Remaster, Remake, Reimagine – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels
Retreading Old Ground
The
world of video games has entered the era of retreading its past and
serving it up in a new coat of paint. Visual novels
are no exception to this tread with the last couple of years
providing a plethora of classic titles given this treatment. These
games can be broadly split into three categories based on the nature
of the alterations performed on them, the Remaster, the Remake and
the Reimagining. A Remaster is a simple touch up to the graphics,
music and other technical features to bring the title in line with
modern sensibilities without making any sweeping changes to its core
identity. If the developer wants to redo their work on the original
then they opt for a Remake which aims to shake up its elements and
make additions or changes to the narrative direction while still
keep the foundations of the original game. Then there are Reimaginings which rip up
everything and start from scratch with new systems and graphics
entirely distinct from the original and these aim to capture the original's spirit in a new form. Each brings something unique to the table
for visual novels so let’s reuse, reduce and recycle our way around
this industry trend.
Ship Of Theseus
Remasters
might seem the lowest effort of the three types since it is easy to
dismiss them as a quickly slapped together product due to the way
they lean towards minor changes. However, as anyone who has played a
bad Remaster will tell you a lot can go wrong even with the simplest
of things such a failing to capture the colour balance correctly or
poorly upscaling old assets. Then there is the choice about what
version of the original was selected if there were multiple
re-releases and what content is considered ‘core’ to the
experience. Balancing all these tweaks takes a skilled hand and one
wrong step can have an army of angry fans at your door demanding the
blood of the person who defiled their sacred original. Despite this
risk, the benefits of a Remaster in terms of accessibility on modern
hardware cannot be denied, many older visual novels are not playable
on newer systems, have outdated screen resolutions or did not
previously have console versions. These are a great avenue for
developers to make additional money out of an already completed title
while also laying the groundwork for a potential sequel or
continuation of the original as a series.
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| Simple, Clean and Effective is what a good Remaster should be |
Mashiroiro Symphony HD is
an example of the most basic kind of Remaster focused purely on
improving the user experience. The resolution was changed from 4:3 to
16:9 and all graphical elements were upscaled to match alongside the
addition of a few new bits of animation to create a little visual
variety. It is obvious when playing it that a lot of effort has been
taken to maintain the strong use of colour and seasonal aesthetics
which made the original stand out and to ensure they survived the
transition into this higher resolution. Naturally the UI also
underwent a redesign to better fit the new dimensions it has to work
within as well as a general improvement to its readability to bring
it into line with the rest of the industry. Beyond these parts little
else was changed and maintaining the rest of the game untack was clearly
the priority. While Fate/Stay Night Remastered is on the surface a
similar kind of Remaster to Mashiroiro Symphony, what differentiates
it is the choice of which version to use as its base. The headline
change which the Remaster boasts is the redrawn CGs for the higher
resolutions rather than simply upscaled and the player will
definitely notice the crispness of the visuals within this new
release. However, what players of original game are mostly likely to
notice immediately is this is not a remaster of the first version of
Fate/Stay Night, but instead of the Realta Nua release. As such there
are a lot of changes present which have been maintain in this
Remaster, even beyond the removal of the erotic content, particularly
in the increased amount of CGs and the dramatically larger
soundtrack. This choice was likely made to ensure the game could
appeal to the largest demographic and by this point Realta Nua had
become the de-facto version of Fate/Stay Night so few would question
its use here. Yet there is an undeniable difference in the overall
feel between the original and Realta Nua which will now be completely
lost on newer players.
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| Bad upscaling leaves blurry details behind |
Finally there is the strange case of the Ever
17 Remaster which makes the most sweeping changes of these three
Remasters yet not of the version the players initially expected.
Rather than using the well received original as the base for this
Remaster, the developers instead opted for the much more divisive
Xbox 360 Remake as its foundation. This is made even stranger by the
choice to remove the 3D models which defined this Remake and replace
them with a set of Remastered sprites taken from the original game.
This splicing of the two titles did at least resolve the odd
dissonance between the 3D visuals and the drawn CGs present in the
Remake, but at the cost of removing what made that game its own
beast. In terms of visual improvements, this is a Remaster on the
sketcher end with the upscaling being obvious in places such as the
small details on character sprites being blurred into
a mess of colour. All of the controversial narrative changes are
still present in this Remaster and no effort has been made to address
the issues people had with the Remake it making it a faithful recreation in this
fashion. The use of the original sprites almost feels like an attempt
to trick people into thinking this is the original and airbrushing it
out from history as the two releases blur together in people’s
minds. Given it is basically impossible to obtain the original Ever
17 or the Remake through any official avenue, this Remaster may well
take their place as fewer and fewer people play them over this much more
accessible version.
Emperor’s New Clothes
Sometimes
a Remaster cannot provide the changes a developer envisions for their
old title and so they turn to the Remake for a larger overhaul. The
reasons for this can be anything from the original being too outdated
in terms of its systems or the developer wanting to tweak core
elements and correct things they consider mistakes. As such the
changes made by a Remake are sweeping in nature and extend far beyond a visual touch up and into the game’s narrative
and mechanical fabric. Yet the developer does not want to wash away
what made the original title compelling and so there are less fundamental changes
than its long list of alterations might indicate. Mechanically a Remake will
keep the gameplay or systems and translate them into a modern form
matching any of the more recent releases from the developer.
