Zolnir Posts
Finished Sin Client. There were problems where the MC kind of fell out of his league and underperforming MANY times after his recovery, and there were situations where the Prime Minister's choices were less than comprehensible, and that some of the choices and actions the characters make are way too emotional and impulsive for a supposedly top level agent, lousy character sprites, but otherwise pretty well executed.
Just imagine a spy movie and expand its content into a Visual Novel and you'll get SinClient. Not exactly what I would expect from its title (I was actually disappointed how it turned out), but still pretty good.
Just imagine a spy movie and expand its content into a Visual Novel and you'll get SinClient. Not exactly what I would expect from its title (I was actually disappointed how it turned out), but still pretty good.
Playing SinClient. So far so good, I could somewhat guess the respective roles the characters are going to play out, but the story remained somewhat murky due to a mixture of 'impossible science' in it. The ending of Beginning was somewhat sudden and incredibly fast paced from the slow start, but I could accept that as a part of reality. Time to read on!
Well the difficulty level gets harder by 2+ times I think? After you go through your first few playthroughs, so Hard -> Super Hard -> Insane? and then it gets stuck there. Before the Harem route, the only challenging fight is the Four Stooges one, and you just need to keep the enemies at one side and keep on attacking and you can win.
Mia's route is a bitch. I hope that I never have to go through such a horrible route ever again. Absolutely the worst of everything that could happen happened, and the only consolation is that Avatar is saved from 1000 cycle wars.
After all that ranting about DSJ, now I'm going to talk a little about Fake Azure Arcology.
The plus side. Good voice acting, and three pretty decent heroines: Haruka, Noel, and my favorite Ledi (or Lady). Haruka has the body of a model despite her small breast size, is insanely cool looking, a little innocent for her age and VERY innocent when it comes to her ambitions and dreams (it's like she's high on candy when she talks about Flight). Noel is a cat cyborg with the best character design in the VN, and she's also very cool personality. Ledi is an extremely strong-willed girl, who although is a little insecure because she's a Created Human, had always shown a strong, mature side and never fail to make you smile with hers. Apparently golden hair girls in this series all share the same traits.
The down side. There's a LOT of downside for this one unfortunately. First, the Osanajimi heroine is scary as fuck, almost at the same level as Mia. Spoilers here, but the first thing she did when:
I've had enough of crazy Osanajimi's for a while, seriously, this is literally giving me traumas with all the madness lurking about this route.
The plot, although seemingly promising at first, was pretty bad actually. They had a pretty damn good setting and twist to utilize, but executed it very lamely. Haruka and Akira's route had made a pretty okay impression and I was anticipating a lot more twists to be revealed in the future, but instead there was... how to say? Nothing. Ironically, I can tell that the Osanajimi route was given a LOT of attention and would probably be one of the best routes to read, if I wasn't so freaked out by her attitude and skipped all the lines that has her in it. -_-"
Ledi's route was my favorite, but they really did not add any additional details in her path that wasn't already explained before. I was massively disappointed that even the aerial dogfight in her route wasn't as exciting as it could be. She IS the true heroine of the story, mind you, but the entire VN made it so bloody vague (even with the Grand Epilogue) that I have to check it's SEQUEL to know exactly who's the real heroine, and which route is the true end. It was actually a Noel + Ledi route, but that is not an excuse for poor execution of the storyline.
Its character sprite and sound execution is also weird as hell. One, some of the dialogues really don't match the character sprites they're using. Imagine reading a supposedly sad line with a bright smiley face on the character. Some of the chosen BGMs are extremely vague and they just don't fit any of the themes they're suppose to portray (actually I think those BGMs just suck big time). The experience is just lousy overall.
And finally, the aerial dogfights. I came searching for this VN because it's sequel made me interested, found out that it isn't exactly what I'm looking for, thought that it was fine and read it anyway, and found it disappointing. The dogfights mostly consist of a single CG showing the exterior of the airplane, or the view from inside the cockpit, and nothing else. Plane A has broken Plane B's Visual Sword! CG still shows Plane B completely intact. I mean like wtf, there's absolutely no excitement at all! Man...
When I was playing it's sequel Rebirth: Azure Lost Colony and found myself interested in it's prequel, I was expecting a story about the German colony Stelenglobe, which has a really good setting. First, this colony focuses on pure research and hence has the best technology of the entire world. Second, it is a world where AIs and Cyborgs are created legally, and they also have human rights. Basically they're recognized as an equal to human, and that is really interesting.
So I went in search of its prequel expecting to see a story about the struggle to give AIs human rights + flight, but instead I was treated to a different setting featuring a really disappointing story. Sigh. Oh well.
Mia's route is a bitch. I hope that I never have to go through such a horrible route ever again. Absolutely the worst of everything that could happen happened, and the only consolation is that Avatar is saved from 1000 cycle wars.
