Realive is Purple Soft's latest game. For those unfamiliar with Purple Soft, they are the makers of Hapymaher and Chrono clock, and their specialty lies in nakige with fantasy and/or sci-fi elements. As an example, Chrono Clock has the time-manipulation watch, Amatsutsumi has 'kotodama' (the ability to control people and some phenomena with words), and Aoi Tori has divine and demonic powers. In this case, the characters are drawn into playing an AR game called Alive, which grants them strange abilities based on how far they have progressed in the game. Since these abilities actually bring about real life results, I call it a 'mystical app', lol.
Anyway, this game was written by Nakahiro of Hoshimemo and AstralAir fame. In combination with the sheer eroero nature of Purple Soft's artists' character designs (since his previous works that weren't nukige were mostly 'cute' games) it definitely presents a different picture from what you would expect from Nakahiro at first... but as you progress through the game, you will inevitably - if you have played his previous games - come to recognize similarities in how he handles the emotional and comedic elements to his previous works.
The common route of this game is mostly light-hearted, though it shows at times the deep worries the various heroines and protagonist have (on the surface level). For those familiar with Hapymaher (which is translated), it becomes evident that Nakahiro is a fanboy of that particular work pretty early on, as he deliberately inserted many small easter eggs into the character personalities and settings that are drawn from the characters of Hapymaher. Sadly, he doesn't seem to have been fond of Saki (how could anyone play that and not love Saki?!!) but the heroines seem to have carried on a lot of elements from Hapymaher characters for some reason... though I won't spoil it for you. Have fun figuring out which characters inherited which Hapymaher elements, lol.
Anyway, there are four heroine routes in this game and one Grand Route (just a different name for a true route, save that it usually has a bigger focus on resolving central elements of the main game's story as opposed to the heroines' individual ones). I'll introduce the heroines as I go.
Kaya
Kaya is, on the surface, your classic arrogant/selfish ojousama. She has distinct manipulative tendencies and a strong need to be on top, no matter what the situation. However, that surface hides a crybaby who lived a sheltered but strictly-regulated existence that tried to squeeze all traces of personality out of her. This is not that uncommon in ojousama heroines, but the way Kaya is presented is cute, generally speaking. Her class is Alchemist, which oversees destruction and creation of objects.
Like all the four initial heroine routes, this one focuses on resolving Kaya's issues as she tries to complete the game, which is often difficult, since the conditions of the missions given by the game are often vague and designed to help the characters grow and face their inner demons... and Kaya's demons are a doozy (those this can be said about all the heroines to one extent or another). While some of her issues might seem minor to someone looking from the outside in, it is nonetheless made easy for the reader to empathize with her suffering.
This path was my first experience with how the endings were going to be handled for this game... and the ending was something of an exercise in frustration for me, primarily because there is so much hinting at the background setting without giving me answers to match up with my suppositions. In addition, since we have no way to see how things progressed between the events at the climax of the path to the epilogue (this is deliberately not spoken of), I found myself wishing that they'd left epilogues to after the game was done completely.
Minato
Minato is a loner by choice, living a hard life working part-time jobs to keep her in food and shelter while attending high school. She actively hates the idea of trusting others, and she resents deeply the hypocrisy of those who try to help her out of pity. Normally, she presents the picture of a 'koakuma' heroine (and that's what she is), but she is also a rather obvious tsundere, albeit one who only shows her true tsun when someone manages to embarrass her. Her class is Trickster.
Minato's path is... much more viscerally emotional and at the same time amusing than Kaya's path. I chose her second because she was the other 'outlier' heroine amongst the four initially available (I almost always pick heroines who aren't already close to or in love with the protagonist first, since osananajimi and deredere classmates are usually boring). She resists both the idea and reality of her romantic feelings for Chihaya (the protagonist) for a long time, and her reactions to those feelings were just hilarious... up until the point she finally gets down to being deredere, then she is even more clingy than Kaya, and that takes work.
Minato's theme is 'overcoming dependence and making peace with the past', and it was much more effectively executed than Kaya's path... that said, i do still have complaints with how the epilogue was handled. However, that's the case with all of the four initial endings, so I'm just going to grin and bear it.
Nemuru
I'll go ahead and get this out in the open. Nemuru and Satsuki are the heroines I had no interest in from the beginning. Satsuki is an osananajimi in the classic 'cooks and cleans for him' style (albeit not tsundere for the most part) and Nemuru is your typical shy girl who has trouble speaking with men. Nemuru's class is, ironically (at least on the surface) Idol, and her skills are all centered around gathering or controlling the attention of others.
My major problem with Nemuru's path came down to the fact that Nemuru was the heroine, in the end. As a path, it is actually fairly good, even if it lacked a lot of the non-standard twists and turns seen in the previous two paths (incidentally why I picked those two heroines first). However, Nemuru's character was irritating to me (shy heroines who remain shy for most of the game drive me crazy), and while she grows a great deal as she overcomes her trauma (much like the previous two), I was left unmoved due to my lack of interest in her.
Again, her path is technically good, and a less-jaded player would undoubtedly be able to empathize more with her (the me of two or three years ago probably could have), but I've grown used to not bothering to tolerate heroines I don't like of late, so my reaction was probably inevitable.
Satsuki
Satsuki is the osananajimi neighbor, living with her younger sister Yayoi. She constantly wants to take care of people, especially the protagonist, and she intentionally matches her time leaving the house to his... do I have to enumerate anymore reasons why I left this path to last? lol
Anyway, Satsuki has a strongly self-sacrificing personality with an intense desire to help and protect others. This is reflected in her class, which is Knight. Her path is perhaps the second most emotional (for me) so far, right behind Minato's. That said, her existence as an osananajimi and an essentially 'normal' person pretty much eliminated any possibility of me preferring her as a heroine, hahaha. Her path is all about overcoming the loss of something precious, and as such, it is inevitably a tear-jerker.
Grand Route
Early in the Grand Route, the reason for the links to Hapymaher become clear, and about a third way through, it becomes clear why all the events in the other path occurred. I'll be blunt... you'll probably spend most of the first third of this path in tears, if you have a heart. It is also an extremely familiar set of themes and setting ideas for someone who has read Hapymaher, so I can clearly state that this game is a Hapymaher derivative rather than just supposing it might be.
This path forces the protagonist and the heroines to face their largest trauma, the one not mentioned even slightly in the other paths. This trauma... is bad enough that I'd honestly be tempted to rename this an utsuge. However, typical to Purple Soft's nakige brand, the ending is a happy one, if somewhat bittersweet. I know I cried. I will say that the protagonist's solution to the problem was... novel and typically convenient of a Japanese nakige, lol.
Anyone who has read one of my reviews knows I'm something of a cynic and a pessimist. I try to think the best about every VN I go into, but my first impulse is to see what is wrong, rather than what is right.
Whether it is optimism and rose-colored glasses or pessimism and cynicism, and excess of either is often a negative influence on the quality of a review. Generally speaking, I usually make an effort to find something I like about a VN's concept before going in, then I start the VN trying to enjoy it as an outgrowth of that. By the end, this usually results in me having experienced both the negative and positive aspects of the VN... the problem is, when reviewing, it is all too easy to forget what is good about the VN.