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen is a good example of this trend
with the shift from 2D to 3D SRPG combat. The aim of this Remake was
to bring the original Utawarerumono in line with the Mask games in
order to create a coherent trilogy to package together. Despite the
shift into 3D and the mechanical changes and different visual
identity it brings, the core progression of play is the same as
before with the battles and unit placement or actions being injected
directly into Prelude to the Fallen. It blurs the experience of the
Mask games with memory of the original Utawarerumono to create
gameplay which is enjoyable while keeping the identity of what came
before. Narratively little has been altered outside of the visual touch
ups expected of a modern release and it has taken great care to avoid
making any unnecessary changes outside of its main aim of creating a
trilogy.
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| Same style of combat now transfered into 3D |
A visual novel may release under time or budgetary
constraints which prevent its developer from properly capturing their
vision or be rushed and for this group a Remake is a chance to undo
any mistakes. Tsukihime was the first title of the fledgling
Type-Moon and suffered for both of these issues so a Remake of it was
naturally on the cards. Broken into two parts, the first half of the
game was released under the name Tsukihime A piece of blue glass moon
and showed a keen awareness of which parts of the original worked and
which need alterations. Visually and mechanical this Remake takes the
originals direction and translates it into the style of modern
Type-Moon while still bring recognisable as what it was before. The
story was a whole different case with new characters being added,
minor changes to some parts and dramatic ones to others. It inherits
much of the broad strokes of the overarching plot of the original
with a few people replacing each other, such as Vlov Arkhangel being
the early antagonist rather than Nero Chaos, and the major changes
only really start be felt towards the end of the common route. These
differences are not evenly distributed with Arcueid’s route being
more or less a carbon copy of the original’s version plus a few
more bells and whistles and minus the good ending. Here there is a
sense that her route was always what was envisioned so only a few
tweaks were needed for the sake of future set up. Ciel’s route was
always the weaker one in the original due to being too similar to
Arcueid’s and as such her new route has undergone such a large
revision it is almost unrecognisable. A shift into emphasising Ciel’s
backstory and her personal struggles in a more direct manner
characterise this new route and give it a much needed new identity
closer to the developer’s vision for her place in the story.
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| Everyone is rocking a new look |
Not
all changes in this Remake come in beneficial or benign forms, modern
Type-Moon works have a much higher power level than their older
material and never has this been more apparent than in A piece of
blue glass moon. The battle against Vlov Arkhangel and the final
battle of Ciel’s route stand out as the biggest offenders. While
Shiki’s Mystic Eyes of Death Perception given him a certain level
of power, he is still meant to be only slightly above the normal human
level and the original reflects this in his opponents being
de-powered in order for him to win. His victory over Vlov Arkhangel
in the Remake is so utterly unbelievable due to the power difference
between the two and by the fact a few scenes later Shiki is
struggling against common undead more in line with the original game.
Then the final battle of Ciel’s route takes this further by
introducing an antagonist of almost god levels of power and having to
power Shiki up to meet it. This antagonist is in the original game
but the fight is brief and acts more as a dramatic device than an
actual battle. Somewhere along the way the Remake has lost the
tension of mortality which defined the Tsukihime in favour of the
Fate/Grand Order style of spectacle fights which clash up against the
older components it still contains within it. When you Remake
something all the new features and changes can make it easy to loose
sight of what the original visual novel was all about.
Rethinking The Vision
In
rare cases a visual novel receive changes so fundamental that it only
vaguely resembles the original title it is based off. This
Reimagining of a game does not seek to preserve much of the material
identity of the original but instead aims to recapture its essence in
a new modern form. In many ways this kind of alteration is an
entirely new game and its choices of what to do with its systems are not bound in the same way as a Remaster or Remake. Not everything is
thrown out with this transformation as it still need to justify its
use of the name and IP it coats itself in. The elements which
generally survive this transfer are things like core aesthetic pieces
like a costume or uniform, which are easy to identity, and the
overarching narrative beats. Even these rarely end up unmolested
since they become part of the new structures where they bend to fit
the needs of these building blocks. Since this is such a monumental
undertaking, using the resources which could have been focused on an
entirely new game, and it has no guarantee to be well received by
fans of the original, it is no surprise that they are rare due to the
risks involved in producing them, but when they do come along they
are interesting specimens about how a creator views their creation.
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| Using 3D space creates new framing opportunities |
There are few visual novels of this kind so it is best to look
at one of the distinctive recent examples in the ToHeart Remake.
Almost everything about the original version of the game has been
thrown out, they completely revised the script resulting in many
fundamental narrative changes, moved to a 3D world space style of
game where the player can move around and added in various extra like
mini-games to create something which only loosely resembles what came
before. The change to use not only 3D models but also having them be
intractable and engage with a 3D world is the most noticeable change
when starting the title. The way its story is presented takes into
account the options offered through a broader physical space and
plays on position relative to the camera in ways simply to
available to the 2D original. On top of this being able to walk
around breaks the visual novel continuity and opens a sense of place
to the setting founded in the player’s direct experience of it.
However, despite these changes it still remains recognisable as a
visual novel when the narrative starts and the familiar text box
appears. Yet the story is a mixture of the old and the
Reimagined, here is where the overlap becomes apparent with its
rewritten script both adhering and deviating from the original
wherever it feels necessary. It clearly wants to recapture what made
the original popular so much of the core themes remain intact just
passed through an entirely reforged lens.