Spoiler:
After all that ranting about DSJ, now I'm going to talk a little about Fake Azure Arcology.
The plus side. Good voice acting, and three pretty decent heroines: Haruka, Noel, and my favorite Ledi (or Lady). Haruka has the body of a model despite her small breast size, is insanely cool looking, a little innocent for her age and VERY innocent when it comes to her ambitions and dreams (it's like she's high on candy when she talks about Flight). Noel is a cat cyborg with the best character design in the VN, and she's also very cool personality. Ledi is an extremely strong-willed girl, who although is a little insecure because she's a Created Human, had always shown a strong, mature side and never fail to make you smile with hers. Apparently golden hair girls in this series all share the same traits.
The down side. There's a LOT of downside for this one unfortunately. First, the Osanajimi heroine is scary as fuck, almost at the same level as Mia. Spoilers here, but the first thing she did when:
Spoiler:
I've had enough of crazy Osanajimi's for a while, seriously, this is literally giving me traumas with all the madness lurking about this route.
The plot, although seemingly promising at first, was pretty bad actually. They had a pretty damn good setting and twist to utilize, but executed it very lamely. Haruka and Akira's route had made a pretty okay impression and I was anticipating a lot more twists to be revealed in the future, but instead there was... how to say? Nothing. Ironically, I can tell that the Osanajimi route was given a LOT of attention and would probably be one of the best routes to read, if I wasn't so freaked out by her attitude and skipped all the lines that has her in it. -_-"
Ledi's route was my favorite, but they really did not add any additional details in her path that wasn't already explained before. I was massively disappointed that even the aerial dogfight in her route wasn't as exciting as it could be. She IS the true heroine of the story, mind you, but the entire VN made it so bloody vague (even with the Grand Epilogue) that I have to check it's SEQUEL to know exactly who's the real heroine, and which route is the true end. It was actually a Noel + Ledi route, but that is not an excuse for poor execution of the storyline.
Its character sprite and sound execution is also weird as hell. One, some of the dialogues really don't match the character sprites they're using. Imagine reading a supposedly sad line with a bright smiley face on the character. Some of the chosen BGMs are extremely vague and they just don't fit any of the themes they're suppose to portray (actually I think those BGMs just suck big time). The experience is just lousy overall.
And finally, the aerial dogfights. I came searching for this VN because it's sequel made me interested, found out that it isn't exactly what I'm looking for, thought that it was fine and read it anyway, and found it disappointing. The dogfights mostly consist of a single CG showing the exterior of the airplane, or the view from inside the cockpit, and nothing else. Plane A has broken Plane B's Visual Sword! CG still shows Plane B completely intact. I mean like wtf, there's absolutely no excitement at all! Man...
When I was playing it's sequel Rebirth: Azure Lost Colony and found myself interested in it's prequel, I was expecting a story about the German colony Stelenglobe, which has a really good setting. First, this colony focuses on pure research and hence has the best technology of the entire world. Second, it is a world where AIs and Cyborgs are created legally, and they also have human rights. Basically they're recognized as an equal to human, and that is really interesting.
So I went in search of its prequel expecting to see a story about the struggle to give AIs human rights + flight, but instead I was treated to a different setting featuring a really disappointing story. Sigh. Oh well.
Huh? Seriously? How do you do that?? my resolution auto resize and the thing just covered my entire screen. How??
I also noticed that when I accidentally F4 (full screen button), the resolution returned to 800 x 600, and the fights start to go VERY smooth even with 4 member teamfights (But the window borders are still 640 x 480, hence can't see meter bar >_>). And then I tried again and it's back to bloody 640 x 480. My eyes... T_T
I also noticed that when I accidentally F4 (full screen button), the resolution returned to 800 x 600, and the fights start to go VERY smooth even with 4 member teamfights (But the window borders are still 640 x 480, hence can't see meter bar >_>). And then I tried again and it's back to bloody 640 x 480. My eyes... T_T
Playing Duel Savior Justice right now. I went for the hardest setting from the start, but so far everything has been pretty easy; I dare say that I had a much harder time playing Baldr Sky and had only managed to beat the final boss once at final difficulty with my chosen gear... Hope that this'll be a lot more fun to play when I can choose the Super Hard mode.
And it's not like I'm good either. Remember Material Brave? It features a much more improved and smoother gameplay (They're basically the same), and the controls are a lot easier to chain and combo. I could hardly cancel properly and could do only an average of 7 hits (10+ with luck and button spamming for the cancel >_>), and yet I'm beating bosses left and right that were supposed to be 'kinda hard' 'would force you to change difficulty setting if you're not careful', so yeah. Hope that changes as soon as I end my first playthrough.
