To be blunt, there is no way I'm going to be able to use more than an hour or two each day for the next week for VNs. My work pace is currently at the highest it's been since the summer of 2013. I, quite frankly, had to cut sleep out of my schedule to get through Shogun-sama, and that is costing me in focus and energy now. As such, I am unsure of when I will get to the next VN.
Of late, my days have consisted of work>eat>take nap>more work>eat>take nap>yet more work>eat>sleep. I stopped pushing myself like this a few years ago because my doctor said that the caffeine doses and sugar I was using to keep myself aware were killing my liver, and the lack of sleep was starting to make my body poison itself bit by bit. However, one of my fellow contractors managed to get himself arrested last month (I don't know the details), and his work fell onto me (along with a nice bonus, but it isn't really worth it). In addition to having already been behind on my own work, I've been having to do his.
It looks like I'll be able to clean up his mess in the next week or two, but don't expect a whole lot out of me until then, except for maybe a whimsical half-asleep rants on various subjects (you know what I'm talking about).
First, I should mention that I'm a huge fan of David Weber. Even his crappiest book is still interesting to read (the crappiest book being Out of the Dark, an Independence Day-style story where the world is saved by Dracula, lol). However, the Honor Harrington series is my favorite series written by him.
Beginning with On Basilisk Station, this military sci-fi series begins focused on the character known as - obviously - Honor Harrington, a young warship captain getting command of a new light cruiser.
Honor is the post gender-disparity female of the feminist movement's dreams, a woman born and raised in a society where gender limitations were nonexistent and nothing is thought of women going into the military. Weber, for all his faults as writer, has never shown the prejudices a lot of male sci-fi writers tend to have in this area, and Honor is by far his most popular and powerful character. She begins the series as a commander, the lowest rank in the Royal Manticoran Navy allowed independent command of a starship, and, as she takes trip after trip though the fires of war's hell, she gradually climbs the ranks of her star nation's military, suffering pain and loss, as well as joy and glory in equal amounts.
Honor doesn't go through life unscarred... she is a rare individual who can't use regen therapies and can't accept her own cloned tissues, so her tendency to get her ships shot to hell around her has definite permanent consequences to her body and life. This isn't some two-dimensional warrior who slays enemies in one-sided competitions and comes out the other side covered and glory and only possessing superficial scars. Honor is the type of person who, because of her integrity and essential strength as a human being, continually manages to put herself in the worst kind of situations. She doesn't always win, more of her people die than don't, and she suffers from all the guilt you could possibly imagine a morally upright young woman could suffer in such a situation.
In fact, that is David Weber's brilliance with this series... Honor definitely climbs the social ladder during the series (even by the third book, she is already pretty high up there), but her essential humanity and her growth as a person gives true life to a series which could easily (and often threatens to) turn into a dry recitation of destruction and death on a literally interstellar scale. Weber freely admits he intended to kill her off in the seventh or eighth book, but the fans kept her alive through petitions against that decision, lol.
All in all, that has turned out well. What was originally a simple and direct conflict between a constitutional monarchy and a socialist expansionist empire gone mad has expanded to a fully galactic scale story, opening up several side storylines (the Crown of Slaves being the most beloved of those). While Honor still remains a central individual in the series, things have long-since grown too complex and grand in scale for any individual to control its flow.
I can say straight out that I love this series and don't regret investing the hundred dollars or so it took to get all the books currently released. There have been a few poor entries (the most recent one is widely disliked for being a rehashing from a different perspective of events in the previous book), the series as a whole is one that any military sci-fi fan should at least try to read. The societies involved, the events, and the characters make it worth it, even if it is obvious Weber has no intention of concluding it any time soon, even after over fifteen books.
This is the newest game by Alcot, based three hundred years before Onigokko (yes, it is a prequel, sort of) during the time of the infamous Tokugawa Yoshimune (who is the central character of the jidaigeki Abarenbou Shogun), the first Shogun to take the title based on the 'gosanke' system set up by Ieyasu to prevent the end of the shogunate due to the end of his direct descendants. The protagonist of the story is a young man who has been dragged into the body of a person of the same name in the past from the modern era named Nobuyuki.
Like all of the 'main team' Alcot games, this game has a combination of serious drama with layers of slapstick comedy, with overblown villains and a reasonably capable protagonist (in his own way). As such, anyone who has played Onigokko, Osananajimi wa Daitouryou, or Naka no Hito will be familiar with the atmosphere of the game.
There are four heroines in this game. First, there is Nobuyuki's adopted little sister Tamaki, who gets switched into the body of a girl named Tama, dragged along with her brother to the Edo period. She is a rather straightforward brocon imouto, driven by lust and jealousy, as well as a certain belief that it is the duty of all elder brothers to marry their little sister. Second is Tokuda Yoshimune (obviously, an alias), a skilled swordswoman with a strong sense of justice who befriends Nobuyuki and invites him to help her solve the mystery of the recent kidnappings in Edo. She is something of a battle maniac, as well as an idealist... to be honest, despite her being the main heroine, I left her for last. Third is Tokuda Muneharu, a careless spender and famous lover of sweets who wanders Edo looking for good things to eat. She is crafty and calculating at first glance, but under the surface she is (of course) a lonely little girl at heart, lol. Last of all is the classic Alcot-design loli for this particular game (most main team Alcot games contain at least one adorable loli heroine or side-character who is a little tsundere). She is an excellent cook and loves food in general, and she is generally loyal and stoic by nature, when things don't involve food, lol.
Muneharu
I went for Muneharu first. I don't really have a strong reason... none of the heroines in this VN are really my type, so I just rolled the dice.
Her path was a bit high on the ichaicha for my tastes, despite having a good story. I suppose it is because I've been spoiled by other 'go back to the past with modern knowledge' VNs, but I honestly got tired of the way they handled customs and attitudes of the time for the most part (don't expect realism on any level), and the 'convenient' way Muneharu's path draws the 'love with obstacles' card was excessively obvious. I suppose it is because I've played so many 'ojousama-ge', but my standards for that kind of thing are high. That said, there were some high points... while the action scenes aren't anywhere near chuunige-level, they are still about as decent as you get it with charage. The actual drama falls into the usual Alcot absurdity (if it didn't, they'd probably get bashed by the fans) before the ending, and I had to snort with laughter, despite the seriousness of the situation in the characters' eyes.
The ending was... actually excellent. It covers the actual immediate results of the path's drama, as well as the historical consequences of Tamaki and Nobuyuki remaining in the past, a bit of detail that is out of character for this company (since short-term endings are one of this company's plagues, like many charage-variant companies).
Rin
Rin... is adorable. Of course, she is a loli, so adorable is default. However, Alcot's lolis are almost always tsundere, almost always turn into kittens when they fall in love, and make me want to pat them on the head and give them candy before sending them back to their parents. To be honest, if this game were devoid of erotic content, I would probably lap this path up, but it does have erotic content, and I've gotten to the point where loli-H makes me mildly nauseous if they aren't centuries old or a youkai.
Now that I've gotten this out of my system... Rin, like Kureha from Onigokko, is a kunoichi type thief, though her motivations differ. Her path, for most of its length, is involved with retrieving treasures (the same treasures from Onigokko) with the protagonist at her side. I can honestly say that I found most of the path amusing (though not laugh-out-loud funny). One way this game treats Rin different from Kureha in Onigokko is that there are a lot fewer lolicon jokes (yes, Onigokko went there... like crazy). The drama at the end of this path has to do with the Tsuchigumo clan, and is thus a bit less absurd than Muneharu's path was.
Her ending... is not that interesting, when it comes down to it. It is a standard 'we are still in love' ending, when it comes down to it.
Yoshimune
Yoshimune is your classic 'hakoiri musume+master swordswoman' heroine (yes, that is an archetype... only the otaku media could make that into an archetype). She is a lover of justice, but if someone talks about ecchi things, she immediately goes beet red. Her relationship with Nobuyuki is, from the beginning, one of comrades in arms.
Her path, like Rin's, is generally amusing. The ichaicha is a bit excessive at times, but it doesn't go so far as to put me to sleep. Her path has several long fights and it centers on the internal affairs of the Bakufu as a government, and the way she and Nobuyuki end up together is absolutely... rofl. Surprisingly, this path did not exceed the previous two in quality or focus, which probably means that, while she is the 'main' heroine, this game doesn't possess a true heroine.
The Setting
As I mentioned above, they did a horrible job with the setting of this VN. Understand, I don't expect true-to-history events, and the existence of Western underwear over a century before it became widely available even to the nobility of Europe doesn't really bother me all that much. No, the real problem is the haphazard way they handle the customs of the day, sometimes being off-hand and then forgetting about them, then taking others seriously on all levels. It is a lot of little things that built up as I played. Of course, that is the downside of using a well-documented era for this kind of thing.
My Dissatisfaction
Perhaps my biggest dissatisfaction with the game is the way the game doesn't have the protagonist use his future knowledge to create all sorts of interesting results, which is, when it comes down to it, the best part about games where characters go back into the past in times of trouble. Of course, there are exceptions, where they stick to the historical line, but those are relatively rare and tend to have a more realistic bent than this game. While I didn't expect something on the level of Sengoku Koihime, I was hoping the protagonist would make the best of his knowledge, lol.
Overall
This is a decent comedy charage, with drama that doesn't go too far into darker areas, meaning it remains a charage. Like all of the Alcot games based in this particular universe, serious moments are frequently broken up by goofiness, but if you like that kind of thing, this VN is a decent choice, if you've already played Naka no Hito and Onigokko... and you still want more. I didn't bother with Tamaki's path, simply because I honestly didn't have an interest in her as a heroine. I might add a commentary on her path here at some later date, but for now I'm ending my assessment of this VN.
After almost three months of playing it about a half hour a day (usually right before I sleep), I finally finished this one... I didn't have the time to devote to this all at once, so I've been inching forward to victory since it came out back in October.
First, this is the latest Venus Blood game in the 'monster birth' side of the series (except for Hypno, all Venus Blood games fall into the 'Goddess Corruption' or 'monster birth' types in a general sense). Unlike Gaia and Abyss, which required you to use some of your rather limited turns (there was an absolute turn limit) and were essentially dungeon defense (and occasionally invasion) sims, this one doesn't use turns for the monster birth aspect of the game, has unlimited turns, and is an on-rails dungeon crawler.
