Archive for February 2024
Best Visual Novel Releases – February 2024
Now
that the world has recovered from the New Year, we have had our first
real productive month which has brought forth hope for what is to
come. For visual novels this has been a month of truly exceptional
releases and it has been difficult picking out which ones to highlight
in such a quality field. We have everything you could ever want, the
third instalment of an excellent horror series, a romance spanning
alternative dimensions and a Key title set in wondrous VR world.
Let’s dive in and see what is worth playing from cusp of spring.
Official Releases
LUNARiA -Virtualized Moonchild-
Nintendo Eshop VNDB Genre
– Sci-fi, Virtual Reality, Nakige Play Time – 9 hours
Key
are at it once again with yet another story staring an AI heroine.
This time it is centred around the VR race called Skyout and it is here
where the protagonist spends most of his time as the undefeated
genius T-bit. One day he finds himself in a strange area of the game,
a Luna server, and here he meets LUNAR-Q and their fates become
intertwined. If you have ever played a Key game before then you know
what you are in for and LUNARiA makes no attempt to change their
established formula. Instead it plays up its unique setting of this
sci-fi world and its thematics to sell the inevitable moments designed
to get you to cry. Through this whole hearted commitment it manages
to avoid feeling too much like the titles which came before, but it is
still easy to predict the story beats for a veteran and this is
something to keep in mind if you are looking to pick this one up. Those who seek to introduce someone to Key’s games may want to look to
LUNARiA for the new shiny thing to tempt people into the love and
heartbreak we all know and adore.
Irotoridori No Sekai - The Colorful World
Mixing
mundanity with an extraordinary fantasy element is a common trick
employed by many visual novels, but none can match the seamless
integration and impact Irotoridori No Sekai demonstrates. This tale
of an amnesiac boy and the spirit like girl attached to him plays on
the expectations of what the real world and the alternative universes should be and where the boundaries exist. It is less about
the big twist (although there are some of those) and is instead about
how lives of the characters have been influenced by their exposure to
both sides of this world. Promises made and forgotten form a core
part of the game’s identity as it asks if they still hold value when
on of the parties involved has entirely forgotten about them.
Together these elements give Irotoridori No Sekai a wistful feeling
where the longing for a lost past is complimented by the meaning the
characters find in their future together. A title you should
definitely pick up if you are looking for an emotionally resonant
narrative with a set of uniquely human characters.
Dungeon Travelers: To Heart 2 in Another World
Romance
visual novels and dungeon crawlers are not genres generally
associated with one another. So having a game as beloved as To Heart
2 make the transition between the two genres allows for an interesting
mix of narrative beats and design ideas. After being transported to
another world through the antics of the eccentric Maryan, the cast
must recover their missing friends and overcome the final boss if
they wish to return home. From the brief overview you can probably
predict exactly how they story will go and the game makes no attempt
to hide this fact. Instead it relies on its extensive and amusing
cast to hold the player’s attention through their banter and the
hijinks they get up to as their personalities clash. This leads to an
overall light tone which is reflected in the enemies all being
monster girls or other inoffensive animals. With that said this is
still a dungeon crawler and so leans on the harder side of the RPG
divide, but it is still nowhere near as challenging as some of its
peers. For those looking to spend more time with the cast of To Heart
2 or those just seeking a light hearted hybrid visual novel with
something substantial to dig into, Dungeon Travellers is a must play
and well worth the asking price.
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II
As
the third entry in the Spirit Hunter series and the squeal to the
beloved first game, Death Mark II has some big shoes to fill. It also
marks a departure from the point of view style of gameplay from the
first two games and a move to a 2D side scroller with the characters
on full display. This has resulted in an interesting change in
narrative structure and how the title approaches its horror. Rather
than a focus on slow bubbling tension which characterised previous
games, it instead leans much more heavily into the mystery and
investigation sides of the experience with the threat of the monsters
taking somewhat of a backseat to actually figuring out what they are
and how to fight them. These elements have long been part of the
series, but here they are given greater clarity than before to the
point of potentially losing fans who liked the unique atmosphere the
old games offered. Despite this change the core identity of the
Spirit Hunter series is still intact and it provides a unique horror
experience not found anywhere else. For those with a love for horror
it is a must play title and fans will still appreciate it despite the
many changes.