Conclusion
How
a developer attempts to recapture the essence of their previous work
defines much about how its audience will engage with it. For a
Remaster the choice of what version to update and the graphical
improvement to make will be closely compared to the original player’s
remember. Remakes take this further through their overhaul of a
title’s design pillars and often reflects the modern sensibilities
of the developer assigned to create it. The Reimagining is almost an
entirely new game of its own which only loosely borrows what it needs
to be recognisable as being descending from its original and it can risk not resonating with the original’s audience. Overall, the recycling
of past works is something to be approached with caution and an
understanding of what people liked about those games in order to get
the best results.
Ojou-Sama – Character And Cliche in Visual Novels
Upper Class Girls
Presenting
individuals of higher socioeconomic status within a fiction work
always leads to some interesting quirks and visual novels are not
immune to these mutations. The Ojou-sama is perhaps the most well
known representation of the rich in the medium due to their colourful
style of characterisation. Emphasising their status as a virtue, through a good upbringing resulting in them having a refined and kind
nature, is common when they are up as a choice for romance. As a side
character they get to show off the negative consequences of their
wealth through their spoiled attitude and arrogant demands. Not every
story wants their Ojou-sama to be defined by their money and so they
are instead shaped by what they have in common with the rest of the
cast rather than what makes them different. These competing kinds of
Ojou-sama each bring out a contrasting element of this archetype’s
humanity in order to serve very different functions while trying to
capture the same appeal which popularised it in the first place.
Let’s laugh at the peasants and see how these characters work so
well in their respective titles.
Noblesse Oblige
If
a developer wants to have an Ojou-sama character be one of the main
heroine then they tend to bring out the positive qualities associated
with their status. This means the heroine is often refined in their
manners and intellectual in their disposition with a desire to do good and work hard to prove their status is deserved. In many ways
they end up as an idealised version of noblesse oblige pushed through
the lens of a game’s setting while leveraging their feminine traits
to round out the package. It is in their struggles to meet the
expectations of this ideal where these heroines find much of their
conflict and exploring how it pushes them to unrealistic lengths in
its pursuit. Kanemoto Akari, from Noble Works, is the daughter of one
of the most important conglomerates in Japan and does her utmost to
live up to this status. She is diligent in her actions and works hard
at everything while trying to be as even and just as possible. This
has been internalised to the point it surprises her to be complement
it for and it creates a momentary break in her mask out of
embarrassment since she does not think it is something worth
acknowledging. Her pursuit of this perfect image stems from her
status as an illegitimate child so she feels a self inflicted
pressure to make up for this stain and appear as the real deal to
those around her. The majority of her character development centres
around her overcoming this inferiority and recognising the good she
has done and the fruits of her own efforts.
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| The pursuit of an ideal appearance can be a self destructive path |
In
a similar vein of meeting expectations sits Myougi Marika, from
Princess Evangile, who is caught between her sense honour and her
duties to sanctity of the school’s female only policy. She is a
refined and serious individual who values her honour and integrity as
a standard she should adhere to at all times. So the arrival of the
male protagonist into this all female school creates a massive
dilemma for her. She recognises his good nature and the way he also
values the people and culture of the school which makes it difficult
for her to legitimise getting rid of him.
Yet her duty to the school and the expectations of her fellow
students compel her to be the vanguard of the resistance to his
presence which she feels guilty about since it clashes with her
values since he has done nothing wrong. In the end it results in her
resorting to underhand tactics to try and win which just piles up the
guilt even more and her overcoming this self destruction is the main
driving force of her route. Not every Ojou-sama comes from a
background of legal wealth as with the mafia heritage of Felicità,
from Arcana Famiglia. She is an interesting take of this archetype
since she mixes the serious and hard-working traits with a layer of
violence born from living in the underside of the world. Just like
the previous girls she holds herself and others to a high standard
with an innocent streak running through her actions which is directly
contrasted by the violent and often thuggish nature of the suitors
around her. While the other characters start out underestimating her,
they come to understand how she can bring out the best in them and
positive traits even they had forgotten about. While each of these
Ojou-samas come at this idea from different angles their shared set
of high standards for themselves shapes their interactions with
others in a similar way. In striving to meet this vision for
themselves they create entertaining stories and reveal an appealing
human desire for self improvement while having an elegance in
appearance and action which make for a powerful combination.
Oligarchic Despot
Being
from a high status background does not always bring out the best in
an Ojou-sama and can instead allow their worst aspects to fester.
This version of character is defined by their arrogance, selfishness, spoiled mentality and a lack of mature qualities. Such individual
normally occupy side character or minor antagonist roles and main
heroines rarely come from this group unless added in a fandisc or
something similar. Their role is as a contrast to the virtues of the
main cast and to impede them as a means of applying a simple pressure to
the situation which can be cleanly divided into right and wrong.
