Jump to content
  • entries
    766
  • comments
    1836
  • views
    478956

Inochi no Spare


Clephas

3417 views

Meguri.png

*weeps hopelessly, his face a mess with tears and other fluids*

Inochi no Spare is an utsuge, produced by Akabeisoft3, the conglomerate company made from all of Akabeisoft2's subsidiaries except Akatsuki Works.  I'll be blunt, I didn't know what to think going into this.  It was blatantly an utsuge, right from the beginning... and one that is merciless in its descriptions of the characters' suffering.

The disease in question is called Oumon Disease (fictional), which manifests initially as cherry flower petal-shaped marks spreading outward across the patient's skin from over the heart and later as horrible pain attacks that are so terrible that they cause the patients to harm themselves in order to distract from the greater pain.  No element of this disease is spared from the reader's point of view, and it can get pretty graphic, both in narration and in appearance.  For those who can't stand watching others' suffering, this VN is probably going to be too much for you.

The protagonist and heroine's suffering, joy, love, fear, loneliness, and despair are all portrayed in an intimate fashion that gradually grasps your heart, building up from the initial point, where you don't know precisely what is going on.  For better or worse, I have to advise that you avoid reading spoilers on this VN, as the pace of revelation is as important as the content itself.

The writing of this game is excellent... and ruthlessly true to the characters and scenario.  The characters aren't perfect.  They are as deeply flawed as any human being can be.  Meguri isn't a saint, nor is Ria a pure-hearted martyr. 

The protagonist of the story, Shizumine Ryuuji, is a young man whose expression rarely shifts, living for all practical purposes alone in a home that once held his parents and an elder brother.  One thing that struck me as I read this story was that, for all his weaknesses, Ryuuji is a frighteningly strong-willed person, when given reason to be.  His role in this VN is as important... or even moreso than the sisters' roles. 

This is a 'soft' utsuge, meaning that the ending is extremely bittersweet but not devoid of salvation, and there is joy along the way, not lost entirely in the despair and suffering.  For those who like 'soft' utsuge, this will be pure crack... and it reminds me of some of the best moments of Konakana, which is still the best utsuge I've ever read.

Overall, this is a kamige... and it is rare for an utsuge to manage to reach that level.  Most utsuge slip up somewhere along the way, but this one is presented perfectly for fulfilling its purpose.  I cried out loud for the ending, vicariously experiencing the loss without needing to think myself into it, which was amazing in and of itself.  That's not to say it is entirely without flaws.  It is a bit slow to get going, at least in part because you aren't given all the pieces of the puzzle initially, but I can still honestly call it a kamige, because even those elements that felt like flaws at first added to the experience later on.

12 Comments


Recommended Comments

Somehow unexpected to hear the words 'kamige' and 'AkabeiSoft3' in the same sentence. <_<

Still haven't forgiven them Seikishi yet, and the latest titles before this one don't look that great either. But it's nice to hear that they're still able to write something decent. Although I think they have more than one team working since the scenario writer for this title seems to have written all their better titles of recent years.

The title itself is probably not my cup of tea though, since I'm not a big utsuge fan.

Link to comment
11 hours ago, ChaosRaven said:

Somehow unexpected to hear the words 'kamige' and 'AkabeiSoft3' in the same sentence. <_<

Still haven't forgiven them Seikishi yet, and the latest titles before this one don't look that great either. But it's nice to hear that they're still able to write something decent. Although I think they have more than one team working since the scenario writer for this title seems to have written all their better titles of recent years.

The title itself is probably not my cup of tea though, since I'm not a big utsuge fan.

Aerial was good, as was the remaster of the Akatsuki no Goei series.  However, yes, it is true that they've been wasting the talent they ripped off all those subsidiary brands for the last half decade.

Link to comment

A kamige utsuge? Damn, guess it's time to board the feel train. Been trying to not add more titles to the backlog until it clears up a bit, but think I'll have to make an exception for this one.

 

How would you say the reading difficulty in the game is?

Link to comment
9 hours ago, Dergonu said:

A kamige utsuge? Damn, guess it's time to board the feel train. Been trying to not add more titles to the backlog until it clears up a bit, but think I'll have to make an exception for this one.

 

How would you say the reading difficulty in the game is?

The only other utsuge I played that was also a kamige was Konakana, and it was also a 'soft' utsuge.  Hard utsuge seem to fall short at some point, in my experience...

Link to comment
Guest Russian_anonymous

Posted

2 hours ago, Clephas said:

The only other utsuge I played that was also a kamige was Konakana, and it was also a 'soft' utsuge.  Hard utsuge seem to fall short at some point, in my experience...

What about Satsukoi, Nirvana and Muramasa? I thought they were utsuge as well...

Link to comment
47 minutes ago, Guest Russian_anonymous said:

What about Satsukoi, Nirvana and Muramasa? I thought they were utsuge as well...

Satsukoi comes pretty close, as does Nirvana... but neither quite gets there.  Muramasa is so much a chuunige that I don't naturally consider it an utsuge, lol.

Link to comment
On 9/8/2016 at 3:56 AM, Clephas said:

Satsukoi comes pretty close, as does Nirvana... but neither quite gets there.  Muramasa is so much a chuunige that I don't naturally consider it an utsuge, lol.

Very late post, but can't they be both at the same time? Chuunige is the entirety of the VN afaik, but utsuge is more or less about the ending. Superpowered action with superpowers and whatnot to save someone the main heroine, but then she dies the moment she's within grasp and the protagonist goes around like a empty shell for the rest of his life, just as an example. Gurann lagann anime did it.

Link to comment
4 hours ago, Stormwolf said:

Very late post, but can't they be both at the same time? Chuunige is the entirety of the VN afaik, but utsuge is more or less about the ending. Superpowered action with superpowers and whatnot to save someone the main heroine, but then she dies the moment she's within grasp and the protagonist goes around like a empty shell for the rest of his life, just as an example. Gurann lagann anime did it.

In that sense, most Nitroplus games are utsuge. 

Link to comment
52 minutes ago, Clephas said:

In that sense, most Nitroplus games are utsuge. 

And what feelings does that provoke in you? I think thats a deciding factor if utsuge should be one of a titles genres. 

Link to comment
44 minutes ago, Stormwolf said:

And what feelings does that provoke in you? I think thats a deciding factor if utsuge should be one of a titles genres. 

Mmm... it is more that I don't think of them as utsuge unless someone forces me to.  Logically, I can recognize the elements of an utsuge in them, but at a gut level, I tend to consider them to be chuunige.  Most of the time, when I consider something an utsuge, I do so because of the driving purpose I felt behind the game's overall design.  In the case of Nitroplus games, while I do think they go out of their way to make them dark, I don't think they really intend them to be cathartic in the sense that an utsuge usually is. 

In addition, most Nitroplus games never really get you attached to the characters in a way that would make utsu-tenkai significant in a cathartic sense.  Yes, the endings are depressing, but it isn't a cathartic depression. 

Link to comment
Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...