Btw, how do you switch characters to use? Or am I fixed with just Taiga only?
Taiga is awesome. Taiga's voice actor is even more awesome! xD
Since this is a pretty old game, it features a veeeery small window (640 x 480 is pure torture for such an interesting game) and I wish I could've at least resize it to 800 x 600 in window mode or something, but of course that's asking too much.
Berio's split personality is very erotic. Lol. I'm actually very attracted to her because of that since... well... let's just say Duel Savior's ero is veeery entertaining. xD
And it's not like I'm good either. Remember Material Brave? It features a much more improved and smoother gameplay (They're basically the same), and the controls are a lot easier to chain and combo. I could hardly cancel properly and could do only an average of 7 hits (10+ with luck and button spamming for the cancel >_>), and yet I'm beating bosses left and right that were supposed to be 'kinda hard' 'would force you to change difficulty setting if you're not careful', so yeah. Hope that changes as soon as I end my first playthrough.
Btw, how do you switch characters to use? Or am I fixed with just Taiga only?
Taiga is awesome. Taiga's voice actor is even more awesome! xD
Since this is a pretty old game, it features a veeeery small window (640 x 480 is pure torture for such an interesting game) and I wish I could've at least resize it to 800 x 600 in window mode or something, but of course that's asking too much.
Berio's split personality is very erotic. Lol. I'm actually very attracted to her because of that since... well... let's just say Duel Savior's ero is veeery entertaining. xD
I can't believe how bored I was to go through Monster Girl Quest 2's final battle a few times, every time I was bored. And I am surprised how well the English translated version had read. And I can't believe we've had NO NEWS FOR A FREAKING YEAR and some of you haven't gone totally nuts just yet; I'm already half mad after just two months. >_>
I actually have a special request to make here; not sure if you guys can do it but I'll just ask away.
Can you guys like have an additional script version of Avan Story during release? I've always been curious at how it's feels like to read a Visual Novel from a purely text perspective.
Can you guys like have an additional script version of Avan Story during release? I've always been curious at how it's feels like to read a Visual Novel from a purely text perspective.
True. It's good enough just going through Narukana's route, the Assorts and Third Destination; the others are non-canon and probably not worth too much time. I'm extremely interested with Rupitona but well, busy. Very busy. Have to remind myself that I'm busy or I'll risk failing real life. >_>
EDIT:
Because it's annoying to wait for someone else to post at the 'What VN are you playing' thread or add a review underneath another review, that's why. Feel free to take this down if you guys think that it's against the rules of course, though I think it's okay?
... Can I even do multiple posts in this thread? Ah well I'll worry about the details later.
Anyway, first things first. Review!
Re：birth colony -Lost azurite-
Quite the unexpected Visual Novel; I had first downloaded it because I saw pictures of singing and thought that it might be a music-themed VN, though it is not, but Futuristic Technology is just fine with me.
So the story tells about a hacker named Souji and his encounter with the mysterious blue-haired girl, Azurite. You will be first introduced to a 'daydream' where Souji and a number of characters charges towards a huge, weird looking machine, trying to stop something. It did not end well, and suddenly Souji finds himself on the streets, standing and perfectly fine. So was what happened before just a dream, or something else?
Anyway, first impression of the game (The first 10 minutes experience)? The most polished out of all the few VNs I've recently downloaded such as SinClient, Zero Infinity of Maxwell, Seinarukana etc. The art was unexpectedly beautiful; I was originally somewhat repelled by some of the pictures shown in Getchu and thought them ugly, but the actual ones looked really good. It also gave off the same impression as 創世奇èšã‚¢ã‚¨ãƒªã‚¢ãƒ« so I checked it up a little and found out that while the companies are different, they are somewhat related and hence the familiarity in art.
So first, if you love beautiful and stunning CGs, this is your game. The girls are absolutely gorgeous, and I personally think that the protagonist's sister (not blood related and a possible heroine) has more beautiful sprites than her actual CGs, which was a shame. While they're not really erotic, it is impossible not to be captivated by how polished and well drawn the art is. A definite thumbs up to the artist and a + to the VN.
As for the story... Well, I'm not sure what to say. Again, I must use the word 'polished and well written' to describe it, but I would probably not describe it as spectacular. Certainly it features quite the unique setting, but I feel like the villain is poorly designed and the initial 'dream' setup rather weak and not impactful enough to make an impression.
However, the characters are definitely memorable. I absolutely enjoy the protagonist that he is exactly what he says himself to be, "I'm not a hero." He would protect the people that are important to him, but anyone can go stuff it and go to hell. This was especially obvious in the sister's route, where he made a decision against all rationality in order to protect the person he loved most. Also, there would be a scene where he caught the culprit who's spreading malicious rumors about him, and literally tore the scumbag's entire life to the ground; which was extremely satisfying for reasons you should go through yourself. In short, Souji is definitely an entertaining protagonist and another thumbs up to the VN makers.
