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Feb Release: Ouka Sabaki and VN of the Month


Clephas

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This entry was written by fun2novel and edited by me.  As in the previous post, I have only made grammatical and stylistic changes, as well as eliminating unnecessary spoilers.  As such, the content is essentially fun2novel's review of the game.

tl;dr: If you’re a fan of the Phoenix Wright series then stop reading. There’s nothing more I can say to make you want to play Ouka Sabaki. Go play it now. The rest of you keep reading.

In the ancient Japan during the Edo period, under the firm far reaching rule of the Shogun, much of the work of keeping law and order was relegated to the magistrates of the lower towns and prefectures. Every town was responsible for the upkeep of peace and order, and policed themselves using authority delegated to them by the Shogunate. Most criminal activity that did not present a threat to the Shogunate was handled locally. The magistrates were also in charge of keeping the crimes of their town from tainting and flooding over to other towns. Each town or even a region of a city had a Magistrate assigned to it. Magistrates were the ones who carried the duty of overseeing and currying out justice, capture of criminals and prevention of crime. They had no power to tax people but they did hold the power of life and death over them. Ouka Sabaki begins when Shimei, the new young Magistrate, is assigned to oversee the Nakamachi district of Ouka Town.

Ouka Sabaki is the first visual novel by a fresh new company Irodori. For their first effort they developed a great and a very entertaining story full of fun characters and exciting moments. Unfortunately, it is impossible to talk about the game without talking about just how similar it is to Phoenix Wright. It’s not that it’s a rip off.  If it was, then you could say that Kara no Shoujo is also ripping off Phoenix Wright. Instead, Ouka Sabaki takes advantage of those gameplay ideas and uses them to tell a very interesting and compelling story. Visual novels with gameplay have a huge potential to grab gamers with their awesome stories and get them invested through great and addicting gameplay. In this regard I think Ouka Sabaki does everything right.

The similarities to Phoenix Wright are astounding, structurally at least. Every chapter starts with characters just enjoying their time together. These are some of the better moments in the game because this is the only time you get to know the characters. In the second half a crime occurs, sparing the beginning of the chapter's main story.  At that point, you start inquiring, gathering evidence, and asking people questions about what they know. Physical evidence is gathered by clicking on the objects on screen with the hopes to find something useful. And then there is the court room (in this case, an open-air situation where the defendant or defendants is made to kneel on white gravel to plead their case) where you ask questions, find contradictions, and present counter evidence. It is all very similar to Phoenix Wright, but this is not where Ouka Sabaki will win you over (Clephas note: The biggest difference is that the magistrate serves as prosecutor as well as the judge, and there is no jury nor means by which the average person could appeal).

What will win you over are the characters. Once again a comparison to the Phoenix Wright series is in order. The main cast in the Phoenix Wright series are all a bunch of fun and great characters, however it is the rest of the characters that make things very painful to play these games. All the non-main characters are, for a lack of a better word, absolutely stupid. They act like little children with over the top hyperactive personalities instead of acting like believable adults. There is nothing wrong with being quirky, as it gives characters a sense of charm, but in case of Phoenix Wright everyone acts like they are on a sugar high. As a result many gamers hate the gameplay outside the courtroom scenes, and many players use a walkthrough to quickly get them to the court sections of the game as these are the best moments in the game. Ouka Sabaki is a complete opposite of that. The characters have their own quirks, but they never go so far from land you barely see the horizon. Every character is charming, has a great personality, and as a reader you want to learn more about them. There is the fun and energetic childhood friend, the cutest tsundere I’ve ever seen, and even the male characters are all wonderful and great. The characters are so good you’ll be disappointed to know that the game never gives you enough time to get to know them before you are thrust into the main plot. This is really the biggest thing going against Ouka Sabaki.

This sounds really strange, especially from someone who prefers story driven visual novels over the slow and often boring (in my opinion) charage and slice-of-life visual novels. It just goes to show you how  good characters and good writing can go a long way. However, if you don’t mind that, then what’s waiting you is one hell of a ride of trust, betrayals, twists and turns, and some interesting but not over the top drama. The story never forgets about humor either, and there are some very funny situations. These moments help the reader to get comfortable with the game before the plot starts showing up and things heat up.

The game is almost completely linear. There is mostly just one single path through the main story. Obviously the writers were focused on telling a story rather than making an eroge. This is also were the game fails. The writers didn’t plan on having h-scenes from the start so, throughout the game, from the beginning to the grand end there are no h-scenes. Somewhere in the middle if you make the wrong choice you will be treated to an h-scene, but it feels too forced and out of place. After completing the game, you can go back and get endings (including h-scenes) for each girl if you so desire. However, these are the least interesting moments of the game, and besides, once you’re get the grand end, you have witnessed the best parts of the game. So, there’s just no incentive to go for 100% in my opinion.

On the presentation side, the graphics look really good. Characters are drawn well with great smooth lines and good use of colors. Character design is great as well. The voices all sound very familiar and could be professional anime voice actors (I did not check the facts myself, so it is all just based on my ears, lol). The music is of high quality and has a very oriental style and sounds as if it was performed by a live orchestra. But only few tracks are memorable, it’s still very good music and fits the game perfectly.

Overall Ouka Sabaki is a great visual novel and really entertaining. It’s hard to fault it for keeping most of the focus on the plot but it would have been great if it explored the characters and had a few more comedic scenes. If they ever make a sequel I’ll be sure to be there because I know I wouldn’t want to miss it.

 

 

VN of the Month, February 2017

There was never any real contest, this time around... Suisei Ginka is VN of the Month, February 2017.

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As a fan of the Ace Attorney series, I've been interested in this VN, so this review confirms that I have to play it! I tried the trial quickly to see what was hookable and what wasn't. Unfortunately, the proofs, information and profils, as well as choices (well, sometimes the first one is hooked) aren't hookable. I can more or less understand what's written when it's not hooked, but can't go too far with the only 600~ kanji I know. So yeah, I guess I'll wait before reading it.

Ah, but, it's because I want a more complete experience, so people who don't care about reading what's written on the proofs/choices/etc can still read/play it, as you get what it's about when they talk, and you get as much chances as you want to present proofs. Also, the sentences are shorts and easy to understand (didn't read much, want to preserve the experience for later), so if you're interested (and a Ace Attorney fan), go for it!

Edited by Riku
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