Foreword: There are a lot of praising reviews of this untranslated game (1 2 3), which was a great surprise for me. Are we really observing a great mistreated masterpiece in this case?
Title: MinDeaD BlooD ~Shihaisha no Tame no Kyoushikyoku~
Developer: Black Cyc
Date: 2004-06-11
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v1060
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr5YBK4CASw&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8DxlQByl9ojtAByJ-gdpN6
Synopsis: Just off the coast of mainland Japan is the island of Chisakura, home to a city of the same name, where the heralds of darkness are slowly gathering. Host to a prosperous economy, with a nationally renowned academic institution for young women and an equally upstanding medical research facility, the community has unwittingly attracted the attentions of dreaded supernatural creatures with few equals: vampires. Yet even these immortal predators have daring individuals who hunt them, and a secret war between the two powers is quickly racing to an apocalyptic conclusion. At the center of this nightmarish struggle is a man who has the potential to tip the scales in favor of one side or the other. His choice of allies - the hunters, the vampires, or none at all - may very well determine the fate of humanity and the undead.
Game type: Vampire amnesia action nukige
Character Design rating: 6/10
Protagonist rating: 7/10
Story rating: 6/10
Game quality: 6/10
Overall rating: 6/10
Since there are other reviews, just some personal impressions are enough. NO. This game is NOT a masterpiece. It was a huge mistake on my part to even launch this game without checking it out properly. Let's try to observe some of its elements.
MinDeaD BlooD does have an ok story, but it's not a great one. The only "events" of the story is getting closer to different heroines and together triggering some kind of ending, often with action scenes. The "events" of bonding are dozens of H scenes with each heroine, over a hundred of events overall. Is there anything worthy about this game - action scenes / heroine stories / amnesia information recovery ? Nope. So why do all these people praise the story? Just one reason - because this game is a nukige. If nukige has some kind of plot involved, it's already treated as a great feat. And if there are complex routes and multiple different endings to contain mystery elements - it's fresh, it's new. Compared to Yami no Koe and Mushitsukai this game really has a good story. But compare it to any normal plotge - and MinDeaD BlooD becomes just an average nukige.
Game has over a hundred of H events, many have the same CG or slightly different CG. Those events are absolutely devaluated. They become mundane means of communication that repeat over and over during the 60 days course of the game. More than that, they are drawn in absolutely disgusting way, so it's no wonder reader gets an immunity over those and just skips them. When real heroines have their final bonding event, there's no emotion left for it, it gets skipped as well. Nukige nature of the game leaves a stamp of disgust on all its elements and really hinders evaluation of the story.
The only way to get game and story interesting is to introduce really interesting characters that start to live on their own creating meanings. I absolutely can't see serious heroines behind these chunks of meat. Protagonist Shizuru with his cool attitude is ok, but basically he is a serial rapist, and I don't have the slightest desire to get to know his psychology.
Game composition is absolutely horrible. For each of 60 days we get to choose where to go both for Shizuru and vampire twins Mana and Mayu. It's absolutely impossible to do anything without a walkthrough here. Even with walkthrough it's very easy to screw something up. There are some 27 endings (don't cite me on that) with some 15 being named ones. But among those named ones most are still bad endings. Some endings only take couple minutes. Some are only accessible through normal mode (not easy mode) and only prior to clearing the rest of the endings. It's really a mess. There aren't heroine endings, just some named ones. Gameplay is such a torture. Hopefully, I covered all the big branches in my video. I really wanted to see all the meaningful branches to be able to evaluate the story properly, but this game does not care about readers at all.
In the raw outcome, MinDeaD BlooD can't be compared to normal plotge like 3days ~Michiteyuku Toki no Kanata de~. It has such gross nature, that it can be compared only to fellow nukige games, and these review scores of 7/10, 8/10, 9/10 should be treated as 7/10, 8/10, 9/10 among nukige games where having any kind of plot is already a boon. Vampire theme got a boost after Tsukihime, but none of the vampire visual novels were able come close to it. I call it Tsukihime curse.
Foreword: Only chose Dingir as the only plotge of the month.
Title: Dingir
Developer: Patisserie
Date: 2004-05-21
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v204
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdYk3gR_Mgc&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8rKP5oDa1nzt0KevjFrmhw&index=29
Synopsis: Year 1014 by local calendar.
Peaceful life is interrupted by betrayal and assassination in the court. Dying king conveys main character Baal the prophecy and asks him to try and save the endangered world. Girl As suddenly appears before Baal and agrees to help him on the journey to the Tower of Judgment.
Game type: Ancient Mesopotamia fantasy adventure
Character Design rating: 4/10
Protagonist rating: 4/10
Story rating: 6/10
Game quality: 3/10
Overall rating: 4/10
I don't have much to say about this game. It struck me that I could find only ONE Japanese review of the game. Usually even nukige have at least couple. So game's really neglected for some reason. I was curious to know why.
From the very start game infodumps tons and tons of names. Each such name is underlined, so it's possible to point at it and read an extract regarding each. It's possible, but there's hardly any motivation to do so.
It strikes the eye that half of the girl characters are simplistic with some being totally ugly. But it only does so till you see the first male characters. 100% of them are ugly beyond redemption. Male characters usually move the story and contribute for the atmosphere of the game the most. Here male characters kill the game just from the start.
Talking about this compromised ugly game further on is difficult, but let's try to. There's no real story beyond the synopsis. Only pointless talks and some armed clashes clustered here and there make for the length. Baal only needs to get back to his mother castle and battle impostor with his minions. That's it. Whether he does it together with princess Mertina or wiithout determines two main branches. I only recorder the one available from the start - without Mertina in party - because game's horrible beyond redemption at that point already.
BGM actually contributes to the irritating factors as it's repetitive and quite simple. The gag BGM is a total sham. And "gags" here aren't any-what sophisticated, like Gills damaging her bra and having boobs out during the fight.
Overall, game produces only negative emotions. There are more adequately drawn female characters from the second half of the game, but it's too little too late. Every element feels half-baked with the result leaving much to be desired.
Foreword: This perfect game made me re-evaluate... Coμ -Black Dragon in a Gentle Kingdom-. What do these games have to do with each other? Hop in to figure out.
Title: Realize
Developer: PlayM
Date: 2004-04-23
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v2025
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IChpMO4Jhz4&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv_Z8T8hfm3788JmL-mH3l3m
Synopsis: One morning during the class, Matsuura Ryou saw a strange object flying in the sky. Orange body was falling in a strange dancing pattern, vaguely resembling movements of the life form. This was his first encounter with EGO which led to contact with mysterious girl - Shibaura Yae that completely changed Ryou's life and destiny.
Game type: Robot familiars fights chunige alongside touching human story
Character Design rating: 10/10
Protagonist rating: 10/10
Story rating: 10/10
Game quality: 10/10
Overall rating: 10/10
Rating comments: No words really needed here. I had my doubts whether it should be 9 or 10, but it continued to surprise me over and over taking all the doubts away.
Protagonist: Game has not one, but two protagonists - Ryou and Shuuji. And those two co-exist in the same space and time. They are good friends, actually. Their bonding is the cornerstone of the game. Having two protagonist is also a great way to get out of one boy - lots of girls dilemma in a long one road story. Both protagonists are strong personalities with different focus - realistic and idealistic.
Characters: There are four heroines, and all are very nice ones.
Kei is our more traditional love interest, kind and romantic.
Rin is an attentive, polite and cheerful child that we want to protect.
Yae is the cornerstone of the story and the most mysterious heroine.
Saya is our tsundere with absolutely blunt attitude to everyone from the start and very charming awkward transformation. And she has the hugest sword - of course she's my favorite heroine!
Story: What I like the most in Realize is that game is not really that much about the story. There's no ultimate aim to reach like in most of chunige. Ryou just sees some robot familiar one day, then is summoned to the roof by his classmate Yae who shows him her familiar and answers some of urgent questions. That concludes the prologue. Later on he gets involved into the conflict between PK characters and some PKKs. This very fact already rose estimation level to the skies. Talking about PKs and PKKs 10 years prior to Sword Art Online! This was a moment of impact similar to that of Coμ when prestige traditional Wizardry classes Lord and Bishop entered the scene to compliment normal classes. I actually waited for ninja and samurai prestige classes to make them company, but - alas - those estimations were left without realization. What I want to say is that Realize has a lot of great Ego fights and all, but it's not the gist of the story. There are four endings in addition to the True ending. Half of those are kind of bad ones leaving us out without getting the needed power of losing allies. The other two are really nice and showing the game yet from more sides.
Thoughts:
1) Robot familiars are called either Ego or Proxy in the game. Try to google that and you'll get the title of the best anime in history.
2) There are too many similarities between Realize and Coμ.
a) Both games are based on the conflict between the aggressive group of traditional PKs one one side and peacemakers PKKs on the other side.
b) The name of strongest PK is - guess what - Black Dragon.
c) Both games have a mysterious legendary fighting machine that acts by unknown principles with the identity remaining unknown
d) Both games have to do with μ symbol. Realize even explains its meaning for the game.
e) Both have two males as part of the coalition band. I always considered Shuu to be and odd one out. Never could understand his role in Coμ. Now I tend to think that he's implemented under influence of two protagonists great bond in Realize.
One or two similarities is a coincidence, but FIVE ?! Now I look at Coμ at a completely different angle. It's a great standalone game, but it has ways to go to reach the bliss of its spiritual predecessor - Realize.
Technical difficulties: Of course there are some. Only PS2 release is voiced, so I had to take it as the base. But console releases are known for poor hooking capabilities, so I had to satisfy with only translation of the first line in each screen slide. There were rarely more than five lines on one screen, but it still hurts to see words cut in the mids.
Overall comments: It saddens me greatly to see such a superb game in oblivion. Realize is one of the very few games that I can enjoy at any moment, at any page without relation to the development of the plot. That's the biggest praise a piece of media can get from me (the paragon is Vladimir Nabokov novels). Realize is written by a mastodon veteran of scenario writing - Takahashi Tatsuya. It's the person responsible for a good half of Leaf biggest works. And we all know that Leaf is the biggest benefactor and driver of the media - the company that always brings innovation. Realize is his first work after leaving Leaf and starting to write what he desired himself. It's a piece of history that's unjustly forgotten.
Foreword: Routes gets 5 votes cumulatively while closest rival sits at 3 votes, so here is review of this game.