As a result, when I'm writing up a review, the first thing I do is write up a list of the good points I found, ignoring the mitigating negative factors. I then build the review around these and include the negative points in with the rest... but you can probably tell that being positive just doesn't come naturally to me, since I tend to be pretty harsh.
However, by using this system, I've found dozens of VN gems over the years that I probably would have discarded for perceived negative qualities if I didn't use this process. Indeed, early on in my reading of untranslated VNs, I dropped numerous ones simply because they had a negative aspect that I got obsessed with. I would later go back and replay them, only to find that the negative aspect wasn't as big a deal as I thought at the time, since I made the effort to go back with a differing perspective.
A poor quality in a reviewer is the tendency to ignore the negatives about something you like. Another one is to rate things entirely based on aspects you only have a vague grasp or focus on (in my case, due to my eye problems, I'm not the best judge of artwork, and my musical sense is entirely based on how it enhances the atmosphere, rather than raw quality comprehension). I'm a story reviewer. I review almost exclusively based on the story, characters, and presentation. As such, art and sound rarely have a place in my reviews, since I don't think I'm qualified to evaluate them except in the most general of terms.
I can tell when a VA did an exceptional job, because it stands out enough for me to notice. I will even mention this in the review, since it takes a lot for a performance to stand out to me. However, I never pretend to know the ins and outs of specific aspects of VA or musical quality. I simply don't have the right kind of ear for that kind of thing, not being musically inclined.
One thing I've noticed in some reviewers who prefer niche genres (such as myself) is to display a tendency I refer to as PGRD (or Popular Game Reactionary Disorder). It is a fictional mental disease that many of us who have a distinct preference for a niche genre display that causes us to have a knee-jerk negative reaction to popular works, simply because they are mainstream. This is a problem that is particularly common in Western otakus of around my age, who became fanboys during a time when watching anime, playing Japanese video games, and reading manga had a rather strong stigma that left us feeling isolated and defensive. However, it is also present in people who prefer niche genres (I get the double whammy, being both). That sense of isolation leads to a tendency to over-praise our favorite materials and bash anything that we see as being too popular.
In reverse, there are those who automatically dismiss anything that isn't mainstream. Both types are reactionary in nature and have little to do with the quality of the materials in question. Being a long-time sci-fi addict, I can't understand why anyone would enjoy Avatar (the movie). However, if I make the mistake of saying that in front of a fanboy of the movie, I will inevitably get a vociferous lecture on how misunderstood the movie is by science fiction fans...
There are many such examples of such behavior I have experienced over the years, both in myself and in others. As such, a reviewer has to be willing to examine his own motives for liking or hating something. Are you being cynical for the sake of being cynical? Are you over-praising something to the point of overlooking the obvious problems with it? Are you making excuses while thinking you are making a reasoned argument? On the other side, are you ignoring the voice of reason to give you an excuse to dislike something?
In the end, bias is unavoidable... but it is a reviewer's duty to do their best to cast aside as much of it as possible, because people use our reviews as reference points when they pick what they want to play/read/watch.
A few weeks ago, I picked up the Steam versions of Silverio Vendetta and Silverio Trinity. My reasons in the latter case were pretty self-explanatory... I wanted to read the append after story that Light so cavalierly and cruelly only included with the all-ages version previously only available on the Vita. Considering that the after story append serves as a bridge between Trinity and Ragnarok, as well as giving you what amounts to a four to five hour extension to the true route... I can say it was worth paying for, even though I essentially skipped through the entire game to unlock it.
There are two new append stories included. The aforementioned after-story is one, and the other is Ashley Horizon's origin story. For those who haven't read the main game, this will contain major spoilers.
The after-story append could have easily become the core of a fandisc for most games. It is extensive (about four-fifths to two-thirds as long as one of the heroine paths) and is action-packed, as well as being chock-full of content of the sort fanboys like me can't help but scream with glee about. (More spoilers below)
Say what you want about Light, but their tradition of extensive append stories and gaiden stories is one I think more plotge companies should consider imitating. Too bad they went down with Masada's delusions of glory.
Edit: I should note that there is currently no text hooks for the Steam versions of either game, so if you want to use a text-hooker, you'll have to either create an h-code for yourself or beg someone who already knows how. I had a huge headache from the usual Light 'I've got to gather all the rare kanji into a single sentence!' when I was done.
If nothing else, it is worth it to see this.
From now on, in addition to my forum posts, I will be posting my VN of the Month and Random VN posts here, as well as occasional generalized comments on trends in VNs and the Western VN world in general. Feel free to comment and argue with me, as I welcome constructive (emphasis on that) criticism (in other words, commenting just to be a troll is not welcome). If you feel that my comments on a particular VN don't fit your impression of it, feel free to write a rebuttal in the comments.
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.
This VN was made by the same team that did Zero Infinity and Electro Arms, and it shows (in some ways). They have definitely improved their character balance and the way they present them, as well as the overall storytelling. The common route is fairly long (think about ten hours for me, about the same amount of time it takes me to completely finish a small charage), and it covers a rather large amount of content (there is no wasted time in this game at all, and yet it still manages to be as long as any of the other VNs by this team).
For those who are unclear about the setting, it is based a thousand years after a disaster that ends our civilization, due to a huge breach in the dimensional walls that basically renders our most important technologies worthless, giving us the power of Astral instead.
First, the protagonist... Zephyr. He is the antithesis of a hero, to be blunt about it. His nature is very base (he isn't a rapist though), with a tendency to prefer self-protection above all other things... except when it comes to Milly, the adopted little sister who is the focus of his current existence. In battle, he tends to either be evading... or dismembering/decapitating his enemies, using insults, misdirection, and brutal tactics to take them down, without any trace of mercy whatsoever. To be blunt, in battle he is either running around or a cold-hearted killer, lol.
Second, the heroines... Milly, Chitose, and Vendetta. Milly is the protagonist's adopted little sister, with whom he escaped the massacre that killed her parents and over 73,000 others in a single night. She is kind-hearted, a skilled technician, and a natural sweetheart to everyone around her. She is literally incapable of hating anyone, as far as I can tell. Chitose is... Milly's opposite. She is aggressive, strong-willed, and utterly merciless with those she considers to be her enemies or those of the state. Vendetta... well, lets just say that Vendetta is a bit inscrutable, though she comes across as a nagging older sister most of the time.
Third, I think that whether you like this game is going to be primarily dependent on whether you can like the protagonist (if you are already able to read Light-style writing, that is, lol). For all that he is basically pond-scum (and quite well-aware of it), he grows on you once you get past it. The common route defies the usual classifications for the simple reason that Light action VNs tend to be a bit hectic, lol.
Milly
Milly, as described above, is the kind-hearted little sister. Her route is fairly heart-rending, if only because of the way things fall apart so fast, once they pass a certain point. Her route shows off a number of interesting characters, ranging from the hedonistic fist-fighter Asura to Milly's master as a technician, Jin.
As always, I'm avoiding spoilers, so it is hard to figure out what I can say... Milly's route definitely has impact. I cried numerous times along the way, and Milly does manage to escape being another Kasumi (reference to Dies Irae), in that she isn't hopelessly out of place in the story, despite being the only 'normal person' heroine.
