Archive for October 2023
Best Visual Novel Releases – October 2023
As
the cold winds begin to blow in and mark the arrival of November,
let’s look back over this October and see how it has been for
visual novels. This has been a month of interesting shorter titles
and a few longer ones with their own distinctive ideas. On offer is
everything from various heartfelt yuri romances to dungeon crawls to
DLC content. It has been a month filled with excellent games and the
few selected here are the ones that best represent what the
medium has to offer. So dive in and see what visual novels you could
be playing.
Official Releases
GINKA
When
a girl who has been missing for five years suddenly reappears in front of you what should you do? Such is the situation
GINKA’s protagonist, Aoba Ryuusei, finds himself in with the return
of his childhood friend who has not aged a day since she vanished. It
is obvious from the moment the game starts that this is title which
aims to pull on your heart strings and as the characters enjoy their
happy moments together the spectre of inevitable tragedy hangs over
them. Being a relatively short visual novel works in GINKA’s favour
since the drama and emotions it uses as it backbone never become
tiring or too predictable. On occasion it does fall into the tropes
Frontwing likes to use for their events and characters, but it has
enough of its own identity to not be overwhelmed by these traits. If
you are looking to cry then GINKA may well be for you.
UsoNatsu ~The Summer Romance Bloomed From A Lie~
As
a developer Lycoris constantly shift the genre of their games,
they have produced horror and thriller titles with the only constant between
them being the presence of a strong Yuri element. Enter UsoNatsu, a
slice of life romance focusing around that common element and
bringing it into the spotlight. In many ways this game could be seen
as the inevitable conclusion of the way Lycoris' games are written as
the relationships in them had always played a major part in how
events unfolded. So here is a story about how love and lies intersect
while the memories of the past haunt its characters. A heartbroken
Kaoru finds herself opening up to the mysterious Shiori and the two
agree to help to overwrite each other’s painful memories and as
they attempt to do this they come to realise things about themselves
and their feelings. This is a well told Yuri romance which should
definitely be on your radar if you are a fan of either genre.
Synergia – Sunrise
The
original Synergia was an immersive cyberpunk dystopian narrative that
managed to delicately tread the line between its bleak setting and
the rays of hope embodied by the characters. To see this title receiving
a free DLC epilogue, Sunrise, three years after the original release
was a pleasant surprise and works to tie up a few loose ends left
behind in the story. While the overall tone and substance of Sunrise
is noticeably different due to the changed nature of the setting and
characters, the undeniable quality of the original is still present
and it knows exactly how to invoke subtle emotions in a tactile
manner. Obviously this is something to be played after the base game,
but since it is free why not pick up that first amazing title and
receive this as a nice bonus?
Fragile Feelings
Having
the spectre of terminal illness hanging over you is no easy thing to
deal with, it inhabits your thoughts of the future and paralyses all
forward momentum. Such has been the life of Ann Clements, but she has
defied expectations and survived beyond her nineteenth birthday. Now
she is confronted by an even more terrifying idea, that she has
future and no idea what she should do with it. When she meets the new
nurse Asaba Kohaku, who is everything she is not, she begins to see
through Kohaku a chance to break out of her shell and build something
for herself. This game’s balances its delicate subject matter and
emotive relationships with a skilled hand as you would expect of Ebi-hime. For those looking for a Yuri tale which touches on
some very human issues then Fragile Feelings offers something
memorable and right up your alley.
Gears of Dragoon: Fragments of a New Era
For
this month’s hybrid visual novel we have one merged with a dungeon
crawler set in a world mixing technology with magic. Gears of Dragoon
is not pushing the envelope when it comes to either end of its
gameplay, but is instead a title which aims to provide exactly
what its audience expects. In this case it manifests as a somewhat
light hearted tale with a lot of cute girls with enough twists and
turns to keep the player engaged over its long play time. The
characters are the part of the package which holds it all together
and they exude a sense of infectious fun to compliment the overall
narrative direction in order to make them the most memorable part of
experience. On the dungeon crawler side of things it has the series of
standard interlocking system you would expect from the genre, but is
generally easier than many of its peers even if it can suddenly spike
in difficulty without warning. Looking for a visual novel with some
other gameplay on the side, then you will have a good time with Gears
Of Dragoon although this is not for everyone and you should consider
if you would enjoy what it has on offer.