While the extent of their self centred nature varies from character
to character, this Ojou-sama still has some empathic qualities to
justify their actions or are taken down a peg so they learn humility
in order to get the player to accept them. Part of the reason this
kind are used at all is the catharsis which comes from this person on
their high horse being brought down and the Ojou-sama is a short hand
base for this kind of character arc. An interesting case study for
this can be seen in Fushikawa Kokoro, from Majikoi, who starts out
life as a minor antagonist and eventually ends up with her own route
in a later game. Her initial presentation is a picture perfect
version of this kind of Ojou-sama, spoiled, arrogant and
self-centred, but since Majikoi is a comedy she is almost immediately
the subject of constant jokes at her expense. Through this barrage of
mockery she comes to be revealed as the immature and insecure young
girl she is in reality. The minor villain role eventually fades in
the face of more personal threats and bigger dangers to the cast
leading to her becoming another lovable member of the secondary cast.
That is until she gets her own route in the second game in which she
completes her transformation from selfish Ojou-sama into the virtuous
one. She demonstrates how the negative traits of this style of
Ojou-sama are not damaging enough to prevent a redemption and
transition into another role when needed.
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| Which is exactly what a child would say... |
Comedy is not the only way
to make an Ojou-sama sympathetic as Constance Lennard, from
Blackberry Honey, showcases through the clash between her cruelty and
her loneliness. Throughout the game her actions are a mixture of
spoiled and antisocial with it even going so far as bullying to
underline this negative impression. Yet she never quite slips into
the realm of being despicable since the player slowly come to learn
of the reason for her actions in her illness and by extension the
loneliness which causes her to act this way. She is never truly
absolved like Fushikawa Kokoro, instead the intent is to make her a
human figure who is a product of her negative emotions and is a nice contrast with the romance between the main couple. The spoiled
Ojou-sama is often a product of her immaturity and as such children
naturally make for excellent choices for this style due to the lesson
in maturity they can learn. Marion Garland, from The Melody of
Grisaia, is the perfect embodiment of this approach being a nine year
old daughter of a rich accountant whom Yuuji is tasked with
protecting. Since she has spent her life in wealth surrounded by
people who will not say no to her, it is only natural she would end
up as a childish and spoiled girl who becomes moody when she cannot
get her way. This protection mission and the danger which is directed
at her are a wake up call to the realities of the world and her
status as a child makes her initial attitudes a forgivable
transgression of youth so her growth becomes a thing to be
celebrated. Being from a short game helps the easy to understand
childish qualities and her character arc stand out and not overstay
their welcome since they are not complicated in nature and fit within
the one shot nature of this title.
We All Bleed The Same
Off
to the side of the clearly defined Ojou-samas sit the group where the
wealth and status is a secondary element to their personalities. For
this type of Ojou-sama their down to earth or unassuming nature is
the important factor and their background is a means of either adding
confrontation to their arc or as an unexpected contrast to what is
initial presented about them. To them it is often not a part of their
life they want to emphasise and instead want to be seen for who they
really are without the baggage they were born into. The only thing
they share with other Ojou-samas is the innocence and lack of worldly
knowledge stemming from their upbringing. Moving to overcome this
weakness, or at least not let it shape them, is something they work
on overcoming so as to be accepted by those around them. Kujou
Miyako, from 9 nine, is a prime example of this archetype being as
the player could be forgiven for forgetting she is the heir to a
commercial conglomerate. This is because she goes out of her way to
down play this fact at every turn for she wants to be seen for who
she is rather than her family's affluence. So she works hard to be
her own person doing things like working part-time and getting good
grades in order to define her own identity. When an Artifact falls
into her hands, its supernatural powers and the adventure it brings
appeal to her sense of justice and act as the catalyst for her to
make friends who truly value her. The beliefs she holds are in many
ways childish and inflexible which speaks to her upbringing but she
is capable of recognising this and take on board other options to
grow as a person.
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| Miyako does not exactly screen Ojou-sama at first glance |
In contrast Irisu Makina, from The Fruit of
Grisaia, is not a well adapted individual nor does she have any
interest in becoming one and instead live a somewhat estranged life on her
own terms. This oddness runs entirely counter to what would be
expected from an Ojou-sama and the player is unlikely to pick up on
her wealthy background until she tries to buy Yuuji’s affection
with a large sum of money. Her arc almost entirely consists of
fighting against this inherited status which wants to use her and
cares nothing for her. It is a rebellion born of necessity which has
left her scarred with the her warped view of how the world works
leading to her attempt to buy Yuuji to stay with her since she does
not know any other way to achieve this wish. For her being an
Ojou-sama is a curse and only when she is freed from it can she be
happy.
Conclusion
Status
and wealth can be as much of a burden as a blessing for the Ojou-sama
and this clash between who they are and what they want to be is the
core of what makes them appealing. Living up to the ideals of
nobility and virtue they have internalised stems from their
upbringing and trying to enact this can bring out their best and
worst qualities. Sometimes the role of an Ojou-sama is to emphasise
their humanity through their struggles to adapt to the outside world
and define themselves. Then there are ones who allow their status to
go to their heads and become spoiled and arrogant so serving at minor
antagonists to the main cast. An Ojou-sama cannot escape their
heritage and willingly or not they are defined by how it shapes them
or their attempts to break free from it creating a powerful point
around which conflict can be easily and effectively presented.
Mashiroiro Symphony HD -Sana Edition- Review – Warming Hearts In The Winter Chill
Genre – Romance, Slice of Life Play Time – 10 hours Developer – Palette Steam VNDB
Fiery Temper And Gentle Heart
Releasing
an additional route as a stand alone title is an interesting choice to say the least and speaks to a faith
in the popularity of the heroine and the strength of the writing.