Title: Routes
Developer: Leaf
Date: 2003-02-28
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v204
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV1wg2BZOpM&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8K_WdeDpxSgGZzjGORqw_b
Synopsis: The story takes place in 21st Century Japan (approximately at the end of April 2010). The main character Nasu Souichi is a perfectly ordinary high school student, who tries to do as little as possible everyday, and sleeps though most of his classes, only ever to be woken up by his friend Yuasa Satsuki. They believe they are living in a peaceful time, where no large wars are occurring.
However, these peaceful days are destroyed, when a number of large ships disappear at sea, almost instantly, and with no explanation as to why. A strange woman named Lisa＝Vixen suddenly appears and attacks Souichi... however Souichi also has his share of secrets.
Game type: There are two different games here - spy thriller and medieval rural mystery
Character Design rating: 8/10
Protagonist rating: 7/10
Story rating: 8/10
Game quality: 7/10
Overall rating: 8/10
There is already a good review of this game (1), so I'd better present personal impressions acquired during the course of the game. There WILL be spoilers, although I don't consider them to be big enough to really spoil anything - they are needed to present the structure of the game.
Game starts with Lisa Vixen route, and she is the real main heroine of the game. She is both stunning blonde beauty and a great super-agent. There is great teamwork and unexpected resolution there. But unfortunately only this route really resembles spy thriller. Next four routes required to reach true route are less impressive. From second playthrough there is a hint about a strange medieval-looking man as well as two choices - whether to go to school or stay home. Going to school leads us to our osnajimi Yuasa Satsuki route or her best friend Fushi Yukari route. I decided only to play thoroughly through Satsuki route. There is an attempt to fill it with SOL and humor, but it works out so-so. The worst part of it was how it ended up being so much overextended. I was hoping to get a fast H event and move to story already, but this route had as many as three (!) unsuccessful attempts of etching pushing story further and further. In the end, story development stars without getting into intimacy stage, but ends up a degraded version of the same Lisa route, just without the unexpected twist.
The other three heroines routes are even worse, a total bore-fest. Two of them are just an average town girl and an average town lady with their stories having NOTHING to do with the spy theme. The true route is the shortcut of the same Lisa route AGAIN, just with all three main heroines at support - Satsuki, Lisa and Fushi. There's nothing really special about it, and game just could not be called a masterpiece at this point after all the routes and the True route.
But then right after true route a totally another game kicked in - "Roots". That's a samurai rural story about the powerful sword and fighting the greater evil. This story has a bright cheerful scenery and a cast of funny characters with numerous memorable moments. Then the connection between "Routes" and "Roots" was revealed, and game finally could be seen as an integrative complex story above the giri-giri masterpiece level up to the point of firm masterpiece level, or 8/10.
I can't evade discussing technical difficulties here. Only console versions are voiced. But console versions can't be hooked - I tried all the variants possible. Without voicing this game does not really worth the effort. So I ended up running recording high resolution PC version screen and text acquired through hooking, but at the same time running PSP version to get voicing from it. PSP version has auto-reading, but PC version does NOT. So I had to manually click through every phrase following PSP auto-reading tempo. This causes all those un-synchronized lines. As if it's not enough trouble already, PC hooking is same clunky as both Kizuato and Shizuku, which means that lines appear consequently on the screen making hooker tools see it backwards. There was a special hooking script developed for Kizuato and Shizuku making lines be translated in the right order, but not for Routes, alas. That's why translation must be read from the end sentences to the first sentences properly. Leaf games really suck for hooking. Moreover, since I had to manually click through 30 hours of gameplay, I made text appear in full blocks skipping some mid-line animations. Just wanted to noted that, because actual PSP version looks much more alive than what I got as a result.
Routes turned out to be a real challenge for me due to really poor systems of PC version. I spent so much time recording it that it may even affect the pace of my next publications since none are left prepared. Unfortunately, only Lisa route, True route and Roots are really worth playing making the leftover heroines routes feel redundant. Game has a really decent "Roots" story which is difficult to get to due to numerous technical difficulties encountered. I just hope that more people will be able to appreciate the game through my video of it.
Foreword: Absolutely unknown game in the West that has overwhelmingly positive evaluation in Japan. Which side would I take?
Title: Rocket no Natsu
Developer: TerraLunar
Date: 2002-10-11
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v4190
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_HLI2A5oFE&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv_3lP089VAcjTRvabUf9dJf
Synopsis: There used to be a season called "Rocket summer"...
The Earth has become a member of the Galactic Federation and has accepted multiple emissaries from aliens. Silver rockets are launched from the Earth on daily basis, but one day all inter-galaxy contacts cease and space port doors get shut.
Main character has dreamt of space travel since childhood. One day he decides to help girl Chise to participate in self-made rocket competition "50 Miles Over". Together with princess from the other star they form a rocket club. Will their dreams come true?
Structure: Roughly a month from 05.07 till 06.11
Length: 7 hours for initial route, some 3 hours for each of remaining 4 routes. Plus 3 hours for omake.
Game type: Space dream youth comedy with aliens
Difficulty: Moderate
Character Design rating: 8/10
Protagonist rating: 7/10
Story rating: 8/10
Game quality: 7/10
Overall rating: 7 or 8/10
Rating comments: It's 7 if you have sound stuttering like me and are't crazy about the genre like me. It's 8 for everyone else.
Protagonist: Takashi is pretty cool. He's so knowledgeable of rockets and so patient and attentive that I'd happily have same intelligent protagonist everywhere.
Characters: There are five heroines which are very different. Chika route is forced as first - and she's the only normal human among all the heroines. She has the only normal route about passion for rocket building and normal romance. But after that surprises begin. There are two routes for each of aliens - Selen-chan and her guard Berthia. Characters are pretty crazy and so are their routes, but it was really sad for me to see ignorant and vain Selen-chan to have teary face in the end. Tsundere should never cry! Haruhi-sensei is... android teacher. And Akira is our normal childhood friend with a huge secret about her - the most shocking route for sure.
Story: Main route only covers characters getting together around Chika desire to build a rocket and being joined by aliens. Then each route has its turns.
CG: No complaints at all.
Sound: Everyone is voiced, including protagonist. That's absolutely superb. But sound stuttering that I got at Win10 really started to kill the fun around the third route I played. Freezes also got more and more frequent, so I did not record past 3rd route.
Thoughts: It's the third rocket club theme visual novel that I play, and it's actually the best one of the three. The reason is the variety of routes and only interesting scenes. There's tension that leaves your interested from beginning to the end. Full voicing, bright atmosphere and colorful characters add up to the feeling. Omake about space adventures fits greatly to the picture as well.
Overall comments: Game is a masterpiece, no doubt. It's not a breakthrough game to become a pillar of new visual novel world. No, it's just a cosy cool place to visit and have a rest. I guess it's the real reason why it went unnoticed in the West - we need a breakthrough. The Japanese can be jerks about plotge, but they can rarely be wrong about a good calming charage.
Foreword: I got on the hook of some reviews praising the story. Now I'm mad.
Title: Sora-iro no Organ
Developer: The Lotus
Date: 2004-03-26
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v962
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX7seUlNpmE&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8-QvoBMKw8KIUTf1tEqOdw
Synopsis: In order to save your cousin, who's been sucked into a mirror, you decide to jump into the mirror yourself. You find yourself in a strange, beautiful world of fairies. As you work through the game's storyline, you'll take part in interactive conversations. The game includes an "encore mode" which allows you to view previous event scenes and listen to music that you encountered on your adventure.
Game type: Some strange moege in fairy entourage
Character Design rating: 6/10
Protagonist rating: 3/10
Story rating: 3/10
Game quality: 6/10
Overall rating: 5/10
This "review" ain't gonna have a structure, because it does not deserve one. And I'm accustomed to just retell my impressions in the way they progressed in such cases. Spoilers are inevitable, although it's needed to be something good to spoil it.
The first thing that struck me is that game is not voiced. REALLY? What cruel joke is that not to give voicing to a charage? And I don't have spare 120$ to get voiced ps2 version.
The second thing that enraged me is the protagonist that comes right from BL games, it's a typical seme. I can't hide my irritation by this fact.
Game starts with what I see as protagonist Tomoya flirting with his cousin Sarasa and getting a slap on the face because of that. Sarasa runs away in tears and gets sucked into a mirror followed by Tomoya. And here we should start experiencing the great story. But it does not come. For the half of the game (10 chapters) Tomoya just flirts with all the girls he finds scoring with two of them. Then he finally finds Sarasa. So is it time for development now? Not so soon, lads. Sarasa is in vegetative state which lasts for 6 more (!) chapters. So what do we do in these next ten chapters from 11 to 20? Well, we kinda don't care about our cousin, but score with two more girls. Well, we're finally out of heroines and need to get closer with Sarasa. She's engaged, but is almost kidnapped on the ceremony day. She is saved by some sticky ice mass from the ice-cream (???). Short awhile she kinda throws herself on Tomoya. He asks "Do you understand you'll betray your fiance this way"? Her answer is as pathetic as stupid "I want to betray the whole world now". Then in some time they both get to original world. So what the hell is this? Where is my supposed great story? So I though till saw the writer's list of works. And those are all generic moege without even a glimpse of the story. So it probably is a great story compared to those total failures.
I'm greatly dissatisfied with artist here. CG and character sprites of uneven quality here, but males are the worst. All of them either come directly from BL or Otomege.
The only things that I liked in this game is that it had auto-reading mode and that both lolis were spared from trampling. Game had some chibi CG which were supposed to add humor to it, but the only humorous part for me was how game zoomed on the hips and breast of Stella - the most skinny boy-ish type heroine. Just laughable.
In the raw outcome we get a weird single road story with zero interest but with lots of pretentious motives, pictures and BGM. It looks like a decent game, but scratch it and it will rot.
Foreword: I awaited a high fantasy story with very mature and curious looking characters. What I got was...
Title: Schrei-Ten
Developer: Pisckiss
Date: 2004-02-20
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v14455
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3bALNSl9Nk&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8rKP5oDa1nzt0KevjFrmhw&index=28
Synopsis: Shrei-Ten is the name of a huge donut-shaped continent dominated by the kingdom of Schleiten. The holy king Schultz Engel defeated his bitter enemy Zusain fifty three years ago gaining supremacy and bringing eternal peace. Main heroine is an adventurer who accepts bounties to get rid of robbers, pirates and monsters. This is a story told from the viewpoint of seven different adventurers..
Game type: What the hell have I just read aka "Mindfuck"
Character Design rating: 6/10
Protagonist rating: 2/10
Story rating: 2/10
Game quality: 4/10
Overall rating: 3/10
Rating comments: Well, you see the numbers. The only thing I liked in this game is fancy male characters and kinky manga-like drawing. I'll list all the numerous fallacies of the game in the technical difficulties section.
