Jump to content
  • entries
    766
  • comments
    1836
  • views
    478992

Realive


Clephas

3035 views

Realive is Purple Soft's latest game.  For those unfamiliar with Purple Soft, they are the makers of Hapymaher and Chrono clock, and their specialty lies in nakige with fantasy and/or sci-fi elements.  As an example, Chrono Clock has the time-manipulation watch, Amatsutsumi has 'kotodama' (the ability to control people and some phenomena with words), and Aoi Tori has divine and demonic powers.  In this case, the characters are drawn into playing an AR game called Alive, which grants them strange abilities based on how far they have progressed in the game.  Since these abilities actually bring about real life results, I call it a 'mystical app', lol.

Anyway, this game was written by Nakahiro of Hoshimemo and AstralAir fame.  In combination with the sheer eroero nature of Purple Soft's artists' character designs (since his previous works that weren't nukige were mostly 'cute' games) it definitely presents a different picture from what you would expect from Nakahiro at first... but as you progress through the game, you will inevitably - if you have played his previous games - come to recognize similarities in how he handles the emotional and comedic elements to his previous works. 

The common route of this game is mostly light-hearted, though it shows at times the deep worries the various heroines and protagonist have (on the surface level).  For those familiar with Hapymaher (which is translated), it becomes evident that Nakahiro is a fanboy of that particular work pretty early on, as he deliberately inserted many small easter eggs into the character personalities and settings that are drawn from the characters of Hapymaher.  Sadly, he doesn't seem to have been fond of Saki (how could anyone play that and not love Saki?!!) but the heroines seem to have carried on a lot of elements from Hapymaher characters for some reason... though I won't spoil it for you.  Have fun figuring out which characters inherited which Hapymaher elements, lol.

Anyway, there are four heroine routes in this game and one Grand Route (just a different name for a true route, save that it usually has a bigger focus on resolving central elements of the main game's story as opposed to the heroines' individual ones).  I'll introduce the heroines as I go.

Kaya

Kaya is, on the surface, your classic arrogant/selfish ojousama.  She has distinct manipulative tendencies and a strong need to be on top, no matter what the situation.  However, that surface hides a crybaby who lived a sheltered but strictly-regulated existence that tried to squeeze all traces of personality out of her.  This is not that uncommon in ojousama heroines, but the way Kaya is presented is cute, generally speaking.  Her class is Alchemist, which oversees destruction and creation of objects.

Like all the four initial heroine routes, this one focuses on resolving Kaya's issues as she tries to complete the game, which is often difficult, since the conditions of the missions given by the game are often vague and designed to help the characters grow and face their inner demons... and Kaya's demons are a doozy (those this can be said about all the heroines to one extent or another).  While some of her issues might seem minor to someone looking from the outside in, it is nonetheless made easy for the reader to empathize with her suffering.

This path was my first experience with how the endings were going to be handled for this game... and the ending was something of an exercise in frustration for me, primarily because there is so much hinting at the background setting without giving me answers to match up with my suppositions.  In addition, since we have no way to see how things progressed between the events at the climax of the path to the epilogue (this is deliberately not spoken of), I found myself wishing that they'd left epilogues to after the game was done completely.

Minato

Minato is a loner by choice, living a hard life working part-time jobs to keep her in food and shelter while attending high school.  She actively hates the idea of trusting others, and she resents deeply the hypocrisy of those who try to help her out of pity.  Normally, she presents the picture of a 'koakuma' heroine (and that's what she is), but she is also a rather obvious tsundere, albeit one who only shows her true tsun when someone manages to embarrass her.  Her class is Trickster. 

Minato's path is... much more viscerally emotional and at the same time amusing than Kaya's path.  I chose her second because she was the other 'outlier' heroine amongst the four initially available (I almost always pick heroines who aren't already close to or in love with the protagonist first, since osananajimi and deredere classmates are usually boring).  She resists both the idea and reality of her romantic feelings for Chihaya (the protagonist) for a long time, and her reactions to those feelings were just hilarious... up until the point she finally gets down to being deredere, then she is even more clingy than Kaya, and that takes work.

Minato's theme is 'overcoming dependence and making peace with the past', and it was much more effectively executed than Kaya's path... that said, i do still have complaints with how the epilogue was handled.  However, that's the case with all of the four initial endings, so I'm just going to grin and bear it.

Nemuru

I'll go ahead and get this out in the open.  Nemuru and Satsuki are the heroines I had no interest in from the beginning.  Satsuki is an osananajimi in the classic 'cooks and cleans for him' style (albeit not tsundere for the most part) and Nemuru is your typical shy girl who has trouble speaking with men.  Nemuru's class is, ironically (at least on the surface) Idol, and her skills are all centered around gathering or controlling the attention of others. 

My major problem with Nemuru's path came down to the fact that Nemuru was the heroine, in the end.  As a path, it is actually fairly good, even if it lacked a lot of the non-standard twists and turns seen in the previous two paths (incidentally why I picked those two heroines first).  However, Nemuru's character was irritating to me (shy heroines who remain shy for most of the game drive me crazy), and while she grows a great deal as she overcomes her trauma (much like the previous two), I was left unmoved due to my lack of interest in her. 

Again, her path is technically good, and a less-jaded player would undoubtedly be able to empathize more with her (the me of two or three years ago probably could have), but I've grown used to not bothering to tolerate heroines I don't like of late, so my reaction was probably inevitable.