It is a bit frustrating that none of the biggest mysteries get revealed, but the fights were brutal enough to satisfy my bloodlust, though they followed the usual pattern that Light prefers, of the protagonist almost always being at a horrible disadvantage.
The ending is quite satisfying, though bittersweet (you can't avoid lots of character deaths in Light VNs), and I honestly was happy with how it turned out for Milly and Zephyr, though I did think that falling short of actually finding out everything that was going on behind the scenes means you will probably have to play this one first to avoid feeling unsatisfied with it.
Chitose is a nearly pure-blooded descendant of the people of Japan, a nation that has come to be worshiped as a god by many, because of the way its technology altered the face of the world and civilization. Her sub-family of the Amatsu, the Oboro, were the ones who were obsessed with justice and noblesse oblige, which shows really obviously in her daily actions and reactiions.
My first conclusion upon finishing her path was 'I am so glad I did Milly first'. Why? Simple. Chitose's path is a lot more obviously action-packed, with more terrible battles and insane twists and turns. It reveals the core elements that Milly's didn't touch upon, which makes me wonder why they didn't just go ahead and lock in a Milly>Chitose>Vendetta progression.
Chitose's path does leave a few elements revealed in Milly's path untouched, but the sheer action-packed brutality and melodrama is on a different scale. The fact that the protagonist's psychology is far different by the end than it is in Milly's path is another interesting issue, for those who like to see characters grow during the course of a story.
Chitose herself adds to this, as she is the epitome of the 'fighting heroine', fighting in such an overwhelming fashion that sometimes you can't help but laugh in excitement. It is so nice to have a heroine who stands at the protagonist's side - and sometimes ahead of him - rather than being dependent on him.
For chuunige fans, this is definitely a kami-route. Look forward to Vendetta's route, next time.
After playing this route, I am severely tempted to immediately abuse my authority as the master of this blog and just name Silverio Vendetta VN of the Month for February. However, that really would be an abuse, so meh.
Vendetta's route... let's just say it blows you away. The battles, the twists, and the overall awesomeness that accompany them are almost equivalent to that of Marie's or Rea's route in Dies Irae in impact. The way that so much of the cast evolves during the course of this particular path - Zephyr in particular - is just... superb.
In terms of narrative quality, this by far blows away the other two routes, which is no surprise, considering that Vendetta was marked as the true heroine from the beginning. As a heroine, she frequently comes across as being contrary or paradoxical in nature, but at heart, she is anything but. When it comes to Zephyr, she is love incarnate... though it is sometimes tough love (frequently).
...Zephyr really shows off his anti-hero nature in this route, especially at the end. He has a level of humanity a simple hero cannot match, and for all his flaws, he really is an awesome protagonist. Like most of Light's chuunige works, if you hear the description of the plot, you might think it was trite... but if you experience it, you feel nothing of the sort, lol.
Overall
Overall, I do think this game is one of the better VNs produced by Light since Dies Irae... in some ways much better than Senshinkan, which was last year's big hit. A lot of this is because the writers went out of their way to create an incredibly deep setting, with a unique culture, physics, and political dynamic.
There is definitely a sense of 'a science-fantasy Germany, fifteen hundred years in the future' to the setting, with Hitler replaced by a moral purist military ruler and war hero.
In terms of the battles, they managed to bring back the best of Dies Irae's battle narration style while escaping some of its flaws. It felt like they'd refined the style without falling into the trap of being unbalanced the way Zero Infinity did.
In terms of characters, they managed to create a much larger and more varied cast than is their wont, though they - as always - made a lot of oddball people (and not in a funny manner, for the most part).
The game's weakness and strength is in the difference in focus and detail between the routes. Because of the way the story is constructed, the Milly>Chitose>Vendetta play order is the only one you can take if you want to feel satisfied with all the routes. As a result, if you did play it in this order, it feels like the VN gets better with each route... but if you were to play it out of order, you'd probably get a bit frustrated, to say the least.
I'm going to avoid Saga Planets' new game for now, because I'm getting a lot of mixed signals... even if I set aside the fact that all the highest votes on it are by troll and duplicate troll accounts. As such, it came down to a contest between Shirogane Spirits (by Giga) and 11gatsu no Arcadia (by a new company named Levol). Naturally, being wary of anything non-Baldr by Giga, I've chosen to play 11gatsu no Arcadia.
Bullet Butlers has one of the more interesting fantasy settings that I've seen in a VN. Think film noir combined with elves, lizardmen, orcs, and magic and you won't be far off. The guy you see above is Rick Arrowsmith, the protagonist of the story and butler to one of the potential heirs of the draconic Mystic One (spiritual - not necessarily physical - descendants of the heroes who defeated the Undead King who serve as symbols of God's favor).
Now, Bullet Butlers was made by Propeller, the same company that made Ayakashibito and my long-lasting favorite VN - Evolimit. If there is one thing that some people might have noticed about Ayakashibito, it is that, to an extent, the heroines were less than satisfactory (from a moe-addict's point of view) and yet they still liked it... now why was that? It is a simple fact that the story in each heroine's path far surpasses the attraction of the heroine herself, that's why. lol
This is actually a quality that is present in all four of Propeller's really good action VNs (Ayakashibito, Bullet Butlers, Evolimit, and Tokyo Babel) but is especially evident in this one. The main reason? Two out of the three heroines are abysmally unattractive, lol. That said, their paths on the other hand, show the flair that made me fall in love with this company and still gets my hopes up even now, despite two major kusoge flops in a row.
This VN has a ridiculous amount of gratuitous violence in it, which is a reflection of the violence of the world they are living in. It is a world where death-worshiping cultists fight policemen in the streets, and where it is a matter of course for a security detail to drag half its number out in body bags... or in urns full of ashes scraped off the road. It is a world where men use magic to summon bullets into their guns and some guns can launch lightning or fire instead of simple solid slugs. Betrayal, murder, and general mayhem punctuate just about every major turn in the story... and to top it off, the protagonist's gun is eating his soul.
This VN stands out as being significantly different both from Ayakashibito and the others that followed in atmosphere... but at heart, it is still Propeller at its best.
Wow. This is definitely a case of not being able to judge a book by its cover... or by its summary, either. I don't think I've encountered a VN with as much emotional impact as this one since Houkago no Futekikakusha, last summer.
Sumire is by Nekoneko Soft, one of the oldest existing VN brands... They are one of the 'founding names' of the moege umbrella genre, while also producing more serious works through their subsidiaries, such as Cotton Soft (of Reconquista and Owaru Sekai to Birthday fame).
Sumire is rather unique, by the standards of current VNs. The protagonist, rather than being a student, is a salaryman in in his mid-twenties, a socially inept man who was an otaku but has lost most of his passion. He goes to a virtual chat room/online game that imitates a school, where people use characters from Nekoneko Soft games as avatars. There, he is part a sub-community of four people (including him) of people that are similarly awkward.
This story is... emotional to say the least. So far, I've finished two arcs of the story (there is only one actual path, though there are apparently multiple endings) and I had to spend the last thirty minutes or so easing myself out of crying-mode. What is so good about this? Generally speaking, I have to say it is the overall presentation and characterization, as well as the narrative.