I'm not going to go into a huge amount of detail on the game's system. It would take five or fix posts to get all the details out, so I'm just going to touch lightly on things.
First, monster birth in this game, like the others, has the heroines acting as 'mothers' for the monsters they birth. However, monsters don't fight directly in this game. Rather, they have two separate roles... providing passive skills and stat boosts to the heroines, and providing special skill cards that are drawn randomly each turn. As in all Venus Blood games, the former is the place where the game places most of the importance. Passive skills, such as the ones that determine the likelihood of critical hits, give boosts to stats, and others, normally make Venus Blood games the most customizable ones out there...
Unfortunately, this game went kind of casual. There is no real complexity to the birth system, your access to the higher levels of monster is nonexistent on the first playthrough, and the game encourages grinding, rather than encouraging you to blow through things as fast as possible to get bonuses.
Like all Venus Blood games, this game has tentacles... lots of tentacles. However, the story's approach to them is frequently hilarious (outside the actual h-scenes). The protagonist's attitude, the way the heroines change as the story goes on, and the disparity between the high aspirations of the heroines and the way they begin to act later in the game all make for some seriously hilarious moments. Uzume, in particular, is about as hilarious as a heroine can get, especially if you get her ending (which I did, along with all the Law route endings and regular heroine endings... and the true/harem ending).
This game's story is reasonably interesting... but like all the Venus Blood games I've played, it suffers from the lack of a truly great antagonist. For better or worse, Lagar is a distant figure throughout most of the game and only comes to life on the Law route apparently. Isabella is slightly more interesting, but the way she steps out is kind of anticlimactic. Also, the writers left too many hints in the story about the true antagonist for me to actually be surprised when I ran into her. Her motivations are petty and narcissistic, without the psychosis and flair that made Kefka in FFVI interesting. As a result, the last part of the game mostly just felt like a rehashing of the battle against Lagar.
The endings... are mostly hilarious. Oh, there are cool and touching aspects... but true to Venus Blood tradition, the fall of the heroines into the aftermath of their corruption at the protagonist's hands (and their seeming happiness there) is the true attraction, lol. You know you have been playing too many games like this when a final scene of nine heroines delighted to have sex with tentacles feels humorous to you....
For the hell of it, I decided to make up a 'suggested playlist' for people who like/are interested in chuunige who have just begun to play untranslated VNs.
There are two variations on this guide. One is a 'test the waters, gradually take a dip, then dive into the depths' guide. The other is a 'Spartan Guide', which starts out with medium difficulty VNs and moves into harder and harder ones at the top tiers. Each VN list will have four tiers, based on a combination of my estimation of difficulty in reading.
For those unfamiliar with the term 'chuunige', some examples of chuunige that are translated are Fate/Stay Night, Tsukihime, Sorcery Jokers, and Tokyo Babel. I believe you can get the drift from those four examples, lol.
Soft Landing
Tier 1 suggestions (difficulty ranges from a 4-7 on a scale of 10)- Tiny Dungeon series, Draculius, Hyper→Highspeed→Genius (main path only), Ryuukishi Bloody Saga, ExE
Tier 2 suggestions (difficulty ranges from a 5-7.5 on a scale of 10)- Bloody Rondo, Shinigami no Testament, Gensou no Idea, Sinclient, Innocent Bullet. Yurikago yori Tenshi Made
Tier 3 Suggestions (note: VNs on this list range in difficulty from 6-8 on a scale of 10)- Evolimit, Bullet Butlers, Hello, Lady, Izuna Zanshinken, Devils Devel concept
Tier 4 Suggestions (note: VNs on this list range from 6-10 on a scale of 10)- Jingai Makyou, Soukou Akki Muramasa, Silverio Vendetta, Zero Infinity, Vermilion Bind of Blood, Tokyo Necro, Bradyon Veda
Spartan
Tier 1 Suggestions- Evolimit, Yurikago Yori Tenshi Made, Izuna Zanshinken(starts at the high end of 'soft landing' tier 2 up through the middle of tier 3)
Tier 2 Suggestions- Hello, Lady, Bullet Butlers, Devils Devel Concept
Tier 3 Suggestions- Vermilion Bind of Blood, Jingai Makyou
Tier 4 Suggestions- Silverio Vendetta, Zero Infinity, Tokyo Necro, Muramasa, Bradyon Veda
Some Last thoughts
Understand, I know people who are just fine with conversational Japanese and even a number of native speakers who can't handle Bradyon Veda or Muramasa. I honestly suggest you leave those two to last, no matter what. Bullet Butlers is slightly harder than Evolimit due to fantasy terminology. Vermilion is the easiest of the Tier 4 from 'soft landing'. I honestly suggest that anyone just beginning with this list do ExE or Draculius first, because if you can't understand what is going on in either of those even giving yourself time to do so, then you won't be able to play anything else on the list.
Suggestions
Toss aside stupid pride when playing chuunige and use a text hooker and kanji parsing engine (Mecab or jparser in TA will do fine). Chuunige often use kanji in ways almost unique to the individual writer or that are so archaic that even a native speaker won't grasp them immediately. This is a bad habit of chuunige writers in general. Some writers even revive kanji that have been out of common use since the middle of the twentieth century.
Don't feel like you are a traitor for looking up verbs or nouns you haven't encountered before. Almost all chuunige writers use 'literary Japanese', which is almost never seen in anime or manga. Literary Japanese, just like literary English, still uses terms that went out of use in the verbal part of the language decades or even centuries ago. Still, the verbs and nouns themselves are most likely in the dict on your parser, so it should be easy to look up their meanings.
Shinsou Noise is the first game by a new collaboration company called Azurite, which was founded as a joint effort by Silky's Plus and Liar Soft. In this case, Liar Soft provided the writing staff and Silky's provided the art and programming staff. It is also fairly obvious that the planning wasn't done by the Liar Soft team, given the general style of the story, which is more in line with my experiences with Silky's Plus (and thus lacks the annoying conventions Liar Soft usually indulges in).
Anyway, this VN is a mystery VN, with the added element of a 'deduction game' that is part of the story. The deduction game fits into the story, where the protagonist, a reception-only telepath who can't control his abilities to any significant extent, figures out who committed a crime at a specific time and place. This game mechanic is... to be honest... not something I really enjoyed. I mean, it was fairly easy to figure out all but the sixth-chapter stuff without the walkthrough (I had to resort to the walkthrough for the sixth chapter, where things aren't multiple-choice and you actually have to type in the answer). However, to me the deduction game mechanic felt like it broke up the pacing of the game... perhaps it is because I prefer being a watcher over an active participant in mysteries, lol.
There was one other element, which people will inevitably remark upon, that annoyed me.... it was yet another release that utilized the ladder-style story structure. What made it worse in this case was that you could feel the writers trying to make you hate that you picked anything other than the main path, and at the same time, they created a requirement for you to see the other endings before you could view the true one. I'm not going to rave this time, because I'm pretty emotionally exhausted right now.
The story of this game is full of tragedies... including the big one that forms the basis for all the protagonist's actions in the main story. What's more, regardless which of the two final endings you choose on the main path, it still feels like you betrayed someone. There is no real sense of satisfaction that comes from completing this VN, at least for me... perhaps it is because I so quickly became fond of Sakura. Momo, the true heroine, is a true innocent... an absolutely-trusting mind who I found pretty much impossible to see as a heroine.
Overall, this game will probably split people who read it wildly between those left feeling like I am right now and those who love it for the Japanese-style mystery...
EDIT: As an addendum, I'm going to put in my two cents about this game's theme...
... to be honest, both teams were obviously taking waaaaay too much pleasure in hurting the characters from start to finish, without the salvation of this being an utsuge or a nakige. The actual heroine endings were all short and pathetic (literally pathetic) both in scope and in design. I felt actively insulted with the final two endings, which felt like an anticlimax after all that had come before. I don't know why they chose to finish things that way, but it left me feeling like I'd gone through all that vicarious suffering and striving for nothing.
I felt like giving a you all a preview of the first quarter of 2018, after reading this blog post:
I generally choose to refrain from posts like this that cover the future of an entire year, but I feel that I have a good grasp on what is coming out over the next three months that is worth paying attention to, based on my own experiences.
Grisaia Phantom Trigger Vol. 4
This is something to look forward to for anyone who has liked this series so far... more assassin action based in the same universe as Kajitsu and the others.
Yorite Konoha wa Kurenai ni
Let's get something straight... I don't have an absolute faith in Lump of Sugar as a company. If anything, their work over the last five years has proven to me that this is one of the least predictable moege companies out there. For every great VN they make, they make at least two games (usually three) that are pure crap or mediocre. The reason I keep going back to this company is for experiences like Hello,Goodbye, Tayutama (the original, not the sequel), and Sekai to Sekai no Mannaka de. This game looks like it is based in the far future of the same universe as Tayutama, where coexistence between humans and the spiritual beings have stabilized somewhat (based on the content from the Getchu page). As such, I'm willing to give this the benefit of th doubt, despite the somewhat sour experience I got from Tayutama 2.
Sora no Baroque
So far, Light has yet to produce a bad game. I have no reason to think this game, another work from Light's more prolific second team, will be an exception. For chuunige fans, this is the game to pay attention to for the first part of the year.
Chuuni Hime no Teikoku
With a scenario team that was involved with both the original Love Kami (the later games had a different set of writers) and Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no, this is definitely a VN that will be worth looking at, despite being the first work of a new company. Of course, it could end up being delayed for the seventh time... it wouldn't surprise me at this point.
Shin Koihime Musou Kakumei Son Go no Ketsumyaku (note: The title used on vndb is incorrectly romanized)
Originally planned for a release this upcoming summer, this game has been moved forward to February. Like the release of Gi's rewritten route this past summer, we can look forward to a nicely reworked version of the original Go route from Shin Koihime Musou, which was already an excellently-written work.
Hataraku Otona no Ren'ai Jijou 2
This is worth noting because this series (of which this is the third game, despite the numbering) is one of the few non-nukige VNs out there that is set outside a school, and the previous games were enjoyable experiences.
Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteiru Mitsu no Kiraboshi (note: again, what is with the shitty romanizations on new entries on vndb of late?)
This is the third game in the Otoboku series, a third game made over seven years after the second, which was a kamige. Caramel Box has been a lot less prolific in the last few years than it was, so I was gleeful to find a new release by them coming up so soon.
Unjou no Fairy Tail
A new VN based in the same universe as Hoshi no Tsukurikata, meaning that we can look forward to yet more antics in a dystopian steampunk setting.
Kieta Sekai to Tsuki to Shoujo
This is the game for fans of Japanese horror mysteries to pay attention to this quarter. A dark-looking game about a young man who has returned to his hometown, only to find the people around him disappear one by one.
Butterfly Seeker
A new game by Silky's Plus. I am unsure if I want to hold out hopes for this game, as the writer is mostly an unknown, though he has worked for Liar-soft in the past.
My name is Clephas, and I am a pervert.
lol, just kidding... or not. Considering how long I've been playing eroge, I'm definitely a pervert. However, that isn't really what this post is about.
When I look at the VNs for a month, the first thing I look for are chuunige, then fantasy/sci-fi, and then non-human heroines (though the last two are interchangeable depending on my mood). The distant fourth is an interesting protagonist, the fifth is an interesting heroine (if I don't find any of the heroines interesting in setting or character description after eliminating the factors above, I generally have trouble picking the game up).
Why do I love nonhumans...? It is pretty much the only 'romantic' part left in my body.
To be frank, I don't believe in or trust romance. I firmly believe that romance is a lie we tell ourselves so we can ignore the fact that we are being driven by our body's desire for children and the resulting psychological hunger for a close partner. That might seem like a cynical way to think of things, and I don't think about things like that while I'm playing. However, when it is over or before I start? Always.
I like the strange, the weird, the warped, the unusual... what is the point of telling a story if it is about the girl next door? If I want to know about the girl next door, I'll walk over and say hello. I love power trips, I like heroines with different instincts and outlooks, and I like heroines who simply don't share mine or the protagonist's culture.
I love heroines who have lived hundreds of years. I like heroines that used to be animals. I am deeply fond of vampire heroines. I could go on forever about this.
The fact is, we are shaped by our experiences, and a heroine that has had some seriously unusual experiences is generally far more interesting than a heroine who grew up next door and comes to visit every morning.
This is actually the main reason why I find it difficult to comprehend racism on a gut level... though I can comprehend it on the anthropological and sociological studies level.
This is also why I hate 'nerfed' nonhuman heroines. Need to have a vampire heroine attend school? Make her a unique 'daywalker' or have vampires not worry about the sun in the first place. Need to have a succubus be safe around men? Make it so she only needs regular food and the seduction thing is just an ability (these are both actual examples, incidentally). You have an immortal heroine? Make sure she gives up that immortality in her route so that the protagonist doesn't have to worry about being outlived by his wife (ugh, I mean, ugh. Sometimes that works, but most of the time it is a let down).
Thanks for reading this random ramble, lol.
Now, I know what you are wondering... 'Why did Clephas pick a charage for a random VN this time around?" The answer is not as straightforward as usual....
This game is about as close to being the 'perfect' charage as I've ever encountered. That's not to say it is exceptional in every way. There are better written and better presented charage out there. However, I've yet to encounter a charage that utilizes every single element included to the greatest degree possible like this one does. First, the protagonist is not just the average guy, but neither is he super-exceptional. He is just interesting enough to make a good viewpoint (his fear of women, his skill at martial arts, and the taste for cross-dressing he tries to deny) for a game like this without his personality dominating everything. His issues are vital to all the paths, though in different ways due to the way they intertwine with the heroines' issues.
Second, the heroines are all fairly interesting... or at least funny, if they aren't intellectually interesting (Honoka's tendency to see everyone around her as food when she hasn't eaten in the last hour is one example). The actual paths are split into three arcs... the Rielle Arc, the Honoka/Rin Arc, and the Renka/Senri Arc. Each arc approaches the protagonist's own issues differently, ranging from a gradual healing (Rielle) to confronting the source (Honoka/Rin), to a wildly different approach (won't spoil it: Renka/Senri).
This game is brilliantly executed and not dependent on H-content to support it as a whole (which is probably why the game got ported five times), which is a huge plus, since most charage tend to be reliant on dating and h-content to fill out the heroine paths.
This game doesn't waste time. While there is plenty of slice-of-life, much of it amusing, all of it moves the story - and not so incidentally, Yuuki's personal growth - forward. There is not a single wasted element in this story, and that is a feat in and of itself... I once referred to this game as 'bare bones', but that was probably not the right expression. This game is filled out nicely... it just doesn't waste time on stuff that has nothing to do with story advancement or character development.
Overall, if you want to know what the charage ideal looks like, this is a good choice. While it isn't a kamige, it is a game that hits all the spots charage are meant to hit without seeming puerile or shallow to a reader like me, who is more than a little jaded.
Edit: It should be noted that the phenomenon of 'heroines devouring the protagonist', where the heroines' strength of character pretty much buries the protagonist, does not occur in this VN, which is a feat in and of itself. For obvious reasons, most charage heroines are far more interesting than their protagonist, but that often results in a game that feels unbalanced and is vaguely unsatisfying, because many writers actually put down the protagonist to make the heroines shine more... thus leaving a vague feeling of dissatisfaction behind in the end.
Edit2: Adding heroine, character descriptions below.
Protagonist
Kusunoki Yuuki- Yuuki is a reasonably intelligent (slightly above average) young man who is well known for his good heart and ability to put others before himself. When he tries to confess to his girlfriend, a young woman named Ran, she tells him she only went out with him as part of a penalty game and dumps him. As a result, he becomes unable to trust females and instinctively rejects interpersonal contact, even with his own little sister Tatsuki and his childhood friend Honoka. He quite naturally acts for the sake of others, despite this mental illness, and as a result he is a natural harem-builder. However, he is also as dense as the containment for a fission reactor core, meaning that he never notices. This comes at least in part from his inability to trust the feelings of women. He is a skilled martial-artist and very good at fighting one-on-one, but he has no talent for handling multiple opponents at once.
Heroines
Rielle Anderson- The CEO of the Anderson Corporation, an orphan girl who built her fortune from almost nothing in a matter of years. She is behind the new city policy that encourages romance, as well as engineering the 'love-war events' that are being tested at Yuuki's school. She is very blunt and expressive, as well as being highly aggressive when it comes to getting what she wants. She has a ruthless side, but it is not something she indulges to excess (she is a CEO after all). However, she, like Yuuki, tends to put others before herself when it comes to those she cares about, and she frequently indulges in philanthropy.
Suzushiro Rin- One of Yuuki's classmates and a close friend of Honoka. She is extremely distrustful of men due to her past experiences, and her reactions to men tend to range from dry and disinterested to outright malice. The exception is Yuuki, with whom she finds herself forming a sort of rapport almost from the beginning, due to his affliction. At her core, she is a kind-hearted and considerate young woman, but her experiences have rendered her with one of the most terrible of all afflictions... tsundere-ism.
Hiiragi Honoka- Yuuki's childhood friend and the person hurt the most by his inability to be close with women. She is a sweet, somewhat airheaded young woman with an insanely protective side directed toward Yuuki. She has been in love with him from childhood, but he never notices... and she is too much of a hetare to confess her love to him. When she gets hungry (which is often) she goes into a state where those around her start looking tasty, and she begins fantasizing about how she would cook them... with utter seriousness. She feels deeply and acts really directly in response to those feelings, especially when it comes to Yuuki.
Hazakura Renka- The vice-president of the student council. Normally, she is a serious, somewhat uptight young woman with genius level intelligence, but when she sees Yuuki she becomes a prowling panther, panting after him as if he were a delicious-looking deer. She is close with Senri and the only person who can jerk her up short... and vise-versa. She is one of the very few people around Yuuki who don't set off his condition, and she is always very considerate about it, even going so far as to subtly lead him away from areas where females gather.
Asagiri Senri- Called 'the Prince' for her behavior that looks like it came straight out of a shoujo manga, Senri takes a certain pleasure in being surrounded by females and naturally hits on any female that crosses her path. She takes a shine to Yuuki early on, after Renka becomes obsessed with him. Almost no one knows she is a woman, because she arranged things that way. She is a genius scientist who really doesn't need to attend school, but she does so for her own reasons, not the least of which her fondness for role-playing as the school's prince.
Side Characters
Azami Taiga- Yuuki and Honoka's childhood friend. He is a muscular guy who frequently gets treated like a delinquent, despite being about as far from one as it is possible to be. He is extremely protective of Yuuki, similar to Honoka, but he is also better than her about respecting his desire to change and encouraging him to break out of the shell he is trapped in. Unfortunately for him, almost everyone in the group that surrounds Yuuki and the class in general picks on him, and he ends up taking up the worst jobs in any given situation.
Chigaya Rei- A teacher at Yuuki's school who is infamous for his heavy smoking habit and fondness for not coming to his own classes. His bad habit of getting off track during class makes him well-liked by the students, but most people wonder just how he manages to avoid getting fired.
Kusunoki Tatsuki- Yuuki's little sister, she is madly in love with her older brother. When he begins rejecting all women, she discovers that she is a masochist and takes pleasure in the way he slaps her hand away and avoids her. She is Tsukumo's owner, and everyone but her knows that her job in life is to keep that particular monster in its cage.
Kokonoei Tsukumo- A bisexual cosplayer and Tatsuki's closest friend. She moves entirely on instinct and is utterly uncontrollable, frequently stealing looks at Tatsuki's panties and stealing the panties themselves. She is incapable of forethought and has an unnatural instinct for knowing when and how to cause the most trouble. If it weren't for Tatsuki's ability to control her to some extent, she probably would have been expelled long ago.
Rindou Anju- The school's banchou and the single most physically capable student at the school. She also is the child of the dojo that Yuuki attended and treats him as her underling... she is also one of two women Yuuki can actually deal with at close range from the beginning. Despite her attempts to act the lone wolf, Yuuki and the others inevitably manage to ruin her plans and make her seem likable, much to her consternation.
