Like some others, I got tricked into playing yet another gameplay-hybrid in the series of games by Gesen known as the Sangoku Hime series. To be honest... I couldn't imagine how they could have screwed things up worse.
First of all, they used their 'restructuring' of the game as a big draw for those who were disappointed with a lot of the aspects of 3. They basically redid all the character designs (without exception) with completely new characterization, art, and voices... and I'll be honest, I couldn't imagine how they could have screwed things up worse.
It isn't just that the style has regressed in some ways (the male character designs, which were actually pretty awesomely detailed in previous games, are now unbelievably crappy by any standard, probably to bring them in line with the new, moe-moe character designs for the female characters)... if it were just that, I would have shrugged and let it go. Unfortunately, it pretty much eliminated the best part of 3, which was the glorious atmosphere that enveloped you at key historical moments, such as the confrontation with the Yellow Turbans or the Alliance against Dong Zhuo... and especially when you defeated one of the Three Kingdoms or reached another historical turning points. Sun Ce, who was a warrior-queen type in the previous games, has turned into a moe-airhead with a war-addiction in this one. Cao Cao, who always put her ambition first and had the immense strength of will to follow through on her plans at all costs, while possessing a surprising sense of mercy and compassion to those who followed her or surrendered to her... has become a kuudere with a love of sweets. Even worse, her appearance in 3, which was kind of demonic, was changed drastically to make her into 'just another leader-heroine'. The only ones that hadn't changed were the Liu Bei followers, whose drive and personality hadn't essentially changed (though their visuals had changed significantly... oddly the only positive visual change I saw in the game).
Now, setting aside the characterization and visual changes in other characters, we'll come to the change I found the most unbelievably annoying. Ginga, for all that he was a straight-out womanizing soldier-type in the previous games, nonetheless had a distinct personality. He was a powerful individual who knew the battlefield like the back of his hand. Unfortunately, he was replaced in the new game by Akito, your typical 'nice-guy' VN protagonist who happens to have an ability to see the future in dreams (and yet he can't seem to figure out how to use it... until late in various paths). Oh, there were other big issues throughout what I played... such as the lack of serious character development and the retaining of pointless slice of life scenes for side-characters that feels out of place in an otherwise serious game. However, the writing/story side just basically lost ALL of its luster... leaving you with the drudgery of the Sangoku Hime series (yes, the actual game-progression hadn't changed a bit from the previous games).
There were some changes to the gameplay... such as the contraction of the soldier-types into a mere six different ones (light infantry, destroyers, barbarians, cavalry, archers, and tacticians (female or male)) versus the twelve or so that existed in previous games. This was actually an improvement in some ways, as it clearly redefined the classes according to their abilities and role. The character-building system is also simplified into three trees (war, learning, and astrology) and is expanded to cover all generals, not just the unique ones. Unfortunately, that simplification means that it is hard to impossible to overcome weaknesses in vital characters such as the ruler of your country (Liu Bei and Sun Ce both have weak political abilities compared to Cao Cao, whose abilities in this area are among the highest in the game). This can be a huge handicap, as your leader's political ability determines how much you can do in a single turn. You also lose most of the skills that were most useful in the previous games, such as the ones that let you massively increase your attack power in certain situations (thus giving you more strategic options).
In the end, I just had to drop the game after I conquered half of China with Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and the Sun family... all three had exactly the same problems. Not to mention that the detailed story scenes that recreated certain minor but vital historical events were gone entirely (I particularly missed the events from Cao Cao's rise to power, which were fascinating and as true to the base material as anything I've seen in a game like this).
First of all, this is, like most Yuzusoft games, a high-quality charage, though a charage first and foremost. As such, there is definitely a lighter atmosphere than you'd expect, considering the protagonist's personal difficulties and those of the heroines. Problems are resolved quickly and with no real secondary disasters, and they are generally resolved to the satisfaction of the characters involved, if not in the most ideal of manners.
In other words, you won't be reading this VN for superlative story... but what is there is good nonetheless. The characters are interesting, the actual use of the tachie is as brilliant as always (Yuzusoft's tendency to choreograph rapid tachie expression and posture changes into each spoken line is alive and well here and used to extremely good effect), and the crises do have enough emotional impact for you to care to at least a reasonable degree.
Ayachi Nene
Nene's route is... really the main heroine route, to be honest. I was halfway aware of this, but the first meeting between her and the protagonist is so... rofl. I love heroines of her type in charages, so I honestly couldn't bring myself to play anyone else first.
Nene is your basic 'cool and kind-hearted beauty' who has a hidden 'dojikko' side that makes her absolutely adorable. The side-effect of her witch's abilities only makes this part of her personality come out more.
While I was able to easily predict the flow of events leading to the end of the first half of the route, I was nonetheless able to honestly enjoy them. This is rare, because usually charage routes that I can predict this easily don't tend to be able to keep my interest. It says a lot for the basic quality of the game that I could sit back and just enjoy the ride.
The big downside of this route (and probably all the others) is the sheer amount of ichaicha (that state where the heroine and the protagonist are all over each other). Yuzusoft loves their games to be full of this quality and this one is no exception... so for those who just want to pursue a story, this VN is probably not a good choice.
Meguru is the 'lively and cheerful, puppy-like kouhai' of the story. She is also the most 'fashionable' of the heroines, and the one who is perhaps the most like a 'normal girl' as far as this type of VN goes. The fact that Yuzusoft managed to make her character work is a mark of how high quality their stories are.
I will say that the ichaicha in this one is a lot more tedious than it was in Nene's story, though. A lot of it is that both Meguru and Shuuji are really dense about their own feelings, and they are really slow to progress once they do get together.
The drama in this story is about evenly split between Shuuji's and Meguru's issues, with Meguru's main issue resolved fairly early in the path and the protagonists' issues resolved slowly over the course of the path as a whole. While this is generally nice and the ending is decent... the fact that so much of the story is endless ichaicha kind of made me fall asleep.
Nonetheless, I like Meguru, and her tachie is probably the most well-used besides Nene, who was the main heroine.
Look forward to Togakushi Touko in the next entry!
Touko is the 'oneesan-senpai' of the group. She takes pleasure in teasing others, making jokes, and generally maintaining a light atmosphere.
Her path is perhaps the least straightforward so far... mostly because the issues are a bit less than predictable if you aren't used to seeing potential difficulties based upon minimal setting cues. I will say that I did like her as a heroine... but I didn't like her as much as Meguru or Nene. The simple reason for this is that her presence in the common route is so faint, so you don't really get the attachment to her in advance that you get with Meguru or Nene. In fact, I'm fairly sure about seventy percent of the people who read this VN will say 'I liked her path, but I'm not sure if I really got attached to her.' This leads to a definite lack of emotional impact for the crises in the later part of the path, at least in my case.
Tsumugi is both a transfer student and the game's reverse trap. That said, she has a definite fondness for cute things, and the way she dresses is a special circumstance, so don't go in thinking she is a boyish heroine. She's actually quite the reverse.
Her path is probably the most focused on the protagonist so far, with an even stronger focus on a certain aspect of the setting that is vital to all the paths. Since I'm avoiding spoilers here, I won't spell it out, especially since it isn't stated in any of the summaries.
Tsumugi's path is well-written, with a surprising lack of excessive ichaicha, mostly because of the sheer difficulty of achieving an 'ichaicha-state' due to her personal problems. At the same time, the romance is surprisingly straightforward and 'normal', which means that you won't run into anything you wouldn't expect from two young people falling in love for the first time, when it comes to their reactions to the purely romantic aspects.
I really liked how they touched more strongly upon parts of the fantasy setting that weren't really explored in the other paths, and the ending is quite satisfying, though - like all the others - the epilogue is still only based a relatively short time after the actual crisis of the story.
Wakana is the game's single sub-heroine, who is only accessible after you have finished both parts of Nene's route. It is slightly shorter than the other routes, naturally, and it splits off a lot earlier in the common route.
This route is entirely devoid of the fantastical aspects that were central to the drama of the other paths, setting them aside for standard love-comedy drama. Thankfully, this doesn't include a lot of meaningless ichaicha (in fact, the route ends really quickly after they become lovers). At the same time, Wakana serves as a contrast to the other heroines, in that there is no real sense of severe tension to the story, even temporary, and it ends with no real sense of accomplishment. That's not to say it is a bad route... it is just that it seemed out of place in the context of this VN's themes and story.
Conclusion
I can safely say that this charage is a potential VN of the Month entry, which is nice, considering the lack of such games last month. For those who like Yuzusoft's visual and narration style, as well as charage, this is a great choice. I won't say I can recommend it to people who like action or darker plots, because this lacks anything of the type, despite indications that they could have very easily used this setting that way.
Recently, I played (partially) through Missing X-link, and this led me to think of how various VN writers handle the concept of AIs and machine sentience. There are a number of different approaches, each of which has its own ups and downs.
There are minor and major spoilers in all of these examples, and, as such, read them at your own risk.
