With the rise of VTubers being an extremely popular medium both on Twitch and YouTube, it was about time we get a sim that focuses on the life of one. Although instead of it being a happy and fun game, we got Needy Streamer Overload. A psychology horror Visual Novel (VN) in which you decide the life of a VTuber. It’s a dark take on the matter and it does provide interesting insight on the daily life of a livestreamer. As someone who watches them sometimes and also finding out that this game has blown up, I decided to take the time to see what it was about.
Before going into this review, I should give out a warning to everyone that this game has some very disturbing elements and is not intended for those that are easily disturbed. I am not kidding on this one, just like in my Tamashii review, this VN is something else from its genre. I will explain more on this later in the review.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- An interesting story with 30 possible endings
- You shape how Ame-Chan is, which has tons of creativity
- You get to feel what it’s like to be a Twitch mod
- A nice soundtrack that feels retro-like
Cons
- Not a lot of dialogue options when speaking with Ame-Chan
Story/Gameplay
You have just moved in with Ame-Chan and she wants to become the number one livestreamer. She feels that she has no one to turn to and does not want to get a proper job so she is completely dependent on P-Chan, the player. When Ame-Chan is live streaming, she turns into OMGkawaiiAngel or Kangle for short.
Ame-Chan is a very needy person who is in constant search for attention or approval. If you ignore her, she will start to get a little aggressive towards you. However, this can be fixed by spending time with her and there are plenty of ways to do that.
The gameplay is rendered into two parts: daily life with Ame-Chan and livestreaming. For Ame-Chan to get ideas for topics, you will have to spend time with her. You can go out, go on the internet, play video games, make love, and more. These topics will get a specific number of viewers, and this will progress the VN in certain ways. You are free to choose what topics she will cover, and you will get viewer reactions.
When it comes to streaming, you are a one-person mod so you must watch the chat and see if they say anything bad, in which case you can delete the message and reduce Ame-Chan’s stress level. You can even choose two super chats for her to read, and this may encourage other people to do it as well. You can even speed up the chat to make it go by faster but as soon as you hover over the actual chat, it will slow down for you to delete unwanted messages.
Depending on how you view this segment, you may like it or hate it, which shows us how much work a Twitch mod needs to put in.
Now, with all this in mind, you also have three stats to worry about as well. Stress, affection, and mental darkness. This will affect the mood of Ame-Chan as a whole. If she loves you, she will want more attention from you, which she loves, and will insult you sometimes. Stress can make her suicidal and act completely different from her happy cheerful online persona. Mental Darkness makes Ame-Chan go crazy during streams and makes her do negative things.
My only issue with the VN as a whole is when you have the option to speak with Ame-Chan. You don't get a lot of dialog options and can only send them on rare occasions or you can send her emote stickers. I wish I was given a text chat option when speaking so I could say some more of my thoughts.
What makes this VN stand out from the others
Needy Streamer Overload tackles themes like depression, mental illness, and the dark truths of being a Twitch streamer. As much as Ame-Chan is someone who wants attention, I can’t deny that their take on how people act on the internet is pretty accurate and it's honesty sickening sometimes. Like I am someone who has seen their fair share of things, but some people are into some sick things out there.
Graphics, Performance, and Soundtrack
The graphics are pixilated and are very colorful in nature. This is meant to hide the dark themes that the VN will throw at you later on down the line. I like it, feels like an old game of some kind that looks innocent. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM. The game should be able to run on low-end computers with no issues whatsoever.
The soundtrack also has a retro feel to it, I liked how normal it is until something serious happens. Then, it becomes distorted, and you can feel the tense atmosphere when you see things go from bad to worse.
Final Verdict
Needy Streamer Overload is a very unique VN that I myself enjoyed for a few hours. I would recommend a sale for something like this. While there are at least 30 endings total, it’s not enough to justify the price of 18.49 CDN. However, if you are confident that your money will be worth it then go and buy it in full and see from there.
If you want to see some gameplay, here is a video I made on the game I am very new to YouTube so I am sorry if the video is a little rough around the edges