Kuga Erika- One of Rielle's two maid assistants. She is a black-hearted young woman whose hobbies involve SM and writing down information in her 'blackmail diary' to use against others. While she technically has more common sense than Yuzuha, few would willingly want to deal with her over her sister.
Kuga Yuzuha- A rude, violent young woman and one of Rielle's two maid assistants, primarily acting as a bodyguard and troubleshooter. She is easygoing and friendly to those with the right attitude and combative when provoked. When drunk, she reverts to a small child and tends to end up as a target for Erika's sadistic side. She keeps slacking off on the job and getting her pay cut, but she never learns her lesson.
Tsubaki Koharu- Yuuki's homeroom teacher, a small woman in her late twenties who is obsessed over the fact that she still doesn't have a boyfriend. Her tendency to spiral into depression after mentioning this fact in class has become a regular source of amusement for her students, and Taiga generally gets the job of breaking her out of it.
The sad fact about replaying VNs... is that VNs don't have replay value.
That's not to say it isn't possible to replay a VN and enjoy it. With many of the more complex VNs, it is impossible to take in the entire thing on your first playthrough, so it is usually worth a second one. Others are so well-written or have such great characters that they are worth reading again and again. Yet others are just so much fun or are so funny (games made by Rosebleu, Lamunation, etc) that they are worth playing again and again. Last of all, there are those that are so unique that no other experience quite equals them.
However, even amongst the best VNs, there are ones I've found that pale immensely after the second playthrough. In particular, games that are heavy on mysteries and rely on their hidden aspects for at least some of their attraction become much weaker on later playthroughs.
As an example, one of my favorite VNs of all time is Hapymaher (VN of the Year 2013). This game has an emotional, psychedelic story, a unique style, and the single best VN soundtrack out there. However, whenever I attempt a third playthrough, my knowledge of certain aspects that come to light in the end and the fandisc ruins it for me. Oh, Keiko is still unreasonably sexy for a chippai character, Yayoi is still funny, and Saki's sadism+jealousy thing with the protagonist is still just as hilarious... but I always stumble at two-thirds of the way through the common route (otherwise known as the 'Week towards Christmas' chapter by some fanboys). This part is immensely funny and interesting the first time you play it through... but without being able to share in the mystery and surprise of the characters, it is unbearably dull, sadly. Every single time I go back into this game, I stop here.
Another example would be charage, in general. Understand, as you know, I am not terribly fond of charage in and of themselves. I won't go so far as to say I hate them, because I don't. However, if it is the choice between a nakige, an utsuge, a chuunige, and a charage... I'll always pick the charage last. In a good charage, the slice of life and character interactions and development are the best parts of the game... but when it comes to replaying a VN, this tripod of specialties is a poor substitute for an interesting story. I have managed to enjoy replaying a few charage... but most I drop after one path (usually the one of the heroine I liked the most), simply because I feel fatigue from having to slog through the same slice of life scenes a second time.
The Light at the end of the Tunnel
However, there are some games that survive multiple replays well. Nakige, utsuge, and games that go for the emotions in general are the most obvious genres (that are mainstream). I can still go back to moldy-oldies like Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no for a good cry, and I can still devour games like Houkago no Futekikakusha without any trouble at all.
Another type that survives well are well-designed comedic games... for example, Lamunation, with its endless humor (ranging from sex jokes to penguins enjoying Mexican beer), endures multiple playthroughs quite nicely, without paling much as long as you space them out. Comedy is comedy, and as long as you don't overdo it, it is possible to enjoy a good comedy VN multiple times without much fear of boredom.
Games that have a strong protagonist. Perhaps the biggest reason many Japanese VNs are almost unreplayable is because of the 'average protagonist'. A strong, well-developed protagonist with his own unique flaws and personality can carry a game on his back through numerous playthroughs. Good examples of this are Asagiri Kaito from the Akagoei series, Shirasagi Hime from the Tiny Dungeon series, and Narita Shinri from Hello, Lady.
Games that have an overwhelmingly unique cast of characters or setting. A unique setting or a cast of characters can be the difference between a boring failed attempt at a second playthrough and four or five enjoyable playthroughs. Some examples of these are Evolimit; Devils Devel Concept; and the Silverio series. (note: Chuunige are the most likely to fit this type, but the Majikoi games and the Shin Koihime series also fit into this).
Conclusion
In the end though, taste matters. If you didn't enjoy the VN the first time, you won't enjoy it a second time (with rare exceptions). If you don't like chuunige, you most likely won't enjoy DDC or Silverio no matter how many times you attempt to play them, and if you don't like horrible things to happen to your characters, you will never enjoy Houkago no Futekikakusha. I've known people who enjoyed all these games on a first playthrough, were able to enjoy a charage on a second playthrough, but couldn't enjoy these on a second one. So, while this is my analysis, it is not absolute, lol.
Now, I love nothing more than an interesting setting, and I'm tired of normal charage in general... so one of the biggest points that can be used to draw me into a charage is a crazy setting.
Crazy charage settings are settings that have no possibility whatsoever of happening in real life or are so far outside of common sense that they are inconceivable as a real possibility to most people. This includes fantasy settings and sci-fi settings, but more often it includes a simple concept taken to an extreme. There are several types that have become common in the last ten years (common as in they've popped up at least five times in the last ten years in different companies' VNs).
The Love City/School Setting
This is the second most common crazy setting that pops up in charage. To be blunt, it is a setting where love and romance are encouraged as a part of the law or by school rules. In this setting, love, sex, marriage, and/or children are desirable outcomes and the 'system' in those settings goes to weirdly extreme levels of effort and expense to create the desired result. This can be seen as a part of other crazy settings (such as Kamikaze Explorer, where having children as a student was encouraged) or on their own (as in Love Revenge, where romance was essentially forced on the students by the school's new owner), but this particular crazy setting has popped up at least fifteen times that I can think of off the top of my head in the last ten years.
The Virtual World Setting
This is the most common sci-fi setting, often mixing with fantasy ones, where a virtual world (partial or complete) is put into place either in common use or as a part of the main characters' lives. This has a relatively low rate of occurrence for a crazy setting on this list, but it has popped up six times that I can think of in a charage in the last ten years that I can think of. Some where 'enhanced reality' types like Harvest Overray and others were 'jack-in' types like Hoshi no Ne Sanctuary. However, the key to making this list is that the virtual world element is key to the progression of the story, at least through the common route.
The 'Get/got sent to another world' Setting
This is the second most common fantasy charage setting. It can range from 'After I defeated the Dark Lord' types (Valkyrie Runabout is an example of this type) and 'school life somehow in a half-medieval setting' type to ones where the protagonist just shrugs and starts living with the heroines whom he just met (Unlucky Re:Birth). I've come across this six times from VNs made in the last ten years, and mostly they are fun.
The 'Magical/mystical school' setting
The most common fantasy setting. This can range from Alia's Carnival types where the school is the only place where the magic/mystical element is practiced to charage based in mystical worlds (Such as Racial Merge). I can think of about seventeen VNs that chose this type of crazy settings.
The Cross-dressing Boy attends a Girl's School
This one is... well, insane on so many levels. However, it is also the most common 'mundane' (non sci-fi, non fantasy) crazy setting. I can't count how many times this has popped up since Otoboku and Shugotate started the main trends of this crazy setting (for silly/weird reasons vs for serious reasons), but it is also one of my favorites, since you can usually enjoy the protagonist's antics as he tries to fit in... or fits in almost too naturally, as the case might be.
My thoughts
Crazy settings can often be amusing and add flavor to an otherwise trite concept (fall in love stories, which dominate charage), but some people are put off by them. Also, utilizing a crazy setting in a relatively believable fashion is a rare skill amongst charage writers, and many such games fizzle in the end. Nonetheless, I'll probably keep diving into crazy settings, if only to keep myself from going insane with boredom at all the dating and romance that dominate charage.
This is the list, as it currently stands, of VNs being considered and those previously considered but disqualified for VN of the Year 2017. While this year hasn't been good for producing kamige, it has succeeded in producing a number of memorable ones.
Being Considered
Ojou-sama no Hanbun wa Ren'ai de Dekiteimasu
Oni ga Kuru. ~Ane ga Hinshi de Pinchi Desu~
Haruru Minamo ni
Suisei Ginka
Additions from 12/30/2017
Bakumatsu Jinchuu Houkoku Resshiden Miburo
Yami to Hikari no Sanctuary
Aoi Tori
Kanojo wa Imouto de Tenshi de
Eliminated/disqualified candidates/Runners-up
Silverio Trinity (Disqualified for being a direct sequel incapable of standing on its own)
Shin Koihime Musou -Kakumei- (ditto to above... with the addendum that it is also a remake)
Hataraku Otona no Ren'ai Jijou (realistically, this VN just hits my sweet spot and really isn't VN of the Year material)
Fuyu Uso (similar to Trinity and Koihime)
Hikari no Umi no Apeiria (funny, interesting, but ultimately falls short)
Additions from 12/30/2017
Kin'iro Loveriche (fun, good feels, but not quite there)
Kizuna Kirameku Koi Iroha (great first job by a new company, but it isn't a finalist)
Junjou Karen Freaks (funny fantasy with mimikko, but not quite there)
Bokura no Sekai no Shukufuku o (great nakige, great story, but not a finalist)
November 2017
I delayed this one so I could get fun2novel's input on Yurameku Kokoro ni Michita Sekai de, Kimi no Yume to Yokubou wa Kanau ka (As he put it, this game is boring as hell and spends way too much time implying things without actually doing anything). While November had some surprisingly great leases (Kizuna Kirameku being primary amongst those), Aoi Tori was the only conceivable winner for the VN of the Month, November 2017.
