First, I should state for those who are unfamiliar with my history that I have played a seriously ridiculous number of SOL romance/charage over the past decade. While the sheer number I played exhausted me and I frequently desired something else to play, I don't think I ever came to truly hate the genre, regardless of how much it bored me. What I liked most were ones that contained science fiction, fantasy, or science fantasy elements.
Now, for those who are unclear about the differences between the genres (in other words, people who aren't nerds/experienced readers of the genres), I'll go ahead and explain them.
Fantasy is a genre where some element, if not most of the elements, of the setting/settings ignore physical limits without any explanation of how they might fit into existing physics (magic, esp, monster summons, etc). As the genre name indicates, it involves the fantastical, quite literally. This is further separated into urban (also known as 'junk' fantasy) and high fantasy, the Dresden Files (book series by Jim Butcher) falling into the former and Lord of the Rings falling into the latter category.
Science fiction is a genre that creates a futuristic or near-future setting with a believable tech advance that fundamentally alters how the world functions. 'Believable' means that it at least claims to be based off of a more advanced version of existing physics. An obvious example of science fiction for those unfamiliar with the genre would be the Star Trek series, which, while fantastical and often defying belief, nonetheless speculates about a world that simply grew out of modern science and tech.
Science Fantasy is a less-defined genre that stands between fantasy and science fiction. While many concepts might be based on outgrowths of 'maybe' or existing science, in science fantasy there will also be elements of the impossible or fantastical, such as esp, magic, or some other element that can't be explained by science even within the universe it exists in. Classic examples that might or might not be familiar to you in Western media would be Star Wars or the Deathstalker Saga (a book series by Simon Green).
This is a relatively short list of high-quality games in each genre that have an SOL focus for those who like a bit of escapism without digging into a deep story or insanely complex setting.
Science Fiction
Ai Yori Aoi Umi no Hate
Prism Recollection
Koko Kara Natsu no Innocence
Akabanzu
Fantasy
Ayakashi Contract
Ore no Tsure wa Hitodenashi
Princess Frontier
Hyakka Ryouran Elixir
Curio Dealer
Suzunone Seven
Sakigake Generation
Haruru Minamo ni
Senren Banka (translated)
Sanoba Witch (translated)
Tenshin Ranman (supposedly still to be translated)
Cafe Stell to Shinigami no Chou
Bokura no Sekai ni Shukufuku o
Uso series by Campus (Fuyu Uso, Aki Uso, Haru Uso, Natsu Uso)
Yorite Konoha wa Kurenai ni
Gokudou no Hanayome
Konna ko ga Itara Boku wa Mou...!!
Lunaris Filia
Magus Tale
Suzukaze no Melt
Natsu no Majo no Parade
Primary Magical Trouble Scramble
Valkyrie Runabout
Shuffle (series)
Tayutama (original)
Toki o Tsumugu Yakusoku
Wakaba-iro no Quartet
Science Fantasy
Kamikaze Explorer
Kokorone Pendulum
World Election
Kizuna Kirameku Koi Iroha
Unionism Quartet
Otomimi Infinity
Sakura Iro Quartet
Sekai o Sukuu dake no Kantan na Oshigoto
As you can see, it is really heavy on fantasy, mostly because fantasy is easier on the limited skills of a charage writer. Similarly for science-fantasy.
Raillore is 3rdeye's most recent chuunige, made back in 2019. At the time, I tried to play it and dropped it after the prologue, for a number of reasons. The primary reason was the lack of narration in combat scenes... For some reason, 3rdEye has almost no narration in this game, comparative even to charage. Instead, battle scenes are done using CGs, brief animations, and sound-effects. Unfortunately, this means you generally have no idea of what is going on, due to the limitations of such things. The second issue was the second protagonist, who is your classic sorta former-criminal dameningen, Grey. Grey is... very familiar. He is the type of guy who has frustrated anime, manga, and LN fans for decades with being the lazy and feckless bastard who is only good at tricking people. This type of protagonist makes for a very predictable story that is not in the least bit interesting, at least in my experience. The last was the pacing... which is generally awful. Though, it is hard not to be awful when no real effort is put into explaining the world outside of the ever-increasing number of encyclopedia terms hidden behind the game's clunky menu.
Supposedly, Raillore is at least a few generations later than us, after some kind of apocalypse that destroys civilizations and leaves pockets of people with weak superpowers excavating the ruins of their ancestors living in primitive cities like Raillore. At some point before the story began, some people began losing their original superpower and gaining the power to transform relics of the old civilization into working artifacts. Unfortunately, due to several incidents, these poor individuals experience extreme persecution and, at first, are hunted to death then later are inserted into a machine that erases their power and memories.
The first of the protagonists is Reno, one of the two boys in the prologue, who has been through enough hell that his personality seems to have been cut down until he became a machine-like warrior existing only to follow orders. He is a Snatcher, (so is Grey), his power allowing him to take others' superpowers temporarily and convert them into power to fuel is much more powerful superpower, which increases all of his physical abilities in exchange for transforming his personality into a berserker of sorts. Since Reno is already at Cloud (from FF7) levels of physical ability even before the transformation, this means stone buildings blowing apart at a blow and tiles cracking just from him running around, lol.
Snatchers seem to suffer under a similar - if less intense- level of prejudice from the population of the city. Snatchers are generally feared and used as weapons by the authorities, partnering them with powerful supers who are tasked with judging when is best to give them permission to 'Plunder' others' powers.
All of this means that if I hadn't had to dig for every, single, frigging detail by going through the encyclopedia there was an immense amount of potential for this setting. There is a lot that could be played with to make the story interesting, but the fact that you have to actually search for even vague details means that there is no real enjoyment from the world-building aspect.
Similarly, this game's story should have been interesting, the battles should have been epic, and the characters should have been memorable...
Unfortunately, 3rdEye's approach to the game meant that none of these promises were fulfilled. In a VN, especially an action VN and/or a plotge, narration is the foundation of the story. You can fool around with visuals all you want to color in the gaps and give people something to build on, but it is the narration that makes the story. The near-complete lack of narration in this game, particularly in battle scenes and important story scenes, is fatal to this game's quality.
For those who are still interested, I've been considering three VNs to play (I'm only going to play one for now), mostly because, for the first time in a while, there have actually been more than one notable release inside a four month period.
The LoS game looks to be a low-tension mystery fantasy that is probably going to turn out to be a nakige, based on the getchu page.
Wakai Seyo looks like what it probably is, a moderately high-quality charage by a company known for its eccentric VNs.
Ambitious Mission is the latest Saga Planets game, but just looking at it from the outside mad me feel like it was one of the mediocre ones (there is a huge gap between the quality of Saga Planets' best games and their normal ones).
As such, I decided to toss the coin and let the few people remaining in our dying community decide which I'll play for me. If I get more than ten votes on a single VN, I'll immediately start playing it, though (because I seriously doubt more than five or six people will actually vote on this... and even that is probably optimistic).
Yes, despite myself, I played this. Renai Kyoushitsu is the first VN from an entirely new company (the writer and artist are both new to VNs as well), and it seems to be, in concept, a simple charage of the type where a male protagonist goes to a newly-coed former girls' school and finds himself the only guy (a fairly normal situation in VNs, though less so in the last few years). The VN has a really weird atmosphere (not psycho-weird, but rather just plain weird) at first, primarily because the writer goes out of her way to present all the girls as knowing something the protagonist doesn't.
Art-wise, this game uses a style I like to think of as 'old style moe', where the personalities of the heroines are mostly shown through their eyes and extreme expressions (it was common early in the moege genre's development for a VN heroine to only have three or four expressions, each that could be used for several emotions when accompanied by a VA and several separate eye color swatches to express a wider degree of emotion than facial expressions could alone). This style is very primitive compared to the modern style, but it is still quite functional... if not something that will blow you away. Considering the budget a new company generally manages to raise and the lack of any truly famous names in the production end of the staff (writer, artist, director) it was perhaps inevitable that they would have used a tactic like this to reduce costs. Though, that same theory falls apart a little, since all of the girls are given unique sprites, though several of them only have two expressions (deliberately simple character portrayals being standard in moege).