The argument of the 'emulated human' AI and the philosophically-built AI (Komorebi no Nostalgica)-
Komorebi no Nostalgica takes a unique approach to AIs, with the prime idea being that of bringing AIs closer to humanity while retaining their abilities as a computer intelligence.
The Metosera, the elegant AIs that were once humanity's slaves and only gained their autonomy after a war that devastated the world and erased most of human history are one side of this argument. The Metosera emulate human emotions through an algorithm that randomly came together as a result of a bug in the advanced program that ran 3rd Generation Humanoid Androids. This caused the Metosera to gain awareness, and, over time, a real personality and emotions. The immediate reaction of humanity was mostly knee-jerk loathing and fear, and this resulted in the newborn Metosera often being betrayed by the very owners they'd often come to care about. If it weren't for the efforts of numerous humans who helped the Metosera out of emotions or a sense of what was right, the Metosera might really have become the nightmare genocide machines that some apocalyptic scientists fear. In modern times, the current generation (as in the youth) mostly, with a few regressive exceptions, accept Metosera as their fellow citizens and denizens of the Earth, and society is actually more peaceful than it ever was in the past. As can be seen in the case of the Metosera heroine, Fluorite, the more a Metosera interacts with humans in close range and develops an attachment to them, the more 'human' they become, as their emotional emulation becomes more effective through active learning. Modern Metosera like Flo are 'born' with a single Metosera 'parent' creating their base program and then constructing a body for them. They are then 'raised' by the local Metosera society as a whole and encouraged to interact with humans to further develop their social emotions. In this sense, you can see that the Metosera are extremely dependent on humans and raw programming for their creation, and many of them are limited by that fact, though Flo and some others have exceeded those limitations in the story.
The other example in the story, shown in the grand route, is Cinema, the modified (heavily so) 2nd Generation Humanoid found in the characters' school behind a false wall. Cinema, unlike the Metosera, who kind of resemble Tolkien's elves in the way they react to emotions (their expressions change only mildly and often late), displays emotions organically and actually seems far more human than most humans. However, the 2nd Generation Humanoids did not possess any kind of software that would have allowed for Metosera-style emotional emulation. Instead, Cinema's maker designed 'trials' into her body and programming that would encourage the natural 'birth' of a human-like machine intelligence over time that could truly empathize with and understand humans on a level that the Metosera, who 'evolved' independently for the most part, cannot yet match.
The 'body grown to fit the AI' approach (Noie and Line in Applique's Arcology series)- In the Arcology series, two heroines, Line and Noie, are the creation of a somewhat insane but also brilliant scientist who came up with the idea of giving her AI 'daughters' bodies that fit the personalities she encouraged them to generate. These bodies are biomechanical (think an android that both has the functions of a machine such as hacking and processing data but also can bleed, have sex, and even have kids, even though that requires some 'adjustments) and generally nice to look at (lol, it is an eroge, after all), but aside from that, it should be noted that the professor essentially 'grew' their personalities in the same virtual environments most people in her arcology spend their daily lives in. By doing this, she was able to 'grow' her daughters as if they really were something approaching human children, and they were easily able to adjust to having a body. Their emotions were essentially copies of the professor's own basic template that grew off in different directions (which is another reason they can be called her 'daughters').
The second example in this series is the apocalypse-type AI Azurite Second (calling her that even though she isn't called that in the series). Originally, the Azurite series software was essentially an OS meant to be installed directly into the human central nervous system, allowing human beings to interact with the network without cyberware or devices. Unfortunately, Azurite is an incomplete program that burns out the psyches of most people it is installed into, and Azurite Second is driven by the 'mission' given to it before it was originally put to sleep. That mission is to link all humans the world over together, and it prioritizes that over the good of its users, believing that its priority will be for the good of all humans (it is really that broken). In that sense, this is one potential scenario that is close to the nightmare scenario seen in I, Robot.
The 'I don't need humans because they are inferior' vs. the 'I love Humans' argument (Hello, World)- To be honest, I found Nitroplus's take on AI to be the most humdrum of the lot. The protagonist and his maker as antithetical AIs who see humanity in a radically different way based on his experiences (his as subjective, its as objective) is depressing and par to the course for early-era sci-fi writing. While the story of the game was good, the actual concepts of the AIs involved were less that impressive and provided nothing new for me, which made me sad, lol. I mean, the idea of an AI that wants to genocide humanity was old when I was born (which was almost forty years ago), and the idea of an AI that comes to love humanity through experiencing them in a human-like body is almost as old. I guess what bothered me was that this didn't go beyond the surface ideas to dig any further.
The Humanity is Obsolete vs. Together with Humanity into the Future Argument (Missing X-link)- Missing X-link presents its argument fairly directly through Himefuuro and Chiruouka (or rather through the protagonist's 'father's' and 'uncle's' arguments through them). Himefuuro's design concept was to take humanity's essence into space by creating a database of human emotion and intellect through the empathic system 'cross link', which allows her to literally link her psyche to a human and share their emotions and thoughts by injecting her nanopixels (nanomachines, essentially) into a human subject. Chiruouka's design concept was to interact with humans through conflict and learn from them that way, by developing her own independent and subjective view of humanity as seen through that lens.
Conclusions
Sci-fi writers have been defining the debate on AI tech since the concept of the self-aware robot was first spoken of. In VNs, there is a tendency toward empathetic AIs, but, even so, many of the 'arguments' put forth by their writers are interesting to follow.
This game, is to some extent, a redemption of my hopes for Ensemble. I say this from the beginning because I will inevitably be critical in a familiar way about some parts. However, this game was far closer to Ensemble at its best than we've seen in the last six years.
The story is set in an academic city in a school that has a weird setup where individuals who want to get involved with student government join the Knighthood, with Chevaliers and apprentices serving in roles from librarian to student council president all under the same title/role. The protagonist, a ninja (yes, a ninja) essentially transfers into the school because of evidence that a hacker/political activist/mischief-maker called the Bat is using it as their base of operations.
Essentially, the role of the ninja in this setting is as a sort of secret police that exist to stabilize the nation's politics, quietly manipulating things so the worst of the worst get knocked out of power without disrupting things and taking down terrorists and other problems before they surface. The protagonist is a young member of this organization (which is deliberately nameless) and has several successful missions under his belt. His personality is serious and loyal to his mission, while having a surprisingly strong sense of decency and justice without letting it get in the way of what is required of him. He is fairly capable, but, by his own description, he is at best near the middle or somewhat above it in the organization's ninjas. He is unfamiliar with women in general due to having grown up basically doing nothing but training to become a ninja (honestly, this part of the setting makes the least amount of sense, since classic ninja settings have the ninja deliberately making their personnel familiar with sex to use it as a tool or prevent it from being used against them).
To be honest, this setting made me rofl a bit, since it almost felt like a 'pirates vs ninja' kind of setup, and he does, indeed, face off against a few of the knights during the progress of the story.
One thing that struck me is the improvement in the action scenes from other Ensemble games. While they are still more generalist than some would like, they are far more detailed than is the norm in non-chuunige, and the CGs are actually halfway decent. The protagonist shows off his abilities only occasionally during the story (mostly because combat isn't his job), but when he does, it is sufficiently impressive to satisfy.
Story-wise, this game actually has a story *pauses for screams of shock* which is something most Ensemble games of late have lacked (maybe they finally figured out that while fluff sells at first, it doesn't make for repeat customers... nah, this is a Japanese company we are talking about). The common route serves as a more than adequate introduction to the heroines, and choices are kept to an absolute minimum - one - which was pleasant (to be blunt, excessive meaningless choices do nothing but disrupt the storytelling).
The heroines are: the overly serious but compassionate knight Kagura; the mischievous but pragmatically idealistic Knight Captain Mai; the unsociable but kind-hearted and capable coder Yui; and the overly enthusiastic but troubled (deep under the surface) wannabe ninja and classmate Kanon.
Kagura
Choosing Kagura for my first heroine was a no-brainer for me. I'm a sucker for serious warrior heroines from old families, and she fits the bill nicely. I will say that I disliked one part of how they handled this part... despite the fact that she has restrictive and controlling parents, there is no actual conflict with said parents in the path. That said, the actual drama that is present is better than decent, and Kagura is a great deredere heroine once she falls for Jin.
In this path, Jin takes up a number of roles other than lover toward Kagura. He is a sparring partner, a friend, and a protector (despite her being capable, he is moreso, lol) which struck me as unusual for an Ensemble game, where it has become the norm to kill any talents the protagonist might have in the heroine paths.
If I have one serious complaint about this path, and it goes for all the paths in this game, is that Ensemble still used the 'we are going to have a fandisc where we tease at adding content but don't actually add anything but H' system for the endings. While there is a significant climax to the story in this path, there is a distinct lack of after story beyond the usual 'a few days later' copout.
