[Q. Review] Princess Evangile: Common Route
Entry posted by julyan
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Warning: Super slight spoilers ahead. Kidding, there's none.
If players think that the game's common route is more or less average, I say that is an understatement. The common route surprised me in many ways. The pacing and they way the story was structured is very unique, which made me realized that both the common route and our main character himself, Okonogi Masaya, are a breath of fresh air.
Let me give you a super short synopsis of the route first. The story is set in an all-girls school, with of course, full of girls. However there is a plan to make the school coed due to its financial problems. There has been a gradual decline in the student population because, well, it is exclusive to girls, the tuition fee is expensive and the entrance exam is hard. There are oppositions, of course. These are the guys who can't leave behind the old traditions and want everything to remain the same. Eventually, the two opposing parties are stuck in a loop, and this is where Okonogi Masaya enters. A few minutes in the game, he will be scouted as a male "sample". While he doesn't represent all the males in this oh so little blue planet, it was the best compromise the two parties could agree on. He is given a deadline to prove himself and convince not just the school's authorities, directors, backers or whatever you call them, but also the students, that it is not so bad to accept male students in the future.
So you know the drill, our beloved character is surrounded by beautiful ladies which is impossible to happen in real life (duh), however the fact that no one is pointing out this impossibility baffles me to no end. And as the story goes by, he will eventually establish a harem comprised of girls of all sorts and sizes....sort of.
So what's so unique about this? It looks like your run of the mill moege.
It is not the story which is unique, but the pacing and structure which I said earlier.
It is common for common routes across multiple VN titles that they start with some sort of slice of life feel into it. Characters will be introduced to you one by one, then you get to know them a little bit while hiding the important facts like their background, traumas, and/or circumstances that will be essential in their individual routes if necessary. Princess Evangile takes a very unique approach to that. It introduces almost all of the characters at once then you get to know them naturally without the feeling of "oh, so it's this girl's turn now eh?". That is how it goes in real life. If you experienced transferring once, you'll mostly likely agree. You'll be suddenly put into a class full of strangers and no one is going to approach you one day and say "Hey, today's the day you'll get to know me. So treat me well, okay? Don't worry, that cute girl by the window will be introduced 2 days from now.". I'm not saying that the game completely didn't use that approach. It is just that it rarely did, and when it does, it is out of necessity. In Princess Evangile, there is no GirlA's day. It is everyone's day to get known.
Another thing that is unique about it is the fact that it contains actual drama that you'd expect to be used in their individual routes. Dramas are what makes the individual routes in most VNs worth waiting for, but they completely ignored that advantage and threw them to our faces. Why is that? Do you need to be someone's lover so that their parents will die? Do you need to be someone's lover so that their oh-so-bad-parents do something bad? Do you need to be someone's lover so that their fiancee would show up and ruin your relationships? Of course not. You don't need to play their routes to know them a little bit more deeply. It is not necessary and I like that.
The common route is extremely long. I took my time reading the route but it still took me around 6-7 hours to reach the branching point. I didn't record how much time I played it, but I must still say that it felt longer than Grisaia Kajitsu and Little Busters!'s common route because of the amount of content it offered. It wasn't boring as what some people said. There was always something happening. It sometimes comes as a surprise and some are seen from several miles away. There's no sense of build up to most of these eventful events because of their realistic approach which made me surprisingly fully awake most of the times. Gosh, now I 'm reminded that I yawned many times while reading Rewrite's common route.
To end this, Princess Evangile's common route is a great read. I'm now looking forward for my first heroine. This better be good~
These are Japanese-style? I'm surprised....
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