Developer Spotlight – Winged Cloud
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Flying In A Straight Line
Stick
to what you know might well be Winged Cloud’s company moto and why
would it not be in the face of their continued success as a
developer. Most well know for their Sakura games, Winged Cloud has a
specialisation in short romance visual novels which focus around a
single idea shown in their title and have some sort of erotic element
to spice things up. On the surface it is surprising to see the degree
of their continued popularity despite their output not being
dissimilar to the many other developers who produce throwaway romance
titles, yet they all do not have the staying power of Winged Cloud.
Is this a case of being in the right place at the right time for
their early games or is there something more fundamentally attractive
about the bite-sized worlds and characters they produce? This mystery
demands a closer examination of what is perhaps the oddest Western
developer. Let’s find some cute girls with a very specific gimmick
and uncover the strengths of Winged Cloud’s brand.
Developer Overview
Sometimes
being direct with an audience can be exactly what they want, no
complicated plots or tormented characters, just what the game says in
its title. It can be refreshing to sit down and not have the game
demand anything from you and this appeals to those who just want to turn off and
relax. Here is where Winged Cloud have made their
home with titles than do not aim for the stars, but instead provide a
level and consistent experience that is familiar while each one still
having enough distinctiveness from the last to separate them. This
aim makes romance the perfect genre to centre each game around since
it is an immediately recognisable and understandable narrative
foundation and love is an emotion we can all instinctually comprehend
without the need for explanation. Combine these two elements together
and the result is a light visual novel where the player can be
enveloped in a warm fluff narrative that makes its one unique feature
stand out to provide a bit of stimulation, but not enough to
overpower the sense of familiarity they will be consumed by during
their play time. Romantic fluff is a form of escapism which has a
long history in a variety of mediums and its continued longevity even
here showcases the appeal of playing out this type of fantasy. Winged
Cloud know this fact and have not deviated away from producing games
in this space for their entire existence. Their continued success
should speak for how they have mastered this particular niche of the
visual novel world.
What
is known and familiar can be at once comfortable and warm while also
providing a source of emotive symbols we can all easily recognise.
Such is the nature of the cliché, at once the most looked down upon
part of aspect of the medium and yet one that still manages to hold
people’s hearts. The reality of its use is that moderation and
short play time are its best bedfellows and allow it to invoke
specific and predictable emotions in people. It also presents easy to
identify signals for the player and they know what this cliché is
likely to include which holds them in suspense for the inevitable. Just as romantic fluff can lead to a form
of escapism so too can a well placed core cliché and this is
something Winged Cloud understands well. Each game they create
employs a single cliché around which the entire experience rotates
around and this is signalled to the player before they even start the
game through its title. Be this Shrine Girls, a Maid or a Cupid, there is
never any attempt to conceal the core of the game and this ensures
the only people who play the game are those who are willing to go
along with the ride. A bond forms between player and game whereby
there is an agreement about how the player should behave based on
their prior encounters with the cliché in question. They know what
emotions they should be experiencing and engage with the visual novel
on these terms to gain a sense of familiarity and comfort from the
old idea made into something slightly different.
Selection Of Notable Works
Sakura Succubus 1-7
If
there is one series within the Sakura franchise that embodies Winged
Cloud’s philosophy for narrative and game design then it is the
Succubus games. This seven game long story centres around the simple
idea that the protagonist Hiroki has a natural sent succubi find
irresistible. It stats out relatively simply in the first game with
three succubi and piles on more succubi as the games go on until it
takes another turn into a more direct romance. All of this is very
obviously a form of male fantasy escapism and follows a lot of the clichés
associated with it, such as the sudden and inexplicable attractiveness
of our otherwise normal protagonist and the assembling of a harem of
women who are all in love with him. These games make absolutely no
attempt to hide what they are and wear this identity with pride to
the point of poking fun at itself in later game as if to signal it
knows how increasingly silly its premise has become. However, it is
in this unabashed attitude where the Succubus games derive their
staying power within the minds of players. Knowing your audience and
catering to their desires and expectations holds a lot of potential
desirability to counter any lack of memorable features. When players
know what to expect from a series they will always return to it so
long as it continues giving them the hit they crave.
