Ever get the feeling that the you in the mirror, whenever you look at it for a long while, that it no longer resembles you?

No? but there is a particular branch of philosophy that centers around the idea that there is something impersonal about each person. That there is something universal, and not “Cogito ergo sum”.

As with Trample on Schatten!!’s last battle of requiring Aisaku to become an individual free of the “universal grasp”, Legend Seven is written by the same scenario writer that dances on the idea with epistemology, this time albeit more literal, spinsoff one of the more classical literature regarding mirrors: Snow White.

Okay, so that isn’t exactly what Legend7 entails, but one can wish! Right?

Synopses

“This is a tale that happened ‘Once upon a time’
and continuing even ‘now’

The Snow White who bit the poisonous apple

even now sleeps, gazing upon her dreams

Never to be awoken, the nightmare of battling for

the aversion of the destruction of the world. A nightmare without salvation

…Magic mirror, on the wall, is there a future for princess at all?”

One day, the giant ‘world tree’ appeared and it was controlled by an organization known as the ‘Visioners’ who massacred innocents to achieve the end of the world. However, one girl and her soldiers stand in their way. They are Shirayuki-hime and the ‘seven heroes’ that protect her. Yuu is a normal student that has a high sense of justice who gets involved in this epic battle. Will he be the one that can lift the curse bestowed on Shirayuki-hime?

Taken from Micchi’s blog, with added parts translated from the official site.

Characters

	Wakanae Yuu - The protagonist of the story, strong sense of justice even though he is rather timid and isn’t usually the type to stand up for his ideals.
	Watarase Shirayuki – The leader and soul of the seven hero, combining both beauty and passion, Shirayuki “Snow White” is the key to this world. Being able to talk to the “King of the world tree”, who can bend the rules of reality, she is also nicknamed the Princess of Impossibility by her enemies. While she acts polite and classy most of the time, when it comes to Yuu, there will be flying kicks.
	Noda Himika – Yuu’s classmate, while she takes good care of people, her “machinegun” flourish of fast talking can be quite intimidating. The shooter of the group, specialty in all projectile firearms.
	Nishikujou Eiji – If you understand Edo child (江戸っ子), then Eiji would be the perfect template of a Kansai version of it. Honest and straight forward, charges before thinking, and is one who would value his bonds with others over his own life. Has a rather simple but characteristic style of fighting in his hero form: three attacks that corresponds to rock paper and scissors.
	Nishikujou Nagi – Older sister of Eiji. Has a strict (to Eiji) but kind image fitting of the disciplinary committee. Also has Kansai dialect, along with a mysterious muffler that holds many, many things. The “bird” in the group, acrobatic and uses stretching cloths for battle.
	Fukushima Shii – The misfortunate character, clumsy and slightly not dependable new teacher. But exactly because of this, she is rather popular amongst the students. Her heroic form uses the power of wind. With her handmade grenades on the battlefield, Shii reminds us to not play with fire.
	Tennoji Shuuya– Student council president, the calm, cool guy admired by everyone that goes slightly out of control when near Nagi.
	Hinata – The Aoba Ringo cat character. Able to morph into Wakanae Rio’s (Yuu’s sister)appearance, she is a whimsical hero that comes and goes as she pleases.
	Sagami Kiyotakamaru – The principal of Jousai Gakuen, and a rather friendly one at that. Often tweets as a communication with students at a personal level, also serves as the commander of this campaign against the “Visioners” in this landscape. Just who is he!? (Last boss character, obviously).

Story/Impression(Spoiler)

To put things very simply, Legend seven is a recurring universe where the parallel traveller is Shirayuki and not you. Yuu would go around one “landscape” (read: one universe) helping the designated heroine of the route to achieve their full potential via the power of ichaicha and destroy the portal which stops the advancement of Visioner’s on that landscape, and “end”. In the process of the saving, you learn about their backstory, and some tidbits regarding the antagonist party.

Where the story really shines is at the true route, since we get to see what is truly moving the gears and why. Turns out that the queen was indeed the same queen who Shirayuki knows and love, and that she is merely preparing the heroes for the time to come (*coughIngridPriskencough*). Well, that didn’t really come out as too much of a surprise as her various interactions with Larks/Takumi hinted heavily at the different motives she had against the Visioners.

What is a hero, if not one who carries a dark past. Yuu’s “problematic” side we saw in the very beginning of the game finally comes up again in the true route, and is the reason why he couldn’t transform into a hero to help out in the previous worlds. This is a much needed visit on as Yuu’s role in battle in the previous worlds was essentially just to hold Larks up (and their swords do that automatically). Along with Yuu’s heroic form arrival, we also get explained to why his strange chants are what they are, I thought it was rather neat.

Action-wise, while Nonsugar put the hero arrival speech as a big selling point for their game, I personally found them to be too long. When one person does it, it’s fine. But when five people all shout their respective long lines full of kanjis, it just gets intimidating and repetitive. However, the one complaint aside, the actions are fast paced and full of vitality. From explosions, gun shots, sword slashes, punching shockwaves…etc, the screen is constantly shaking…with excitement! The fights are always small group (or single) vs small group, so while there is usually a chance for everyone to shine, don’t expect too much focus on the growth on a single character, as Legend7 doesn’t really put too much emphasize on the growing process (i.e. Yuu is not in the limelight too much, gains power without much work etc).

Now, the question that some people may have: How does Legend seven fair against Schatten? While similar, I feel the stories about “hero” in Legend7 talked very little about justice and more about each people’s circumstances make them do what they did. Like they have stated in game, a hero only becomes a hero because other people starts to call them by such. In Legend7, all the characters had some flaw that made them take sides, which created this “war” in the first place (only exception is the final boss who is portrayed flat out as the evil of the game). I think, what makes 燃え is not something just about seeing the action. The place, the time, even the method doesn’t really matter as long as you can get out the who and the why (ofcourse, having music to aid in the atmosphere help tremendously). The protagonist is usually the best option to go with the who as it is someone who the reader will be, hopefully, very familiar with and sympathizes with…if possible, strongly, to create more passion. Which leads to our why, you have to make certain that the motivation for whoever is carrying out this 燃え is doing it with a cause that the readers can understand (at the very least). I feel that Legend seven may have gone too wide in range to create an a) Protagonist even a focused character and b) didn’t root the “unfairness” strong enough in each character/ make each character’s motivation to become a hero clear enough. No, going through a flashback to explain the background of each heroine is not enough. The two are not necessarily exclusive of each other. Creating a very incomplete burn-out sort to speak.

Despite how grey “justice” can become, it really takes a strong “evil” to bring out the good in people, and for others to appreciate so much to view them as heroes. In other words, Legend seven isn’t truly about heroics at the crux at all. So if you ask me what I have preferred, well… :P.

Conclusion

”If you are playing for anyone other than Shirayuki, you are doing it wrong”. And that is probably the best truthful advice for playing Legend Seven as it gets. The other heroines’ routes, while strictly speaking are average, just don’t compare to the true end when you can rightfully call it hot-blooded. Most of the themes are not new in this genre, but the overall consistency of the story and fights makes up for it. Can use more work on the music, and especially the art portion (just don’t do DFTS again in this time and age *shakes head*, sprites need to stop posing in weird angles), and perhaps more twists and conspiracy to freshen up the time loops…last one being my wishful thinking ofcourse.

Looking back, this year has been filled with some amazing titles. The big ones being Grisaia and Rewrite, where I feel my review does not nearly justify their glory, and even the SLG front has been filled with many interesting titles (Kamidori, Corona, Rance Quest, Escu;de ones and even that SPACE game). Taiyou no Promia was a real pleasant surprise of the titles I’ve completed, and Midori no Umi just felt so right.

My resolutions from last year was to make categories for the blog, and maintain a one post a week quota. The former is somewhat achieved(I think!) and the latter is well…didn’t go so well! I partially attribute the blame to being mixed in a rather “unique” group, whom I love hanging out with but argue too much with. The start of the year should be a good time as any to wash off the feet and readjust the balance of bishoujo and bros.

The Incomplete Pile (Spoilers)

Kanosora- I wont deny it, I’ve initially played the game because of the Aoba Ringo interview. It was my epiphany in Akatoki that Ringo character will be the best, and this time around I went straight for the prize. The results? Super Kagemi Kazuchi.

I really liked the Opening movie for Kanosora, the intro guitar just brushes me in the perfect way, not to mention the fast paced, very cool geometric cut-ins. The story dives into some of the divinity myths, especially those around Amaterasu, and is similar to Prister in the sense the bad emotions of humans is what causes the evil forces to gain their power. Gameplay comes off bit simpler than their previous works in terms of mechanics (no more clothes shredding either), the only trick being saving your gauges for ultimates and managing skill point allocations.