Supposedly, there is opposition to a male presence in the school, but you wouldn't think so from how the game actually progresses. The girls are mostly ojousama, but again you almost never feel it from the atmosphere save when they actually talk about the school itself. The writer seems to want you to feel that the protagonist's striking presence alone is enough to change their minds, but I honestly thought this was pushing things a bit, in retrospect.
The protagonist is a thoughtful adult young man with a sharp eye for people's personalities but as dense as the lead covering on a nuclear reactor's core when it comes to romance. He spouts complements like a broken faucet does water, and very little bothers him on the surface (though he has his weaknesses underneath). In combination with his semi-albino appearance, this seems to draw the girls like flies to shit (yes, I used that comparison, lol).
One issue that I noticed several times is that the written words of the dialog don't always match the VA, which is a critical mistake, no matter how you look at it. I understand that this is a new company, but that is the kind of amateur mistake you generally want to avoid when you are making a first impression.
However, the fatal mistake this VN makes is the horrible weakness of the heroine paths... I'm not saying that the points (story elements) are bad... I'm saying the execution and pacing are horrible. Any heroine path you can finish in an hour is crap. I can say this flat out. It doesn't matter how good a common route the game has, if you only spend one hour of unique text on a heroine, that means you didn't even feel like putting in the effort. Heck, this game even managed to make incest boring!
December was a month with a ridiculous number of highly-anticipated VN releases... and after having played three of them in such a short time, I felt a need to recall which ones I hadn't.
Currently, I'm playing Shinsou Noise, which is a dark fantasy mystery written by the Liar-soft team and drawn by the Silky's Plus team (of Nanairo Reincarnation fame).
What remains after that that I planned to play is:
Venus Blood Ragnarok (sequel in the 'main setting' of the series)
Akiyume Kukuru (apparently the final game for the makers of Harumade Kururu)
Honoguraki Toki no Hate Yori (a horror game by Moonstone)
Now, the question is... do I go ahead and play all of them, or do I ignore at least one? To be honest, in most months I tend to limit myself to four VNs given a choice. With those three, the number goes up to seven... and to be honest, even I think that is a bit ridiculous. If I do not play one of them, which one should it be? I honestly can't see myself not playing Akiyume, given my fondness for Natsukumo and Harumade...
Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no, is on a shortlist of kamige that I tend to recommend to newbies to VNs or those who missed it during their first rapid obsessive blasting through the 'classics'. For some reason, people are making excuses not to play the newly-fantranslated game. I'm going to first pick apart the reasons that have been given for not playing it, even if it falls into the realm of their tastes.
Number one reason, the one that is hardest to speak against, is that the game itself is practically ancient and as a result the visuals seem dated. That isn't something I can entirely refute, but I can say this... Kamishino has some of the best visuals for its time, and its sprites and character designs are truly exceptional. While it does show its age, this isn't a truly good reason not to play it, in my mind.
The second reason people give me is that 'only four of the six routes are translated'. I find this to be the silliest reason... since anyone who has played the game in Japanese can tell you that the two routes that aren't translated fall so far behind the other four in quality that the game is actually better off without them. Frankly, the 'main school' routes are simply more emotionally powerful than the other three routes, which is the point of a nakige (which this is). I'm going to go ahead and explain why you are better off without the two untranslated routes... for one thing, the routes are much shallower in terms of characterization and emotional depth. For another thing, the twin heroines are just... not really a good match compared to the other four heroines. A large part of the point of the story is how Tsukasa heals himself by healing the hearts of the girls, and there really isn't that much of that in those two paths. In fact, Tsukasa's issues are ignored for the most part, making those two routes feel like they aren't even part of the same game. The only translated 'branch school' route is good for a different reason than the other three translated routes. It strikes much more to the heart of how high society functions in general, with more of a focus on the heroine's ambition and Tsukasa being more of an accomplice than a savior/healer as he was in the other three translated routes.
The third and last reason people give me is 'no one is really hyping it' or 'I'm waiting for reviews'... to be honest, this is a fairly silly reason. If you look for them, ancient reviews for this VN are all over the net. The reason it didn't get hyped that much is frankly because the translator (Ittaku) thought people would pick it up without the need for excessive hype. I felt the same way, since normally the community jumps on 'classics' when they get fantranslated or localized. This is probably more of a shift in how the VN community is now, as I've noted there is even more art bigotry in recent years than there was when the community was at its most passionate.
Now the reasons to play it... the first reason, which is fairly obvious, is the sheer emotional depth of this story. The three 'main school' heroines (Miyabi, Tonoko, and Shino) all have incredibly emotional paths with a completely unique story progression and deep character development. This is, in fact, the main reason I replayed this game twice, despite it not being a chuunige or a straight-out plotge.
The second reason is the setting. While a girls' school might seem like a common setting, it should be noted that this game's setting served as an inspiration for a number of later games that you have probably played or even just heard of. Two that stand out are Grisaia no Kajitsu and Koisuru Natsu no Resort. The situation for four of the heroines (the ones that are translated) is very similar to that of several of the heroines (specifically Makina and Yumiko) in Grisaia, and Koisuru Natsu no Resort essentially steals the game's theme and waters it down significantly. The main reason I say this is because the school setting in this case is, just like the previously-mentioned titles, one that is meant to essentially be an exile or holding pen for the heroines by those who sent them there.
Last of all... I should note that the four translated routes are some of the most well-paced routes I've seen outside of works by Masada, Shumon Yuu, or Higashide (which it is unfair to compare to in the first place, lol).
While this post is full of my personal opinions, I should note that this is one of a small number of VNs I use for my gold standard in VNs in general and have so for over a decade. Missing out on playing this VN means missing out on one of the best nakige in VN history.
First, I should comment on Misaki's route...
As is to be expected of a true route in a VN with as much story as this one, Misaki's route is incomparable in both length and content to the other three routes. In terms of emotional impact, it literally leaves the other routes in the dust, while finishing off the other heroines' issues almost as if they were a mere aside, lol. That said, not all the emotions associated with this route are positive... there are some seriously heartbreaking moments throughout the story, including a parting that will absolutely destroy anyone who liked the rest of the VN. The ending is definitely a tear-jerker, and I found myself crying like a baby for it.
Now, for the wrap-up...
Sound-wise, this VN has great music... though the music doesn't have the kind of dominant force that you see in some VNs like Hapymaher. Rather, it has many unique BGMs that are utilized well to enhance the atmosphere of the story. Since this is a sign of good game design in general, I thought it was worth mentioning.
Visually... it is an Applique game. Applique's style is pretty close to the mainstream, and most people who play mainstream charage will probably be comfortable with it.
Now... for the overall story. I'm going to be blunt... if one were to wrap all the routes into the Misaki route (with their details included to some degree) and turn it into a kinetic novel, this VN would have been much better. The protagonist's dependency is a bit exasperating at times, as well. The way they did the common route - and in particular the issue with how it ends - leaves much to be desired, and Koharu's route feels out of place compared to the other three. What pushes this VN onto the level of VN of the Month quality is the quality of its prose and the Misaki route. While this won't beat Akeiro for March's VN of the Month, it is still one worth remembering.
I should note that I've been following this series since I played the third game two years ago, and I'm going to rehash some of my feelings about it as a whole.
The first three games of the Sangoku Hime series had a number of good and bad points, even if I don't compare them to the Sengoku Hime series, which has been refined a great deal more due to it already being on its seventh installment.
Pros
1- Male sprites are... badass cool, in general. Insanely detailed, actually impressive, though they contrast greatly with the more moe-type female sprites.
2-Ginga, the protagonist of the first three games, is a pure warrior general, with his abilities almost as extremely designed as Lu Bu's (Ryofu Housen), with high tactical and military skills (insanely high) and relatively low intelligence and politics skills. This actually makes him amongst the five most powerful frontline generals in the game. In addition, Ginga's psychology and life, as it was described in III, is just... cool.