NUKITASHI 2
How
does one adequately express the sheer over the top nature of
NUKITASHI’s humour and the way it escalates to new heights in this
sequel? Taking place after the cast’s victory in the first game,
our protagonist and the three main heroines find themselves whisked
off to an alternative dimension where they involved in the conflict
there as they search for a way home. The parody elements are still as
strong as ever and they lend the whole experience a very tongue-in-cheek
tone where the game give the player a knowing wink. If you liked this
unique brand of humour then the sequel takes that and runs with it
making it a must play, but if you did not find the first game funny
then this will do little to change that perception.
Achievements – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels
The Completionist Drive
It
is human nature to want to be rewarded for our accomplishments hence
why people are so happy to get a bit of paper at the end of a
university course. Games love to tap into this emotional response
through Achievements and visual novels are no exception. Achievements
are generally used as both a system of rewarding the player and a means of
encouraging them to engage with the full range of what the game has
to offer. This is especially important for visual novels where the
space the player has to express themselves is limited so providing an
incentive to ensure they get to experience everything helps create a
well rounded title. How exactly do visual novels use Achievements to
facilitate this aim? Let’s tick off a check list and find out.
Sense Of Accomplishment
Merely
progressing through a game alone may not have the needed sense of forward momentum
as we can lose sight of how far we have come which is even more of an
issue the longer the game goes on. Hence why many visual novels makes use
of chapter or route based Achievements that trigger on certain key
milestones. This allows the player to have a proper sense of where
they are in the narrative as well as providing a pat on the back for
the effort they made to reach this point. In doing so the game
creates a positive feedback loop where the player is drip fed these
Achievements and feels incentivised to continue rather than losing
steam. Using Achievements in this manner is standard practice for
video games in general but for visual novels it holds a greater
weight than in other mediums. This is due to how extremely structured
and inflexible many of them are at their core even with all their
branching paths. As such these milestone Achievements act as one of
the only means of allowing the player to look back on their journey
through the narrative and see the path they took to get there, which
is important as a means of forming a strong impression in their
memory.
 |
| Overcoming a challenge and being rewarded is a powerful feeling |
Almost any visual novel could be taken as an example so let’s
pick one out of the hat. The Great Ace Attorney is entirely linear in
its structure with clearly defined cases which must be completed in
succession. The repetition inherent in the investigation and court
sections can lead to a sense of going in circles. To counteract this The Great Ace Attorney has Achievements at the end of each case to inform the player that they have
progressed in a tangible and easy to comprehend way. The slightly
disconnected nature of the Achievements prevents them from drawing
too much attention away from the ongoing events being presented which
is reinforced by the Achievements brief appearance on screen. They
exist here to acknowledge what the player has done in an obvious and
nonintrusive way that can be quickly pushed aside but still referenced
later on.
Encouraging Interaction
Not
all Achievements are given out in a linear fashion just for
progressing through the game, many of them ask the players to perform
actions outside of normal play patterns. These can be anything making
specific choices to finding hidden secrets by poking the game in ways
the player may not have initial thought of. All Achievements of this type
are an intentional effort on the part of the developers to direct
their audience towards the title in its entirety and try and prevent
them from becoming blinkered as they follow the central path. By showcase the possibilities the game can offer they can
encourage players to act beyond what is required of them even when
there is no immediate Achievement attached since a precedent has been
set for interesting content to be stowed away in these corners. Steins Gate’s phone is an excellent example of this as
there are multiple Achievements associated with it as well as it being
the primary mechanism for choices. Beyond the immediate utility it
provides is also contains small interactions through texts as well as
various customisation options. However, these are easy to ignore when
the main narrative is so gripping and they could easily be over looked in
favour of moving forwards. So the Achievements fill the gap and draw
the player’s attention back to the other features of the phone to
ensure they will not be missing any of the game’s content.
 |
| The phone is surprisingly complicated |
When the
visual novel in question leans more heavily into supplementary
gameplay this need for Achievements takes on an even greater
importance. One such series of games which lean into this element are
the Utawarerumono titles. Each one mixes their visual novel sections with
SRPG levels to sell the conflict of the story and this split the
player’s focus as they shift their minds between these two vastly
different types of gameplay. Here the Achievements act as a means to
prevent the player from just skimming over the SRPG sections due to
their more complicated nature and a desire to continue the story. They
do this in the same why Steins Gate does by pointing out the possible
options open during gameplay. Due to the more expansive nature of
this SRPG element it is far more effective than with the phone
example as learning the ins and outs of the system can make the
player feel smart as they overcome powerful foes through tricks they
picked up as they pursued Achievements.
