SC2VN [Game Review (VN)]
Entry posted by niku
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Game Information
Title: SC2VN
Genre: Visual Novel (ADV)
Platform: Windows PC
Year of release: 2015
Developer: TEAM.ELEVEN:ELEVEN
Review
If you ask me to think of an impressive feat performed by a human, it would most likely be related to gaming. I'm not huge on traditional sports. Growing up I was always the nerdy kid who was picked last for the football (soccer) and floorball teams every break during elementary school. It also happens that the game that made the 5 year old me a gamer in 1996 was Warcraft II, a real-time strategy game. For many years growing up, I almost exclusively played different RTS games, one of them being Starcraft. I was never any good back then and I'm probably even worse nowadays, relatively speaking.
I found it beyond cool to learn that someone made a visual novel with Starcraft as its focal point. I read that it was a short one so I decided to jump in without reading any reviews or trying to learn whether or not I would enjoy it. SC2VN, of course, is a very peculiar visual novel in terms of theme. It is set against the Korean pro-gaming scene, professional Starcraft II specifically. Somehow I find it very exciting with meta-geekery like this. A video game about gaming, that's right up my alley. Just like Genshiken, a manga about otaku culture, or GameCenterCX for Nintendo DS, SC2VN offers a glimpse into nerdhood in the by now mythical Eden of pop culture that is East Asia. I'm aware a lot of people consider Akiba a sort of Mecca for geek stuff but surely the place to be when it comes to competitive gaming culture is Seoul with its eSports bars, PC bangs and never ending tournaments. Admittedly I have often caught myself fantasizing about living in the east, be it hanging out with my imaginary friends at PC cafes in China and Korea or arcades in Japan.
The game starts with you, a male or female (whichever one you pick) Starcraft II player aspiring to go pro, leaving your home country for South Korea. I found the premise and sometimes also the presentation of it reminiscent of shounen anime such as Hikaru no Go or Bakuman. Certain segments in particular seem to imply that you will become the best (like no one ever was) through the power of friendship and never giving up. There's also some very standard manga character archetypes, especially the former Starcraft champion tsundere girl. That said, there is no romance in this VN and I'd say that's a fortunate omission as it would've severely crippled the realism that, despite shounen tendencies, is always present. SC2VN at times paints a very bleak picture of a hopeless, uphill climb to the top in an industry that doesn't pay as well or has the opportunity for career that other walks of life have. The writing is concise and kept me interested at all times, there isn't much in terms of bloat conversations but the writer(s) still manage to flesh out the characters surprisingly well. I had judged, if you will, most characters in more ways than just “I like” or “gtfo” by the mid point of the VN. It took me a little over 4 hours to get to the true end but I imagine it would be quicker for most people as I'm a fairly slow reader.
I do personally watch Starcraft e-sport and play the occasional game myself but I don't think that's a prerequisite for enjoying this game. It looks far more at the players and their lives as eSports athletes than the game itself and its mechanics. There's also a glossary included in the game for Korean and Starcraft-specific terms used throughout the story. Perhaps the decisions you need to make could be a bit tricky as they're all gameplay decisions but every bad end in the game happens just a few pages after you made the wrong pick so going by trial and error wouldn't be very cumbersome.
All in all I recommend this game, in particular to people who are curious about the Korean gaming scene. Honestly I feel this game has the potential to bring two subsets of gamers closer. Its a perfect entry point for an RTS player to get into visual novels or vice versa, a VN fan looking to get into RTS games.
Over and out.
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