Black & White
Released Mar 2023
"Black & White" is a dystopian visual novel + war chess game: black and white, sensibility and reason, freedom and order: follow your beliefs and join your camp.
70% positive · 748 reviews
Done
All announced content has been released
High confidence
Done
All announced content has been released
High confidence
Where to buy
Steam $14.99
Can't confirm — worth a look
We couldn't confirm these stores carry this game.
Green Man Gaming Steam key Search IndieGala Steam key Search Prices in USD, as listed by each store.
Buying through an affiliate store helps support the site
Evaluation
Black & White is the second game by ZeroCreation Game, released on March 16, 2023 as a visual novel combined with a strategy battle game. The developer acknowledged in post-launch communications that the game underperformed commercially, attributing this to poor launch timing, the quality of the battle mode, and a "to-be-continued" ending that frustrated players.
On July 5, 2024, the developer released "Black & White Lite" — a separate standalone product that strips out the battle mode and restructures the game as a pure visual novel. Crucially, the same announcement confirmed that this story-only mode would also be added for free to the original Black & White game. This represents the final substantive update to the base game, effectively completing it by delivering the story experience in a more polished format.
The developer's communications since early 2023 make clear that ZeroCreation has moved on. Their studio priorities shifted to a new lineup of games: The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty (released April 2023), and a forthcoming title called Black Nest. The April 2024 developer letter explicitly outlines the studio's future roadmap, with no mention of additional content for Black & White beyond what was already delivered. The sole DLC — the soundtrack — was released on April 4, 2023.
All announced content for Black & White has been delivered: the base game, the soundtrack DLC, and the free addition of the story-only mode. The developer has not announced any further content for this title.
Evidence
Developer released Black & White Lite, a standalone story-only version of Black & White, and confirmed that the same pure story mode would be added for free to the original Black & White game shortly after.
Alongside the Black & White Lite release, the original Black & White game received a synchronized update adding the pure story mode, representing the final content addition to the base game.
Content
1 of 1 released · no outstanding content
Media
Details
Developer
Publisher
零创游戏(ZerocreationGame)
Achievements
49
Platform
Windows
Controller
—
Steam Deck
Playable
Players
Single-player
About this game
"Black & White" is the second game released by ZeroCreation after "Lay a Beauty to Rest: Dark Peach Blossom Spring".
The game type is visual novel + war chess game.
It is like a painting with symmetrical composition, presenting a dystopian world of black and white.

"Black & White" has more than 250,000 words of game text.
This is a "not dystopian" dystopian story.
Players will observe the memories of the twelve main characters as they are observing, and continue to communicate with the mysterious girl.
- "The opposite of justice is not evil, but another kind of justice."
This sentence is the most crucial theme of "Black & White".
In the world of Black & White, you can trust the White Church camp that symbolizes order, fairness, and reason.
You can also identify with the Black Cinder Crow camp, which symbolizes freedom, culture, and sensibility.
On one side are priests with white hair, possessed by insects, and different personalities.
On one side are historical figures who have returned from the dead, died tragically, and are romantic. How would you choose?

The art style of "Black & White" is extremely unique, and all the UI and characters in the game present a contradictory intention.
There are nearly 100 characters and more than 400 CG or story maps in the game.
We not only carefully sculpted the vertical paintings and CGs of each character with an extremely serious attitude.
A branch plot is also set up for each of the twelve characters, and the branch plot will present a large number of story maps in a manner similar to comic interpretation.
Compared with our previous work, "Black & Whitef" has optimized the animation. While ensuring high-quality static art, some art can be animated and lifelike, which can make players feel better. Enter this world!

We also put a lot of effort into this game in terms of sound, and strive to achieve the top level of domestic two-dimensional games.
Lin Fangzhou, Harper, Xu Luyang and other three composers are mainly responsible for the soundtrack of "", and the sound effects are also produced by special sound engineers, who will control every link.
The dubbing director of "Black & White" is Mr. Mori Zhongren, and the dubbing actors have invited Hanser, Tao Dian, and many dubbing actors from Yuesheng Dubbing Club to cooperate.

There are a large number of turn-based war chess level elements in "Black & White".
We hope that through the war chess level, people can be more immersed in the characters and worldview, understand the plot, and at the same time, we hope to bring more fun to players who like war chess.
There are more than 30 level maps in the game, including moving in subways, wilderness, urban areas and other venues.
In the first half of the game, players need to constantly unlock the character story, and at the same time clear the less difficult and guiding story levels.
In the second half of the game, after players collect 12 characters, players can freely assign characters to form a team, clear 28 challenge levels, and unlock more follow-up plots and game achievements in the challenge levels.
The game adopts weak cultivation, in the process of playing the level. Players can unlock new skills of characters by achieving achievements or unlocking plots, and match different gameplay combinations.


The game type is visual novel + war chess game.
It is like a painting with symmetrical composition, presenting a dystopian world of black and white.

"Black & White" has more than 250,000 words of game text.
This is a "not dystopian" dystopian story.
Players will observe the memories of the twelve main characters as they are observing, and continue to communicate with the mysterious girl.
- "The opposite of justice is not evil, but another kind of justice."
This sentence is the most crucial theme of "Black & White".
In the world of Black & White, you can trust the White Church camp that symbolizes order, fairness, and reason.
You can also identify with the Black Cinder Crow camp, which symbolizes freedom, culture, and sensibility.
On one side are priests with white hair, possessed by insects, and different personalities.
On one side are historical figures who have returned from the dead, died tragically, and are romantic. How would you choose?

The art style of "Black & White" is extremely unique, and all the UI and characters in the game present a contradictory intention.
There are nearly 100 characters and more than 400 CG or story maps in the game.
We not only carefully sculpted the vertical paintings and CGs of each character with an extremely serious attitude.
A branch plot is also set up for each of the twelve characters, and the branch plot will present a large number of story maps in a manner similar to comic interpretation.
Compared with our previous work, "Black & Whitef" has optimized the animation. While ensuring high-quality static art, some art can be animated and lifelike, which can make players feel better. Enter this world!

We also put a lot of effort into this game in terms of sound, and strive to achieve the top level of domestic two-dimensional games.
Lin Fangzhou, Harper, Xu Luyang and other three composers are mainly responsible for the soundtrack of "", and the sound effects are also produced by special sound engineers, who will control every link.
The dubbing director of "Black & White" is Mr. Mori Zhongren, and the dubbing actors have invited Hanser, Tao Dian, and many dubbing actors from Yuesheng Dubbing Club to cooperate.

There are a large number of turn-based war chess level elements in "Black & White".
We hope that through the war chess level, people can be more immersed in the characters and worldview, understand the plot, and at the same time, we hope to bring more fun to players who like war chess.
There are more than 30 level maps in the game, including moving in subways, wilderness, urban areas and other venues.
In the first half of the game, players need to constantly unlock the character story, and at the same time clear the less difficult and guiding story levels.
In the second half of the game, after players collect 12 characters, players can freely assign characters to form a team, clear 28 challenge levels, and unlock more follow-up plots and game achievements in the challenge levels.
The game adopts weak cultivation, in the process of playing the level. Players can unlock new skills of characters by achieving achievements or unlocking plots, and match different gameplay combinations.


Last evaluated Jun 21, 2026
Something about this evaluation looks wrong Report illegal or harmful content