Well, this is my first visual novel. I picked this one up due to the large amount of pictures of Saya cycling around, which made me curious. Reading up a small description of the game added to that; it was a mix of gore-ish and thriller. Now, I don't usually like anything gore-related due to my weak stomach, but I made an exception with this one.
Being a new category of games that I am reviewing, I had to come up with some new things to base it on. I stuck mainly with the things I use for anime, since they made for a good breakdown. I guess I should just jump into it!
Story
I started this with huge worries that I couldn't finish it. They bombarded you early on with a gore-filled world. Not wanting to ruin what the author had intended, I chose the option with zero censoring of gore. As the story went on, I was pulled into the story, wanting more. By the end, I was left lusting for more Saya. I think they did a good job of portraying a simple love story.
~9/10
Immersion
I think having a gore-filled world was a bit extreme. The world that the main character was in was much like like missing any of our other senses and being unable to cope with your surroundings. This just brought things to another level. It did its job, though with slight overkill. The flow was pretty good, too. At no point did I think that things were moving too slowly, as things were constantly happening with nearly no break in between. A good 5-6 hours read only spanned a few days within the story.
~9/10
Characters
There are a total of seven characters for this entire story. Each one is given a fair chance at monologues, so you really do get to understand their characters. Giving every character a chance is important for building that person up, which is usually neglected by anime. By the end, I had a good chance to relate to every character and I can't say that I disliked any of them. This is extremely rare.
~9/10
 |
| Of course, personal satisfaction needs Homu Homu crossover art. |
Personal Satisfaction
It's definitely up there for this title; I mean, I couldn't get enough by the end. I was left wanting more story, which led me to various Google searches but only in vain. The masked simple love story made for something I enjoyed greatly. After a thrill ride around, with everything happening around them, it all just boiled down to a love story. I like stories like this greatly. It helped that they had a slight epilogue afterwards to explain everything, too. All of this scored points greatly with me.
~10/10
Overall
It definitely made for a good story - almost too short. To be honest, when I was first told about the length, I felt that it was too long. I mean, committing a good 5-6 hours means that I could watch a full 13-episode anime in that time. I wasn't sure if I would be able to sit through reading so much text. I haven't picked up a real book (note that I said "book", not "textbook") in quite some time; it's been at least 2-3 years. It was refreshing to see how well stories can immerse you into their world without them crazy moving pictures!
Final Score [9.5/10]
Links for the game:
Download for the game (Torrent, DDL) (both have a translation patch, either on the page or with it)
~Pearz