Mai
Since Mai shares VAs with Maia from Hapymaher, it is literally impossible for me not to pick her early on. Okajima Tae (under various names) has voiced a surprisingly large portion of the best supporting female characters out there, along with a number of truly awesome heroines. She has a particular flair for mischievous but deeply perceptive characters, which fits in perfectly with Mai's characterization.
Mai's path is similar to Kagura's, albeit it is more wrapped up in the internal politics of the Knighthood than in the personal issues of the heroine herself. The role the protagonist plays in this path differs, in that Mai serves in the 'older sister wife' type role, pampering him in a way that his mother doesn't (though she dotes on him too, lol). He does aid her in similar ways (both with behind the scenes activities and by helping her perfect her swordsmanship), but his role is more blatantly supportive in this path.
The ending of this path is, again, a decent climax with not nearly enough after story. This path in particular could have done with a 'five years after' epilogue, because of the nature of the decisions Mai made toward the end of the path and the resolution of both Jin and herself in regards to those decisions.
Yui
Yui is a fairly straightforward archetype. Her character is the overly serious and socially inept nerd with sister issues. She is kind-hearted and finds it difficult to turn away those who come to her asking for help, but few people get past her tendency to present herself as being a somewhat thorny individual.
Yui's path is the first path in the VN that actually focused on the Bat, which is perhaps another area I should have complained about, but since the Bat isn't that interesting in concept as an antagonist, I mostly wasn't bothered by it in the previous paths. Unlike in Mai and Kagura's path, where there were serious combat scenes present, this path is more about the slow revelation of one aspect of what is going on behind the scenes through solving Yui's issues.
Jin's role in this path is very much that of the older partner in a romantic relationship, but it is also a surprisingly equal relationship, perhaps because Jin doesn't need to worry as much about hiding his abilities from Yui as he did from Kagura or Mai.
This path does have a good climax, but again, it lacks an after story to close things off.
Kanon
Kanon is our wannabe ninja girl... a foreigner (as usual, Northern Europe with no country name given, lol) who got hooked on ninja anime (the hero type) and by accident discovers Jin is a ninja (though not his full identity, which he conceals throughout all the paths). She is a bright and cheerful girl with a strong sense of justice and a compassionate heart... though she is more than a little bit of an innocent.
Her path is, like the other paths, full of various incidents and drama with a huge amount of ichaicha on the side. It was a decent path, but she isn't my type, so I can't say I was emotionally invested this time around. There are some good - but very short - fights in this path, but they are mostly one-sided affairs. Like the three previous paths, this one lacks a good after story.
Secret
Secret is the name I given to the overall 'incident ending' that you can access after finishing all three paths. In this ending (basically, it can be interpreted that any of the girls is your heroine), you finally get to discover the antagonist's identity... and it is one that might surprise you. There is also a really good battle scene to treat you to, and the reasons for the antagonist's actions is a bit of a surprise...
Conclusion
This is, by far, the best Ensemble game made since Ojousama wa Gokigen Naname. It doesn't make it to kamige level and it shares the ending problem that most of the more recent Ensemble games have had, but it has a decent story, good characters, and enough drama to be memorable. While I'm probably not going to place this on an all-time favorites list, it is one of my favorites for this year so far.
To be honest, after the moe-moe disaster of Juukishi, I wasn't really interested in this VN... and while the VN was much more interesting than that lump of adorable pink crap, it had the down-side of being utterly predictable... to me.
Now, I don't know how many of you are familiar with a particular VN fad that several major companies bought into about five years ago, where they did partial 'slice-of-life' VNs in faux-medieval settings. This fad resulted in some good VNs, lots of mediocre ones, and a few truly horrible ones. This falls somewhere in between the good and the mediocre, in the sense that it hits all the points such VNs were 'expected' to hit (princess heroines, action scenes - though not necessarily good ones - and lots of slice-of-life). Seikishi has the benefit of a decent set of heroines... but their roles are so archetypical for this type of VN that I had to shake my head in exasperation. The only one that wasn't completely cookie-cutter was Rill, and she had her own issues.
I'll be perfectly honest with you... I'm downright pissed off that Akabeisoft3 wasted my time with this VN. The Juukishi team seems to be incapable of escaping their roots, and the results were a VN that was disappointingly predictable in overall structure, right down the obstacles in each heroine's path. This isn't a horrible VN... but considering that Akabeisoft3 has access to many teams that actually write good VNs, I was more than a little miffed that they wasted funding on a moe-bait medieval slice-of-life with an excessive amount of H-scenes.
Why am I being so overboard with the bashing here? It is mostly because I started getting tired about halfway through this VN. Flay's path was decent, as was Sefui's... but I really did feel like I was retreading old ground from beginning to end. While I don't generally expect brilliance from a team that specializes in moe-variants, it was still a frustrating experience to have it so completely fail to differ from my expectations in any way. I almost would have enjoyed this more if it had been a Walkure Romance-type battle sport VN, as several of the characters felt like they'd been extracted directly from that VN, with slightly different roles. Like most VNs with a partial action focus, the protagonist is generally the deciding factor for me on whether the VN is actually worth the effort... and unfortunately, the protagonist feels too much like a non-entity from beginning to end for me to actually believe he is attracting a set of such pretty and capable females.
Edit: Almost forgot... basically, this VN is suitable for people who like a fusion between moe-elements, mild action, and faux-medieval settings. While this VN isn't one I'd personally want to go back to, it is nonetheless one of the better ones of the type.
Seishun Fragile is the latest of Purple Software's VNs. Purple Software is famous these days primarily for powerful nakige/borderline utsuge like Aoi Tori, Amatsutsumi, and Hapymaher. However, they also are responsible for Chrono Clock and Mirai Nostalgia which, while having an actual plot, are closer to charage than their more plot-centric brethren. This game is much closer to Mirai Nostalgia in style (based on a few comments inside the story, it is probably based some years after the latest point of Mirai Nostalgia, while utilizing the same world setting) than it is to the Hapymaher style, so the emotional impact is greatly reduced in comparison. However, it does have its high points.
This game focuses on Yugahara, a hot springs resort town where a young man named Shiki Yuuto lives in a mansion that used to be a bed and breakfast. Other than the fact that he is a magic-user, there is nothing really remarkable about him. He has a lot of standard-issue charage harem protagonist qualities, like being insanely dense about his osananajimi's deredere attitude and accepting his fake imouto maid's service with a blase attitude, but he is surrounded by a few stranger characters, such as his self-proclaimed magic teacher Liz and his stalker (yes, she is stalking him for real) Setsuna.
To be blunt, Setsuna is the main heroine of this game. The constant hints about a past (serious one) between Setsuna and Shiki, her very real stalking habits, and any number of cues will tip you off if you have been playing VNs as long as I have. She also has the type of heroine profile that has become typical of true/main heroines in recent Purple Soft games (though I can't reveal what it is without spoiling it for you).
Despite that, I went ahead and played another path first, though.
Liz
Of course I played the foreigner girl path first. Yes, a ditzy blonde with no sense of self-control is weirdly attractive to me, even after so long. The fact that she can use magic is just icing on the cake.
Liz's path was... uninspiring. To be honest, while it had some high moments (mostly comedic), I found the drama to be excessively derivative and disappointing for a Purple Soft game. Liz, despite her issues, has a rather straightforward personality, and the drama feels kind of forced because it requires a level of complexity that anyone who was reading the common route would have had difficulty reconciling with her characterization. While I liked the ending, it still felt like this path wasted my time, at least a little, despite my fondness for some of the more comedic moments.
Setsuna
Setsuna's path stands in direct contrast to Liz's. I will state this openly... Setsuna is yandere. Oh, she puts up a good face, but there is a ton of darkness hidden behind her joking manner and 'playful-seeming' stalking habits. To put it bluntly, Setsuna is more than a little dependent on Yuuto for her mental and emotional stability, and the reasons for it make absolute perfect sense after you get halfway through her path.
To be honest, the degree to which this path differs in quality to Liz's pretty much finalized my viewpoint on who the main heroine was, if I hadn't already got it from the common route's cues. This path has much better emotional buildup than Liz's, and the drama toward the end is actually pretty enjoyable to read, though it made me feel even more like a voyeur of people's pain more than any of the recent works I've encountered.
Toune
Toune is Yuuto's fake imouto/maid. She is originally from a family that served his since their arrival from Britain a century and a half previously, and she has seemingly devoted her life to feeding her 'dame-oniichan' and cleaning up after him.
Generally speaking, if you aren't in her path, Toune takes a supporting role, usually taking Yuuto down a few pegs when he looks to be getting full of himself. She has a cheerfully optimistic personality and a very strong sense of what she wants out of life, and she is a bit obsessed with resurrecting the B&B that the Shiki family used to run (out of their mansion).
Most of her path is a normal 'I always loved you but it was more important for me to be with you than be your lover' transition. To be honest, this isn't one of my favorite tropes, but it works out all right in this case. Toune's path gets pretty emotional toward the end, but it lacks the darkness that was so evident in Setsuna's path, giving it less impact over all (more evidence to my Setsuna is the main heroine hypothesis).