Controlling Expectations
Before
the player even load up a visual novel for the first time, they are
likely to have seen its Achievements even if only in passing since
they are often shown on the game’s library page. This leaves an
initial impression on the player as to the tone and content of the
title. There are three parts which inform the player’s view of
Achievements and they are their names, the tasks required to get them
and the small pictures associated with them. Together they sell the
content of the game in a succinct manner by embodying the themes and
atmosphere of the entire experience. Let’s look at VA-11 HALL-A’s
Achievements for an example of the effect this can achieve. They
present the character focus of the game by having many of their tasks
being related to specific characters and the characters featuring
prominently on the artwork. The extensive use of humours in Achievement
names indicates the tone of the game to the player without a second
of playtime. Mentioning elements which are obviously not standard
visual novel gameplay helps the player understand what kind of game
they are in for. Achievements’ purpose from this angle is to help
set the player’s expectations for the contents of the game without
them having engaged with it at all.
 |
| Highlighting what people are in for is key to creating a cohesive tone |
This can work as a means of
establishing the genre and narrative density of a visual novel. Take
AI: The Somnium Files which has a lot of hidden achievements when the
title is first started and since the player can see this they are
aware that something is being hidden from them. Through this the
player comes to expect a mystery with twist and turns which could be
spoiled by the Achievements. The large number of them suggests a
dense game which will demand the player’s time and concentration.
Setting these expectations early on makes sure the player can
acclimatise to title quickly while helping them understand what the
future hold without spelling it out for them explicitly.
Conclusion
Although
the phrase ‘a sense of pride and accomplishment’ has taken on
somewhat negative connotations for many people who play games, there
is no denying how much power it has over a player when done
correctly. Achievements offer the most flexible means of utilising
this strength and it can provide the needed motivation for the player
to keep progressing through the visual novel. The way each
Achievement is put together also has a profound effect on its
perception and by extension the game as a whole which can be played
with to properly align expectations. On top of these benefits it can
shape how someone engages with the game by pointing out what is
possible within the systems of the game in order to ensure nothing is
missed. Overall it is clear why visual novels make use of both
external and internal Achievements and they should definitely be
considered when planning your own title.
Dark Fantasy – Genre Deep Dive
The Dark Night Of The Soul
Dealing
with the parts of human nature we would rather not look at can be
difficult to fit into many genres due to audience expectations for
heroic tales. As such if a story wants to tackle these subjects it
needs to build its entire world and tone around them, thus was born
the Dark Fantasy. This genre takes its fantastical elements and uses
them to create an oppressive and bleak setting through which its
themes will appear as a natural extension. The fantasy elements need
not be located in entirely separate world to ours and they can merely be a magical layer
hidden just out of view, it just need to use that aspect to match its
intended tone. Due to the prevalence of the slice of life and romance
genres in visual novels, it is not normally a medium associated
with these grittier stories, but hidden off to the side are a wealth
of interesting Dark Fantasy tales. They make use of them same tools
which bring joy to twist in the knife and express the parts of
ourselves we do not want to see. Let’s
find out exactly how they achieve this feat and the potential
pitfalls and benefits of choosing visual novels to tell their
stories.
On A Razors Edge
When
it comes to addressing darker themes and ideas, visual novels tend to
completely embrace the player in a bleak blanket. However, this can
backfire on the game as there is a point at which the scenes become
too serious and depart from the mixed nature of our world as they
wildly galop off into unintentional parody. Just as no life is all
joy so too is it not all suffering and leaning towards either extreme
can make the player loose connection with events on screen. Their
reaction will be to laugh at how inherently absurd the bleakness is
or find its themes to be in poor taste and turn away from the title.
Both are undesirable outcomes for visual novels but it is a knifes
edge they must walk if they want to have this type of narrative. Many
attempt to mitigate this through careful spacing of the most extreme
moments so as to not overwhelm anyone in the atmosphere while still
maintaining its impact. It also serves the double purpose of
creating a thematic line through the entire work to add clarity to
the message it is presenting to the player.