Sakura MMO
On
the other end of the wish fulfilment spectrum for the Sakura games is
the MMO series. These titles follows a female protagonist who finds
herself in a world that bears a remarkable to her favourite mmo and
gets involved with a colourful cast of characters. This basic
description should immediately cue you into the fact that this is an
isekai story and the game goes along with the tropes of this type of
narrative by having our protagonist be overpowered. The choice to
have a female main character recontextualises the many women who
flock to the protagonist from a standard harem into a yuri harem
which changes the nature of their relationships. Not everyone wants
the almost lustful and direct tones of a normal harem which a yuri
harem avoids by emphasising the ideas of female purity and sanctity
associated with yuri in general to frame the bonds in a positive
light. By using this technique the games can shift their appeal to a
slightly different audience which other Sakura games would not be able
to cater for. This selection of various approaches is
at the core of the Sakura franchise’s broad appeal since it offers
a lot of different audiences a bit sized morsels of what they desire
to keep them coming back.
Sakura Dungeon
Every
so often Winged Cloud decide to do something different. While they
never deviate too far from the formula which made them successful,
what is added does make these games stand out from the rest of their
titles. Sakura Dungeon is one such visual novel and the unique
addition it makes is presence of dungeon crawler mechanics. This is
no pure visual novel like the majority of Winged Cloud’s output but
instead a hybrid which pushes them in front of an entirely new
audience of DRPG fans. From a narrative point of view it is exactly
what you would expect of a Sakura game with all the expected clichés,
although it leans more towards the MMO end of the spectrum rather
than the Succubus with its female protagonist. When it comes to the
dungeon crawler mechanics it uses, they are fairly basic with the
only noticeable exception by the monster capture system whereby you
can recruit the enemies you fight as party members in a loose
collectable element. Instead of the complicated mechanics the DRPG
genre is known for the result of Sakura Dungeon’s design choices is
a light and accessible version of what, for many, is an impenetrable
section of gaming. This way Winged Cloud can hedge their bets by not
alienating their old audience with overwhelming gameplay while still
testing the waters with another potential group of players.
Conclusion
There
is an undeniable staying power to Winged Cloud’s games for they
understand exactly what their audience wants and provides them a
condensed dose of it. Focusing on simple romance narratives is a the
heart of many of their titles with an eye to creating a short and
sweet experience that does not demand much from the player. To enable
this approach the stories lean into familiar clichés to set the
player's expectations and cue them into the exact feelings they can
expected to have in order to prevent any surprises. Add to this a good
helping of various kinds of wish fulfilment from normal and yuri
harems to overpower isekai and the result is a warm, fuzzy and
unchallenging time which can often be what people want from a game.
Sometimes Winged Cloud do slightly step out of their comfort zone by
introducing other game mechanics in an attempt to attract in new
audiences. Even if you might not like their style of visual novel,
there is still much to learn from their example when it comes to the
audience expectations and how to play into them.
Polyamorous Endings – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels
A Relationship With Many Sides
When
it comes to relationships most forms of media present monogamous
pairings as the normal and rarely explore beyond this line of thinking and
when they do the presentation of the opposite extreme is generally
negative. Enter the visual novel, here is a space where polyamorous
relationships are given an equal examination to their more
traditional peers through these games' endings. While they by no
means form the majority of romantic interactions in the medium, they
do exist in significantly higher numbers than elsewhere and each is presented with
the sincerity it deserves. When it comes to how polyamory manifests
in narratives there are two groups, those involving exactly three
participants and those numbering greater than that baseline. These
have differing means by which they come about as well as how they end
up defining the people they connect which gives each a unique flavour
for the player. Despite the nuance on offer from these endings there are
various problems with perception due to people’s ingrained ideas of
the value of monogamy and the way more erotic titles also make use of
this type of ending for a different effect. Let’s expand our
romantic horizons and see how visual novels use polyamorous endings.
Three Is The Magic Number
When
presenting a non-monogamous relationship to the player it is hard to
get them to understand it the further away it is from the two person system
they are familiar with and as such adding only one additional
participant is the most common polyamorous grouping. One of the major
advantages of this trio over a greater number is it can be neatly
divided into three pairings and play off the established idea
of a love triangle as a form of common ground with the player. Like
the sides of a triangle a relationship formed of three people has
three lines of emotion which the player has to understand, one from
each person to the other two. By having neat and easy to follow lines
the player can keep track of how the relationships of each part of
the trio inform the eventual collective romantic ending. Another trick often employed is to have only two of the three
characters on screen at the same time in an imitation of the standard
monogamous interaction and only having all three express their
feeling together when the game heads towards its ending. This means
the player is never overwhelmed by possible clashing or overlapping
love from those in this relationship and it helps them understand the
factors leading towards their eventual union, only to reveal it a
dramatic fashion for the most impact when the time is right.