Protagonist: There are seven protagonists, really. sword-wielding heroine Elisia Groundbell, her love interest two-handed sword wielder Yukito Howard, tank with a huge shield Richard Hackney, tinkerer and scout Mark Speedster, magical shop owner and former adventurer Silky Goldberg, alchemist Morgan Zimarson, legendary thief Gasutam Lionet. It's a great cast of really funny characters, so it's sad to see the game kill all the fun.
Characters: There are some side characters, but they mostly serve for H-scenes since there are only two female protagonists, and the demand for H-scenes is high. The majority from these 70 mini-stories can be described by the same core - a boy and a girl go to investigate some ruins and have fun together.
Story: Story is elusive and absolutely vague. There 70 (!) mini-stories told from different points of view happening in parallel. The worst point that you can't access them sequentially. Instead you start with the story 10, then constantly have to jump around 10 stories ahead and 10 stories back. But when you reach story 70 nothing really happens. Because the ending is behind story number 63! That's the most stupid structure I ever seen. The story itself is... weird. By the middle of the game we get to story number 1 where we get to know about explosion in the palace cellar, and the tunnels are revealed together with some vague threat over the kingdom. For the main course of the story characters mostly spend time at the town or investigate these ruins. That eventually brings them all separately to the source of trouble - the monster on the island. That's the whole story, really. More than that, some stories have forks, and it's never explained which one is real. Some forks are just for fanservice, as Elisia becoming futanari. But with some others it becomes really confusing. Person can die in one story and be alive again in the following stories.
Technical difficulties: There is no auto-read. The "no wait" option only appears after patch is installed. Before that it was pure torture to read. BGM only appears from time to time and for a very limited time. There is NO voicing. Had to rely on good old AGTH to tackle the flush problems. Only HCG and a handful of non-HCG take the whole screen size. Normal events only take some 2/3 of screen space, and background are squeezed to some 1/5 of screen size. But the worst of all, game continued to force close every 10-15 minutes at different PCs and OS.
Overall comments: The horrible game structure, weak story, no voicing, poor game system and impact at H-events absolutely ruin this game in my eyes. I see such structure as the result of impotence of the writer covering plot loopholes with short individual stories format and abuse of H-events. But the same writer created Kansen ~In'yoku no Rensa~ that's reported to include worthy story. I look forward to reviewing it.
Foreword: I just could not pass by without seeing with my own eyes one of the best cyberpunk'ish visual novels.
Title: Paradise Lost
Developer: light
Date: 2004-01-16
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v1951
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv9UUudO0wufPK3KqL-YaTUD
Synopsis: Paradise Lost takes off in a dystopian setting that comes off as much more blatantly dark than its successors’. The stage is in a city known only as Sodom, which is separated from the outside world known as “Zoar”. Ruled by the gang known as the Infinite Viper, the law of “the strong eat the weak” is rampant throughout Sodom to the point that if you’ve lived beyond the age of 20, you most likely have murdered someone in order to do so. It is widely believed that outside lies a peaceful world free of the everyday violence so frequently seen in Sodom, but there is a closely guarded Gate that prevents residents of Sodom from leaving so no one has actually left and returned to confirm.
Game type: Dystopia epic confrontation
Character Design rating: 10/10
Protagonist rating: 10/10
Story rating: 10/10
Game quality: 10/10
Overall rating: 10/10
Rating comments: Game has few perfect ratings, and I really tried to find any flaws in it as well. But I could not find any. I absolutely love all the protagonist, heroines and even side-characters. Story is second-to-none and without any fillers. Quality hits over the roof for me.
Protagonist: Ryle is totally awesome with his split personality and coolness, but I was worried about Know a lot after reading reviews on the game. He was described as a jerk associating with the worst moments of the game. That's partly true, but Know is not a one-sided character. He's a kind-hearted loving brother in the beginning of the game. He is reflexing about having to lose his left hand to buy food. When he is put into conditions to lose his right arm, he's at the brink of despair. He's so weak, but he chooses to protect Sophia and Ril even at the cost of his life - and only miracles save him several times. Masada writing manages to imbue Know with a lot of empathy which colors his less rational actions with different shades of grey.
Characters: All three heroines are charming and possess a unique story of survival in this unpredictable world. But side-characters and enemies also make this game shine. Ennis appearance makes every scene better. Moral choices and hesitations of Lilith make this heartless scientist feel alive. It's rare to meet such charismatic (and voiced!) negative character as Judas Strife.
Story: The only thing I want so say about the story is that it's fast-paced, breathtaking and without fillers. Each chapter has its title which seems a bit off from the start, but each chapter manages to perfectly describe its meaning.
Prologue
The 1st. God Forsaken Sodom
The 2nd. A Contest For Belzebub .
The Intermission. Criminal Fire Works.
The 3rd. Guilty Guilty Guilty
The Final. God Save The Zoar
The Final Godless A God Knows
Thoughts:
1) One of the best features of the game is sex scenes filled with talk and meaning. And it's not just one Ast blowjob scene. Half of H events are made this way, so I feel sorry I have to cut them out of the video. I only encountered this feature in Coμ so far, and it really adds up to the evaluation.
2) I only know Dies Irae by the anime so far, but I'm sure that Paradise Lost is its spiritual predecessor. It has a lot of God motives as well concept of an omnipotent Deity messing with lowly creatures fates.
Overall comments: This is the first Masada game that I've read. I'll try to play every game where he has something to do with the concept or writing.
Year 2003 proved to be profound in every way. Great variety of masterpieces suiting everyone's taste.
New portion of Visual Novel Openings 2003 with songs.
My list of masterpieces in 2003:
Ashita Deatta Shoujo
Clover Heart's
Cross†Channel
Eien no Aselia -The Spirit of Eternity Sword-
Gin no Hebi Kuro no Tsuki
Interlude
Konata yori Kanata made
Kurenai
Lovers ~Koi ni Ochitara...
My Merry Maybe
Moekan
Natsuyume Yawa
Routes
Saya no Uta
Sayonara
Tenshi no Inai 12-gatsu
True Remembrance
Uchi no Imouto no Baai (Heart)
Yukizakura
Yumeria
Zanmataisei Demonbane
I consider only a handful of visual novels to be 10/10. And among this whole list only Cross†Channel has an honor to be present in it. It's an eternal masterpiece. The rivals are prominent, but only worth 9/10 at best for me.
I intend to make the poll for extra review of the year a good tradition. There are always more games that I'd like to review, but can't due to review per month limitations or a very strong opponent in particular month. I'll try to limit the choice to 5 untranslated candidates at max to not water down the results (since there are plenty of videos and reviews on translated ones already). So I kindly ask to choose among the following visual novels:
Daikuuji Kiki Ippatsu!
Kattobi!
Lovers ~Koi ni Ochitara...~
Routes
Shiki to Hitsuji to Warau Tsuki ~Cry for the Moon~
Foreword: My first thought was that berserk was remade as a visual novel. How is it even possible that such game remains in obscurity?
Title: Gin no Hebi Kuro no Tsuki
Developer: Project-μ
Date: 2003-12-19
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v10059
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpnPjFUxVuQ&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8rKP5oDa1nzt0KevjFrmhw&index=27
Synopsis: Main character is an unrivaled masked swordsman who takes up killer jobs and searches for a swordsman stronger than himself.
In the same world there is a girl Mari used in experiments by her father searching for immortality.
The fate connects these two people in their constant struggle.
Game type: Decadence dark world fantasy adventure
Character Design rating: 6/10
Protagonist rating: 7/10
Story rating: 7/10
Game quality: 6/10
Overall rating: 7/10
Rating comments: Guts-like protagonist and dark story with lots of violence really made my day. But it's felt that Project-μ is on the brink of dissolving already - no voicing, short length, poor systems, lack of BGM.
Protagonist: Kai the Silver Snake is perfect. Lone wolf and unrivaled master of the sword piercing through armies of humans and monsters alike. He does not care about Mari at all - she drags after him even though he tries to abandon her again and again. I wish there was such protagonist in every game.
Characters: Can't really say much about other characters. Game is made as manga strips, so performance takes preference over developed characters. Mari is the only heroine of the game. There's also the spy girl Catina who features in quite a few battle scenes, but that's it. The cast of villains is much more diverse.
Story: Story is quite simple, sadly. Kai just happens to teach some bastards a lesson, and freed Mari tags along. They barely make it to the town where Kai abandons Mari at a tailor's house. She goes after Kai and finds more trouble, but in the end manages to help Kai in a hopeless battle. That's the point they get closer. But tougher enemies already await them.
Thoughts:
1) The theater performance is great, really. Text constantly flies around, enlarges, shrinks, explodes and whatever. There's an abundance of visual and sound effects. Those small manga strips getting on top or side of each other really add up to the mood. The whole theater idea is nice, but it can only bloom applied to a hardcore violence story.
2) The deficiencies of the game are numerous. Pretty much everything is sacked to produce good visuals, tempo and action. I realize that game can hardly pretend for masterpiece status, but the hardcore setting and protagonist give evaluation a boost.
Overall comments: This game does not have a clear and understood development. Yet it manages to produce a semi-magical impression thanks to all the introduced effects and setting. Unique games such as this one are pushing industry forward. And I can only hope that both Masada's PARADISE LOST main hero and heroine were inspired by this small charming adventure story.
Star Platinum, Angel Halo, Stone Walkers and Bounty Hunter Rudy are masterpieces of the month. That's a difficult choice! I believe that Bounty Hunter Rudy is the worthiest for being VN of October 1996
1. Girl 2 ガール２ [961001] Juice
Reiko is a female tutor of three young girls. Here are three stories of what happened at the lessons.
Game is focused on H events and the feature of the series is small windows that show only some part of the body.
2. Eternal Melody エターナルメロディ [961004] MediaWorks
Main character is a normal high school student who gets into an accident at the construction site. Instead of dying he finds himself in a strange world. There he learns that he needs to find a powerful artifact in order to return to his world. However, there are also other contestants for the treasure as it can help to conquer the world. Will protagonist return to his world safely?
Genre is raising SIM to train four people including yourself and fight in the battles to come.
3. Hokenshitsu no Akuma 保健室の悪魔 [961004] Neko no Kessha
A mysterious organism attacks a private school. This is an omnibus drama showing aftermath of the attack in different parts of the school.
Kind of horror tentacle insult themed doujin work..