I do wish to complete it sometime, as I stopped in the middle of Amaterasu route and done with Takemi Kazuchi’s, Escu;de usually pulls something of a twist in the true route, and the music just goes wild in the last battle. My gripe being the scenario is somewhat fragmented due to the “map screen selection” nature, not certain which case but the individual routes were either too similar with each other or the common route just extended too long. I also would’ve like more “quantum” segments as the discussions only appeared in the first chapter and never since.

As always, the clear bonus of having seiyuu talk about the game and their role at the end is awesome. (MAINLY FOR AOBA RINGO’S MOENYAN OFCOURSE).

Sugirly Wish- Yes, I’ll admit it. I’ve gone through the depths of “Girly Talk” and I did not ctrl through it.

I usually prefer action “moe” type eroges but Micchi was too relentless in his constant braggingposting of images about how great Hina was that I had to check out Sugirly Wish and see for myself. And she really was a carnivorous imouto that was on a mission to secure her target. But I did what my sports coach once told me, “If you see a truck coming, dodge.”

I went for Kurumi first as black twintailed bishoujo has got to be the highest tier of charm for everyone. Needless to say I was melting when the game decided to go for full ichaicha mode in a sugary sweet meido uniform.

But also, during Kurumi’s route I noticed a character that seemed rather mysterious (and thus interesting): Anna. Little did I know what she will entice me into…

The lazy, low motivation genius trouble maker that speaks in an ufufu tone who seemed to find interest in our protagonist and takes the initiative? I say why not. I went for another round of fight through the girly talk and various sugar coated situations, satisfied by an endless amount of HNGH but ultimately led me to a CG that I do not wish to admit to: one that will prove to certain people that I may have subconsciously went for a trait that I have denied upon. (NSFW).

However, alas, I am quite relieved that people in Japan also believed that Anna was an interesting character, some voting her to even be the best in the recent character poll. And now I can proudly drool over the santa version Anna (much like Micchi’s gift of santa version Anzu a year back).

PS: A semi-review of Sugirly Wish can be found on Aedes’ post. Back story for Kurumi is that she’s been trying to find the prince of her dreams to dance with her.

Koisora FD- Need I say more? Sera is one of my harem members, and I will jump at the news of more Sera even if it meant I’ll have to complete the route for a new heroine, complete another one because I didn’t know how to access Sera’s route, go through a “villainous” plot that the villain didn’t even mind being defeated (i.e. not much at risk), losing out on both action scenes that bring out Sera’s charms and ichaicha time for it, and then finding out she only has half as many Hscenes as the other heroines. No, I am not bitter at all.

The two other routes I did was Yuuki and Kiyomi’s route. Don’t ask me why, I would’ve gone for Ai’s route if I had known I only needed one route to unlock my 本命. Kiyomi’s route was about her getting into a fight with a spoiled brat of a big landlord in Kaminajima island, not wanting help from Seigo, realizing her follies, realizing his love, dilemma between love and serving Shizuna. The courting felt unnatural to put it kindly, and Shizuna is always “3p Ok” anyways so…

I know that it’s been awhile since the original, but I don’t remember Yuuki being this ecchi. Seriously, the whole route was basically H and getting into trouble because they are going out of control with it. I mean, I’m perfectly A-Ok, rather I welcome warmly, heroines that take the initiative, but Studio GreenTea confuses me by having odd pacing of Hscene and melodrama. Yuuki, being probably the main heroine in After Happiness and Extra hearts, has five Hscenes compared to Sera’s three. And she is supposed to be her assistant! The very helpful but somewhat plain compared to other characters Yuuki can’t be this dictatorial!

The Future

With the various new (ero)blogs writers, and Aaeru doing some great coverage on the industry/sphere in general, I feel the generation is changing hands.

Perhaps it is time to take up Aaeru’s offer on writing guest posts, recede back into lurking/commenter status now that Accany is back(not sure what he plans for his blog though, could become LN based), and just take it easy from here. /oldmanpose.

We’ll have to see for now, I still have a few reviews in draft I’d wish to finish before making anything concrete.

Lastly, here’s to thanking those that comment, visit, and found something that may fancy them in this rather sporadic thing I call a blog. Without you guys, this post (and many more) would not be here. Thank you for your support. Remember your thoughts are always welcome!

Some trivial stats:

June 13th marked the busiest day, the search that day majorly consisted of Steins;gate, which incidentally is the top search for the year, followed closely by Koicho Review post, and FORTISSIMO (Oh god, there’s another one coming out orz). Feal87 was the one who commented the most (you the manstuffed animal!). Top referrer was twitter, followed by Hau~ Omochikaeri~! (Thanks as always!).

A non-blog stat: Kawashimarino voiced in the most eroge in 2011, 50 characters. Source.

Here’s to having some more craziness in the year to come!

Paradise or Prison? Two sides of a coin.

Leaving the majority of the introduction in the last post.

Except I just want to say… THAT OMAKE SCENARIO ∑(￣□￣;).

Characters

	Kai - The protagonist of the story, who finds himself laying in the open of nowhere without his memories. Relatively studious, good at sports, and plays the violin, he seems to be able to do anything as he tries to rediscover himself at the mansion. His resourceful demeanor has net him the admiration of everyone in the mansion, but is this a good thing?
	Michiru – The leader figure of the children who has lost their way into the mansion. Her gentle and kind attitude, on top of doing everything in the mansion, makes her an obvious choice when you need help. Does everything in her might to keep the peace/protect the happiness of the mansion, even if it meant being feared by a few individuals living with her…
	Chisha - The mother older sister figure of the house. Takes care of the younger crowd when Michiru and Haina are busy. Also teaches math as a hobby (“Numbers speaks to her”). Cheerful, confident and abit nosy most of the times, but spouts cryptic lines from time to time that puzzles Kai (and us) greatly…
	Haina – The meido of the house. Humble, hard working, somewhat clumsy and makes great tea, she is attentive to people’s feelings and is a honest girl. Tends to be abit low self-esteemed, often lowering her head when talking to others. Her favourite pastime is cleaning the mansion.
	Tsumugi – The loli that is actually the same age as Kai and others. Dislike studying, naps at noon, and can be said to be the “mansion idiot”, the only trait deferring her from a typical child is her ability to sew. Doesn’t get along with Chisha, but clings to Michiru more than anyone else. Uguu.
	Yuuki – The other male that is the same age as Kai. Came to the mansion before Kai, and showed him around when he was still not familiar with the place. Gentle, doesn’t seem very dependable but at heart a good guy, the best friend character…or so his setting was at the start. Really a sarcastic, bored, smarty pants that loves his pranks. But still a good guy, ja? (Man I feel this is how some people feels toward me lately).
	Sorane and Rikuno – The mysterious twin in the mansion that has the exact same movement, speaks at the exact same time with same words, and does everything together. Not very talkative and hangs out in the library most of the time, they are the dolls of the mansion. Their hobby seems to be divination, and can be seen fortune-telling with tarot cards at times.
	Shiroha, Miyuki and Takuma – The young’uns of the group. They are the ones Michiru and Chisha take cares of, including their education in the mansion. Shiroha being the more active, playful girl compared to Miyuki’s docile personality. Takuma is only boy in the group, so he tries to put up a strong front in front of the others, but is really a boy who wants his pirate vs ninja bed time stories.
	Sara – The mysterious person amongst the whole mystery surrounding the mansion. Doesn’t come out of her room so the young’uns think she is a vampire. She seems to still go for toilet breaks and eats her food (brought to her door by Haina) though.

Story/Impression

There seemed to be some interest in the details (i.e. spoilers) for Midori no Umi judging from last post, so as to conform to both audiences, I’m going to have spoilers for each end in another page. I’ll just warn ahead that these types of mystery stories do lose out on some enjoyment if you know the secrets ahead of time, so if you plan to play Midori no Umi, I highly suggest against spoiling yourself. Password is dojikko.

With that out of the way, I feel the best way to describe Midori no Umi’s endings is that nothing was unexpected. For better, everything is what you’d expect from the hints they clued you in on. For worse, there were no (major) twists or surprises in the end, everything felt too peaceful and easily resolved (anticlimactic).

The beauty of Midori no Umi definitely is its atmosphere. As I said in the previous impression post, the bgm tracks complements the mood perfectly that in a way sparks your imagination/thoughts about the mystery. Among with the scenery around the house, the great green lake, even the ominous church building has their on aura floating about thanks to the good use of fogs, lighting effects on the CG.