The depth of the characters lent by the narration and dialogue - keeping in mind that they are the same type of person, generally speaking - is impressive, considering how relatively short a time I have been playing. At the same time, the story itself - for all its odd aspects - is one that is mostly easy to understand. It reminds me of some of the best works of last decade (2001-2010) in that it tries to just tell a story rather than pretending to be something in particular (ex. a charage, a nakige, etc).
So, unless they seriously screw things up, this is VN is a definite candidate for VN of the Month...
Edit: Changed this post so it reflects the whole game.
Now that I've finished the game - and yes it is that short - I will go ahead give my final word on it. This game stops a bit short of kamige-level (the ending is a bit too short and 'things are looking up' optimistic for that), but it is nonetheless an excellent game.
Now, for the overall... first, I should say that there are a total of three arcs. There is one focused on Sumire, then Hinahime, then Akari. Sumire is the main heroine, with the other two girls having 'extra' h-scenes in the omake section or as an extra on the second playthrough.
The first two arcs are both straightforward - relatively speaking - stories of alienation and redemption, with a bit of love and friendship thrown into the mix. Really, in the first two arcs, you can't really get a good lock on what is motivating everyone, which isn't surprising, really. About two thirds of the game is in the characters rl and a third in the virtual space (it is more like half and half in the early game and ends up mostly rl at the end).
For those who like mild mindfucks... Akari's arc will fulfill your desires to an extent. You'll find out the last few undiscovered secrets of the characters, including what links them together. In addition, you'll also have to choose between one normal, one bad, and one true ending. The true ending is a nice conclusion, though it is very short. The normal ending is sad, and the bad ending is a bit... depressing looking at it from the outside.
Overall, this is an excellent VN, though short. I'd recommend it to those who want something unusual to break out of their usual reading habits but don't want something violent or with lots of sexual drama.
There is a pretty good chance there won't be a VN of the month for June, simply because there aren't enough VNs coming out to make it a competition. As far as I can tell, there is only one not-nukige coming out for certain tonight (in our time) and it doesn't look like it will be one that is worthy of the VN of the Month, from the looks of it. I will still play and mini-review it, but please forgive me if you don't see a lot of new posts for the next month or so.
From the beginning I'm going to be blunt and say this VN is going to be a bit of a hard sell for most readers. There are several reasons for this.
1. Rapid genre shifts (this thing jumps through hoops for at least four genres and shifts rapidly from serious, to sad, to scary... so rapidly most people will probably lose track of what's going on)
2. There is a surprisingly large amount of rape and H in general for a VN that is only about five to six hours long for me (and about twelve to fourteen for slower people).
3. The rapid-fire pacing and sheer number of meaningless choices
Ok, first of all, this doesn't really function very well as a mystery, save for the first path. On the first path, you have no idea whatsoever is going on, and at the end of it, anyone with a brain will have figured out at least some of what happened. Second, this VN frequently slips into comedic turns (particularly because the protagonist is a perverted skirt-chaser who is utterly incapable of lying) that are often followed up by sad or mildly scary ones.
There are a lot of points where this feels like haunted house horror (without the murder), and there are even more points where it feels like everything is just put there so the protagonist can make you laugh. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if most people feel the way I did when it ended... that the entire thing was a joke, collectively speaking.
I can't really say who this would appeal to, because for every person that this hits the sweet spot, there is bound to be eight or nine who can't stand it. That is because it is so frenetic and weirdly structured. The true ending is fairly hilarious and actually quite pleasant... but people who go into this expecting straight-out mystery/horror will probably come out dissatisfied. If there were more VNs like this out there, I'd probably be able to define a new genre with this, because everything it pretends to be it doesn't quite match, hahaha.
Well... first, I should say that Baldr Force EXE was the thirty-fifth untranslated VN I played. At the time, I didn't have a controller, and I ended up suffering from horrible wrist pain from playing using the keyboard. So my first piece of advice to anyone trying to play this game is to get a controller (most are compatible) that you are comfortable using. This shares basic gameplay with Baldr Skydive, though that game's battle system is quite a bit more advanced. As such, feel free to search my Random VN Thread for my comments on it, lol. It is an action-based system where you use three attack buttons in combination with being at short or long range, dashing, or sprinting (short dash) to combo up to twelve different attacks ranging from fist strikes and submachine guns (you'll use the submachinegun attack throughout the game, because of its utility) to beam bazookas and landmines.
The actual story of this game is very different from what you'd expect from a similar VN today, simply because the choice of characters is different from what most modern readers have grown to expect. There is very little of the 'manzai' comedic byplay that is common to almost every VN made after 2006, and there are bad endings and horrible things that happen to the heroines just in the normal course of the route. While bad endings in themselves aren't rare, ones with story as extensive as these are a bit rare, lol.
This VN's art quality is probably about the best you'll see in any VN from the same era. The CGs, the tachie, and the backgrounds are all about as detailed as you can expect from a VN made around the turn of the century, and all the characters are well-differentiated from each other (though the designs are familiar from various anime that ran before or around the same time).
The musical quality is pretty high... no generic tracks here, though there are remixes of them in later Baldr games. Voices are a bit (quite a bit in some cases) less professional or more grainy than you'll have grown used to with modern VNs, though it isn't so bad as to break the experience.
The protagonist is a young hacker who is a typical rebellious youth who ends up caught in a nasty situation through his own stupid actions. If you know basic tactics, you'll frequently find yourself facepalming early on because of the sheer stupidity of some of the things he does. Nonetheless, compared to the hetare or 'normal' protagonists that are common to most VNs, he is a definite improvement.
There are a total of six heroines: Minori, Ayane, Ryian, Tsukina, Hikaru, and Ren. The route order is locked in stone, with you having to play Minori and Ayane, followed by Ryian and Tsukina, followed by Hikaru, then finally Ren as the 'true' heroine. Each heroine has multiple endings (one sad/bad one good at the very least) and a strong individual route that splits off at some point from the main route. Tsukina's route splits off the earliest, almost at the very beginning, whereas most of the other paths (except Ren's) split off about halfway through the game. This leads to lots of separate events with each heroine - none of them pointless. Just to warn you, like all Baldr games, the setting and story are fairly dark, so don't go in expecting rays of sunshine.
If I were asked which - besides Ren's - stood out the most, I would say Ryian's or Tsukina's stood out the most. Both paths follow unique progression that puts you through an experience almost completely unconnected with the others in general flow. Ryian's is perhaps the hardest emotionally, whereas Renn's is by far the hardest in terms of gameplay.
My overall thoughts on the game generally focus on the simple fact that going through six heroine paths in a VN with gameplay is frigging exhausting. Not only that, but there is a definite feeling of information overload afterward... which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Nonetheless, the actual raw story is very well-written, if in a convention many newer VN readers won't be accustomed to. At the same time, the scenario design is of the highest quality... reminding me why Giga should never be allowed to make VNs outside the Baldr series, since it makes their normal works look like crap.
I'll be blunt... despite appearances, this isn't a chuunige. It is a sort of cross between fantasy, science fantasy, and mystery. I'll just say that I wasn't impressed by it... if only because there were numerous technical failures throughout the game (think the kind of BGM random cut-offs you sometimes encounter in older games), and most of the story is shared by all the paths... the only difference is in the epilogue, h-scenes, and who dies and lives at the end.