Out of all the heroines, the one I enjoy most is probably Serika. She has a clear sight of her own values, the strength to carry them out, and would not waver from her responsibilities no matter what the circumstances. While she was portrayed to be very strong throughout all the heroine routes, there would be a scene near the end of Azurite's route (True route)where you could see clearly how strong Serika truly is, and that her powerful willingness to put away personal emotions for the better of another.
Noi is also my favorite. Unlike Serika who holds power in politics, Noi is a person who has incredible hacking skills as well as the best combat capabilities among all the characters shown in the city Aquarius. There's a reason to that, but I'll not state it right now. She is strong-willed, cool, clever, easily teased, a tad bit innocent and has a really huge but totally believable sized rack. If Serika wasn't so shiny I definitely would've chosen her as the best heroine out of everyone.
The sister Ruri is unexpectedly whiny and turned out to be less likeable than I thought, which was ironic when you think that I was attracted to this VN because of her singing picture. Her story also features some rather generic plot so I'd not talk much about this; the only redeeming value is that her art sprites are really amazing, and that she has some really cool clothes.
As for the last heroine, Azurite... I am unsure what to say about her, so I'll just put a blank here and let you guys draw your own conclusion. The only thing I could say is that she's the most innocent out of all the heroines, and she's... a little too invisible even though she's the true heroine of the story.
The game system is very well interfaced. I haven't had such a comfortable time using them for a loooong time, so take my word for it. These are really well designed and no one should have a hard time navigating. What I love most about it is that they had the Quick Load option at the front menu, which was EXACTLY WHAT SO MANY VNS SHOULD HAVE DONE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. The Quick Load option was suppose to be a shortcut-styled save that allows user to immediately return to their bookmarked point of the story, usually after quitting the game due to personal reasons, whether they're at the Title Screen or halfway inside the game. It's stupid that you usually cannot Quick Load from either the Title Screen or even the Save/Load Screen because... it's a function you only have when you're in the Game Screen, which kind of defeats the entire purpose of having a Quick Load in the first place. So, again, thumbs up for a well-implemented system.
Btw, once you've completed the game, I highly suggest that you go to the Archives, select the 3 Minutes something tab, scroll and select the most bottom option. That is an extra story talking about Azurite's doubts and Azurite's true name, so don't miss out!
To the sound it is. The Music and Sound is the biggest weakness for this game. Usually I have never needed to adjust volumes in a VN - especially those involving individual characters - but for this VN I was forced to do so many times. For one, the Background Music is too damn loud sometimes. They garble the character's voice so badly that I was forced to lower the BGM's volume and increase the individual character's volume (For example Azurite's; her voice is very soft) to the max. You shouldn't need to ever do this unless you're really sensitive to sound, and I'm not.
Another thing is that the BGM is not memorable. They're there, but that's all they do. None of it ever strike it close to my heart even for the special, emotional scenes BGMs that were meant to do so. They held so little impact that the only music I remember from the VN was Ruri's song. It also annoys me that she has only one song throughout the entire VN, but oh well. The automatic door opening/closing sound effect is also extremely weird and sounded more like a spaceship's airlock than anything.
Overall, good VN, and ties quite impressively well to it's prequel Fake Azure Colony. If anyone has a working link or torrent for that game btw please PM me, because the torrents I tried are not working.
EDIT 2: Currently playing the prequel to Re：birth colony -Lost azurite-. I find that it has a better storyline than Re：birth colony -Lost azurite- even though it's old, though the childhood heroine whose attitude is very jarring and annoying in my opinion.
And then the true heroine (guessing haven't finish) SLAPPED HER AND STABBED AT EXACTLY ALL THE POINTS THAT I DISLIKE ABOUT THE CHILDHOOD HEROINE. OH YES. OH BLOODY YES. Insta-favorited.
EDIT:
Because it's annoying to wait for someone else to post at the 'What VN are you playing' thread or add a review underneath another review, that's why. Feel free to take this down if you guys think that it's against the rules of course, though I think it's okay?
... Can I even do multiple posts in this thread? Ah well I'll worry about the details later.
Anyway, first things first. Review!
Re：birth colony -Lost azurite-
Quite the unexpected Visual Novel; I had first downloaded it because I saw pictures of singing and thought that it might be a music-themed VN, though it is not, but Futuristic Technology is just fine with me.
So the story tells about a hacker named Souji and his encounter with the mysterious blue-haired girl, Azurite. You will be first introduced to a 'daydream' where Souji and a number of characters charges towards a huge, weird looking machine, trying to stop something. It did not end well, and suddenly Souji finds himself on the streets, standing and perfectly fine. So was what happened before just a dream, or something else?