4. Star Platinum スタープラチナ [961010] Custom 1 2 3 4
High in the heavens, there was a girl who was training in a shrine to be the successor of a goddess. One day, the goddess had to leave the shrine to attend a meeting of the many gods, leaving the girl alone at the shrine. The goddess warned her to leave alone a box of star-souls within the shrine, and that under no circumstances should she open it. Naturally, as soon as the goddess had left, the girl's curiosity got the better of her and she opened the box.
The star-souls escaped, turned the girl into a small fairy, and fled down towards the Earth. She must track down and capture the star-souls, now causing mischief on Earth, before the goddess returns to the shrine. However, while chasing several of the star-souls through the sky, the girl crashes through the window of a young man who lives on Earth. She decides that since he can somehow see her, that he's going to help her out, and so the two of them begin their adventure.
In the story mode the story unfolds until a character in need of exorcising is encountered and then a special card battle is held. The biggest feature of this work is totally unique style of graphics that's impossible to confuse with anything else.
5. Heroine Dream ヒロインドリーム [961010] Map Japan 1
Heroine Dream is an idol simulation game in which the player takes a role of a producer whose goal is to help Shizuka Maiki enter the scene in style. But that doesn't happen over night, in fact, it requires many weeks of training. The heroine herself has many attributes that lack in quality and as her producer, you will have to balance her training (ballet, dancing, swimming etc.), but at the same time keep an eye on her stress level. The game features voice-acting, but without the ability to see subtitles, only the answers you can select during conversations with other characters. Depending on what kind of a star producer you turn out to be, the game may reach one of several different endings.
Just another raising SIM mix.
6. Toriko 虜 [961011] D.O.
Main character is a new teacher with a notion of love and lust. He imprisons his student Yumiko Saeki at the request of Asami Tamura who enslaved her and took her virginity. During the summer vacations fierce and dense training begins.
Shocking game and spiritual follower of SEEK. Training scenes are even animated. System is too difficult for modern players. There are some ardent fans of this work, but majority won't even come close to it.
7. Angel Halo Ａｎｇｅｌ Ｈａｌｏ −エンジェル・ハイロウ− [961017] Active 1 2 3
The protagonist, Kusakabe Makoto, is living a normal school life without knowing he is the reincarnation of Lucifer. One day an angel named Sofia and a demon named Lilith come to him. They are the messengers of Heaven and Hell. The day of Lucifer's judgement is approaching.
I have a full review prepared.
8. Katei Kyoushi 家庭教師 [961018] Interheart
Michiko-chan is a normal student girl anxious of love. When her friend suggests tutor variant, Michiko agrees.
Again ero-centered Interheart work with some voices and some animation.
9. Stone Walkers ストーンウォーカーズ [961018] Sunsoft 1
Stone Walkers is an adventure game in which you take the role of Randy a teacher similar to Indiana Jones and his two girl helpers in a dangerous adventure searching for a mayan artifact called the Jade Mask. The adventure begins when they travel to Guatemala to start the search in some mayan ruins.
Playstation exclusive title. It's command selection, but at times different forms like setting up traps that trigger trouble events. And you can not bruteforce all the commands since you've only got limited selection number, so need to think carefully what to choose. And there are multiple endings so the weight of choice increases even further. As a non-romance adventure story it returns to the origins like De-Ja or Nook series and that's why feels fresh in the launched romance novel era.
10. Bounty Hunter Rudy バウンティはんたぁルディ [961025] Scoop 1
Rudy is a famous space bounty hunter with top notch skills. But she's famous mostly for her ability to fall into troubles due because of uncontrolled destruction power. In order to deal with the debts she goes to casino but drenches down into even deeper debt. She is offered a top secret military case and she's in no position to reject it.
Rudy is bisexual in the sense that with women she becomes a futanari... The main feature of the game is parody... it has reference to dozens of contemporary western and eastern media works from Start Wars to Crayon Shin-Chan. The evaluation of the game greatly depends on the ability to find and enjoy those parodies. I've a full review prepared.
11. Cherry Moderate チェリーマドレット [961025] Ucom
Hero and his classmate argued about who of them was more popular with the girls. Now with the nanpa competition launched hero needs to win the hearts of as many girls as possible.
Capture is not really difficult since at all times you can consult the school nurse who tells exactly what to do in each girl's case. The number of girls is big, but each girl story is plain and short - and ends with a CG. There is a time limit and all the girls that aren't conquered by the hero are conquered by his rival - that guy has a 100% success rate!
12. Ikumoto 生本● [961025] Illusion
At start there is only a remote control. But when channel is chosen, a world of horny drama lies before your eyes. It's an adult channel with all kind of hardcore content. There are also casters and commercials between the show pieces.
It's hardly a game - just choose a program and watch. It can be weird or funny, like when on the alternative of discovery channel there are still girls having sex in Savannah.
13. RAM 1 - New Evolution Organize ラ・ム１ ニューエボリューションオーガナイズ [961025] GMF
Shinsuke is a teenager from modern time. He has a special mark on his forehead which is said to kill him on removal by his father. RAM is a girl who comes from 10.000 years ago in the past to the modern time. She searches for NEO where NEO stands for New Evolution Organize or in other words human with evolved cellular organization, a superhuman. After RAM removes the patch from Shinsuke forehead the bright light fills the room and a new sign is formed there. RAM is going to turn Shinsuke into NEO before DOMI from future arrives.
Game actually follows Classmate as there is top down travelling around the map and time dimension. Shinsuke meets different girls at different locations. I'm bad with such type of games and there's next to zero information about the game.
14. Haruka no Sora ~Gekitou Mahjong Taikai Hen~ 遥の空 ～激闘麻雀大会編～ [961025]
This is another strip majong game. In the story mode, you can pick one of 6 girls to fight for a banshee tear, which can grant one wish.
I've no words for strip mahjong.
15. G no Kyokuhoku Ｇの極北 [961031] Bunny Pro.
Main character decides to become world's strongest guy in masturbation. He gathers six girls from all over the world and starts an international contest.
Masturbation scenes have text descriptions, but there is zero plot there.
Foreword: Setting, guns and blood were the things that attracted me.
Title: Kurenai
Developer: light
Date: 2003-11-14
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v5367
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHAT2UfXhxM&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv_1zimd4jO7eJ4LHc5DnPcj
Synopsis: The world is breaking apart. City is full of suicides, murders and bizarre crimes. City is full of shadows, and main character hunts down such "crimson shadows" that used to be persons. His abilities are trained by a woman of a mysterious identity. Love only exists in fragmentary form in this eternal whirlpool of death.
Game type: Err... bloody?
Character Design rating: 6/10
Protagonist rating: 6/10
Story rating: 7/10
Game quality: 7/10
Overall rating: 7/10
Rating comments: I spent quite some time deciding on how much I like his game. The first and second chapters were really impressive, of masterpiece level. Next three chapters lowered overall estimation. But final 6th chapter remained true to itself and managed to surprise me - for that I want to give it its due. And that's especially notable because of overall weak plot and characters in the game. Kurenai manages to find other approaches to the reader.
Protagonist: We get to see Touya, and we only know that he's a student and a kurenai hunter who fights with a bamboo sword. We also constantly read his thoughts - or rather someone's stream of consciousness. It sometimes falls into philosophy and sometimes into madness category, but it remains amusing to read.
Characters: Nominally there are four heroines - found doll Alice, detective partner Mutsuki and two acquaintances Yuri and Himeno. But Alice is definitely the main heroine here - she's also the only one who gets two endings instead of just one. I've actually only seen her two endings since discovering other heroines is quite confusing in this game as it needs backtracking. I tried to do it once and I failed, so just settled with the main heroine. All heroines but Alice and Mutsuki only make a cameo appearance and are absolutely not memorable. Basically all the heroines have almost the same face, and that does not help either. Alice is a doll who we find on the street. She is loyal to main character as her goshuji-sama. She's the only fighting heroine. She seems to be of such simple personality that last chapter of the game becomes shocking.
Story: There's not much happening in the game, actually. In first chapter we get in our first fight and find doll Alice on the street. In the following chapters there's usually one main perpetrator Kurenai that we need to take down. In the third chapter we get from the streets to the school and meet a whole lot of heroines. Not sure we need school at all in this kind of game. These chapters pay less attention to fights and more attention to spontaneous H events. And I call them spontaneous, because it happens exactly like that. There is no love line or flirt or anything at all. Just at any moment of the narration some girl may instantly get horny, and 10 lines after that there's H event, easy as that. I understand the need of H events for a game to sell, so I actually welcome such approach. This way we don't need to waste time for love. I cut all the H events from the video, and game only became better after that.
Thoughts:
1) I mentioned that this game has other means of attractiveness besides traditional ones. The first is the stream of thoughts. Both philosophy and madness are mixed here. I'd really rather read such thoughts as time fillers instead of some lovey dovey pursuits. The second one is the number of efforts given. Game has FOUR different omake with the last one divided in five parts. The third thing I'd mark is Alice scary monologues. I'm still under impression here, scary as hell.
2) I liked that we get the answers in this game. One strange thing is how protagonist even manages to survive and recover with such serious wounds. His limbs barely remain linked to the body, but in the next scene he's all right again. And game actually gives a very elegant explanation to that later. For the whole game we try to uncover what it means to be Kurenai. We don't get a clear answer, but we get more than just an answer.
Overall comments: This game remains memorable and alive for me. It's quite simple in structure, but impactful. Game is about blood, and it remains true to itself. Heroine's True End does not mean it's a good end, it's just another ending about blood. Blood is main character of this game, and that's what makes it absolutely hilarious. Game is crazy, but rather crazy good than crazy bad like BM0.
Foreword: Sword apprentice protagonist and two fighting heroines (short swords and bow) were all that it took to lure me to this game.
Title: Ochiba no Mau Koro
Developer: Noa
Date: 2003-10-24
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v5367
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuf4kv1b9hg&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv--j9jctcdQ0zRtWU4dw7pU
Synopsis: Amami Kouji lost his parents in an accident when he was a child. After that he was adopted by his father's friend Kusanagi Keisuke, the chief priest of the Shinto shrine of Misaka City. Since then he has lived with Keisuke and his daughters, Makoto and Minato.
In the accident he didn't lose only his parents, but his left eye as well. Now he is learning the art of swordsmanship and he's too good for someone with only an eye: even though his left eye can't see anything, it allows him to “see” impending dangers and other people's killing intent as “lines”. He calls them “death lines”.
One day he's having lunch on the rooftop of his school with Makoto, Minato and his friend Kaiji, when he notices a girl, Hirasaka Suzuka, getting bullied by three girls. After rescuing her they make friend.
Two days later he meets a girl, Haruka Lichtenbein, who recently moved from England to Misaka and got lost on her way home, and decides to help her.
