I am a moderately successful writer. I am not familiar with the furry subculture. I noticed some heated debates about this visual novel in my Discord. So i decided to have a look for myself.
I have a degree in english literature. I have worked on 2 visual novels. I have written 4 successful graphic novels. I wrote 1 Novel that reached the top 100 bestsellers in its genre. And im now busy writing my second novel.
So i think my credentials gives me some authority to critique Far Beyond The World.
(As a side note as i see a lot of people in this comment section confusing the 2. There is a difference between criticism and critique.)
Now i have read through this VN twice. I also read Adastra since people seem to compare the 2. I read echo and knights college.
I wanted to see how much the furry subculture plays a role in these stories. From my perspective, you don't need to be a furry to enjoy a good story about Anthropomorphic animals.
Let me start by saying that Far Beyond The world is poorly written, and i can understand and forgive this since the author is obviously a novice.
If i had to mention all my critique and criticism here it would be too much to read. So ill do a quick summary of my thoughts on different aspects and then tackle my main critique.
Characters have potential.
Current plot is a missed opportunity.
Language use is horrible.
Writing reminds me of a high school essay.
These things are solved by getting experience and an editor.
Now then on to the main problem i see in the VN. Plot and a missed opportunity.
I can definitely see why people would compare Adastra and Far Beyond The world. And the fact that so many people would draw comparisons and find similarities should worry the author.
In my opinion, Caelan is absolutely not necessary in this story. More over he is not only a clone of the Adastra Protagonist. He is also the cause that makes this VN terrible.
He is extremely dull and unrelatable. The only relatable thing about him is he is human and considering we are in a high fantasy world filled with all manner of beastmen, being human is kinda lame.
Lets say we remove Caelan and all his convoluted plot lines.
The protagonist is Ranok. We get to play from his perspective.
Dealing with his sexuality. Being forced into coupling with a female.
Dealing with the responsibility of one day having to be the leader of the tribe.
Dealing with internal tribe conflict, like the elders and their politics, and how Ranok wants to reform old outdated traditions.
Dealing with other kingdoms threatening their forest.
Dealing with a former love interest and friend turned rival and even a potential love interest again in Tano.
Dealing with perhaps with developing feelings for his straight the best friend Vulgor and finding out he might not be so straight.
Dealing with his bunny slave Tryst, developing a crush but his slave hates all wolves.
Reading from the perspective of Ranok we could have experienced tribe politics and drama, not to mention go on adventures. Making Ranok the protagonist and dropping Caelan from the story would remove the Adastra comparisons.
Instead, we are stuck in a house with a dull protagonist who can't even carry a 5l bottle.
My advice to KaelTiger is this. Remove this VN and reboot it. Make it as amazing as it has the potential to be. Learn to deal with criticism and use critique to your advantage.
Good Luck.