Fortunately this confidence is well place with Sana Edition being the
best Mashiroiro Symphony has to offer and functions well even without
having to play the original. It expands on the already strong dynamic
between the protagonist, Miu and Sana to create powerful internal
emotional struggles over believable insecurities. The friction which
defines Sana’s identity is put front and centre as a core part of
her appeal and it is maintained throughout her budding relationship. When
it comes to the rest of the cast they are all given appropriate roles
within the story so the group feel like a cohesive and lovable bunch
who genuinely support the pair’s love. In terms of visuals Sana
Edition received the same face lift as the original game and the
colours pop with a vivid life to really sell the clashing feelings.
However, it is not a game without issues such as its inconsistent
reliance on a pre-existing attachment to the cast and an overuse of
Miu when it comes to driving the romance forwards. Are these wrinkles
enough to push the player away from this stand alone title? Let’s
shout ‘baka’ at the top our lungs and find out.
Struggles With Love – Narrative And Themes
Of
all the cast members in the original Mashiroiro Symphony, Sana was
the perfect pick for a stand alone additional route due to the strong
established conflicts and dynamics with the rest of the characters
and in particular the protagonist. As such Sana Edition had a lot of
flexible material to work with when creating its plot and this gave
it the room to create the emotional twists and turns necessary to
distinguish it from the other routes. The returning focus on the Nuko
club, with its initial beats being taken from Miu’s route, allows
the title to play off the tensions and insecurities of this group in
order to take them in a completely new direction focused around Sana.
Being the sole heroine leaves the romance between the pairing as the
only narrative through line and so frees it from the need to
constantly juggle the other heroines. Instead Sana is always front
and centre in way which highlights her personality as her main appeal
as well as her growing relationship with the protagonist and the
insecurities which come with that development. There is a great deal
of focus on the internal struggles of Sana and the protagonist while
they come to terms with their feelings for each other and it is from
here the majority of the drama and conflict stems. Far more than
the original, this game understands how to play on the heart strings with believable personal weaknesses in order to create a character arc
for Sana where the player is rooting for her every step of the way.
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| Having a curated common route helps Sana Edition stand on its own |
Very little of the conflict comes from an external source but when it
is used there is a great deal of care taken to ensure it is from a
source deeply related to Sana in order for it to offer an appropriate
test of the romance. Letting the player smoothly slip into the
quagmire of feelings love stirs up over the course of the story is
something Sana Edition does wonderfully well. The player is slowly
lowered into this mixture of bright and dark emotions as they build
up inside Sana and gets to watch them shape her actions in self
destructive ways before they are cleaned up into a pool of dazzling blue
romance by the end. These ups and downs keep the investment in Sana’s
success high since her thoughts are empathetic niggling doubts we all
have about our own self worth and seeing them played out through her
offer a sense of catharsis.
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| Got to have the tsun before you can have the dere |
Its
narrative is not one without its own set of issues chief among these
is Sana Edition’s reliance of a pre-established understanding of
the original game’ routes and in particular the content associated
with Miu. This is important when it comes to information the player
is presumed to know from a specific route about that heroine which is
not given in Sana Edition’s own story. As such there is a certain
unevenness to the earlier sections of the narrative where it makes
reference to this knowledge and the player has to stop and remember
it so breaking the flow of a scene. It also harms the game’s stand
alone status with the need for existing information making it difficult for new
players to enjoy the experience. How important Miu’s route is to the
Sana Edition is inconsistent. In one moment it presumes the player
knows Miu extensively and the next it explains a different piece of
Miu’s life which would have been known from playing her route.
Fortunately none of this extends to Sana herself and she is
re-established with a great deal of clarity to make the player
certain where they stand with her.
One True Love – Characters
Knowing
what makes Sana appealing and being able to have this be a consistent
vision of who she is while avoiding the temptation to skip over her
more negative aspects, is by far the main reason to play the game. It
commits to Sana as a classic tsundere without leaning to the extremes
of either the tsun or the dere and neatly treads the line between a
believable character and the appeal of the cliché. Her abrasiveness
is played as a loosely masculine aspect of her personality she has to
come to accept and this insecurity about her appeal as a woman
creates demons in her mind where none exist. This is especially true
in relation to the vastly more feminine Miu who Sana puts on a
pedestal even before her feelings for the protagonist appeared
leading to a double layer of inferiority. It is also this ability to
bark back which makes the banter between the couple such a joy to
watch as they are willing to step up to each others teasing and give
as good as they receive. Even after Sana’s insecurities are
resolved the friction of her interactions never entirely disappears
but is instead takes on a positive spin where her personality in its
totality is what the protagonist fell in love with. Supporting this
growing relationship is the emotional importance of
family through Sana’s little brother Rio who has the same sharp
mouth as his sister. The mutual growth of familial and romance love
in parallel does a lot to highlight just how important they both are
to Sana while being sources of drama.