Hio
Hio is Yuuto's osananajimi, the younger sister of Hibiki, who runs the Sakuranomiya ryoukan (Japanese inn). From early childhood, the two families have had close relations, while being sort-of rivals (obviously, that ended when the B&B went under, lol). Hio is a rather obvious tsundere with a tendency to retaliate against Yuuto's ever-present density (think nuclear reactor shielding thick) with pro-wrestling moves. To everyone but Yuuto himself, her feelings are ridiculously obvious, and she is horrible at hiding them even in the best of times (even for a tsundere).
Ah... but about the path. 'Predictable' is the word I'd use for the romance portions. To be honest, if you have seen a tsundere osananajimi heroine get together with a dense protagonist often enough, you've probably seen a variation on this path. There is some serious drama, but the drama is even weaker than Liz's path. Hio is pretty adorable as a girlfriend, but again, that is fairly typical of tsundere heroines once they lose most of the tsun. Probably the best part of this path was the protagonist's firm belief that sexually harassing Hio doesn't count as sexual harassment (no basis in fact). Use of that particular running joke was spaced out just enough that it didn't get boring.
Yura Extra
Anyone who reads the common route probably likes Yura. Yura is an occult-obsessed yurufuwa girl who can generally be trusted to make the situation funnier. Honestly, other than Setsuna, she was my favorite female character in this game, so I had hopes that this would be an actual path...
... unfortunately, it was just a brief set of scenes with Yura and Hibiki, followed by an H-scene with each. To be honest, I was saddened, since I liked both characters. Maybe we'll see an actual path in a future fandisc? Especially considering that this game doesn't have an official true ending.
Conclusion
By charage standards, this would be a top-level game. By nakige standards, it is undeniably sub-par. To be honest, if this game had only had Setsuna's path or if there was more complexity to the other paths (maybe removing Hio's path, since it was the weakest), this game might be worthy of replaying in the future. However, as it is, this one is unlikely to drift to the top of my list anytime soon. Setsuna's emotional darkness and traumas made her path interesting, but the other paths feel like half-assed attempts at nakige paths (Toune's path was reasonably good at drawing at the emotions, but Liz and Hio's path didn't manage it).
Like Akagoei, I've previously posted on Semiramis no Tenbin, so I'm going to limit my comments to some generalities and character descriptions. This game, for the most part, focuses on the manipulative efforts of one Kamio Ami, the game's main heroine, seen from the point of view of Hayami Reiji. The game starts out with Reiji being tricked into having sex with Ami, who then proceeds to blackmail him into giving her a place to stay. He then ends up being at her side as she manipulates the hell out of his classmates, friends, and acquaintances.
Themes
There are a lot of themes in this game, ranging from rather frank descriptions of the nature of the Japanese justice system (namely the poor enforcement when it comes to rape and domestic violence cases) and the negative aspects of Japan's collectivist society to the fragility of democracy as a system. A lot of this is done through conversations between Ami, the protagonist, and the rival heroine Eru over various issues (usually problems Ami deliberately brought to the surface for inscrutable reasons of her own).
Hayami Reiji
The protagonist of the story. At first glance, he seems like your classic 'kind-hearted normal guy' protagonist, but he has a much larger capacity for accepting morally questionable activities on the part of those close to him, and he grows a rather nice sense of suspicion by the end (mostly through association with Ami). Depending on his choices, events in the story can take dramatically different courses, including bad endings (Sunao's ending is the bad ending if you choose to go totally amoral with your choices). Reiji himself is not so much a moral beast as the type of guy who cares about those who are close to him first and everyone else a distant ninth.
Kamio Ami
'Manipulative bitch' was the description another guy who played this game had of her, and I really can't see grounds to deny that particular curse. Kamio Ami is a beautiful young woman with a coldly pragmatic outlook on life, capable of using all the weapons at her disposal for the sake of her own survival and happiness. That said, she does have a limited (and twisted) sense of honor, and she rarely acts out of malice. Unfortunately, she is a natural troublemaker who manipulates others as easily as breathing. Most of this game has her manipulating people into situations through devilish machinations that leave no traces for those not in the know to follow. She rarely shows true vulnerability, and even in her own path, you can't be sure of where her heart lies. It says a lot about Reiji that he is able to accept her so completely in her path, lol.
Eru
Eru is, in many ways, Ami's opposite. She is a believer in the rational and 'correct' approach to problems, tending to see matters in terms of correct and incorrect. Like Ami, she was raised in an environment that warped her personality and that made 'common sense' somewhat alien to her outlook. However, she chose a different path, becoming an excessively morally upright person, and it is usually her preference to profess belief in man's better nature. It is fairly ironic that her path has the most horrifying things happening to third parties in the story, lol.
Sunao
A sub-heroine whose path becomes available if you choose nothing but 'red' choices. Sunao is the leader of the girls in Reiji's class, providing entertaining topics and conversation to the other girls. While she is a bit eccentric, she makes an effort not to show this on the surface, picking topics of conversation that suit her audience, rather than her own tastes. Her ending is a bad/normal ending, and as a result, it is less than satisfying. Not only that, but the way she gets together with Reiji is deliberately made to feel unnatural, as part of the story.
Fumika
One of the protagonist's kouhai. She has a speech impediment, apparently caused by some sort of issues with her parents, which makes her vocalizations fragmentary and difficult to hear, demanding a degree of patience and understanding from the listener. However, once you get past that, she actually has a rather devilish sense of humor and is really friendly to those she feels she can trust. She is also something of a genius with compute hardware and software.
Touko
The protagonist's childhood friend and the daughter of a professional writer. Her favorite activity on the face of the Earth is sleeping, and she can usually be found with her head on her hands on her desk during class. She seems slow to many, but she is actually quite intelligent. Her slow manner comes from her preference for pressure-free situations and a dislike of rushing into things. Because of her retiring nature, she is somewhat vulnerable to more aggressive people.
Edit
A few things I wanted to add... like many of 2014's releases, this is a pretty high-quality game. I can honestly say that this was one of the VNs with the highest impact from that year, though Nanairo Reincarnation ended up winning the VN of the Year contest that year. Something that I failed to remark upon in my previous posts on this game was the extremely high quality of the music in the game... in particular the emotional music (sad scenes, dark scenes, etc). The inclusion of three voiced BGMs for emotionally powerful scenes in three separate heroine paths was a particularly interesting move on Caramel Box's part, and it is one that comes across pretty nicely.
To be honest, I can start myself crying just remembering certain of Fumika's lines from late in her path... her speech impediment makes her few longer lines all the more powerful, since she so obviously has to put an immense effort into speaking every word.
I get people asking me all the time why I like this VN so much, and indeed, there is a lot about this VN that makes it a somewhat eclectic choice. The only thing that is even remotely moe is the basic visuals, and the arcs of the story range from the shocking to the creepy.
First, the biggest reason is quite simple... Kamio Ami. It is really rare for a heroine to so completely shatter pre-existing standards of what a VN/anime/manga heroine should be. Ami is the single most pragmatic, cold-blooded, and manipulative heroine I've ever come across. She also mixes that with a hedonistic side that makes her even harder to read.
The second reason is a bit more complex. This VN basically crucifies modern Japanese culture from beginning to end. It pokes holes in common Japanese preconceptions of what should be, and it outright sneers at the assumption many make that the law is there to protect people. I don't think I've ever come across a VN that so completely finds the most distasteful aspects of modern Japanese law and customs and dissects them for you to see.
If you choose to take it that way, this VN can be seen as a symbolic jab at all the things the Japanese don't want to think about when it comes to their culture, whether it is the way their law treats domestic disputes or the fact that, of all the first-world nations on the planet, they have the least effective rape-victim protections. This VN is fairly merciless, and the fact that it is represented through two character opposites at both extremes of the spectrum - Ami (realism) and Eru (law and order) - only creates a higher degree of symbolism that reminds me of the best philosophical fiction I've read in English.
Now... do you still wonder why I love this VN, or why I put it on the list of potential VNs of the Year for 2014? It isn't a kamige, but it is an impressive literary achievement. I'll be straight out and say this VN really picks its readers. Straight-out weaboo types and moege-lovers won't get into this (for different reasons), and those who want to keep their illusions about Japan will also be made to feel a little uncomfortable during the course of reading this VN. However, it is nonetheless something worth reading, for those who simply enjoy a good read.
First, a little background for those who didn't read my previous posts on the subject. I'm one of those rare souls who read Aiyoku no Eustia, by this same company, and came to hate it in the end. I have reasons... even good ones. The biggest one is that the side-heroines' endings make no sense in the context of the story as a whole. This isn't a joke and it isn't something that can actually be denied by anyone who finished the main path (Eustia's). This is actually the thing I despise most about the 'ladder-type' story progression seen in this and G-senjou. The inconsistencies in the setting and plot as a whole bother me, precisely because those side-heroines almost always seem to be more interesting than the main ones (this seems to apply to almost all VNs that utilize this story structure, for whatever reason). This is not so much an excuse for how I feel about this VN as an excuse of why I temporarily abandoned playing it. I got so stressed out when I found out it used this story structure that it took me seventeen days to get back to it.