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| Sisters are a recurring presence in trio relationships |
We can
look to Ren'ai, Karichaimashita for an example of this techniques through its use of the love triangle. This is a game which plays the
idea of a love triangle for comic effect and likes to poke fun at it
with dynamic between Emi and Hasumi and it is into this environment
that it introduces its trio. Twin sisters Chinatsu and Konatsu form
the narratives backbone of this relationship and engage playfully
with the love triangle and its tropes even going so far as having
the twins swap places to fool the protagonist. However, rather than
presenting it as some sort of competition between the twins it eases
the player into the unique bond the three develop and uses its
undermining of these conventions as a constant source of humour. At
its ending all these threads are gathered together to create an
acceptance in the player of the relationship which has formed between
the characters while not directly shoving the polyamory in their
faces. Broadly speaking this is how most non-standard relationships are
presented in visual novels and showcase a more sympathetic and
relatable take on the subject.
Why Stop At Three?
Once
the number of people in a polyamorous relationship exceeds three it
tends to spike by quite a bit, jumping up to anywhere from five to
seven. This spike is due to the benefits of the triangle’s simple
relationship dynamics being lost so it becomes more important to
commit to the characters individual paths towards the polyamorous
ending rather than asking the player to keep track of each possible
bond in the romantic lattice. Showing the micro level of each
character’s bonds has a similar effect to the focus on a
single relationship used by trios by bringing these intricate feeling
down to an easy to understand level which can be subtly built up into
a larger picture. This foundation is then added to as the game piles
on the other participants in the polyamorous relationship and little
by little a complete picture of formed as it reaches its climax and
reveal with the narrative’s ending. Giving the player the space to
breath and get to know each character helps form a detailed idea of
what would lead a person to this type of bond while asking the
player to consider what that tell them about the nature of
relationships in a broader sense.
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| The build up for polyamory takes a long time |
Lamunation! provides a good
showcase of how to present a larger number of people in a polyamorous
ending. To start with it divides its core game into routes following
sets of heroines as they deal with their own issues and lets the
player see the close feelings they already have with the rest of the
core cast. These segregated routes spend a fair amount of time
showing how the characters bounce off each other to make the later
shift into all of them being intimate appear organic. These are
things like Lamune’s inability to say no to the other girls or the
Prateado twins tendency to share everything between each other and they
provide the reasons and motives for the eventual polyamorous ending once
all other routes have been completed. Nekopara follows a similar
approach except rather than routes it splits its catgirls into pairs
and gives them individual episodes to shine in. By doing this the
episodes can rely on the previously mentioned relatable power of
trios to show the dynamics forming around them and bringing in past
trios to slowly build up the whole picture of this relationship
before organically letting it happen.
Problems With Perception And Lust
It
might be obvious at this point that there is an important drawback to
the inclusion of a polyamorous ending and this manifests through
their negative connection with lust and the dominance of monogamy. In
many ways visual novels do not help themselves when it comes the
connection to lust since there are a number of games using
polyamorous endings which utilise it as a form of erotic fantasy
rather than treating as a potential and interesting manifestation of
human relationships. These tend to be titles like Imouto Paradise or
Funbag Fantasy which have no interest in being taken seriously on any
level and exist purely for eroticism with little concern about how
they are perceived beyond their target audience. There is nothing
wrong with this per se and the continued popularity of this type of
fantasy does show there are many people who willing to accept a
simple representation of these ideas. However, it does effect how
those from outside the medium see polyamory within visual novels and
there is a definite tendency by these people to present games including this type of relationship
as horny and of a lesser narrative quality regardless of what the truth actually
is for each one. Beyond this issue there is a fear by developers that
treating a polyamorous bond with complete seriousness might alienate
their predominately monogamous audience, hence why all the titles
mentioned in this article present it through some lens of comedy.
Treating it as a partial joke allows them to deflect the idea that
they are supporting a non-standard relationship and make it more
palatable for potential players. Overall these problems do muddy the
water when it comes to discussing polyamorous endings and are worth
always keeping in mind when you encounter one.