Theme wise, I was rather impressed with how “grey” the matter was despite the black and white setup of a mystery case. I know this guy would disagree with me, but there is no straightforward way for everyone in the world to achieve happiness, and necessary evil may be the most reasonable solution in some cases. Just to clarify, Midori no Umi is not a game about good and evil, but rather a presented case study of society in an albeit extreme case (as it also features the social problem of irresponsible adults). Definitely enjoyed some of the writer’s point of view, and glad everything was more or less left unresolved (for the reader to interpret essentially).

As for the writing, I would say Mikuriya’s writing is more consistent than some of the other Skyfish scenario writers. There weren’t any glaring gaps of character suddenly behaving differently, nor plot holes. Vocabulary and word nuances were used amongst a much more casual level: easily comprehended (not a lot of idioms/kanji), which made the read much smoother than I initially thought. The mix of narration, protagonist’s thought and character dialogues were fairly even. Great writing? Perhaps not unique enough and too methodical for some, but I’d say the writing felt natural.

Character-wise, the cast was small and thus focused. Some characters do come out abit flat (the young’uns, Haina for example), but it does play nicely into the detective’s list of “suspects”. While I thought Chisha would dominate the charts with her charms, the rest of the cast were also quite adorable in their own realms (Sara and Haina…oh man the bond between two 残念 character can’t be this cute >_<).

Unfortunately, the game converged to an end rather quickly. I felt there could be much more accomplished if they explored more about the origins of the “mastermind behind it all”. While the true route finally explains everything in full detail, the scale of the story only encompasses, however, around the mansion. Brief periods of Kai going back to the outside world does occur, but not as a end goal, more of a consequence. I guess I was expecting some sort of development similar to what happened in Secret Game: Killer Queen..

There is a pretty neat Tarot card system in Midori no Umi that tells you hints about the route (and even updates on the go as to which route is left available to you after your choice selection). It doesn’t affect the plot in any manners, but the cards themselves are rather symbolic of each ending. Just thought it would be worth a mention.

Conclusion

A rather good pickup for anyone who is interested. While each end is not long, all of them combined make for a whole, complete story that satisfied my reckless adventure spirit and curious mind.

Midori no Umi has set a boundary in what it wants to achieve, and made sure every part within the boundary is consistent. If nothing else, Midori no Umi gives you something to ponder at every end.

And it captivated me.

You are Kai, a boy who woke up to find himself lying in the middle of a forest looking skywards. The vast forest leaves an opening where the sun dapples in, as if you were drowning in an emerald sea. Lost, confused, and scared, he wondered amongst with a single desire to live, aimlessly, until he finally finds an exit to the forest. There he came across a vast, beautiful, lake, and a girl who extends her arm to him, inviting him to join her: “Welcome, to our garden of paradise.”

Surrounded by a sea of trees, the only visible landmark being said lake, there was an old, European style mansion housing twelve(now thirteen) memory-lost children. The mansion is supplied with resources: food, water, electricity, and even a library filled with books and instruments in the music room. The girl who led Kai, Michiru, says it was a place where they can achieve happiness, a garden of paradise. Waking up everyday at 7am, eat a nutritious meal of breakfast (prepared by Michiru), help take care of the young‘uns with their studies, partake extracurricular activities such as musical instruments and sports, and sleep at 9pm. Everyone is kind to another, and life was orderly and well…or is it?

It all started with a dream. Kai wondered what his dream of a little boy crying entailed. He started searching, looking through books in the library, studying them in the classroom. It bugged him. The classroom had a map, a world map. If this was a fantasy-like paradise, why go through the trouble of bringing something from “reality”? Japanese…they, the people in the mansion, were all speaking Japanese…but that is not all, even the books were in Japanese…in a European styled mansion out in the middle of nowhere, forested, and beside a huge lake? Isolated. Wait, isolated? With food, water and electricity!? The questions starts to swarm in, and the daily, carefree life in the mansion started to break down.

The last straw was struck when a boy living with them goes completely missing the next day after regaining his memories…and no one else in the mansion remembers him.

Seriously, guys and gals, I ask you, HOW CAN THIS NOT EXCITE ME xD. All of this spells CONSPIRACY, ALL OVER THE PLACE. The atmosphere is amazing, and a large part of it is because the bgm is just wonderful. Ranging from serene, classical pieces done with violins and piano to the downright eerie, creepy suspense track that sends chills up and down your spine (oh god, the disjointed noise interference technique is..so..scary ;_____; ). The characters are lovely: the children are so innocent, twins ever so synchronous, Haina the hardworking meido, Yuki the smartass best friend, Tsumugi is…(´・ω・`), Chisha’s so HNNNGH lovely, and Michiru has the kind oneesan..but is REALLY SCARY when angered… aura.

So far I’ve only played up to the point where the boy’s gone missing, and well…

Upon investigating the “sources” of the food…let’s just say it didn’t go too well.

So then I tried to escape this god forsaken place with Chisha, unfortunately the forest was very unforgiving…

And now, I’ve discovered an old church which bears a HORRIBLE secret…

Yeah, you can tell I’m not exactly the brightest when it comes to my own safety, but Midori no Umi is exactly what ADV should be about…adventures. The thrills of finding out the truth (or some clues), even if it means going against your very intuition of “something REALLY BAD is going to happen if you do this”, and then getting so scared that you have to proceed on auto-mode with two hands covering your face because it is in the middle of midnight…priceless. (Yes, I am totally a scaredy-cat even though I love these mysteries…((((((( ；ﾟДﾟ))))))) ).

Well, so here I go again on my mission to unravel this closed world conspiracy. So far I suspect the fact that no one remembers their last name to play some major role in why they are, let’s face it, either kidnapped or abandoned by their parents. I wont let the fact that Michiru is holding a knife in the OP bug me too much…

Man, is it just me or does anyone else always think of Lord of the Flies when it comes to stranded location with a group of survivors.

Trivial: This line was all of my reason.

GINGA!

BISHOU-

JOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

TAU….BURRRRNNNNN.

Yes, that is what I was thinking throughout the trial.

Legend Seven is the first title by NONSUGAR, which is comprised of staff from the defunct TAILWIND. One day, the giant ‘world tree’ appeared and it was controlled by an organization known as the ‘Visioners’ who massacred innocents to achieve the end of the world. However, one girl and her soldiers stand in their way. They are Shirayuki-hime and the ‘seven heroes’ that protect her. Yuu is a normal student that has a high sense of justice who gets involved in this epic battle. Will he be the one that can lift the curse bestowed on Shirayuki-hime?

Credits to Micchi of Hauomochikaeri, November Release preview post.

Let’s just start out by saying Zen is right in that the connection between Legend7 and the fairy tale of Snow White is stretched rather thin, using essentially only the premise of Snow white is fighting against the evil witch mother who is entranced by the mirror.

Shirayuki-hime, literally white snow princess, has been outcaste by her jealous mother. The world tree heard the princess’ cry for help, and assembled 7 brave spirits across the world to guard her, known as the seven heroes. As she went into hiding, her mother started to kill the good citizens of the kingdom. Enraged, Shirayuki asked for the power to fight her own war, the world tree heeded to her call. The kingdom was saved, and the tales of the seven heroes along with the warrior princess lived on.

Present day Kirikabucho, Wakanae Yuu is a regular 2nd year student at Jousai Gakuen. Normally timid, but today is not the normal day.

“[…]the protagonist is more of the annoyingly standard fare”

Well, I suppose it could be. Anyways, I suppose the one concern I have with Legend7 would be mainly with the art. First off, DFTS. The Dramatic Face Trans System turned out to be the same problem Momoiro Guardian had: leaving the sprite themselves with no facial expression change. Not to mention on top of that, the sprites and the DFTS and the CG’s don’t really match up.

Fortunately, the story and action is makes up for it. The battles of Legend7 is about, I kid you not, “Whoever shouts the loudest wins (もっとも熱いやつが勝つ）” and it works. Much like TTGL, the drama elements in Legend7 lends itself nicely to the explosion of emotions against many unfair circumstances of the world…exactly the selling point NONSUGAR was going for.

Storywise, there has been quite a few twists and turns so far in the trial (which seems to be Kimika’s route) and more foreshadowed in the “preview section”. The story moves at a pretty fast pace, to the point where the protagonist only gets 2 days (few lines, not even a scene) to mourn over the loss of his sister before getting lectured by Shirayuki for emo-ing. The villains, “Visioners”, seems to have cheat-like abilities to copy anything they want, and I wouldn’t doubt NONSUGAR/Tailwind to pull something dark regarding why the minions of Visioners come from the reflection of people.