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| This tomboyish element of Sana plays a large role in her arc |
As
for the other heroines they get their own screen time to help sell
the idea of this group as friends and they are positioned in such a
way to make Sana shine. Miu is obviously front and centre here given
her immediate connection to Sana through their friendship and the
club. There is a feeling of agency in her actions as she tries to
support Sana and acts in the best interests of the club and its
members who she views as a kind of family. Each slightly clumsy
attempt for her to push Sana forwards is met with mixed results due
to Sana’s insecurities, yet it is precisely this gentle messiness
that makes the pair so endearing. The rest of the cast get smaller
but no less impactful moments with Sana such a Airi’s long standing
friendship with her being one of the reasons Airi is able to figure
out what is going on with her. However, this is somewhat of a double
edged sword with their existence being obviously tailored around Sana, they
can often feel flatter than in the original game. Since they do not
get their moment in the sun like they did before and they often come
across as the greatest hits version of themselves. This is not the
end of the world due to their minor overall roles but it can be a
little distracting when put next to the vibrant and varied Sana.
HD Blushing – Visuals, Audio and Technical
The
HD part of its title is not just for show as Sana Edition has
undergone much of the same facelift provided to the original game
along with a few changes unique to it. Most striking of these changes
are the enhanced visuals which highlight just how effective
Mashiroiro Symphony’s use of winter theming and aesthetic is in
forming the mood surrounding the narrative. Shifting from browns and
dark oranges into pale blues and whites makes for a suitable shift in
tone to match the increasing emotional conflicts before they are
overcome in the bright light of spring. While this is a widely used
line of aesthetics in visual novels, Mashiroiro Symphony proper use
of the transitions between these seasons is what sets it apart since
they each serve a subtle function of informing the player about the
broader themes underlying the romance. Since Sana Edition is a stand
alone title it has been given a curated version of the common route
which takes out all the other heroine material and focuses on the
overarching set up of the story. This is important for allowing new
players to experience the game without having to play the original
title even if there are some hiccups in the assumed knowledge as
mentioned previously. Once inside Sana’s route there have also been
additional scenes spread throughout to ensure a better play
experience. These are mostly minor new elements designed to fill in
some awkward moments of pacing that once existed while offering more
time to get the know the pair and their growing love.
 |
| Soon enough these browns will give way to whites |
Conclusion
Successfully
distilling down what made the original Mashiroiro Symphony shine and
delivering in through its most memorable side character is Sana
Edition’s greatest achievement. The game explores its characters’
internal conflicts in a suitably dynamic way as Sana and the
protagonist grapple with their respective insecurities. Its HD
facelift has done a lot to make all the key moment stand out and
pushes the seasonal theming in a vivid manner. Sana’s
status as a tsundere is put front and centre and there is an
understanding of what makes this kind of character appealing so she
never loses the rough edges which define her identity. The rest of
the cast are more of a mixed picture with them having important roles
which utilise them correctly while also demanding knowledge from the
first game to really understand why they act the way they do. Overall
Sana Edition is a game which knows exactly what it wants to be and
that is a love letter to the original centred around a popular
character who exemplifies the best it has to offer.
Verdict –
Being focused on a single heroine gives Sana Edition the space to
explore an introspective and personal romance which adds just enough
drama to create an emotionally fulfilling experience. It being a
stand alone title can sometimes be to its detriment due to it still
relying on that original game too much.
Pros -
+
Expands the established relationship with Sana into a natural romance
built upon their mutually inability to properly express themselves.
+
Understands what makes a tsundere like Sana appealing and sticks to
her unique brand of it throughout.
+
The secondary cast are given a good amount of screen time and in
particular the use of family helps reinforce the growing romance.
+
HD visuals sell the key moments of the story and the use of seasons
sets the tone.
Cons -
-
Can be overly reliant on pre-established knowledge from the original
game which may leave new player’s confused.
-
The rest of the cast can sometimes feel flat due to the way they
exist to compliment Sana’s journey rather than their own.
Best Visual Novel Releases – March 2026
The
first buds of spring have arrived as the winter chill retreats and
visual novels also find themselves in a season of new and exciting
titles. This has been a month fuelled by stories of love from a
variety of perspectives and tones with a sprinkling of innovative
ideas to keep things fresh covering everything from Sengoku otome to
the philosophical consideration of robots. Let’s dive in and see
what games you should be playing from the most recent releases.
Official Releases
Eve of the 12 Months
MangaGamer(18+) VNDB Genre
– Drama, Romance Play Time – 10 hours
As
a minori game sharing the same setting with ef and Trinoline, Eve of
the 12 Months has some big shoes to fill while carving its own
identity. It continues the studio’s trademark mix of dynamic sprite
work and moving CGs and brings them to bare here in the creation of a
deeply personal story of a small group of people. This is a drama
front and centre with characters often making highly emotionally
charged decisions in order to create conflict and the story careful
walks the line between believable tension and the powerful moments of
exaggerated feelings. Being set during winter and the holiday season
is leveraged to underline the game’s themes as the happy time of
the year is connected to the events to form a strong aesthetic core
from which every element draws from. While it is not on the same level
as ef, this is still a good title from the developer and should
scratch the itch of anyone looking for some compelling drama to sink
their teeth into.
The Moon Looks Beautiful Tonight: Definitive Edition
This
definitive edition is an altered version of the original 2023 release
which updates the story and adds new graphics and music while maintaining its distinctive look and feel. It once
again tells the tale of two people trapped in orbit around the moon
after a disaster which caused them and the moon to knocked out of
Earth’s orbit. Initially it looks like they are going to be okay
since the Heart provides everything they need to survive, but then
one day it stops and now they must brave the unknown to figure out
what has gone wrong. The game utilises its sci-fi element effectively
to blend the exploration of the danger with the exploration of the
self and plays them off each other in a suitably entertaining way.
