Kyuuketsu Hime no Libra
Mmm... first of all, this is by Onamatope, a company previously known only for its harem-ge from the Mecha-con series. The Mecha-con series fell somewhere into that thin area between a nukige and a moege, and it was actually pretty decent for something in that area of the VN universe. So, keeping that experience in mind, I went into this VN with a more open mind than some people probably would have. Fortunately, this VN wasn't a disappointment, precisely because I wasn't looking for it to be something out of this world.
Ok, first... this is a chuunige, in the sense that it follows a format I think most people will be familiar with... this young guy is transformed and forced into a world where he has to fight to survive, with many pretty girls around him... sound familiar? It should. That right there is the basis for about ninety-percent of the entire 'gakuen battle' type chuunige sub-genre. In a few ways, this VN definitely borrows from Draculius, which I still think is the best non-superviolent vampire VN. There are a lot of differences between the two... but they share the commonality of allowing for a coexistence of slice-of-life and comedy with a more serious background story.
I'll say it straight out though... there should have been an Iris path. I don't say this because I'm a lolicon (though the protagonist and his ancestors all were, apparently) - as I'm not - but because Iris was, at first, second and third glance, the most interesting female character in the VN. All the heroines had their moments... in fact, I was really, really surprised at the degree to which they managed to balance all the paths and gave the heroines an equal amount of story. Due to the fact that the first half of their paths are the same, you might think Aoi and Lycoris got a bit screwed over, but their events after the split are distinct enough - and long enough - that I can't really say either got screwed over by the scenario designer's choices. In that sense, this VN is something of a triumph of the art of scenario design, which was one of the areas in which Onamatope generally shined in its near-nukige Mecha-con series as well (one of the reasons my impressions of those games were positive).
In terms of raw writing... the battle writing is actually some of the better non-Light and non-Propeller I've seen. That isn't to say it is first class, because it isn't. The protagonist is way too much of a hetare when it comes to dealing with his vampirism, and the fact that they chose to make all the heroines, sub-heroines, and the protagonist a bit 'baka' was a bit of an odd choice that had moments where it fell flat. The regular narrative writing is better than you generally see in a nakige (which generally get favored with the best moege-variant writers), and I can honestly say that the pacing didn't throw me off very often, though there were some shaky moments midway and early on.
In terms of visuals... this VN definitely needed more combat CGs. I knew they would cut corners on this, as Onamatope is not a company that can afford the kind of budgets for visuals that monsters like Will and Light can. There was a bit too much reuse of the same tachie poses to simulate combat, and the best I can say is that they gave the protagonist a face and a tachie for once, which was a huge plus.
... unfortunately they didn't give him a voice. Perhaps one of the biggest no-nos with a modern chuunige is to fail to give the protagonist a voice. The simple reason for this? Because the protagonist in a chuunige is always intended to be an actual person, rather than a simple self-insert. As such, it is rather ridiculous to give into that particular convention when even using a random staff member would probably satisfy most people.
Generally speaking, the music in this game is... generic-sounding in the sense that chuunige music can ever be generic-sounding. That means that the tunes are ones I suspect get sold to every company intending to make this type of VN, with a few twists and changes in the rhythm to make them sound different to the ears of someone who doesn't listen. On the positive side, there is no point in this VN where I felt like the music was misused, which is a far bigger flaw that simply reusing music tracks from other games.
Overall, what can those of you looking forward to the localization look forward to? I'd say that if you want some slice-of-life with vampires merged with a low-level chuunige story, this will definitely be something to look forward to. On the other hand, fans of more serious chuunige will not be satisfied by this, as the game is just to light in the slice-of-life scenes and the protagonist is a bit too much of a near-hetare when it comes to the vampire issues.
- Deep Blue, FinalChaos, Narcosis and 5 others
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