 |
| Ummm.... I'm sure they are alright... |
An example of how to deal
with this issue well, and at the same time poorly, is How To Date A
Magical Girl!. Here the Dark Fantasy is involved in a genre shift as
the happy go lucky tone gives way to a grim reality. The subversion
is the core reason for the inclusion of the darker elements in order
to provide shock value for the change from the established status
quo. This is a double edged sword as it can alienate the player as
much as it can excite them. Direct darker themes can be a pleasant
surprise for some as they add a depth to the events beforehand and
help provide an incentive for continuing with the game in the
expectation that more are to come. They are a source of excitement
and promise about what the future holds. On the flip-side they are
also a betrayal of what the player signed up for, instead of a cute
magical girl romance they are suddenly thrust into ideas that they
may not be comfortable dealing with. This is the essence of the issue
of Dark Fantasy, by pushing boundaries it establishes identity in a
way that is not appealing in the same universal way as many other
genres. In this game the underlying tension here is exacerbated
through the use of it as a twist and potentially losing players as
they feel a mixture of disillusionment and disgust.
All The Evils Of The World
The
emotions and actions which define people are not always positive in
nature and it can be difficult for players to overcome their aversion
to these negative associations. Visual novels overcome this barrier
of Dark Fantasy through their tendency towards an intimate focus on
the protagonist and those around them. Rather than being something
committed by an unknown distant party it is instead someone who’s
reasons and past are known and we share the same path forwards as
them. Mixing sympathy with tragedy is key to how darker aspects of a
character’s personality can be allows as an avenue through which the
player can relate what is happening on screen to their own
experiences and consider the way they would act in the character’s
place. This introspection is the reason visual novels and Dark
Fantasy make such a good pairing when properly executed and gives
both the room they need to explore spaces normally avoided my other
narratives in the medium.
 |
| This is a game which goes in some interesting directions |
Darker themes have always been the subject of
various stories throughout history and they are always troubling topics to
deal with. Full Metal Daemon Muramasa takes these topics from a Dark
Fantasy angle and asks about its value alongside a series of other
darker themes. It has its protagonist tread the line between being
sympathetic and revolting to create a compelling anti-hero that makes
you want to look away but is so fascinating that you cannot.
Leveraging this basis it throws him into a morally questionable mire
of backstabbing and betrayal to see how he will react and reveal to
the player the humanity they may not be willing to accept yet exists
inside all of us. Throughout all of this it never loses sight of the
fact this is personal story about the emotions we all experience and it
prevents the bleak events from overwhelming the core messaging.
When All Is Stripped Away
Alongside
the focus on intimacy as part of a Dark Fantasy visual novel there is a
pulling apart of the emotions and motivations of the entire cast in
order to examine the base desires and drives of human action. While
the game can sometimes present these in a negative light, these motivators are
often shown in an even fashion with the characters trying to be true
to themselves even if the results are not always positive for them.
Yet it does not lose sight of fact that these desires have bad
association in the mind of the player and so it creates an extreme
set of circumstances as a justification for these heightened
emotional reactions in order to prevent the player from losing their
connection to the characters. This technique is mostly confined to
important dramatic moments since it would make little sense for the
characters to be a constant state of emotional distress without
tiring themselves out and so it must be used efficiently to ensure
the believability of these outbursts is maintained.
 |
| Dark emotions can come in many forms |
Take Psychedelica
of the Black Butterfly which uses the confines of a mysterious
building to apply pressure on its characters through the feeling of
being trapped. Their emotional reactions immediately become more
understandable since we all have some experience of feeling
confined and how it can make you do irrational things. From this
basis it forces out the darker thoughts of its characters when they
are confronted by events and revelations which push them to their
limit. Having all of these changes being related to the
protagonist keeps them in the spotlight so the player never loses
sight of the greater picture of the narrative as well as providing an
avenue for the other characters to express how they feel in a natural
manner.
Conclusion
As
a genre Dark Fantasy tends to be overlooked in favour of lighter
themes and ideas with a broader appeal, but despite this there are
still many titles which showcase why exploring the darker elements of
our world has value. With visual novel’s love of keeping an
intimate perspective on their characters it is only natural that a
genre so interested in their less savoury aspects would be a perfect
fit, since it can juxtapose sympathy with disgust on a personal level.
To reinforce this approach there is a careful stripping away of the
fronts the characters put up by placing them in extreme situations
and showing how they fail to properly deal with them despite their
best efforts. The one noticeable downside to Dark Fantasy is the
tightrope walk it has to perform in order to not become so serious and
depressing that it moves from believable into parody and loses the
player as it disconnects completely for reality. When properly
utilised Dark Fantasy can bring forward themes and ideas not normally
explored and allow the player to experience them in a fleshed out
fashion.