Sen no Hatou is August's second chuunige. In some ways, it echoes Eustia's flaws while escaping others. The thing that both VNs share is a massive hole in the setting (again, anyone who plays the main path of either game is going to run across that hole). However, on the bright side, Akari makes for a far better true heroine than Eustia. Eustia was a weak-willed, weak-spirited, and overall weak heroine in every possible way. Akari, despite being politically naive (sorry, but no matter how you look at it, she is that), is a far stronger spirit and she grows a lot more during the story than Eustia does, which shows that August at least learned something from us hecklers' complaints, lol.
I did play the secondary heroines' paths, and they generally had interesting endings... that just aren't possible when you consider the elephant in the room waiting beyond the door to the true path. Considering the nature of said elephant, there is no way any of those endings could have turned out that way, logically speaking.
The common route has its ups and downs, with plenty of blood shed for the 'hungry' ones such as myself. If I have a complaint about this aspect, it is the relatively low number of combat CGs (considering August's investment in artwork, you'd think they would have included more than there were...), but the clever usage of the sprites made up for a lot of that. The protagonist, being your classic stone-faced samurai by nature, tends to bear a distinct resemblance to numerous other 'donkan' protagonists, but, considering his origins, this isn't surprising. For those looking for slice-of-life or comedy, this VN won't be a winner in your eyes. August went completely for the 'serious storytelling' bug, so no scene is wasted and everything is focused on progressing the story. From my point of view, this is a plus, but for people who have fond memories of more 'peaceful' works by this company, such as Fortune Arterial or Hitsujikai, this would probably be a disappointing aspect.
There are some really great moments in this VN... but as an addict of chuunige and fantasy-action VNs in general, it was a bit too obvious when it started stealing from Chuusingura and Hachimyoujin (yes, by Masada). While stealing stylistic approaches and setting concepts is common in chuunige, those moments were definitely 'ah, I've seen that before' moments for me, and since August's team just doesn't have the flair for this that Light and the makers of Chuusingura do...
Some of my complaints about the setting from my previous - raving - post and certain pms were eased by things revealed during the progress of the story (the elephant mentioned above helped with that). As such, you can disregard most of that rave, save where it concerns the annoyances of this story structure.
As story-focused VNs go, this VN does manage to move the emotions and there are moments where it is exciting, but when I compare it with other VNs with similar themes and concepts, it tends to lose out on the details and in terms of impact. It is definitely above 'common' chuunige like ExE by Yuzu Soft, but I can't really classify it as being in the same league as works by Nitroplus, Type-moon, or Light. I did think the way they ended it was a bit cheap (I sighed in resignation there, since I was hoping to be allowed to cry for an hour after the end based on what was happening up to that moment), though. The addition of extensive after-stories in the extras section is a huge plus and a familiar one for those who read Eustia. In the end, I enjoyed this VN, and it was an interesting one to play. However, if you were to ask me whether it would remain in my heart forever, I'd have to say no.
PS: For those who love Eustia, understand that I consider this VN an improvement in some ways, but in terms of the raw setting, Eustia was about equally as interesting. The biggest improvement, to me, was the decision to use a true heroine who doesn't grate on my nerves by the end (in opposition, Tia drove me insane every time she came on the scene, and I hated the way Kaim acted in her path).
This is a partial remake/rewrite of Sengoku Koihime, which was released back in 2013. It is by Baseson, the makers of the Koihime Musou series, and the protagonist is the nephew of the protagonist from that series. It is based on the Moeshouden fandisc ending (where the Shin Koihime Musou heroines are all together). In addition to h-scenes, the text itself has been partially rewritten (it is more noticeable later in the game), and they added on the Houjou Chapters, a ten-hour after story.
The story begins at the battle of Dengaku Hazama (the point where about ninety percent of all Sengoku Jidai-based historical fiction begin), where Oda Nobunaga, the lord of Owari, ambushes and kills the Imagawa Yoshimoto, who was considered to be one of the greatest lords of Japan at the time. The protagonist is pulled from his own (modern) world and arrives there in a ball of light, where he is taken in by the female version of Nobunaga (Kuon).
Unlike the Koihime Musou series, there is no battle system involved here, which is great, considering that the story of this thing alone is about 1.5 times the size of Shin Koihime Musou, which was twice as long as the original Koihime Musou. In other words, this is probably the longest kinetic VN in existence, right now, easily surpassing ChuSinGura and leaving works like Grisaia in the dust as far as sheer size goes. This has its upsides and downsides... but it does manage to develop the heroines to a decent level, if at the cost of a certain degree of fatigue on my part.
In terms of structure, this VN is actually a bit closer to the original Koihime Musou, in that there is only one path and all the heroines from the various clans end up with the protagonist. There are five major arcs... first is the Owari and Mino chapters, where the protagonist earns the trust of the Oda clan and begins to build his own unit. The second is the Kyouto/Oumi/Echizen chapters, whose ending is the midgame turning point. The third one is the Echigo chapters, where the protagonist gets involved with Kagetora (Miku) and her clan. The fourth is the Takeda arc, where the protagonist gets involved with the equivalent of Takeda Shingen (Hikari), who was considered one of the best strategists of the era. The fifth and final arc of the main story is the violent conclusion to the battle with the oni. The Houjou arc, which is an after-story, I count separately since the main conflict of the original story is over before it starts.
In terms of raw narrative quality... this VN is top-level. Baseson has a lot of talent available, and this VN shows it off to best advantage. The writing is detailed and gripping, the dialog generally interesting and/or dramatic, and the VN as a whole is well-paces for something so long and drawn out.
If I have a complaint, it is that they didn't voice the protagonist... considering how completely central to the story he is, there really was no reason not to do so, considering the sheer amount of money they have to have spent on this thing in the first place, lol. In terms of raw numbers, there are also a massive number of h-scenes, but they don't dominate things, for the most part (main heroines generally get two or three, with sub-heroines getting one for the most part). This is inevitable, as there are something like thirty heroines in all, making for a rather massive cast, lol.
One huge difficulty at least some readers will experience is the sheer amount of historical background knowledge this VN demands of the reader. For someone born in Japan, it is all learned as a matter of course by the end of middle school, but for those of us on this side of the puddle, it takes research to really grasp a lot of what is going on. In particular, things like the Southern Court and the Onin War aren't generally given much attention in most anime or VNs based in the era, so even if you've played other games or read other stories based in the same era, you might not be able to grasp what is going on fully.
Another issue is that the traditional roles of the Imperial Court and the Bakufu (whichever Bakufu that is) are things non-Japanese will have trouble grasping. The role of the Imperial Court after the Heian era ended is very much symbolic, cultural, and religious rather than political, though it is used as a political tool by each incarnation of the Bakufu (Shogunate). The duality of the reverence held for the Imperial line and the disregard (though it isn't presented as such) for them in political matters is a bit hard for Westerners to grasp... it took me a while, too.
The second huge difficulty is... the sheer amount of archaic language involved. A lot of terms that went out of use in common Japanese decades ago are common throughout this VN, and I can guarantee that even people who are able to follow Dies Irae might have trouble with this VN at times due to this. In particular, the political terms of the era can be difficult to grasp and actually require some research to fully understand, as their translation doesn't really get across their actual nature without a lot of context.
My conclusion? If you liked Shin Koihime Musou, you'll probably love this VN, though it is quite a bit darker and more visceral at times. The sheer length of this VN means you'll probably suffer from fatigue long before you finish it, so I recommend taking it in smaller doses (finish one of the major arcs, then take a day off, for example), as it takes a while to process all the information involved at times. The addition of the Houjou arc, which is about equal in length to the Echigo arc, is a huge plus for the VN, but finishing this thing has left me pretty exhausted, hahaha.
It was remarked by Veshurik recently that it seemed like I wasn't really around anymore... but that isn't really the case. I still play VNs, but the fact is, I don't play many new VNs that I haven't already blogged about yet. I simply can't muster enough interest to play most of the new stuff that comes out, simply because there just isn't that much that looks interesting coming out at any given time. Senkou no Clarias, by Team Baldrhead, was the game I thought would break through my boredom, and while it succeeded at the time, it was nonetheless a depressingly underwhelming game in the end.
