Tenshi no Nichou Kenjuu 天使ノ二挺拳銃 -Angelos Armas- [Nitroplus]

Foreword: I could not ignore Nitroplus work, especially one without reviews.
Date: 2005-01-28
VNDB link: https://vndb.org/v429
Youtube walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcC4Wki3bo8&list=PLs4Gp5VU4Fv-rllhpCe9B1ueL5w0Uubdn
Synopsis: When people die with hearts filled with negative feelings, they turn into 'ghosts', haunting the world. To send those souls to the other world, angels exist, using their guns to 'kill' them. You're playing one of such angels, Wim.

Game type: Eschatology dystopia action story
Character Design rating: 10/10
Protagonist rating: 10/10
Story rating: 9/10
Game quality: 9/10
Overall rating: 9/10
Rating comments: It was a perfect game for me during the whole common route. The second half was less fascinating, but it's still one of the best games I played. 

Protagonist: Wim is mature and cool, but at the same time his consciousness is blank enough to be able to write any story. His earliest memory is white, and then he sees himself with wings and two guns beside same looking angels. He starts to hunt down ghosts of recently dead people just like everyone else. But as game unfolds, he starts to question his life...
Characters: All three heroines feel alive here. Two of them are siblings. Komaki is the older sister. She is a researcher obsessed with the angel theme. For some reason she sees angels. Fuuko is the younger sister. She can see angels as well. The first time she sees Vim, she asks to kill her. But Fuuko is also lying in coma at a hospital simultaneously... Henri is the only orthodox angel heroine. She has wings, gun and follows angel style of life without asking questions. She's tsundere'ish and hates all the ghosts of the dead people. But actually the most important character of the game is rapist and killer Jay. The whole story is based around him. Fuuko and Komaki are his blood sisters. Henri has shared memories with Jay to such an extent that Henri is stumbled every time she sees him. Assassin Issei is the father of Fuuko/Komaki/Jay. But the most cool character in the game is the oldest angel Peter. He witnessed the judgement day and afterwards taught Vim everything. By the genre's laws Peter is just destined to betray Vim at some point, but to my greatest surprise things are much more complicated here, and Peter becomes a most reliable partner.

Story: Actual story is quite complicated. 18 years ago children stopped to be born on the Earth. Most people go to work by inertia, but suicides become a common place, and streets are full of all kind of filth. Angels just patrol in search of recently dead souls - ghosts - and kill them with their guns. Game starts with a suicide and continues at a hospital with many deaths incoming. Two sisters can see angels, and in communication with them Vim starts to get interested in humans.
Thoughts:
1) Game poses a huge number of questions. Why there are people who can see angels? What's the identity and past of angels? Why only Vim and Jay have double guns? Why Fuuko wants to die and what's wrong with her other self in coma? What's so special in Jay? Is there a way for humanity to recover? Finding answers for all those questions is the most fascinating part of the game. But the mid-game we more or less find the answers, so second half full of action does not feel as exciting.
2) Game is organized in the same theater manner as Project-μ games, and considered the action nature of the game a strong presence of Gin no Hebi is felt. Such directing is superb in comparison with other normal games.
3) Unlike other Nitroplus games that I played, dialogues play bigger role here than action scenes. It looks like self-irony to me when Vim tries to explain why he kills ghosts of dead persons and does not try to resist. The only answer he finds is that "gun calls" him to do so. Nitroplus provides so many action scenes, because cool guns call them, but it's not always the case that story must be inferior.

Overall comments: It surprises me greatly how Angelos Armas got so little attention in the West. The Japanese reviews are more or less modest in their impressions, but I've learned it the hard way that the Japanese understand nothing in plotge. It's the best Nitroplus game that I've played so far, so I denounce all my accusation that Nitroplus can produce only stupid action games.

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Anonymous said...

Are you sure you should comment about the game when you use machine translation? And to act like Japanese reviewers didn't understand it is preposterous. They know the language, you don't.

kivandopulus said...

Congratulations, you're the 1000th jerk to tell me that! Yes, I am sure.

Ricky Nguyen said...

So, people can see angels and there are no more babies being born? Suicides on the rise? Sounds like an interesting premise. I want to ask, did the protagonist and the heroines find out what's going on? I hope to hear from you soon.

kivandopulus said...

Yes, every mystery gets explained, and the ending actually is positive in every route.

Ricky Nguyen said...

Really? So, in every route, the protagonist and the heroines are still alive and are able to resolve the mystery and problems? That's good. Can you go into more detail about this? Hope to hear from you soon.

kivandopulus said...

The three heroines routes have more or less the same events, but are shown differently and with different dialogues. But to put it short - in each route Jay dies in different ways, but after confrontation with Peter, where Peter also dies. Jay is the first angel and the starter of all angels, so everyone was afraid to kill him. However, after Jay death angels mutate to dark angels and commit suicide. Angels are actually products of a virus that prevents babies birth and reincarnation of souls (since angels kill the dead men's souls bound to reincarnate). With virus gone, babies can be born again, so life on the earth gets restored slowly. That's vividly shown in Komaki route.

Fuuko has the most shallow ending where Vim and Fuuko just go to the beach after everything is over. But Fuuko is the only child to have been born over these 18 years and reincarnation of Komaki. She is the primary child and the symbol of possible future life, so it's already enough that she does not want to die anymore.

Henri route ends abruptly after love scene with the image of the Earth and another same size circle object having a child inside it. It probably symbolizes new meaning for angel race, as angels could not have children before.

Ricky Nguyen said...

So, the three heroine endings are not good then? Fuuko is the reincarnation of Komaki? But, isn't Komaki still alive though? With the virus gone, babies can be born, where it's clearly shown in Komaki's route? Interesting, but weird. Henri's route just ends after ther love scene with Vim? What? Angels can now have children?

Anyway, Henri's route ends abruptly, Fuuko's route ending is very shallow, and Komaki's route has some meaning to it? What happens in Komaki's route ending? Hope to hear from you soon.

kivandopulus said...

Basically, Komaki route is only different, because it actually tells what happens to the humanity after angels disappearance. Komaki is shown with her newborn baby on her hands in the final scenes. Her route is more about science and humanity than actual love.

But the angel and Jay mystery is actually best explained in Henri route. Henri feels like the true romantic heroine of the game.

Fuuko story is dramatic since Fuuko is cynical and even cruel. It's more about overcoming her problems and healing. Fuuko is reincarnation of Komaki even though Komaki is alive. That is the result of Komaki science experiments.

The story is the same for all the heroines, but the scenes vary greatly and accents are put differently, so the aftertaste is decent.

Ricky Nguyen said...

I see. Komaki's route ends with her holding her baby in her arms with the protagonist by her side, Henri's route has her and the protagonist becoming a couple after solving the mystery, and Fuuko's route has her and the protagonist hooking up after they were able to solve her problems and heal her? Interesting, but the story is the same for all three heroines. I believe the endings kind of end too abruptly for my taste, from what you described. Hope to hear from you soon.

kivandopulus said...

The ending indeed feels forced and abrupt. For example, characters had many opportunities to just kill Jay, but they were afraid to do it, because Jay is ancestor of all angels. The consequences might be drastic. But what happens is exactly that. Angels evolve into fallen angels out of the blue after 18 years of peace - it's not clear what caused it now. Then Peter kills Jay, and it's over - angels die, humanity regains ability of child birth. Heroines stories finish nicely, but Jay-angel story does not feel satisfactory.

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