Collar X Malice -Unlimited- Review - After The Storm Has Passed

Sunday, October 23, 2022

Genre - Crime/Police, Otome, Romance. Play Time - 30 hours. Developer - Otomate, Design Factory. Nintendo Eshop VNDB

A Story of Light and Dark

Fandiscs are difficult to get right. Sitting in a strange midpoint between sequel and expansion of the original game, they have to balance the desire for more of the same with the sprinkling of something new they need justify their existence. The answer Collar X Malice Unlimited presents to this problem is to create a contrast between its new and old aspects by taking the lightest and darkest moments of the original game and expanding upon them. This approach results in a Fandisc which stands out among its peers but this approach it is not without its own drawbacks. Let us dive into the mystery behind X-Day once again.

Getting to see this excellent cast again is a pleasure.

What Happens After The Curtain Falls – Narrative and Theme

It is in the narrative structure of this game where the focus on the contrast between light and dark can be seen in sharp relief. Unlimited is broadly split into two halves, the After Stories and the Adonis Route. These two could not be further apart from each other in terms of tone and work well to provide a balanced package by preventing the overall feeling of the work from swinging too far in one direction.

-After Stories -

These are the follow ups for each route’s true ending and we get to see where Hoshino’s relationship with each hero went after the dust settled from the Adonis threat. The strength of the interactions between Hoshino and the male leads continues here and the singular focus on the romantic elements allows for the banter to take centre stage. Getting to see them just be themselves without being under constant threat is a nice change of pace from the original game and gives some much needed growth to those relationships. They are also the perfect length to not overstay their welcome with just enough romance and conflict to wrap up their character arcs while still being concise. These light stories act as a great antidote to the dark parts of Unlimited and are a great pallet cleanser.

Okazaki is definitely best boy.

However, the After Stories have a few glaring issues which hang over them and prevent them from being the star of the show. The loss of the primary narrative thread of the original game does result in the After Stories feeling a bit lost at times as they need to contrive some form of conflict to replace it, and they can often meander too much. There is also the unevenness of the After Stories with some being dramatically stronger than others. The After Stories for Yanagi, Shiraishi and Okazaki are noticeably better written than those of Enomoto and Sasazuka. We can attribute this to the fact that the first three characters had some room left for development since their issues had only begun to be solved by the end of the original game, while the other two had reached a more or less complete resolution. With nowhere to go for two heroes, the resulting After Stories feel uneven and might disappoint players who liked Enomoto and Sasazuka.

-Adonis -

Exploring what happens after the Bad Ending of a visual novel is something which rarely happens. However, this is exactly what the Adonis Route does, it expands on the ending from the original game where most of the cast die and Hoshino accepts Saeki’s offer to join Adonis. To start from such a bleak point is a bold decision and one which lets the writers explore the darker side of this world and the people who inhabit it.

Exploring the dark side of a story is always a treat.

The route itself is focused around a cycle where Hoshino has been tasked with discovering a traitor within Adonis. In order to find out who this Judas is, she must interact with each member of Adonis and get to know them in a bid to uncover their true intentions. As such the player is presented with a choice each day of who among the key members of the group to spend time with as the clock slowly ticks down to the new X-Day. Humanising the members of Adonis is the focus of your time with them. They are all broken people who desperately want a place to belong and Adonis has taken advantage of that to use them as tools, but in the end they are still people with hope and dreams just like the heroes. However, you have to look beyond that and ask if they what they present to you is their true self and this is helped by the impending X-Day adding tension to each encounter. This route is the meat on the bone of this Fandisc and is the main reason for playing as it stands far above the After Stories.

The Humanity of Heroes and Villains – Characters

Unlimited is a game about the struggles and triumphs of its characters even more so than most in its genre. As mentioned earlier, the main conflict of the original game has been resolved and as such this Fandisc only has the smaller personal conflicts left. This means that it leans heavily into how attached the player is to the established cast for its narrative backbone and luckily for it these are a strong set of personalities.

Unlimited is a story about the people of its world.

On the one side we have the returning cast of heroes for their After Stories which gives each a chance to have one final dance in the spotlight. However, the issue with using established characters who have already been the focus of an entire game is they may not have much in the way of new interactions to give. This is a problem which Unlimited has a hard time juggling as there are many conversations and events which feel like the game is just wholesale repeating itself with how similar it sounds to their interactions in the previous game. Thankfully this ends up not being too bad since there is an effort to space out the familiar by including new developments for the characters and expanding on old ones. It does not completely remedy the issue and playing the After Stories back to back makes it stand out more with the repetition becoming somewhat tiring.

The Adonis side of the narrative does not suffer from the issues of the After Stories in quite the same manner. Its cast are the antagonist characters from the original game and these were not expanded upon there given their role as an obstacle for the heroes to overcome. This gives the writers a lot more room to expand upon what was established about them and show a human side to them which was previously absent. The result is new and colourful selection of characters to get to know and their quirks make for engaging interactions with the now stoic Hoshino. There is also one new character who appears in the Fandisc, Tachibana Chisato. He is one of the weaker aspects of Unlimited due to the fact even in his introduction he has to play second fiddle to the main cast. As you might expect from such a packed game, he barely gets any development and he feels incredibly tacked on as a lazy antagonist for the heroes to swiftly beat. Overall, the cast remains strong on the backbone of the original game but the stretch marks are beginning to show themselves.

Yanagi is one of the characters who had the most new material for the story.

A Familiar Coat of Paint – Visual, Audio and Technical

Reusing assets is the name of the game when it comes to Fandiscs and Unlimited is no exception. A vast majority of the visuals and audio are recycled from the original game. This is not to say that there are no new assets, for example there are a selection of new CGs scattered throughout both the After Stories and Adonis Route. However, they are so sparsely used that you would be hard pressed to differentiate a screenshot of Unlimited from one of the original game. While it is unreasonable to expect a Fandisc to make an entire game’s worth of new assets, it is nevertheless disappointing encounter so little new material over the thirty hours you will be playing. A few more splashes of new imagery and sound would have gone a long way to helping Unlimited stand out in its own right.

The new artwork is still of the same high quality.

On a technical level, Unlimited is identical to its predecessor with one exception, the mechanics of progression, and it is here where the game has its most noticeable weakness. Gating the Adonis Route behind the completion of some of the After Stories is a massive misstep. Not only is it unclear which After Stories you need to complete to unlock it, it also makes you play through content you might not be interested in to get to the main attraction of the Fandisc. On top of this once you reach the Adonis Route you have to start from the prologue section after each cycle in order for your progress to count. This might not seem to be a big deal at first until you realise the game allows you to access any scene you have completed in the route, which are displayed in the same list as the prologue, creating an unclear line of progression for the player who might accidentally choose the wrong scene. These issues cause needless confusion and muddies an otherwise amazing experience to the point where you question why these design choices were made.

Verdict – 9/10 –

An excellent fandisc which expands on both the light and the dark elements of the original game in a well paced and presented package.

Pros and Cons -

Pros

+ Expanding on one of the original game’s Bad Endings is a clever move and expands the depth of Adonis as an organisation and the humanises the people within it.

+ Hoshino continues to be one of most well realised otome protagonist with a more even power dynamic between her and the other characters.

+ Revisiting the romances for the After Stories gives a good sense of how these relationship have developed.

+ The banter between Hoshino and the heroes is still a pleasure to watch and their interactions are the main appeal of the After Stories.