Satsuki

Satsuki is the osananajimi neighbor, living with her younger sister Yayoi.  She constantly wants to take care of people, especially the protagonist, and she intentionally matches her time leaving the house to his... do I have to enumerate anymore reasons why I left this path to last?  lol

Anyway, Satsuki has a strongly self-sacrificing personality with an intense desire to help and protect others.  This is reflected in her class, which is Knight.  Her path is perhaps the second most emotional (for me) so far, right behind Minato's.  That said, her existence as an osananajimi and an essentially 'normal' person pretty much eliminated any possibility of me preferring her as a heroine, hahaha.  Her path is all about overcoming the loss of something precious, and as such, it is inevitably a tear-jerker. 

Grand Route

Early in the Grand Route, the reason for the links to Hapymaher become clear, and about a third way through, it becomes clear why all the events in the other path occurred.  I'll be blunt... you'll probably spend most of the first third of this path in tears, if you have a heart.  It is also an extremely familiar set of themes and setting ideas for someone who has read Hapymaher, so I can clearly state that this game is a Hapymaher derivative rather than just supposing it might be. 

This path forces the protagonist and the heroines to face their largest trauma, the one not mentioned even slightly in the other paths.  This trauma... is bad enough that I'd honestly be tempted to rename this an utsuge.  However, typical to Purple Soft's nakige brand, the ending is a happy one, if somewhat bittersweet.  I know I cried.  I will say that the protagonist's solution to the problem was... novel and typically convenient of a Japanese nakige, lol.

4 Comments


Recommended Comments

As an extra comment, the reason I don't mention heroines in relation to the Grand Route is because it is a major spoiler... unfortunately, I couldn't figure out a way to talk about it without spoiling one of the major issues of the VN.

Link to comment
22 hours ago, kokoro said:

Clephas殿, do you think Hapymaher is the peak of Purple Software?

More like the game that solidified their game style.  While their last seven games all seem different on the surface, they are essentially similar in concept.  Create a situation that is full of open or hidden despair and disaster, make it go bang, then bring on the feels.  Mirai Nostalgia, which came before it, was also like this, if to a lesser degree, but it was more of an experimental than a clearly delineated style template at the time.  Hapymaher has the benefit of the best and most unique soundtrack the company has ever produced, combined with near-perfect music direction.  This enhances a plot that is at times somewhat scatterbrained due to its nature (a dream) and turns it into a kamige. 

The ones that stand out, to me, are Aoi Tori, Amatsutsumi, and Realive, all three of which are more feels-oriented than Chrono Clock or Shiawase Kazoku-bu (which is also good).  These three are helped by having excellent casts of characters and great writing but are hindered by abuse of the ladder-style story structure.  In addition, for some reason Purple Software went for near-generic soundtracks after Hapymaher, a choice I think was a terrible mistake, given the degree to which Hapymaher's atmosphere is defined by its music and music direction (though its VA choices are godly too).

The lack of Morisaki Ryouto and the tendency to split the tasks between multiple writers seems to harm them sometimes, which saddens  me... Morisaki Ryouto is one of the best writers out there, and without him, Purple Soft has developed a tendency to make questionable hiring choices when it comes to its writing staff (why they would hire the writers from Laplacian, I don't understand).  From what I can tell, the two saving graces seem to be that Purple Soft has retained the same BGM composer and Ishikawa Yasushi as the scenario designer and lyrics writer, who seem to work to maintain the same style.

Link to comment
On 4/26/2020 at 1:57 PM, Clephas said:

More like the game that solidified their game style.  While their last seven games all seem different on the surface, they are essentially similar in concept.  Create a situation that is full of open or hidden despair and disaster, make it go bang, then bring on the feels.  Mirai Nostalgia, which came before it, was also like this, if to a lesser degree, but it was more of an experimental than a clearly delineated style template at the time.  Hapymaher has the benefit of the best and most unique soundtrack the company has ever produced, combined with near-perfect music direction.  This enhances a plot that is at times somewhat scatterbrained due to its nature (a dream) and turns it into a kamige. 

The ones that stand out, to me, are Aoi Tori, Amatsutsumi, and Realive, all three of which are more feels-oriented than Chrono Clock or Shiawase Kazoku-bu (which is also good).  These three are helped by having excellent casts of characters and great writing but are hindered by abuse of the ladder-style story structure.  In addition, for some reason Purple Software went for near-generic soundtracks after Hapymaher, a choice I think was a terrible mistake, given the degree to which Hapymaher's atmosphere is defined by its music and music direction (though its VA choices are godly too).

The lack of Morisaki Ryouto and the tendency to split the tasks between multiple writers seems to harm them sometimes, which saddens  me... Morisaki Ryouto is one of the best writers out there, and without him, Purple Soft has developed a tendency to make questionable hiring choices when it comes to its writing staff (why they would hire the writers from Laplacian, I don't understand).  From what I can tell, the two saving graces seem to be that Purple Soft has retained the same BGM composer and Ishikawa Yasushi as the scenario designer and lyrics writer, who seem to work to maintain the same style.

Koku's art is  a big change imo. The only pre-hapymaher vn I read is akiiro renka and is nothing like their recent games. I hope Purple stays alive.

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...