First, the gameplay... this is perhaps the most easily maligned part of the game. I say this because Team Baldrhead made two cardinal mistakes... choosing to partially replicate the much-maligned Baldr Bringer battle system and linking character affection to both path choice and character ability progression. The first is problematic to rally insult, because it was obvious they were trying to pose the game as Escaflowne to the Baldr series being Gundam. It was made clunky because the mechs were supposedly magical constructs without most of the purely mechanical aspects that made the Baldr series combat so fluid pre-Bringer. However, this makes for an incredibly frustrating experience when there are enemies who can mix ranged and melee and your characters are solely one or the other outside of special moves. Not only that, but the counter and evasion systems are downright awful... yes, it is possible (with a really long learning curve) to master the system. However, the difficulty of doing so is definitely a put off for someone who enjoyed the intuitive nature of pre-Bringer Baldr series.
The latter issue is more problematic... Linking affection to both heroine choice and mech growth was incredibly stupid and short-sighted on the part of a team as established as this one. In a lesser company, we might see this kind of mistake, but in this case, it was jarring. It essentially creates a situation where the player must keep heroines crippled to let you pick your favorite. If you are following Sherry's path, this is actually not much of an issue, since the game naturally provides more in-story opportunities than any other character to build her affection. However, if you are picking Yakumo - or god-forbid - Camus, there is a distinct need to cripple the growth of all other heroines almost completely.
Now, down to the story... tbh, this is something that will be very, very familiar to fans of early isekai fantasy anime and manga. The protagonist finds a weird egg in an exhibit in a train station in London and gets transported to a magic-driven otherworld full of mechs and sorcery. There are a few reasons why this setting is hard to suspend disbelief for. One reason is that there is absolutely no way whatsoever that Sherry's position in the setting would have worked out the way it did in a nation as autocratic as Seirem. The missing traitor's daughter? Prison or execution, one or the other. No powerful (and Seirem's monarchy is powerful) monarchy would ever leave such an obvious scapegoat to live the quiet life trying to clear her name.
Another issue is Ruu... while it might make sense for a neutral country's nobility to send their kids to school in a powerful neighbor's capitol, for them to allow a former enemy (as in less than a generation in the past) to do so beggars the imagination, given that there were no apparent diplomatic concessions made one way or another.
I'm not even going to mention Yakumo or Camus' situations beyond that it was obvious they were essentially stuffed into the burrito of this story for the sole purpose of providing a variety of heroines.
In terms of actual storywriting, setting aside issues with setting and character backstory, I actually found it relatively enjoyable, though those issues I just mentioned constantly scraped at the edge of my consciousness. There were a few issues here too, though. In particular, splitting up the sub-character events even though they don't effect the story to any significant degree struck me as unnecessarily immersion-breaking. Another issue is that relatively little attention is given to making you actually care about the heroines. Most chapters consist of a very brief setup for the chapter's drama before you get plunged into battle. Heroine characterization is kept at a minimum due to this, mostly relying on the optional (and free of context) scenes you can pick on the free days.
All in all, while I just bashed this game up one end and down the other, I don't hate it... I just felt like Team Baldrhead made a bunch of immersion-breaking and amateurish mistakes in how they handled this game. A lot of the methodology for progression used here is methodology that was rejected by fans years ago in other genres. The fact that the heroine paths have relatively little difference and all end the same way is the final nail in the coffin.
In conclusion, this was a game that showed signs of potential all over the place but fell well short of where it could have been, despite an obviously large cash investment on the part of Giga.
Before I go into this VN, I should probably bring up a few facts I’ve noticed about Yuzusoft VNs in general. First, while most Yuzusoft VNs have a central story that is vital to the heroine paths as well as the common route, the degree to which that central plot effects the heroine paths varies pretty wildly. In some cases – such as with Nicola in Dracu-riot – the effects of the main plot are almost nonexistent, and in others – such as Miu’s from the same VN – the effects are dramatic and integral to the progression of the heroine’s own story. Another aspect is consistency… or rather, the degree to which heroine paths are consistent with one another. Generally speaking, Yuzusoft games don’t strive for absolute consistency. One reason is because most charage writers (and Yuzusoft writers are mostly charage writers) are not nearly as good at managing the numerous ‘threads’ of their stories as a chuunige writer has to be. To be blunt, Yuzusoft games tend to eliminate the need for consistency as much as possible, limiting ‘contact points’ between the heroine routes wherever they can. Unfortunately, there are always minor details that slip through the net, so you can’t really expect perfect consistency in any charage.
Another aspect of Yuzusoft VNs is that they still utilize the concept of ‘heroine salvation’. The idea that a heroine needs to be ‘saved’ by the protagonist on some level used to be integral to virtually all VNs that tried to charge the emotions of the reader, but it fell out of use over time as the emphasis shifted from story to characterization in most cases. Yuzusoft is somewhat ‘old-fashioned’ this way, as they focus strongly both on the actual ‘stories’ of the heroine paths as well as the characterization aspects. As a result, for those of us who get emotionally invested in the characters, the inability to ‘save’ the heroines you didn’t choose is always a bit… troubling, lol.
I know that sounds weird coming from a self-proclaimed pragmatist like me, but that is one of the few areas in which VNs are still mostly games, rather than just reading material. The act of ‘choosing’ a heroine inevitably invests you just a little bit emotionally in the heroines, barring a kusoge experience, lol.
Yet another thing to keep in mind about Yuzusoft games is that the company, even after all these years, is still experimenting with the ratio of ichaicha (lovey-dovey flirtation in the girlfriend/boyfriend part, such as dating, visiting one another’s houses, h-scenes, etc) to the actual story and character development. Most of their games tend to have long (in terms of text) dating/lovey-dovey/sex periods, which can be unbelievably annoying in a VN with a good story, lol.
Last of all, Yuzusoft games tend to have longer heroine routes on average than most moe-VNs. I’d say by about one and a half to two times, depending on the other developer.
Now, having gotten that over with, enjoy my comments on this VN, as I plan to go into more detail than usual.
PS: I don’t intend to bother with the two sub-heroines, Ruka and Koharu.
Common Route
The beginning of the VN is somewhat fantastical, and with a little effort, they could have easily turned this into a light chuunige (I’m actually wondering why they didn’t, considering how suited many members of the cast are for that type of VN). One of the most fortunate aspects of this game is the fact that very little time is spent dwelling on school life… in fact, it is probably the least relevant portion of the game, outside of the character setting of ‘gakusei’. In my experience, the more reliant a VN is on school life for character development and story progression, the less likely it is to be interesting from beginning to end.
The basic story is that the protagonist, having drawn the sword from the stone (lol) by breaking it off at the hilt (viva, self-repairing holy weapons! Haha), ends up engaged to and living with the himemiko, one Tomotake Yoshino. He’s also together with a bodiless loli who presents herself as the guardian of the sword calling him her master, and a ninja who does all the cooking and cleaning around the shrine. Apparently, in order to cleanse the taint left by an ancient curse on Yoshino’s family and prevent disaster, he has to help them fight dog-monsters in the mountains around the town, so that their taint doesn’t build up enough to cause natural disasters and other tragedies. The common route is consumed by the quest to free the Tomotake bloodline from the ancient curse and the characters’ travails in the process.
For better or worse, the central story of the VN is nearly completely resolved in the common route, leaving the heroine routes for those heroines’ personal issues. This does mean that the tie-in to the central background story in the heroine routes is weaker than in some of Yuzusoft’s other games, such as Dracu-riot. However, the common route itself is actually one of the better ones I’ve seen from this company, and I enjoyed the process immensely. The downside is that the transition feels a bit awkward, sadly.
Murasame
Murasame is the overseer of the holy sword Murasamemaru, and Senren Banka’s resident loli. In a lot of ways, she embodies the archetype of the ‘outsider/exile from life as we know it’ heroine archetype that has popped up occasionally in VNs like this one. Favorite, in particular, is a company that loves this heroine archetype, utilizing it for the true heroine of every one of their games, and a disproportionate number of the heroines of this archetype are lolis (somewhere around two-thirds, starting with Ilyasviel from FSN). This is probably because a childlike heroine who suffers from that kind of isolation is more likely to strike at our hearts. She started out as a common village girl, and when a sacrifice was needed to become the guardian of the sword, she gave up her humanity to stay with the blade (this isn’t really a spoiler, since they tell you this early on and it is in the character profile, lol).
Murasame comes across as your typical ‘loli who hates being treated like a child’ most of the time, but her speech and manner in more serious scenes shows at least some of her experience… and her path rakes her over the hot coals of her own personal darkness and insecurity. Hers is a path that is all about salvation through love, and it is one that can’t help but resonate with romantics in general. I should know… I cried several times in the course of this path.
I honestly felt that this path represents Yuzusoft at its best, and for this path alone I would have been willing to play the game… and I’m not even a lolicon.
Mako
Mako… is the descendent of a ninja family that serves Yoshino’s family (Yoshino being the white-haired hime+miko heroine). While she is deadly serious about her duty to protect and serve Yoshino, her personality is generally friendly, cheerful, and easygoing. She is also more than a little… motherly in the sense that she loves to take care of people. This tends to express itself in the common route through her devotion to never letting Yoshino or her father do anything around the house outside of their duties as a priest and miko at a Shinto shrine (and Yoshino’s duties as the sole descendent of her mother’s family line).