3- First-class prologues and endings. For the first three games, moe-bait was avoided assiduously outside of the romantic side-episodes. The prologues of these games were great intros and the endings were powerful, emotional, and sometimes even inspiring.
4- in 3, at least, you could alter the fates of certain doomed individuals (in particular, the Sun family), though this often cost you others.
5- Numerous unit types, all with their own unique abilities and uses.
6- Absolutely perfect portrayal of Cao Cao's feminized character, both in personality and in art (She makes Karen from the Koihime Musou series seem pathetic).
Cons
1- Way too much sex, way too many 'romantic' side episodes with random female generals. This was also the case with the early Sengoku Hime games, but the amount of text and time spent on h-scenes actually outweighs the main story of each path.
2- Almost nothing in the way of the story after you 'settle in' (conquer the first two or three provinces, reach the story's first turning point after the prologue).
3- Romantic elements mostly feel forced.
4- Illogical handling of public order system and conscription (this is common to 4 and 5 as well).
5- Game difficulty skyrockets about one third into the game, and resource management is made insanely difficult by random bandit attacks stripping your treasury.
Hard to Judge (for both)
1- 'Architect' skill system, which allows for you to improve your characters by using points gained from battles, training, and political actions, allows you to customize story generals to some extent. In 1-3, this meant you could turn any character into an all-powerful demon lord, but this has been greatly nerfed in 4 and 5.
2- Elemental affinities are just an unnecessary complication... and generally too much trouble to bother with, since you have only a limited number of actions per turn to move troops around.
For 4 and 5
Pros
1- H-content and romantic side-episodes have been greatly reduced in number, thus reducing fatigue.
2- More 'directed' story campaigns, which don't leave you trying to fight enemies on all sides without being able to secure a buffer of resources and generals.
3- Toutaku (Dong Zhuo), after being feminized, goes from a nihilistic dickhead to a Reinhard Heydrich-Class possessive yandere (If you betray her by stopping being hers, she tortures you horribly so that your last thoughts are of her, so making you belong to her even in deaht).
4- Akito, unlike Ginga, is a more flexible character, though less exhilarating as a protagonist. As a generalist, he is actually an excellent general, though his starting troop class is the somewhat mediocre light cavalry.
5- Improved story to gameplay balance (massively improved, in some of the paths.
6- Lu Bu now has a measurable brain, so she is actually useful outside of battle... though she isn't as cool.
Cons
1- Cao Cao's makeover. To be blunt, the new Cao Cao, is so... stereotypical.
2- Nerfed Architect system. To be blunt, the architect system is one of the few advantages you have over everyone else, in a game where strategic options are limited in the first place. The degree to which it has been nerfed in these two games is ridiculous, considering the turn limit.
3- Weakened story generals. While this isn't true of all of them, most story generals are weaker than their counterparts in 1-3. This is especially marked with Cao Cao, the Sun Family, and Guan Yu. Since they are the only generals you don't have to bribe to like you, this can be irritating.
4- Male sprites are now moe-bait.
5- Endings and prologues, while still decent, no longer have the impact of 1-3.
6- The mouth movement gimmick in these games sucks donkey ass.
7- Sun family personalities are now moe. (blech)
8- Troop class advantages, other than that of the sorcerer (which curses enemies so that all damage they receive is doubled) are nerfed.
9- Stories now start later in the history (meaning that you miss a lot of the best parts).
10- 5-specific bug where Akito's Architect grid resets after the final turning point in each story path, thus eliminating a ton of hard work. Moreover, where other characters inherit their Architect grids across multiple playthroughs, he doesn't... which is weird, since he is the protagonist.
On 5 specifically
I've already expounded on the gameplay above, now I'll go over the story. I've played two of the six paths in this game (the sixth being Ryofu Housen's path, which branches off from Toutaku's). The two I played were Toutaku and Cao Cao...
Toutaku's path is a masochist's wet-dream, since the protagonist is essentially in a controlling relationship with a possessive yandere who generally loves and is possessive of everyone who serves her or lives under her rule. Considering Toutaku not only raised but educated the protagonist (in multiple ways, including sexual and more mundane meanings), her being dominant wasn't a surprise. However, the sheer one-sidedness of her possessiveness was awe-inspiring at times, especially toward the end. There are also times in this path where the faint of heart will probably drop it outright. Akito's role in Toutaku's court is as an assassin, spy, general, tactician, seducer... and torturer. In comparison to the kind-hearted, easygoing guy he is in the other paths and in 4, it was a bit shocking, even for me. I mean, he casually mentions that he seduced a man's wife, had her poison the husband, then killed her afterward... and feels no guilt for it whatsoever, because Toutaku told him to. lol
Cao Cao's path is much more mundane, in comparison. It starts right before Cao Cao initiates the campaigns against Yuan Shao (Enshou), thus leaving all the events around the Yellow Turbans and Dong Zhuo in the dust (along with the fun involved). I'll be straight, while the character interactions in this path are frequently amusing and I honestly liked things most of the time, the inclusion of moe-aspects into Cao Cao's personality is a non-starter. Cao Cao's crueler side never comes to the surface in this path, and Akito's hero worship turns to love in the most cliched way possible. In other words... this path was entirely unlike Cao Cao, and thus, I deem it a failure, despite its good points.
I also played Choukaku's path up until the turning point... and I dropped it like a hot potato. To be blunt, I found the mewling idealism that suddenly surfaces in that path about halfway to be repulsive (in another game, I probably wouldn't have minded as much... but Zhang Jiao/Choukaku basically closed her eyes to rapine and plunder on a massive scale for years before Akito turns things around, so I thought it was all a bit too convenient).
Overall, I give high points to Toutaku's path and intend to go back and play the Ryofu path that branches off from it at a later time... but Cao Cao's path has made me tired. Choukaku's path made a shot at the 'redemption from darkness' thing, but it fell flat to me so badly that I couldn't bring myself to go any farther. It didn't help that they killed off two of your most valuable generals in a path where you only have five story generals (as opposed to the 8-13 seen in the other paths) right before opening you up to invasion from five provinces at once.
Anime, if you limit it to Japanese animation (the actual word in Japanese refers to all animated shows, but I'm limiting the definition to J-animation), has been around since 1917, but anime as we know it, in its earliest distinct form, was born in the 1960's. My personal experience with anime (where I understood it to be anime, as opposed to my Voltron experience in the mid eighties as a kid) began in 1992, with Record of Lodoss War (the OVA series, not the TV series), drawing me in and making me a fan instantly.
At the time, certain anime were considered to be 'icons' of the medium... Astro Boy, Dragonball, Ranma, Mobile Suit Gundam, etc. After becoming a fan of anime, I was introduced to them, and by the time I moved to Austin in 1998, I'd already seen three of my old favorites achieve 'icon' status (The Slayers, Tenchi Muyo, and Yuyu Hakusho). Now, it is really, really weird to see something you watched almost as it came out being referred to as 'iconic'. Moreover, seeing something you liked become referred to as genre-defining (Noir, Love Hina, Ai Yori Aoshi) can leave you with complicated feelings... it tends for me to be an odd mix of pride and embarrassment.
Now, most of the time in the US, TV shows are generally only considered iconic when they've run for many seasons or won a number of academy awards... but most of the time, anime that are considered iconic are made so by fan acclaim, and the line where famous ends and iconic begins tends to be rather murky.
I doubt many with a strong knowledge of the last forty years of anime would fail to consider Legend of the Galactic Heroes or Tenchi Muyo to be iconic. However, if you were to ask one who had lived through those times at what point they became so, you would probably just get a helpless shrug in return. Legend of the Galactic Heroes is considered by many to be the peak of the now-deceased anime space opera sub-genre (since only a few have been made since and none even came close to it in scale or quality). The fact that it manages to maintain a massive fanbase amongst sci-fi anime fans despite its dated visuals says everything that needs to be said about the artistic value of the series. Tenchi Muyo, on the other hand, is considered a genre-definer. It combined one old and time-honored anime genre - science fantasy - with at home slice-of-life antics with a spice of romance, essentially pioneering the idea that action science-fantasy series could also have a strong basis in daily life comedy and romance (If you can't figure out how that has effected things to this day, then you aren't looking hard enough at the trends in otaku media over the last twenty years).
