Review: Utatemeguri

Waking up his Osananajimi, going to school and getting lectured by his diligent Kouhai, watching his close friends have a battle that rivals the intensity of Phoenix Wright’s courtrooms over their lunch is all part of Hidaka Satsuki lives his normal and peaceful life with no complaints. One day, the mysterious transfer student, Rebecca, who just transferred only recently called Renka, Satsuki’s osananajimi, to the rooftop and said “How much longer are you going to pretend to be human, monster.” In the midst of all confusion, a bullet shot broke the silence, and the rooftop painted with red. No! What has happened, why did Rebecca shoot Renka? The plot thickens as night falls upon Yoiha Gakuen…

~Taken from VNDB

Plot 5/10: I'll be perfectly honest and say this is a case of a story that had enormous potential, but was ruined at least in part by haste on the part of the writers. This game, while it has a truly fascinating setting going for it, with some truly interesting heroines, is paced far too fast for a story-focused visual novel with such a complex background. To be blunt, you aren't given enough time to get to love the characters. While it is possible to become fond of the characters - with effort - the fact that you have to make the effort says it all. I will say that the overreaching story is compelling, if rather common in world literature (it's basically another star-crossed lovers story with two extra paths tacked on in a half-assed attempt to help you get to know the other major characters better). One thing I can't bring myself to like is the protagonist, who breaks the boundaries of foolhardiness to become an outright moron at times. This being despite the fact that he is apparently a very cool-headed person... While this is necessary to progress the story, the frequency with which it occurs is painful to experience. While I hear a lot of praise for this game from various corners, I can't really recommend this game for its story.

Visuals 8/10: Hrm... what can I say? The character drawings are well done, in the same style as Killer Queen. I'll say that I didn't really like the 'effects' cgs, where swords are slashing and blood is splashing... They tended to lack impact. The CGs for the characters during battle though, are another thing entirely, having enough impact for the game to regain some points from some of the less stellar parts.

Sound 7/10: I'll come out and say that the voice actors in this story are excellent and well-fitted for their roles... and they count for most of the points I give to sound, with the rest coming from their usage of the bgms - which were somewhat generic, but not awful. What took off points though, was the sound effects. To be blunt... outside of the blood splatter sounds, the sound effects were less than memorable, except maybe as a poor example of what to do to give sound effects impact. Whether it is Shii's kicks or the sounds of blades impacting with blades... I sometimes had to ask myself 'did something just happen?' even though I'd read the text saying what had happened and saw the character models or cgs.

Overall 6/10: To be honest, I was really disappointed in this game... With the visuals being the high point and most of the rest a mixed bag at best and a disappointment at worst, I felt a little betrayed by those who'd recommended this game to me. In particular, the pacing of the plot stands out as the biggest disappointment for me, and for a game where the plot should have been the biggest selling point, that sort of makes certain I wouldn't have a good opinion of this. I honestly feel that I can't recommend this to anyone, unless you absolutely have to have a 'gakuen battle' type of eroge to play.

Review: Toppara - Zashiki-warashi no hanashi

Toppara is about a guy who lost his parents and his family fortune after his house's zashiki-warashi (who was also his childhood friend) left. Because of this, he has become embittered and generally pessimistic about life, blaming both youkai and humans in general for his troubles. One day, he wakes up to find a beautiful youkai woman standing over him, a kage-onna, ending his solitude and forcing him to reawaken from his sleep.


Plot 7/10: The various paths of this VN, each centering around any one of the eight heroines (seven of which are non-human, for you youkai fetishists out there) are not terribly complex or surprising. However, this is one of those cases where the game doesn't really need to be surprising to entertain. How the protagonist awakens from his self-pitying trance in each path is the main theme, with the heroines providing the means either through him helping solve their problems or through them doing their best to help him. By the time you get to the true path, Midori's path, you won't be surprised at all by what happens, but that doesn't really seem to matter... this is the kind of eroge where you just sit back and relax, enjoying the ride. I particularly enjoyed Touko's (Tamamo no Mae) path, for the interesting insight into the way religion was used as a political tool in the Meiji era, in addition to Touko being an excellent heroine. The endings for each path tended to be a mixed bag, most of them being short and lacking in detail, but overall this sort of hazy way of ending things, as generic as it is, doesn't get in the way of enjoying the game itself.