The protagonist is a former detective who is living in virtual exile in a walled-off city occupied by foreign military forces. It is pretty much a lawless city, where just about anything can happen... which would have been more interesting if so much of the VN hadn't been the protagonist being pushed around, unable to adapt to events.
For those who start reading this VN... it isn't your imagination. There is very little 'conversation' in this VN, though there is a lot of talking back and forth. Almost no one in this VN listens when someone else speaks and half the characters are either deranged or seemingly senile. The protagonist has something resembling common sense... except when it fails solely to make the story move forward after endless scenes that were probably intended to get you to like the heroines and other characters but don't quite manage it.
A few examples... Antonio the failed mafioso who forgets what he told someone five minutes later and can't follow instructions to save his life. His friend Mint who basically repeats what other people say and acts like a small child with the body of a man. Colossus, the sneak thief who got trapped in the city because he thought the ladder over the great wall was a way into a rich man's house... it goes on and on. The number of people that are incapable of listening in this VN made me want to pound my head on a wall. If it were just one or two, it would have been funny... but almost every character in this VN shows signs of this quality at one point or another.
It might sound funny but it quickly begins to wear on your nerves when you realize the conversations never go anywhere and there isn't a punchline.
The mystery of this VN is revealed in bits and pieces along the way... but by the time you start getting an outline of what is going on, you've most likely grown to hate the entire cast of characters. There are some scenes near the end that are definitely intended to be emotional... but simply aren't because you haven't developed an attachment to them. The fact that this extends to the heroines to one extent or another only makes things worse.
In the end, what am I trying to say? Don't play this VN unless you are a masochist... a really hard masochist. It really is painful to struggle through this mess.
First, I’ll say a few words about the Tiny Dungeon series. This series is made up of five games (if you include Endless Dungeon, which is a sequel/canon ending that brings a conclusion to the post-Brave and Slave events). The first three VNs are each focused on one of the three main heroines… Veil Sein, Ururu Kajuta, and Note Ruum. The fourth VN – Brave or Slave – brings an end to the story began in Black and White, and the fifth – Endless Dungeon – is a final conclusion and after-story for the entire group. The first VN, Black and White, contains the common route and the Veil Sein (the demon girl) route.
Veil is probably the most obvious deredere heroine in existence… since she doesn’t have a drop of tsun in her body. She loves Hime, lives for him, and without hesitation will erase the existence of anyone who bothers him. The fact that she has the power to do so (the most powerful individual in the demon realm) kind of makes her scary to the various people who don’t like Hime (obviously). Needless to say, I love her, lol.
Anyway, this VN, like all the VNs in the Tiny Dungeon series, balances hilarity, serious drama, and emotional moments in a way that you generally won’t see in a VN that is so relatively easy to read. That’s not to say it is a really easy read (it tends to range between 4.5-7)… but it is much easier to read than most VNs with action scenes.
The music in all these VNs is pretty good, primarily utilizing piano and techno pieces to enhance and create moods as is appropriate, and they are generally tastefully presented. The voices can be a bit exaggerated, and there is one scene early on when you’ll notice a bit of fuzziness in the background (as a friend explained to me, it is the engine the game runs on, rather than the actual voice-acting or recording itself). However, they are nonetheless generally suited to their characters… and there are a lot of characters.
In this VN, there are three main heroines (as stated above) and four total sub-heroines in the series who make up Hime’s hare- I mean, his group of friends. They consist of Amia (Note’s little sister), Opera (Ururu’s psychotic maid), Fon (the dragon/demon hybrid), and Kou (the protagonist’s human roommate). There are also another dozen or so major and minor characters who appear on screen and have a significant effect on the story as a whole, though not all of them appear in the first game.
Generally speaking, there is no point in any of the main-series VNs where there is no point to what is going on. The story is always moving forward or creating the basis for moving forward, and the comedy that is used to frost the cake is ever-present, save for in the most tense scenes.
Hime, the protagonist, is a natural leader and hard worker who has an incredibly strong will and a reasonable level of intelligence (he’s not a genius, but neither is he average). More importantly, he understands people and has a big, accepting heart. Generally speaking, he is one of the few unvoiced protagonists outside of a chuunige where I truly and absolutely enjoyed every second behind his eyes…
One thing you have to keep in mind about this VN is that it is one part in four… and the events in this game are inevitably going to break your heart at times. I know I cried several times in the course of this VN, even though I’ve already played it before.
Overall, this VN still gets a strong recommendation from me, both for relatively advanced beginners and veterans alike.
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).
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.
The Ikusa Megami series is easily one of the best rpg series out there, as far as plot goes, including the more than two hundred jrpgs I played during my younger years. I'm saying this right off the bat, simply because it needs to be said. Ikusa Megami Zero is an example of the best of what can be done when a visual novel is fused with a traditional turn-based jrpg, and Verita is a nice sequel to it. I frankly consider Ikusa Megami Zero to be right up there with Star Ocean 2, Final Fantasy VI, Xenogears, and Suikoden 2 as a member of that rarefied group in terms of plot, and that is coming from someone jaded by more than twenty years playing such games. Sadly, it is unlikely most people over here will even give it a chance if it does come over here... and the reason is fairly simple... sex. Now, there are always people who defend or attack sexual content based on morality or the lack of it... but to be honest, I'm not interested in rehashing that idiotic argument once again here. One of the ironic factors of this series is that sex is so vital to the story (whereas it is a hindrance in any number of VNs I can name). The Tantric magic many of the non-human characters use to sustain their existence is vital to the story, and it is also vital to the understanding of the setting. It can't be avoided and it can't be cut out without effectively neutering one of the ongoing conflicts of the overarching story of the series in general. So, for those who dream of Sekai Project cutting out the sexual content and localizing this game... please don't do that to us, since it would be criminal... and this is from someone who generally skips H-scenes while doing something else. Perhaps the most powerful element of the series - other than Serika's legendary life - is the setting. From what I've read, it seems that Eushully originally intended the setting to only cover a single game... the first Ikusa Megami. However, while Ikusa Megami itself was considered only average as a game, the world-building the setting was widely praised by those who played it, and as a result, Ikusa Megami 2 got released, becoming even more popular. However, it was the release of Zero that basically converted the Japanese-playing Western community to the cause of seeing these games come over here. Going back into the distant (700 years or more distant) past of the world, it covers the formative years of Serika's lonely journey, as his life was destroyed, changed beyond all recognition to eventually result in the creation of the person he became. All along the way, through various characters and events, the gaps in the setting were further filled in, bringing the series even more to life. The setting of the series is a world that was basically created when a high-technological world (pretty much Earth) discovered a fantasy world with elves, dwarves, and other non-human races... and decided to merge the two worlds together (the details are pretty much deliberately wiped out by the gods long before the story's beginning, so don't expect everything to be told). This was quite naturally disastrous for both sides... but especially for the high technological civilization. That high technological civilization (humans) found itself at war with magic-wielding races with a strong faith in their gods, which granted those gods the power they needed to defeat the technological advantage the humans had... while also defeating the humans' gods, who were already weakened by the poor faith of the humans who worshiped them and further weakened when the gods of the invaded world began to convert the humans to their faiths. This eventually resulted in the death, sealing, or conversion of most of the gods of humanity, renamed 'the old gods' in the new world. Humanity had its memory of the past civilization reduced to a few ruins and distant legends, and most of humanity settled into a worship of the gods of the new, merged world. This in itself would have made for a pretty rich setting... but they take it to insane degrees of complexity when you throw demons, magic-technology, fights between darkness and light (followers and gods), neutral gods, and the rapid growth of humanity's sphere of influence into account. The constantly shifting moral perspectives, as well as the innumerable factions and nations that make up this setting, make for some really fascinating lore. That in and of itself would make it worth playing these games, but the inclusion of side-stories (such as Meishoku no Reiki and Madou Koukaku) and direct links to the main series (the Genrin no Kishougun games) adds even more depth to the physical world and its history, as you come to know various historical figures and other parts of the world. Now that I've waxed poetic (sort of) on the virtues of the story and setting... I should probably state that the series itself is pretty standard, gameplay wise. It uses your basic turn-based combat, for the most part, and this is generally a benefit, as it makes actually learning the basics of battle rather simple, outside of a few details. Since battles generally start and end quickly (outside of boss battles) if you know what you are doing, Zero, Verita, and Tenbin feel like less of a grind than they really should, based on the game type. The biggest difference between Zero and the other two games is that Zero is primarily telling a story, whereas the other two also have Star Ocean style EX dungeons that can serve as a huge challenge in comparison to the rest of the game, even if you have your characters maxed. Generally, the benefits of the series can be summed up like this: gameplay accessibility, good plot, and a deep setting. For those looking for a true hybrid of the best of jrpgs and visual novels, this series is an excellent choice.
Despite the title, this isn't a horrible VN. It is basically a rehash of Himesama Gentei which was a near-nukige all-moege about a protagonist 'romancing' (I have to wonder if you would really call a bunch of princesses falling in love with one idiot and him deciding on one or a harem route 'romancing') princesses. I can actually enjoy some of the heroines' routes... but the premise is so ridiculous and so unrealistically presented that it goes beyond suspension of disbelief, even for a moege. Understand, ridiculousness in moege settings is par for the course... but the classic 'the heroines are all my sisters because my dad really got around' premise is one of the more annoying ones.
That isn't to say there isn't some good stuff... Maika, for instance, is one of those rare tsundere who becomes supremely adorable after you enter her route and never goes back to being tsun, and Io's 'boke-boke' statements made in absolute seriousness are fairly funny. However, I've played so many other VNs in a similar vein that are so much better... it makes me wonder why I stole an hour here and an hour there over the past five days in between my work schedule to push through with finishing this game.
The routes really don't escape the templates for their 'princess' types, so I honestly can't say that I was surprised by anything I found in this VN. There is also too much H early in this VN... so much that I would have been tempted to call this a nukige, if it weren't for the fact that the writing and character development are fairly solid, at least for a VN of the type.
Overall, this VN isn't something to get excited about, but if you like 'princess' heroines it is a decent choice...
Why is this month so bad so far?
It isn't that it is bad... it is just that there is a disproportionate amount of second-rate VNs being released for September. So far, there is nothing that I would have called VN of the Month material, though if Seikishi had toned down the H and worked harder on solidifying the story in general, it might have been one. Most of the good stuff that was supposed to get released for September got delayed, so I suppose it is only natural... but still, I don't like having all the good stuff concentrated in one or two months of the year. That tends to cause kusoge-exhaustion after a while, lol.
I've played a number of releases from September's releases, and I'm currently playing Renai Phase (which I'd promised not to, as Giga is incapable of making anything truly great outside of Baldr). However, this month really doesn't have anything I'd really consider VN of the Month material... Seikishi had its fingertips on the vague possibility, and it is undeniably the best thing I played from September. Unfortunately, 'the best from September' is not good enough.
The reason I'm already putting a 'batsu' mark on Renai Phase, even though I'm only halfway through it... is because the 'koukan do' system intrudes into the VN in a manner that breaks the storytelling completely. Whereas in most VNs, you have to guess which choices do what with how the heroines feel about you, this VN commits the sin of making a noise and showing a little visual effect every time... and it is really intrusive. I know this might sound like nitpicking, but the sheer number of choices in this VN means that this is hair-pulling level annoying. Not only that, but the protagonist in this VN is fully nameable, without the brilliant system Hoshi ori used that allowed it to have redeeming value. Last of all, the greatest sin of this VN is that, from the very beginning, the protagonist is setting out to get a girlfriend on a whim. To be honest, VNs that steal from dating sims piss me off in general, but this one is particularly offensive, in my eyes. Unless the heroine paths are superlative, in my opinion, this VN has already axed any hope of being VN of the Month material.
I'm currently playing Koko kara Natsu no Innocence, the latest VN by Clochette, a charage company specializing in busty heroines that tends to produce first-class character development and heroine stories. One aspect of Clochette that I've always thought was a bit funny was the obsession with 'shoushika', the current phenomenon in Japan where fewer and fewer young people are getting married and/or having kids. This is touched upon to one degree or another in a lot of VNs, because it is an issue that becomes bigger every year for the Japanese. Why? Because they are dying off faster than their kids are being born, and it has been that way for more than two decades. That in itself wouldn't be that big of a problem normally... falls in population are actually positive when you get to modern population levels. However, the drastic population fall in Japan is such that it is constricting them economically to a degree that scares many of their social scientists, making it into as big a scientific deal there as climate change is here. Clochette has a tendency to insert subtle anti-shoushika propaganda into it throughout its length, actively encouraging the reader to go out and have kids. It is one of the funnier things about it, as most charage gloss over the kids aspect outside of the h-scenes (and then it is only get the perversion levels up). However, themes of continuation across generations, preparing for the next generation, thinking about a future for the kids, etc. are common to all of Clochette's games, to one degree or another. Ironically, it is this 'activist VN-writing' that is what makes their stories frequently so much fun to read, and the message itself is kind of amusing when you think about it (since we aren't Japanese). However, I do find it interesting how VN makers will sometimes use the platform for subtle activism (brainwashing through eroge, lol). If you want another example of VN-activism, Semiramis no Tenbin is a bit more blatant about it, hitting on almost every major piece of 'dirty linen' in Japan's social closet. VNs in general, like all entertainment media, can be used in such ways... and frequently, the best VNs will be activist on one level or another, because passion plus skill tends to bring out much better results than just one or the other. Edit: Namima no Kuni no Faust is another example of somewhat blatant 'VN-activism', and in its case, it is a combined statement, criticism, and speculation on capitalism as a religion. Yes, I say a religion, because to those who worship the mighty dollar, that is precisely what it is. The entire VN is a story about a true free market economic society taken to its logical conclusion. It was a fascinating exercise, and it left a lot of food for thought, without necessarily being completely negative about capitalism in general or even some of its more obvious flaws.
First, this VN is done in a similar vein to that of the Chuushingura VN, in that it is historical fiction with elements of fantasy. In this case, the protagonist is Okita Soujirou, the infamous Shinsengumi swordsman (in this case a trap, lol, since the Shinsengumi are all women). For those wondering how they chose to do this VN, it is pretty interesting. I have so far played three of the four end-story arcs (Hijikata and Kondou share the same arc, as do the Saitou/Sanou and the Sakuma/Higo pair). The 'true history' arc is Kou's ending, which follows the same basic story as the original history, with the minor addition of the fantasy element. In this one, the protagonist's fate follows history exactly, as does that of the Shinsengumi. The other paths I've played are the Sakuma arc and the Sakamoto Ryouma arc. Sakamoto Ryouma, who was infamous for his (in this case her) neutrality and what were considered wild ideas by many, was assassinated after he succeeded in making arrangements that might have brought about a peaceful end to the Shogunate, were it not for certain events. This arc is something of a what-if story, where Ryouma wasn't assassinated and you get to see how that alters history. It is a threesome ending, with the infamous Tosa assassin Iori as the other part of the triangle, lol. Sakuma was a famous scholar and scientist who advised the Shogunate in the years leading up to the war and was eventually assassinated, leaving the shogunate without its primary scholar of foreign technology. This is also a what-if story, where Sakuma survives to alter the fate of Japan. Sano and Saitou's ending is basically an alternate epilogue that is a part of the same path. The last arc, which I'm playing at the moment (I will edit/update this post when it is done) looks like it focuses on a Hijikata and Kondou, and I'm interested to see how they'll handle that. A few comments on the story in general... one thing is that this VN, like Chuushingura, gives you a lot of insight into an era that is a bit overly romanticized, retaining a strong element of that same romanticism while at the same time going into the gory details of what went on (both political and literally gory details, lol). The degree of detail in this VN will probably be overwhelming for the average person, and I can see that they are lining the story in general up so that they can later create a 'true ending' fandisc, if the VN is well-received. To be honest, the linguistic difficulty of this VN stays around a 7-9 throughout its length, and I honestly can't see it being comprehensible for someone who isn't at least familiar with the historical outline of what happened in Japan between 1861-1868. Another thing to understand is that anyone who reads this with even a slightly objective point of view should be able to see how this era eventually resulted in the birth of the insane nationalism that defined Imperial-era Japan before and during World War II, and it does indeed touch on many of the underlying issues that created the antagonism toward the West in Japan. It doesn't gloss over economic or political issues (in fact, those are central to the progression of the story), and as a result, it can be a bit confusing if you've only heard one side of the story (the average western textbook doesn't mention the unequal treaties, the bombardment of Ezo, Satsuma's brief conflict with Britain, or the element of proxy war between France and England involved in their internal civil war). For weaboos, this is pure crack, just like Chuushingura. Sure, it is bloody, violent, and shows off the less romantic side of the fall of the shogunate... but the Shinsengumi fights are as wonderfully violent as you would expect from the legends (even up to the recreation of the infamous Ikeda-ya incident). As a VN, it is also probably the most solid VN, from a literary perspective, written this year, simply because they simply added on and breathed life into the existing history and romanticized events of the era. What-if stories about Sakomoto Ryouma surviving aren't uncommon in jidaigeki historical fiction, but this is the first time a VN has gone into this much detail on the era. PS: Will update this later. Edit: Ok... first, the Hijikata/Kondou paths are both split out of the Kou path (so naturally, the protagonist's fate doesn't change), but in exchange, the endgame changes greatly, diverging from history (where Kondou was executed and Hijikata died in the battle for Hokkaido). Nonetheless, the story is definitely a tearful one, with the more traditional 'tragic hero of the losing side' feeling that you generally expect from Shinsengumi-related stories. The actual storytelling between Kondou and Hijikata's paths doesn't change much, though the actual end result does indeed change. Overall, this VN was a good experience for me... I got deeply emotionally involved with the characters, weeping over their suffering and glorying over their triumphs, and I honestly felt that it did justice to the writer's expressed intent 'Shinsengumi with an element of steampunk fantasy'. Shuuri's path (Sakuma's arc) touched the most deeply on the steampunk elements, for those who are interested, and honestly, I preferred the Ryouma and Sakuma arcs over the Shinsengumi ending arc. Nonetheless, the VN as a whole was immensely enjoyable. However, I do think this needs a true ending arc, and I honestly hope that Takaya Aya (the main scenario writer for this VN and most of Caramel Box's other VNs) will produce a fandisc to fulfill that desire for me, lol. That said, this was an immensely satisfying VN with no real downsides, save that the protagonist was only partially voiced (probably due to budgetary constraints). Edit 2: Just so no one mistakes my feelings about this VN, the endings and the paths themselves are satisfying. My single complaint - that there isn't a unifying true ending and it felt like there should have been - is mostly because I was put into that kind of mood after an experience that was in someways similar to Chuushingura (except the protagonist kills LOTS of people, lol).
I've been a gamer for 22 long years. I began my journey into the endless ocean of corruption that is video games with Super Mario Bros on the NES, and - while I've more or less fallen out of love with modern jrpgs - I have played a rather large number of Japanese role-playing games over the years. Since this is a general otaku forum, I though I'd go ahead and include a list of famous pre-2008 jrpgs that can still be played today, without having to go out and hunt through bargain bins, resort to emulation, or use a non-internet-capable gaming system to play (in other words, that you only need current or the most recent previous generation of systems to play).
First, your most obvious source is going to be... Steam. I'll make a quick list of JRPGs that have been ported to Steam that I think an otaku can still get some pleasure out of. Unfortunately, while the library of games of this type being released for this platform is rapidly expanding, there is a lot of ground to cover. Phantasy Star II- The first game from the series to be imported here, it has an interesting, if somewhat gaunt, story that is fairly enjoyable. The difficulty level is high (like most games from the era), but if you can play modern jrpgs on hard mode, you probably won't have a problem with this. Phantasy Star III - If you want to see where they first used the 'role-play across multiple generations' idea, this is the one. Story-wise, it is pretty basic (like most rpgs from that era, where space was so limited) and the difficulty is pretty high, but it is also fairly enjoyable. I honestly suggest you pull out Cheat Engine later on though. Phantasy Star IV- The flower of the Phantasy Star series, unmatched to this day. This game pushed the Sega Genesis to its limits and was one of the first games to utilize (a somewhat rudimentary) mission system. Unlike the previous entries, the story is much deeper and more interesting, and the overall world-building is excellent. Valkyria Chronicles- Ok, if you don't know about this, you are either new to jrpgs or have had your head buried into the sand... Final Fantasy III Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy V Final Fantasy VI (in my opinion, the best game in the series, even today) Final Fantasy VII Grandia II- one of two excellent games in this series (the others mostly sucking), it has both an excellent story and the single best turn-based battle system I have ever seen in a japanese role-playing game. Shining Force- an oldie but a goodie. It is a very basic Japanese-style srpg made during the Genesis era. Shining Force II- Same as above, but more refined, with a better-written story and better music. Shining in the Darkness- A first-person dungeon-crawling rpg by the makers of the Shining Force series Tales of Symphonia (from back before the Tales series started to suck... planned later next year) Disgaea- The original comic over-leveling jsrpg that started an entire sub-genre. Planned for release in February of 2016. Trails in the Sky- It was a classic, long before they actually managed to get it over here on the PSP (I'd already played it).