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| This is totally innocent right? |
Conclusion
Addressing
polyamory is a delicate balancing act that few are willing to tackle
so its presence within visual novels as endings is an interesting
convention. While the reality is a mixed bag between sympathetic and
emotional presentations and simple titillation, making for a muddied
overall coverage of the idea, there are nevertheless more meaningful
narratives about it than in most other mediums. If there are three
people in the relationship, the visual novel can focus in on each
pairing within that trio to make the sides of a triangle and allow for
an easy and nuanced understanding on the part of the player. Beyond
that number and the title has to fixate on the characters
individually in order to give them the time they need to present
their growth towards the polyamorous ending. Everything comes
together at those endings and leaves the player to consider the value
of what they just witnessed. This type of relationship and ending is
not suited for most visual novels due to the amount of narrative and
emotional set up it requires to be effective, but it is still worth
considering if the pieces fall into places for this kind of bond
between your characters as you plan your visual novel.
School Slice Of Life – Genre Deep Dive
The Brilliant Days Of Youth?
Of
all the genres that dominate the visual novel space there are none
which can compete with the behemoth of school slice of life. Beyond
the many games utilising it as their core narrative element, many
others use it as a secondary pillar to ground their more fantastical
or emotional genres and give them an easily recognisable touch point
with the player. Its presence is so prominent that many not familiar
with the medium still associate it with this idea of high school aged
protagonists leading their daily lives. There is as much diversity as there is repetition in such an
expansive genre to the point it can be both a blessing and curse to
be associated with it. Let’s go back to school and uncover the
enduring popularity and pitfalls of this defining genre.
Transient Freedom And Possibilities
In the Japanese visual novel space the period of life spent in school, in particular high school, holds an idealised quality as a time where the possibilities of life are open to you and you are afforded a freedom absent to an adult. Here can be found the brilliant emotions of youth for all to see with things said in fits of love or hate that would be unthinkable in later life, but in this moment they are looked upon as part of growing up. Alongside this is the sense of the realities of the world not having set in and these teenagers dreaming of future possibilities and experiencing an intense love for another person. Obviously none of this truly reflects the messy truth of hormone driven minds or the chaotic and unpleasant mess school life can be for many people. However, it does not have to since as the memories of that time fade we filter out the painful things we want to forget and remember the good times we did have along the way. The idealised vision of those times taps into this reductionist view of school we form in our heads and uses it as common grounding element visual novels can rely on to serve as a foundation of their stories.
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| To school, right? |
Sabbat of the Witch plays this idealisation fairly straight and focuses in on clubs, school events and other activities outside of lessons. When the lessons and studying inherent to this genre do come up, they are treated as a comfortable mundanity and a desirable place to return to after the characters have overcome their trials. In many ways school slice of life is treated as something with a calming and healing property for both the characters and the player and as a daily life to aspire towards. On the flip side to this relatively grounded presentation of school is Majikoi which makes school take the form of a place characterised by over the top fights, social hierarchies and larger than life characters. Here school is often interrupted by whatever absurd event the game feels like presenting to the player or when the status quo needs to be shaken up. However, under the surface of the sheer insanity that Majikoi cooks up is much the same foundational ideas of school slice of life. It is presented as the baseline normality for a reason and represents the desirable peace the character can always fall back on filled with their friends and a place where they can be themselves. What links these two games is that their vision of school slice of life is not a reflection of the real and messy place school is in practice, but instead a faded remembrance of a time long passed and they hope the audience feels the same.
Flexibility And Inbuilt Drama
One
of main reasons visual novel developers choose to embrace the school
slice of life genre is the way it can accommodate any story they wish
to tell while bringing some easy to access drama of its own. This is a
genre which does not demand to be the centre of attention and can
comfortably assume a supportive role to a main genre in a smooth
process without any tonal clashing. What allows this
joining to be possible is generally neutral nature of its primary
element, school. Love it or hate it, there is no denying the presence of school
in the lives of most people and we consider it normal in the same way
as getting a job or having a family, parts of our lives which is
barely worth batting an eye at. The school slice of life genre takes
these inbuilt preconceptions and uses them to merge into the
background and remain unquestioned. Of course, when needed it can
introduce its own sources of conflict to compliment the main
narrative. These include everything from the heightened emotions of
the teenage cast to the school administration acting against the
actions of the characters. None of these are strong enough to
overshadow a more compelling narrative core, but do wonders at
filling downtime with something interesting.
