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Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts

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

































Sora no Baroque 虚空のバロック [light]

October 06, 2021

I read Sora no Baroque blindly just because I could not believe light company would release something really terrible. Somehow, I had high hopes for it despite all the worrying signs. Not going to be a coherent review, just thoughts.
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwGwDxf37gEmJK5veUbZxoR5sjPFd2QCO

I don't want to rate Sora no Baroque. The reason is that it's just not the genre I can rate like I can't rate nukige or loliconge. I don't want to have anything in common with such genres let alone compare them with normal games. It's beneath the level of decency for me. This review is going to contain not story, but visual spoilers as I don't want anyone to ever read this visual novel, and I don't think anything can spoil it even more than it does on its own.

For me Sora no Baroque is a manual into corruption . It starts more or less normally, then suddenly throws a gangbang flashback instantly. Still reading? Let's see how you react at larvae-like flesh monsters. Ok, now let's see if you can stand transformed into the same creature protagonist. Wow, you're a tough one, breath deeply and take a rest from the flashbacks. We don't have time for any romance, so let's just throw in a bath with four naked girls instantly, because there's a trope that protagonist should see a naked girl to be able to treat her as a romance interest. No time to waste, so let's do it in bulk. Also, can use this scene as flashback in all the individual routes, just perfect. Now enjoy a brief plot section, because it's not going to last. 
Let's start with something light like Kamori route, shall we? Cannibalism is just ok for the start. I think some public location H and 5 CG with different stages of body devouring should be enough for now. The second mandatory route to reveal true route is Yachiru one. This time let's kidnap Yachiru and procede into a long humiliation gang bang scene. What does protagonist do when he finally comes by the end of it? He adds some more steam, of course. Let's finish with more gore and eye gouging.

So, you survived to the true Sachi route that unlocks only after two previous horrible routes? Well done. Now you probably expect the greatest route to be worthy of true route. Sucks to be you, really, because it's not that kind of game. It's a game where true route actually means true corruption route. Hope you saw "Boxing Helena" movie , because you're going to face the disgust of full dismemberment , yes, even in H scenes.
But probably I nitpick and game can be perfectly fine if disturbing scenes are skipped? Even in this case you need to accept aesthetics of bone carcasses with organs and flesh sticking out of enemies and even protagonist. I have to admit that game tries to get away from most typical corruption element - tentacles. Yes, there are tentacle-like looking arms, but usually with some bone hook on the end. Some tentacles are shown very closely, so we don't see what they constitute as a whole. I believe there was only one scene with another traditional element of corruption games - human meatwall. Lastly, although I call enemies larvae-like flesh monsters, there aren't distinctive and disgusting larvae. So what game tries to do is reinvent corruption eroge by using bone elements more than traditional tentacle and larvae elements.

What I mean is that I can't really discuss plot or heroines as I constantly want to puke thinking about this game. All these biohacking attempts of body denial and downgrading into some instruments feel alien to me even though I'm perfectly fine with cyberpunk and technology implants. Game is not as hardcore as Baggot Baits as it tries to mimic into the bone over flesh theme, but my threshold of acceptance is somewhere at 10% of what's presented in Sora no Baroque. After that it ceases to be worthy game. It has no place among decent games and thus can't be rated unless you are choosing one among corruption nukige. I'm sorry I could not get past the surface visual aesthetics, but - hey - this is my personal experience. There are some people who can discuss this game as essentially a charage with important philosophical message, but the same can be said about Mindead Blood and Maggot Baits with the right outlook, tastes and disgust threshold.

Common Route 















Kamori End




































Yachiru End























Sachi End



























Ai Yori Aoi Umi no Hate アイよりアオい海の果て [AXL]

September 04, 2021
Foreword: I have no trouble with underdeveloped futuristic settings, so I thought I could look at this game from a different perspective. Here's the result.

Dungeons & Daimeiwaku 大迷宮&大迷惑 -GREAT EDGES IN THE ABYSS- [Liar-soft]

August 10, 2021
Foreword: I'm a fan of DnD , Wizardry 8 and Japanese Wizardry series, so I could not just pass by Dungeons & Daimeiwaku. As for Mareni writing, it's a stamp of minimally acceptable quality although without a normal story it can easily go astray.

Ama no Sora Retrospect 天ノ空レトロスペクト [GLace]

August 01, 2021
Foreword: I know I was going to review Schwarzesmarken, and I quite liked the anime version, but I see zero reason to play the game after the anime. Ama no Sora Retrospect, on the other hand, seems to have zero English reviews despite the non-trivial setting, thus it fits my choice pattern nicely.

Prism Princess ~Futari no Himekishi to Kokan no Monshou~ プリズム・プリンセス ~ふたりの姫騎士と股間の紋章~[Pajamas Soft]

July 24, 2021
Foreword: Third review in a row, huh. I just had footages done beforehand. Prism Princess is a booby action with some animated H scenes which wound usually instantly put game out of my interest zone. But it has fighting heroines, plus humor is reported to be worthy, so why not check it myself. Wanted to change game several times, but found nothing to replace it within a year.

Shoujo Shin'iki ∽ Shoujo Tengoku 少女神域∽少女天獄 -The Garden of Fifth Zoa- [Lass]

July 22, 2021
Foreword: Shoujo Shin'iki has some English reviews already, but they tend to focus on negative sides  (1 2 3) even though game deserves better.

Seihou no Prismgear 星逢のプリズムギア [Elysion]

July 20, 2021
Foreword: Now when I've run out of RPGs till September 2nd and I don't feel eternally burdened by writing a review, I can finally get to it. Battle and guns is what brought this game into my sphere of interest. But is it really a chunige?
 
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