These are just two examples... even in the last ten years, I've seen anime that I watched out of boredom suddenly become idolized a few years after their release as genre pioneers or an example of what is best in a genre...
In other words, this whole post is just a ramble about how I'm starting to feel old when I look back at how long my otaku live has been, hahaha.
Edit: To be clear, anime was my first entryway into the otaku life as I knew it. I love anime to this day, and while I'm sad at how the medium has stagnated (like most otaku media have stagnated in the last ten years or so) I have faith it will eventually recover. After all, I find at least one new anime worth adoring with each year that passes.
Edit2: A few more things... I've also seen treatment of anime fans by society change dramatically since I was a kid. I don't remember the last time I heard the question 'Are you watching cartoons?' and if you shake three people in an urban area, at least one of them regularly watches the newest stuff on crunchyroll. It is odd not to be an extreme minority in an extremely niche community, considered to be childish or strange for watching a gory fantasy anime rather than a sitcom, lol.
I've been friendly with the Shin Megami Tensei series for over twenty years now, since the release of the incredibly crappy localization of the original Persona on the ps1 (believe me, it is one of the worst localizations of all time). That said, I saw the series as just a darker than normal jrpg series... until I played SMT: Nocturne for the PS2.
Nocturne is frequently referred to, both seriously and derisively, as 'Pokemon with demons and a cohesive story'. Seriously. While the Persona series has some of the same atmosphere (collect all the Personas! lol), it is Nocturne that introduced me to the extreme difference between the series and the common ruck of jrpgs out there (which were almost universally swords and sorcery at the time). I was blown away when, in the first half hour of the game, the world is destroyed, turned inside-out, and the protagonist gets a centipede-like bug planted in his eye, giving him demonic powers. To say the least, this was an... unusual turn of events in my experience. The game wasn't about saving the world... it was about determining what came afterward... and everyone in that world wanted you to jump on their bandwagon. The game also introduced me to the staple scenario of the series...
****WARNING, the following is offensive to some of the more sensitive religious types out there****
To say the least, I was shocked. I mean, as I dug deeper into the optional dungeon (which is how you access the true ending), I was forced to a realization of just where things were going... and it was more than a bit of a shock to the system. The game itself was enjoyable, and it was the very first game I literally leveled up to the max... and still had trouble with the final boss (lol). It also introduced me to the harsher battle mechanics of the main series, which was the main reason why the 'in-crowd' tended to refer to the Persona series as 'Kiddy-Tensei', both for the less mature themes and the more brutal difficulty levels.
The next two shocks to my system were Persona 3 and Digital Devil Saga... Persona 3 hit me just as I began to take an interest in VNs on the periphery of my vision, so it is no surprise, in retrospect, that I enjoyed it so much. However, it is Digital Devil Saga which, in my eyes, still represents the best qualities of both sides of the SMT series. It had the high difficulty levels of the main-series games, along with a story that still, even after I just finished P5, leaves every other game in the series in the dust. It was dark, interesting, and brutal in the extreme.
Persona 4 was kind of a letdown after that high... though it was still good. To be blunt, when the original version of P4 came out, my basic standard for SMT was DDS, period. P3 was, to my mind, an interesting game in its own right but inferior in comparison, despite its social links. The somewhat goofy nature of some of the characters (the party members) only emphasized that attitude on my part. Persona is the only SMT sub-series that tends to make me feel like I'm playing a 'normal' jrpg, albeit one on a tight schedule. Understand, it is all relative, in the end.
Last but not least, we come to my most recent experience (SMT IV was something of a dud in comparison to Nocturne, so I'm ignoring it), Persona 5. Persona 5 embodies both the best and the worst of the last three Persona games. It allows you to form deep personal bonds with various interesting characters (ironically, the non-party ones are much more interesting than the ones you fight with, for the most part), and it also manages to combine imagery of rebellion and imprisonment with deep themes of self-determination and personal justice. In addition... it shows rather blatantly the worst aspects of the Japanese legal system (for those who played the game... yes, Japan's police and judicial system really can be that messed up, if you get on its bad side). Japan is a country where almost all convictions come from confessions and plea deals... that should tell you a lot about what it is like behind the scenes. Not to mention that it is a country where it is extremely hard to argue self-defense (if you give someone a defensive wound, you can be sued), insanity defenses earn you permanent social stigmatization, and even a single smear on one's record can lead to a permanent inability to get any job that pays above minimum wage outside of day labor.
As a game, it makes some improvements on the Persona formula as defined by Persona 3... in particular, the benefits of a social link are more clearly defined and useful in the game. The Tower Confidant, especially, has an ability you'll be extremely happy to have when hunting rare personas.
Story-wise, it is at its strongest near the end. It is sadly predictable throughout much of its length, in comparison to 3 and 4, and the last boss was not that hard to predict given the tendencies of the series. That said, I honestly felt a much larger emotional connection to even the most annoying characters (all of whom were party members, incidentally... which is probably the worst aspect of the Persona series) than I did in 3 and 4. I played the game without using walkthroughs, and as a result it consumed ninety hours of my time to finish and I missed finishing three of the Confidants. However, I find myself feeling rather satisfied, over all. The way the last part is done, however, gives me definite feelings they'll probably do an FES-style sequel. They simply left too many openings for it, and, while the big bad dude is no longer around, it isn't like the SMT universe is the kind of place for pure happily-ever-afters...lol
Say what you want about Studio Ryokucha, but their weird plotge/charage hybrids are some of my quirkier favorites. To be specific, Minamijuujisei Renka is my favorite game by this company, at least partially because of how deftly they sidestepped the worst of the 'high school' tropes while keeping the advantages of familiarity.
Minamijuujisei Renka is based on a fictional island still ruled by a post-colonial Caucasian aristocracy that long-since lost its connection with its long-dead original nation (I'm guessing Prussia is the model for the fictional dead nation, based on certain aspects of the setting). It has achieved a high level of technological and societal development despite being handicapped by a small land area, a relatively small population (just around a million), and the gap between the aboriginal population and the white aristocracy. The game's true/main heroine, Kanori, is the half-white, half-Japanese princess and currently the sole heir to the nation, a fact that has the more conservative elements grumbling about mongrels and other predictable purist BS.
The protagonist of this story, Tobe Ryousuke, meets Kanori by chance on his first day in the nation, when he gets lost and encounters her while she is fleeing from men in black. This leads to a predictably amusing set of small chase scenes, and it also solidifies Kanori and Ryousuke's relationship (her in love with him, him thinking of her as a friend) before he ever realizes who she is.
Ryousuke came to the nation involved along with his twin sisters, little genius girls who, when he collapsed from exhaustion trying to take care of them, took a job in the Dukedom in order to allow him to go to school and be a normal kid, essentially. Rina and Rena, the twin sisters, are both children (literally), and their cuteness of both manner and feature serves as a constant throughout the game, as they often appear at important moments to move the story forward. There are hints that if 'nii-chan' didn't have the good taste to get hitched before they were grown, there would have been some incest there, but, unfortunately for the lolicons out there *laughs at them* and fortunately for our peace of mind, they aren't heroines.
Anyway, this game is designed with a chapter system, where incidents occur and get resolved, bringing the protagonist closer with the heroines throughout the common route. This system often falls flat in games that use it, because it can get repetitive, but the creativity with which the writers set up the story makes that a non-issue in this game. Like a lot of games from the middle of the decade that just ended, most of the heroines are deredere almost from the beginning (the exception being Elize, though it can be argued she is just another tsundere along with Miyako).