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| The school uniform is the outfit of the visual novel character. |
For an example of the
neutral nature of the school slice of life we can look to games like
Hatsukoi 1/1. Here a diverse cast of characters with vastly different
personalities and backgrounds can believably exist in the same
space due to being forced to attend school just like everyone else. A
school is a melting pot of people and this can be seen in the contrast between
the reserved ex-actress Maya and the energetic basketball ace Kyou,
who are a pair that would normally never have contact with one
another, but at a school they can easily rub shoulders. If My Heart
Had Wings does a good job of showcasing for us the quiet drama that
seeps into the narrative from the school slice of life. A combination
of school club issues and the rampant hormonal emotions of the cast
form a subtle backbone that the routes bend to their needs.
Throughout the game these conflicts re-emerge whenever there is a need to up
the stakes or provide a character motivation to progress events.
Overuse And The Plague Of Apathy
When discussing the school slice of life genre it is hard to avoid the elephant in the room, its presence in the vast majority of visual novel releases. It has reached the point that having some element of the genre has almost become an expectation and people are surprised when a game does not follow this convention. This has caused a plague of apathy and awkward acceptance among existing players who are not madly in love with this prolific genre. Perhaps more importantly, it makes it difficult to convince a new player to give visual novels a try as they will see it through the preconception that all the medium boils down to is a collection of stories about shouting teenagers and their boring school life. This is a barrier which can be broken down by showing them the many titles and developers who reach beyond the standard trappings of school slice of life with more adult characters such as in Making*Lovers and it focus on older heroines or Steins:Gate’s all consuming tension.
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| People exist in more places than just school. |
However, it does not look like this trend for the overuse of the school slice of genre is going anywhere anytime soon. The romance genre in particular seems set on adhering to having this as a subgenre in order to provide their players with a comfortable and familiar experience that can reliably sell new games. It is rare for a developer to venture outside of this realm and even when they do it is rarely for more than one game. The noticeable exception to comes in the form of otome which has a good mix of other secondary genres, such a the police thriller aspects of Collar X Malice, but still contains a fair number of school slice of life centric narratives. Overall, it would be nice to see a willingness to expand beyond this limiting sphere of storytelling devices. With all that said there is nothing wrong with this genre as is demonstrated by its continued popularity among players.
Conclusion
School never ends in the world of visual novels as the school slice of life genre continues to dominate and compliment other genres. It invokes a sense of transient reminiscence of a time when we had more freedom and where the world was a beautiful web of possibilities in order to resonate with the player. The way school slice of life can merge into the background of other genres is a testament to its relatively neural nature while still being able to offer some conflicts of its own to supplement the main narrative. However, the overuse genre has created a general plague of apathy towards games using it and makes it difficult to overcome the preconceptions new players have regarding visual novels being all the same. The strength and popularity of the genre is clear to see with every new release that uses it, but it can be a doubled edged sword for the medium as a whole and limits the stories it can tell.
Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! A – The Afterlife Of A Game Series
Genre – School Life, Comedy, Romance Play Time – 10-15 per game Developer – Minato Soft VNDB
When Only Characters Remain
Once
a game series has given all the stories it can, what remains to be
extracted from it? Perhaps you expand the world by adding a new
setting or maybe you introduce an exciting new threat. The answer
the Majikoi A games have settled on is to fixate on what the previous
titles did best, its larger than life characters. As such each game
in the A series is an anthology of after stories and stand alone
routes which cover the remaining cast members who had not been given
one beforehand. There is no common route or joining material between
these sections and it relies wholly on the quality of each element to
overcome its lack of cohesion. Despite all the effort that has
clearly gone into these games, the question must be asked, is this
addition to the series really necessary or is this just the case of a
developer trying to wring all the money it can out of its audience?
This is a question Majikoi A struggles with across it entire duration
and presents to us the value and damage such a continuation can
bring. Let’s find some warrior women and discover the answer.
Untold Possibilities – Narrative and Themes
Unlike
the previous games the A series is not interested in having any grand
overarching narrative and instead bet on its characters being enough
to keep the player invested. This is not to say that there are no
narrative threads at all, but instead they are smaller and of a
self-contained nature. These sections are a strange mix of stagnation
and mixing up the formula in exiting ways seemingly at random.