As the time passes by, strange events happen in his city. Strange monsters appear and attack girls on night. And a strange blond-haired guy seems to have something to do with all these events...
Game type: School SOL with some demon extermination ancestry
Difficulty: Relatively
Character Design rating: 6/10
Protagonist rating: 5/10
Story rating: 4/10
Game quality: 6/10
Overall rating: 5/10
Rating comments: Story hardly exist here, while composition and shortness deliver finishing blow.
Protagonist: Kouji is supposed to be our great sword fighter, but we never see his face, only yellow hair in a ponytail couple times. He wants to become more powerful to protect everyone... all the usual stuff.
Characters: There are four heroines, but I only played fighter heroines routes - that is main heroine shrine maiden Makoto with a bow and mysterious half-foreigner Haruka fighting with short swords. Haruka is quiet and intelligent, so I at least could enjoy her personality. Makoto is all the usual genki osanajimi way.
Story: Synopsis actually tells the whole short story that happens in the game. There's a transfer student and just two fight scenes at school against the same opponent - not so successful at first, and the final one. That's it, game only takes some 4 hours to beat each route, so there's not enough time for anything more serious. Story is a total sham. All this fighter entourage is just to attract some chunige folks. Game is much more about SOL than action scenes. It shames the whole fight concept and has long ways to go for real representatives of the genre like Heart & Blade. It's sad to see such frauds presented as a real thing.
Technical difficulties:
Hooking this game is a world of pain. Normal memory threads aren't found, and word-by-word threads differ at different parts of the game. It can go well for an hour with the current thread, but then there is 5-minute scene that needs searching for a different memory thread, and return to the previous one afterwards. As a result, a few scenes in the video remain without hooking.
Overall comments: Everything in this game just scratches the surface and goes on. I really detest such shallow games unable to concentrate on anything. No good story, no good drama, no good SOL, no developed characters. I'm going to rate such fraudery as low as possible.
Foreword: I only picked this game because it has no reviews and scenario writer is Kanno Hiroyuki. Just can't believe he can write some total crap.
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v2028
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lXxwzu3BJc&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8rKP5oDa1nzt0KevjFrmhw&index=26
Synopsis: Naomi Yuiki, 21 years old single, college student. Though her parents died, because of the inheritance she and her brother, Kouta Yuiki age 18, can live without much trouble.
Even though she is 21 she is still a virgin because secretly in love with her younger brother. Even her attempt to get over him by sleeping with Takuya Yoshizawa, a genius surgeon and once a subordinate of her fathers didn't work and that depressed her even further.
At that time she met with an accident. A traffic accident so severe that her whole body except her brain is ruined beyond salvation. Just as doctors were about to give up on her an another patient at the same hospital, Akane Kitahara suffers brain death. Taking this chance, Yoshizawa who was working on advancing the research on the brain transplantation decides to transfer Naomi's brain to Akane.
Naomi's new life as Akane Kitahara stats. This time Naomi is not restricted by morality of a brother and sister relationship, but things don't go as easy as she hopes because being Akane brings her own relationship problems. Chaos ensues...
Game type: Brain transplant sibling love story
Character Design rating: 3/10
Protagonist rating: 3/10
Story rating: 3/10
Game quality: 6/10
Overall rating: 4/10
Rating comments: I do not see anything appealing in this game, really. Ero-tilt outweighs any attempts to sustain the believable story.
Protagonist: Yuki Naomi is supposedly our main heroine. I say supposedly, because protagonist position shifts frequently, and we sometimes even see Naomi from someone else's point of view. At the very beginning of the game Naomi is already head-over-hills over her younger brother. Then she gets into an accident and her brain gets transplanted into Kitahara Akane body. And there starts the madness, actually. Akane had a very degenerate and brute sex-addict boyfriend... and Naomi just can't say a definite "NO" to him. That was a total BS and I lost that little faith in character that was left.
Characters: There are three male characters, three female characters and 18 endings. So you can guess that pretty much everyone gets to hook up with everyone from the other gender. Add to that some yuri and some 3P. And there is no time for any sort of romance, so H events happen pretty much spontaneously, absolutely disgusting. What was only a bit relieving for me is that that brute ugly sex-addict boyfriend Kobayakawa is not really that bad guy in the main flow of the game. He basically helps Naomi with her embarrassing requests and even kind of protects her. Apart of that everyone behaves like animals. Younger brother Kouta is the most disappointing in this regard, because he gets to hook up with all the heroines of the game despite having childish look and still attending school. His voice defect is absolutely irritating. Well, game is irreparable at this point, anyway.
Story: So all the problems arise from the fact that Naomi inherits Akane sexy body and ugly brute boyfriend. She also has to pretend Akane and live at Akane family while seeing her beloved brother only at school. At school she's always several steps late, so her brother gets to hang out with all the other female cast beforehand. She gets to do homework at her brother's place, but that's probably the only encounter in the game that does not lead to sensual scene. And during that visit Naomi is so stupid that she continues her diary in her former room. That diary is eventually found with these recent notes, and that totally reveals her identity and brings us to confrontation in the final scene. That's the whole useless story that is presented here. It took me quite some time to figure how to trigger True end - for that you need to exit the game just after yellow lines in the closest to True route ending. The hints corner at the bad ending says that since it's the closest to True End ending no hints can be revealed.
Thoughts:
1) Incest motives were alien to the visual novels at this point. There was just one game that slipped through the censorship which had blood-related sibling as capturable heroine. So - as I see it - the whole point of this game is to show forbidden sibling love while inventing a scheme of brain transplant to avoid blood-related incest. From today's point of view the whole concept looks absolutely irrelevant and useless.
2) This is the weakest Kanno Hiroyuki scenario by this point. His famous zapping is abused here just for sex scenes. Characters are bleak and plot is full of irritating loopholes.
Overall comments: Nothing stays at the same place, not even Kanno Hiroyuki. It's evident that plot outline and ero-tilt are dictated by Red Label developer. So if the game looks like poo, feels like poo and smells like poo - it's indeed poo, and no brilliant text writer can fix that.
Foreword: It looked like a semi-historical plot-centered game, so why not sample it, really.
Title: Salem no Majo-tachi
Developer: Daiginjou
Date: 2003-08-08
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v3679
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P53wX3hGx64&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv-sUBbx3VBtkjZ8QS4wiJk4
Synopsis: Year 1699. A young priest, named Kevin, sailed to the peaceful town in the British colony in the New World. This town's name was Salem. He is yet to know all of the horrors of the Salem's witch-hunt.
Game type: Semi-historical drama
Difficulty: Easy, very few choices
Character Design rating: 7/10
Protagonist rating: 7/10
Story rating: 5/10
Game quality: 6/10
Overall rating: 6/10
Rating comments: Story became a major disappointment for me dragging it all down.
Protagonist: Kevin is actually really nice. His identity is complex - English pastor of indian origin fighting with knuckles. He is always shown with face. He does not really move the plot, but he's still a cool guy looking naturally in this environment.
Characters: There are four heroines - naive main heroine Meg, free-spirit Julia, pretentious Emily and genius Sophie. I played only the routes of the first two - main heroine and gun-wielding girl. And these are two dead-serious boring heroines. All the comedy relief is created by the other two heroines. The problem with characters is that routes are pretty much the same - first some incident happens which is resolved by particular heroine special skill - love blooms - then it moves to the actual witch-hunt.
Story: Such pseudo-historical setting is quite disadvantageous, as for me. It is overcrowded with all kinds of one-sided grotesque characters. Even prior to playing the game reader already has a very good image of what's going to happen - there's going to be a witch trial and a happy end. So the only thing that should surprise to create an impact is process and plot shifts. Game introduces two humorous heroines to lighten up the mood, but it still remains overextended historical SOL with just two notable events. Main heroine Meg route tries to tell a more involving story, but too little too late.
Thoughts:
Somehow much older Dorei Ichiba produced a better impression on me. That were easy to grasp single heroine stories with interesting individual lines and plot shifts. Much shorter as well. Salem no Majo-tachi is a much more complex game containing dozens of characters, but heroines fail to charm, and lots of filler scenes both distract and irritate.
Overall comments: Game is of very high quality and made with much effort and skill, but neither story, nor heroines manage to grasp attention, and without it any game is worthless for me.
Foreword: Apocalypse angel story is enough to bait me as long as there aren't more intriguing candidates, but in July 2003 there weren't any.
Title: Kono Sora ga Tsuieru Toki ni
Developer: Digital Monkey
Date: 2003-07-25
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v4269
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv_A5pJN26duNo4X_aEnGCZ-
Synopsis: Main character lives happily with his lover and friends around him. But one day the world comes to an end. Protagonist's brother is looking for a leader in this crumbling post-apocalypse world and he finds the leader in protagonist's lover Sena who undergoes transformation suitable to call her God's child... The two people keep on living happily. However, the fate is not smiling at them.
Game type: Eschatological human experiments drama
Difficulty: Easy
Character Design rating: 5/10
Protagonist rating: 6/10
Story rating: 5/10
Game quality: 5/10
Overall rating: 5/10
Rating comments: Game itself is of mediocre quality, but plot loopholes do not leave it any chance to be treated like a proper game.
Protagonist: Itsuki has a face and he's quite a decent protagonist who does not chase after each skirt. But for that we have his older brother Reiji who insults every girl in the game.
Characters: There are two routes reserved for other heroines than Sena, but Sena is the main heroine, so I needed to see her route first. And after seeing it there was no room for going on with this game, ever again. All heroines in this game are pretty much alike - they behave normally in presence of Itsuki and have even some emotional moment before H-event - that in-between of the multiple insult scenes with Reiji.
Story: Story is divided into three structural elements. Common route prologue prior to the disaster, main part at the time of disaster and epilogue after the disaster. Prologue is just about funny school life and birth of love with Sena, quite nicely done, actually. But main part messes everything. First, we get to choose one of two protagonists at least 10 times in the game. And selection Reiji scenes shows us insult scenes with his lab worker or one of three female test subjects each time. Selecting Reiji scenes also forbids us from reaching True ending rendering friendship ending instead. As for the main story... nothing is really known. The facts are that Itsuki awakens after a month of coma and finds the world totally changed - almost all the buildings are damaged, people starve and live outdoors. At the same time some mysterious organization appears that concentrates power in its hands and develops a weapon to oppose some external forces. We're not told anything about those external forces, and autocratic organization calls everyone to join forces to protect their homeland. As just one incident, organization sends 120 air crafts to bomb the mainland. At the same time organization makes experiments over girls to grow them wings and - surprise - use them to kill pilots in the pilot cabins of air fighters. And what kind of experiments are used? I think you know yourself - it's an eroge, after all. No answers are really given - how demilitarized Japan managed to afford and build 120 air-crafts in one month, how organization managed to usurp power, what kind of disaster happened - nothing at all. There's no use to describe main part any further, since there's no sense in this half-baked setting. We're not even explained how it ends - something happens, be happy about it. We get some explanation, but it's just usual deus ex machina thing.
Thoughts:
This game is what happens when story is neglected at all. We're basically told that what you read holds no sense. How is it possible to try and read other heroines routes after that? I reached both normal and True end for main heroine Sena. But these are absolutely the same stories save for just several different scenes and endings. Game's a shame, really.
Overall comments: What we get is ero-centered end-of-the-world adventure about nothing, not even about knowing other heroines better, so there is no repeat-ability. Let's just treat it like an experience an move on.
Foreword: Girl with a huge sword was a decisive factor for me, but game is quite mysterious and curious looking. It's created for the 10th anniversary of Cat's Pro/Panda House. So, is it as enjoyable as D.U.O.?
Title: Sayonara.
Developer: Panda House
Date: 2003-06-27
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v6045
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bNX6mIBR6E&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8rKP5oDa1nzt0KevjFrmhw&index=25
Synopsis: People always die in this world upon getting 20 years old. Only 19-year old people are left in this world as new children stopped being born. Main character lives among this last generation of humans, has his part of joy and sorrow and accepts fate peacefully. Can you say your farewells with a smile?
Structure: Four seasons = four episodes ; plus extra episode
Length: About 10 hours.
Game type: Melancholy eschatological human drama
Difficulty: Easy
Character Design rating: 7/10
Protagonist rating: 6/10
Story rating: 8/10
Game quality: 6/10
Overall rating: 7/10
Rating comments: Protagonist and game quality were really disappointing, but some of heroines and the story itself were surprisingly decent.
Protagonist: Touji is pretty normal and kind, but he constantly has delusions where his shadow urges him to insult each girl he meets. I just don't feel any sympathy towards him.
Characters: There are five heroines - four regular ones and one additional. Did not see Nagano twins in the main story, they probably participate in one of branches leading to bad endings. Each of four main heroines are met in a different season. Game starts with pretty normal romantic story of feminine Ouka in spring - just normal. Then there is a story of Mishio with her huge greatsword. She's the total opposite of Ouka as she becomes a reliable strong person that's difficult to approach. Her personality is pretty difficult, but overall story is nice. Third story with Koharu in Autumn is pretty shocking as it deals with the pretty negative character traits. It was pretty shocking overall. And finally Fuyu story in winter is the real masterpiece. Great genki heroine, great action scenes. And Fuyu story naturally flows into the final one with a special heroine Chitose that is featured throughout all the game.
Story: Story is surprisingly the most interesting feature of the game. First of all, there are no routes in the game. There is just one linear story with bad ending branches upon being seduced by Touji shadow. Secondly, and it's featured in the title, all heroines are bound to die. In the beginning of the game all Touji childhood friends die and he turns 19 which leaves him one year till his death. He lives alone, but from time to time he meets girls that are just weeks or months from their 20th birthday. There's little point living alone, so Touji tries to invite each girl to live together - and in some time each girl passes away under more or less emotional circumstances. But game also has a good ending, so it's not all about nakige or utsuge. I won't reveal the contents of the good ending, naturally.
Thoughts:
1) Each girl advances her own main theme with own though. Each girl has her own thoughts on approaching death. And that's depicted really well - each story actually remains memorable. One girl wants to die while seeing beautiful scenery, the other wants to have her revenge. Third one wishes to commit double suicide the most. Fourth one wants to fulfill her destiny.
2) Despite all the sadness, game still remains optimistic. Touji as well as most heroines are determined to "live to the very last day allowed". And it's really great that there is one good ending that more or less mends things.
Technical difficulties: Game does not have auto-reading mode. HOW? That's unheard of in 2003. The second problem is BGM. My tablet constantly triggered noise in BGM, and by the end of the game totally lost BGM despite it being turned on all the time. Last minutes of the game and ending in dead silence were pretty weird.
Overall comments: Game is a masterpiece, because it managed to turn a nostalgic charage into a very interesting concept with short emotional stories and epic ending.
Foreword: May had zero interesting releases without review for me, so I chose one with the English review already (1). My hope in nakige is crippled, so I wonder if it can be restored with this game, just as it affected this review's author.
Title: Ashita Deatta Shoujo
Developer: Moonstone
Date: 2003-05-30
VNDB link: https://vndb.org/v464
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSo0XrcBv54&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv_DLXni9hleM4mOM7gpQmjf
Synopsis: "It's summer. The place is a crater lake near the naturally ambient, rural village "Takachiho". The protagonist is standing still, blankly looking at the far-away sky.
Amnesia...
His memories of the past have been lost.
It's a strange thought, but to him on that day, the sky seems tailored to both dusk and sunrise, a mysterious color..."
The protagonist, Tachibana Takashi was a freeloader in a house, living there with four beautiful sisters. Until suddenly, one day, a sad incident occurred...
Game type: Rural crime mystery with memory loss
Character Design rating: 6/10
Protagonist rating: 6/10
Story rating: 9/10
Game quality: 9/10
Overall rating: 8/10
Rating comments: Wow, it's a very good score from me to a nakige/utsuge. Basically only relatively weak characters and two lolis downgraded the overall impression. There is also lack of CG, and many important scenes conveyed by text alone.
Protagonist: Ryuu is our typical guy, representation of reader. Game shifts from present to past very frequently, but protagonist does not have memory in any of periods. Typical good-for-nothing lad.
Characters: I played just two routes, as usual. Both Sanae and Fuyuka are our older sisters. But if they wore the same clothes it would be impossible to distinguish between them - the only difference is that one has straight hair and the other one wavy one. The same, actually, may be told for younger sisters Rin and Misato - only hair and clothes makes them look different. The biggest flaw with the heroines is that they hardly really communicate with each other, it's just so wrong for blood-related sisters living together for all their lives. And it's pretty weird how side-character girls are better fleshed out.
Story: Reader is hooked right from the start with time shifts and mysterious diary reading. Whenever I thought that game finally entered SOL state with eating tarts and such, I was corrected over and over as there were always dialogue lines with ambiguous context or sudden change of atmosphere and music. I don't think this game has filler scenes, it really punishes for the lack of attention. There are different mysteries hinted all the time.
The directorship is really cool as time shifts are presented in really confusing manner, like in present they go home, then time shifts to past and they also just arrive home.
The biggest problem is the ending. There is that a-ha moment when suspense cover yields, but the shift between the main game flow and the revelation is huge which can easily alienate some readers.
Overall comments: Game resembles Kizuato from Leaf in many ways, but deliberately takes a turn towards ambiguity and suspense over action. I liked both approaches. Ashita Deatta Shoujo demands more attention and imagination from the reader and gives less in the field of visuals and characters. But curious mind will find a lot to like in this metaphysical approach to the mystery.
Oh, come on, just go read this other review (1), it's so much better.
Foreword: I know game is a nakige, but it has universally high scores. KID visual novels made for PlayStation look very generic and boring to me. Is this the one that finally puts me to shame?
Title: My Merry Maybe
Developer: KID
Date: 2003-04-26
VNDB link: https://vndb.org/v3697
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1dosiu-Aik&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv-y-sVOTfqsn9Im4pzlumQe
Synopsis: A university student, Kishimori Hiroto enrolls in an education internship as a teacher in a middle school of a countryside harbor town, Seitenchou. On the way to his temporary residence, a replis - an artificial being constructed to help humans -with the name of "Reu" appears lying in the middle of the road. After a variety of circumstances, Reu is put under the care of Kishimori until her master is found. That is, until a mysterious organization appears...
Structure: Did no notice any
Length: Some 50 hours.
Game type: Android research love adventure
Difficulty: Again, followed walkthrough, but looks pretty difficult
Character Design rating: 7/10
Protagonist rating: 6/10
Story rating: 6/10
Game quality: 7/10
Overall rating: 7/10
Rating comments: I'm utterly disappointed with this game and I'll try to present my reasoning. Still it might be just me since so many Japanese rate this game highly. I'll leave it a girigiri masterpiece status just for that. Maybe I just chose the wrong heroines.
Protagonist: Hiroto comes to this forgotten town for a teaching practice. He's very passive, indecisive and overall just invisible. He's one of the sources for my bashing of the game.
Characters: I played just two routes, as usual, so I do not feel worthy to present other heroines.
Reu is our main heroine robot. She's the main heroine of the first game My Merry May as well. She's a very early prototype, so she is both superior to modern robots and totally obscure by her structure. We find her as we hit her one-handed by car. As she awakens, she's looking for her master onii-chan Watarase, protagonist of first game. Her condition grows worse with each day despite her positive attitude. It's fun to look at the remote duel of two protagonists - Hiroto and Watarase - over Reu.
Kyou is chosen by me for her cynic attitude and drinking habit. I expected a grown-up route to be more serious and cool. But as a result the whole route we only see research of Reu-Lease interaction as robots. It has virtually zero romance or events. The ending is very disappointing for me as I get to consider Kyou a bad person. Nothing but disgust remains.
Story: In the both routes that I played (took me over 13 hours for each route!) absolutely nothing happens. We speak with pretty much the same people at times triggering semi-romantic events with the girl of choice. Then situation starts deteriorating. For roughly half of the game it keeps on deteriorating. There's some weak resemblance of culmination followed by teary resolution. The end.
Thoughts:
1) First of all, I really hate nakige qualities of the game. Let's take Reu as her story is the most straightforward. The whole game situation gets worse and worse. Reu can spend less and less time awake. She says her farewells with a weakening voice every day. Noone knows how to cure her. Robot association members want to take her away to the headquarters, but Reu refuses to go and just fades. And such situation repeats for many-many days with increasingly teary situation. As situation reaches lowest point, researchers undertake crisis hacking measures. Hiroto finds Reu somewhere and makes a SINGLE decision in his totally worthless indecisive life. Everyone cries. The end. Nakige is very cheap here and is produced by showing over and over deteriorating condition. Ending scene effect is achieved not by some actions, but just by showing everyone crying. Apply just a bit of criticism to the whole route concept and there's nothing left but a fluke.