Music is nice, though I can’t pull off the feeling that I’ve heard some of the tracks from Schatten.

All in all, Legend7 is looking good for people who enjoys abit of shounen-ish action. I do think there is a tad too many characters for them to get good development (especially when Trample on Schatten!, which has only 3 heroines, already feels like there should have been only Kizaiah’s route), but we can only hope.

Just give me a good Aoba Ringo voiced, twintailed whimsical transforming cat (which incidentally looks like Michiru from Grisaia), route and I’ll be happy.

EGS link. Official site.

Warning: This post is laden with spoilers(whited out, highlight to see) and NSFW(?) materials, proceed at your own risk.

In the sun-basked streets of Milsant, Kodama is clueless about three things: First, who is he? He seems to have no recollection of his past memories despite him being a young man. Secondly, there is an infant tied to him via a undetachable knot that he doesn’t recognize who. And third, that he is being pursued for all of the above!

The city of the Sun, Milsant is a city blessed with sunlight. Able to use “光炉”, mysterious small portable devices that converts solar energy into other usable forms, and governed and protected by “six flowers” who serves none other than the sun goddess Promia herself, made certain Milsant was as peaceful as it is prosperous. The future was bright, or so everyone in Milsant believed so.

Little did Kodama know, that one thing leading into another, his arrival also marked the day Milsant was swept into darkness, and along with Flarerouge, the “Flower of Valor” who has lost her powers, embark on a journey to recover the light that was lost in the world. (Credits to Micchi’s synopsis).

Taiyou no Promia is a fantasy action adventure eroge developed by SEVEN WONDER (under Production Pencil umbrella) in May 2011. The fandisk, Taiyou no Promia: Flowering Days, has been announced and is currently in production.

Yes yes yes yes yes!! This is what I needed after a long string of moe-ge/chara-ges. The suspense, the action, and most importantly, the bishoujos!! Being a fan of Trample on Schatten! I just had to check out Taiyou no Promia as to see Kawahara Makoto unique style of character art. This time with Takeya Masami (who was the main artist for Princess Waltz) the visuals were delightful. And to my surprise, the scenario written by Shitahara Shou, Marutani Hibito et el. was (as a certain gentleman would put it) RIGHT UP MAH ALLEY.

And here’s why. Taiyou no Promia is a very traditional, orthodox styled fantasy story. A young man saving girl in distress, and together they defeat the bad guys. Seemingly simple and clichéd, but add in a mystery for the protagonist’s background, a party that grows both in size like an RPG game and in intimacy/character development that is paced well, and enemies shrouded in an overarching CONSPIRACY, and the results turned out to be rather pleasant. The execution of story in a fashion that tells the reader about the world the most, something that seems to be rare nowadays, is what I feel Taiyou no Promia done the most right.

The scenario is divided roughly into 3 arcs with 2 branches each (not to be confused with the in game chapters), and each branch constitutes to a heroine route.

The first arc introduces the outlying problems/conflicts of Milsant, foreshadows some of the protagonist’s background, and fulfills the what-if scenarios of protagonist not getting his memories back.

(I swear, someone else has to Romanize these names as I think I’m butchering them…)

Jezelle

The silent and emotionless invader, agile and wields a double edged chain. Seems to be the one responsible for releasing the shadowy creatures, but from time to time acts out of accord of an enemy. The dog ears? What dog ears.

In Jezelle’s route she is revealed to be the adopted daughter of Eco, who is the previous incarnation of Kodama. Trained in the arts of the black 光炉, she secretly carries out the “purification” plan by acting like to enemy. When she first saw Kodama, she was confused as to whether he is Eco or not…and later kidnaps him to imprison him in the ways of Eco. However, soon a masked assassin shows up with the same “smell” as Eco, and furthermore is female like the Eco Jezelle knew, confusing Jezelle. The masked assassin did not cooperate with the six flowers, instead she let loose Tsukikage(literally Possessed Shadow) into the streets of Milsant. With Jezelle finally accepting the fact Kodama is not Eco, and coming to terms with Eco being a motherly figure for her, along with the rest of the six flowers, they proceeded to defeat the Tsukikage and rescued Milsant. In her last breath, the masked assassin is revealed to be the previous Flower of Jewellip, Eco. She asks Kodama whether he wishes to inherit the memories, but he decided against it, stating his life is fine the way it is. Smiling, she asks Kodama to take care of her precious daughter before she vanished.

A good introductory route that gives some insight into Kodama’s past and abit of the “purification” plan without giving away too much. Personally I found more interest in the history snippet that came between the old man and the girl after the route, which talked about the conflict between pureblooded Ludinasian and the mix-blooded Milsantians. It was hinted that the pureblooded is later banished to the East, where the Forest of Darkness is. Jizelle happens to be picked up and cared for by a spider “monster” in those woods as well (which may explain the ears…maybe).

Amari Na Bembe Belbelle

The flower of Ranbel, the priestess of water, wisdom and everything blue symbolizes! She’s a hikkikomori, except she lurks in the library, her home. She takes special interest in reading bedtime stories to children, able to act out a story with passion and skill. She can also breathe underwater due to special mutations in her family.

Izmos in our discussion joked about Amari’s route being the same as Jizelle’s, except instead of imprisoned in a castle you are now imprisoned in the library. The scary thing is, he is not too far off. Amari seemed to have a special interest in making Kodama remember his past, after she surmised him to be the great sage “Kodama”, who existed throughout Milsant history. For reasons unknown, “Kodama” is documented as the highest authority in many of the official documents…for the past 1000 years. Driving out nobles to gain power, participated in wars to quell the east forest, and uniting Milsant to what it is now, “Kodama” has always been the mastermind behind it all, and Amari is out to expose about it all. Or so she thought, Kodama still doesn’t recall anything after reading through all the documents. As with Jizelle’s route, the masked assassin makes an appearance again. This time giving hints to Kodama while he is asleep, on how to access the Room of Recollection to regain his memories and put a stop to the resurrection of a greater evil, one that will swallow Milsant in whole should they fail.

Turns out Amari was the previous black 光炉 owner when she was still small. Forced by Eco to take part in the “sealing” of Tsukikage, Amari got scared of them in the middle of the process and interrupted the ritual. Unfortunately, she also established a link with the main body of Tsukikage, causing her to lose consciousness everytime the Tsukikage is awake. With the “true” Tsukikage close to reviving, the nightmares of Amari grows worse and Kodama and Co. is forced to act, even have to cooperate with the mysterious assassin.

After ferocious battles, they defeated the body parts (literally, mouth and eye) of the Tsukikage-king and ventured to finish off the job—down at the tower of Promia.

The remnants of the Tsukikage king is, as planned, very much weakened. However, it is during this time the unthinkable happened…the assassin massacred the Tsukikage king, ripping limb to limb, shredding skin, and spouting blood everywhere in front of everyone. She finally finds what she was looking for: at the heart of the Tsukikage was the Silver 光炉: the omega 光炉 that can end all 光炉. Along with the whole city’s power, she escaped into a room with a huge flower pedal. It was an elevator…into space!

The unimaginable science fiction in Promia, a fantasy world! Yes, Amari’s route is filled with twists and turns, surprising me at every scene. Just when you feel you figured out what the protagonist’s past is, a sudden revelation of a whole new conspiracy keeps your interest and curiousity at bay. What is the meaning of Kodama’s “special treatment upon entry” of the satellite? Just who is Eco? And there is definitely more behind the brutal act upon the Tsukikage King. Amari’s route opens up so many questions that makes you want more, it is no wonder SEVEN WONDER has a trial with the almost entirety of Amari’s route.

In the second arc, Kodama takes a dive into the past and the background behind Kodama is (almost)fully revealed.

Nina Autumn

Nina is the honest and bright but slightly clumsy Police captain who is liked by everyone! She aspires to become a royal chef, but due to her superhuman strength she is scouted to the police force department instead. Oppai d(・ε-`*).

One of the routes where Kodama takes a leap to the past, and in Nina’s route he takes her with him. They arrive at the Milsant 300 years back, where the fabled legend of Tsukikage-king being brought forth by the evil Rinowahl got defeated by the three sages was first started. In this time, there weren’t any “six flower” priestess yet, and the street was protected by one none other than Kodama(female). Luckily, during this time Promia’s biggest threat Rinowahl was not the cunning sly mastermind she was portrayed to be, and the streets of Milsant was rather peaceful. However, as time pass by, the attacks of shadow puppets became more frequent, and the time couldn’t be worse: “Promia” needed to ascend to “heaven”. Seeing as Kodama(female) was clearly short handed, Nina and Kodama stepped in to help out, becoming heroes.

