Tsumi no Hikari Rendezvous
Entry posted by Clephas
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Since I finished getting the acidic, poisonous, and unreasoning emotions out of my system - see this post:
I was able to get through this VN without a lot of pain and twisted emotion such as I experienced with Soreyori no Prologue.
First, this is a VN that people who prefer moege/charage will not like. I say this because, despite the high-quality visuals, this is - like most of Minori's more recent VNs - just a few steps too far in the direction of 'down in the mud romance drama' for the tastes of those who like the sappy, mindless romance that defines most VNs of the type.
Also, I will say that the best heroine in this VN is Fuuka (for reasons involving my personal tastes that I won't spoil). Tsubura is just too... weak-willed for my tastes. Ai is the central heroine, but she is typical of some of my least-favorite Minori heroines in being a bit too... attached to her own metaphors.
Having said that, this VN starts out in a way that I really didn't like (sparking the previous rave post that I used to lance that particular boil of toxic emotion), so I honestly can say that while the events in the common route were ones I didn't enjoy reading, they don't detract from the overall quality of the game. In fact, for people who like this kind of 'afternoon drama romance story', this will be a perfect treat. The simple fact that I don't enjoy that type of thing outside of a few specific scenarios is irrelevant to this fact, so remember that my personal distaste is pure bias, not a statement on the technical quality of the scenario.
I honestly can't find a way to describe this story in any way without spoiling it. This VN is so dependent on its specific methodology of revelation in order for the reader to enjoy it that any spoilers here - even minor ones - would be criminal on my part, so I'm going to decline to do an in-detail analysis of what I read, outside of a few generalized statements. Tsubura, for better or worse, is a personality that will seriously split those who read this. Her path has some seriously good points emotionally, but as a character, she will drive some people insane, because she can be seriously pathetic as a person sometimes. Ai's path... is dependent on the common route, and the revelation of certain personality traits (and hiding others) is integral to telling her story, so I'll refrain from any further comment except to say that it feels like a 'typical Minori star-crossed, twisted into a pretzel romance, for better or worse'. Fuuka... is Tsubura's opposite. She is strong-willed, bad-mouthed, and pretty capable overall. She is my favorite of the three heroines (as I mentioned above) and her path stimulates one of my tertiary fetishes. However, her path will also split those who read it, though for different reasons from the other two paths.
I have to mention this issue, despite it being one that most Minori readers are already familiar with... the unbelievably long h-scenes. For some reason, Minori seems to adore making h-scenes that last forever, have a ridiculous number of CGs, and are so intrusive into the story at some points that they actually make it hard to keep up interest in the story in general (there are some that aren't intrusive - and are even necessary to the story flow - but some are seriously...).
Visually and audio-wise, this VN is of average Minori quality (which is higher quality than the average VN ), but there are definitely issues with the graphic system, such as stuttering in the animations and occasional random freezes (usually lasting only a few seconds). The random freezes stop if you turn off the animation, and I actually enjoyed the story more once they were gone... so I can honestly say the animation doesn't add anything to the experience one way or the other.
In terms of raw scenario design and writing quality... the scenario design is pretty high quality, but the writing is somewhat spotty at times (daily life scenes are somewhat shoddier at times, whereas the quality jumps suddenly in the most vital scenes... not really noticeable unless writing is really an issue for you like it is for me).
Overall, this VN wasn't a bad experience once I got past my own issues... but I think that VN readers in the community will be split based on personal tastes when it comes to the game in general. It isn't a kamige by any standard, and it is an unabashed soap opera type story (though without endless seasons of meaningless twists). However, whether that is a good or bad thing is entirely up to you. As I said before, some people will actually have more trouble than I did, particularly people who like the relatively simple romance that is the common fare of charage, nakige, and others of the type. There are some seriously strong emotional moments in this VN... but it is not really a VN that will stimulate the intellect, as it is basically an adolescent romance story.
- Jade and starlessn1ght
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