Cain × Nica is a visual novel about survival in a world after governments have fallen and everybody is forced into a brutal society of castes. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Cain × Nica Review Overview
What is Cain × Nica?
In a harsh, unforgiving world, Cain’s only light is his little sister, Nica. Every day, he digs through frozen trash, hoping to find something, anything, that could help them survive. But luck isn’t on his side. Out of desperation, he borrows money from two brothers, Invi and Avari, hoping it’ll turn things around, but the debt just becomes progressively heavier..
When the time comes to pay, Cain’s empty-handed. The brothers decide to take Nica instead, planning to make her a slave. Cain desperately cries out to the heavens for the power to change his fate, and finds an answer—one that’s within his reach.
Cain × Nica features:
⚫︎ About eight hours of the main scenario
⚫︎ A story about grasping destiny with your own hands
⚫︎ Unique character sprites and full-screen artworks
⚫︎ Multiple endings, including bad ones
⚫︎ Multiple converging heroines
 Steam |
Wishlist Only |
Cain × Nica Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Well-Developed, Grim Setting Fillers are Surprisingly Important |
Visually Jarring Characters Don’t Even Feign Normalcy Bad Endings Can Be Unintuitive |
Cain × Nica Overall Score - 72/100
Cain × Nica’s worldbuilding and plot are strong enough to shine through its sometimes confusing visuals. The inclusion of voice acting—at least for the heroines—also helps boost its score. A few bugs crop up here and there, particularly points where players can get soft-locked from progressing, but these won’t cause major issues if you’re diligent about keeping good save files (as is wise in any visual novel).
Cain × Nica Story - 8/10
Honestly, the only real drawback to Cain × Nica’s story is its pacing. Its eight-hour length could easily fit a visual novel double or triple that duration, which would give its complex plot more room to breathe. The characters can be hit or miss, but overall, the setting is thought-provoking and manages to be darkly charming yet lighthearted at the same time.
Cain × Nica Gameplay - 7/10
The game offers a standard choice-driven visual novel system, which, while not groundbreaking, holds up well even by today’s standards. Making the right choices is absolutely essential and can be challenging for newcomers, though, considering just how far back they might have to rewind just to avoid bad endings. There are also several points where players can get soft-locked, sometimes even unable to return to the title screen after a bad ending. These issues should be ironed out, especially given how easy they are to encounter, particularly if you’re a completionist.
Cain × Nica Visuals - 6/10
Unfortunately, despite Cain × Nica’s appealing promotional art, actually playing the game can test your tolerance for visual inconsistencies. While each scene looks attractive on its own, mismatches between the illustrations and the story context are common enough to be a noticeable drawback.
Cain × Nica Audio - 8/10
Cain × Nica includes several premium audio features, like voiced dialogue and sound effects, creating a fairly immersive experience. But while the music is excellent, and the sound effects add depth, the voice acting feels inconsistent; sometimes average, sometimes disappearing altogether. Overall, though, the audio design is a net positive and enjoyable.
Cain × Nica Value for Money - 7/10
An eight-hour visual novel with multiple endings (including bad ones) is a decent value, even though the main scenario is fairly linear. The journey of survival and romance with the main characters is engaging enough to justify the time. Just keep in mind that this visual novel’s main appeal lies in its plot rather than its visual polish or relatability.
Cain × Nica Review: A Confusing, Yet Gripping Tale
As someone who loves lounging in bed, ignoring the world, and diving into novels of all kinds, getting my hands on a new visual novel is always exciting. So when I got a copy of the soon-to-be-released Cain × Nica by the talented Aleksey Izimov, I pulled my laptop off its $5 stand and read through it as much as I could, at least until work called me back.
To summarize it in a way that almost feels like an insult to the story, Cain × Nica tells the tale of two siblings trying to survive in a contemptuously brutal society where, after the collapse of civilization, the only law remaining is that of the market. Castes form around wealth, and those without it live with the grim knowledge that the world’s toxic air will eventually take them out.
The story itself is solid, and the worldbuilding is nearly flawless. Despite its faults, I was surprised by how invested I became in the journey and in the characters they met along the way. I think this might even be the author’s bleakest world yet, which only made reading all the more engaging.
A Thought-Provokingly Grim World
We tend to picture castes as a pyramid: the few wealthy at the top looking down, and the unfortunate at the bottom, gazing up at an unreachable place. Cain × Nica flips this imagery. In this world, the poorest live at the peak of the mountains, where they suffer from biting cold, barren lands, and barely breathable air. Life up there is a daily countdown of how long their air filters will hold out.