Time passes, Kodama and Nina have not found a way to return back to their time, but seemed to have found their place in this timeline. Just when they felt content even if living here together (as wife and husband hohoho), the worst situation has happened: the buildup in “Promia” became uncontainable…and Tsukikage-king is back!

I like Nina. While she isn’t the brightest (in various meanings) of the bunch, I find it hard to dislike someone who tries hard. Her route reflects much of her personality: plain, but values upon the peaceful life and even a symbolic finale. Her being shy to people mistaking her to be the wife of Kodama never ceases to put a smile on my face. Her route was an introduction to the Milsant 300 years ago, and we get to see who the three sages really were (there never was a third! It was a symbol meant for the courageous civilian hero of Milsant). More background on Cachet, and things are starting to come together!

Rinowahl

The mysterious invader from the beginning alongside Jezelle. She carries the same name as the “Rinowahl” in the legend. Contrary to her stature, she is the commander of the invasion. Mischievous and carries two teddy bear around, it is almost as if she is coming to Milsant to fool around?

Just by having Rinowahl along with the other heroines in the OP, it is probably not too much surprise she is also a capturable heroine. Rinowahl is the same “Rinowahl” from the legend 300 years back, furthermore…she is Reno! The head of the “six flower” priestesses. Her 光炉 allows enchantments to the clothes she weave, and that includes disguising options. Surprise!

So what happens when the future Rinowahl meets the past Rinowahl? Time Parado-oh wait, Rinowahl knocks her out on their first encounter. Now it’s time to rightfully take back what was Rino-Reno sama’s!

Forgive my excitement when it comes to Rino-Reno, I can only say a twintailed, mischievous, legal loli who doesn’t mind giving you what you want (even calls you Onii-chan) can’t be resisted. *Dies due to loss of blood from nosebleed*.

Ahem, her route is about Rino-Reno’s relation with Kodama: first enemy, then inseparable partners, and family. Helping Kodama share the burden of the dark secrets of Milsant, and shouldering the lonely place of a ruler throughout the years, all Rino-Reno wanted was praise from her favourite person in the world. There were some overlap with Nina’s route in that the main antagonist was the Tsukikage in Cachet, but this time without the “third sage” Kodama and Co. was in for a rough fight. In the end, it took the combined effort of Eco, Kodama and Rino-Reno (on top of Amari’s interference with Cachet’s “cockpit”) to finally drive out the Tsukikage. Rino-Reno gets her well deserved closure: “You were always my first family, the tie that differed me from just being a gear in the machine that is Milsant…Thank you.” ECOOOOOOOO ;_;.

The third arc wraps up the remaining loose ends by giving us conclusion to the history of Milsant and its enemies.

Elegano Fon Croitziel

The flower of Roselia, the priestess of Elegance. Well-versed in all forms of art, descent from the noble sage Enosera, Elegano is the epitome of ojousama: confident, polite, and perfect. She respects greatly for her older sister, Enosera, and is much of a siscon. Even though she is a priestess and a noble, she prefers to wonder the streets of Roselia to interact with the citizens personally, and even plays instruments for the children. Has a bit of a rival relationship with Flarerouge.

Elegano is DA BEST, and it isn’t just me who feels that way: the popularity poll (now gone, but results are mentioned briefly on their C80 booth webpage here) agrees as well! Perhaps it was her impressive debut scene, or how she is refined but free, competent on her own and seems to be able to read what Kodama is thinking about all the time, or her ゾクゾクさせるpiercing stare accompanied with the smile that half invites and half teases. Most likely all of it.

That being said, Elegano’s route is, in my opinion, one of the weakest in Taiyou no Promia. Not so much regarding to plot significance (though it isn’t anything ground breaking either), but how Elegano did not play a major role in her own route. The route consisted of Elegano finding interest in Kodama after he healed Enosera by his usual 光炉 attaching technique. Elegano then proposed a date, where they proceeded to each act as “George” the Tiger. The last remaining enemies, Tsukikage body parts, were defeated by Flarerouge’s new found powers, and even Eco was no match for her. Suddenly, Enosera decided to reveal that she is the final boss: the great sage “Enosera”…the Princess of the South Sky.

Enosera has been living all this time in Milsant, even helping the rebuilding efforts at times, because she wishes to find a way to revive her home planet Ludinas, which was destroyed in the great galaxy war. When she realized the people of Milsant (mixed with Ludinas blood) has gradually forgotten about their home planet, she grew desperate and even went to lengths as to mind control “Kodama”. Now that Tsukikage has been taken care of by the six flower priestess, she takes the main stage again…this time with a plan to overload Milsant’s 光炉 energy to try to revive Ludinas, even if it meant Milsant itself will die. The only one to stop her…is Flarerouge.

Yes, even the last confrontation was not done directly by Elegano, which made me question why they had her go through the power up phase in the dojo. Also, perhaps pertaining to Elegano not having any weaknesses, there didn’t seem to be much chemistry between Kodama and Elegano (i.e. ichaicha lacked the usual embarrassing feeling), and events just seemed to progress much faster than their relationship is growing.

Flarerouge Liliansol

The first flower that joins your party, also the canonical heroine. Flarerouge is a hardworking and diligent fighter as she is a priestess. Stands for righteousness and extremely loyal to Promia, however much of her overzealous loyalty backfires as she tends to not read the atmosphere. While most of the time she is reliable, she sometimes acts before she thinks, often resulting in failures.

There is no doubt SEVEN WONDER established Flarerouge to be cute, and they succeeded. Off all the heroines, Flarerouge has the most maiden-like reactions: she “trips” in her attempts to please Promia, easily flustered over l-l-love related matters, and ofcourse the black silky long hair is the mark of true heroines (in Japanese culture at least!). Her route ties up the rest of the loose ends by revealing she is the descent of the princess of North Sky and defeats the Princess of the South Sky to end the millennium long galaxy war (overlap with Elegano’s route). There was a small fragment of Kodama and Flarerouge going to the satellite, but nothing really happens other than a confirmation of their past incarnations. They decided to live free of the shackles from the past, and still fall in love like they were destined to anyways, living happily ever after!

Hmm, don’t have much to say except Flarerouge’s route is as orthodox as a true end can be, which is good! While everything seems to be solved by this sudden “awakening” of Flarerouge’s power seems too convenient (even Cachet was saved, despite Eco’s angst over how the probability Cachet not being devoured by Tsukikage was slim to none in other routes), but that is the beauty of the sun. Praise the sun! As Shakespeare said, “All’s well that ends well” couldn’t be more true.

As you complete each route, a short snippet of a side story pops up at the end and is a conversation between an eager to learn girl asking questions to a story telling old man. Later revealed to be Kodama and Promia, a rather neat way to wrap everything up.

In regards to action, while the fights aren’t detailed accounts of each character’s moves, there is plenty of 燃え elements. While the protagonist himself is never the center of fights, rather he serves as a support with his “untapped massive knowledge of the 光炉”, he sure knows how to look extraordinarily heroic especially with 「二人だけの舞台」 playing in the background (love this track!), attesting to the statement of “strength in belief, in self and comrades”. I do think the concept behind Promia being the one who cleanse impurities is a nice one, but I can’t help but feel each time that one CG pops up for the final blow, the slight uncomforting similarity to a mahou shoujo’s purifying beam arises as well. Could be just myself though.

The length of Taiyou no Promia is relatively short, with 5 chapters from the common route and other 5 dedicated to character routes. While in most routes this didn’t pose to be a problem, Elegano’s route felt too brief and undeveloped (mainly Elegano’s “I can accept anything” attitude seemed to lack the natural human response, and thus the downplay of drama+fast flow of events/time), and remains my one major complaint with Taiyou no Promia.

In conclusion, Taiyou no Promia came as a pleasant surprise: with lovable characters and interesting plot with actions to keep things rolling in a modest, orthodox styled fantasy world. There are shortcomings though: while the soundtracks were great themselves, but increasing the repertoire (especially for battle themes) would tremendously improve the experience, the action/magic beam and generic themes of friendship/love could come out to feel abit childish, and closing out abit prematurely when there were great potential (i.e. Elegano route, Elegano route, more space-related events, and Elegano route!). The fandisk is coming sometime in the future (planned for this winter but likely early 2012), and I would gladly spend more “quality” time with the heroines again :DDD.

Don’t worry Pu-chan, just a few more bug fixes and cleanup until we meet again!

