Reviews from

in the past


This game has always intrigued me. I've heard about it's influence on the visual novel genre a lot, so curiosity got the best of me and I sat down, got an emulator, and checked out what made this thing so influential. At an outsider's glance, it seems like this sex fueled journey with no real point to anything, but after having played it I realize that to be wrong. While there is sex stuff (it's what holds this back from being a full 5 stars, same with the forced use of guide to play this), it is mainly a story about time travel, parallel worlds, and what it means to fight for someone. I was hooked soon after I began, and as the mystery got deeper and deeper, and more answers were being given, I found myself eagerly anticipating every playthrough of this game. I went into this as blind as possible and I'm so happy I did. The emotions I've felt with this game are unrivaled and I have not been this hooked on a game in a long, long time. This is for me a must play of the visual novel genre, and something that I don't think I will ever forget. Thank you Yu-No, for being such a stellar game...

using the power of parallel timelines to fuck my stepmom. music provided by stevie wonder trapped on a ym2608

played on neko project 21 as my first pc-98 game and its fun the story gets pretty interesting
i only did the first like main path, but im gonna keep going for the rest. the humour in the dialogue options is fun and i didnt expect it to be so fleshed out

I hate this so much but I respect it even more, gg

YUNO holds a special place in my heart and enjoys a comical spot on my dusty Visual Novel shelf especially thanks to one of the funniest adaptions I have come across

One thing you need to understand is YUNO has probably one of the most solid OSTs you'll ever hear, just oozes quality and really made me pick it up. Secondly the game is GORGEOUS, PC-98 games have that retro charm that just...... god I can gush at it for hours.

The story is actually one of the most ambitious I've seen in a sci-fi title, but the tail-end of the VN is just bloated, you're hit with far too many explanation segments, and characters make re-appearences where it doesn't really make much sense, with an ending that's just......there? The game has just embarrassing sexual bits (the incest...lord, so much incest), but then it's just straight up goofy (MC takes care of a dragon that grows up into a big-boobed dragon-girl thing that later helps him and another chick escape confinement and then dies from exhaustion, so they EAT HER? WHAT?)

It's an old title and you'd be surprised to find that once you get the time device at the start the game has a pretty damn decent pace and actually has a very interesting story, ESPECIALLY for its time.

Play it and then enjoy laughing at the adaption, brings me personal joy.


Hesitated a second while rating this. As a narrative experience, this is easily a top-class adventure game that handily wipes the floor with any other game from the mid-90s or earlier. Some of the sexual aspects are gratuitous and kind of inexplicable, even by eroge standards, though not particularly surprising given the state of erotic games prior to the mid-2000s and Kanno's record as a creator. The ending segment is, per creator testimony, incomplete; while still engaging in it's current form, it does kind of leave you to wonder what could've been As a video game...I suppose I'm not the right person to construct a thorough critique of it, I've never been a big point-and-click adventure game fan (and this is a proper point-and-click game by every metric, even surpassing Elf's own Isaku in complexity and scale) and I largely engaged with YU-NO as a modern ADV/visual novel, using a walkthrough to navigate through the gameplay sections to substitute for my own lack of adventure game intuition. I can respect the vision and a good deal of the finer elements, but I think the atmosphere of PC98 adventure games ended up hurting the design; there's really no reason you should have to idly click through an endless wall of flavor text and pixel hunt for the triggers to continue onwards, and the (entirely linear) opening and ending segments are as good an argument as any against the predominant form of command ADVs that prospered when this game was released. Still, I really do like this game a lot, despite my laundry list of complaints with it, and would recommend it in a heartbeat to any fellow retro game and sci-fi enthusiasts.

This review contains spoilers

Really really cool game. The aesthetic and soundtrack are fantastic and really help build an incredible atmosphere that warps you right back to the 90s. The adventure gameplay is remarkably robust with the freedom to go all kinds of places and pick up tons of extra dialogue at almost any time, but the annoying instances of "investigate this part 20 times and this part 10 times then the first part 10 times again to proceed" and the like dissuaded me from playing without a walkthrough. The jewel save and map system had me confused for a bit but it's pretty neat and straightforward once you get the hang of it and it's really cool seeing the map fill out and diverge as you progress. I found the characters to all be pretty likable and intriguing with their diverse conflicts and the ways they each build on the overarching mystery. While a lot of the dialogue and interactions were just goofy, I was surprised at the kinds of relationships presented in YU-NO that you just never really see in anime. Takuya's complex feelings toward his deceased dad, his difficulty dealing with his oedipus complex, his broken-off relationship with Mitsuki in which they licked each-other's wounds, his evasive attitude toward Mio due to her seeing him and Mitsuki having a good time in the classroom, his coping with Kanna's secret past, and various other dynamics gave YU-NO a distinct air from any other japanese media I've consumed in years. The characters generally took a back-seat to the mystery though which had me very invested throughout the whole story. I did, however, lose some interest in the last route with the huge shift to the fantasy setting. It was interesting in its own way but I vastly preferred the atmosphere and adventure gameplay of the other routes and I didn't find the characters from that section to be nearly as appealing as those in the others. Incest doesn't really gross me out or anything in media but I really don't think they had to have Takuya bang his daughter at the end as it really diminishes the parental vibe that fit with him maturing and becoming more like his dad. It also makes his love to sayless seem a lot less genuine when he's having sex with literally every woman he finds in the other world at the drop of a hat including their daughter. All that being said though, I did thoroughly enjoy the ending as it brought back the sci-fi aspect and connected back to the rest of the game but I wish it would've called back to the other heroines by showing them in the credits or something at least. Closing thought: YU-NO has the best "item found" sound in a video game.