Meanwhile, those closer to the mountain’s base enjoy what remains of the ruined world, with better access to resources, equipment, and even a hint of normalcy that makes life at least a bit less grim.
The Visuals Conflicts With the Context
A good visual novel should illustrate the story, letting readers use the artist’s imagination to enhance their own. Unfortunately, Cain × Nica falls short in this area. In fact, you might find yourself better off just glancing at the illustrations for context and then relying on your own imagination to fill in the visuals. This approach may actually provide a more immersive experience.
The problem is that the illustrations rarely match what is happening in the dialogue. For instance, in one scene, Cain scolds Nica for removing her gas mask and tells her to put it back on. Yet, neither her sprite nor the full illustration in the following scene reflect this action.
Backdrops often clash with the tone and conditions described in the story. During their hardest times, the siblings' home interior looks surprisingly well-kept, with walls that may have cracks but furniture that appears fresh from a store. The game also reuses backdrops frequently, even when the dialogue describes a completely different setting.
This visual disconnect disrupts emotional scenes as well. For example, Nica may be described as feeling shame, yet is shown smiling, which pulls you out of the story’s immersive atmosphere.
It would even, at times, show two characters with completely different styles of art at the same time.
Well-Designed Filler Content
Fortunately, Cain × Nica includes a fair amount of “filler” content between plot-heavy scenes. This extra content is subtle enough that it might not feel like filler, but it’s there, helping to flesh out the characters without you even realizing it.
A lot of these filler scenes don’t feel real, though, and seem to go out of their way to be unrelatable. Strangely enough, this works in favor of the story, giving each character a unique, alien charm that suits the setting perfectly.
Characters Don’t Feel Real
The characters’ unique charm, however, comes with its own drawbacks. The characters in Cain × Nica are well-crafted in that they have clear goals and quirks that make them memorable. Each one is shaped by the visual novel’s dark setting, so they never feel out of place in the story. Even minor characters impact the plot’s direction. But their behaviors often feel disconnected from what you’d expect.
In one case, a character might smile happily because his brother died saving him, or another might suddenly disappear, leaving his sister behind without much context aside from unbridled greed. The protagonist’s repeated habit of kissing the back of someone’s hand to show gratitude feels equally out of place. This might make sense with some backstory or explanation. Perhaps it’s a cultural thing? But, alas, it is only briefly mentioned and then treated as ordinary, even by the plainly shocked heroines.
Getting Through the Scenario is Torturous
Cain × Nica features multiple endings, which could be great, yet most of these are “bad” endings that require you to backtrack to avoid them. For visual novel enthusiasts, this might sound normal. Personally, I don’t mind backtracking and replaying sections, but certain issues make this experience feel more tedious than in other titles.
Firstly, some points in the story can lead to a softlock. I initially encountered this when the protagonist decides what items to bring to a new district. The game provides several options to choose from, and without any clear indication of what I needed, I saved my progress here and tried a few options. I continued selecting the same choice repeatedly, unaware it was causing an issue, until—well, I couldn’t progress any further.
It turned out that certain combinations of choices can lead to a softlock. This isn’t a major issue if you focus on correct choices and aim for good endings, but for those who, like me, enjoy testing different paths, it becomes an annoying obstacle.
There’s also the game’s strange reliance on selecting extremely specific dialogue options to avoid bad endings that might not appear until much later in the scenario. For fans of older visual novels where one wrong choice could ruin an entire route, this might be familiar. However, it’s far from welcoming for newcomers, who might mistakenly believe the game has ended, not realizing they made a wrong choice several miles back.
Is Cain × Nica Worth It?
It's a Good, Quick Read
Despite its aesthetic and mechanical faults, Cain and Nica’s journey from severe poverty to something resembling stability, though achieved through questionable means, is worth immersing yourself in. The other heroines also carry their own unique charm, growing into more complex characters under the protagonist's care. The plot is genuinely engaging, even if its delivery occasionally falters. So, if you can handle a touch of moral discomfort, this is a game worth trying.
| Platform | Price |
|---|---|
| Steam |
Wishlist Only |
Cain × Nica FAQ
What is the length of Cain × Nica?
Reading the entire story takes about six to eight hours, including all the little things that may distract you along the way (like trying to get past the bad endings).
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Cain × Nica Product Information
 |
|
| Title | CAIN × NICA |
|---|---|
| Release Date | November 15, 2024 |
| Developer | Aleksey Izimov |
| Publisher | Aleksey Izimov |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | Visual Novel |
| Number of Players | Single Player |
| ESRB Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | AI Studio Steam Page |