PS: Let me know if highlighting gets too tedious, I’m still experimenting to see what works best (if only wordpress .com supported spoiler blocks).

One of the main objection to why Shirou was not “BAWS”(up to interpretation on what exactly defines the term),was that he was not relatable(enough) to the readers. That when a character becomes too extreme on the characteristic spectrum the character tends to be hated and ridiculed by the general population near the middle because “they’re too unreal”.

In many sense, the comment is a reasonable, logical, impartial assessment. In fact, much of the people arguing would agree with him if not for the subject of the disagreement being so famous for being (somewhat irrationally) hated upon. Because there is a need to balance the powers in this “people nowadays think evil characters are more interesting than good ones” world.

Rather than providing a counter example, I’d like to discuss what exactly are the credentials for a protagonist in the reader’s eyes. Or rather, try to explain why a protagonist doesn’t necessary need to be relatable to be appreciated.

So let’s take a step back, and recall that in bishoujo-ge/galge/eroges, the most important character is the protagonist. The protagonist is responsible for interacting with the characters of the story in every route, every situation. In that sense, how well-received the heroines (and thus the game) is largely affected by the protagonist.

One type of protagonist, and probably the most classic type, is what I’ll call the Synchro-type (from synchronize). These are your “input name” at start protagonist and never make an appearance on screen type of protagonists that are meant to be easily identified with and thus improve the experience. Unfortunately, this meant that the protagonist’s personality must be set to as broad as possible to accommodate for a wide range of audience and often results in a bland, not much background, character that doesn’t stand out physically nor mentally (but is socially accepted.)

While it may have had success with readers from before, nowadays what would’ve been empathized with these synchro-type may not necessary incite the same feelings. In a sense these type of protagonist is the most risky.

If I were to put protagonist relatability on a scale, this type would sit right at the middle. While a synchro-type protagonist “lays low” to contrast the heroine’s charms, the “resonance” protagonist type often have preset backgrounds to them and focuses more on a strong character to advance stories. As such, the resonance type doesn’t obsess with matching up with the readers, rather it uses the fact the reader has looked at the world through the protagonist’s eye and seeks agreement from the readers.

The resonance type is the most stable protagonist type since the protagonist is often depicted as a more capable individual/writer dictated and even if they don’t succeed in garnering shared sentiments they can fall back to…

The “fantasy” type protagonist. As Metaler has commented, these character types are meant to be enjoyed because they are far from one’s reality. Whether it be for escape, for admiration, or even just for entertainment, these types are an acknowledgment to there being different personalities in the world. The fantasy type protagonist is then completely detached from the reader and viewed as no longer as a projection, and the reader becomes an observer of the story. In this case the writer has complete control and can make the protagonist a genius, a villain, or even a cross-dresser.

As you can see, the three types are merely degrees of synchrony between protagonist and the reader, and with each protagonist type there exist some way to derive enjoyment out of the protagonist. That means, whether or not F/SN was so well received could not have been solely dependent on whether Shirou was BAWS(relatable) or not. If we take that away, what’s left over are personal opinions about Shirou’s character/ideals (i.e. like or dislike). Ad hominem is a fallacy. Thus one should tl;dr and put down personal preference as a comment. QED.

I like Shirou (´・ω・`).

This post will be labeled as NSFW as a certain BLAWG analyst deem needed. Proceed with caution!

Mirai Nostalgia is developed by Purple Software, who has quite the history as far as eroge company goes. Unfortunately, my only experience with Purplesoft is with Natsu ni Kanaderu Bokura no Uta which I’ve only completed a route (and gave up after another half). If there was anything I noticed between them, it would be the similar syndrome of a “formulaic” scenario Purplesoft tends to lend themselves into.

Mirai Nostalgia is set in modern world Japan where psychic powers exist amongst few. Youichi is one of the few who possess such powers, but since his power only allows him to control miniscule objects, Youichi led an ordinary school life…until the day he meets a girl claiming to have come from the future to change history. All of the sudden, Youichi’s long estranged sisters Nono and Hinano moved back in to his house, he also became the “target” of the shrine maiden, Iori, and his osananajimi group starts to throw a ruckus on their own (as usual). Things start to get interesting in Youichi’s slightly not so ordinary life…

Or so you would think, Mirai Nostalgia is quite the standard, run of the mill, school comedy as one quickly realizes as they go through the common route. On the occasions Youichi is not seen in school, he is at home worrying about food, talking to cats, peaking at imoutos changing, and having overnight game sessions with the rich ojousama neet osananajimi. Just the usual worries about getting along with people around him. When it comes to the SF portion of Mirai Nostalgia, there is as much action as there are male casts, and the mystery portion didn’t feel quite as satisfying due to the redundant (over)foreshadowing in each routes.

However, if there is one thing that sustained my attention, it would be the quality of the CG and art in Mirai Nostalgia. It isn’t much, but seeing as there has been a lack in volume recently (I blame the imouto-wave), Mirai Nostalgia provides one with plenty.

The functions of the system was also very well designed. With a calendar+quick backtrack option in the backlog if you missed something, or if you want to change route but forgot to save, can go back to the previous choice. Change the font colour, and even customize the quick menu bar to the size you want at any given time. Makes for a very comfortable and personalized experience.

As per the formula, the only story significant routes are Iori’s and Anna’s. Nono and Hinano’s was so tangent to anything psychic power that I felt the drama they imposed seemed too forced and wasn’t quite as enjoyable. I was especially disappointed in seeing the final “crisis” of Nono having a resolution of “my very anguished doubts and fear that I worried and pondered over the previous days are dispelled by you saving me from certain bus crash”, not to mention the scene lasted for 5 lines and has no CGs whatsoever.

That said, the flashback (or future vision rather) in Anna’s route was what I felt to be the gold of Mirai Nostalgia. It explained much of why Anna values the life of student and friends that she even sacrificed some lover time with Youichi. The ending was fine too, albeit too convenient to be true.

All in all, I feel Mirai Nostalgia accomplished what it was intended: a modest story about school romance and family/group of close friends. Much of today we look for sensation in stories, something new and fresh like them apple products, but I don’t think appreciating the old tried-and-true values is such a bad thing either, and Mirai “Nostalgia” does just that.

PS: Mirai Nostalgia has no relation with the “Nostalgia Drive” from Lab. Member 001, fellow comrades. El Psy Congroo.

Oh right, the nsfws:

T-Thi-This is?!

…

No response…it seems to be just a regular Rewrite review^[1].

Rewrite is the latest visual novel developed by Key. Planned and directed by Itaru Hinoue, who is also responsible for the art and character design of Rewrite (and most other Key games for that matter), and scenario written mainly by Tanaka Romeo, with help from Ryukishi07(Lucia route), Yūto Tonokawa(Chihaya, Shizuru route) and Jun Maeda for QC, the all star lineup staffing was looking more promising than ever.

While not exactly first contact with Key (Little Busters was the only other VN from Key I’ve played), I walked in with near zero prospect of what to expect from Rewrite, and my eyes were wide open from the experience.

There will be spoilers! I’ll try to mark them, and leave out the really important ones.

Story/Impression

Set in the city of Kazematsuri-shi, a government afforestation area deemed the modelled green city where ecology walks along side technology, you play as Tennouji Kotarou, a esper high-school student with regular teenage troubles. Kotarou is seen as a frivolous, free-spirited, carefree individual, but he is also a lonely one. Kanbe Kotori, the childhood friend who frequently skips classes and sleeps in the woods; Yoshino “Mad dog” Haruhiko, the delinquent who claims to be Kotarou’s rival; Nakatsu Shizuru, the quiet prefect with an eye-patch; Ohtori Chihaya, the clumsy, but powerful transfer student and more, Kotarou sets out to befriend those that are also social outcasts in his school, all the while avoiding from what he calls Kazematsuri-shi’s “supernatural” occurrences.

Kotarou experienced many inexplicable phenomenons: from the endless hallway at school, the desolated slums of robes and hounds, to even having his room invaded by mysterious visitors each night, it is an understatement for him to believe in the supernatural…in fact he himself is one, an esper that can augment his abilities as long as he wished for it. Thus when he was given the opportunity to reinstate the Occult research club, he took up the seat of executive officer (assault leader, in a sense) without hesitation as it was the perfect solution to his problems (+ alpha ulterior objective that may involve oppai).

Rewrite is a story of his, and the Occult research club’s, adventures.

If someone asked me what Rewrite was about, I’d reply which route they’d like to know. Rewrite is just such a colossus of a visual novel in both volume and themes that trying a summary of everything is simply too daunting of a task. In general though, the common route consist of the characters interacting in everyday activities in a joyous, comedic interesting fashion while the individual routes moves on to the more serious, and important parts revolving the mystery and heavy elements of the storyline.

