VN of the Month August 2021 - Princess x Princess

November 29, 2021
New August, new portion of pain and shame. Princess x Princess wins by default as the only title that qualifies for competition.

VN of the Month July 2021 - Fuuraiki 4

November 27, 2021
Nothing good comes out of July. But if I had to play one thing, it would be Fuuraiki 4 

VN of the Month June 2021 - Ryuusei World Actor: Badge & Dagger

November 25, 2021
I'd rather nominate an absolutely incomplete title Ryuusei World Actor: Badge & Dagger than choose from several moege-like games.

VN of the Month May 2021 - Madohi Shiroki no Kamikakushi

November 23, 2021
Madohi Shiroki no Kamikakushi is the only decent game I see in May.

VN of the Month April 2021 - Umi to Yuki no Cyan Blue

November 21, 2021
Umi to Yuki no Cyan Blue is the winner by default.

VN of the Month March 2021 - Waga Himegimi ni Eikan o

November 19, 2021
Genpei Ryouran Emaki -Gikei- and Waga Himegimi ni Eikan o are both good games, yet the first one has too many downsides this time.

VN of the Month February 2021 - Meikei no Lupercalia

November 17, 2021
Two releases... just wow. And one is a gameplay title, so guess who wins - Meikei no Lupercalia , which is also a masterpiece.

VN of the Month January 2021 - Buddy Mission Bond

November 15, 2021
Traditional visual novels once again show full impotence thus leaving Buddy Mission Bond winner by default.

Realive リアライブ [Purple Software]

November 13, 2021
I was never fan of Purple Software yet as of now I claim Realive to be VN of the Year 2019. Curious, right?

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwGwDxf37gEkRtsaFVrm8TiT95cw_g3Lz

Character Design rating: 9/10
Protagonist rating: 10/10
Story rating: 9/10
Game quality: 10/10
Overall rating: 9/10


I did not expect much of this game, to be honest. And the way it began did not fascinate at all. Bunch of kids without any real need to change themselves for some stupid reason decided to follow instructions in an unknown mobile app to be reborn as a stronger version of themselves - and those orders of course had to be somewhat perverted leading to etchy situations. There's absolutely no sense in that, just an opportunistic moege setup pretext. But system started to get more and more complexity steadily, so soon I started to feel very involved - each of six players got different RPG-like classes , different lvl 1 tasks, after that different lvl 1 skills and so on on up to lvl 5. At that time I took the bait firmly - that creates myriads of variations to apply various skills for various situations. And tasks were only partially H-oriented and only for classes that suit the theme like idol. Most of tasks were formulated rather neutrally, especially for traditional classes like knight. So first element that lured me was gamification.

Another appealing element was flexible protagonist concept. Chihaya is only nominally protagonists. There are a lot of scenes with different girls alone or communicating with another girl. For those moments game naturally takes any other girl as protagonist or just watches the dialogue from aside. Again, it all happens very naturally and this way we don't get our share of usual irritations because of protagonist. This leads us the the third element that I adore.
Horizontal communication. I address this issue again and again in different reviews because it's that important. And Realive is the king of horizontal communication because of flexible protagonist. It's done so vividly that we can define relation between each pair of girls let alone observe numerous jokes applied to each other in conversations.

And that brings us to humor. I can't say game is humor-oriented. The bulk of humor is sekkuhara jokes and quite some teasing. It's enough to recognize its strong presence , but not to fall the level of bakage.
I'd like to return to plot again, because with explaining the setting, five tasks for each girl and receiving five skills for everyone there is just no time to spare on meaningless filler scenes. Realive basically does not have SOL scenes. Even if some scene resembles one - it's story driven and needed to gather together or prepare for task etc. No room for fillers at all. Because of this story density there's no desire to skip any scene in common route. And thanks to that there was next to zero romance during common route.

I usually rate individual routes lower than common route, and, frankly speaking, this game did not overturn the tendency. I still found myself skipping parts of individual routes that developed in an evident way to me. But this time it was not just about romance and sudden drama as there was a twist - how would heroine use rebirth chance as I did not believe they would selfishly magically get reborn themselves. And they did not disappoint. Oh, and I sincerely enjoyed Kaya route as gothic loli tsundere never gets old - and her reactions at gaming center were purely hilarious. But what's more important - individual routes feel like continuation of common route with the humor, horizontal communication and dating openly happening naturally and only gradually overflowing into individual romance.
As for true route , it was foreshadowed by multiple hooks that it would be devoted to Levi's identity. I still hoped there would be RPG-like action story on top of that, but instead identity theme just got developed deeper.

Why not 10/10 then? For me the primary criteria is whether I skip some parts or try to catch every word. Realive is not such a genius game that breaks conventional rules, but rather a skillfully crafted well designed hand-made masterpiece. If follows a set of rules that I advise for all visual novels to use to make it deep:
  • Flexible unfixed protagonist
  • Gamification
  • Additional complexity layers that do not leave time for fillers
  • Just romance is not an option, need additional element to focus during individual routes
  • Horizontal communication should be in the center
  • Mild humor and teasing is generally better than gags and bakage tilt
  • Forget about pure SOL scenes without plot meaning

Common Route 



















Satsuki End
















Kaya End





















Nemuru End



















Minato End

























True Route

































VN of the Year 2020 - Silverio Ragnarok

November 11, 2021
Somehow both number of masterpieces (14) and number of openings I am able to collect in Visual Novel Openings 2020 decreases yet again. Silverio Ragnarok symbolizes the whole trilogy for me, so I consider it to be the winner in 2020 , but I admit It can change after I review Hakuchuumu no Aojashin . Also plan to do the same with Hoshizora Tetsudou to Shiro no Tabi just because I did not find an English review. Then it will be Tsui no Sora Remake 's turn, next undecided, probably something from 2009 and further.

VN of the Month December 2020 - Tsui no Sora Remake

November 09, 2021
Tsui no Sora Remake is more than just a remake and is VN of the Month. Other worthy competitors include Akatsuki Yureru Koi Akari and Hoshizora Tetsudou to Shiro no Tabi . Kara no Shoujo - The Last Episode is also supposed to be good for those who care about depressing games.

VN of the Month November 2020 - Hokenshitsu no Sensei to Shabondama Chuudoku no Joshu

November 07, 2021

VN of the Month October 2020 - Einstein Yori Ai o Komete

November 05, 2021
No masterpieces as usual. Einstein Yori Ai o Komete is better than others.

VN of the Month September 2020 - Hakuchuumu no Aojashin

November 03, 2021
Hakuchuumu no Aojashin is the clear winner in September. 

VN of the Month August 2020 - Seishun Fragile

November 01, 2021
Seishun Fragile still takes the upper hand, yet for me it's the month without masterpieces.
 
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