December 2017
You might think me a bit premature, naming a winner before I played Koi ni, Kanmi or Natural Vacation... but I'll be straight with you when I state that the latter, from the samples I played, is nowhere near the quality of the main two candidates for the month (Miburo and Loveriche). The latter... I'm just not interested in (yet another sweets shop charage... why are there so many of those, especially on VNs simultaneously released in English and Japanese?). It was a straight-out competition between Miburo and Loveriche this time around. I briefly considered disqualifying Miburo, on the grounds that it is a sequel, but it can stand on its own nicely without being propped up by its predecessors, so I went ahead and considered it. Loveriche, for all that it isn't the best Saga Planets game (that's a competition between Flowlove and Hatsuyuki), is still one of the better games released this year.
In the end, I concluded that Bakumatsu Jinchuu Houkoku Resshiden Miburo was the stronger release, if only by a hair. Akane as a heroine and the lack of Ayaka as a heroine were the two negative elements that pushed Loveriche below Miburo after the foreshadowing issue and Miburo's historical infodumping cancelled one another out. So is decided the December 2017 VN of the Month.
This is the third game in the series that began with Chuusingura (please don't judge that particular work by the utterly shitty translation). I do highly recommend that you play both Chuusingura and Bushi no Kodou before you play this game, because it is necessary to fully understand some of the events that occur (particularly in the true Hijikata ending).
First, a bit of background about the Bakumatsu period. Essentially, after Admiral Perry forced open Japan with the threat of his cannons, the Bakufu (also known as the Tokugawa Shogunate), was forced to sign the usual set of unequal treaties Western nations forced on Eastern ones with less advanced tech during that period of history. Japan's peculiar double-headed political structure at the time, with the Emperor 'lending' his authority to the Shogun of the time in order to rule Japan and the then-emperor's stated wish for the exclusion of foreigners lent anti-Tokugawa factions and ambitious feudal lords the justification they needed (mostly to convince their followers) to start moving against the Bakufu.
This was made worse when one of these factions succeeded in assassinating Chancellor Ii, who directed the political purges and authoritarian political moves of the Bakufu immediately following Perry's actions. This gave others the idea to do similar things to anyone they saw as supporting the Bakufu, and Kyouto became the center of a bloody series of assassinations of officials and merchants who sided with the existing authority or benefited from foreign contacts.
The Aizu Clan, which was given the authority and rather nasty job of bringing peace to Kyouto, recruited ronin (masterless samurai) in order to form a police force that would capture or execute the other ronin making trouble in the city. This resulted in the formation of the Roushigumi, which later became the Shinsengumi seen in Hakuoki, Peacemaker Kurogane, and the Rurounin Kenshin OVAs (Saitou Hajime in the main series was also a member).
Historically, the Shinsengumi, despite having suffered a number of internal disputes and factional splits in the years leading up to the fall of the Bakufu, were amongst the few who fought to the end against the new government, and Hijikata Toshizou's final death and his death poem are one of the most incredibly romanticized objects amongst samurai-loving weaboos of the classic stripe. Some left-leaning history buffs in Japan blame the romanticization of the Shinsengumi and the characters from Chuusingura for the intense rise in nationalism and insane glorification of samurai culture that occurred leading up to WWII.
Now down to business... it should be stated that this game is about fifteen times more violent than Chuusingura was. The protagonist and other members of the Shinsengumi killed people on a daily basis with swords in broad daylight, and they don't really hold back when it comes to portraying that.
This game is also just as long as Chusingura (maybe slightly longer) was, despite being essentially one long path for most of its length (with about a third of it devoted to individual paths). This is because the story covers about six years worth of chaotic events, both political and personal. Going into this game with a full knowledge of the fates of the Shinsengumi members, I couldn't help but wish some of their fates would be changed (hint: of the original membership, only Saitou Hajime and Shinpachi live to see old age), and there are a lot of characters I honestly wept for... no matter what game I see him/her in, Sakamoto Ryouma is always an admirable character and seeing the pointless deaths of a number of clear-eyed individuals with an eye toward the future is just as bad. However, this game follows history to the end in the Hijikata path and for most of the game otherwise... and while the Shinsengumi might be cultural icons now, their lives were colored with blood and tragedy.
There are four main paths, three side-paths (paths for heroines that die or are otherwise separated from the main cast for some reason), and one true path (Hijikata Ending 2). The main paths include Okita Souji, Kondou Isami, Hajime Saitou, and Hijikata Toshizou. Okita's path... well, if you've seen any of the many anime (except Gintama) where he pops up, you'll know what I mean when I say it ends on a sad and somewhat empty note. Kondou Isami's path is marginally better (if you know about Kondou's historic fate, it is nice to see it changed). Saitou's path is significantly better and more detailed, as are the three side-paths (which is somewhat ironic). Hijikata's paths are, of course, the most complete-feeling and satisfying, though the first one left me in tears for a solid ten minutes.
This game does have some major flaws... there was an obvious history buff's obsession with detail when it came to portraying a lot of the historical events involved, and that aspect could start to feel interminable in the space between the story's main turning point and the heroine paths. However, I found myself willing to forgive that flaw in the end.
Overall, this was an excellent story, and it takes relatively few liberties with history (beyond feminization of historical figures), which is unusual in Shinsengumi portrayals. The most unusual aspect of the game (the protagonist's ability) was mostly a dormant issue for the greater part of the game, so it often left me with a nice illusion that I was seeing through the eyes of a real Shinsengumi member.
I was surprised at one revelation in the true ending, though...
First, a short intro... this is the second Clock Up game where Kurashiki Tatsuya (one of Light's second team of writers) has been involved, and those who played the previous one, Maggot Baits, will recognize the atmosphere and 'flavor' of the story instantly. This is a game devoid of salvation in any real sense. The protagonist and the other characters are universally the scum of the Earth (Mirei being the only exception, though she is a bit screwy too), and their lifestyles and pasts range from the distasteful to the outright disgusting.
While there are relatively few of the violent h-scenes that defined Maggot Baits, they do exist, so I do feel a need to warn you that a lot of the content in this game is graphic and not for those with a weak stomach.
The protagonist (who never reveals his true name in the entire story) is a professional killer who needs to kill people in order to sleep (it is more interesting if you read it yourself, so I won't go into detail). One day, he gets the order to investigate/find the killer of a paparazzi killed at the love hotel at which he works most of the time. What he finds is... Azami, a serial killer, whom he gets into combat with immediately. The end result of the battle is them having sex... and her getting obsessed with/attached to him. He returns the obsession in part due to the fact that, after having sex with her, he can sleep.
I'll be blunt, there is no point in this game where the characters can really be said to 'shine'. There are three endings, two of which are different based on how the protagonist pursues his relationship with Azami. The final path, the true path, brings their relationship to the final stage (visibly inevitable, if you get to know Azami), and you are presented by a predictably depressing ending.
This game has excellent writing, which goes without saying really, since it is done by Kurashiki Tatsuya. However, the unending dark atmosphere that infuses the story is energy-draining in the extreme. This is made worse by this general sense that the game is just trying to say 'humans are worthless' throughout its entire length. While the battle scenes are excellent, there were too many points in the story where cruel turns of event occurred simply to push things forward or to titillate the reader. This was true of Maggot Baits as well, but this game lacks the 'sort of good ending' you saw in that one, which gave you a sense of satisfaction, even if it was only in comparison to the rest of the game.
First, yes I decided to write about another nukige... a nukige with story. Now, the reason I decided to play this one is because of my fondness for kitsune heroines (my fetish is everlasting), and I thought, going into this, that it was going to be a sex fest from day one... but the actual amount of h-content in this game is quite a bit lower proportionally to the story than is the norm in a nukige. In fact, this game actually has solid heroine paths that impressed me with their quality.
This game focuses on a young wannabe potter who goes to a small country town to study as an apprentice under a skilled potter named Haruakira (incidentally, this was the first name of Abe no Seimei, the famous onmyouji from the Heian era that makes his way into so many fantasy anime).
This game's unique approach to the story is that, for one thing, there is no pre-marital sex (unheard of in any eroge I've read up until now), and most of the VN's content is about the married life with each of the heroines, as their bonds strengthen and they get to know one another on a deeper level. This was also what impressed me most about this game... because it focuses on married life rather than a relationship between unmarried lovers. In addition, the actual time consumed for the formation of the relationships to proposals tends to be a year to several years, and the married life generally lasts a year or more before the ending roll.
Now, while I liked the other paths, my favorite one in this game was the one for the kitsune, Kuzunoha. Kuzunoha is a mischievous fox youkai/kitsune who is more like a buddy to the protagonist when they first meet, though their relationship turns into love relatively quickly. Kuzunoha has her hangups, like any ancient heroine you see in one of these games (past losses and general loneliness being the major ones). However, all in all she is a somewhat odd blend between the ideal Japanese wife functionally (by the way, the ideal Japanese wife thing is extremely sexist, lol) while never losing that tendency to tease the protagonist every chance she gets.
There are a lot of points in this VN that are emotionally touching, and I actually never felt like skipping the non-H text (which tends to happen in nukige most of the time, since the non-H scenes usually read like they were written by the village idiot).
Honestly, on occasion it really is worth following your fetishes, lol.
Conquest strategy games, as opposed to RTS, are games where conquest operates on a strategic (large-scale) rather than tactical level and is unconcerned with the activities of individual soldiers (soldiers are numbers, not capable of individual action). They involve the capture of strategic points in order to hold territory and the keeping of order and management of general resources (wealth and troops, as opposed to specific resources like wood, stone, and food).
There are certain rules to this type of game when measuring difficulty level... there are obvious ones such as the amount of money you start with (ideally, on normal mode you should start with enough to secure the region immediately surrounding your starting point without resorting to extreme methods like heavy taxes and plundering). However, there are less obvious ones that are as much matters of real strategy as game rules.
The biggest obstacle to efficient conquest, other than resources like troop numbers and wealth to pay for actions, is the number of points you have to defend and the limits on how much force you can bring on a single point.
The worst possible position to be in, in a continental conquest type, is to be situated inland, with non-allies on all sides and all paths open to invasion or for you to invade through. In this situation, it is difficult to limit the points at which you have contact with the enemy, and this makes it immensely difficult to hold or expand territory, since you can't concentrate your 'iron fist' to smash one or two points (the ideal situation for normal difficulty at the beginning). The best possible position is to be in a 'corner' area with only two points to defends and another two points that can be used to expand your territory while limiting the vulnerability created by such territorial expansion.
