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.