Visuals 7/10: Definitely not the best game I've ever played when it comes to visuals, with the CG's tending to be lacking in detail on a closer look. However, the character models for the rest of the game were done well-enough that I felt no strong reason to complain. To be honest, I wish they'd put some more effort and detail into the major scenes (though the scenes toward the end of Mikage's path are excellent, in contrast to the ones on some of the other paths).

Sound 6/10: Most of the soundtrack for the game was pleasant, if generic. If I have a complaint it is the tendency of the game to misuse those at times, especially the few tension-causing bgms. Sadly, this is not a great example of using what they have well...

Overall 6.5/10: My overall is mostly drawn from a technical outlook, rather than how much I enjoyed it in this case. If I went from my personal enjoyment meter, it would probably be a good 8/10. However, this game's appeal is rather narrow, focused on your slice-of-life fans and youkai fetishists, and maybe drawing in some borderline nakige lovers. Personally, I think this is a solid choice for a light VN to play if you run out of things to try, but I wouldn't choose it over say... Clannad. This game is a good example of the generic slice-of-life eroge out there, being a little better than the average, but I don't think it will make it to the top of very many lists.

Review: Evolimit

Shiranui Yoshikazu and Ichijou Shizuku wake up after a hundred years in cold sleep to find the world they left behind changed beyond all recognition by the twin factors of the genocidal robots known as the Barbaroi and the mysterious stones known as 'patch' that grant humans superpowers that allow them to survive in the violent place Mars became in the wake of the loss of technological culture.

Upon awakening, their memories of their life before going into cold sleep have for the most part returned, but upon being told that their expedition, the first colonization and development effort to Mars, was wiped out, they realize that their memories are as of yet incomplete. They then begin to search for clues as to just what happened to the rest of the colonization team known as the 'Calamity Monkeys'.


Plot 9/10: Considering the other review I read on this game, I was at first worried that this would turn out to be a 'miss', but I soon came to realize that it was nothing of the sort. This eroge is unbelievably funny, with the protagonist's antics making up much of the story's amusement value, and the addition of the various other characters simply enhancing his spectacularly comical actions. At the same time, when the story gets down to the drama, its very powerful, so much so that I spent much of the game either laughing until my throat began to hurt or crying so hard my nose completely stopped up. The game's true antagonist has a lot of impact, if only because he is so coldly sane, despite the insanity of his actions. The lesser antagonists are strong as well, their individual personalities well-defined, despite the fact that they are really little more than pawns. The action scenes, while not as detailed as Ayakashibito's (also by Propeller), are nonetheless more than well done enough to be worth reading.

Visuals 8/10: The character design in this game differs a bit from the norm in eroges, but that actually makes it easier to enjoy it, as you get deeper into the story, that very difference, subtle as it was, making it easier to distinguish them from the characters of other such eroges. The CGs are both plentiful and fun to look at, with a rather large number of comical chibi CG's aiding the game in one of its three primary goals, which seem to consist of making you love the characters, love the story, and laugh until you feel like your head is going to split open.

Sound 9/10: The music in this game doesn't fall into the trap of reusing slightly rearranged generic tracks from a dozen other eroges, and most of the tracks are very well-chosen, enhancing the drama and the comedy appropriately, thus making the overall experience more powerful. In particular, this game does tragic songs very well... In addition, the character voices - especially the protagonist's - are very well-suited to the characters, seeming tailor-made for their personalities.

Overall 9/10: In my current mood, I was likely to give this game a ten out of ten, but I felt that I should be honest and say that the game isn't perfect, by any means. However, despite its small imperfections, the game is definitely one of the best eroge I've ever played, even taking the euphoria from having just finished out of the equation. If you want an eroge that will fill your existence with tears and laughter (mostly laughter) then this is a good choice... better yet, its not so dark that fluffy fans will hate it, and it isn't so light that fans of story-focused eroges will dislike it. It walks the tightrope of light and dark extremely well, and thus its appeal is something I can recommend to just about everyone.