To be honest, her path is significantly more boring than Murasame’s, in that her personal worries are ‘classic’ worries from the archetypical ‘raised to serve’ heroine who is suddenly free to do what she wants, along with the fantasy worries unique to her path. It is still a good path, even touching at times. However, since they fell back on what amounts to a ‘normal’ love story with a half-humorous twist, things were significantly less interesting from my point of view.
That isn’t to say that it doesn’t have its high points… but most of those are toward the end or involve the fantasy elements. I’m sure the people who adore the junai (pure romance) that is the staple of most VNs will lap it up like their favorite flavor of ice cream, but for someone like me who has been fed that stuff until he feels like a foie gras goose…
Yoshino
The structure of Yoshino’s path is something of an exception, looking at charage with a serious element in general. Most of the time, the serious element is focused at the end of the path, with the ichaicha part making up the early parts of the path, during and immediately after the formation of the relationship. In this case, the dramatic part happens immediately after the formation of the relationship… and the rest is essentially endless ichaicha and sex. The path has impact, but I honestly thought that the latter part of the path dragged on. However, the ending is pretty touching, and I was honestly happy for them afterwards.
Overall
Yes, I have no plans to play Rena’s path immediately. To be honest, just two paths in this game takes up ten hours, and with the common route, this game could easily hit thirty hours if I played all the paths… and I don’t have the energy for dealing with an airhead heroine right now.
Overall, this VN is one of the better Yuzusoft games I’ve played (considering that I’ve yet to encounter a Yuzusoft game that wasn’t at least worth consideration for a VN of the Month, this is a definite compliment). It definitely beats out Sanoba Witch, both in terms of raw quality overall and in terms of the design of the setting in particular. While the game itself doesn’t escape a lot of the clichés of the fantasy charage with story sub-genre, it carries them out well enough that I didn’t find that irritating. The biggest downside of the game is the downside to just about all of Yuzusoft’s games… the ichaicha is far too extended and there is usually a lot of runaround before they get to the point.
PS: By far, Murasame's path is the best... which probably means I should have played it last. For better or worse, after seeing Murasame's path, it felt like a betrayal not to choose her over the others, simply because of her situation, lol.
This is a list of next month's releases that I'm not playing (that aren't nukige) and my thoughts on each, based on the Getchu and official pages, as well as my experience with the writers and companies involved.
Raspberry Cube
This is from the makers of Wagamama High Spec, one of the most average charage in existence *Clephas sticks out his tongue defiantly at the inevitable protestors, accidentally allowing several demons he was eating to escape* First, the good signs... this game's initial presentation is that of a comedy charage. The heroine character profiles are wacky, the initial description is also goofy, and the CGs presented are not 100% h-scene material. On the negative side, however, they rather blatantly avoid any real description of the protagonist beyond his position as a 'former delinquent'. It is generally not a good sign that the heroines have about the equivalent of three paragraphs of detailed info and the protagonist has one short one. In addition, there is a general sense I get from the official site that they are trying to impress you with their moe-moe atmosphere... but they did that with Wagamama High Spec and their other games as well. As such, my initial impression of this game goes in is a 'probable 6, maybe 6.5'.
Hime to Otome no Yakimochi Love
I'm going to be blunt, the company and its obsession with princess/ojousama-themed games doesn't really do much for me. Oh, I do have a fondness for ojousama-ge, but this company never hits the right notes and it tends to go for the 'standard' themes with its paths for the rich girls involved, regardless of the writer. The writer, in this case, is the same person who wrote Primal Hearts and Primal Hearts 2, so there is hope for the comedy aspect. However, he is also very inconsistent as a writer, sometimes showing flashes of sheer genius, at others stumbling over his own feet in attempts to make poorly-chosen tropes work. The heroine descriptions are all a standard templates for various princess and ojousama heroine types, so it is hard to get up much of an interest in them, at least for me. The protagonist in this one is described well and seems like he might be a strong presence... at first glance. Unfortunately, it is rather evident just from the material available that he is probably going to spend much of the game being as dense as the lead used to shield nuclear reactors and stumble at all the right moments to make him seem like an idiot despite being supposedly a highly intelligent jock. I'd probably predict a similar rating to the game above, if for different reasons.
Another thought about the two above
It is never a good sign when two charage come out in one month using the same writer.
Sono Hana ga Saitara, Mata Boku wa Kimi ni Deau
This is the latest game in Campus's now-massive series of kinetic novels based in its two-faced school of normals and hidden magical beings. I'm going to be a bit blunt... if you played Hatsukoi Syndrome, you will figure out from just the character description of the heroine exactly what is going on. Magicians/sorcerers in this setting have one serious peculiarity that plays a role in their love lives (curses them, pretty much), and it is pretty clear what is going to happen based on that fact. While Campus has yet to make a bad game in this setting, it is something of a buzzkill (at least to me), that they went out of their way to pick a mage heroine and immediately gave you big rotting fish of a hint before you even play the game as to the central conflict.
First... I already talked about Haze Man, though you can't really call it a review, lol. Second... I'm stalling Mono no Aware for now. After playing it for three hours, I've come to the conclusion that I hate the setting in this game. It feels like one of those anime episodes in an otherwise awesome series that I drop simply because I don't like how they handled it. This game has enormous potential to be interesting... if you obliterate player agency. Unfortunately, I hate the way this game handles choices, so I'm ignoring it for now.
The remaining games I plan to play from September's releases are:
Omokage Railback (Done)
Iyashi no Megami no Marmot (Edit: Turned out to be a nukige, dropping it)
Sakura Hitohira Koi Moyou
Oni ga Kuru. ~Ane ga Hinshi de Pinchi Desu~
Seven Days
Games I'm leaving to the crew:
Dolphin Blade (Nobody willing to play this)
Mono no Aware - volunteers, please? Honestly, I was surprised at how bad my chemistry was with this game, but I really shouldn't have been. It was written by the same person who did Unmei Senjou no Phi, and I despised that game.
Hoshi Furu Yoru no Farnesse (most likely fun2novel)
Comments: To be blunt, I don't care if anyone plays Dolphin Blade... its getchu screams 'kusoge!' to my senses, so I honestly don't think it is worth considering. Mono no Aware, depending on the reader, might have a chance to capture the hearts of people other than me... but it bugs the hell out of me. Hoshi Furu Yoru has similar vibes to Mono no Aware emanating from it, so I naturally have not installed it. For those who are wondering, I have no intention of playing the new Venus Blood this month, as it is one of their 'tentacle impregnation' system series, which generally suck massively in comparison to the goddess vs demons ones.
Edit: Basically updating this to reflect the fact that Dolphin Blade and Iyashi no Megami have been struck from the list, the latter for being a moe-nukige (protagonist with no default name, harem sex scene at the beginning, and other elements made it obvious... with no psychosis to make it look redeemable like Harumade, Kururu, lol) and the former for being so obviously a potential kusoge that nobody was willing to touch it. Omokage Railback is done. I'll be playing Sakura Hitohira Koi Moyou I guess.... not that I have a strong interest in it at this point.
First, I should mention that this post is mostly going to focus on how this VN improves on the original content from Shin Koihime Musou. The reason is fairly simple... if you like the series, you'll eventually play this, and if you played the original Shin Koihime Musou, then that is probably what you want to know. I know I would.
Next, I will go ahead and come out with it... I loved what they did with this path. The degree of added detail in this VN is actually higher than in Souten no Haou (Gi/Wei), and at least part of this is that it adds in a huge portion of time in the prologue, added story in the later areas of the game, and significantly revamped scenes involving the much larger cast of characters available to the somewhat sparsely-populated (comparative to Shoku/Shu and Gi/Wei) of the original.
The prelude (the period of the game starting with Kazuto's arrival through the Yellow Turbans and Dong Zhuo eras) is so completely redone as to be unrecognizable. Son Bundai (Sun Jian) being both alive and present in this part of the game alters how it begins dramatically. Ienren (her manna) is like Sheren/Hakufu magnified with a foul mouth and a fighting power roughly equivalent to Ryoufu/Lu Bu. She is harsh with her enemies, domineering but thoughtful with her subordinates, and rules her people with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Under her tutelage, Kazuto actually ends up pushed into the bloody/dirty parts of war, and as a result, he ends up a bit fiercer/harsher than he is in the other paths at times.
This path does indeed follow the basic bones of history (if you know what happens with Sun Jian and Sun Ce in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, you know what I'm talking about), which matches the original events of the path in the original Shin Koihime Musou. However, because of the experiences in the prelude with Ienren, the emotional moments were all the more poignant, and I felt myself able to empathize more with the characters as a whole than I did in the original path, where things seemed to move far too fast through that part of the game.
The generalized 'fattening up' of the story is present at all levels, and the story is much more complex in the particulars as a result. While this has the effect of making playing all the way through this path somewhat exhausting, I felt it was worth it in the end.
