I have to admit that Donutal grabbed me the moment I heard the pitch. Papers, Please already proved that stamping documents at a border checkpoint could be tense, but Donutal flips that idea around and puts you across the table from aliens instead of paperwork. Some visitors are just passing through and mean no harm, some could genuinely help humanity dig itself out of the messes it keeps making, and a few are hiding something you really do not want to miss. Working out which is which through conversation and observation is the whole game, and that hook is strong enough to carry you even when other parts of the experience stumble.
At its core, Donutal is a visual novel with some light puzzle solving woven into the interview segments, and the systems are simple enough that anyone can pick it up without much of a learning curve. That simplicity is a double edged sword though. The interviews come with a timer clearly meant to add pressure while you decide what to ask or how to respond, but reloading a conversation resets that clock completely, so the tension evaporates almost as soon as you notice it. Once you realize you can take as long as you want on any exchange, the timer stops feeling like a real mechanic and starts feeling like set dressing.
The puzzle side has a similar issue holding it back. Piecing together what is actually going on during an encounter can be satisfying, but some of the intended solutions are oddly specific, and that turns what should be logical deduction into guessing what the developers had in mind when they built the scene. It does not help that most of these stories are short, with only a few stretching across multiple days, and the alien cultures on display get just enough backstory to service the plot and nothing more. I kept wishing the game leaned harder into the tension between the logical answer and the morally right one, because when it touches on that idea, it is easily the most interesting thing Donutal has going for it.
None of that means the conversations fall flat, mind you. Donutal has a lot more personality than I expected walking in, and that comes almost entirely from its cast of extraterrestrial characters. The artwork gives every visitor a distinct look, some strange, some genuinely funny and some just plain adorable, and the writing shifts between comedy and heavier subject matter without feeling like it is fighting itself. There is also a slow burn mystery threading through the encounters, and watching how the various endings connect gave me a real reason to jump back in once the credits rolled.
If there is one place where Donutal earns its keep, it is presentation. The alien designs are colourful and full of character, and the soundtrack knows how to set the mood for whatever situation you are in. That becomes especially clear during the emergency sequences, where the music kicks up a real sense of urgency that the otherwise laid back pacing does not always manage on its own. I also appreciated how the game keeps a light tone without brushing aside the more serious ideas sitting underneath it.
I did run into some technical hiccups too, though most of my time with the game was smooth sailing. The one that stood out was a fatal error that crashed the game outright during a playthrough, and that kind of crash is a lot more disruptive than the smaller bugs I noticed elsewhere. Between that, the short runtime and the fairly simple stories, Donutal never quite becomes the fully realized interrogation game its premise seems to promise.
Even so, Donutal is still an easy game to like. It has a visual identity all its own, a cast of aliens genuinely fun to spend time with, and just enough mystery baked into its branching paths to make chasing the different outcomes worth the effort. I would have loved to see it push further with the interrogation mechanics and give player choices more weight, but I will admit the straightforward approach also makes the whole thing easy to recommend to newcomers. If you want a short visual novel with an offbeat premise and a colourful cast of extraterrestrials, Donutal is a charming way to spend an afternoon, even if it never fully closes the gap between what it promises and what it delivers.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided