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kivandopulus

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Blog Entries posted by kivandopulus

  1. kivandopulus
    Foreword: I'm always curious about another FlyingShine game, but this time scenario by Arakawa Takumi is the biggest attraction point.
    Title: Bokura ga Koko ni Iru Fushigi.
    Developer: FlyingShine
    Date: 2002-08-09
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v6544
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBEIudaA_x8&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8VvcJZUr-a2osG0BOPAdMl

    Synopsis: Shinichi Manabe attends Seiryo High School. His father is a writer. 5 years ago, Shinichi went to see a mysterious mirage with Mio Fukamachi and Tamako Fujiomi. Mio is one year older than Shinichi and acts like his mother, while Tamako loves old samurai movies and likes to hug.
    The mirage really was mysterious, and they had a lot of fun. However, a week later, Mio tries to save a cat but ends up being killed. Shinichi hasn't seen a mirage since that fateful day.
    One day, Tamako and Shinichi suddenly encounter another mirage. Shinichi pulls Tamako into the dense fog. Shinichi soon realizes that he is with Mio, not Tamako. He also realizes that instead of Mio, Tamako is dead. He asks himself, "Am I in a different world?" Looking for further clues, he flips through his album and finds many pictures he doesn't even recognize. He's now convinced that this isn't his world.
    Structure: Three consequent routes with first two being kinetic ones and last one branching off to four sub-heroines
    Length: 12
    Game type: Heartwarming light comedy about youth
    Difficulty: Almost kinetic novel
    Character Design rating: 8/10
    Protagonist rating: 7/10
    Story rating: 6/10
    Game quality: 7/10
    Overall rating: 7/10

    This game is very difficult to talk about, because nothing happens there. Synopsis really prepares us for a full-scale mystery drama, but game's totally different. Homerical gags take 4/5 of the game. They are so densely packed that you can start playing from any point in the game and have a lot of fun. Because of this overwhelming amount of humor there's not really much time for drama left. Only first Mio route has some time devoted to building up relations. The other routes have roughly a minute in the end to light up the mood. A nice example of game's humor is a scene of Mio's mother calling police to start searching for Mio. But because of her childish voice, police asks her several questions and considers it a childish prank cutting the call.
    Humor is main actor of the game, so it deserves a close-up. The cover of the game already says much about it. There aren't character sprites in the game. The majority of time characters are presented by enclosed chibi drawings. Just as in Lien they allow to show a great variety of funny emotions and also depict actions just fine. Like heroine square approaching hero square little by little, and hero square moving the opposite direction little by litte, or these squares start to approach closer and closer, then - bam - some acquaintance comes in and face squares jump off to opposite corners. I totally love humor here, even at times when it concentrates on Mio teasing hero with adult talk about shame play and Tama teasing him with childish flashes of underwear etc.

    Since we touched characters already, let's introduce them. Shinichi is our main hero. Mio and Tama are his childhood friends with Mio being onee-san long hair type and Tama being genki imouto short-hair type. Other heroines don't really deserve a mention as full-fledged characters. Story often returns to characters of kindergarten age and uses chibi pictures resembling those super-young characters, so it's very difficult to treat main heroines as objects of love interest. Game is not about love. Yes, it has some branchings to satisfy this need, but only so forth.
    Game engine inherits DoNoR model with its crude auto-reading. But even though backgrounds here are also rendered real photos, they look totally fine and natural here thanks to just decreasing number of colors creating water paint effect. No more eye pain because of blurry images!

    Game title is quite touching as it can be translated as "It's a miracle that we all are here". In fact it corresponds to the picture book that Shin started to write and that has nothing in it but this title. 
    What I mean to say by this hectic review is that this game is absolutely revolutionary in its lovely passiveness. There are no logical connections, no plot movements, no love drama, no conclusions. Game presents us lots of good moments with perfectly voiced heroines and ends on a high pitch note. It's free of all the stamps of the media. It's an enjoyable entertainment from beginning to end and great text to read. As if game tells us that we should be free of conventions enjoy at least this time we read this visual novel, because it's a miracle that we all are here. 

  2. kivandopulus
    Foreword: RSR is the last big game of Sogna. I can't pass without saying farewell.
    Title: Viper-RSR
    Developer: Sogna
    Date: 2002-07-31
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v970
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsrmSBbNUMM

    Synopsis: A game that blends old school dungeon crawling along with animated cutscenes.
    It is a dark age in the kingdom of Alitalia. Monsters ransack cities, slaughtering the men and taking the women as their slaves. Four adventurers set out to end the rampages...
    Structure: 8 chapters 
    Length: 3 hours.
    Game type: Fantasy
    Difficulty: None
    Character Design rating: 10/10
    Protagonist rating: 7/10
    Story rating: 3/10
    Game quality: 8/10
    Overall rating: 7/10

    RSR is not a good game per se. RPG part is non-existing, purely decorational. Story is quite simple, without much fancy and with usual Sogna motives. So why is it different from all its previous big games?
    RSR is revolutionary in the amount of efforts needed to reach animated H scenes - here it's done by introducing a map and characters moving through it very slowly while triggering hundreds of random fights, literally a fight each few steps.

    Game is blamed for too high price of 9800 yen, too long time in development (it was planned to be released in 1999 and then was postponed many times - and it's the last game in Japanese game history to be released on diskettes as well with the number being 42 if I recall correctly), too short H scenes, absence of pure love scenes.
    But what does it really shine for? First is main heroine Cala. She's the most sexy heroine ever created. For me that's a given, and can't be changed.

    Secondly, only this game managed to raise monster insult appeal to the highs not yet imaginable. I do not know whether it's inner censor or lack of skill to blame, but there is no work in the whole genre even comparable to RSR.
    I mentioned that story is weak, but what I liked is that story does not end with Cala saved. Story goes on to save princess Julieta. And I especially liked that the ending is orthodox viper, not like an ending everyone else would have.
    So it's a contradictory game, but with battles cut it becomes the legendary eroge that changed history for me.

  3. kivandopulus
    Foreword: I was wondering what FC experimental branch (Dreamsoft) was capable of. Synopsis is quite fantasy-ish and girls with katana are featured, so I'm sold here.
    Title: Asa no Konai Yoru ni Dakarete -Eternal Night-
    Developer: DreamSoft
    Date: 2002-06-28
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v1205
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooV-q4jSD9A&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv-k2sH-Gg8wOnLUF96lDXAB

    Synopsis: Main character dates his childhood friend. Days pass happily till a deformed body appears from the "gate of the other world" and kills childhood friend. Protagonists makes a contract with the evil god to revive her, but it's only beginning of the battle that approaches. Will night ever end?
    Structure: 5 chapters
    Length: 10 hours
    Game type: Fantasy adventurer story
    Difficulty: Very easy, branches are either dead ends or entrances to routes.
    Character Design rating: 6/10
    Protagonist rating: 5/10
    Story rating: 4/10
    Game quality: 9/10
    Overall rating: 6/10

    I like honest games where cover and synopsis generally tell me what to expect from the game. But Eternal night is not such a game. Cover shows a girl with katana, and synopsis prepares us for battle with demons. So, what's this game actually about?
    First of all, it's not about battles in any way. I gathered here all CG of characters with weapons. The only action scene of every chapter is at the end and takes roughly a minute. Katana is featured for the most time at the very beginning when young Misora sits in the warehouse hugging katana and not knowing what to do. That's your battle scenes.

    So it must be a game about mystics and mythology? Not really, very few monsters ever show up, usually during the same battle scenes. The demon who kills Misora and who revives Misora upon establishing pact with Tatsuto is the VERY SAME demon. So there's same amount of mystics as of battles.
    Oh, then it must be charage! There are four nice heroines in here! Not really. There's osanajimi main heroine Misara, absolute pervert who adores bullying Tamaki, mysterious weirdo librarian with supposedly magical powers Miyako and free-spirit experienced and lustful teacher Patricia. There are basically only one and a half normal characters to even start with!

    So what's this game? Freaking nukige. First signs of it I noticed at getchu page. Non-nukige titles almost always have non-HCG on the game page, but this game did not. Masochist pervert as one of heroines kind of strengthened this idea. But final fifth chapter put all dots at the right places. Demon totally absorbs protagonist's personality and he just insults everyone everywhere for as long as he wants. What makes him come to senses in happy ending? Freaking deus ex machina. It just happens, what kind of explanations do you expect?
    But I should not focus on negative sides only. Game has high production values, and I noticed it in game quality score. Lips are synched, CG are mostly beautiful, and there's a huge use of special effects, including some animated ones. Auto-reading is called "drama mode" not just because it's a cool name. The whole game is based on dialogues. And only Tatsuto is not voiced when he is the protagonist. I say "when", because a lot of scenes are seen from different than Tatsuto perspectives.

    Let's touch game concept even if it's a bit late for that after all the conclusions have been made. There are five chapters with first four chapters focusing on each of four heroines. And nothing that happens during those chapters actually means anything, because at the end of those chapters gates open and we move forward. Intro ends with the same door opening. And fifth chapter basically starts with it. So why not just watch intro and then fifth chapter if nothing else matters? Oh, then we'd miss H events with each of the heroines, right.
    I can't call "Eternal night" a bad game. It just deceived my expectations and failed to produce any significant story development. I hoped to see some scenario-centered narration, but I received something that's two grades worse than I expected - a nukige.

  4. kivandopulus
    Foreword: Voiced protagonist has become deciding factor to choose Fearless] over Shitai o Arau. Fearless] also is a mystery to me structure-wise and story-wise.
    Title: Fearless]
    Developer: Active
    Date: 2002-05-10
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v2360
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsCMKS_aJ5M&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8rKP5oDa1nzt0KevjFrmhw&index=22&t=0s

    Synopsis: Azumi Shizuhara is an orphaned student attending Rakuryo Gakuin.
    One rainy night, he finds a girl in the rain, soaked to the skin. The girl has scratches all over her body and blankly stares out at nothing. Azumi tries to ignore her, but suddenly realizes from the girl's uniform that she attends his school. He simply tells the girl to call police with her cell phone and leaves...
    Later, this girl, Yuzu Sakurai, pleads with Azumi to help her search for her lost brother. Azumi turns her down once, but he finally agrees because Yuzu resembles his cousin, Nanao. The search for Yuzu's brother begins.
    With the help of Sayoko, their search seems to be going fine until Azumi begins to feel the presence of someone else...
    The story progresses with the mixed emotions of a girl with a lost brother and a boy who wants to protect his little sister.

    Structure: 10 days
    Length: 10 hours.
    Game type: School occult horror mystery
    Difficulty: Structure is difficult, but there aren't many choices, so it's average difficulty.
    Character Design rating: 6/10
    Protagonist rating: 7/10
    Story rating: 6/10
    Game quality: 5/10
    Overall rating: 6/10
    Fearless] is one hell of a weird game. Let's count its distinguishing features.
    1. It's imouto game in the way that two only heroines are imoutos - Nanao is yours, and the other one Yuzu is looking for her lost onii-chan. 
    2. It's a horror game since spontaneous horror scenes make up for the main attraction of the game, and there is Cthulhu element as monsters are really weird.

    3. Main character is OP. When he asks Yuzu why she chose him - she answers that he's the only guy with fighting capabilities. She actually just listened to Nanao describing her onii-chan as the best, but protagonist is indeed one hell of a fighter - whether it comes to half a dozen of armed guards or primal beasts.
    4. It's not really a game about girl appeal or about girl chasing. And that's what makes it different from other games. Nanao as imouto does not trigger any interest from her brother. And Yuzu... she's far from attracted. When she offers herself for the first time to protagonist, he's disgusted by her body engulfed in darkness. He asks himself why he is even doing it. Quite sure that H scenes can't be enjoyed in this game.

    5. Structure is complex, but it all goes down to one same root that I recorded. Then it's possible to go towards trashy route with lots of insults. There are a lot of bad endings, but good ones include us with Yuzu alone, Yuzu recovering her onii-chan (not sure it's a good one though) and Nanao and Yuzu become sisters with us all a big family. But the gad endings are much more sophisticated up to the point everyone becomes sex slave or killed in lots of ways.
    So Fearless] is totally weird. It does not have an intriguing integrative plot or appealing characters. What it only has is imouto stuff, OP protagonist who defeats any monster from Abyss in an instant, spontaneous horror/insult scenes and endings to fill everyone's wishes. Protagonist is voiced, but he does not talk that much. Backgrounds in this game are really simple. If that all manages to produce some kind of special atmosphere for you - it may be a curious game to play. But if not - it's utter trash.

  5. kivandopulus
    Foreword: A bad-ass cover and cyberpunk setting is all that it took to interest me.
    Title: D.U.O. ~Song for All~
    Developer: Panda House
    Date: 2002-04-26
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v2235
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttjs7mdDS3Q&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv_0xb07WK6DgqoNosWs_kET

    Synopsis: It happened on December 25, 2001, right after the new century began.
    It was the biggest and worst disaster in human history, "Apoptosis Crisis."
    A virus called "apoptosis" begins to destroy human cells. 80% of the Earth's population is killed and the people who survive try their best to revive civilization.
    A century has passed, and it is now the year 2099 in Tokyo. Something is happening in this big city, where many kinds of ethnic groups reside. The network junkies, called "jugglers," suddenly die an unnatural death. The cause of death is still unclear. However, it is apparent they were all on computer networks when they died.
    Takuya Takahashi, who is a professional investigator, a "Runner," is asked to investigate the case, and he starts investigating this dangerous disease, without even knowing much about it?

    Structure: 12+1 chapters.
    Length: 7 hours for one route, but second route is almost the same.
    Game type: Cyberpunk detective mystery
    Difficulty: Easy, we move on if exhaust all options
    Character Design rating: 9/10
    Protagonist rating: 10/10
    Story rating: 9/10
    Game quality: 10/10
    Overall rating: 9/10
    Rating comments: The only question for me is whether it's 9 or 10. I totally like the game, but story overall and the heroines in particular appear to me with flaws.

    Protagonist: Takuya is great. He has face and hard-boiled personality. At the same time, not everything is clear about his personality that happens to content quite the depth.
    Characters: Hitomi and Itsumi are main heroines of the game. These is also mysterious girl Sophia that exists for plot purposes. Can't say anything bad about Hitomi or Itsumi, it's just sad that the difference in their "routes" is just choice of who to H, not much character development.

    Story: Synopsis actually covers all I could tell. I can only hint that story tackles genetic and cyberspace a lot. I'd really like it to be more focused on actual  virus and deaths, but most of the time we just hang around with girls stumbling upon important events at times, so resolution feels forced.
    CG: Loving CG here. Lots of motion in the interface. I especially appreciate those several animated moments used for underlining charm of the heroines, and NOT in H events.

    Sound: Game is called "song for all" not for nothing. There are a lot of vocal parts in here. Very enjoyable. Everyone but protagonist is voiced, and that includes all the male characters.
    Thoughts:  The title "D.U.O. ~song for all~" contains two spoilers itself, but luckily you only get to know why late in the game, so there is that "a-ha" moment. No idea what "D.U.O" stands for, but the word "duo" already gives an important hint. I really appreciate when title gets to say so many things about the game.

    Overall comments: Absolutely magical game. Great direction and use of interface make an impression of a futuristic world, can't really believe game dates back to 2002. I was treating Cat's Pro quite favorably, and it's joyous for me to see Heart Heat Girls concept being reborn in such way by the successor Panda House. Game's very nice while it lasts, but it's quite gentle-minded and lacks impact, so it gets average or poor scores by the Japanese. I absolutely can't understand how the Japanese manage to bury the best representatives of the genre with their own hands.

  6. kivandopulus
    Foreword: Girl with a gun and concept similar to EVE from FlyingShine - that's a curious thing to investigate provided that only a year later the same brand will create Cross Channel!
    Title: Donor - Onna Tantei Ryoujoku
    Developer: FlyingShine
    Date: 2002-03-08
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v6542
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlZTV0b7nLY&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv-uWqueJwenXF1BJZOgphqE

    Synopsis: Futaba Kawana is an attractive American detective, who recently uncovered the whereabouts of her sister, who disappeared in Japan some few years ago. Once she arrives to Japan, Futaba hurries to the hospital where her sister was last seen. The hospital is one of the best hospitals in Japan, but many strange rumors are floating around. People have seen dead people coming back alive, lost people found, and so on. As our heroine searches for clues, she finds out that the hospital is actually a huge whorehouse controlled by some organization. To find out about the organization, our heroine becomes a nurse at the hospital, but...
    This game runs on a system called, "The Buddy System." This means that there are multiple characters and multiple scenarios, where each character has it's own story. In order to understand the complete story, you have to go through each character's story. Besides our heroine, you will meet Chiya, Aya, Shihomi, and Mio. Take out your sexual desires on these beautiful but strong girls.

    Structure: None
    Length: 32 hours
    Game type: Futuristic erotic detective mystery
    Difficulty: Kinetic novel
    Character Design rating: 2/10
    Protagonist rating: 2/10
    Story rating: 6/10
    Game quality: 1/10
    Overall rating: 4/10

    Game got only two votes on VNDB - that's 2 and 4, but that's probably some haters or trolls, right? Or perhaps they were disappointed by H scenes - but we're here for the story, so we move on.
    The start up to the opening is usually the most lively part of any visual novel, but it was not that much lively for DoNoR. It was mostly dialogues with just couple of CG with people, the other CG were blurry zoomed in versions of real time photos of some objects like door bulb or telephone. Then happened pretty cool opening featuring as many as four different people armed with guns.

    But then I understood that the biginning WAS the most lively part in DoNoR as well. What awaited me next is over 10 hours of watching horrible blurry CG of real life photos, walls of NVL text and and almost total absence of dialogues. It's been four years since FlyingShine first amateur attempts of Sadistic medicine and Revolver, but not that much has changed since then! It's same blurry real life photos, same NVL, same absence of sprites and CG with people. Hell, even HCG look exactly the same - disgusting and from the same angle in order to take as much screen space with body parts as possible. What's only changed is engine that can actually run on modern OS, rare non-HCG with people and introduction of "Auto pilot" reading mode. And even that they managed to screw - at the lowest speed auto reading is too fast and absolutely not comfortable for the absence of delays between the lines.

    But let's drop these technical issues and enjoy the fabulous plot... yet we can't do that. The "Buddy system" makes the story jump to and fro between a lot of people without showing them on the screen or giving their names or at least anything to identify them apart of rare female voicing and location and time announcements. I don't really know how to rate the story. For 10 hours pretty much nothing happened, then couple hours of constant gunfire with very random H evens inserted here and there. Game provides a lot of cool CG, but they have very little to do with reality as 99% of the time you see only some hyper-zoomed blurry CG of rendered object from reality, and that's a very depressing sight. Gunfire keeps ringing, and you only see the corner of some table or just one of car lights. Story is absolutely kinetic, so no interactivity is prepared as well. In couple words, DoNoR is an organization that is involved in illegal transportation of organs and genetic studies. And most of the game is about the detective agency conflict with DoNoR organization forces shown from the sides of different detective agency members.

    But when the painful 12 hour narration finally ended... it turned out that there are two more same length episodes. The first episode only covers only mostly Shoichi story, and that story features a variety of female partners. The second episode focuses on female detective Futaba, and that's the route full of insult scenes of Futaba and earlier kidnapped girl. The third final episode features only a Tower, and that's a bit shorter route that has just one H scene and that puts all the points of views together and presents the culmination and the end of the story.

    As a short summary, game looks really bad not because of H scenes, but because of direction, pacing and graphic aspects, as well as poor systems. It's very painful to read and follow due to the mess that's set on the screen. It manages to ruin all the benefits of visual novel as medium and provides a "B" rate book novel with rare voiced lines instead. Oh, yeah... the theme of guns is really well covered in here. And that passion is really stunning. If only blurred images did not make my eyes peel off...

  7. kivandopulus
    Foreword: I already chose another game for review in February... but in the end just could not ignore this huge pillar of today's visual novels. Without Kusarihime there would not be Saya no Uta, Cross Channel, Fate/stay night and Higurashi, so it's significance for the history can not be overerestimated.
    Title: Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~
    Developer: Liar-soft
    Date: 2002-02-08
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v37
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J_joeqKri0&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv9h7u5e_7ePpWZ28i2PWbxd

    Synopsis: After the mysterious death of his father and his younger sister Juri, Itsuki, now suffering from amnesia, moves back to his hometown with his stepmother. There he meets an enigmatic young girl dressed in a crimson red kimono named Kurame, and the two soon become friends. The strange thing is, Kurame looks exactly like his younger sister Juri...
    On the surface, Itsuki's family and friends all appear to be rooting for his full recovery. However, deep inside, they also seem to be burdened with secrets and guilt about the past. In the span of four days, Itsuki's memories will slowly return as he struggles between his loss and his fear of the truth, until the fourth night, when the whole world becomes blanketed under a red sheet of snow and wrapped up in the silence of death....

    Structure: 10 cycles x 4 days
    Length: 10 hours
    Game type: Mythology rural human drama mystery.
    Difficulty: It's easy to get some ending, but not so easy to get the desired ending
    Character Design rating: 10/10
    Protagonist rating: 10/10
    Story rating: 10/10
    Game quality: 10/10
    Overall rating: 10/10
    There are as many as 5 reviews, plus reddit impressions, plus very curious spoiler theory-crafting thread (1 2 3 4 5 6 7), so pretty much everything is said there already. So what I intend to is to tell you without spoilers what this visual novel is about and why you must read it. And it's very difficult to talk about Kusarihime without spoilers. Let me present an imaginary dialogue of my consciousness after reading Kusarihime trying to persuade my skeptical other self reluctant to try it.

    - So, first of all, Kusarihime is neither a horror nor a nakige. It's a rural story about a boy who looses memory and comes to his home town to try to regain his memories.
    - How convenient! We've seen dozens of such stories by 2002 already! What's special in it this time?
    - One thing is that game is looped over the same four August days
    - That's not exactly a new thing. I remember at least three games with loops before 2002.
    - But the second thing is that it's not a game about chasing girls. No heroine gets her separate end.
    - That's weird. Is it some all ages game or something? What is there if there aren't heroine routes?
    - Each heroine actually gets one of those 10 time loops to focus attention almost exclusively on her. That provides ample opportunities for presenting H scenes.

    - So there ARE actually heroines routes, they are just hidden inside some of the loops. What makes it different from usual nukige or charage?
    - Heroines here are not isolated inside their stories. They pierce all the loops, and each heroine story only helps to reveal the mystery behind the protagonist past.
    - Oh, the "mystery". Something about the promise made 10 years ago?
    - Absolutely not. First tier of mystery is about stray girl Kurame who looks just like protagonist's deceased sister Juri. Second tier of mystery is about protagonist's family overall - he had a father, a mother, a sister and a dog - all dead by now. The third tier of mystery is about the loop itself that ends with red snow falling, usually after some impactful violent events.

    - Oh, so people die in here? Any guro as well?
    - Thanks to loop concept it's possible to introduce any number of deaths here and then rewrite everything with another loop cycle. There is no guro.
    - Pff, so even deaths happen not in the real world. Why should I bother reading 10 imaginary stories?
    - Well, deaths actually affect same characters in next loops greatly. And count the characters - only half of the stories are loosely focused on some character. The rest of loops are focused on past or give hints to the listed mysteries.
    - Oh, the "mysteries" again. Btw, what does this weird title Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~ mean?
    - Kusarihime is translated as "rotting princess", it's the local legend about a girl in red kimono that causes certain people die. That girl's name is Kagame. And the stray girl that's found in the forest is given name Kagame by protagonist, but he can not explain why. As for "euthanasia", it's also a mystery. Here's dictionary definition: "Euthanasia is the termination of a very sick person's life in order to relieve them of their suffering".

    - I know what it means, thank you. So I get the concept of the game more or less. But what makes this game so special?
    - Soundtrack, unique graphics style, great directing with lots of flashbacks and insertion of sudden scenes from other times, use of frequently moving figures on the screen instead of sprites, stunning stories of each girl, mystery plot loopholes as basis for replay-ability or theory-crafting.
    - Ok, enough! Might give it a look if I find the time in my busy schedule. No promises, though.
    Overall comments: I consider Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~ to be the first intellectual visual novel in history. It attracts not thanks to thrilling plot, great characters or superb visuals. It creates a multiple layer mystery where different parts move in their own pace cross-referencing each till sudden resolution. Reader is required to remember or re-read early scenes to fill some parts of the puzzle and make his own guess about the rest. In that way it can also be called the first interactive visual novel.

     
  8. kivandopulus
    Foreword: I won't lie, Sollunea is the only game from January 2002 that has nice fantasy setting and is available. So, is it any fun?
    Title: Sollunea
    Developer: Luchs
    Date: 2002-01-25
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v3189
    Youtube walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cGFnvGrDnA

    Synopsis: An adventure novel set in a medieval European fantasy world. A remote village in engulfed in war flames. Village is visited by traders who say that they were attacked by female thieves who kidnapped accompanying daughter of the priest. Main character decides to rescue the girl and leaves the village.
    Structure: None
    Length: 4 hours
    Game type: Fantasy adventurer story
    Difficulty: Very easy, branches are either dead ends or entrances to routes.
    Character Design rating: 5/10
    Protagonist rating: 6/10
    Story rating: 5/10
    Game quality: 4/10
    Overall rating: 5/10

    Rating comments: Game's too short. It desperately tries to prolong screen time, and these efforts are felt by reader. It has nice comedy moments and quite worthy protagonist, but heroines and the story aren't inspiring.
    Protagonist: Blitz looks a lot like Rance visually, and he's quite a pervert even though his actions are actually usually pretty innocent. He cites wisdom of his father all the time, and he's the only bright spot in this game.

    Characters: There are three heroines in this game - supposedly main heroine priest daughter Muse, kidnapper chieftain Klenadia and actually the main baddie of the game - sorceress Somua. There's no voicing, no story depth and no time to even start any heroine development. They remain just actors in this very short unenthusiastic story.
    Story: Story can be described in just one sentence. Blitz saves priest niece Muse from kidnappers, accompanies her to the city and then opposes new kidnappers of Muse. That's it - can such story really be carcass of a game? It certainly can, but don't expect that game to be good.

    Humor: I mentioned nice conversations with heroines, but humor mostly exists only in the first third of the game, and it's quite crude humor about nudity. Second third is very boring with heroes just travelling in the woods. Then travelling the new morning. And same goes for many days. The last third is supposed to be serious drama, but it's impossible to take this game seriously at this point.
    Overall comments: Quite naive attempt to produce a fast bright erotic fantasy story and get something from this new pie. But it looks like it did not go well, so they just produced nukige from then on. Bye-bye, Luchs.

  9. kivandopulus
    Year 2001 is a year of lost opportunities for visual novels, at least for chunige. The matured industry failed to produce breakthrough works. Of course there are lots of new cool openings Visual Novel Openings 2001 with songs. 
    My list of masterpieces in 2001:
    Renaissance  Yougen Tennyo  Vampirdzhija Vjedogonia Silent Hill: Play Novel  Gensou Suikogaiden Vol. 2: Crystal Valley no Kettou Mizuiro No Reality  Chain Ushinawareta Ashiato Cosmos no Sora ni Kimi ga Nozomu Eien Ashita no Yukinojou Kagetsu Tooya Eve: The Fatal Attraction  Memories Off 2nd Green Green Jisatsu no Tame no 101 no Houhou  Kazoku Keikaku  Daiakuji  Nijuubako Izumo I can only settle with chunige as VN of the Year, and it's going to be Eve: The Fatal Attraction as the only long thrilling story-centered work. I also choose this work that is a remake of on old Eve game to show how secondary and muddy industry has become in 2001 for chunige. Too many disappointments and false hopes this year including  Lipstick ADV.4 , Sayonara o Oshiete ~Comment te Dire Adieu~ , Bittersweet Fools , Rije ~Saisei no Ubugoe~ , Assassin Ann , Virus and Faust . But everything may change in 2002 , my peek into it already proves resurrection of story-centered games.

  10. kivandopulus
    Foreword: Virus... mystery... girl with a gun... I liked these setting elements and just dived into it without reading anything about the game. Here's my honest impression.
    Title: Virus
    Developer: Celt
    Date: 2001-12-07
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v17856
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q6Lq5QEyqE

    Synopsis: Main character is separated from his older brother and sister due to parents' divorce. A few years later sister asks him to check on brother who does not come to contact. Brother is found dead with a tattoo all over his body. Protagonist starts his own investigation with the help of some friends.
    Structure: 17 days
    Length: 8 hours.
    Game type: Mystery investigation
    Difficulty: Quite easy since bad choices usually lead to premature end
    Character Design rating: 5/10
    Protagonist rating: 4/10
    Story rating: 5/10
    Game quality: 5/10
    Overall rating: 5/10

    Again, not enough affinity to the game to write a proper structured review. Game is voiced and has proper true ending, so it's not total trash. But, as usual, without any strong elements to focus on.
    Story is weak. All the routes are based on the fact that virus can affect anyone. So in each route we with the favorite girl face some other familiar character affected by virus, and that's it. Fortunately, there's a true route with our sister Mika where the mysteries get revealed. But it's also quite forced and short resolution, so it's not satisfactory at all. The only thing I liked is composition of routes. There were couple routes branching off early, then couple routes branching from the middle, but just one route leads you the further and turns out to be True route.

    Heroines totally lack charm even though they all are voiced. There are some 6 heroines here. Protagonist is the worst. He does not have his own opinion, but forces us to make convenient decisions. Like after witnessing death from virus he says he needs body warmth and all we get to decide is which of two girls to call...
    It actually looked that the same BGM was sounding all the time.

    The girl with gun charm is not realized. She just breaks to the flat with the gun where we find dead brother. And she owns a gun just because she's some kind of detective. There are couple more fighting scenes with a knife in a certain heroine route, but that's it, no special affinity to weapons.
    Game does not have strong points, so I consider it just to be a setting for H events. Another disappointment.

  11. kivandopulus
    Foreword: I did not have much hope for this game until I found a Japanese review calling this game a hidden gem and praising its atmosphere. 
    Title: Faust
    Developer: Tail
    Date: 2001-12-14
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v9803
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAn6MX7Tj6U

    Synopsis: In a peaceful city, a series of strange "vampire" murders happened. As if to ridicule people who don't believe in the existence of such monsters victims appear one after another in a swift succession. Meanwhile, the hero who works in the university encounters a girl. Upon that encounter, he feels "something" that can sacrifice even a precious and sacred life in that girl.
    Structure: 7 chapters
    Length: 7 hours
    Game type: 19th century vampire murders story
    Difficulty: Moderate
    Character Design rating: 6/10
    Protagonist rating: 5/10
    Story rating: 5/10
    Game quality: 5/10
    Overall rating: 5/10

    I don't have much to say about this game, so I'll keep informal review style. I mentioned that I found one positive Japanese review of this game and based on that decided to check it out myself. But there multiple negative Japanese reviews of this game, and, looking back, my impression is closer the second side. 
    Protagonist is some guy with glasses, Edward. He investigates nothing, he is not capable of standing against a vampire. All he can is go around and talk with everyone. Typical.
    There are four heroines, but only one story. The choice of heroine does not really affect the story. The actual branching to see new H events only starts very late in the game. One of those four endings does not even progress to the last 7th chapter - should we praise developers for innovation of just giving an abrupt end? 

    The story is not particularly interesting either. Vampires keep insulting girls on full moon nights, and noone can do anything. At one of the crime sites Edward meets Fee who is actually the main heroine, but not because she has the most breathtaking route. She's just the only person who can actually fight and oppose vampire. All the guys in the game are just worthless weird detectives with smiling faces. Town is under a huge threat, but these guys just joke around in a really relaxing atmosphere. There's an explanation to this - assaults only happen on full moon nights, and such nights happen only roughly once a month. So between the chapters game can easily skip a month.
    Overall comments: I did not really understand what was the point of the game. Just like any  steampunk game it only can boast of the saturated atmosphere of the 19th century. I know what the atmosphere was like in the end of 19th century without this game, so what's the point? If it's supposed to be a charage, then I failed to see attractiveness of any heroine here. It's not a bad game, just a game without a single strong element.

  12. kivandopulus
    Foreword: I don't review anthologies and fandiscs, but this time I have to deviate from this tradition for the fandisc of the game of the year 2000.
    Title: Nijuubako
    Developer: KeroQ
    Date: 2001-11-30
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v6247
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwioMkDCF88&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv9AcuZZF8nvm-DbGt0ZKEI3

    Synopsis: Among other accessories there are two stories:
    1. 『イルとスイの日常』"Il and Sui everyday" is about Il and Sui exploring outer world and own sexuality.
    2.『砦に帰す』"Return to the Fort" is about Aya group expedition sent by Iga ninja to investigate an ancient Yagyuu fort five years before events of Nijuuei.
    Structure: None
    Length: 1 hour + 2.5 hours
    Game type: Mythology samurai horror mystery.
    Difficulty: None. Just one fake choice.
    Character Design rating: 6/10
    Protagonist rating: 7/10
    Story rating: 9/10
    Game quality: 8/10
    Overall rating: 8/10

    Rating comments: "Return to the Fort" story really impressed me. It restored several loose links in the original game and developed some existing themes. "Il and Sui everyday" is a banal fan-service story, I won't touch it in any way in this review.
    Protagonist: "Return to the Fort" has very curious approach to protagonist. Main protagonist is experienced expedition leader boy Kiriha. It's a convenient position since we can talk to everyone and coordinate their activities. But when the story dictates it, protagonist can be changed. Sometimes we don't even know who is our current protagonist hidden behind generic "Man".

    Characters: There are several female heroines, but most of them don't get enough screen time to even remember their names. Aya is the main heroine, and it's especially wonderful that her mystery from the original game gets solved here, even two mysteries. Can't even hint, though.
    Story: The very beginning is a group of ninja sent by Iga ninja clan getting to the fort in the wilderness with a lot of losses. Something's killing them one by one, presumably something from the fort. But as they sneak into the fort, it turns out to be empty... that's literally the very beginning. There's a lot and lot of development from this point.

    CG and Sound: Great CG and finally voicing. Manga strips for action scenes are as cool as ever.
    Thoughts: 
    1) Both Nijuuei and Nijuubako are released on the same day, 30th November, but the years are different. I seem some playfulness in releasing both games on the same date.
    2) Aya is not the only character from Nijuuei in "Return to the Fort", so it feels totally like a prequel, not like an individual character story.
    3) "Return to the Fort" not only tells the story of Aya and another character from Nijuuei, but it's also a detective story, a horror story, an action story and the story of cursed sword Muramasa.
    Overall comments: Surprisingly lovely game as a result. Good mix of genres and lots of references to the original game. That's the way fandiscs should be - additional story-focused piece rather than worthless fan-service.

  13. kivandopulus
    Foreword: Assassins... hackers... I expected the second luv wave or Phantom of Inferno from this game. It proved to be quite different...
    Title: Assassin Ann
    Developer: Active
    Date: 2001-10-19
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v6056
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvGMXxkzdsU

    Synopsis: Four young people have the dream to stand on American stage. They set up dance team "J-RAP" and practice each day. of wanting to stand on the American stage, home of dance. They set up a dance team "J-RAP" and were striving for lessons every day. One day main character gets to know that another team member Ann is actually an assassin of a mysterious organization "Gopher". She asks protagonist for help, but he refuses due to strong sense of justice. He gets caught up in the struggle between "Gopher" organization and emerging religion "Tsunoda kai". And direct danger approaches members of "J-RAP".

    Structure: 3 days
    Length: 1.5 hour for first playthrough, 30 mins for consequent 7 ones
    Game type: Pseudo-action erotic thriller
    Difficulty: Easy, only three choices for two variants each, and each branch leads to a different ending.
    Character Design rating: 1/10
    Protagonist rating: 1/10
    Story rating: 1/10
    Game quality: 1/10
    Overall rating: 1/10
    Rating comments: Game's a joke.
    Protagonist: Kensuke is a protagonist whose presence is not felt at all.

    Characters: There aren't heroine routes. Characters here have very little screen time, and they manage to waste a large portion of that time for spontaneous H events.
    Story: First thing that surprised me in synopsis is rap-band. Does such thing even exist in real world? Rappers don't really need a group, and a group of rappers can't read rap together. This is definitely not a rap band in the game. But we get to see in the opening and the ending the gigs of this band played by real life actors (and maybe even real musicians). And those are one of the most sore gigs I ever seen. Horrible song sung with hypocritical looks. But as game goes on every trace of story gets lost in spontaneous H events every odd minute and just absurdity of everything happening. Half of that little time devoted to the story protagonist just investigates dossiers of his future enemies via pc. The rest is a super forced development with some crazy characters like the monastery nun. When I tried to think what this game reminds me ... it's LIGHT MY FIRE by Take in 1998. Same musicians as main characters, same new religion threatening to conquer the world, same total absurdity of everything happening and same flood of H scenes.
    I recorded only one "branch" because other branches are totally the same except for H event with a different heroine or routes with just Bad endings, branches purely for additional H events.

    CG: There are quite a few cool ones, but they can't mend anything. The ratio of non-HCG to HCG are 1 to 4... Animated multi-staged H encounter with Ann only adds to the one-sidedness.
    Overall comments: I can only repeat that game's a wicked joke. It tries to mimic luv wave and Phantom of Inferno with lowest level content and not a single element to enjoy.

  14. kivandopulus
    Foreword: Setting is quite cyberpunk'ish, so I expected an enjoyable read. Was I too optimistic?
    Title: Rege ~Saisei no Ubugoe~
    Developer: Sarang
    Date: 2001-09-28
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v15317
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8QF89IDqkM

    Synopsis: Rosu is a sleepless city where many kinds of people gather seeking fame and fortune. Even though the city is losing its main industry, it's still bustling. It is rumored that the city makes its money by drug trafficking as well as from a secret national arms fund. Kyoichi Koga establishes a private police station in Rosu. He used to be a policeman, but he became a private detective after being dismissed from the police force. One day, Kyoichi receives an e-mail, insinuating that a bloody event will occur. He begins research on a 23-year old tragedy without knowing that it is the beginning of the present disappearances throughout the city.
    Structure: 3 days
    Length: 11 hours.
    Game type: Detective investigation in a decadent city
    Difficulty: Not quite obvious since you need to choose locations, and it's easy to miss event if wrong one chosen
    Character Design rating: 1/10
    Protagonist rating: 1/10
    Story rating: 1/10
    Game quality: 1/10
    Overall rating: 1/10

    Again, can't really write a formal review here. From the start I was kind of worried about NSFW cover and "practicing magician" as one of heroines. What's a magician doing in a cyberpunk'ish setting? But reality is much worse - main heroine is magician. Her teacher is magician. Main enemies are magicians. Main battle is battle between mages! What's even going on here?
    But focus on magic is not even the worst thing to happen here. First of all - I completed only Kaoru route, but absolutely could not go forth from here, game is absolutely irreparable at that point. Common route takes 1.5 hours and heroines routes only take 30 minutes. During common part we just get to choose locations about 10 times and stumble upon some girls on the streets. On the day 2 it's H scene! Out of the blue! Protagonist was just walking the girl he saw for the second time in life home! How did they get sitting on the bed? Why heroine just started some stupid imaginary drama with weeping? That looked so stupid that I saw only disgust in it.
    So what do we get as a result? Super-short non-existing story, super-short heroines routes. Forced ending with very questionable action. Epilogue that takes less than a minute. Faceless and thin protagonist. Absolutely non-sympathetic and non-developed heroines. Senseless conflict and drama overall. Zero satisfaction as a result. I try to find at least something to raise my evaluation, and fail at that. It's a shameful game, so it only deserves equally shameful review.

  15. kivandopulus
    Foreword: I have a very strange history with Bittersweet Fools. I started playing it about two years ago, and finished it only a year later. But the most important question is why this first minori game neglected that much? I believe I know the answer to this question.
    Title: Bittersweet Fools
    Developer: minori
    Date: 2001-08-31
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v164
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CYqHFsKP-M&list=PLEJNtz1D9CPU6cTE85DdrBMeNWyN5EEbX

    Synopsis: The protagonist is Alan, a former mafia assassin. He was required to go into hiding after a job and is now living in Florence, Italy. His days of peace and quiet comes to an end when he meets with the granddaughter of a mafia leader...
    Structure: 22 chapters
    Length: Some 30 hours
    Game type: Mafia in the hiding slice-of-life
    Difficulty: Easy. There is just one choice that leads to a dead end, and the rest only determine additional scenes and CG.
    Character Design rating: 6/10
    Protagonist rating: 6/10
    Story rating: 7/10
    Game quality: 6/10
    Overall rating: 6/10

    After all, I can't write a proper structured review of this game, mostly because I finished it about a year ago and also because I had huge pauses between the chapters. Here's my full story about it.
    First I read couple chapters in Japanese back then and was totally confused by this game. It was a horrible experience. Ugly sprites, bad game system, no voicing, lack of action on the screen. I just could not get characters seriously. Then I installed the English patch for the first chapter, and thanks to first chapter in English I actually got some charm of the game and could at least start focusing on ugly drawn characters. I could not force myself to play after several chapters, so it was put on hold at my notebook. Then one day I had power outrage, and there was little else to do but to play the only game I had at notebook at that time - Bittersweet Fools. It was also the game that got me drowsy in no time. Then at the next power cut I went on with the story and so on. Just imagine the number and longevity of power shutdowns at my place if I was able to invest about 30 hours into this game! It's unbelievable, but I was still able to finish the game - but I wouldn't be under normal circumstances, because it's a hellishly long story about nothing. Mafia gang just sits at a conspiration flat, and every time they go out for a walk they find some trouble. That's the plot for 21 horribly long chapters! And in the last chapter they try to run away and face rival gang finally. Sprites drawing is appalling, and CG only happen once per several hours. 

    I read some impression somewhere that it's high literature here, so common folks won't be able to enjoy it. And it may indeed be so! Text here is indeed very well written, slice-of-life scenes are pleasant to read. But I'm absolutely sure that it's impossible to enjoy them in PC versions, because without voicing situations here feel artificial. But then I learned that PS2 and DC versions have voicing, and changed my view on the game entirely. With voicing I can finally enjoy slice-of-life scenes that provide for 95% of the game time. So I tried to play this game again with voicing and translation... but miserably failed at that. PS2 version can not be hooked, since there are text threads, but no memory threads for changing text found, and it's totally not worth it to find each phrase manually. With DC version I was able to get text only with Demul emulator. I perfectly see changing text memory threads here, but there's another problem - Demul just shuts down my pc in 5-10 minutes time. I tried different versions, plugins, overclocking, but pc still shuts down when memory threads are parsed by Cheating Engine + Hook any text. Without memory hooking it seems to work normally (but I did not check for longer times). And that fiasco made me include not my video playthrough link, but some Japanese one. 

    I believe that voice version is the ONLY way this game can be enjoyed, thus there are so few reviews. PC version is plain bad, and Repackage version from 2005 is humiliating since it's not a reverse port from PS2 or DC, but the same 2001 PC zero voice version just with music repacked.
    So it's actually a very sincere good game that's never going to be appreciated in the West, because of minori attempts to have nothing to do with the West ever by keeping console releases only for consoles and suing anyone trying to patch their games. Game title really suits minori following policy. 

  16. kivandopulus
    Foreword: It's a non-voiced nakige, so I'm ill-suited to evaluate such game. But it proved to be a masterpiece even in my pretentious eyes. Game does not have a true route, so according to my review codex I only play two routes for such games - one for the heroine that seems to be the main heroine and one for the heroine that I like the most from the rest of the heroines. That's Suzuka and Haruhi routes for me. Three omake side stories are of purely comical nature and are not touched in order not to affect main story impression.

    Title: Cosmos no Sora ni
    Developer: Marron
    Date: 2001-07-27
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v1132
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGwZh6UO_I8&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv_pLYRQ-EmpvifHrzh7BvC2
    Synopsis: Time of school festival. While most students are eager to show their spirits, main character who lost his memory in the childhood pays all his attention to five girls with scars on their hearts.
    Structure: 30 days from 2nd October to 1st November
    Length: 5 hours per route, five routes overall + 3 short omake stories
    Game type: Comedy school nakige
    Difficulty: There are over 50 choices per route. Most are fake ones, of course, but I'd better follow a walkthrough.
    Character Design rating: 8/10
    Protagonist rating: 7/10
    Story rating: 6/10
    Game quality: 7/10
    Overall rating: 7/10

    Rating comments: After finishing Suzuka route game did not feel like a masterpiece to me. But Haruhi route was a total blast easily skyrocketing the score to 8/10 range or even higher. About that further on.
    Protagonist: Niizawa Yasuomi is a great protagonist due to his prankster nature. He keeps on flipping skirts and setting pranks. His memory problems only occur for the last 1/10th of the game suddenly turning a comedy game into a nakige. 

    Characters: Heroines here belong to distinctive archetypes: childhood friend Suzuka, tsundere Haruhi, quiet weak Wakana, teacher Hiyori, shrine maiden onee-san Uiko. I played only Suzuka and Haruhi routes. Suzuka reminds me main heroine of To Heart Akari the most. Serious and caring, she wakes Yasuomi each morning, cooks for him, all that stuff. Her route had several nice humorous scenes, but overall Suzuka is too kind and forgiving to react at pranks. Her drama part is also forced, fast and without any surprises. 
    But then I played Haruhi route... and that was totally from a different league. As tsundere, she explodes at even the mildest jokes and starts chasing Yasuomi. She's just superfun to play pranks on. Somehow, I'm not tired of tsundere characters yet, and she's less generic tsundere as she does not uses "betsuni" and the like words. She's also really pretty and has both swimming suit and maid themes to develop. Her serious nakige part had an emotional impact on me, especially because her route has two endings with songs in a row very different from each other. That's all I can hint without spoiling much.

    Story: Just going to school for till some 25th October, then dealing with memory problems. Various events before/during/after school make the bulk of the game. There's just a small touch of madness with mad scientist and his robots.
    CG: There aren't many CG, but the quality is adequate. Just one H scene per heroine and one common bath scene.

    Title and Themes:  Title only is being hinted in the opening song, but is not reflected during the game. 
    Overall comments: It's a great nakige game with very nice characters, but it's indeed difficult to write about the game. There are couple dozen of Japanese positive reviews, but they are also inarticulate when in comes to explaining why game is good. What I only mean to say is that it's a huge feat to make a masterpiece charage/nakige without voicing, through character traits and jokes alone. Long live Marron and its following two games without voicing...

  17. kivandopulus
    Foreword: I spotted No Reality many-many years ago, but I lacked technical skills to play it properly - I had just one monitor back then, and game crashed at even sophisticated attempts to launch it in window mode or minimize in order to hook properly. Now with the help of agth and two monitors it's been a piece of cake. The most mysterious cyberpunk'ish game finally opened its doors for me.
    Title: No Reality
    Developer: Unknown
    Date: 2001-06-29
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v6383
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxqxQhirxgc

    Synopsis: With the violent crime outburst government established "fixer" profession that compensates for security activities. Fixers receive individual cases for investigations, but they aren't given special rights which causes constant conflicts with the police over legality of means used.
    Main character Neil Foxx is a fixer who used to be a detective. He has an innate special ability "ecstasy borders" to see with the eyes of the criminal upon touching a corpse. Several prostitutes are killed in a chain, and Neil is given a request to investigate it. It's yet to know that the case is going to develop in a series of terrible murders.
    Structure: None
    Length: 4 hours
    Game type: Point-and-click detective cyberpunk-ish story.
    Difficulty: Several times I was at a loss what and where to click, so walkthrough is recommended
    Character Design rating: 9/10
    Protagonist rating: 10/10
    Story rating: 10/10
    Game quality: 9/10
    Overall rating: 9/10

    Rating comments: I have just one complaint - absence of voicing. Apart of that it's a perfect game with great atmosphere, characters and dialogues. 
    Protagonist: Neil Foxx is a hardcore detective. It's a rare mystery game where protagonist really investigates himself at every step and moves the story with just his force. He's got a face, so there's no need to try and take on his boots. He's absolutely separate from the reader.
    Characters: I rated characters as 9/10 because game is too short and linear to have the time for heroines. But heroines are all mature and free-spirited. Noone chases after anyone - characters act individually, and only sometimes intersect. Only half of heroines have H scenes at all, because it's a story-focused game. I'd like to specially emphasis existence of hard-boiled men as characters - detective partner Joe Bertran and police chief Bert Randolf. What's most surprising for me is the appearance of protagonist's assistant Ryouko Shinjou at the front of the game cover. She basically just searches her cat for the whole game! Well, she and her cat are the only things mentioned in epilogue, but that does not make her important at all! She's got great looks and costume, that's basically it. Still, a great cast.

    Story: It's hard to say anything about the story beyond the synopsis. We basically just inspect the corpse, talk with everyone gathering clues and progressively getting access to new areas. All these activities are not separate, but just one seamless narration process, accessed via point-and-click. At times unexpected events happen giving more leads, but that's all I can really tell about the story.
    CG: Graphics is fabulous. CG are very different giving special angles and focusing on some items sometimes. Great variety.
    Sound: General BGM is rhythmic, but special moments and ending BGM is much more pleasant, so there's no bad aftertaste.

    Thoughts: 
    1) It looks like company title was chosen just for this one single game they were going to produce. Game actually has allusions to both Unknown and No reality themes, and I really appreciate it when strange title is explained during the game. 
    2) Unfortunately game can not be honestly called a cyberpunk. It has its atmosphere, but not attributes. It's a night city with emphasis on night life, and there are computers and lots of screens around, but apart of that no high-tech advances.
    3) Game really looks and feels like EVE series. Neil detective office-warehouse is almost exact mirrored version of Koijiro's den. Here and there point-and-click is used. Both are low cyberpunk detective stories (EVE has genetics in the core of the story, so it's more advanced this way). Even graphics looks very much alike. No Reality is a must have for any EVE fan. In my opinion No reality and Unknown are also used to show that visual novel industry has stagnated after EVE series failing to produce same level stories. And this is an attempt to push the industry in the right direction again as it's possible to make high quality story games even without huge budget or voicing.
    Overall comments: No reality is a great example that even small company can create a high quality story. It won't sell as good as a game with a famous artist or 12 routes for all the heroines, but it will become the core of the medium, a work that the company can be proud of. 

  18. kivandopulus
    Foreword: I only got sort of interested in Femme Fatale as prequel of Edelweiss and as a part of chaotic production of Inspire company. Detective mystery game should be a safe bet for an interesting story, right?
    Title: Femme Fatale
    Developer: Inspire
    Date: 2001-05-25
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v11647
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEQ3nVwC13A

    Synopsis: Taisho era. Main character is a detective in Tokyo. He returns to hometown to dispose of his father's legacy. Local policeman tells him about a case of girl death from illness at a boarding school, but under suspicious conditions. Detective decides to investigate the incident as he needs to stay at the town for some time anyway.
    Structure: 9 days
    Length: 6 hours
    Game type: Taisho era detective mystery
    Difficulty: Easy as each wrong decision immediately delivers a bad end.
    Character Design rating: 1/10
    Protagonist rating: 1/10
    Story rating: 1/10
    Game quality: 1/10
    Overall rating: 1/10
    Rating comments: Should I even continue? I'm gravely offended by this game.

    Protagonist: Yagami Shinobu is faceless, voiceless and hardly with any individuality at all.
    Characters: Game does not have heroine routes - just one story with lots of bad ends. Girls are well written and have voice, but when spontaneous H events start to trigger one by one  any charm that's left just evaporates.
    Story: There's hardly anything happens during those 9 days. Each day is divided into some 10 phases, so it's roughly 90 phases where you need to check the new information about places, then the new information about persons and then advance the events further triggering some dialogues and coming out of nowhere spontaneous H events. I admit that it might be me who was not attentive enough to see the correlation of arriving information, but absolutely nothing happened till the last 9th day when you come to the dormitory for the 10th time or so and you're greeted by a character who says "Hey, I expected you to come earlier, but still well done" and that character just tells you who is the killer etc... Credits.

    CG: There is on average ONE non-HCG per every girl, and it's CG when we first meet that girl. That's just nothing, an insult. 
    Overall comments: The story is absolutely banal and greatly ero-tilt so that every girl showing up on the screen could have her performance. All the important information is compressed into one last day. I skipped all the BAD endings (which are all just H events), but there were still some 6 (!) spontaneous H events incorporated into the story-line. So I really hope Edelweiss would have much to do with weapons, because the kind of story Femme Fatale has is a scam and should be only distributed for free like it used to be done for several months.

  19. kivandopulus
    Foreword: April 2001 had zero visual novels to interest me. After long torments of what to choose, I stopped at Handle With Care. It's a serious musical band story, so I expected Kira☆Kira, just more serious. Should Kira☆Kira tremble at the sight of its rival that came 6 years before?
    Title: Handle With Care..
    Developer: ETOILE
    Date: 2001-04-06
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v3140
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRNwJFAbAb0&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv_xgEeDrWo3RE8DTA9SrO4c

    Synopsis: Our hero was the vocalist of the legendary rock band "Bloody Roses." Presently, his activities with the band are on hold. At one of the live houses he played at, he met an extremely talented vocalist named Sahara Shion. He takes it upon himself to help her in her career... As a player, it is your goal to eventually bring this beautiful talent on stage at the live house "Moon Rouge."
    Structure: 10 days
    Length: Took me 30 hours without skipping read text.
    Game type: Serious rock band love story.
    Difficulty: More confusing, than difficult. Too much text repeated, so figuring routes myself would be a pain.
    Character Design rating: 6/10
    Protagonist rating: 6/10
    Story rating: 5/10
    Game quality: 7/10
    Overall rating: 6/10
    Rating comments: It's the highest score I can give to a non-masterpiece. Game is very well done. But it is not enough to be interesting. Story is not the strongest part here.

    Protagonist: Our protagonist is Rei, former member of "Bloody Roses" band. He's pretty cool looking guitar player, always wearing round stylish glasses and long coats. But his most notorious feature is that he kind whispers rather than talking. If BGM is put to MIDI, then Rei almost can't be heard at all. It looks most funny when he talks with some heroine with a bright loud voice, and she actually understands everything that he says unlike us, listeners! If BGM is set on lowest DirectSound, Rei finally is able to be heard. What I like in Rei the most is that he's really mature, about 30 years old, and that he's absolutely indifferent to girls. There is one H even in (almost) each route that he participates in the end, but every time he's kinda dragged into it despite his intentions.

    Characters: Let's count heroines with the routes: vocalist Shion, drums Ruo, pop-singer Sayura, musical producer Arisa, diner host Emi. But the fact is... the whole game Rei only communicates with Shion on daily basis and occasionally with others. Shion dominates here to such extent that other heroines sometimes only get as many as only 3 CG. All the other heroines aren't much noticeable, really. I was glad to see that the youngest heroine with route Emi did not get a H scene.
    Story: Hmm... is there even a story here? Rei finds Shion at a car dump, and during common route they get two more members of the band and get acquainted with three more girls that would serve as heroines. The give couple gigs, then participate in a competition, and get assaulted by some delinquents. Each heroine adds just a tiny grain of drama to it. That's the whole non-existing story...

    CG: Too few. And CG aren't articualte. Either people just stand or play musical instruments, that's the bulk of CG compositions.
    Sound: BGM is ok, but that's bad for a musical game. Game has five songs, but they all suck. The opening theme is weak, and it's by far the best musical piece in the game. There is a pop-singer song, but it also manages to suck. What's wrong with this game, really?
    Thoughts:  The biggest appeal point in the game is that it's... convenient. If I heard that recommendation, I'd thought it's some porn. In fact, game has just very light system, auto reading, and everyone including males is voiced. In 2000-2001 system was still a huge issue, and most games got negative feedback just because of poor or heavy system. This game got mostly positive feedback... but what does it really have besides the system? Shion is quite nice as a heroine... and that's it. But negative points accumulate: non-articulate story, poor sub-heroines routes, lots and lots or repeated reading to do just to read 20 minutes worth of unique text, then repeat.

    Overall comments: I have many questions to Kira☆Kira, but at the very least it was possible to provide unique touching routes for all the heroines. Handle With Care could not do even that much. It's not a bad game if you read just common route, Shion flagging and Shion True route once. But the problem is that Shion True route only opens up after seeing all the other routes, and that's balls - rereading the same common route just to see that 1% unique text for each heroine. Game is convenient, but the problems is that it's not needed to be convenient to become a great game. Most of my favorite visual novels are anti-convenient, they are just so awesome that all the negative sides can be neglected. In Handle With Care all I can focus on is the negative sides.

  20. kivandopulus
    Foreword: I rated Lipstick Adv.EX as 9/10 and I just can't believe that absolutely the same people - Fairytale and scenario writer Notori Shinji - could really make a terrible game after that. I hope to present an unbiased opinion from a person who knows the series well.
    Title: Lipstick ADV.4
    Developer: Fairytale
    Date: 2001-02-23
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v8780
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgQ6XYeF1ro

    Synopsis: A small detective office in a non-descript back street shopping center, there is Goro Asami, a private detective, competent in his job, with business going well, but not well enough to live in wealth. There is Otomi Kiyosato, a student of Siratori High and the founder of the "Beauty Private Detective Club, one of the stranger clubs in that school, being an absolute pain in the ass by claiming to be Goro's assistant and inviting herself to his office enough to absolutely drive him up the wall.
    During this period of relative bliss, an unexpected incident shatters the peace of Siratori High. Mari Kitagawa, the chief manager for the Creative Literature Club, is found dead with massive doses of tranquilizers and sleeping pills in her body. From the location of the body and the means of her death, the police initially declared this to be a suicide, but by the following day, they abruptly change their stance by issuing a cryptic statement that "Her death was not from suicide." Rumors spread throughout the high school like wildfire, and Otomi and her fellow detective club members began investigating the case. Goro also begins investigating this strange case, after being hired by the victim's father. With Otomi's cooperation, each step of the case gradually comes to light. Yet, before the case could be determined to be murder or suicide, Tomoko Andou is found raped and murdered at the thicket of the high school's rear compound. What is going on? Are the deaths related? Who wrote that mysterious notice, "Who's next?" on the board?

    Structure: 6 ACTs
    Length: 7 hours
    Game type: School detective story
    Difficulty: Easy since it's a one road story with only bad endings on wrong choices
    Character Design rating: 7/10
    Protagonist rating: 6/10
    Story rating: 6/10
    Game quality: 5/10
    Overall rating: 6/10
    Rating comments: I don't consider this game a masterpiece, thus can't rate it higher than 6. My biggest complaints are about sudden H events and the story that I failed to see logical development in. About that in relative sections.
    Protagonist: Goro has not changed much, but he is not voiced and actually is paid terrifically little time in the story. He can't get any results and is not good even for an advice. What he only manages to do is seduce nurse from the hospital that controls medicaments used with first victim death. So he's portrayed just as gigolo and at the same time all his special connection with Otomi goes to hell.

    Characters: Game is a single road story, there there aren't character routes. Otomi is one of two protagonists. The other two female detective club members Rieko and Aki are still there with their personalities totally the same as in Lipstick Adv.EX. There are also some 6-10 girls that exist for entourage/fanservice/as victims. 
    Story: Scenario is actually as sophisticated as in Lipstick Adv.EX. But in that game both protagonists were able to find the clue that led them both at the same time to the criminal. In Lipstick ADV.4 there is much more chaos and depression and much less logic. If I remember Lipstick Adv.EX mostly by detective club smalltalk and fabulous epic fails of Rie, Lipstick ADV.4 is remembered by crying faces and atmosphere of total hopelessness. The killings continue to happen, the billboard notices concerning criminal next actions continue to be drawn each day, the voyeur cameras are found, but no steps are made to identify the culprit. It is a SPOILER ahead, but without it can't describe the flaw of the game.

    CG: There are quite many CG, but they all feel bleak. Most of them are just one girl / several girls standing still. Even CG with some activity are poorly done and I can't feel affection for them. Also I'm absolutely surprised by the fact that 8/9 H scenes are shown during the main course of the game and just one as a part of a bad ending. All the other bad endings just present a gore picture of some death. I'd really want to see H scenes only as part of BAD endings.
    Sound: All girls are voiced and BGM... not remaining in the memory.

    Thoughts:  
    1) Story was the first element that disappointed me, but the second element is Otomi. The whole series was holding on the fact that a sexy girl can be a full-fledged partner in detective office and not an object of sexual manipulation. And Lipstick Adv.EX was surprisingly true to the series. Otomi equivalent Koume there manages to remain a symbol of purity, and her kidnapping in the end is seen as an attempt to defile that purity of the series. Koume remains virgin loyal to Megumi (equivalent of Gorou). But what happens in Lipstick ADV.4 is freaking weird. Otomi interrupts two girls having fun and as a result gets involved into a mild lesbo 3P. After that she thinks it over at home and understands that she was practically raped there. But on the next day she is invited by the same two girls to the karaoke and under their pressure just can not say "no" - and she freaking gets raped for the second time... that's just so humiliating and stupid, really. Humiliating because it goes in contradiction with the whole series experience and stupid because only an idiot would step on the same rake two times!
    2) Comparison of Lipstick Adv.EX and Lipstick ADV.4. I've no idea why Lipstick Adv.EX has basically the very same characters, but with different names, probably because of some rights issues or some characters getting an irreversible development. But with both games having the same scenario writer it's natural that games are very much alike. More that that - I see an absolute mirroring in many cases. Both games start with the girl death and have highest depression peak after second girl death. Both games have spontaneous scenes of girls being insulted by an unknown person. And I even see the mirroring in the fact that the core motive of both first murders in both games is justice seeking revenge, but the next murders are only seemingly of the same kind, but actually absolutely different. So games are very much alike, but in absolutely every element Lipstick Adv.EX prevails.  

    Overall comments: Lipstick ADV.4 is not a bad game at all, but it is basically a degraded version of Lipstick Adv.EX and thus is shown in a bad light. At the same time Lipstick ADV.4 breaks several traditions of the series:
    1) It has nothing to do with the bombings
    2) It defiles the figure of main heroine
    3) It humiliates talents of main hero making story develop by itself
    With that I suggest to extradite Lipstick ADV.4 from being a part of the series. Amen.

  21. kivandopulus
    Foreword: With deletion of boukennonikki blog there's only one review of this game left, so I hope to fill the vacuum, even though it won't be even remotely as good, but should be same critical.
    Title: Vampiridzhija Vjedogonia
    Developer: Nitroplus
    Date: 2001-01-26
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v433
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv8FJtK-V943T3Tubn32ekIB
    Synopsis: One night the protagonist sees a beautiful woman in distress; he tries to help her but she bites him. She turns out to be a vampire! And now he will turn into a vampire too, unless he finds her again and destroy her first. So he joins with a group of vampire-hunters...

    Structure: 13 days
    Length: 4-5 hours x 4 routes
    Game type: Vampire wars SF story.
    Difficulty: Easy since there are only 4-5 choices in the game. But choices are absolutely not connected with either heroine, so it may be very painful to find the leftover one-tow routes without walkthrough.
    Character Design rating: 6/10
    Protagonist rating: 7/10
    Story rating: 8/10
    Game quality: 6/10
    Overall rating: 7/10
    Rating comments: I feel it's a giri-giri masterpiece, thus only 7. I especially liked that four heroines routes are very different.

    Protagonist: Souta is always cool. He's mature, strong, fast to act and reliable. All his CG are superb.
    Characters: There are four heroines: childhood friend Kaori, serious meganekko Misako, vampire hunter gothic loli Mora and ancient vampire Leanhaun. The major part of their routes coincides, but in-between battles there are individual developments and often even new enemies or old characters transformation. It can be also noted that Kaori+Mora and Misako+Leanhaun routes are paired up and have relatively few differences between themselves.  

    Story: I rated story high because of changes in each route. The main story is not as sophisticated as I'd hope it to be. Souta has bites on his neck and vague memories of some girl just before that. He accidentally observes a monster rampaging and getting slain by a pair of vampire hunters. They finally shed some light on the neck bites, and at the next monster encounter Souta is able to release his power. They decide to organize a set of diversions against an organization that executes on the vampire who bit Souta which follows by a front assault on the base. In very crude words, that's it. There are several cool guys, both enemies and allies, and each heroine story adds her perspective, but the core remains intact. Again, quite simplistic story, but well developed in details one.
    Technical issues: In order to use 1.03 patch that allows to skip battles it's needed to reach at least one good ending. If you don't want to fight that badly, you'll need 100% savegame, just like I did - then in option there will be a new line to skip battles. Also my preferred capture site foolmaker had a very bad mistake in first action of Misako route, so I wasted 4 more hours of my life that I needed to.

    CG: Character design is bad, and eyes melt at times at the sight of those character sprites, but at CG there are - usually - much better perspectives.
    Sound: NO voicing! That's very upsetting. What I liked in sound support was that there were some nice full compositions at the place of musical performances. Oh, and song on the base assault timing is just perfect, and very memorable.

    Thoughts:  Vampirdzhija is a spiritual successor to Phantom of Inferno. It's seen very well in love to weapons and animated sequences. HOWEVER those 3D backgrounds really devalue everything. As if character designs aren't good enough demotivation. But in action scenes 3D is quite a plus - thanks to that we get a very dynamic picture thanks to the same bike shot from lots of different angles etc. So there is some merit in it.  
    Overall comments: As I see it, there was a revolution with issue of Tsukihime by Type-Moon. It has become evident that it's not necessary to invite Carnelian and polish romance elements for a game to sell well. And it's not needed to make another Phantom of Inferno huge masterpiece each time. Just get a good scenario writer, and even Tsukihime photo backgrounds and simplistic character designs are enough. Vampirdzhija Vjedogonia was exactly the same attempt to reopen visual novels from a totally different from mainstream side, and in my opinion it failed at that due to story limitations primarily. But look at it from another side - game with bad character designs + 3D background and some CG + annoying fighting minigame + NO voicing. And such a game is still a great success, and even considered a masterpiece by me. Truth be told, I just don't like Urobuchi Gen writing as it's always so much fuss about epic setting and action with a very mediocre story behind it. Saya no Uta is a special case since it basically broke Urobuchi life being such an intense narration. So what I want to keep in memory the most in this game is the awesome CG, so here they are.

  22. kivandopulus
    It took a huge amount of time to finish year 2000, but it's over. The industry has matured to contemporary state, so there's no need to search for novelties this year.
    First of all, here's the collection of Visual Novel Openings 2000 with songs.
    In 2000 I've made a number of videos with only 1-2 routes, so now is the chance for you to choose one of those games to make playthrough of the rest of the routes. Less than 10 votes in 2 weeks time will mean that noone needs that, and I won't do anything. Some playthroughs contained full number of routes and some (like Treating2U and Heart&Blade) are too torturing for me to return to. So the candidates in 2000 are:
    Lien ~Owaranai Kimi no Uta~ (3 routes missing) Gyousatsu♥Shinsengumi Hitokiri Bishoujo Adventure (not sure for the number of routes) Ragnapolice (7 stories missing) Kaichuudokei (2 routes missing) Dorei Ichiba (4 routes missing) Now let's list masterpieces of the year:
    Gensou no Artemis Lien ~Owaranai Kimi no Uta~ Treating 2U Phantom of Inferno Harlem Blade II ~Dark Angel~ EVE Zero Gyousatsu♥Shinsengumi Hitokiri Bishoujo Adventure Age Maniax ~Isumi Yon Shimai Saigo no Hi~ Hateshinaku Aoi, Kono Sora no Shita de... Shoin, Aruiwa Ushinawareta Yume no Monogatari. Tsukihime Sense Off ~A Sacred Story in the Wind~ Pure Mail Gin'iro Air Gensou Suikogaiden Vol. 1: Harmonia no Kenshi Baldr Bullet Nijuuei Never7 -The End of Infinity- I do not see any rivals to Nijuuei this year, so it's the VN of the Year.

  23. kivandopulus
    Foreword: I heard about this game couple years ago that it actually had a decent plot, and around the same time got acquainted with the anime version. It's been my longtime wish to show that nukige may have a decent story, but is this exactly that case?
    Title: Dorei Ichiba
    Developer: Daiginjou
    Date: 2000-12-22
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v1127
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wh8zelvX-I

    Synopsis: During the 17th century, the Ronbaldia Alliance and the Holy Aimar are at war for power. Ronbaldia sends its ruler to the royal city of Constantinople for safety. Cathias Gire follows as a clerk. Not knowing anything about the royal capitol, Cathias decides to buy a slave. Cathias heads for the slave-grounds and is shocked to see how they are treated. Nevertheless, he buys a slave recommended by his friend. Cathias can do what ever he wants to do with his salve now. Will this all end when the war finally gets out of control? What will happen?

    Structure: 3 days in each route
    Length: 3 hours for one route, overall 5 routes
    Game type: Middle ages vice city on the brink of war
    Difficulty: Low, the number of choices is small and wrong choices usually lead to a clear bad end
    Character Design rating: 5/10
    Protagonist rating: 5/10
    Story rating: 6/10
    Game quality: 5/10
    Overall rating: 5/10

    Rating comments: You can see by the scores that my opinion of the game is not high even though VNDB average score is over 8 atm. I failed to find something worthwhile in the story, and other elements are just bleak to me.
    Protagonist: Cathias is quite a normal embassy envoy, we control his actions fully.

    Characters: Bianca, Cecilia and Mia are the slaves available from the start, and your friend's sister Katerina afterwards. Remastered version also introduced Harem route which actually is the most interesting story-wise, not just fanservice. I only captured Katerina True route, because game moves from Bad ends to Good ends, and there's too much insult from the start. Also you'll need to grind ducats with a special fundraising route, since some good endings and Katerian true ending require large sums of ducats that transfer to each new game. For me the route of mute Bianca is the best, and exactly that route is shown in anime already. It was impossible for me to feel sympathy to any of the heroines.

    Story: Every route follows pretty much the same pattern - arrival on day 1 - city investigation on day 2 - some danger with a link to the target heroine in the day 3. Each route is short, so noone has time to develop, really.
    CG: I have huge questions to both character design and CG. The only CG I liked were fighting CG.

    Overall comments: I did not like the game overall, thus such inarticulate review. Unfortunately the stories are episodic, and only harem route features more than one heroine. Dorei Ichiba is not something that Venus Blood series could provide - a thrilling story + nukige. 

  24. kivandopulus
    Foreword: Won't lie, I only picked this game since the other notable titles of the month were gameplay-centered. But this one is a mystery story centered around time travel which makes it stand out among the rows of typical charage in October 2000.
    Title: Kaichuudokei
    Developer: Free's
    Date: 2000-10-13
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v21778
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8GxGaUo6Yc

    Synopsis: Some girl appears before main character and gives him pocket watch. The next day she meets hero once again, but she had no recollection of the yesterday encounter. Strange events start to pile up turning into bizarre incidents that are able to claim one's life. Can he protect the girls?
    Structure: Game takes some 5 days, but we have to repeat only last 2-3 days usually through time travel
    Length: 3.5 hours for one route
    Game type: School crime mystery with time travel
    Difficulty: I'd say moderate. Composition is unusual, so it's possible to get lost without knowing how to proceed after bad ending
    Character Design rating: 6/10
    Protagonist rating: 5/10
    Story rating: 7/10
    Game quality: 5/10
    Overall rating: 6/10

    Rating comments: 6 is the best score I can give to a non-masterpiece game. Game is about the mystery, so characters aren't much developed, same as protagonist. Game quality gets a dent for some poor CG, no voicing and constant crashes at win10 at sound effects play (win98-ME does not have crashes, but it's impossible to hook text there).
    Protagonist: Nothing much special. A normal high school student who got involved into a mysterious case.
    Characters: There are three heroines - Asuka, Haruka and Sakuya, but the main heroine with the most intriguing plot like is Asuka.

    Story: Main character receives pocket watch from a girl one day, but when the same girl moves to his class the next day, she has no recollection of giving the watch. There are several incidents targeting girl's life and of course death in the end which triggers time jump with the need to prevent death. There are four cycles of the same events, and each time we get to uncover new part of the mystery and observe different suspects. The ending was very unexpected for me. Great composition and story, actually.
    CG: Most are fine. Good thing that there are very few H events in the game, two per heroine or so.

    Sound: BGM turned out to be nice and inspirational, especially liked the danger motives.
    Thoughts: The motive of the game is that innocent looking persons are usually the most vile. And it was nice to see how that idea played out in each of girl routes. 
    Overall comments: I liked the story here. It's complex enough and short enough to keep the thrill from beginning to the end, creating an overall positive impression.

  25. kivandopulus
    Foreword: C's Ware chuunige is always welcome by me. There are only couple Japanese reviews with mediocre scores, but knowing C's Ware... they must have prepared a new exhausting system like Kazeoto or Vist that most of people could not even pass through. Welcome to the elitist club review, since I made it to the end and have much to say about it.
    Title: Heart & Blade
    Developer: C's Ware
    Date: 2000-09-29
    VNDB link:https://vndb.org/v6129
    Youtube walkthrough:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdOxpS1Gfcw

    Synopsis: Osamu, the protagonist, is a student whose family descent from a lineage of samurais and owner of a Dojo of kendo.
    He was studying and training at the United States, but now is time to go back to Japan.
    At this house, where he must protect a sacred milenium old tree, he meets a strange girl who resembles someone he met a long time ago.
    But his problems are just starting. His father got him a fiancee from a rich and traditional family, his blond classmate from United States came all the way to Japan after him, and his older female cousin came to help at the dojo.
    What is more strange, monsters started to appear in the City. Osamu must wield a sword and fight them to protect the sacred tree and his friends.
    Structure: Game is divided into 11 days.
    Length: 8 hours for one route
    Game type: Small town mystic demon fighter adventure
    Difficulty: Well... since game is command selection type it's still best to use walkthrough not to fall astray from the chosen path, but overall there aren't many crucial decisions to make.
    Character Design rating: 7/10
    Protagonist rating: 6/10
    Story rating: 7/10
    Game quality: 6/10
    Overall rating: 6/10

      Rating comments: Well, I could not rate even Vist as masterpiece, so can't rate Heart&Blade higher than Vist - and Vist is more impressive in most of fields, but in other fields like story integrity, heroine route integrity and fights mechanic Heart & Blade actually wins. 
    Protagonist: Osamu is a normal boy protagonist, but males are drawn very weirdly in this game. It's nice that we don't control Osamu all the time, and he mostly makes his own decisions after we take him to the needed place. I like it that he has a face and some personality, but that's it. He's not voiced ofc.
    Characters: There are four heroines that have individual endings, but their routes are almost the same. I chose Alice for playthrough since she's the only one outside of that traditional Japanese spirit that the whole game is soaked well enough already. Can't say that Alice had a good route though... but the story matters much more in this game than some girl route.

    Story: So... what's not covered in synopsis yet... actually pretty much everything is there. And nothing much is happening in the game, actually. Osamu arrives, gets acquainted with the girls and then there are several school days with occasional demon attacks. In the center of the story is the sacred tree that grows near Osamu dojo. Some girl vision visits Osamu from time to time near that tree. Girl blames him for not keeping promise. And that girl comes from Osamu past, prior to USA study period... 
    CG: Where is Carnellian? Or at least some normal artist? Both CG and heroines design is inferior to previous works. Males usually look plain weird while girls CG feel soapy... can't describe well. The number of CG is big at least.
    Sound: BGM is absolutely the best, like in all C's Ware games. At first I thought games is not voiced at all and BGM has to bear full weight like in Re-Leaf, but after first hour girls showed up and they are voiced - phew! Voicing is ok, but can feel irritating at times thanks to chosen heroines archetypes.

    Humor: In the core of the game there is confrontation of Japanese ojousama Harunako and American Alice. The whole game either of them tries to invite Osamu somewhere and the other girl instantly shows up and demands accompanying them. That produces quite many funny situations like Alice attending nobility evening in her freestyle outfit.
    Mechanics: As if command selection narration and mouse-only control is not torturing enough, there is also horrible fighting mechanics. Games tries to give some tutorial on fighting, but reality gets much fiercer. The very first demo fight with Osamu father in dojo took me some 20 minutes, because - as I understand now - I was expected to make some combination of hits out of 10 different strikes or so. In walkthrough there is a list of combo strikes, but - surprise - they aren't usually available in every fight and game should teach you this strike prior to using it and it only teaches these strikes on hero death... But this is still nothing compared to three very long consequent fights with multiple opponents in a row in the endgame. Absolutely every hits kills Osamu and upon load about 70% of the time Osamu gets killed without even an opportunity to strike. I deliberately left all those save/load stuff in the video so that degree of madness can be felt. I'm quite sure that I had to load at least several hundred times during the playthrough. It's a very sadistic game.  

    Overall comments: Heart & Blade is a very C's Ware'ish game. It uses the same outdated engine, same mouse-only control with torturing gameplay elements. What only improved is the system so that now there's at least understanding of flags and of hit/avoid mechanics in battle, as well as voicing. But graphics is worse here. Story still kicks in, but it's much more simpler than in Vist. There is more attention to heroines and slice of life here, but C's Ware games were always story-centric. I adore it immensely in C's Ware that they stay loyal to their principles and keep on making thrilling hardcore games. As a C's Ware fan I really liked Heart & Blade, but if I played this game without the historical contest it would hardly interest me or make me play it to the end.

     
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