Overall this short and free title is an endearing story of a group of
very human characters.
Homura: The Crimson Warriors
Nintendo Eshop VNDB Genre
– Otome, Sengoku, Politics Play Time – 40 hours
Set
at the tail end of the Sengoku period, this is a tale of a young
woman as her connection to the Sanada ninjas leads her into the final
conflict of the era in order to protect the people she loves. This is
a visual novel which is really trying to lay the tragedy on thick
since we know how this conflict will end and our protagonist is on
the losing side so a pervading sense of unavoidable doom hangs over
the story. It helps that the cast are such a likeable bunch and easy
to become invested in leading to their fates have a greater impact.
Not everything is doom and gloom since the heroine does have some
agency over how the personal stories will end even if she is at the
mercy of history when it comes to the grand scheme of things. All
this makes for an engaging otome even if it does expect you to have
some basic understanding of the time period since it does little to
explain why the big events are happening.
DoppelTest
When
you come to rely on a robot to live your life in place of you at what
point do they start to become you? Despite what his premise
might imply this is a fairly light hearted title which is interested
in the emotional relationships springing up around this question
rather than on some sort of darker idea about replacement. There is a
big focus on assigning tasks to one of the two girls you are
monitoring and seeing how they interact with the people they meet
along the way. Its mix of sci-fi philosophy and personal stories
create an impactful snapshot into a world not so different from our
own and complemented by its brief length ensuring it does not
overstay its welcome.
Volontés
Nintendo Eshop VNDB Genre
– Otome, Dark Fantasy
Our
second otome of the month offers a good dose of dark fantasy set on a
magical island floating over the sea. After Fiena is brought here when her village is destroyed by an order of knights, she find
herself proclaimed the Moon Witch and becomes swept up in the
machinations of an increasingly unstable kingdom. Each of the suitors
plays nicely into the serious nature of the setting and it is through
them that Fiena and the player get to expand their understanding of
the inner works of court and culture. The dark part of the fantasy
makes itself felt throughout as the storm of events Fiena finds
herself caught up in spirals out of control and the romance is the
sole speck of hope amongst the seemingly inevitable disaster. If you
are looking for fantasy romance which commits to the ideas of its
premise then Volontés will be right up your alley.
Karigurashi Renai: Living on Borrowed Love
Once
again Asa Project is back with another romcom drenched in their
signature humour. This time we follow the story of Takuma as he
returns to his home-town only to find his house in a dilapidated state
so has to rely on his four childhood friends to put a roof over his
head. However, he has to stay at their homes in rotation leading to
the expected absurdity and fun situations as Karigurashi Renai pushes
all the levers up to max. Despite the comedy clearly being the focus,
this is a title that understands when to treat the romance separately
and give it the sincerity it needs for the player to become attached
to the pairings. For those who want a good mixture of silly comedy
and genuine emotion this is an easy home run.
Photographic Assets – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels
Taking Snapshots
Historically
visual novels have always had a tendency to utilise Photographic
Assets for their lower cost or due to a lack of artists on the project.
Some of the stars of the medium can be pulled from this pool from
Higurashi to Tsukihime so it is no barrier to the creation of
memorable experiences, but can it actually be a benefit? Being cheap
frees the developer from the expenses associated with those assets
and may allow them to strategically spend that money elsewhere while
also removing a major barrier to entry when it comes to creating a
visual novel. If the game is already set in the real world or
adjacent to it then photos can help reinforce this idea of it being a
tale which happened just around the corner of our everyday lives.
Altering the Photographs for an artistic effect and blending them
into the pool of other assets leads to distinctive mixture of the
familiar and alien and some vastly different presentational outcomes.
Let’s take a quick picture and find out how these assets work in
practice.
Cheap Convenience
Many
of the notable titles utilising Photographs as part of their package
come from the doujin sphere. For them these assets are a reflection
of their limited budget and the skill sets of their creators. These
are people with a passion for their projects but not necessarily the
full suite of skills needed to produce a high quality product nor the
money to hire another person to do it for them. So the Photographic
Assets are a great way to side step this issue by providing an easy to
parse style of presentation, since it is just taken from real world
things the player will be familiar with. Relying on their status as
low budget games they do not have to deal with the negative
associations of this choice since expectations are adjusted
when someone chooses to pick up something made in the doujin sphere.
The quality of these titles is instead leveraged into the stories
they are telling and the interesting ways they can tell them. One of
the iconic examples of this group of games is Higurashi’s original
release which was characterised by photographic backgrounds of a real
rural village with sprites created using the developer’s limited
drawing abilities. It is obvious the photos are a cost cutting
measure where the narrative and soundscape of the work do the
majority of the heavy lifting. Despite this there is a surprising
amount of thought put into the composition and framing of each shot
used and how they can be made to serve multiple purposes, being the
backdrop for comedy one moment and horror the next. While it is not
as diverse as its drawn counterpart due to it being bound by the
real world, there is still a strong sense of the vision which
underlines the personal and intimate fear Higurashi is know for through
the way the almost idyllic images contrast with the dark emotions
they conceal just out of view.
 |
| These photos are functional above everything else |
In a similar vein Tsukihime’s
Photographic Assets are a product of the limited money available for
its development and is the poster child of getting a lot out of a
little. Being an urban fantasy with its mix of present day locations
and supernatural forces, primarily vampires, gives the game a greater
flexibility than an intense horror experience like Higurashi. This
frees it to be a little looser in its implementation of variety with
many backgrounds being the same image with a filter over it to try
and sell a different time of day or the idea it is another location
entirely. Tsukihime can get away with such a high level or reuse due
to the lack of emphasis it places on these asset which it instead pushes
into the character sprites and the dramatic nature of the writing. In
a higher budget title this would be a distracting for the player, but
in the doujin context it can be a core part of the experience of such
a passion project.