Unlike many charage hybrids, this game doesn't kill the story in the heroine paths or only have the story in the heroine paths... rather, the story flows in different directions based on which heroine you pick, and it feels natural at the time, which is what is important. There are exciting moments in each path, without it flowing over into excessive seriousness (most of the story is interwoven with amusing or cute elements).
Though the story is good in this game, perhaps the place where this game shines the most is in character development. By the time the common route ends (it is fairly long), you have a solid idea of what all the heroines are like under the skin, and you have almost definitely gotten attached to one or more of them. Tbh, each time I play this game, I always waver between routes before making my choice, simply because I like all the heroines to one degree or another.
This game's weakness, from an objective standpoint, is the very length that allows for such extensive character development. Many simply won't have the stamina to finish even one path in a single run, due to the length of the common route. To give you an idea of its length, it is roughly the same as the common route of Clannad.
I occasionally go back to this game for one reason... it is so reliably enjoyable that just finishing a single route can temporarily restore my faith in the possibilities of charage.
I'm currently playing Ai yori Aoi Umi no Hate, AXL's latest game by their 'unusual slice-of-life' team, and the setting is seriously bothering me. It isn't that the concept is boring... there is nothing wrong with the concept of people living on a massive self-repairing ship hundreds of years after the demise of land-bound culture due to global warming. No, the problem is the concept of the game and how it interacts with the setting.
Ok, I can live with the idea that advanced culture was lost - deliberately or otherwise, and I can also live with the characters centering about 80% of their attention on day-to-day affairs. That is normal in a self-sufficient community. However, the idea that recreational culture not existing at all - music being lost entirely, for instance - is ridiculous. Wherever you get a community of humans, you have some kind of recreational culture, whether it is simple sports, drinking contests, tests of strength and stamina, or card games. To put it simply, people might be willing to let go of high tech, but they'll never give up being able to hum a tune while working.
It is such a huge hole in the concept that I just had to shake my head in exasperation.
This isn't the first time I've run into this kind of thing... for some reason, some writers, when they create a fantasy or sci-fi setting that justifies their story, gloss over elements like this that drive me nuts. Moreover, they ignore human nature and history. Even in a confined environment like the one in this setting, people still need recreation and will create it, regardless of the intervention of authority. The first couple of generations might have successfully abandoned culture as they knew it, but the later generations would have inevitably birthed a new recreational culture of some sort. So, the concept is just too ridiculous, at least in my eyes.
Edit: In other words, 'If you are going to create a new setting with a purely human society, you have to justify every difference in a way that makes sense given human history and nature!'
For a lot of old fans, this is Softhouse Chara's defining masterpiece... and with good reason. It has superb, complex gameplay that rewards careful forethought and strategic thinking and more than thirty unit types to play around with, running from common infantry to dragons. It also has a solid story with decent storytelling (though, true to Softhouse Chara form, it isn't the focus of the game).
First, I should say that the first time I played this game, I seriously screwed up in my early unit choices and ran out of money halfway through. About the time Qoenis becomes available during the main story, I ran out of money and most of my 'normal' (generic) units were dead before I noticed. I managed to drag things out to the end and barely beat the game, but I can't say that I actually enjoyed the process all that much. As such, I never rated the game, because I came to the conclusion that at the level of Japanese I was reading, I wouldn't be able to master the battle system (also, I was doing it without the walkthrough).
In this, my second playthrough, the first thing I did was purchase three supply units (the best healer units, in the shape of a horse and wagon) and concentrated on putting together a solid attack force for three full squads. This worked out far better than my previous playthrough, which was miserable, to say the least. This time, once I got access to Dungeon 2 and grind-maxed three full squads of units (including a Black Knight and two Dragons for the firepower for each) I was basically able to ream the rest of the units in the game (though I tended to rearrange things for lower costs during side-mission and ones that only needed two squads).
In other words, i went around happily breaking the game balance in precisely the way I've done with every other Softhouse Chara game I played, lol.
In any case, some comments on the story... I'll be straight with you. This game's story falls more than a little behind Eushully's Ikusa Megami series and most of its related games. The best parts of the story are during the formative stages and the epilogue, with most of the rest being consumed with raping heroines into loving (pfft) submission in a style reminiscent of Bunny Black. In fact, Darcs and Jin have almost identical personalities, which shouldn't surprise anyone, lol.
I will say that the ending scenes were nice, in that they provided a short after-story for all the characters whose endings I'd fulfilled the conditions for. A lot of them made me rofl.
Overall, it is easy to see why this game is a classic... depending on how you play it, you can either sit back and enjoy strategic battles where a single slip-up means ruin, or you can play it as an evil, overpowered, balance-broken overlord of the battlefield who knows not defeat. This is standard to SofthouseChara, since in most of their games, they've built a way to make the game easier into it, while making it difficult on the surface.
Due to work and other stuff, I hadn't had time to really get into this until recently, and with friday signaling the release of October's list of VNs, at least one of which (Deep One) will play immediately, I felt that it would be fitting to go ahead and give you my initial impression of the game.
My first impression, after playing through the prologue, was that, while this game is pretty old, it is also very... familiar in an odd way. At first, I couldn't figure out where that impression was coming from... but then it struck me!
I finally figured out where Favorite stole its basic style. It always bugged the hell out of me that Favorite was able to produce such decent to great games despite essentially being a company full of lolicons and the writer basically being an unknown who produced two mediocre games before Irotoridori. The atmosphere of Meguri, Hitohira is almost identical to Irotoridori and AstralAir... which made the game feel pretty familiar as I delved into it.
However, this familiarity wasn't a bad thing, because I always liked the atmosphere of those games, even if I felt nothing but contempt for the loliconism. Say what you want about Favorite, but the atmosphere of their games is usually worth buying them for.
That said, this is a Shumon Yuu work... and Shumon Yuu is easily the best non-genre-specific writer in VNs. I was crying inside the prologue, empathizing deeply with the protagonist, his predicament, and his hangups, despite knowing that similar protagonists in other VNs have pissed me off in the past (understand, it takes a master's hand to make the suffering and self-hatred of a sensitive young man as sweet as honey, and when it goes wrong, it generally feels like I was eating aspartame in powder form afterwards). The fact that the game is very, very dated didn't hurt the presentation nearly as much as it does with some other old games (Ikusa Megami comes to mind, as does Tsukihime, despite my love for it).
Since I haven't hit an ending, I don't have a conclusion for you... but even if this game were to flop on its face later (an impossibility, given the writer) it would still be worth playing. You probably won't see my final impressions for a while, because, even though this game is engrossing and emotional, it takes actual courage get into it, since I know Shumon Yuu's habits well enough to figure out in a vague sense where he plans to go with the story (Hint: Most of Shumon Yuu's games almost border on utsuge at times, with the exception of Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide).
Traveling to other worlds is so common a plot element in otaku media that it has actually become a fantasy sub-genre in and of itself. This is actually one of my favorite plot elements... if it isn't screwed up magnificently (like in RE:Zero) by putting the wrong sort of person into the mess.
The first otaku media that hit me with this was The Vision of Escaflowne, followed by Fushigi Yuugi. The latter isn't one of my favorite anime, but I did like it up to a point. The former is one of my oldest favorites, about a girl named Hitomi who gets sent to another world where she gets wrapped up in a conflict between a massive fantasy Empire and those opposing its might. This is actually the standard for most of the early stories of the type, in this way: Most early anime and manga at the time and up to the turn of the century that used this kind of concept tended to plop a protagonist into that other world either as a virtually helpless piece on the board, acting more as a catalyst than as a true mover and shaker. This is the reason why the concept didn't really take off in the minds of fans until much later.
Another type is based off of the archetype from Maze, an anime where the protagonist gets sent to another world as a 'savior/messiah' character who is immensely over-powered and somehow manages to bumble their way into saving the world. In both cases, about 70% of the anime and manga of this type and the one above have the protagonist choosing to 'go home' at some point, though there are exceptions (such as Maze itself).