SPOILERS

Common Route:

The “setup” part for every VNs. In Rewrite this meant to introduce characters, introduce Kazematsuri-shi, and most importantly introduce Kotarou and his daily life. The time Romeo spent developing and smoothing up the transition to the heavier individual routes was clockwork meticulous. While I’ll admit to constantly getting distracted at this portion of the playthrough (which resulted in a prolonged state of inattentiveness…but that is another matter) due to the route having too sparse of plot relevant information that Rewrite edges the reader to long for, in hindsight however it was the best way to go about it. Looking back now with my subsequent playthroughs, even the little monologue fragments with MAPPI become small solace to what happens in the individual routes, and especially the true route.

The comedy in the common route can be rather polarized. Lots of the comedy involves Kotarou trying to spice up his school life by doing out-of-the-ordinary acts and getting either the iron fists of Lucia as punchline or having Yoshino save the day (Yoshino really is the star in the comedic department).

Compared to Little Busters however, Rewrite’s comedy felt underwhelming. Most of the flare in Little Buster’s comedy, whether it be over-dramatized missions of doing everyday tasks or intriguing mini-games, instead converted to MAPPI, a mini-game that was more tedious than fun. While I don’t think mini-games are essentials in creating comedy, Rewrite’s common route felt like it was lacking something to hold on to a reader’s attention.

Alternatively, one could (and should) just take time and pace self with Rewrite as it is a long journey.

Kotori’s route:

I’ve posted my impressions back when I just finished her route, and it hasn’t changed much. Kotori’s route is the natural extension to the common route and it gives an accurate depiction of what to expect from the Rewrite world.

Kotori’s route serves more or less of an introduction route as the major issue was Kotarou identifying that he indeed is missing a part of his memory. The short version of it being he forgot all about himself trying to save a girl falling down from a tree and ended up dying. Kotori, finding him in his dire situation, revives him through the ancient magics of the Druids. Turns out Kotori, on a trip with family, got into an accident and both her parents died. In the midst of the crash site, an ancient tree answered to Kotori’s desire to revive her parents and made her into the disciple of Druid, an old cult that followed in close steps of the “Key”. They protect the “Key” in exchange for knowledge and magic of the power spots (think life stream of Earth).

The route starts rather mysterious with everyone from the Occult club missing from school. For weeks, Kotarou has just been cycling through reminiscing, searching for clues and training/developing his wrist blades at night. Kotarou eventually learns the truth after pursuing the data Inoue left for him, and finds Kotori in her hiding spot. Kotori explains everything, including her becoming as a druid and how she must protect the “Key” who is being targeted by two dangerous factions: The summoners of Gaia and another side composed of people with super powers.

The mood afterwards turns very grim and is basically Kotori realizing how futile the situation is, now that there are enemy forces encroaching and she only has a few days at max to prepare. She feels she shouldn’t have skipped her duties as a druid by going to school. Romeo gives no mercy to the couple as Kotarou’s abilities were so weak that fighting only one mass summoned wolf minion tired him out. Eventually, after the barrier has fallen, Kotarou dragged Kotori on an escape…from the enemies and her duties as a druid.

Finally, at the last scene after hefty sacrifices, we were given an answer why Kotori rejected Kotarou’s feeling when he confessed: that she was afraid his will wasn’t his own. Kotarou’s answer was the dissolution of the bond between summoner and summoned. He goes back to being in fatal condition, and Kotori losing her druid powers meant there was no other help to rely on: it was a feat of only human strength. Kotori was to carry Kotarou to the hospital, and if lucky they’ll be saved…the proof of strong will Kagari was looking for.

While one wont understand everything present with the first run through, there’s more than enough to be moved about whether it is Kotarou’s constant support of Kotori throughout hardships or Kotori’s resolve to save him at the end. Just enough hope to motivate more passage into Rewrite.

Chihaya’s Route:

I wont do a summary of events (can look at my impression) since, as many of the critics will say, Chihaya’s route is perhaps the weakest in terms of emotional engagement. The route is filled with hotblooded action scenes and shounen manga troupes that there wasn’t much time spent on developing deep bonds/ emotional growth, which is what Key seems to be known for.

I’ve mentioned in my impression that Chihaya’s route should really be renamed into Sakuya route, and the reason why is more than half of the route is about Kotarou becoming stronger through competition with his rivals, Midou and Sakuya. There are “trainings”, uncontrollable inner power that rampages, the rival that mirrors the protagonist except on the other side, the rival that serves as a role model/teacher, and ofcourse a scene where everyone unites their power against a giant boss. The end result comes off to be abit too well resolved to be believable.

That said, Chihaya’s route still maintains the qualities of what make Rewrite interesting. Sure, Tonokawa utilizes actions in his part, but be it good pacing between scenes or interesting dynamics in battle, he does a mighty fine job of contributing to the more violent/exciting side of Rewrite world. Also, due to my playing of this route immediately preceding Kotori’s, I found the change of outset rather welcoming: brighter atmosphere with lively Kotarou that matches up to his opponents, and justice served no less. If only Tonokawa’s characters have more significance in Romeo’s world…*coughMoonroute cough*.

ちはや、残念なKeyっこ、です。

Lucia’s Route:

The route everyone is (secretly) waiting for, the one done by Ryukishi07!

Lucia’s route starts off with Kotarou going through his pile of occult research rumours and finding one peculiar anonymous letter. “If Occult Research club think they are up for the challenge, look up Asahi Haruka.” 7 years ago, there was an incident where a middle schooler died in his hospital bed. The incident was never spoken of by anyone in the same class, and was only referred to as the curse of Asahi Haruka.

Intrigued, Kotarou decided to investigate, and found that Yoshino was in that very class. Excited, Kotarou went to ask Yoshino if all of this was true, only to be surprised by the one who calls himself WOLF was shaking as they spoke about the incident.

“Beware, when the glasses starts to crack, that’s your warning you’ve gone too far.”

Along with his middle school class address list, that was the only thing Yoshino left for him.

As Kotarou finish copying the address list, little did he know a paper spat out of the machine on its own, with the words “Don’t wake me up…or you will…”

That night, glasses and lights in Yoshino’s house were all broken.

It is difficult to believe a sweet girl like Lucia can turn out to be so cold and poisonous, but Ryuukishi definitely showed why looks can be deceiving. From the initial suspense to the reason for the white gloves, the entire route is filled with mystery, twists, and red herrings (standard Ryuukishi rule: You can only trust what you, the protagonist, sees). Oddly enough, Lucia route was one of the routes that was more focused on the heroine (instead of say, the overarching plot). Hell, Ryuukishi even had Kagari disappeared in this route, and made Lucia the “Key”. In that sense, many sides of Lucia was explored, pure or ugly, and brings about a very satisfying last battle which was incidentally on a rooftop with a helicopter pad *coughAyakashibitocough*.

Enjoyable on its own, Lucia’s route should be treated somewhat independent from the rest of the story. It does bring a more detailed account of the “apocalypse” however.

Shizuru’s Route:

It was difficult to decide, but I have to say Shizuru’s my favourite heroine of the Rewrite bunch. For that alone, this route was much more enjoyable than it sounds on paper.

The relation between Kotarou and Shizuru advanced through an old song that Shizuru was interested. Kotarou’s old man tastes in music led to them shopping for the CD and eventually him lending Shizuru his music player and telling him the story behind it (a simple rebel act against his uncaring parents). Shizuru, being the nice girl she is, in exchange tells Kotarou her secret for living alone in a room of nothing: she erased the memories of her family.

Days pass, and that day which marks the end of the common route arrives. Kotarou passed out after fleeing the leaf dragon and we wake up with our “power meter” turned way up. A month has passed by since then, and Kotarou has no recollection of anything. Everyone in the Occult research club went missing, and Shizuru lies on a patient bed somewhere…

Wait what, a cliffhanger in the middle of a spoiler summary? That’s about as peculiar as the unnecessary amnesia story device this route takes (though it is rather neat). The story later unfolds in the direction of apocalypse. Shizuru hides in the shelter Guardian built, and the reader sees her activities through the logs of her diary. When she finally comes out of the shelter, they reunite in a bittersweet fashion.

People say this route is the one most resembling of Key’s past works. With the maiden who seemed to be doomed by her fate and bittersweet end, you can say Shizuru is the new Nagisa/Ayu…maybe.

Akane’s Route:

If you thought Lucia was hard to get, Akane brings a whole new level in “one sided love”.