The Real World
Since
photos are a captured image of the real world it is only naturally
visual novels would want to take advantage of this connection to
ground their stories within reality. This approach aims to give the
emotions and ideas a means of reflecting onto the player’s own life
or creating the sense these tales are happening right now around
them. For games about the smaller and intimate moments of people’s
lives this grounding allows for the weight of characters’ actions
to be further pushed as human with all the messiness it implies. The
kind of visual novels which present this angle tend towards shorter
and focused style of experience where this connection to the real
world can be used as an effective and contained framing device.
Looking at narcissu shows a prime example of what leaning into this
angle can achieve. Its hazy presentation of its Photographic
backgrounds elicits a sense of half remember reality where the themes
can find a footing for its ideas yet remain vague enough for the
characters’ emotions to be the main source of momentum. The way the
entire game’s visuals are presented though a slit like view
contributes to a blurring of the line between the different asset
types and lets the realism of the photos bleed over into the drawn
images to further their connection to the player’s own life. Having
such a serious main driving force in the form of terminal illness
lends itself to this sense of reality given its tone and the normal
nature of locations the cast visit.
 |
| Embracing the photos creates a distinctive experience |
Rather than being a simple
reflection of our own lives, this grounding in reality can instead be
used to sell the idea of a story playing out in our world despite its
otherwise outlandish plot and contrivances. Such a choice aims to
emulate the benefits of live action mediums which inherently sell the
sense of their stories being real since their props and the fact their actors are
all living people the viewers will recognise as such and draw a line
between them and their own lives. 428: Shibuya Scramble is the visual
novel which embodies this approach in its totality. Almost every
asset in the game is Photographic and this gives the title a texture
which immediately makes its stand out as a story set in Shibuya. The
photos of real world locations in the ward provides a sense of place more believable than an artistic representation due to the way it
can capture the imperfections of the buildings and streets. Unlike in
many other titles using Photographic Assets, Shibuya Scramble employs
actors as its cast rather than using character sprites and they are
often in photos taken on site so forming the CGs through which the
majority of the story is told. As a thriller there is a need to keep
the increasingly dramatic plot in some sense of reality and this
complete commitment to a real place and actual people lets the player
suspend their disbelief even in the face of its many twists.
Blending In
Tone
is a major consideration when a visual novel chooses to utilise
Photographic Assets, but not every one wants the realism associated
with them. The solution these titles have found is a blending of the
photos into the overall aesthetic of the work through heavy use of
filters and merging it with drawn images. Doing so causes them to
take on an almost dream like quality where the disconnect between
their realistic presentation and the fantastical alterations made to
them fuels a sense of otherness. As such this technique is mainly
seen in games with some kind of fantasy element to play off or those which already have a
strong visual identity the photos can be integrated into since
these can get the most out of the impact it can provide. Few visual
novels can match the artistic distinctiveness of The House in Fata
Morgana so its use of Photographic Assets can demonstrate this trend.
Its striking art style is a big factor in its appeal and so
everything in the game revolves around making the most out of this
trait. To ensure the photo backgrounds do not clash with this choice
of design, they have a heavy oil paint like filter applied to them
and additional splashes of strong colour spread liberally. This
gives them a character of their own where they are a vaguer and
saturated version of reality and act like a stage upon which its cast perform
their grand play.
 |
| Making the blacks its core visual element leads to something more than real |
Similarly Phenomeno’s supernatural horror is
reinforced through the exaggeration of blacks in their use of colours. This
extends into its Photographic Assets where even bright day time
scenes are defined by strong contrasts between the lights and the
shadows they cast and this is even more prominent at night where the
bright colours struggle to have a presence against the overwhelming
dark. Since the connection between monsters and the dark is baked
into our psyche, every black shadow in the game has a chance to
contain the supernatural threat underpinning the story. Having this
link be through photos creates an additional sense of the dangers
being just around the corner of our lives while not pushing it too
hard since the heavy blacks make the images vague enough to be just
about anywhere.
Conclusion
Choosing
to use Photographic Assets in a visual novel has a wide array of
associations, reasons and benefits which have shaped its perception
and power over the player. Money constraints often lead to using photos as a short cut to reducing the cost of making a game so the
emphasis shifts onto the other elements to take the load off the
visuals. If they are properly blended into the rest of the assets
they can lend a memorable artistic quality and form a kind of hyper
reality to enhance the title’s overall identity. Committing to the
Photographic Assets can lend a sense of realism and place to what
otherwise might appear to be outlandish or overly emotional stories
and ground them in the player’s experiences. Overall such assets
have an interesting variety of uses and they are particularly
effective in small scale or indie titles where player expectations
allow them to shine.
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