The third type is one where the protagonist is thrown into another world with a concrete role... but not necessarily the power necessary to survive on their own. Twelve Kingdoms falls into this archetype, as the protagonist is essentially cast adrift, possessing an important role in her new world but not the power or the personal maturity to carry it out. Twelve Kingdoms is a classic example of the type, in that the protagonist is unable to fulfill her role until she matures greatly in a personal sense and grows into her role somewhat. Depending on the role (ranging from 'hero', to 'dark lord', to 'king') they mostly tend to choose to remain in their new world, because of the sense of purpose it provides them (which is a contrast to the two types above). A more famous and long-running example of the type, with a somewhat lighter air, is Kyou Kara Maou.
The fourth type is the one that has become most popular... 'the comedic traveler'. This type, which began to appear en masse after Zero no Tsukaima initiated the concept, has relatively 'normal' protagonists being sent to other worlds to blunder their way to fame (or not) and generally amuse us with their antics, while also providing a serious story alongside. A more recent example of the type is RE:Zero or Kono Suburashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo. Generally speaking, the protagonists in these VNs are overconfident, vaguely idiotic, and generally ignorant individuals who have just one or two redeeming qualities. Depending on the anime, VN, or game, they can be immensely annoying as characters, too.
Of course, there are ones that don't fall into any of these types... but those are relatively rare. I like this genre, but I'm beginning to grow tired of the comedic traveler type, lol.
This is a VN by a new company, Prometheus that seems to be reusing members from ID, a company known for third-rate moege. Overall, I didn't have any real hopes for this VN going in, and thus I wasn't disappointed. That said, this VN did surprise me in that it actually had some good points to it, which I'll enumerate below.
Pros
1. The two heroines, while not entirely unique, actually have real worries in life that get wrapped up in the events of the heroine routes. There is actually drama to their paths that can actually qualify as drama, and that in itself is enough of a rarity in moege that it was a pleasant surprise.
2. The VN actually has a decent protagonist, though he is perhaps a bit obvious as a character, he does escape being a self-insert nonentity, which is good.
Cons
1. The pacing in this VN is pretty poor. It feels like large chunks of development are just left out altogether.
2. The art is the washed-out style that was used by I.D., and thus it feels like something that was done by a company ten years ago, rather than now.
3. The music is universally generic and generally poorly utilized (there was even a redesigned public domain BGM from Phantasy Star 2 in there).
Overall, this VN isn't one I can honestly recommend... and not just because it is incomplete.
At present, I'm conflicted between playing Silverio Trinity, a VN I've been anticipating for quite some time, and continuing Tales of Berseria, which I'm enjoying immensely. Right now, the balance of my thoughts is caught perfectly between the two, so I'd like yall to decide by tomorrow morning, lol.
Kouyoku no Soleil was the first Soleil game I ever played... and from a purely action perspective, it was fun... but it lacked something from my perspective because so much of the game is steeped in pre-existing knowledge from the other games (literally, this game pulls stuff in from Shirogane, Gouen, Soukyuu, and even Primary).
Basically, this story starts with the Norns fighting one another over what to do about the original Norse Mythology world, which hasn't moved on from the moment the fate they predicted came to a close. Touya, the protagonist of the story, meets the Norn of the Past, Urd and ends up getting dragged into her affairs as she tries to find the Valkyrie who was supposed to spark the new world into existence. In the process, he bonds with the clutzy newbie valkyrie Rinasoel, ends up partnering with the magical girl (from Primary's world) Palfina, is repeatedly plagued by attempted sexual assaults by the firebird youkai from the Ayakashi realm named Yatohime, and ends up in a rather odd friendship with the girl beloved of the Lovecraftian Old Ones, Celaeno.
This really... varied cast comes together because the world he lives in, the 'central' world, is a nexus of dozens of worlds, which in turn have connections to yet other worlds (though distant), thus leading to a rather chaotic situation. Making it worse is the giant immaterial sword plunged into the central world, which stands silently in the background for much of the story.
To be straight about it, Touya is, like most of the protagonists in this series, a serious philanderer. He falls in love and has sex with all the heroines I mentioned above, and he is rather passionate... unfortunately, he is also rather incapable of the fidelity some of the more jealous ones (such as Rina and Palfina) desire. Touya is devoted to protecting Kukuri, the hikikomori girl who is also his landlord and his boss for his part-time job at the convenience story. His soft side is most often shown with her, in an almost fatherly manner. He is strong and violent but highly protective of those he cares about and pretty compassionate, though he does have an immense potential for destruction. His right arm can transform into a beast-like claw, which he can channel power through to sever anything, whether material or immaterial.
This VN is a kinetic novel - save that it has bad endings - for the most part, with only one storyline, and that is probably its biggest saving grace, because it didn't share out the story between a bunch of routes that probably would have not been nearly as satisfying as it was. Upon my second playthrough, I honestly felt that the game deserved a higher rating, since I now possessed the background knowledge necessary to enjoy it fully, lol.
Haruru Minamo ni is one of my favorite games by one of my favorite charage companies, Clochette. Clochette is known for a combination of decent stories, moe-ero (sexy and moe) heroines, and fantasy/sci-fi settings. Haruru Minamo ni is based in the same world as Amatsu Misora Ni, which is - ironically - my least favorite Clochette game. In this world, the idea and existence of Japanese-style deities is a self-evident reality. This is partly due to the fact that 'arahitogami' (kami who take a human shape and live as humans) come into existence regularly enough that they are obviously recognizable and accepted as what they are.
This game has five heroines: The protagonist's little sister and goddess of the mountain, Miori; the new sea goddess of Tamatsue, Kanau; a young thunder goddess named Mei; Tatsuki's (the protagonist) and Miori's osananajimi Ena; and the fisherman's daughter Asumi.
Miori comes across as the most level-headed of the five heroines, having been a goddess from birth, rather than ascending to the position. She was 'raised' to a great degree by her older brother, and she is all-too-aware of how the task of raising her has shaped his personality and way of looking at the world. She has all of her worshippers' names, faces, situation, and lifestyles (and that of their relatives to the fourth degree) memorized, and she is the trusted and beloved goddess of the mountain. She is also a heavy gamer (console) due to the fact that the siblings' ancestor (the first goddess of the mountain) having promised to remain upon the mountain, thus binding her to the old town around her shrine, thus making her a homebody. She is the epitome of the Japanese idea of a tochigami, being able to express her will anywhere within her territory and protecting it against misfortune. Obviously, she is a brocon.
Kanau is a young girl who became a goddess at a relatively late age, and as a result, she doesn't have great control of her powers. She is also extremely unlucky and tends to draw misfortune to herself to an extreme degree. However, she also has a hidden core of steel in her spirit that lets her get up after every failure with relatively little help or interference. Her kind and hard-working nature show a great deal of potential, though it is, as of the beginning of the VN, unrealized.
Mei is the incarnation of a bolt of lightning given the form of a girl after attaining divinity. Unlike Kanau, who is learning to be a goddess because she was born human, Mei needs to do so because she has had little connection with humans. She is very straight-laced and honest, telling people what she thinks upfront. Her emotions are obvious, but she will often hold herself back for the sake of what she thinks is right. She desperately wants to be of use to humankind, but she has no idea of how to go about it.
Ena is the daughter of a Japanese sweets shop owner and the Yamagami siblings' osananajimi. She is an easygoing, kind-hearted girl who cares about others first and foremost, without a malicious bone in her body. Having grown up around Miori and Tatsuki, she knows them almost better than they know themselves, and thus she has made a point of restraining her long-held feelings for Tatsuki and keeping them below the surface. For better or worse, she is the type of girl who suffers as a result of her tendency to put others first.
Asumi is a seemingly standoffish daughter of a fisherman. Having been raised near the sea, she became an excellent swimmer at a young age. However, she quit the swimming club and now avoids swimming anywhere but the mountain river, avoiding the seas like the plague. She also doesn't believe in deities, feeling deeply betrayed by them for reasons that come obvious later. Despite this, she is actually very straightforward and easy to get along with... once you understand she doesn't like wasting time on small talk.
