Sunday, October 29, 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.
