Muv-Luv Photonflowers* is one of two side-story collections in the Muv-Luv series of visual novels released in 2014, the other being Photonmelodies♮.
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big fan of the sumika route sequel, Marino's side stories rock too
a bunch of stories (thankfully most are short) but really only a few are actually worth. The ones that are worth are really sick tho
I loved Confessions and Inheritance, hated Rain dancers, and everything else was varying around mid
Pretty solid collection of small stories.
Extra side: Little 20-30 minute segments and a 4-5 hour long Sumika epilogue were fun, but not super substantial. The Sumika epilogue conflict was kind of dumb too, at least the establishing incident. Good for healing the PTSD of Alternative.
Alternative: Decently interesting short snippets of the larger world for the shorter stories. Marimo's short story was good, but way too short for the ending to be too impactful. Michiru's short story was definitely the highlight of the compilation, making her character stand out more, and fits in line with Alternative perfectly. Weirdly more horny than the literal other VNs with H-scenes, even if it was an all-ages story.
Extra side: Little 20-30 minute segments and a 4-5 hour long Sumika epilogue were fun, but not super substantial. The Sumika epilogue conflict was kind of dumb too, at least the establishing incident. Good for healing the PTSD of Alternative.
Alternative: Decently interesting short snippets of the larger world for the shorter stories. Marimo's short story was good, but way too short for the ending to be too impactful. Michiru's short story was definitely the highlight of the compilation, making her character stand out more, and fits in line with Alternative perfectly. Weirdly more horny than the literal other VNs with H-scenes, even if it was an all-ages story.
This review contains spoilers
Collection of mostly good side stories
On the Extra side, the big Sumika epilogue and the small story are... alright, the Chizuru one is pretty endearing, the Tama one is actually really entertaining, and the Ayamine one is genuinely great. Meiya got 2 stories and holy shit did she get the short end of the stick, the first one is fun at the start when she's reading her book and then becomes pretty bad, and the second is awful
But the real meat is of course the Alternative side, and the first one you'll probably read is Atonement
and
holy
fuck
Yeah this is an actual 10/10 story, what else needs to be said, this is literally perfection how did they cook this well
I'm skipping to the 4th but Chicken Divers is also an easy 10/10, the atmosphere in this, as the protag contemplates the planet and his upcoming mission alone in a metal box to prepare for his orbital dive, which is probably the rawest concept in fiction, is absolutely incredible. This is like a condensed version of everything that's cool about Muv-Luv
After Atonement though, you'll probably play the really oddly placed Rain Dancers. This definitely isn't a bad story, but it's just okay? And since Confessions is very closely linked to Atonement, making most players play this in-between is really weird
And yeah Confessions. This is about half the game probably, and it actually could've been a 10/10, but it's got some really, really fucking weird scenes here and there, some real Angelica Cold Steel moments. This made me realize that the Muv-Luv main trilogy was actually surprisingly really light on all this shit, the awful Chizuru/Ayamine arc in Unlimited is probably the only time it really did that
But yeah, of course playing as Isumi GOAT Michiru is great, as is seeing her and Marimo's relationship. Marimo who is completely different from how we see her in Unlimited/Alternative, obviously as a consequence from Atonement's events
And it ends on Inheritance, a pretty decent story that lets us see Isumi's sisters and the consequences of Sadogashima on Akira. It's fine I guess
But yeah overall this is good, but with some stinkers
On the Extra side, the big Sumika epilogue and the small story are... alright, the Chizuru one is pretty endearing, the Tama one is actually really entertaining, and the Ayamine one is genuinely great. Meiya got 2 stories and holy shit did she get the short end of the stick, the first one is fun at the start when she's reading her book and then becomes pretty bad, and the second is awful
But the real meat is of course the Alternative side, and the first one you'll probably read is Atonement
and
holy
fuck
Yeah this is an actual 10/10 story, what else needs to be said, this is literally perfection how did they cook this well
I'm skipping to the 4th but Chicken Divers is also an easy 10/10, the atmosphere in this, as the protag contemplates the planet and his upcoming mission alone in a metal box to prepare for his orbital dive, which is probably the rawest concept in fiction, is absolutely incredible. This is like a condensed version of everything that's cool about Muv-Luv
After Atonement though, you'll probably play the really oddly placed Rain Dancers. This definitely isn't a bad story, but it's just okay? And since Confessions is very closely linked to Atonement, making most players play this in-between is really weird
And yeah Confessions. This is about half the game probably, and it actually could've been a 10/10, but it's got some really, really fucking weird scenes here and there, some real Angelica Cold Steel moments. This made me realize that the Muv-Luv main trilogy was actually surprisingly really light on all this shit, the awful Chizuru/Ayamine arc in Unlimited is probably the only time it really did that
But yeah, of course playing as Isumi GOAT Michiru is great, as is seeing her and Marimo's relationship. Marimo who is completely different from how we see her in Unlimited/Alternative, obviously as a consequence from Atonement's events
And it ends on Inheritance, a pretty decent story that lets us see Isumi's sisters and the consequences of Sadogashima on Akira. It's fine I guess
But yeah overall this is good, but with some stinkers
sumika