Mei
Mei has the cutest dere of all the heroines, I'm just going to say right up front. Think 'cat who absolutely adores her master' and you'll get an idea. Mei's path is pretty heavy on ichaicha... but since her dere is cute in a good way and there is little romance drama to annoy me past the actual stage of them getting together, I didn't mind either time I played it.
Her path's drama is mostly centered around her growing as a kami by being loved by Tatsuki (yes, seriously), so most of it isn't that serious. However, there are a few 'trouble moments', especially toward the end of the path. Nonetheless, all is well that ends well, and the path is tied off nicely.
Miori
Miori, despite her efforts to keep her brother at arm's length, is a rather self-evident brocon. This is fairly typical of Clochette imouto heroines (incidentally, Clochette little sister routes are some of the best out there, though they lack the twisted stuff you see in some other companies' lineups). However, this is made more complex by the background of the two. The first part of the path, the formation of the relationship, is more of a clash of positions: brother/sister, priest/goddess along with a bunch of other baggage that was inevitable. However, it does make it a lot more interesting than your typical 'incest is bad' drama you see in most imouto routes.
Miori and Tatsuki, once they get together are somewhat... intense. This was also the case with Mei, but if Mei and Tatsuki were an extreme version of the typical bakkouple (idiot lovers), Miori and Tatsuki are so insanely intimate (think finishing each other's sentences half the time) that it takes it in a somewhat different direction. There is some significant drama near the end of the path that is very, very revealing about the setting in general... but because of that, I would recommend that first-timers play most of the other routes before this one (Kanau's and Miori's can be done at the end) for the best experience.
Asumi
Honestly, as a character, I like Asumi the most of the five heroines. However, I have to say her dere is more 'hidden' than the other girls, as her feelings don't really reach the surface in the same way as the others. As a result, in her path, you don't get to enjoy the kind of melty deredere crazy couple ichaicha you do in Miori or Mei's path. On the other hand, her path is a gift to those who like intimacy over brain-melted ichaicha.
Asumi's romance starts the most 'naturally' of the three paths I've played this time so far. This is probably because she isn't a goddess (meaning Tatsuki's hangups aren't as strong an issue in that stage of the relationship), and Asumi's seduction of Tatsuki happening to be a lot more subtle than the others because of the way she handles emotions.
Honestly, I don't like the way this path ended, in comparison to the way the previous two did. While it is highly emotional, it also trips one of my major most-hated tropes
Kanau
Kanau is a pretty straightforward girl in every way... but the beginning of the romantic part of this path is seriously weird. I mean, it is a Clochette game, so sexually charged scenes are normal but...
The attraction of Kanau's path is the way she starts to change things in Tamatsue as a result of her personality. While Kanau isn't my favorite heroine, she definitely has a strong path worthy of a main heroine.
This path can be considered to be the 'main' or central path of the game, as it has the most story-focused approach, whereas most of the other paths had a tighter focus on the lovey-dovey aspects, with the story growing like weeds between ichaicha moments. That said, it isn't like this path makes the other heroines feel underserved. Rather, it feels more like a natural extension of what was going on from the beginning.
Conclusion
I'm not a fan of Ena's path or Ena as a heroine (Ena as a side or helper character is ideal, but I don't like her type as heroines). As such, I'm not interested in replaying her path. This game in general is Clochette at its best, in particular the way there are so many diverse elements interacting with the central characters, as opposed to the charage standard, which generally has only the heroines, the protagonist, and maybe a few friends with relatively few other connections. There are mild cathartic moments, humor, and ecchi enough for anyone who likes a more varied 'flavor' in their charage, and the heroine paths actually have a story to tell, not just a 'romance'. I recommend this for people who want some mild fantasy and story in a primarily SOL setup (and for people who like heroines who happen to be attached to oppai).
First, I should note that this is the first half of the game and as such, it might be wise to wait until the second half comes out in September before trying it. Second, this game is based some time (around sixteen to nineteen years) after the original Utawarerumono in the much larger nation of Yamato, on the continent across the sea. For those who don't want spoilers about the original game, STOP HERE.
Second, I will note the differences between the anime and the game. There are numerous small and large differences in the progression of the story, but the biggest differences pop up in the Uzurusha campaign and later, when almost none of the events with Vurai in that campaign exist in the game. This leads to the biggest difference between the two... in the anime, Haku goes from looking like a guy who is lazy but reliable in a pinch to a naive idiot due to the events in Uzurusha, but in the game, that doesn't happen, so Haku, from beginning to end, is reliable and actually has an iron will under the surface. As such, the part of the anime that was most displeasing to me didn't exist in the game, lol.
Now, for the most direct spoiler of the original:
That spoiler is the most obvious thing in the world to anyone who played the original, and it is the primary reason why anyone who hasn't played the original should before playing these games... though there are other reasons involved.
In terms of gameplay, this game is light years ahead of the original, because, while individuals gain experience through attacking, a certain amount of experience (large enough to gain at least a level) is automatically gained at the end of the battle. This eases the burden of grinding to its lowest possible level while still giving you reason to (for BP to upgrade basic stats like speed, attack, and defense for characters who lack in those areas). As such, it doesn't feel like the game interrupts the story at all, as there is no real need to do excessive grinding during the course of the game.
In terms of story... this game is pretty good, even as jrpg/VN hybrids go. While I can't say I was satisfied with how things turned out, that is because this game is split into two parts. As such, I can just shrug and say that I can't fully judge the story until I've played the second part. I will say that I was smiling through most of the game, and the emotional moments hit me properly, making me shed tears for the characters. Perhaps the biggest difference between this and the original game is that this one has a far less grim atmosphere from the beginning. Hakuoro, in the original, is caught up in the tides of war and strife from the beginning, and as a result, everything he does is colored by that. Haku is a far more easygoing soul, and that colors the game significantly, taking it in a different direction... at least for this installment.
Yes I played this, for obvious reasons. This is one of those rare nukige that makes an attempt at escaping being a nukige. It attempts to have a story, has an interesting setting, and even has interesting heroines with dark pasts...
Unfortunately, there are places where it stumbles (and no, I'm not talking about the high H content). The most obvious place it stumbles, for someone just starting it, is the horrible way the music is handled. It cuts out in some scenes, has little connection with what is going on in others, and is outright (and completely so) generic at others. Considering the money that had to have gone into the Live 2D system and the character visuals, this strikes me as being a singularly stupid way to handle things. Yes, you don't expect a nukige to have GREAT music, but I do think a baseline of good music such as is seen in even the weakest charage, should be well-within the capabilities of even a newbie company. I was horrified to see them reusing the 'everyday life' music heard in Norn/Miel games, which is pretty much the worst everyday life BGM in existence.
The character designs in this game, while not godly, are definitely done extremely well. In particular, the kitsune Tamayo, the inugami Yanoe, and the yukionna Hisame have excellent character designs, even if the latter two are just a bit off from my personal tastes. You can tell that a large portion of the budget for this game was put into the character designs, and it definitely pays off.
Live 2D is, like most motion animation, a waste of money. It doesn't really add anything to the experience (except for people who just want to see boobs bounce), and it requires an engine that is so bug-ridden that the weirdest crap can render it inoperable (I hate Unity engine).
Now, for the story... and there is a story, albeit not a great one. Essentially, the protagonist, due to some kind of mess in his past lives (and he has a large number of them, lol) is cursed with bad luck, to the point where if something bad is going to happen in the area he is in, it will always hit him. One night, he encounters a beautiful kitsune during a kimodameshi at his school (for those unfamiliar with it - in other words, people who don't normally play SOL games - a kimodameshi is basically a staged test of courage), who promptly and gleefully reverse-rapes him (though he gets into it halfway through). The next day, the class idol, Tenko Tamayo, is all over him, and eventually he ends up learning about youkai and their relationship with humanity.