For those wondering about the virtual console on Nintendo systems, I have to apologize and say that it is just too hard to sort through what can be played on what... I will say that I can honestly recommend both Ogre Battle games (on Wii only so far) and anything with Mother or Earthbound on it. I've heard rumors of several other old favorites, but so far neither hide nor hair of them has popped up (I'm thinking of you, Breath of Fire). On the PSN... Suikoden Suikoden II (a kamige, play it. It is still good even today) Grandia (the original) Growlanser Wayfarer of Time (you need a Vita or a PSP for this, but it is considered to be the best game of a first-rate series that got seriously gypped due to Working Designs' and Atlus's poor advertising) P3P (Persona 3 on the PSP and Vita, lol) Xenogears (still one of my favorite rpgs... it has aged better than some, though the fact of how they squeezed in three discs of story onto the last disc due to time constraints is still quite apparent) Castlevania Symphony of the Night (barely fits in the 'rpg' layer, but meh) Wild Arms (the first - and in some people's eyes - the best of the series) Wild Arms 2 Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy IX Alundra (straight out Link to the Past style action jrpg) Arc the Lad Arc the Lad II (you have to play the original to make this comprehensible) Arc the Lad III (ditto to above) Front Mission III (Final Fantasy tactics with mechs in a future-setting) Vagrant Story (mixed feelings about it, but it was essentially a good game) Legend of Mana (a bit screwy structure and storytelling, but the various arcs are generally interesting, if you manage to do them in order) Breath of Fire IV (the first sign of the eventual death of the series, it was still fairly good) Chrono Trigger (duh) Chrono Cross (best music) Vanguard Bandits (extremely psychotic storytelling in an srpg combined with mechs in a fantasy world) Final Fantasy V Final Fantasy VI Persona 2: Eternal Punishment Persona 2: Innocent Sin (play this before above) Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth Tactics Ogre Final Fantasy Tactics
PS2 Classics (most require a PS3 or a PS4) Disgaea Disgaea 2 Legaia 2 (dunno why they put this up and not the original, but it is pretty good) Odin Sphere (not to my tastes, but I know lots of people who love it) SMT: Digital Devil Saga I and II (basically one game in two... story-wise the best SMT game, period) SMT: Persona 3 FES Persona 4 SMT: Nocturne (main series, think demonic Pokemon with a central plot) Suikoden III Romancing SaGa
Recommendations for Emulation on old systems that shouldn't be missed Straight-out, you should play Growlanser 2 and 3... and possibly consider playing the Japanese version of the original (PSP version or PS1 version) with the translation at hand. The series is unbelievably good... especially 3. 3 has some of the best atmosphere I've seen in any Jrpg, as well as a number of ways you can subtly alter the story and its progression. I love the original Growlanser battle system, as it exists through IV (Wayfarer of Time) for its unique take on the semi-real-time srpg. I also recommend emulating Dragon Force and Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Sega Saturn... because both games are excellent and are ridiculously expensive to obtain normally (unopened copies of Panzer Dragoon Saga have sold - from my hands - for five hundred to fifteen hundred dollars a piece). PS: To this day, I still use Growlanser 2 and 3 to draw in newbies, because the games are easy to understand, have extremely high production values for the era in which they were made, and are still pretty today.
This VN is a direct sequel to Next, beginning approximately at the end of the common route of the original. At this point, the characters from the original series begin streaming back into town, Kachiki appears on the scene (dramatically), and Kitsune's character is given a new facet. However, the common route in this VN is very short, mostly providing comedy (there is one ending you can get out of the prologue/common path that is absolutely hilarious) and fitting the new character dynamics into the setting. This is actually a nice advantage because - unlike Nigakki and Sangakki - there isn't that sense of 'oh god, they are repeating the same BS a few months later'. A bit of character 'polishing' has been done on Sanagi (the protagonist) and a few of the other characters (Kohane, in particular), and a new ongoing joke has been introduced. Other than that... the melding of the two casts of characters has been pretty amusing so far.
Kachiki
Kachiki is one of two new main heroines introduced in this VN, along with Kitsune (who was a side-character in Next). Kachiki seems on the surface to be Erika's counterpart in Next, but once you are on her path, it becomes apparent that that is definitely not the case. I won't go into details, but don't fall in love with just her surface character, because - unlike her cousin Erika - she definitely has some aspects hidden from a casual glance. Her actual path is about on par with the Tsuyokiss Sangakki paths, both in terms of length and quality, and thus it is quite enjoyable with a nice balance between slice-of-life, comedy, and drama. I had to smile at the ending, lol.
Kitsune
... let me just say, Kitsune's path is hilarious. I don't say that with any reservations. Kitsune's path is hilarious (I needed to say it twice). Well, Kitsune's character is generally meant for comic relief, and her dere is pretty freaky (as anyone who saw how she reacts to Neko can attest to). She's pretty... animalistic. Those who want really good H scenes should probably go for this route, because she's something of a... nympho. Anyway, most of this path's drama is in how they gradually get together, and most of the rest is humorous, though there is some mild drama regarding Kitsune's relationship with her classmates. All in all, I enjoyed the path immensely, but I also thought the path could have used some extra spice (you'll know what I mean when you find out about her living arrangements, which are interesting). While Kachiki's path has better drama, as entertainment, Kitsune's path wins out on several levels.
Next Heroines
For better or worse, what is included for the heroines from Next is after-stories. However, the after-stories do bring the conclusion that was lacking in the previous paths, though it doesn't generally remedy the lack of drama. Nonetheless, I particularly liked Kohane's, Cherish's, and Sumika's after-stories, as they filled in a lot of the details their actual paths lacked. In Sumika's case, it is mostly joke material, but it was good joke material, so I'm pretty happy about it. My major complaint is Neko's after story, which was basically an excuse for ichaicha+h-scenes (in other words, boring after a path that was essentially the same as that). Hakari's after story adds something to her path, but to be honest, it felt too slice-of-life for me, considering Hakari is something of another 'out of this world' character, in a different way from the martial artist ones (mad scientist).
Original series Heroines After-stories
These after-stories are based off of the endings from Sangakki and have a tendency to alter Next's timeline (in Next, Leo never got with any of the heroines and is traveling the world as an architect). These after stories are generally surprisingly interesting (Nagomi's and Otome's were the best... though Erika's was pretty good too and Serebu's was pretty surprising). I honestly loved the new character designs for the old heroines, and I was generally satisfied with how the whole thing turned out.
Extras
Umm... it is your choice whether to take the maid twins or the Kaho route... but to be honest there isn't much in the way of content to either one. It is basically a stupid comedic path in both cases leading into a pretty straightforward ending (or set of endings, in the twins' cases).
Conclusions
For better or worse, this is basically a VN designed to conclude both parts of the series, rather than stand completely on its own. If I had to rate the Next generation routes (including the new ones), I'd do it (in order from best to worst): Sumika>Kitsune>Kachiki>Kohane>Cherish>Hakari>Neko (sad, since I really liked Neko and she had potential as a heroine). I had to subtract points for the failure to give a true extension to Neko's route (as opposed to ichaicha+sex), as well as a few other points, so it isn't going to be something I consider high on my list of things to replay. However, Next really can't be considered complete without having played the after stories in this game. I'm actually highly pleased with the ten-years-later after-stories for the original trilogy's heroines, and I can say that they produce a nice cap to the series. Because of that, my feelings on this are highly mixed.