Anyway, first impression of the game (The first 10 minutes experience)? The most polished out of all the few VNs I've recently downloaded such as SinClient, Zero Infinity of Maxwell, Seinarukana etc. The art was unexpectedly beautiful; I was originally somewhat repelled by some of the pictures shown in Getchu and thought them ugly, but the actual ones looked really good. It also gave off the same impression as 創世奇èšã‚¢ã‚¨ãƒªã‚¢ãƒ« so I checked it up a little and found out that while the companies are different, they are somewhat related and hence the familiarity in art.
So first, if you love beautiful and stunning CGs, this is your game. The girls are absolutely gorgeous, and I personally think that the protagonist's sister (not blood related and a possible heroine) has more beautiful sprites than her actual CGs, which was a shame. While they're not really erotic, it is impossible not to be captivated by how polished and well drawn the art is. A definite thumbs up to the artist and a + to the VN.
As for the story... Well, I'm not sure what to say. Again, I must use the word 'polished and well written' to describe it, but I would probably not describe it as spectacular. Certainly it features quite the unique setting, but I feel like the villain is poorly designed and the initial 'dream' setup rather weak and not impactful enough to make an impression.
However, the characters are definitely memorable. I absolutely enjoy the protagonist that he is exactly what he says himself to be, "I'm not a hero." He would protect the people that are important to him, but anyone can go stuff it and go to hell. This was especially obvious in the sister's route, where he made a decision against all rationality in order to protect the person he loved most. Also, there would be a scene where he caught the culprit who's spreading malicious rumors about him, and literally tore the scumbag's entire life to the ground; which was extremely satisfying for reasons you should go through yourself. In short, Souji is definitely an entertaining protagonist and another thumbs up to the VN makers.
Out of all the heroines, the one I enjoy most is probably Serika. She has a clear sight of her own values, the strength to carry them out, and would not waver from her responsibilities no matter what the circumstances. While she was portrayed to be very strong throughout all the heroine routes, there would be a scene near the end of Azurite's route (True route)where you could see clearly how strong Serika truly is, and that her powerful willingness to put away personal emotions for the better of another.
Noi is also my favorite. Unlike Serika who holds power in politics, Noi is a person who has incredible hacking skills as well as the best combat capabilities among all the characters shown in the city Aquarius. There's a reason to that, but I'll not state it right now. She is strong-willed, cool, clever, easily teased, a tad bit innocent and has a really huge but totally believable sized rack. If Serika wasn't so shiny I definitely would've chosen her as the best heroine out of everyone.
The sister Ruri is unexpectedly whiny and turned out to be less likeable than I thought, which was ironic when you think that I was attracted to this VN because of her singing picture. Her story also features some rather generic plot so I'd not talk much about this; the only redeeming value is that her art sprites are really amazing, and that she has some really cool clothes.
As for the last heroine, Azurite... I am unsure what to say about her, so I'll just put a blank here and let you guys draw your own conclusion. The only thing I could say is that she's the most innocent out of all the heroines, and she's... a little too invisible even though she's the true heroine of the story.
The game system is very well interfaced. I haven't had such a comfortable time using them for a loooong time, so take my word for it. These are really well designed and no one should have a hard time navigating. What I love most about it is that they had the Quick Load option at the front menu, which was EXACTLY WHAT SO MANY VNS SHOULD HAVE DONE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. The Quick Load option was suppose to be a shortcut-styled save that allows user to immediately return to their bookmarked point of the story, usually after quitting the game due to personal reasons, whether they're at the Title Screen or halfway inside the game. It's stupid that you usually cannot Quick Load from either the Title Screen or even the Save/Load Screen because... it's a function you only have when you're in the Game Screen, which kind of defeats the entire purpose of having a Quick Load in the first place. So, again, thumbs up for a well-implemented system.
Btw, once you've completed the game, I highly suggest that you go to the Archives, select the 3 Minutes something tab, scroll and select the most bottom option. That is an extra story talking about Azurite's doubts and Azurite's true name, so don't miss out!
To the sound it is. The Music and Sound is the biggest weakness for this game. Usually I have never needed to adjust volumes in a VN - especially those involving individual characters - but for this VN I was forced to do so many times. For one, the Background Music is too damn loud sometimes. They garble the character's voice so badly that I was forced to lower the BGM's volume and increase the individual character's volume (For example Azurite's; her voice is very soft) to the max. You shouldn't need to ever do this unless you're really sensitive to sound, and I'm not.
Another thing is that the BGM is not memorable. They're there, but that's all they do. None of it ever strike it close to my heart even for the special, emotional scenes BGMs that were meant to do so. They held so little impact that the only music I remember from the VN was Ruri's song. It also annoys me that she has only one song throughout the entire VN, but oh well. The automatic door opening/closing sound effect is also extremely weird and sounded more like a spaceship's airlock than anything.
Overall, good VN, and ties quite impressively well to it's prequel Fake Azure Colony. If anyone has a working link or torrent for that game btw please PM me, because the torrents I tried are not working.
EDIT 2: Currently playing the prequel to Re：birth colony -Lost azurite-. I find that it has a better storyline than Re：birth colony -Lost azurite- even though it's old, though the childhood heroine whose attitude is very jarring and annoying in my opinion.
And then the true heroine (guessing haven't finish) SLAPPED HER AND STABBED AT EXACTLY ALL THE POINTS THAT I DISLIKE ABOUT THE CHILDHOOD HEROINE. OH YES. OH BLOODY YES. Insta-favorited.
Okay, finished (the true route for Seinarukana and Ein no Aselia: The Third Destination) Seinarukana Special Edition. My impression? Definitely worth it's value to be put up as one of the best ever epics ever created. The entire series can be summed up with just one word to know it's incredible value: Epic. Absolutely epic.
Before I start reviewing, let's talk about some of the impressions I've had for Ein no Aselia (The original one, not Third Destination). Ein no Aselia is a very innocent, light hearted themed story despite its attempt at certain points to sound grim, particularly during your first playthrough. However, you would later discover you can overturn that certain tragedy by selecting the right choices during your second playthrough, and thus what I meant by innocent. It's comparable to a high school romance novel where reality doesn't seem to have a consequence on the character, and they always seem to get their way.
I'd like to compare Ein no Aselia to Fate/Stay Night. Some spoilers here, so don't open if you haven't read either VNs:
Now, to start the review. Seinarukana fixed almost every problem of that. I was surprised to see that Seinarukana - despite the rather lucky happy end and all - has an appropriate dose of realism that makes the story incredibly good to read. It's not excessively grim like Muramasa where everything was painted in such a wicked light that it's hard NOT to feel like the entire world is evil, and yet not so lacking in realism that everything read like a fairy tale or soap opera. It's just... appropriate.
The protagonist Nozomi is subjected to a series of problems, and each one of them introduced the consequences properly instead of the incredible usually seen 'as long as we go towards the light everything will be juuuust fine, teehee~' drama. There's a heck tonne of comedy and tsukomi of course, but that's common in most VNs. There's even a certain world introduced that had such terrifying implications that you could literally a chill up your backbone. And even right up till the end, despite the protagonist seemingly accept his fate and had cast away all of his regrets to follow his own beliefs, the Assort chapters properly tells you that that is not the case, and he like any other humans always had that shadow of doubt that's constantly gnawing at him from the inside.
There's another thing that I like really much about the Seinarukana story, and that's completion. They did not cut corners. Each story was painstakingly constructed to as complete as possible. Most of the character's story was told - well you can't cover everyone, but most of them - was covered with such visible effort that it's hard not to respect the writer. Usually in an SRPG the creators would choose to put in a few minutes of story and jump right to the next stage while making little to no sense other than, "WE HAVE TO PROTECT *INSERT HERE*!", but Seinarukana did not do that.
The Assort chapters were especially satisfying to read. They are the stories after the ending of Seinarukana. Nanashi/Akatsuki's story is well tailored and incredibly adorable, Talia/Sonosuke's story talks about Talia's doubts and Sonosuke's open and straightforward attitude when faced with a tough decision, and the final one between Reme and Nozomi - ironically the weakest story out of the 3 Assorts even though they're the protagonist - tells the brief story about Nozomi's condition and encounter with 2 Law Eternals.
The combined content of the PSP and PC version is MASSIVE as it is incredibly SATISFYING, and while not as well constructed and perfect as Baldr Sky, had given me the same kind of nostalgia. This is truly the most epic VNs ever produced by the company and deserves a 10 out of 10 for its story.
The SRPG can be a total ass though; I am extremely dissatisfied with the fact that only All Rounders can change their skills during battle, and that too must be done through a series of unnecessary, reducible actions. It makes some fights harder than it should be and ultimately forced me to give up challenging at Chapter 8 because I simply don't have that much time to waste, and used the Auto Win patch to go through except during boss fights.
In short, good game, kind of annoying SRPG, okay 3D effects, and an amazing story.
Now, to the rather short VN Aselia: The Third Destination. 10 out of 10.
... Why? This tells the story of Yuuto and Aselia, after being sent into a world under orders to do something, discovers that Aselia has become pregnant.
Now, this VN is AMAZING. Completely discarding its predecessor's optimism, The Third Destination takes on a largely dark atmosphere and tells the bloody tale of war between the Chaos and Law Eternals, as shown through the various hardships experienced by the protagonists. It also tells of the brief encounter between all three No.1 Eternal Swords, which ultimately resulted in Narukana's sealing.
This story is grim. Very grim. To put this spoilerless-ly, There's a total bitch (I'm sorry for the harsh word, but I really cannot find another word to describe her -_-") at the Law Eternal's camp, also one of the No.1 Eternal Swords, who is determined to kill Yuuto and Aselia because they're interfering with her plans, and Yuuto and Aselia lost the fight despite being able to escape with their lives. There was a scene so shocking that my heart literally stopped there for a second. It was only through luck that they had managed to survive in the end. The story remained dark and even chose to tell about Euphoria's birth and what happened to the protagonists with nothing but a few CGs, DURING THE ENDING CUTSCENE. The epilogue was given to the Law Eternals instead, where a dark future is foretold and highly implied the coming of a sequel. Amazing, amazing execution. Its rare to see that a VN can stay true to its intended atmosphere from the beginning till the end.
This pack? Amazing. I would buy it if the custom ain't such a bitch in my country and blocks all 18+ stuff. The SRPG is rather cumbersome and old, but still amazing. I highly recommend anyone who wouldn't mind wasting a few weeks of their free time to play this, because it is definitely worth its value, and more.
Before I start reviewing, let's talk about some of the impressions I've had for Ein no Aselia (The original one, not Third Destination). Ein no Aselia is a very innocent, light hearted themed story despite its attempt at certain points to sound grim, particularly during your first playthrough. However, you would later discover you can overturn that certain tragedy by selecting the right choices during your second playthrough, and thus what I meant by innocent. It's comparable to a high school romance novel where reality doesn't seem to have a consequence on the character, and they always seem to get their way.
I'd like to compare Ein no Aselia to Fate/Stay Night. Some spoilers here, so don't open if you haven't read either VNs:
Spoiler:
Now, to start the review. Seinarukana fixed almost every problem of that. I was surprised to see that Seinarukana - despite the rather lucky happy end and all - has an appropriate dose of realism that makes the story incredibly good to read. It's not excessively grim like Muramasa where everything was painted in such a wicked light that it's hard NOT to feel like the entire world is evil, and yet not so lacking in realism that everything read like a fairy tale or soap opera. It's just... appropriate.
The protagonist Nozomi is subjected to a series of problems, and each one of them introduced the consequences properly instead of the incredible usually seen 'as long as we go towards the light everything will be juuuust fine, teehee~' drama. There's a heck tonne of comedy and tsukomi of course, but that's common in most VNs. There's even a certain world introduced that had such terrifying implications that you could literally a chill up your backbone. And even right up till the end, despite the protagonist seemingly accept his fate and had cast away all of his regrets to follow his own beliefs, the Assort chapters properly tells you that that is not the case, and he like any other humans always had that shadow of doubt that's constantly gnawing at him from the inside.
There's another thing that I like really much about the Seinarukana story, and that's completion. They did not cut corners. Each story was painstakingly constructed to as complete as possible. Most of the character's story was told - well you can't cover everyone, but most of them - was covered with such visible effort that it's hard not to respect the writer. Usually in an SRPG the creators would choose to put in a few minutes of story and jump right to the next stage while making little to no sense other than, "WE HAVE TO PROTECT *INSERT HERE*!", but Seinarukana did not do that.
The Assort chapters were especially satisfying to read. They are the stories after the ending of Seinarukana. Nanashi/Akatsuki's story is well tailored and incredibly adorable, Talia/Sonosuke's story talks about Talia's doubts and Sonosuke's open and straightforward attitude when faced with a tough decision, and the final one between Reme and Nozomi - ironically the weakest story out of the 3 Assorts even though they're the protagonist - tells the brief story about Nozomi's condition and encounter with 2 Law Eternals.
The combined content of the PSP and PC version is MASSIVE as it is incredibly SATISFYING, and while not as well constructed and perfect as Baldr Sky, had given me the same kind of nostalgia. This is truly the most epic VNs ever produced by the company and deserves a 10 out of 10 for its story.
The SRPG can be a total ass though; I am extremely dissatisfied with the fact that only All Rounders can change their skills during battle, and that too must be done through a series of unnecessary, reducible actions. It makes some fights harder than it should be and ultimately forced me to give up challenging at Chapter 8 because I simply don't have that much time to waste, and used the Auto Win patch to go through except during boss fights.
In short, good game, kind of annoying SRPG, okay 3D effects, and an amazing story.
Now, to the rather short VN Aselia: The Third Destination. 10 out of 10.
... Why? This tells the story of Yuuto and Aselia, after being sent into a world under orders to do something, discovers that Aselia has become pregnant.