To be honest, what bothers me most about this game, after finishing it, is the fact that every single one of these paths at least meets charage-level and possibly nakige-level requirements for writing and scenario. Unfortunately, the music and oddly-timed jumps into H-scenes tends to break things up whenever they start to get really serious. Moreover, some of the paths (Yanoe's in particular) sometimes get weird jumps from decision-making to the results, taking out a lot of the fun of watching the characters struggle.
Nonetheless, since I enjoyed the youkai H, the setting, and Tamayo's path, I added extra points that kept it out of the gutter in my vndb list, lol.
I have numerous reasons for putting Ai Yori Aoi Umi no Hate on hiatus... including that I'm tired of slice-of-life and the oddities of the setting are driving me a little crazy. However, the fact is that I'm just tired. Every once in a while, I fall into a sourceless funk, where I don't want to do anything - fun or not - and I'm in the middle of one of those now. I can tell you for certain that I'm not really interested in this VN right now, despite the fact that, until about eighteen hours ago, I was enjoying it despite the massive holes in the setting.
This might be a case of me making excuses to myself, but I can guarantee I won't give this VN a real chance if I force myself to read it now... and the same goes for Haruoto. I just don't have the energy or the wherewithal to be nice and treat all VNs equally right now.
As part of my series of posts on AXL, today I finished replaying Like a Butler, one of AXL's earlier charage-type VNs. This VN is of a type that hadn't really been touched until AXL opened it up... the ojousama-ge. Just to give you a little history, until the release of Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no in 2006, there hadn't been any really good or famous ojousama-ge made. It was only after 2010 when the sub-genre exploded outward into the ridiculous numbers we've seen since (with Ensemble alone producing fifteen in the last eight years, if you include fandiscs).
I'll be straight about it... ojousama-ge are the type of charage I'm most likely to like besides fantasy type charage. I have a definite positive bias toward this type of game, so if I don't like an ojousama-ge, it really is crap, lol.
Anyway, Like a Butler starts with the usual ridiculous premise upon which about 80% of all of this type of VN are based off of... the protagonist transferring to an academy for rich people (usually for some kind of absurd reason). In this case, his osananajimi Kanade (who is a pure-hearted, dog-like, extremely friendly girl with an absolute trust in the protagonist that is a bit extreme) gets chosen as a scholarship student for an academy for the children of the ultra-rich (think hundreds of millions of dollars). Kanade begs Kazuki, the protagonist, to serve as her butler at the school, so she won't be alone amidst a bunch of unfamiliar people. He, being weak to her requests, eventually gives in.
A lot of the earlier parts of the VN are as much about culture shock as anything else (it's mutual, needless to say). Kanade, being Kanade, manages to burrow her way into the hearts of her fellow students relatively easily, and Kazuki, as her butler, begins to accustom himself as well.
Some notes about AXL's style with this type of game... unlike more modern ojousama-ge, which tend to avoid snobbish heroines and main characters, AXL doesn't hesitate including the characters' prejudices and cultural blind spots (again, it is mutual), so expect some friction between the characters as a result. This is especially so for Sarasa and the protagonist, as Sarasa is the epitome of the 'super-rich girl who believes in her own fundamental superiority' and Kazuki has a fundamental dislike for being looked down upon.
One of the best parts about this VN, other than the usual AXL antics, excellent storytelling, and wonderful character development, is the way they did the heroine paths. Rather than being a straight road to a set ending, each of the heroines (save for Kiriko, the extra heroine) has a three endings... one good, one bad, and one extra good. The first good ending is an abbreviated version where the protagonist's final situation is something of a result of 'going with the flow' of the relationship. These endings resemble the standard charage ending, save for the fact that they have 'years later' epilogues. The second good ending is always the best... in both the path itself and the epilogue, you see the results of the protagonist seeking to better himself and his environment, as well as confronting the obstacles in his way to form a better and more permanent relationship with the heroines. To be blunt, I cried with joy at Sarasa's and Mizuho's second good endings, and with good reason. The trials and tribulations, as well as the wonderfully designed epilogues made it feel like the protagonist had actually grown far beyond his beginnings in each case... and the heroines were generally much happier.
Overall, for those who like this type of charage, this is a must-play. The only downside from some people's point of view is that the visuals are typical AXL, meaning that they've looked pretty much the same for the past ten years, lol. (go to hell, art bigots)
The second arc of this story is focused narrowly on the aftermath of the first arc and Yurika.
Yurika is a rare type in VNs these days... a sexy adult woman who isn't another man's wife or widow (yes, I went there). She is a member of the 'Virgin of Chains', the more 'peaceful' of the two mafia groups dominating the area. She is the protagonist's friend, occasional partner, drinking buddy, and sex friend.
She has a somewhat nihilistic attitude toward life and an absolute love of teasing the protagonist... and anyone else who leaves an opening for her. Like all the heroines in this VN, she is fairly attractive, though she is somewhat overly pessimistic at times. Of course, she has very good reason for this, but I won't spoil that for you.
In the aftermath of the second arc, I took pleasure in reading her path, which was a bit more icha-love focused than Kazuha's was at first. It does fall into the classic 'it was nice up to this point precisely to outline the drama' area, so the drama near the end of the path is pretty satisfying, and I honestly enjoyed the atmosphere of the path as a whole. I will say that I preferred Kazuha's path and I thought they could have gone a bit farther with her personal story (I thought that they glossed over a bit too much detail when it came to her eye).
As I mentioned in my previous post, I've simply reached a point where playing four VNs from every month's releases is now unfeasible. However, at the same time, I wish to ensure that the role I set this up for in the first place continues to be fulfilled.
The Original Purpose of VN of the Month
The central purpose of VN of the Month is to give people a general idea of what they can expect going into a VN that is untranslated. Is it enjoyable? Who would it be enjoyable for? What kind of genre is it a part of? Is there something that makes this VN special?
The current situation
I no longer have the energy to do everything I have been doing. Doing VN of the Month takes up amounts of time I'd rather be spending asleep, being social, or helping with translation projects. Moreover, I'm currently in the middle of an apparent rush season for my work, so keeping up with it has become burdensome in the extreme. However, I remember when all opinions of VNs were basically given off-hand in instant messaging and chat platforms, and no one really had any idea if a VN was any good, because of the troll voting that plagues all database sites. While there are some English language VN bloggers out there, they mostly concentrate on translated entries and titles by companies everybody is already familiar with (such as Favorite, Pulltop, Yuzusoft, Minori, etc).
My solution
I want to ask some of the people who regularly play new VNs on Fuwa to take some of the burden off my shoulders... in particular, I'd like to at least offload two of the charage from each month on some people so I can concentrate on VNs I have a standing interest in. Preferably, I would like four or five people to do maybe one of these VNs each every two months (accounting for other people's reading speed and time constraints). To be blunt, I have no interest in aiding and abetting another person's burnout by forcing them into handling a VN or two every month on schedule, so that is why I want the greater numbers.
The issue
Japanese readers are still a vast minority here, and I don't know if it is even realistic to expect anyone but me to even consider helping with something like this. I know a few people who read fairly fast, but I honestly don't want to make a request directly that is fundamentally burdensome.
If you are interested, comment on this blog post and we'll work things out in a PM.
Edit: Keep in mind that what I want are opinions. To be blunt, I can write up a blog post based on someone else's opinions in under ten minutes if I need to, even if they themselves are terrible at writing or organizing their thoughts. It is what I do for a living, after all. In this way, the focus will shift somewhat... because I'll be handing things over to people who have a preference for the genre they are playing. That's why I'd like to get some charage players on board. While I personally strive for as little bias as possible, the fact is that charage reviews should be geared to charage lovers, and that is something I can't provide, sadly. The same goes for mystery, sports-focused, and denpa types. I have no taste for those genres, so it is best that I leave them to someone else who does like them.
Current new Members-
fun2novel: Specialties are mindfuck, mystery, and chuunige. I'll be depending on him primarily for mystery VNs, which I dislike. For a start, I've asked him to take over Ouka Sabaki, since I can't bring myself to play it. He's got a decent level of experience, and he is reasonably fast.