Generally speaking, the Sangoku/Sengoku Hime story paths tend to start with you having to unify your own province, with the first few parts after that concentrated on securing one or two other provinces at a time. This is further effectively handled by the fact that, in order to attack from a province, you must hold all the castles/domains within that province, and the same goes for your enemies. Thus, it is possible to preempt an enemy assault by snatching one or two castles in the neighboring provinces with your main forces or judge a province harmless or dangerous by whether multiple factions are active inside. However, this strategy falls apart if the enemy takes castle in the territory you are invading from in the same turn, and things can quickly become messy as a result (one situation I found myself in in Sengoku Hime 5 had me facing off against an enemy that could attack any one of five castles from the castle she'd taken, thus forcing me to concentrate a much larger force than I would have preferred to hold her off).
Public order issues are common to many VNs with gameplay and games of this type. If you capture a province, it is often necessary to rebuild infrastructure and regain the trust of the people during the political phase, and the necessity of recruiting troops to replace those lost is often counter to his necessity (in the Sangoku games, this can increase the possibility of famines and bandit attacks, for instance). Worse, it can sometimes take five or more turns to regain order after a conscription, making you vulnerable to all sorts of messy 'disaster' events (referring to the Sangoku/Sengoku Hime series).
The amount of territory you have in this kind of game directly effects how much of an army you can raise and maintain, as well as how often you can take political and military actions of various sorts. This means that falling behind the enemy in an 'open' scenario can often lead to you being in the worst possible type of position (for example, in Sengoku Hime 3, I once found myself facing a Miyoshi Clan that had taken over the entirety of Eastern and Northern Japan in the time it had taken me to secure Kyuushu and Shikoku, and I ended up facing forces of story generals in overwhelming numbers as a result... and I lost). Grabbing a larger territory early on can often allow you to expand faster later on, even if you haven't yet built up that territory sufficiently (maxed public order and public works, as an example).
Conquest strategy VNs and games are amongst the most satisfying type of strategy games... and time-consuming ones.
I should note that I've been following this series since I played the third game two years ago, and I'm going to rehash some of my feelings about it as a whole.
The first three games of the Sangoku Hime series had a number of good and bad points, even if I don't compare them to the Sengoku Hime series, which has been refined a great deal more due to it already being on its seventh installment.
Pros
1- Male sprites are... badass cool, in general. Insanely detailed, actually impressive, though they contrast greatly with the more moe-type female sprites.
2-Ginga, the protagonist of the first three games, is a pure warrior general, with his abilities almost as extremely designed as Lu Bu's (Ryofu Housen), with high tactical and military skills (insanely high) and relatively low intelligence and politics skills. This actually makes him amongst the five most powerful frontline generals in the game. In addition, Ginga's psychology and life, as it was described in III, is just... cool.
3- First-class prologues and endings. For the first three games, moe-bait was avoided assiduously outside of the romantic side-episodes. The prologues of these games were great intros and the endings were powerful, emotional, and sometimes even inspiring.
4- in 3, at least, you could alter the fates of certain doomed individuals (in particular, the Sun family), though this often cost you others.
5- Numerous unit types, all with their own unique abilities and uses.
6- Absolutely perfect portrayal of Cao Cao's feminized character, both in personality and in art (She makes Karen from the Koihime Musou series seem pathetic).
Cons
1- Way too much sex, way too many 'romantic' side episodes with random female generals. This was also the case with the early Sengoku Hime games, but the amount of text and time spent on h-scenes actually outweighs the main story of each path.
2- Almost nothing in the way of the story after you 'settle in' (conquer the first two or three provinces, reach the story's first turning point after the prologue).
3- Romantic elements mostly feel forced.
4- Illogical handling of public order system and conscription (this is common to 4 and 5 as well).
5- Game difficulty skyrockets about one third into the game, and resource management is made insanely difficult by random bandit attacks stripping your treasury.
Hard to Judge (for both)
1- 'Architect' skill system, which allows for you to improve your characters by using points gained from battles, training, and political actions, allows you to customize story generals to some extent. In 1-3, this meant you could turn any character into an all-powerful demon lord, but this has been greatly nerfed in 4 and 5.
2- Elemental affinities are just an unnecessary complication... and generally too much trouble to bother with, since you have only a limited number of actions per turn to move troops around.
For 4 and 5
Pros
1- H-content and romantic side-episodes have been greatly reduced in number, thus reducing fatigue.
2- More 'directed' story campaigns, which don't leave you trying to fight enemies on all sides without being able to secure a buffer of resources and generals.
3- Toutaku (Dong Zhuo), after being feminized, goes from a nihilistic dickhead to a Reinhard Heydrich-Class possessive yandere (If you betray her by stopping being hers, she tortures you horribly so that your last thoughts are of her, so making you belong to her even in deaht).
4- Akito, unlike Ginga, is a more flexible character, though less exhilarating as a protagonist. As a generalist, he is actually an excellent general, though his starting troop class is the somewhat mediocre light cavalry.
5- Improved story to gameplay balance (massively improved, in some of the paths.
6- Lu Bu now has a measurable brain, so she is actually useful outside of battle... though she isn't as cool.
Cons
1- Cao Cao's makeover. To be blunt, the new Cao Cao, is so... stereotypical.
2- Nerfed Architect system. To be blunt, the architect system is one of the few advantages you have over everyone else, in a game where strategic options are limited in the first place. The degree to which it has been nerfed in these two games is ridiculous, considering the turn limit.
3- Weakened story generals. While this isn't true of all of them, most story generals are weaker than their counterparts in 1-3. This is especially marked with Cao Cao, the Sun Family, and Guan Yu. Since they are the only generals you don't have to bribe to like you, this can be irritating.
4- Male sprites are now moe-bait.
5- Endings and prologues, while still decent, no longer have the impact of 1-3.
6- The mouth movement gimmick in these games sucks donkey ass.
7- Sun family personalities are now moe. (blech)
8- Troop class advantages, other than that of the sorcerer (which curses enemies so that all damage they receive is doubled) are nerfed.
9- Stories now start later in the history (meaning that you miss a lot of the best parts).
10- 5-specific bug where Akito's Architect grid resets after the final turning point in each story path, thus eliminating a ton of hard work. Moreover, where other characters inherit their Architect grids across multiple playthroughs, he doesn't... which is weird, since he is the protagonist.
On 5 specifically
I've already expounded on the gameplay above, now I'll go over the story. I've played two of the six paths in this game (the sixth being Ryofu Housen's path, which branches off from Toutaku's). The two I played were Toutaku and Cao Cao...
Toutaku's path is a masochist's wet-dream, since the protagonist is essentially in a controlling relationship with a possessive yandere who generally loves and is possessive of everyone who serves her or lives under her rule. Considering Toutaku not only raised but educated the protagonist (in multiple ways, including sexual and more mundane meanings), her being dominant wasn't a surprise. However, the sheer one-sidedness of her possessiveness was awe-inspiring at times, especially toward the end. There are also times in this path where the faint of heart will probably drop it outright. Akito's role in Toutaku's court is as an assassin, spy, general, tactician, seducer... and torturer. In comparison to the kind-hearted, easygoing guy he is in the other paths and in 4, it was a bit shocking, even for me. I mean, he casually mentions that he seduced a man's wife, had her poison the husband, then killed her afterward... and feels no guilt for it whatsoever, because Toutaku told him to. lol
Cao Cao's path is much more mundane, in comparison. It starts right before Cao Cao initiates the campaigns against Yuan Shao (Enshou), thus leaving all the events around the Yellow Turbans and Dong Zhuo in the dust (along with the fun involved). I'll be straight, while the character interactions in this path are frequently amusing and I honestly liked things most of the time, the inclusion of moe-aspects into Cao Cao's personality is a non-starter. Cao Cao's crueler side never comes to the surface in this path, and Akito's hero worship turns to love in the most cliched way possible. In other words... this path was entirely unlike Cao Cao, and thus, I deem it a failure, despite its good points.
I also played Choukaku's path up until the turning point... and I dropped it like a hot potato. To be blunt, I found the mewling idealism that suddenly surfaces in that path about halfway to be repulsive (in another game, I probably wouldn't have minded as much... but Zhang Jiao/Choukaku basically closed her eyes to rapine and plunder on a massive scale for years before Akito turns things around, so I thought it was all a bit too convenient).
Overall, I give high points to Toutaku's path and intend to go back and play the Ryofu path that branches off from it at a later time... but Cao Cao's path has made me tired. Choukaku's path made a shot at the 'redemption from darkness' thing, but it fell flat to me so badly that I couldn't bring myself to go any farther. It didn't help that they killed off two of your most valuable generals in a path where you only have five story generals (as opposed to the 8-13 seen in the other paths) right before opening you up to invasion from five provinces at once.
Maho Roba is the latest release from Akabei Soft 3, the subsidiary made by conglomerating staff and resources from a number of Akabei Soft 2's other subsidiaries. Now, this game is in a different vein from the games previously released... in the sense that this company has done pretty much everything but a fantasy charage since it was formed.
... I'll be straight with you. My first thought upon finishing this game was that it is exactly like another half-dozen 'average quality' fantasy charage I've played in the past. The protagonist, despite being an adult member of society with an interesting job, somehow ends up working as a volunteer at a girls' magic school. He is a natural magician... who can only use one spell effectively. Moreover, for some reason the role archetype chosen for him in relation to the girls at the dorm is 'lucky sukebe who is the target of constant abuse from the heroines'. I don't think you can get any more cliche than that. Considering how the way the story is set up makes his job and previous experience and maturity irrelevant and constantly reduces him to just another 'sort of perverted protagonist making excuses', I found a lot of reason for irritation throughout this game.
The heroines aren't much better... Shizuru is a standard straight-laced tsundere with an inferiority complex toward her more capable older sister (seen this over seventy times), Konatsu is the 'deredere heroine reunited with the protagonist' archetype, Kuon is the childish but brilliant loli who is afraid of strangers (yet another 'classic' archetype), and Teru is your standard 'Love? Can you eat that?' innocent genki heroine...
The two heroines unlocked by completing one of those four are a bit more interesting (the ancient principal and the lonely genius magician), but their paths don't really show anything more interesting than those of the previous four heroines. By the time I finished this game, I was so immensely bored with the dull cast of characters and pathetic attempts at humor that I was falling asleep in the middle of my day. About the only thing that was consistently funny was the borderline yandere moments Konatsu showed sometimes (always momentary)... and I felt the protagonist only grew less interesting with time, as he regresses to a hormone-driven teenager during the paths.
In short, while this might be a decent choice for someone looking for a really average fantasy charage, it contains every flaw the charage genre tends to inflict on itself in spades, except excessive ichaicha (that was actually decently balanced in most of the paths) and a lack of decent epilogues (though why they went through the trouble to give a solid epilogue to each of these heroines, I have no idea).
This game is the second project made by Samoyed Smile, a subsidiary of the same corporation that owns Softhouse-seal. This is, incidentally, why the game has the really crappy lip-sync and sex animations so familiar from that company's works. That said, this company is not a nukige company, despite the lateral relationship.
The game starts with a young teacher, Haruki, teaching a class of dropouts at a night school. Haruki, having had horrible experiences at his first teaching job, has a poor attitude at first, primarily because he was lured by his estranged father with the promise of the equivalent of $4M in inheritance if he succeeded in graduating the last three students at the night school.
Haruki is unusual amongst VN protagonists for being an adult with at least some experience in life, and as a character, he is extremely well-written, his humanity laid bare for the reader to see. The situation is also unusual, since VNs with the kind of atmosphere you start with in this game tend to end up as rape/despair spirals in most cases. The heroines are all a bit loopy and the protagonist isn't much better, when it comes down to it (situation-wise).
Common Route
However, the game's common route is actually fairly uplifting, once you get past the initial bumps in the road involved in the characters getting used to one another. Haruki and the heroines slowly get to know one another and even form the beginnings of something like a bond of trust, which comes to a nice high point before the heroine routes split off. I honestly felt that it was nicely orchestrated, though I did feel that they included an unnecessary number of choices, considering that the events in the common route don't change as a result.
Koshimizu Hayate
Hayate is a spiky tsundere who never fails to fulfill the best - as opposed to the worst - standards of the archetype. She actually has justification for her attitude, for one thing... she came across her flaws honestly. She is also, despite appearances, probably the most 'normal' of the heroines under the surface. Hayate is a Japanese male name, which should give you at least some idea of why she hates having her name spoken or written.
Hayate's problem, like the problems of many runaways, is with her parents. I won't spoil it for you, but it is a pretty deep problem... it reminds me of Fumika from Semiramis no Tenbin, except Hayate is a lot more aggressive and less gentle, lol. Her path is deeply touching, especially as she and the protagonist manage to get over or around their traumas and make peace with who they are. The student-teacher relationship thing doesn't take its usual turns (probably because the night school itself is too intimate for that kind of social drama to occur), so you shouldn't expect the 'oh they got found out, so he might lose his job!' crap you see with similar protagonist-heroine relationships in other VNs.
Kadokura Riko and Kadokura Ayako
I'm going to be clear about something... I hate real lolicon content in every way, shape, and form. If this path had discarded the H content, I honestly would have loved it, but the h-scenes in this path ruin it. This is one of the few cases where I honestly think that sexual content is an active barrier to enjoyment rather than a mere annoyance. That said, this path is well written...
Riko and Ayako are mother and daughter. Ayako is a weak-mannered, weak-willed young woman who had Riko as a young teenager and is now serving as a single mother to her. Riko, for her part, is a 'good girl' (think Sachi from Grisaia, though not quite that extreme). However, there are lots of problems with those two... and the two biggest ones are Riko's 'illness' and Ayako's inability to see anything in a positive light.
This path is all about the nature of human weakness and it deals more with the protagonist's issues with his mother, as opposed to the ones with his father (which were dealt with in the previous path). That said, he is far more pathetic in his 'down time' than he was in Hayate's path, so that was another reason why I honestly left this path with a bad taste in my mouth. The main ending (Riko only) is happy, but the other one is obviously a bad ending, albeit one that is probably pleasant in the sensual sense of things.
Niijima Kina
Kina is a sweet-natured airhead. I don't mean this as an insult... it is an accurate description. She has a definite learning disability, and she is a natural airhead on top of that. That said, she is also determined to learn and the first of the heroines to take a shine to the protagonist, partially because he actually takes the time to create a personalized curriculum for her and partially because he doesn't look down on her after a few initial bumps in their student-teacher relationsip (say what you like about him, but he has to force himself to act like an asshole in most of the cases where he does).
Kina's path is about even with Hayate's for quality, overall... but when you find out the full reason why she's attending night school, I guarantee you will either wince or cry. They go into specifics, and it is pretty nasty at times.
Kina's path also shows off her best qualities as a character... such as her capacity for love and her empathy. However, it also shows off some of her negative points... such as being consumed by hatred and being just a tad psychopathic at times, lol. Unfortunately, despite rumors to the contrary, she isn't a yandere (I thought she would be, but meh), but she comes close to it sometimes. Probably, if they had a bad ending for this path, she would have gone down that path, since she definitely has potential.
Overall
Overall, this game was a bumpy ride. Is it good? Yes. Is it perfect? About as far from it as possible while still being a good game. Reading this game is a high-stress experience, and I actually found myself growing wistful for charage by the end. Nonetheless, this game is of a type that is rarely seen these days, lining up with Yume Miru Kusuri for the heart-wounded heroines and screwy psychological twists.
Let's first lay out my basic view... I loathe microtransactions.
I'm not an anti-industry activist, and I don't have a serious bone to pick with any individual company about them. I've had a few bad experiences with them, but the reason for my loathing is something more fundamental, that I came to realize only after I'd put a year or so between my worst experience with them.
First of all, my experience was with an MMORPG on PC, rather than a blockbuster title or a smartphone game. As such, in some ways my experience is probably the most 'traditional' one for the original form microtransactions took... the 'pay-to-win' model of massively multiplayer games.
Basically, in that game, you could not only buy clothing and armor with real money, you could also massively accelerate your experience gaining and basically not even do several annoying but important quests that gained you new skills and and access to higher classes if you were willing to fork over enough money. Now, this was the game that essentially put an end to me playing MMO's, even out of curiosity. Before then, I'd only played subscription-model games, and as a result, I'd never experienced a game designed to essentially squeeze more and more money out of people in that manner. My frustration kept growing, because up until then, I'd basically played games when they first came out until I reached the level cap, then dropped them, cancelling my subscriptions and deleting my account. However, in that game, I kept on running into roadblocks to my curiosity about the world I'd entered, and when that frustration reached its peak... I made the mistake of indulging in microtransactions to speed things along.
I probably wouldn't have realized what it was doing to me or my bank account, if it weren't for the fact that I got caught up in a minor scandal where a GM was raiding players' accounts using his administrative rights and selling off their non-bound equipment and items on the marketplace. While it wasn't a direct result of my microtransactions, it nonetheless served to cool my head... and make me realize I'd basically thrown away money on virtual items, some of them with frigging time limits for their use. I got my money back for the stolen items, but only after I flatly stated I wanted nothing to do with the game after that and threatened to lawyer up if they refused. So, I managed to escape before I reached the degree of financial loss Japanese 'kakinhei' have been casually enduring for years before the concept wormed its way over here (incidentally, it is much, much worse in Japan, China, and Korea than it is here...).
Microtransactions are essentially an outgrowth of the dlc concept, save without even attempting to give you value for value. Once you've purchased dlc, it is yours, you can leave it installed without worrying the 'time limit' will run out, and you don't need to feel driven to show off how much money you wasted to people who were just as stupid as you were. However, the most critical difference is that dlc isn't an 'infinite product'. It isn't constructed to draw ever greater amounts of money out of the user and indulging in purchasing dlc or a season pass for a regular game you like isn't nearly as damaging to your wallet or your mental health as microtransactions are.
Edit: To be clear, I see microtransactions as being one of the most fundamentally dishonest types of scam directed at consumers to have cropped up this century. The techniques are well-established, predatory, and poisonous, especially to those too young and inexperienced to realize that money doesn't spray in infinite clouds of green from the cards in their parents' wallet.
When I first started playing untranslated VNs (right about the time Obama got into office), I had the luxury of cherry-picking some of the best titles in existence at the time for my initial lineup. In some cases, I just randomly grabbed stuff that met my tastes, and in others I went by recommendations by established vets like Accany. However, at this point in my VN experience, I had yet to start VN of the Month and I was basically seeing VNs solely by how they met my expectations and tastes, a tendency that most new VN players have.
About a year ago, I began looking over the VNs I played when I first dove into the sea of untranslated VNs, and I came to a rather embarrassing realization... I probably hadn't given a number of them a fair shake, in retrospect. Sometimes, my opinion didn't change after playing them again, and in those cases I didn't bother blogging about them or changing my vote on vndb. However, occasionally I encountered VNs that I really had judged unfairly at the time in light of my current experience with VNs in general.
As such, I've been picking out VNs from my initial set of votes (the first two years) and considering whether it is worth it to replay them.
Hanachirasu I voted extremely low at the time... and that vote was quite correct. It is quite possibly the second worst VN I've played from Nitro+, behind Sumaga.
After an initial re-sampling, I intend to replay Utatemeguri to confirm my impressions back when it was released.
Lovekami I probably would have voted higher (an 8.5) under my current system.
11Eyes I actually wanted to give a lower vote to (A 5 or a 4)
Kanojo-tachi no Ryuugi was something I really didn't have a taste for at the time, and in retrospect I should probably go back and at least see if my impressions back then were flawed.
The list goes on... Whether positive or negative, I found that a number of the VNs I re-sampled quite simply were improperly rated under my current system or my impressions at the time were skewed by the fact that I was playing so many kamige right alongside them. It is interesting how much an opinion can change with experience... and it is surprising to me how many of those games I actually have a much better impression of all these years later.
Edit: Below is a list of VNs I plan to do for Random VNs when I have the time for this project.