2) In both routes that I played player gets to make a SINGLE decision in the final part of the game. The matters of decisions are different, but the approach is very similar. No one does nothing during the course of the game just observing how things go. Then for some absolutely unknown reason all the researchers start to treat Hiroto specially and eventually allow him to make the ultimate decision determining the fates of everyone involved. For what reason worthless green teacher is given that attitude and responsibility? Utter nonsense.
3) Unlike My Merry May, My Merry Maybe is not a comedy. The 13-hour long route gets really boring without any fun moments. So developers introduce "One-Tsu-Don!!!" TV show to fill in humor part. It's short TV show that Reu watches, and the content of the show is absolutely absurdist variety with the quality of humor akin to Japanese stupid variety shows. It's not even humor, just some posing, weird sounds and some violence. It can only look funny on the background of very boring everyday that we're shown.
Overall comments: What do we have in the dry outcome? 25 hours of life wasted with no good heroines shown, no good story told. Hell, there are even no decent CG! Game is as plain as dozens of KID PlayStation galge. But what's described as game's main advantage by players who liked it? This game made them all cry! But is it a good thing? If this effect is reached not by the beauty of the story or the depth of the characters, but by the false manipulative repeating mechanisms of creating deteriorating conditions, then I don't need such nakige.
Foreword: I played Aya route six years ago, but was left quite confused for the lack of understanding. Anime put its dots, but it deliberately changed the ending. I'm over-enjoyed to finally read all the routes in all the complexity.
Title: Interlude
Developer: Longshot
Date: 2003-03-13
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v3195
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE78kKpg5QY&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv9mjQjlqFFGFu9r_-rNk861
Synopsis: For a close-knit foursome of high school friends, life is all about sleeping in class, strawberry milk, and after-class karaoke. However, our unnamed main protagonist is troubled by nightmares of death and disaster. Only when he begins to realize that his memories of people and events are different from those of Tamaki Maiko (named "Tama-chan" by her friends, "Mai-chan" by herself), Chimu and Harusa, his three female friends, does he begin to wonder. Later, when the waking dreams start.... a short moment of him seeing something that noone else sees....an attractive young lady, who stares back at him in amazement from an empty subway station, does he begin to wonder about his sanity. That evening, the four encounter and follow a shadow with no person, only to encounter a gang of stumbling zombies. And then he wakes up that morning from yet another bad dream, but the threads of reality have become a bit too frayed, and he begins to see a way in which he can travel over to the reality of his nightmares.
Length: 20 hours
Game type: Parallel universe piercing real world mystery
Difficulty: Relatively easy. Avoid Tama and get one of two heroines. Mutsuki is more tricky.
Character Design rating: 10/10
Protagonist rating: 8/10
Story rating: 10/10
Game quality: 10/10
Overall rating: 10/10
Rating comments: I love absolutely everything about this game. Well, apart of protagonist.
Protagonist: Keichiro is very kind and reliable. He manages to find the right words to support each heroine in the time of need. We get to see his face, but not his eyes. He's easy to sympathize with as any reader can feel in his shoes. We don't get to see his eyes though, so he does not feel like a fleshed out character.
Characters: There are four heroines.
Tama is our genki childhood friend, and it's easy to get in her friendship root if she is paid a bit of attention during anyone else's route. Her love route is pretty much the same save for kisses as results of right choices helping Tama to start studying. Route is very easy-going yet ordinary. We get to see some strange things, but just ignore them. This route is quite ordinary, but it still is of masterpiece level due to great warm drawing and funny atmosphere.
Izumi is our OL here, but she's pretty cute in hiding her breast that's impossible to hide all the time. Her route starts pretty much normally as we just tag along her at pubs etc serving as her bodyguard and helping her find her prince. In this route alternative world finally pierces real world with dreadful consequences. We also get to know a lot about this parallel world since Izumi work deals with it directly. But what this route really shines for is very colorful side-characters we stumble upon. Ending is very intense here.
Aya is hands off the main heroine of the game. She is featured at the covers, and she's in the center of attention in every route but Tama. She has become everything I love in visual novels - cynical anti-social beauty with difficult fate and mysterious weapon. Of course, her route is the most powerful.
Mutsuki route branches off Aya route and repeats it almost completely. We get to know not only fate of this suicide girl, but also the creation of the parallel world, so route is pretty important for the overall structure.
Story: It starts normally, but we get to see abnormal signs with time. It's pretty much up to us and the route to decide whether we start to investigate them.
Thoughts:
1) Game tells us the basic things, but a lot of stuff remains unclear and subject to further theorizing. What's the role of this organization? What's their main plan and backup plan? What happens to main characters? Who is actually the Councillor?
2) I like it a lot as after each ending we only get a very short ending filled with anxiety. Only after seeing all the endings we get a full great ending.
Overall comments: Interlude was one of my first untranslated visual novels, and it determined my entire visual novel experience. My love for the moon and warrior serious beauties also originate from here. Game atmosphere is quite close to luv wave. Anime made the right steps in rationalizing the game and underlining the things that may have the biggest impact, but original remains the paragon of a great mystery game for me.
Foreword: With Fuwa and vndbreview votes combined One 2 ~Eien no Yakusoku~ got 5 poll votes which is two votes more than closest competitor Masaru: Ashita no Yukinojou 2 has. I already mentioned that One 2 is a masterpiece, so it's time to present my reasoning. As usual, I only picked two heroines to capture while remaining four remain untouched (except for common route cameo).
Title: One 2 ~Eien no Yakusoku~
Developer: BaseSon
Date: 2002-04-26
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v670
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJfpbHU6BJI&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv9Hia_EVrgITFqPHmCZQNO1
Synopsis: I was away from home during the summer vacation, when I returned I found out that my father has moved away. No one in the school knew my name, not even my classmates. I started my new life like that.
I never expected those things, to miss the everyday life, going to school... and to love...
Structure: Did no notice any
Length: Some 8 hours for initial playthrough, about 4 hours for consequent ones.
Game type: School love drama with eternal disappearing world theme
Difficulty: Not sure, followed walkthrough
Character Design rating: 8/10
Protagonist rating: 8/10
Story rating: 8/10
Game quality: 9/10
Overall rating: 8/10
Rating comments: Voice version is decent in every field
Protagonist: Kazuhiro gives away an aura of a reliable man in both routes that I played. With Ayame he's able to kindly disperse her antisocial attitude. With Haruka teacher he communicates as an equal from the very start, so their love story looks very natural.
Characters: There are five heroines in the original One2 game, but in voice version popular heroine was added to the cast. I played only two routes with most interesting personalities. Heroines with "Naive" personality are no good for me, and the rest of heroines are exactly like that.
Ayame is our short white hair mysterious anti-social beauty. She actually gets as many CG as presumable main heroine Nao, so I consider Ayame main heroine as well. Ayame is a great heroine, because she has such a difficult personality. She does not talk to strangers at all at start, then she just throws short cold phrases. The very first time Kazuhiro tags along her, she invites him to enter girl toilet, something that he does not dare to do. But as story goes on, she actually turns out to be friendly. She has a perfect reason to treat the rest of the world like that. Ayame had a kind and gentle twin-sister who spent a lot of time in the hospital. We get to see long flashback talks with sister talking to Kazuhiro which creates good mood. Then we get to know that sister ... just disappeared before Ayame one day, and everyone forgot about her. The only two persons who have recollections of sister are Ayame and Kazuhiro. This is the ground Ayame and Kazuhiro start to get closer. Ayame has a serious attitude most of the time, but she can also be emotional and somewhat even tsudere-ish, and her soft quiet "Baka" is just great.
Haruka is the teacher and the only grown-up heroine in the game. It would be pretty impossible to approach a normal formal teacher, but Haruka is no way like that. She loves talking to Kazuhiro about spies and laughs all the time. After Ayame route with zero humor in it, Haruka route looks very refreshing and funny. Her story of prodigy piano player is less impact-full than Ayame one, but decent enough.
Story: All six routes are united by the disappearing eternal world concept and the same school, but routes are written by two different writers and are very different. The absence of one formal main heroine puts an emphasis on diversity, and the eternal world concept is cleverly used to emphasize encounters, farewells, frustrations, forgetting and remembering. In original One it was the protagonist to travel to the eternal world and disappear, but here it's actually heroines that do that, so every heroine needs her special story and reason.
Overall comments: It's a strange nakige for it does not have gags or really impact-full heroines. Story is also bound to make ties to the eternal world concept, so it may look weird how so many heroines reached this point. But what game shines about is telling sincere beautiful memorable stories. Game has serious heroines, so even such nakige-hater as myself could enjoy it substantially.
Foreword: I made up mind not to read reviews about BM0 in order to preserve original experience, but I was surprised to see negative impressions of BM0 in other visual novel reviews of 2002! Wow, what could this game possibly do to piss so many people off? Can it really be worse than DoNoR with its blurry backgrounds?
Title: BM0 Zankoku na Yoru ni Kanojo no Sakebi wa Dare ni mo Kikoenai.
Developer: FlyingShine
Date: 2003-02-21
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v9602
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y400wnxf22s&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8rKP5oDa1nzt0KevjFrmhw&index=24&t=0s
Synopsis: Main character grows up in an orphanage in a mafia sub-district of Tokyo together with several girls. The orphanage gets burned down, and children get to live in a private family. However, family members die, and protagonist urgently needs money to pay for girl Rina's surgery. He agrees to take up a job of district black market's sweeper. He is in charge of disposal of "products" which is a code word for human traffic. His reality is colored with invisible desires and dead bodies.
Structure: None
Length: 9 hours
Game type: Dark underground crime action drama
Difficulty: Very easy - each choice is either moving on or game over with branching only in the very end.
Character Design rating: 1/10
Protagonist rating: 1/10
Story rating: 1/10
Game quality: 1/10
Overall rating: 1/10
Should I even go on at this point? Well, of course I should, but the less I like the game - the less I can write about it - by this logic I should already stop here. Speaking seriously, I spent some time thinking whether game actually deserves a 2 for those few action CG, but my inner judge did not agree to this compromise. There's nothing to appreciate here. Heroines are absolutely detesting , protagonist is really evil , story is non-existing, pace is horrible in the way that story jumps somewhere all the time without explaining anything or caring to offer just human language dialogue. Heroes moan, weep, rave and just speak rubbish all the time.
But that's not enough to rate any game this low. The reason is that the only thing that stays in memory after the game is utter disgust. Game includes lolicon insult, eye gauging, piercing wounds including fatal ones, gay-ish scenes, corpse grinder, minced limbs, human torso on meat hooks, lots of rubber including gas-masks and just abundance of meat and juice. Is it enough to avert anyone from the game? I don't know, maybe I just have weak stomach, but I was close to throwing up couple times. I still am when I recollect some scenes, so please excuse me for not relying on concrete examples here. All those piercing cries still stay in my head. My main complaint is that story does not lead anywhere and does not bring anything to the reader. My second complaint is why such game is needed at all? It is awful in every aspect and just can't be liked by anyone. Is it self-esteem for making the most senseless and disgusting game of the time?