The extra heroines are something of a mixed bag. I really liked Taishiji and Raika, but I despised Pao and was disinterested in Teifu (yet another drunkard older woman in a game that already has way too many).
I do want to say that I really seriously don't understand why they kept the system where you can't read all the heroine events each chapter. Sengoku Koihime allows you to read all of them, and it didn't seem to hurt the story... and it was immensely annoying to end up seeing some of the scenes that were slightly out of line with the current progression of the story. Only the 'ruler' heroines' scenes perfectly matched what was going on in the story as a whole, and that disrupted my enjoyment of them immensely.
Last of all, as rumored, there is indeed an 'alternate' ending to Go's path, unlike Gi's. This ending branches off at the most dramatic/sad turning point of the original path and gives you a 'what if' for if
This alters the events that proceed from there and the ending as a whole greatly. I honestly cried happy tears at this ending, and for those who are displeased with that particular turning point of the original path, it is a treat.
Anyway, that is my commentary on this game, for those who are interested.
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.
Be warned, this is full of spoilers for one of my favorite VNs, Evolimit. Shiranui Yoshikazu is one of my favorite protagonists of all time, and I thought it would be good to just lay out why I loved the guy from beginning to end.
Shiranui's past
The Disaster (MAJOR Spoilers. Don't read this part unless you have finished at least Kazuna's ending)
Even entirely ignoring the events of the main story, Shiranui's story is one of quiet heroism, of sacrifice, and of love-born duty. A flawed hero who often acts the fool, while always stepping up when he is needed, without hesitation or regret. A pioneer in the best sense of the word (as opposed to the Manifest Destiny version) who acted out of duty and compassion to a girl who dreamed of Mars even as she never rose from her hospital bed. A man who, in the end, always acted for others as much as or moreso than for himself.
Shirogane no Soleil is the very first Soleil game, and it begins with Ryuuhei - the protagonist - encountering Soul Valkyrie in the ruins of the Ship of Time in Iceland (fictional). There, he contracts with her in order to save his sister and her fellow archaeologists. However, as a result, she constantly drains his lifespan (literally the time he has to live) away in order to use magic, fight, and even just to exist on the mortal plane of existence. Unfortunately, at the same time he discovers that she is really immature as a Valkyrie... when she is barely able to fend off a mere Berserk (a fallen Einherjar from the world of Asgard, which perished long ago), showing off her immaturity and ineptness.
In addition, within Soul exists Hagalle, an older-seeming Valkyrie who is rather obsessed with Ryuuhei and pretty aggressive... which makes for some interesting clashes with his childhood friend and fiance Miori (who is your typical drill-hair tsundere ojousama with a side of impulsive violent behavior). Ryuuhei is... a natural philanderer. I really can't defend him there. He is the type who gets into relationships with women without really thinking about it and doesn't really think there is anything wrong with it... but hates the resulting jealousy and catfighting that results like the plague. He also lies like a rug and makes excuses when lies don't work to distract the girls from his faults.
That said, he is also brave, insanely protective of those he loves (though he can perhaps be said to love too many women romantically, hahaha), and is a disciplined warrior with a good sense of situational awareness.
This series, typical of the Soleil series as a whole, is twisty, full of character corruption, fallen deities, hope followed by despair followed by hope, and plot twists that make even experienced chuuni-lovers blink in surprise at times. It also is deeply steeped in Nordic mythology, though with its own fantasy twists.
The character relationships are surprisingly deep, considering the kind of situation the characters are in, and there is essentially only two endings, one of which is shorter and somewhat truncated/incomplete (Soul's), and one that is immensely satisfying for those who fell in love with the characters and setting (Hagalle's). Really, there are no separate heroine endings, but the walkthrough calls them the Soul and Hagalle endings.
Did I enjoy this game? Yes, I did so immensely. It also helped me make sense of a lot of the background in Shin Shirogane no Soleil, and I'll probably end up re-rating that one after I replay it as a result. For those who like the darker side of chuuni, this is a good game to look into, and it is also attractive for people who like Norse Mythology based stories.
To be honest, I generally dislike Giga's non-Baldr VNs, simply because the dip in quality (outside of visuals) is so sharp it isn't even funny. From dialogue and narration to voices and music, it is unbelievable how little comparative effort this company puts into its non-Baldr games.
That said, this is actually quite a decent charage... though I do have some serious complaints. I'll go ahead and get those complaints out of the way first.
Cons
First, for all that the sound effects are great and the actual slashing effects are good, that isn't a substitute for good combat narration. I found it really hard to get into the fights, simply because the writers quite obviously either didn't have the capability or the desire to add in the kind of detail that is exciting to fans of action stories. Making it worse was the degree to which several of the ending fights were anticlimactic or made deliberately comical. After all the buildup to those battles, I was hoping for something truly exciting... but what I got was an excuse for comic relief. Last of all, the endings... to be honest, they needed more after-story for Mei's and Masaki's routes...
Pros
First rate visuals, first rate characters, and first rate comedic character interactions. To be honest, the latter two are areas in which all Giga games excel to one extent or another... though some fail in that area anyway. The first is generally true, with some exceptions. I was actually surprised at the degree to which the character models were utilized as part of the plot in this story... the variety of expressions, the poses, actions, and even their atmosphere.
Overall
A few last comments... first, this game would have been a lot better if at least Hibana, Marisa, and Alice had routes of their own. The over-focus on the protagonist's fellow student council members spoke of a laziness in story-construction that made me cluck my tongue with disgust. Making the protagonist choose between Oubu (his school) and Akatsuki (the rival) would have made for some interesting twists. If they come out with a fandisc later and add in paths for those girls, they'll probably be half-assed and dissatisfying, so I can't say I'd be interested even if they did, at this point. The decision to split at three different points (choose one group of two heroines or the other, then another heroine later on) was a good one, adding a lot of content to the story. Unfortunately, the weakness of Alice as an antagonist and the somewhat disappointing fights on the Akatsuki-side route spoke of a weakness in scenario design that shouldn't have existed, considering how well the early stages are put together.
With all that said, though, this is still a high-ranking charage in my mind, easily pushing aside the common muck that I generally have to slog through... it is simply that they didn't go far enough or slipped humor or weak progression at a lot of the wrong points near the end. The relatively high combat to slice-of-life ratio for a charage is also a huge benefit. The fact that the combat is so... light is a bit of a flaw, unfortunately.
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.
To be honest, I wasn’t really interested in playing this VN, as you might have noticed if you read my previous entries. However, I ended up playing it because, once I stopped taking the pain meds (thus going into withdrawal… viva Bucket and Water Bottle!), I had a mind just clear enough to read something on the level of a charage or slightly more complex but not enough to read something like Dies Irae or Jeanne.
I’m going to be straight up about this VN… like a lot of stuff Takahiro gets involved with, it is a bit outside of the ‘mainstream’ of VN culture, even setting aside the fact that there is no ero in it (which is actually out of character for Minato soft, considering the general ‘free sex’ feeling of their Majikoi/Tsuyokiss world games). Why do I say this? Simply put, it is because it actually has real drama throughout the entire VN, rather than just one or two per heroine path.
That’s not to say this is a terribly serious VN… to be blunt, if I were just to talk about serious drama, Tsujidou and Majikoi have both better and darker drama. However, the general ‘light and joking’ feeling of this VN coupled with the more serious aspects of the game-making made for a pretty interesting read… until the endings.
There are no exceptions… the endings in this VN suck. I don’t say that to be mean. I say it because it is the truth. This feels like a VN where the producer/director intends to create a direct sequel and never had any intention of ‘closing out’ the story conclusively. To be honest, if they do make a sequel, I would like it to be based at least a few years onward, since they pretty much exhausted the possibilities of the school setting for this one.
The VN is funny, the content is interesting, the drama – even if it isn’t always emotionally engaging – is interesting intellectually… but the endings (and oddly the romance) are just crappy in this VN. It didn’t make me angry, because I was never very emotionally invested in this game (sadly, this game fails somewhat in this regard, but it doesn’t seem to have been a focus in the first place). However, it did leave me feeling this vague sense that I’d left something unfinished… and not in a good way (in other words, I’m not really looking forward to a continuation). This is actually becoming something of a habit for any project Takahiro gets involved with, and it is the primary reason I stopped looking forward to this a few weeks before the release.
Overall, it is hard to figure out a group of people who will specifically like this VN. If you just want to spend most of a VN laughing despite there being interesting drama, this is a good choice. However, if you just want to do the ichaicha moe-moe thing, this isn’t a good choice. It also isn’t a good choice if you look at it through the eyes of someone who played the previous VNs that had Takahiro involved. However, being a Romeo fan is probably a plus for this VN, as his scenario/plot style covers a lot of genres. This is, in a very real way, a VN that touches on the grim realities of the eroge industry (well, for the creators, not so much for the money-people), especially in Teruha’s path. The fact that it does so in a humorous fashion only outlines this more clearly.