Gokudou no Hanayome (Yakuza love-comedy)
Lovekami (The original, not the shitty ones that came out recently)
Kanojo-tachi no Ryuugi (dark vampire incest love story)
Boku ga Sadame Kimi ni wa Tsubasa o (Chuunige)
Shuumatsu Shoujo Gensou Alicematic (Cthulhu Mythos action fantasy chuunige)
Utatemeguri ('Gakuen Battle' type chuunige)
Gekkou no Carnevale (Werewolves and living dolls, oh my!)
Itsuka, Todoku, Ano Sora ni (I am about 90% sure I misjudged this VN based on what I was looking for at the time...)
Duelist X Engage
Ones I've already replayed or re-dropped
Hanachirasu
Kurenai no Tsuki (see my blog post)
11eyes
Swan Song (If anything, my impressions were even worse this time around)
This game is the one I've been waiting for... a mimikko nakige that doesn't ignore the setting or human nature.
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist, Kazuki takes in a puppy he finds abandoned in the park, feeds her, and then falls asleep with the half-feral cat he feeds occasionally watching. When he wakes up, they've both transformed into mimikko, a catgirl and a doggirl... Soon after, it becomes apparent that shortly after this event, pets around the world began turning into humanoids, resulting in the kind of mixed reactions you'd expect in the real world if that happened. The reactions, as described, vary between fanatical religious obsession and fetishism to xenophobic psychopathy and upsurges in racism... and everything in between.
Now, this game has a really odd balance... there is almost enough H content in this game to call it a nukige, but the emotional narration, the characters' actions, and the way it is written is pure nakige fare. Kuro and Hana (the cat and dog) are really obvious deredere characters, and Hana is the obvious main heroine. However, Kuro and the three other heroines are not neglected in any way, shape, or form... they all have their unique story/paths.
This game is big on the feels. Kazuki is a young man with an intimate knowledge of loneliness and isolation and a sense of compassion that is close to saintly. In addition, he is wise enough to do what will prepare the two girls in his care for the world they've come into, rather than simply protect them from the knowledge of what is is like (which would be typical for the average VN protag)... For the example in the prologue, he takes them along when he goes to the local animal shelter to help pick out the animals that will be taken to the place he works (a charitable organization that takes in abandoned pets and trains them for adoption, similar to organizations in 'no-kill cities' in the US, such as my own Austin), where they will be trained so as to make them more adoptable... and makes it clear to them the inevitable results for those who aren't chosen (note: I only chose to spoil this part because it is vital to understanding the difference between this and your standard moe-fuwa mimikko game).
This is one of three games I've encountered of the type, each approaching things from a different perspective (for one thing, this one is fantasy). Those other two are Sakura Iro Quartet and Otomimi Infinity. Nekopara ignores human nature a bit too often to make it into that particular rarified company, lol.
Anyway, for those interested in a mimikko nakige with really good feels, this is a good choice. This is a great emotional story. However, don't expect extreme levels of depth or dark motives from the main characters, since they are all essentially good-hearted people.
It has turned out to be a big month, hasn't it? Three good quality games in a row... one of which I was sure was going to be a kusoge (guess which one). This month had a surprising number of non-nukige releases that I was interested in, and I didn't really want to leave any of them to anyone else (I was actually interested in most of them). Here is a list of what I've played and what I might play before picking VN of the Month.
Played
Aoi Tori
Kizuna Kirameku Koi Iroha
Yoru Meguru, Bokura no Maigo Kyoushitsu
On the playlist
Bokura no Sekai no Shukufuku wo (looks like a mimikko charage, might be a nukige... either way, it stimulates my fetish)
Maho x Roba (to be honest, I don't trust charage from Akabei subsidiaries. However, I was asked to play this one anyway...)
Azayaka na Irodori no Naka de, Kimi Rashiku (might be a kinetic novel, looks mildly interesting... might use it for psychological rest, lol)
Yurameku Kokoro ni Michita Sekai de, Kimi no Yume to Yokubou wa Kanau ka (this one looks interesting... but I don't like the protagonist description, so I'm not sure)
For obvious reasons, VN vets rarely get up their hopes for games by new VN companies. Generally speaking, most of them are charage or nukige, and those that aren't usually flop on their faces. So, it should come as no surprise that the people I chatted with about this game generally didn't have any hopes for it.
However, that is probably because they didn't take a look at the team of scenario writers. The first one, Gihara, was the writer for Tenka Gomen, Shin Koihime Eiyuutan, Shin Koihime Musou Kakumei (responsible for the rewrite), Harvest Overray, and Girls Be Ambitious (something of a cult classic for Japanese fanboys of a certain stripe). Nissy was involved with Hanasaki Work Spring and Gin'iro Haruka. Finally, Toishi Hiroki was involved with Sakura, Sakimashita and Floral Flowlove.
By most standards, that is about as solid a team as you can find for any single VN, even if it is essentially a combat sports charage in the same vein as Unionism Quartet and Shirogane Spirits. So, after having done a bit of research on the game and its story, I picked it for my second game this month.
Happily, I wasn't disappointed by the results.
Oh, by any standard, this game doesn't even approach Aoi Tori for raw quality of storytelling or music. It also has as much lost potential as any other fantasy charage that put effort into creating a complex setting (inevitably, they never go far enough). The protagonist is a little too similar to some others I've encountered, such as the one from Walkure Romanze or Aokana, in that he starts out as a self-pitying loser and spends the entire game in a supporting role.
That said, for what it is (a combat sports charage), it is nice and fun. The protagonist, Touki, is a swordsmith who makes spiritual blades combined with mechanical parts called 'Origami' who has lost his ability to make them, leaving him with a bunch of wasted talent and people wondering why he is wasting it (sound familiar?). The combat sport in the game - called Jindou - is basically one-on-one ritualistic duels between wielders of these mechanized spirit blades (the blades grant the user increased physical abilities based on their ability to draw their power out), and three of the four heroines are competitors (two of them newbies, one the highest-rank veteran, a setup that is traditional to the sub-genre). The last one is a fellow maker of Origami, an American arms dealer's daughter named Freesia.
The protagonist does manage to get past the big personal issue in the common route, so there is no 'diversion' onto another path in life as is common in many VNs with a similar protagonist (in other words, ignoring the protagonist's scars and leaving him as a loser). This is a huge plus, as this type of character goes... but it is shortly after that event that the paths split.
Shion
Shion is the protagonist's kouhai, a girl who was going to give up the sword because, due to her high ability to draw out spiritual energy, keeps breaking Origami... and on top of that, she is excessively kind, making it difficult for her to consider hurting others, despite her choice of a future profession. Despite her kind-heartedness, she is a power-fighter, breaking opponents with smashing blows and enduring attacks to lash out at the right moment rather than using technique or speed to overwhelm them.
Her path is... interesting. It has the protagonist going farther into confronting his personal issues and past than in the common route, and as a result a rather nasty chain of events occurs that leads into the story's drama after the competition. On a whole, that made this an interesting path... but I was left feeling a bit bored with the rather predictable ending bits. This path could have done with a more bittersweet note in the ending, despite this being essentially a charage (thus requiring good endings).
Tsubaki
Tsubaki is the school champion and a member of the Suzakuin Family... a family that symbolizes the ultimate swordsman in their sport, because they do everything themselves, from training and fighting to management and the making of the Origami. Tsubaki considers herself to be like an older sister to Touki, whom she lived with for three months as a child when she was learning how to make Origami. Her style is efficient, defined by refined technique, foresight, research, and a cold drive to win. As a result, she tends to let enemies come to her then destroy them with counter-attacks.
Her path forces her to confront her own limitations and break the boundaries set by her family, and most of the drama comes from Touki helping her stand on her own feet and realize there is something beyond her training and family's expectations for her to live for. It was a good path, overall... but it completely ignores the issues lurking in the background that erupted in Shion's path, so it left me feeling a bit unsatisfied.
Freesia
Freesia is the daughter of the CEO of a major arms-maker in America. Upon meeting Miyako (Tsubaki's older sister) she became obsessed with Jindou and eventually discovered a talent for making Origami. She is at the school as a special student, exempted from class because of her high scores and her father's connections. Early in the story, she becomes obsessed with becoming Touki's student. She is very aggressive and straightforward, never bothering to conceal her feelings about anything. She is a perfect example of the fine line between a genius and an idiot (or a madwoman), as some of her Origami are... strange (when she made a light saber, I had to rofl).
Anyway, her path is about the way of the craftsman, and it is kind of interesting... However, I feel that they approached it all wrong. First, during the climactic face-off in her path, the results are sort of disappointing. The fight itself is nice, but it feels too much like 'oh, she is the heroine, so lets let her have her way!' Moreover, I am honestly confused that they chose that as the climax, since there is relatively little emotional buildup immediately before. As such, I had to rate this path the lowest of the three I've written about so far, by several levels.
Saya
Saya is Touki's childhood friend (though he doesn't remember her at first), a brilliant swordswoman who, at first, has no idea of how to use an Origami. Her attitude toward Touki is very much that of a close friend, rather than a deredere heroine, which is unusual for this kind of setup. In addition, she is the 'true' heroine, though if you want to unlock her without playing the other paths, you can do so through the extras menu. As a fighter, she is a speed type, quite simply the fastest of all the heroines by several levels. In addition, she is also highly skilled, though perhaps a few levels below Tsubaki due to her inexperience with Jindou.
Saya's path is the 'true path' of this game, and the game treats it as such. The storytelling has even more depth than Shion's path, and it delves far deeper into the past - both Touki's and that of his bloodline. The fights in this path are several levels better than in the previous paths, at least partly because some of them are 'real' (you'll see what I mean if you read this). In addition, several characters whose true desires and intentions never came into the open in the other paths come into play in this path, thus making it... your standard true path, lol.
Overall
Like a lot of 'true path' games, this game neglects the non-true heroines to an extent and places far too much emphasis on the true path. However, as a whole, the game is a fun read. The three non-true heroine paths read like charage paths, whereas the true one is almost a chuunige there at the end. As a whole, the game is a bit higher in quality than Shirogane Spirits or Unionism Quartet, because it manages to feel 'real' at times (something neither of those games manages, because they never escape the 'combat sport' aspect of their stories). In the end, it was a decent VN, and in another month would have been a decent candidate for the VN of the Month.
