fanbases, they usually release to little fanfare and go overlooked by many. Unfortunately, the same is likely to happen to Donutal as well.
Donutal is a unique release from Arc System Works that doubles down on their visual novel style of storytelling, but in the form of a deduction game. It is a title where players take on the role of "space border control" as they question aliens about their reasons for visiting Earth. It is ultimately up to you, the player, to decide who is allowed in, who is turned away, or who is simply executed on the spot, and your actions along the way will shape the course of our world's future.
It is a simple game on the surface, but the reality is there is much more going on behind the scenes, and those who embark on this journey will be tasked with bringing all of its secrets to light.
That being said, at the request of the developers, this will be a completely spoiler-free review. Screenshots are also official images provided by Arc System Works and will not ruin the surprise of the characters you meet along the way. Additionally, this is a game designed to be played through multiple times, and its unique branching save system allows you to carve your own path forward.
Welcome to the Year 2206:
The story of Donutal begins with players waking from cold sleep and starting their first day on the job on the International Space Station as the Chief Extraterrestrial Counselor. Without any memories of your past and with a large debt that prevents you from returning home to the planet's surface, it is up to you to decide who is allowed to travel to the planet and who needs to be turned away. Because of this, you as the player are just as unknowledgeable as the protagonist, making it part of your job to learn as much about the situation as possible. Outside of knowing the year is 2206 and that multiple alien races have been discovered, this is completely uncharted territory for everyone involved—other than your android assistant DOLPHIN. To make the correct choices, players must not only listen to each character's reasons for wanting to visit Earth, but they must also inform themselves about the different races and their traits. This is where the true gameplay loop lies, and the facts you uncover can completely change everything.
Interstellar Border Control:
The main gameplay loop of Donutal is very basic on the surface, but it ultimately becomes quite involved.
At the beginning of each day, players are given a news article to help them learn more about the current situation on Earth, along with a list of aliens who would like passage. From here, you have the choice of dropping them into an interrogation room, with the option of having up to two aliens under questioning at once. This is where the true gameplay begins, though it operates under a time limit.
Every question asked will tick away at a clock located at the bottom left of the screen, while an additional meter shows the health of the glass keeping you separated from your extraterrestrial friends. Make them angry or bring a hostile race into questioning, and they might just retaliate against you or the fellow alien joining them on the other side. Mistakes can easily happen here, as you will not know how someone is going to react until you are face-to-face with them, but a handy notebook allows you to mark down reminders. These in-game notes can be key to survival, though you might honestly be better off taking your own. Although specific races might be on the "safe" list, there is always a chance that an individual alien will be a rebel, making letting them through the last thing you want to do.
When it comes to questioning, you can start with general information, ask about current events covered in the daily news report, or dive into specifics about the alien's nature. What planet they are from, what they eat, and their general purpose are all great places to start, but these inquiries can also lead to deeper revelations. Locked options imply that a specific character has more to share, though you will need to uncover those details yourself. This sometimes means learning key facts from other aliens in the lineup or using the optional scanner feature to inspect bags and equipment the characters might be carrying. Additionally, you can ask them to share their thoughts on the other alien joining them in interrogation, which can trigger unique dialogue that reveals more about the world itself. This is how you learn about the relationships between different races, discover their place within the universe, and ultimately decide whether they should be allowed on Earth. It involves a lot of trial and error, and while players can reload to any point in their save file's timeline to try again, knowing the "correct" answer is not always black and white.
In the end, Earth's future will be shaped by these decisions, and daily news reports will reflect your actions. This is where the branching story paths come into play and the true game begins.
Creating Your Own Timeline:
Rather than featuring traditional split paths like other visual novel style games, Donutal utilizes a save file flowchart. Each day is logged as a checkpoint, allowing you to view the lineup of aliens under questioning and the current status of Earth directly from the save screen. Making poor choices can lead to early game overs, while allowing Earth's Collapse Alarm to reach zero will also bring a swift end to your run—an outcome directly tied to who you permit onto the planet. However, these early ends are an essential part of the experience. These failures often reveal vital information that can be utilized on future runs or even applied immediately upon reloading the same checkpoint. Failures here are stepping stones toward the truth, and players will need to embrace plenty of them if they wish to reach the true ending.
Under this system, loading a checkpoint creates a new branch save. Because the total number of save slots is limited, players will want to clear out older files once a specific route reaches its conclusion, though you are free to revisit previous checkpoints as often as you like. These branches allow you to gather fresh details on one path before returning to your primary timeline with that newfound knowledge in hand. Alternatively, a single checkpoint can be loaded repeatedly to experiment with different alien combinations and see where alternate choices lead. Reckless decisions yield fascinating outcomes, though making too many missteps can lock you out of a true ending. As previously mentioned, striking the right balance requires trial and error across the game's many branching paths. Along the way, you will piece together the lore of this futuristic universe alongside the personal stories of its alien visitors. While the core mechanics remain straightforward, navigating these interconnected systems offers dozens of hours of depth, proving that the real fun extends far beyond simply knowing the right answers.
Should you play it?
At the end of the day, Donutal is an interesting take on the genre and ended up becoming more than I initially imagined. What I thought was a simple deduction game where you needed to play it smart to "make it to the end" was in reality a massive interconnected story with multiple branching paths and multiple underlying mysteries to uncover. While future playthroughs might have you simply skipping the dialogue and just choosing which aliens to let in, deny access to, or even shoot off into space to rid the universe of them, this too is a key part of the gameplay loop as you experiment with your options. You do not necessarily need to listen to the same conversations every time, but trying something different will almost always lead you down a completely new path. Discovering these alternate routes is where the gameplay truly shines, especially as the hidden truths come to light. Going back to the beginning becomes fresh and exciting as these extra dialogue options are unlocked, and by the end you can't help but come back for more. It is an interesting experience, to say the least, but given the game is purely dialogue and choices, it isn't going to be for everyone.
The only true downside to Donutal is the baffling decision to use AI generation for the in-game news articles. Each one is accompanied by a tiny picture, which are mostly blurry messes that add little to nothing to the game. Why bother having them at all if they were just going to be AI-generated? Arc System Works games usually contain great artwork, so why get lazy now?
Overall, Donutal is a fascinating deduction-based game that is more than meets the eye. With a unique save-point-based timeline and countless mysteries to uncover, it is a title that will keep you coming back time and time again.
VERDICT: Recommended
Reviewed on PC
Review Copy was Provided
Available On: PC
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