Donutal – When Talking to Aliens Becomes Detective Work

Arc System Works is mostly associated with fighting games such as Guilty Gear, Granblue Fantasy Versus, and similar titles, so Dhttps://store.steampowered.com/app/3971730/Donutal/onutal comes as a rather interesting surprise. Instead of arenas, combos, and spectacular attacks, you get something completely different here – a space investigation where you have to figure out who is telling the truth, who is hiding something, and who should even be allowed to set foot on Earth.

Donutal puts you in the role of the first extraterrestrial counsellor, whose job is to interview alien visitors who want to come to our planet. The problem is that not every visitor is harmless, and your job isn't simply to welcome them. Based on conversations, evidence, and the information you gather, you have to decide who gets through, who has to be turned away, and, in some cases, who represents enough of a threat for things to become much more unpleasant.

On paper, this might sound like another game where you simply read dialogue and choose responses, but Donutal tries to turn that format into something more active.

A Space Border Checkpoint

The entire story takes place aboard the repurposed ISP space station, which essentially serves as a gateway between Earth and the rest of the universe. Every day, a group of aliens arrives hoping to visit our planet, and each of them comes with their own characteristics, behavior, and potential reasons for suspicion.

That's where the real work begins.

Instead of simply questioning each character in the same way, Donutal allows you to interview two people at the same time. At first, this might not sound like a major feature, but this is where the game starts to show its main idea. Different species have different traits and relationships with one another, so choosing the right combination of interview subjects can reveal information you probably wouldn't get from a traditional one-on-one interview.

One alien might be able to determine whether another person is innocent, while another species may be completely incapable of telling a lie. The problem is that being truthful doesn't automatically mean being open. A character might tell you the truth while carefully avoiding the information you're actually interested in. Because of this, choosing your interview subjects becomes a small experiment – you have to think about who you should put together and what kind of reaction that combination might produce.

Information Doesn't Come Only From Conversations

Besides interviews, you also have access to a scanner that allows you to examine aliens and their belongings in greater detail. It's not simply another gadget thrown into the game to give you another button to press, but a useful way of discovering things that might not be obvious during a conversation.

Appearances can be deceiving, and scanning can reveal traits that would be difficult to guess otherwise. An alien that looks completely harmless might possess abilities that completely change how you view their visit to Earth.

Combining conversations with scanning is what makes the investigation more interesting. A single piece of information might not be enough, but once you connect it with something a character said or the way they behaved, you can start building a much clearer picture. Still, Donutal doesn't let you dig through information forever.

Time Is Your Biggest Enemy

Every question you ask, every new interviewee you bring in, and every scan you perform takes time. Once that time runs out, there is no opportunity for further investigation – you have to make your final decision.

This creates an interesting kind of pressure. In theory, you would want to check absolutely everything, try every possible combination of characters, and scan anything you can. In practice, you have to decide what actually matters.

Because of this, Donutal doesn't try to create a complex detective system with dozens of different mechanics. Its idea is much simpler: you have a limited amount of time to gather enough information to make a decision.

It works particularly well because the timer doesn't feel like a traditional obstacle thrown into the game simply to make you rush. Time is directly connected to the way you conduct your investigation, forcing you to find a balance between curiosity and efficiency.

The Story Is Still the Main Reason to Stay

Although the gameplay adds considerably more interaction than you might expect from a traditional visual novel, it's clear that the narrative is still at the heart of everything. Donutal wants to keep you interested through its world, characters, and mysteries, while its mechanics are there to make you more actively involved in discovering them.

Because of that, it's difficult to talk about the story without getting into spoilers, and that's actually part of its charm. What I can say is that the game has enough twists and consequences to make your decisions feel like more than simply choosing one of two dialogue options.

You will probably miss some things during your first playthrough, which is actually a good thing for this type of game. If you enjoy the world and want to see everything it has to offer, the different outcomes and additional pieces of information give you a reason to come back.

At the same time, your experience with the game may depend quite a bit on how familiar you are with the science-fiction genre. If you've already read plenty of classic sci-fi and watched countless stories about first contact with aliens, you might predict some things earlier than the developer intended. That doesn't necessarily make them less interesting – you'll simply be looking at them through a different lens.

The Aliens Are the Real Stars of the Game

One of the things Donutal does particularly well is the design of its alien characters. Each species has a distinctive enough appearance and biology that they don't feel like simple recolors or variations of an existing character.

That's important because their physiology isn't just a visual detail. It is connected to their abilities, behavior, and the way they function within the game's world. Every new encounter therefore brings a little bit of curiosity – what exactly is this character, what can they do, and how much should we actually trust them?

The visual style helps maintain that feeling as well. The designs are colorful, slightly eccentric, and clearly aren't trying to make the universe look realistic. Some designs might be trying to fit a little too much detail into a single character, but overall, every new alien manages to make an impression.

It's Not for Everyone, but It Knows What It Wants to Be

Donutal isn't trying to be something it isn't. It doesn't offer huge maps, complex combat systems, or hours of exploration through a traditional RPG world. Instead, it takes the structure of a visual novel and adds enough interactivity to make you feel like you're actually participating in the conversations and investigations.

I see the most potential in the combination of two things: the ability to choose who talks to whom and the limited amount of time that forces you to decide which pieces of information you really need. These aren't complicated mechanics, but together they give you a good reason to pay attention to what's happening around you.

If action is what you're looking for, Donutal probably won't have much to offer. If, however, you enjoy visual novels, mystery games, unusual characters, and stories that require you to pay attention to the details, this is a game that could easily surprise you.

Conclusion

Donutal is an unusual combination of visual novel, detective game, and science-fiction thriller that finds its strongest ideas in the way it makes you gather information and make decisions under time pressure. The ability to interview two aliens at once, the use of the scanner, and the different abilities of the various species give the investigation enough interaction to keep it from becoming little more than reading dialogue.

Still, the story is undoubtedly the main reason to stay until the end, while the different outcomes and additional gallery content should be particularly appealing to players who enjoy exploring every possible option.

Donutal may not be a game for everyone, but if you enjoy mystery visual novels with an unusual sci-fi setting, it definitely has enough character to deserve your attention.

The game was played on: PC.