Now, this VN is AMAZING. Completely discarding its predecessor's optimism, The Third Destination takes on a largely dark atmosphere and tells the bloody tale of war between the Chaos and Law Eternals, as shown through the various hardships experienced by the protagonists. It also tells of the brief encounter between all three No.1 Eternal Swords, which ultimately resulted in Narukana's sealing.
This story is grim. Very grim. To put this spoilerless-ly, There's a total bitch (I'm sorry for the harsh word, but I really cannot find another word to describe her -_-") at the Law Eternal's camp, also one of the No.1 Eternal Swords, who is determined to kill Yuuto and Aselia because they're interfering with her plans, and Yuuto and Aselia lost the fight despite being able to escape with their lives. There was a scene so shocking that my heart literally stopped there for a second. It was only through luck that they had managed to survive in the end. The story remained dark and even chose to tell about Euphoria's birth and what happened to the protagonists with nothing but a few CGs, DURING THE ENDING CUTSCENE. The epilogue was given to the Law Eternals instead, where a dark future is foretold and highly implied the coming of a sequel. Amazing, amazing execution. Its rare to see that a VN can stay true to its intended atmosphere from the beginning till the end.
This pack? Amazing. I would buy it if the custom ain't such a bitch in my country and blocks all 18+ stuff. The SRPG is rather cumbersome and old, but still amazing. I highly recommend anyone who wouldn't mind wasting a few weeks of their free time to play this, because it is definitely worth its value, and more.
... Man, Seinarukana has MASSIVE content. It's probably due to the PSP + PC reason, but man, this is the first time I've played a game for such a... LONG time. And I had to use the instawin patch at Chapter 8 because I just don't have the time to spend moving my troops the proper way anymore. And be well assured that I had spent entire DAYS doing just that. Holy. Finished Satsuki's route, now gunning for Narukana's which is supposedly the true end... and HOPEFULLY they don't have the same annoying 'complete all routes to unlock secret scene' shit, because even with the patch it's going to take bloody forever to do it.
Okay, one of the most epic Visual Novels of the years have come out. I haven't played it yet.
... DO YOU KNOW HOW WRONG THAT SOUNDS? è–ãªã‚‹ã‹ãª, will not only FINALLY feature the first two No.1 Eternal Sword holders, Fate and Mysterious Girl - I actually don't know how to read the girl's title, but whatever, FINALLY - but also include scenes and CGs from previous works such as Ein no Aselia. Personally I had hoped that it would be a super massive confusing war with ALL the characters included but hey, that really is asking too much. Still. YES! SEQUEL!
... For fans, you don't need me to say anything. For newbies who can read Japanese, don't wait. For newbies who can't read Japanese; for God and Devil's sake, DON'T. WAIT.
*proceeds to top up broadband and download*
... DO YOU KNOW HOW WRONG THAT SOUNDS? è–ãªã‚‹ã‹ãª, will not only FINALLY feature the first two No.1 Eternal Sword holders, Fate and Mysterious Girl - I actually don't know how to read the girl's title, but whatever, FINALLY - but also include scenes and CGs from previous works such as Ein no Aselia. Personally I had hoped that it would be a super massive confusing war with ALL the characters included but hey, that really is asking too much. Still. YES! SEQUEL!
... For fans, you don't need me to say anything. For newbies who can read Japanese, don't wait. For newbies who can't read Japanese; for God and Devil's sake, DON'T. WAIT.
*proceeds to top up broadband and download*
Well, as a writer, I can tell you that we can't always keep our facts intact. Sometimes I can't even remember characters that I've written myself halfway through the story, and even entire settings spanning a couple thousand words. For that part, well, it looks more like a slight mistake made by the original author than the translator's, because so far I am extremely pleased with how well it reads in English. Of course, I may be biased in my opinion somewhat since that is my most second most proficient language...
They're actually more monster/beast than girl, and Gnome was one of the few that actually looked normal. Somewhat.
Subarashiki Hibi is THE best VN ever (for me).
装甲悪鬼æ‘æ£ is ONE of the most epic VNs ever out there. Note the difference. :)
装甲悪鬼æ‘æ£ is ONE of the most epic VNs ever out there. Note the difference. :)
Probably shouldn't mention this here, but since 装甲悪鬼æ‘æ£ is one of the most epic VNs ever... there's now a sequel to this VN titled 装甲æ¶é¬¼æ‘æ£-é”界篇, though it's a manga. Apparently people are time travelling to the future so they can kill our protagonist lol.
EDIT: For those who has not read this VN, for the love of God, don't read this manga. Just don't. I won't bear the responsibility if you spoil all the epicness for yourself.
EDIT: For those who has not read this VN, for the love of God, don't read this manga. Just don't. I won't bear the responsibility if you spoil all the epicness for yourself.