Each
of the A games is a mixture of after stories and new routes for cast
members who had previously been secondary characters. This provides a
good spread of new and established relationships and showcases the different
stages of the romantic relationships for the cast in a less direct
way due to the almost laissez-faire manner they are dealt with by the
game’s segregated structure. Of course having such a loose
connective tissue is also a massive drawback since there is no
driving force to keep the player going beyond whatever route they
choose first and should they be disappointed with that route then the game
has no way to keep the player from putting it down.
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| There is nothing exciting about this menu |
The after stories
sit in a strange place in this equation as they are the part of the
game the player is most likely to engage with due to their focus on
established characters the player already has an investment in and they draw the player away from the new routes. However, this is also the second
round of after stories since Majikoi S also had a fair few and you
can feel the fatigue in the writing at times where the developers try
to not repeat themselves and give each character the send off their
deserve. On the flip-side we have the new routes that sit in an odd
position since they start mid narrative with no lead up due to the
lack of a common route. There is a sense of being suddenly thrown in the deep
end which persists for a few scenes as the game scrambles to make it clear
what happened before the start of the route. As this occurs for every
route it becomes this constant feature and distracts from what are
some of the best routes that Majkoi has ever produced.
 |
| Exploring characters who might otherwise be overlook has some merit |
When
it comes to the content of the routes and after stories, there is a
strange combination of complacency and innovation. A single game can
be both a lazy cash grab and some of the best storytelling in the
series at the same time. The inconsistent nature of the narrative
structure can either be a deal breaker or completely unnoticeable
depending on how much you enjoyed the style of the previous two
titles. Nothing here is so offensively bad that it would actually
turn someone off playing the game, but there is general feeling that
Majikoi is repeating itself. All this does not attract any new players
and instead wallows in the old, hoping they are enough to keep it
going. However, when the developers decide to inject new life into a
route with a cleaver subversions of expectations, routes hidden in
routes and new angles on characters we thought we knew, it is easy
to remember why many people fell in love with Majikoi when it was
first released. The sheer energy and playfulness this developer can
put into their work is so strong that it bring the unique humour of
the series into every aspect of the game all the way up from the
dialogue to the choices in an infectious manner. If only they could
have been consistent with this energy over the course of these five titles.
 |
| My first reaction when seeing a Sayaka was to go, Who? |
Shining Gems And Questionable Choices – Characters
Of
the character who get the spotlight, the most memorable and those
with the strongest routes are the bushido plan clones, Benkei, Seiso
and Yoshitsune. Their potency stems from the fact that of the
remaining cast without routes, they are the ones with the best
established personal flaws necessary to provide room for growth.
Benkei brings elements of Yamato’s personality to the forefront
that are otherwise unexplored, Seiso makes full use of her duel
nature for all kinds of high jinks and Yoshitsune offers some of the
most impactful choices of the A games. They were held back in Majikoi
S due to their importance to the central plot, but with that now used
up they are free to be their own people and showcase what made them
interesting in the first place. It also helps that they are given
some of the more diverse narrative beats and structures to complement
their respective character arcs as well as the secrets and weaknesses
they are hiding. Here in their routes is Majikoi A’s main
justification for its existence and why it had to be a series of
separate routes as they are stories that need to take place before
the finale of Majikoi S where the big reveals about them happen so
the rest of the cast is in the dark about them and there can be
natural interactions between the two groups. Their nature
demands knowledge of the conclusion and being set before it means
that they could never escape the fate of being segregated from
everything else, so having them with a selection of other
self-contained routes was a smart choice to hide this fact and ensure
a smooth engagement with the player.
 |
| Interactions with the Bushido Plan Clones are some of the highlights of the game |
It
is once we reach the characters who have been given after stories the
sense of déjà vu
begins to take over and Majikoi has to try its hardest to keep the
audience’s attention. This
is an inevitable part of those characters as they have already had
their arc concluded in previous games leaving little to be explored.
As such they retread a lot of ground that has already been presented
to the player and focus on the solidification of the romantic
relationship into a more concrete form than it was left on. The
choices of characters to have after stories does remedy this issue to
an extent as they are some of the more distinctive members of the
original cast. Seeing Monshiro grow into her new found place with
Yamato is easily the most heart warming thing in these games while
Tsubame and Margit bringing a much need dose of banter to match up to
Yamato. They
offer a good spread of personalities and they are spaced out in way
where they compliment and contrast with the new routes they are
placed alongside to add much need flavour and variety.
 |
| Those selected for after stories do earn that honour |
As
for rest of those who received new routes over the course of the five
games, they suffer from the same sense of scraping the bottom of the
barrel. The first reaction of the player when seeing the possible
options should be excitement, not to ask who these characters are and
where in the previous games they appeared. Once inside the routes
these characters shine with the charismatic writing you would expect
from Majikoi, but they never manage to shake the sense of being there
just here to fill space between the more substantial section of the games.