FlyingShine hit rock bottom with BM0. I am disappointed to such extent that I'm going to skip its two next ero-tilt games completely. I've no idea how company managed to exist until it was saved by Tanaka Romeo's Cross†Channel. And I just hope I recover enough by that time to overview Umi kara Kuru Mono that was issued in the same month as Cross†Channel. Game still has several nice CG, and I really hope to remember the game only by these CG one day.
Foreword: Why would KeroQ make a moege? This thought bothered me for a while. But what if KeroQ tricked everyone and made something entirely different under facade of moege?
Title: Moekan
Developer: KeroQ
Date: 2003-01-31
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v3139
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=011WabnKsQ8&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv_47rfDklNMh3spmTY4nrpl
Synopsis: An anarchistic country that is said to dominate the world exists on a vast island known as Moekko Island. This is where the final works of AC Company's android combat maids (resembling beautiful young girls) are done, also where these maids get there communication training. A new maid is to come to the island to be trained, Rinia, she is a young looking girl, who has lost her all of her memories, she tries very hard to impress the owner at Moekko island, but just ends up making a lot of trouble around the mansion. Takahiro, the owner of Moekko island, a depressive young man who has also lost his memories is seen as a very unhappy person who thinks Rinia will only be trouble around the mansion. As time passes, Takahiro slowly grows attached to Rinia's attempted ways of helping and so starts a beautiful relationship among the quiet island.
Structure: Roughly a month from November 25 to around December 25
Length: About 30 hours.
Game type: Alternative world moe maid adventure
Difficulty: Chioices are evident, but are numerous.
Character Design rating: 9/10
Protagonist rating: 8/10
Story rating: 8/10
Game quality: 9/10
Overall rating: 8/10
Rating comments: I found only one (1) English review of the game, and it claims that it's hard to see how someone could find real fault in this title. I took the challenge... and... failed to find anything irritating. The only vague reasons that I cling to decrease evaluation is the story that I do not consider overall interesting or curious. It does not mean it's bad - it's full of tricks, and resolution that takes 1/3 of the game is great. Still 2/3 of the game nothing but gags happen, and I can't approve it. Not after Tsui no Sora and Nijuuei.
Protagonist: Takahiro is pretty much the largest mystery of the game. We more or less know who he was and who he is now. But he has huge potential and background that can strike at any moment in any way. It's heroines that search a key to his inner self, not the other way. Basically, his story is the thing that keeps things moving.
Characters: I am true to my review system, so I played only two routes. First one is main heroine Rinia, naturally. As for second heroine, I chose Kirishima just because I got pretty tired of maids after Rinia route - Kirishima is assistant with boyish looks and pretty wild temper.
Rinia is more just main character - she's reincarnation of Sae from Nijuuei. Even I noticed that Sae is absolutely the best heroine of Nijuuei giving the game that special positive tilt. Rinia is also a maid and - moreover - she is voiced by the very same seiyu in the very same manner. That instantly rises moe level of a new game to the skies. Despite all the huge story layer built over Moekan, I will still treat it as a huge fan-disk of Nijuuei to finally give Sae her own huge route. And it really worked out great as we got 10 hours devoted almost exclusively to Rinia. We get to see her in happiness, in illness and during crisis, so it's a normal main heroine path. Oh, and the most important thing in Rinia route is that it does not have H events at all (one half-naked after bath scene does not count). There are three special training evil endings just for the sake of H events, but that does not spoil impression of good ending at all.
But then I played Kirishima route... It had some cute scenes and one H event by the end, but what absolutely shocked me was the ending. The ending is not really a good one - and that's the only ending we get for her. Giving one heroine a good ending and another one not so good one is absolutely genius. I did not have the strength to play the other two maids Fuyuha and Kazusa, as well as zashiki-warashiki type heroine Suzuki, but if their endings at least remotely same shocking, that'd be absolutely amazing.
Story: There's not much to say about the story. Takahiro is given difficult task and limited time. There are a lot of sharks waiting for him to make a mistake. Rinia route has two action scenes regarding assaults of enemy forces on Takahiro while Kirishima route only has one. And that's pretty much the whole story. But what makes the story shine is the amount of details in the well developed worldview. Just as in Nijuuei there's quite a lot of infodumping first about the present state of the world with huge organizations based on islands, then we are gradually accepted to see the past - the fake one and just a bit of the real one. Nothing is easy here - we don't have some enemies. We rather have some five groups of rivals, and we never know their intentions and which one is going to strike. Attention to details and world-building is what makes games masterpieces.
Humor: There's so many gags in the game. They are mostly presented by chibi CG. I just can not forget that hysterical laugh "ehehe" upon breaking that vacuum cleaner lever.
Thoughts:
1) Moekan tricks us presenting action-packed charage instead of a promised maid moege.
2) Game's still more of a charage than a plotge - that's why I'm showing action CG to remember game for its action scenes.
Overall comments: Game of very high quality and care for detail. I was going to give it a 9/10 score, but over time impression got duller and I was able to rate it more rationally. Even with such top class heroines I still can't fully appreciate a charage. There's a huge difference with Nijuuei. In Nijuuei characters empasized the plot, but here plot emphasizes characters. And for that reason I do not really want to play Moekan fan-disks Moekasu and Moeten. There's enough time devoted to each character, so there's no wish to explore them further in any kind of side-stories. It's one of the best charage in visual novel history, but for me it's not as strong as other three KeroQ works.
Year 2002 was quite curious. A lot of heavy weight candidates finally entered the scene.
New portion of Visual Novel Openings 2002 with songs.
My list of masterpieces in 2002:
Baldr Force
Bokura ga Koko ni Iru Fushigi.
D.U.O. ~Song for All~
Ever17 -The Out of Infinity-
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Hotosenaru Uta Chitosenaru Shirushi
Kikokugai - The Cyber Slayer
Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~
Masaru: Ashita no Yukinojou 2
One 2 ~Eien no Yakusoku~
Princess Knights
Rocket no Natsu
Subete ga F ni Naru ~The Perfect Insider~
Suigetsu
Utawarerumono
Viper-RSR
It's evident that public sympathies stand for translated visual novels. But for me meta-layer intellectual novels would always stand above plotge, so VN of the Year 2002 is Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~ .
My previous attempt of poll for review failed mostly because I do not like to return to VNs that I played recently. This my new attempt is for visual novels that I evaluate highly, but did not have time to make a proper review due to one month - one review concept. This time poll won't have ending date, and I will be reviewing game with highest number of votes despite of overall number of votes. So here we go.
Foreword: Guns and girls is a great concept, but it can go all way wrong as it happened with DoNoR. Can Silver Co., Ltd. really pull it through?
Title: Gunsister
Developer: Silver Co., Ltd.
Date: 2002-11-29
VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v2814
Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt49qIwDIFw&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8Da9PQZfIpp0SKP3KvrVNi
Synopsis: 250 years from now. Human race is reduced to 2.5 billion due to fierce confrontation with the fairy race. Many secrets of lost civilizations are lost in the chaos.
Main character is a travelling gunman. One day he gets into bitter rain and regains consciousness at a monastery with his right arm and left foot injured. He starts to live there with a priest and five sisters and gradually gets involved into the battle they lead.
Structure: Five heroines routes about 2-3 hours each.
Length: 10-15 hours
Game type: Erotic gun action story with animated sequences.
Difficulty: Easy as we answer questions on the preferred type in the beginning, and heroine suiting those answers becomes a heroine
Character Design rating: 7/10
Protagonist rating: 7/10
Story rating: 7/10
Game quality: 7/10
Overall rating: 7/10
Yes! A masterpiece score. I'm surprised myself. Let's observe its individual elements to understand why.
Story is really short. Bank robber gets injured and together with his fairy companion stays at a church until recovery. But some powerful group aims to grab church land, so church father buys a wagon of weapons to protect their way of life. They put protagonist Clyde in charge for defense since he introduces himself as a sherif. He has his shooting arm injured, so he takes one of the girls as his assistant and teaches her shooting during several days. Then some group arrives, but they are actually aiming only at Clyde as the criminal of their country and corrupted comrade. Church girls are touched by Clyde confession and decide to help him... by opening a hurricane fire over law enforcers! Then Clyde goes to save target girl who is seen close to enemy troupes, and together they go on a breakthrough mission to defeat the group's leaders.
Each route follows the same pattern, but somehow manages to present a totally different approach to every girl, and this ability to present individualistic simple and funny heroines shines in the game. I found myself smiling all the time reading each girl individual story parts. Maria seems to be the main heroine since she's the only one in the game menu. Maria is kind of tsundere with some really curious mental problem. Luca is a girl who can only talk with one world "Gau". Poor seiyu had to say this world a hundred of times with different intonation. But Luca is also very sincere with herself and her desires. She's the only heroine who can't master a weapon... but is surprisingly powerful with fists. Sylvia is first encountered in town brothel, but later is seen among church sisters. She's really funny trying to present a paragon church sister image while being the most voluptuous heroine. Beth is kind of cinderella who is he only one who works around the house. She grows very strong this way so can use minigun without much effort. Her route has to deal with abuse by outsiders and is very good at it. Sophie is a mysterious library girl who always speaks in riddles. Her route opens the last and presents some unique development compared to previous routes. She's our sniper girl.
Girls are really memorable here both due to their character traits and to erotic scenes. Animation during those scenes helps, but actually dialogs during those scenes are the best. It's a rare game when heroines retain individuality and do not become just abstract moaning bodies.
Let's say a few words about Clyde and his fairy companion Liliard. Their dialogues are eternally funny. Clyde acts tough and hardly says any kind worlds to her. Instead he constantly calls her a bug and promises to get rid of her. I'm really longing for such humor-based fairy companions since Arcana ~Hikari to Yami no Ecstasys~, they really color the narration.
But game's not perfect. Story is short and the same for each route. There's nothing but individual heroine charm to push further after the first playthrough. Story means a lot in my evaluation, and story is very simple in here. Hooking works really bad with this game as well, was only able to hook the first line while there are phrases with as much as three text lines.
But game is re-relased for five consequent times not by accident. It's an entertainment based on humor, individual heroine charm, bright atmosphere and animated ero-scenes. It's a masterpiece even though story freaks like me would not find much sense in going past first route.