Akane’s route has Kotarou joining the Gaia side, as Akane is the (surprise!) successor to the saint of Gaia, Kishima Sakura. We learn that Gaia summoners are born through negative thought energy against the world, and they are essentially suicidal with each summon draining their life force. This negative spiral is what causes a split in the insides of Gaia. Kishima Sakura and her followers believes that eventually doomsday is going to wipe every human anyways, that there is no need to change while her ex-lover/right hand man wants to create a new scientific image for Gaia, and tries to find an alternative through doomsday via shelter.

Kotarou is tugged between the two political parties, and at first he vows to stay by Akane’s (Kishima’s) side. But as Kishima passes away, Akane had a sudden change in personality where she became eager to muster power through the crowd. Performing “miracles” and campaigning her rights to be the true ruler of Gaia, the distance between Kotarou and Akane widens as the time goes on. Eventually Akane becomes to occupied with her chorus (of doom!) to interact with Kotarou, and he became shaken at his vow.

He contacts Suzaki, where he learns the Saint’s passing of “souls” and why Suzaki has left Kishima in the first place. Suzaki agrees that the planet wont hold long. His plan to escape via shelter is not without base however, and he explains that by spreading the “technology” that is Gaia magic, he plans to recreate the world in the shelter. All of the sudden, Suzaki doesn’t sound so unreasonable, compared to the Saints who are no where to be seen…but heard throughout the world with their chorus of doom.

This is a route where essence of time got messy, especially with the one year time leap and many short days. I could not determine whether Kotarou was resolved, or just never got the idea that Akane is out to destroy the world due to lack of grasp on time. Besides from being in the middle of a political tug-o-war, the middle part of the route came off abit dry, just the daily (non)activity of Kotarou after he quit school and became a guard.

It was when the Salvation finally occurred that the pace started to pick up again. I felt the “power up” this time was too convenient, as Romeo decided to just give Kotarou’s claws “beast-like instincts that autopilots” and skip all the shounen training. When compared to the Terra route, the process seems to be way too sped up. Actions/Confrontations paled in comparison to other routes, especially the segment with Takasaka felt especially lacking (missing sprites for one). The Salvation is fleshed out this time, with overgrown plants destroying civilization, and natural disasters striking everywhere in the world. Surprisingly no debut of the guardians, nor any other characters, in this route.

When Kotarou triumphed over the Tyrannosaurus Rex (by stamina), he brought Akane to the city of stone/shelter. The route ended with Kotarou and Akane being exiled from the city of the shelter for their sins.

Can humans really live in a closed world, with no external resources? Is this merely a delay of the inevitable? Or perhaps Romeo meant to allude the shelter as a paradise/heaven that those who escape from reality often seek, and that it may not be as wonderful as they think it is. There seems to be no definite resolution nor answers given as to how or why there is misfortune, just that there is.

You just have to live on.

Moon Route:

Remember when the second OP of Rewrite came out on April fools and everyone dismissed it as a joke? Well, turns out it was a rendition of the Moon route. In the Moon route Kotarou wakes up to find himself all alone in the world, which is overgrown with plants (ala Apocalypse seen in Akane). He finds the only other entity in this world, Kagari—the key, and promptly gets killed by her.

Turns out he is immortal in this world, and he revives each time Kagari kills him. Tired of getting killed, he become infatuated with Kagari. Studying the actions of Kagari became a daily activity: the slight eyebrow tilt, to the graceful sitting on the ground, all is carefully studied. And eventually he won over her interest via Coffee.

He then learned that Kagari is studying the structure of the world. Her job was to find a way to sustain Earth so it doesn’t get destroyed. That amongst the TREE there are many BRANCHES and each branch was a different world “simulation”. Sometimes it meant reconstructing through Salvation, but other times she doesn’t need to interfere. Yep, all that happened in previous character routes? All just a dream (branch world, depending on how you wish to interpret it, more discussion in Terra route). Oh, and apparently the ultimate truth and knowledge of the universe is…love?!

Suddenly, out of nowhere Kagari and Kotarou is attacked by Kishima Sakura’s demons (Gaia’s saint, remember?). Her hate is so powerful that she transcends above time and universes. It’s now up to Kotarou and his gang to protect Kagari and save the world! Only it’s not the world, but the moon…and the real deal is in the next route.

If the summary sounds ridiculous, trust me it really is not exaggerating. Moon route is basically an attempt to connect every character route, with the true route (Terra) and making the reader swallow all the inconsistencies *coughSakuyacough*.

That said, it was a necessary next step for Terra. Moon route explained why Kagari wishes for “good memories” if human wanted to avoid salvation, and why the salvation was what it was. We are also reminded that there was a blank period in Kotarou’s memory that is key to solving all the mystery behind all of this. Not to mention we get to hear Kotarou’s voice. The Rewrite world has been revealed and all that is left is to end the story by saving the world.

Terra Route:

The reason why you play Rewrite, can be boiled down to this route alone. It is just that amazing.

As moon route hinted, Terra can be said as the other culmination of all the experience the reader has with the character routes. The world is still intact with Gaia, Guardians, and Kagari, who is now extremely personified, all present and Kotarou is stuck at the center of it all, alone. However, the only “clear bonus” Kotarou has in this route is the feeling of wanting to protect Kagari and nothing else. (Though you get to choose the “right” choice all the time now, as if you were guided…or maybe you have no choice to begin with!)

I’ll say that it was quite neat to see all the subcharacters finally taking the stage in Terra, giving much more depth to just “random people in the organization”. It also explains what happened in the blank period of Kotarou’s memories, though I’m skeptical if the “before blank” actually continues to the “after blank” (more in evidence of the heroine world being different than Terra).

Without spoiling much, in the end Kotarou succeeded providing “good memories” to Kagari. Romeo’s definition through Kagari’s response was not explicitly stated but hinted at memories that provide possibilities for the future being good memories (an example being space exploration where Kagari was excited), rather than recycling and being environmentally friendly (Kagari did not respond well to the recycling plan on TV). I was rather confused by what to make of this, but moon route stated Earth was running out of energy to reconstruct, so perhaps Kagari/Romeo didn’t think recycling alone would cut it.

As for the “resolution” in Terra, I feel it is an extension of Suzaki’s theory/Akane route (I.e. We make our own energy). Whether it is plausible aside, this resolution makes Kotarou’s final bravery seemingly just an act to buy time and doesn’t really resolve. I guess Romeo never intended provide a solution to the problem, rather he just presents it.

Terra route has some of the most interesting scenes in the entire game, but I feel the open-ended ending really doesn’t bring the needed closure to the story.

Characters

Kotarou Tennouji - The protagonist of the story, tends to joke around and prefer to take things lightly. Has a secret power capable of augmenting physical abilities.

Kotori Kanbe – Childhood friend of Kotarou. Friendly, petite (in regards to height), but is energetic and one of the few people that Kotarou can call a “close friend”. Her specialty is gardening, in which she demonstrates time and time through her volunteer work in the Kazamatsuri City Green Club. Bad with English (C’monbabyshakeitnow).

Chihaya Ootori - The mysterious transfer student. Gluttonous, monstrous strength, and genuinely naive. Teasable character.

Lucia Konohana- Class president, disciplinary squad, and all that is right and just. Eats spicy food like it is nothing and is the “violent”-dere. Stutters and flushes easily.

Shizuru Nakatsu- The quiet eye-patch kohai girl, communicates through head tilts. She is also on the disciplinary squad and is on good terms with Kotarou. Likes to eat Zanma.

Akane Senri- The senior school witch, who later Kotarou identifies as a neet. Plays games (first person shooter), doesn’t go outside, wary of hassles. Knowledgeable and likes to lecture/explain. She happens to hold a lot of power through blackmailing and controlling underground information.

Haruhiko Yoshino- The best friend rival.Yoshino claims to be a delinquent but helps out old ladies cross the street at his free time. He’s always out to “settle the duel” with Kotarou, but always end up playing with him/getting screwed by him. The comic relief.

Kagari-An entity made by Earth to determine whether to cause the Salvation or not. Emotionless.

Conclusion

If the spoiler section didn’t clue you in, Rewrite encompasses a very wide range of story elements and theme that it could be multiple visual novels. Romeo, Ryuukishi and Tonokawa contributed each of their writing into the Rewrite world and made it (somewhat) work. While some routes opt to try a more action-oriented writing, there are still elements that retain Key’s nakige style. Terra route is especially gripping with everything one experienced culminated and on the line. All in all an exceptional game deserving the expectations of Key fans, Romeo fans alike.

Now to wait for the fandisk…