The Grisaia Trilogy Review – Fruits of Many Flavours
Genre - Romance, Action, Drama Play Time - 100+ hours Developer - Frontwing VNDB Steam
The Blind Leading The Blind
Reflecting
a character’s flaws back onto them through their interactions with
the heroines has long been a core of the visual novel narratives. However, few showcase the power of this approach quite
like the Grisaia trilogy which takes it as far as possible beyond the
simple route structure to match the changing stakes. It is also an
uneven experience with a leaning to the more absurd aspect of the
world as the series progresses to the point of potentially losing
people who loved what the original game was at its core. Still there
is a reason these titles would birth the greater Grisaia franchise
and something in their ups and downs appeals to the audience. So
let’s go undercover and dig up the secrets to Grisaia’s lasting
influence.
Secrets And School – Narrative and Themes
Above
all other aspects of Grisaia’s narrative are the characters.
Everything is warped around making sure they can appear as much as
possible and all be involved in the plot even when it does not
directly concern them. This becoming more prominent when the games
move to a more linear structure such as with the second game where Yuuji’s
backstory is framed through the lens of the girls discovering a
discarded biography from him. Such a contrivance exists to make sure
they are up to speed so they can make choices about their futures
rather than being forced aside as the trilogy move in a more action
orientated direction. Even the first game’s focus on a single
character in its routes adheres to this philosophy. Obviously having other characters
constantly push themselves into the heroine’s route would be
distracting so instead their presence is felt through the advice or
clues they provide to Yuuji. These instances offer a pacing element
that reminds the player of the existence of the rest of the cast and
gives relief from the darker events in order to remind them of
the light at the end of the tunnel. Put together these help create a
memorable experience reliant of the likeability of its characters to
keep engagement even as a more direct narrative with its own driving
forces takes over.
 |
| Grisaia has never been an entirely grounded series |
Calling
the original three Grisaia games a trilogy is a bit misleading as it
is quite clear from the shifting structures that it was a change
brought about by the unexpected popularity of the first game. This transition occurred slowly over the trilogy as it morphs from a
route centric story into a linear narrative with a singular villain. As a
result the series can feel inconsistent and someone who liked the
first game may not like the third or vice versa. The second game is
the biggest victim of this change as it contains after stories for
all the heroines from the first game while also containing the set up
story for the third title. Here the clash between the linear
narrative future and multi ending past makes its presence known as the
game tries to reconcile the two in preparation for the third game. By
far the most glaring example of this is how it merges all the ending
into one and tries to imply all of them took place without explaining
how this was done and why the previous status quo was restored
despite the dramatically different ways those routes ended. It hand
waves it all away and hopes you will just accept this change and move
on. To its credit the mess of outcomes it pushed together never
interacts with the future plot in a way that draws attention to it
through a clever focusing on the heroines future with Yuuji rather
than their past.
 |
| Yuuji's past is more than a bit out there |
The
secret world which Yuuji is a part of has always been more than a bit
absurd even in the first game, but there it was just one note in the
stories of the heroines. However, from the second game onwards it
becomes the focus and the games gain an equally over the top villain
to match this shift. Gone is the intimacy and now it is replaced
by high stakes action where Yuuji’s side of the world is explained
in much greater detail. It is this shift which is most likely to
prevent someone from completing the trilogy as the elements they
invested in are the heroines and not everyone wants to give that up
for something entirely different. While the transition is rocky, the
commitment to the end result does make the third game a distinct
experience from the first title and allows for a move away from the
route based design into something with its own recognisable identity
within the medium. There is an undeniable charm to the way the game
tries to tell you about this secret world straight face and it can
rely on the strong characters of the first game to lend it a
legitimacy for an amusing ride.
Solace In The Arms Of Another – Characters
As
the stars of the show it would have been easy for the heroines to
overwhelm Yuuji and render the protagonist a secondary character in
his own story. The solution which the game arrived at is to have each
of the heroines reflect an aspect of Yuuji and force him to come to
terms with it inventive ways. For example Sachi acts as a mirror for
how his past traps him just as it does her and Michiru explores his
duel nature as he is split between two worlds just as she has been
for a long time. Through this framing of their actions an equal focus
can be spit with Yuuji in order to create a dynamic between them
where each explores their identity through the other in an organic manner. In addition, it provides a reason for the
player to care about each route as part of a complete whole since it
is only by going through each of them that they can gain a
proper understanding of the protagonist. With the second game the
heroines no longer act as separate reflections but instead join
together through the lessons they learned to become a complete and
more developed version of Yuuji which he can learn from as he takes
the final steps to becoming as free as they are now. It also works as
fitting conclusion to the heroines’ arc as they shift from being
helped by Yuuji into the role of his saviours and equals. A continuos
emphasis on this function for the heroines creates one of the few
thematic through lines of the trilogy.