This feeling is not helped by their narrative structure being very straight to its ending since it has to spend a lot of time establishing
this character who has had minimal screen time before their route
which is not helped a lack of a common route. When judged on their
own separate from the rest of Majikoi, they are all of a decent
quality and utilise each heroine well by having them bounce off
Yamato in their own unique way. Having the overconfident Cookie 4IS
contrast with the stoic Lee makes for a good spread of identities
that aims to fill out the space remaining in each game. It is just a
shame they do not quite reach the quality and pre-existing personal
investment the player is likely expecting from routes this late in
the series.
2009 Never Ended – Visual, Audio and Technical
Majikoi
has always had an easily recognisable visual and auditory identity
that anyone who has even heard of these games can recognise at a
glance. The A games are no exception to this and embraces the player
in the same lively atmosphere they have come to expect. Each portrait
imbues their respective character with personality that pushes itself
into the player’s face and demands to be noticed as they dance
around the screen. What new CGs are provided to these games share
this same sense of life and over the top energy that helped make the
series so popular in the first place. Even the music and sound
effects share this powerful forward momentum and injects the player
with a sound scape befitting of a series that so often leans into the
absurd as part of its comedy lifeblood. Combined these elements have
always defined the Majikoi experience and any game in the series
would feel lacking without them.
 |
| The new CGs are used well for each character |
Unfortunately
a lot of what makes Majikoi A pop out is reused content from the
previous games repackaged to serve a continuous identity carried over
from those titles. Recycling these elements is by no means a bad
thing especially given how strong they are and how much they form
what the player expects of these games. It helps save money on these
smaller scale entries and allows for them to be produced in a more
reasonable time frame and tell stories they would not otherwise be
able to. However, the issue with Majikoi A doing this is the fact
that its predecessor Majikoi S already heavily relied on reusing
assets from the first game making the A games the second time the
player has been presented with a lack of innovation in this aspect.
This sense of stagnation extends into all the technical aspects of
these games as they use an almost unchanged version of systems of the
original game. The original Majikoi was released in 2009 and the last
A title, A-5, was released in 2016 meaning the series remained
technologically stagnant for seven years and you can really feel this
as you play through the games. Aspect Ratio is still 4:3 and is
naturally set to 800x600 with any attempt to increase it resulting in
blurry graphics due to the art being created with that smaller screen
size in mind and the disorganised and sprawling menus and UI create
an experience that wastes the player’s time. Back in 2009 this was
understandable given the state of other the visual novels at the
time, but is was certainly far behind the times by 2016.
 |
| This menu look eerily familiar |
Conclusion
Majikoi
A is more Majikoi. While this statement might seem obvious it holds a
lot of hidden meaning linked to both brilliance and stagnation. These
games offer some of the best character writing in the series,
bringing to life this colourful world, and at the same time they make
questionable choices in what characters they thinks are worthy of
attention. The mixture of after stories and new routes has similar
ups and downs with the game at once repeating what has come before
and creating exciting twists on their narrative formula. It also maintains
the visual and auditory identity of the previous games by reusing
most of the assets with a sprinkling of its own leading to sense of being stuck in the past. A is very much a
game for fans but it is also an intriguing example of the drawbacks
and opportunities of continuing a series after it has lived its
natural course.
Verdict -
This
is more of what made Majikoi
so beloved with its excellent characters and engaging drama, but like
anything old it often feels like its repeating itself and stuck in
the past.
Pros
+
Route structure has a good amount of variation to it and regularly
throws surprises at you.
+
The Bushido Plan clones and the after story characters maintain the
strong standard of Majikoi’s character routes.
+
Majikoi’s distinctive visual and musical personality is adhered to
and the new additions merge well into this lively style.
Cons
-
It is very much more of the same and does little to change in order
to bring in new players.
-
Some choices about who is give a route are questionable and give
the feeling of scrapping the bottom of the barrel.
-
There is no attempt to improve the graphics and resolution issues
present since the first game which was released in 2009.