 |
| Everyone has their demons to fight |
If
there is one issue with how the characters are executed it is in
their tendency to behave out of character or make jumps of logic
which seem to only exist to create drama or progress the plot. This
is mostly confined to the third game where the outlandish events
swing the narrative from one tense situation to an action scene and
back again at speed. As such the characters must be adapted to match
and while the game tries its best not to push this too far it
inevitably makes them act oddly to meet the narrative demands. It
makes these alternations brief and never dwells on them for long in
order to obscure the issue as much as possible and if you are willing
to roll with the game’s direction it is easy to overlook. However,
given the importance the trilogy has placed on characters as the
drivers of the narrative, these inconsistencies stand out more than
they would in other visual novels and harms the feeling of the
characters being actual people. Perhaps the most noticeable example
of characters behaving oddly is the alternative ending of the third
game where Yuuji has to jump through a few logical hoops and behave
contrary to his ongoing character arc thus contradicting the entire
game beforehand. This is an extreme example but it does showcase how
widespread the problem is within the story.
Glistening Fruits – Visual, Audio and Technical
Taken
from an audio and visual angle, the Grisaia trilogy might appear to be
nothing special at first glance, a solid example of its genre but
nothing more. It is easy to see why with the character design
sticking to relatively realistic designs featuring school uniforms
and suits, the locations being the standard fair for the genre and
the music which occupancies it being nothing the player has not heard
before. How Grisaia manages to push beyond this initial impression is
through the small details and how it merges these parts into an
emotionally resonant whole. The aforementioned uniforms all share the
same basic structure but are subtly customised to communicate the
personality of the characters and even hint at their hidden problems.
This is then utilised through clever placement on screen and a proper
understanding of what music to play to hint at what is going on in
the characters heads or make a particular event hit hard. In turn
this makes the moments of down time as engaging as those of high
drama with it being clear that the game always has something going on
for you to keep an eye out for. Ultimately this quiet form of presentation is
something almost invisible from a glance, but helps maintain the
player’s sense of involvement and keeps them playing without them ever
really knowing the exact reason they feel this way.
 |
| Grisaia has always been able to sell its absurdity pretty well |
From
a technical stand point the trilogy remains consistently mediocre
throughout with only the expected suite of features, but it is
interesting to note the decline in the importance of choices over the
three games. The route based approach of the first game placed an
importance on having a convincing way to transition into a divergent
path, but even here we can see a minimalist ladder structure where
the routes are presented sequentially over the course of the common
route. Over the following two games almost all choices are stripped
away to focus around a linear and controlled narrative so it can lean
more into its action aspects. What choices do remain tend to make the
characters behave oddly in order to accommodate this sudden
alternation to the direction of the narrative and the outcome is
somewhat messy. Overall the transition from one style of choices to
the other was not handled particular well, but it ends up being such
a minor aspect of the game that it is easy to forget them.
Conclusion
Trilogies
which spawn organically from the success of the first title are often
a bit messy in execution and Grisaia does not avoid this fate. The
shifting from a route based structure to a linear one, the changes to
character behaviour and dynamics and de-emphasizing of choices all
contribute to this feeling. However, in order to compensate for this
unevenness Grisaia focuses in on its characters and the more
outlandish or action elements of its first game, combining them into
an identity all its own by the third game. Of course this leads to an
alienation of players who liked the more down to earth aspects of the
original, but this seems to have been a price the series was willing
to pay given they doubled down on it in Phantom Trigger.
Verdict –
Despite their messy and uneven quality, this trilogy invests the
player in its characters and pulls them on a wild ride which aims to
entertain at every turn.
Pros
+
Character centric narrative which leans into the strengths of their
interactions.
+
Heroines compliment Yuuji and they bring out in each other what makes
them tick.
+
Solid visuals and audio with a few outstanding pieces.
Cons
-
Narrative becomes increasingly absurd as the games go on to the point
of being distracting.
-
Characters will behave oddly in order to make the plot progress.
-
As a trilogy the games meander around with a lack of focus after the
first title.