This game is wonderful. The only flaw with it is that Kanna-Chan is not real.

The most mindblowing fictional experience of my life

This review contains spoilers

this is just a quick observation, not necessarily related to the fact that I've enjoyed this game a lot (and that I have a lot of #opinions), but... why are the true ends so rapey and overly sexual? we got it, Takuya can't keep his junk in his pants. but I wanted closure and fluffiness and got the heroines getting clearly pressured to do sexual things they do not feel like doing. Mio, in any case, is the one better equipped to deal with him.
i got to love this game -in spite of the incest stuff-, but this was a bad-tasting way to part. a regrettable decision.

This shit so peak, the only somewhat issue I have is I feel like the epilogue wasn't nearly long enough and feels a little rushed (it was already like 7 hours) but otherwise adored it.

I wish Mio and Sayless were real

I tried to play this without a guide. I gave up after two hours. Nice idea for a game system, but we all have other shit to do in our life. Still, I respect the ambition, and the story is engrossing for the most part. If there's one thing in this game that does not need any change, it's the art style. The remake is blasphemy.

It has been said that a person's teenage years is some of the best in one's life. There are hundreds
upon hundreds of movies, TV shows, and games that expound upon this fact. This teenage-oriented
media is everywhere, especially in Japan as you've no doubt seen anime correlate to something dealing
with high schoolers at least once. In some people's youth they go out and do have similarily fun
adventures and enjoy themselves to the fullest, but, there are many who are shackled by
overprotectiveness, shyness, maybe even they're hazed or do not have many friends to talk to. Despite
this people adapt, there many ways to enjoy oneself nowadays, especially through the internet and
through entertainment. This will never bring the same emotion or experience as going out but in many
cases this is preferred and in fact has such huge followings to the point that it's truly all of what some
people have. A notable margin live inside this bubble to this day past their youth and do not interact
with much outside. What perpetuates this and what keeps people inside can be easily imagined by
outsiders and seen as crude and pathetic. While some of these people do not have that intricate of a
rhyme or reason, there are also people who just have not felt like they've grown up and cannot abide by
adulthood. Many people sometimes dream to return to what they thought were problems in the past and
stay coddled in the warmth of nostalgia, forever.

Not all people who enjoy the internet, games, or any teen media are inside people of course.
There is in fact many people who are inspired to do more outside by media, or creators who inject their
real life experiences into their projects. Whether their creations can be seen as too embellished upon
and unrealistic or made to be completely satirical they all surround it with the setting of a teenager in
high school. In reality though, what were their high school lives like? How many people during that
period of time have had their dreams realized or crushed? Were they longing for love? Friends? Maybe
even something that may seem too far-fetched... Whether or not people did think too deeply or not
there is sometimes a strange emotion tied to adolescence. It could be nostalgia as it is for most but
sometimes it can be a darker, more disgusting feeling. There are quite the amount of people who hated
their teenage years and moved on completely, the best days of their lives would end up being in their
later years. In that sense teenage media wouldn't seem appeal to these people, but, what if it tapped into
the darkness of those years and created a sort of fine line that crosses between nostalgia and pain.

There are no doubt a good amount of examples of a dark “coming-of-age” story but they
generally invoke only one side of this spectrum of emotion. Despite how well they dive into how low a
human could go there is sometimes only things you can feel when you're able to deliver more homely
feel. A true cross between these feelings in fiction isn't easy to do, especially if you're attempting to
relate to a reader as not all people can confide in it due to how muddled people's view of things can be.
Most of the time people rally behind a happy and carefree character, a very charismatic villain, or
sometimes a person who just gets all the hotties! Regardless of the depth of relatability you put in these
characters something won't always click, truthfully the way to win over the hearts of people is to create
a more forlorn or romantic sense of empathy instead of a drawn out direct form of sympathy. The most
exciting things are the things that can't happen in real life, it's why so many people look towards fiction
for comfort or for fun. But things that are too perfect are boring and things that are too flawed just
remind people of why they dislike things in other parts of their life. The right amount of perfection and
flaw creates an elevated form of beauty and righteousness in the landscape of fiction.

Takuya Arima is the protagonist in a VN called YU-NO released in 1996 by ELF Corporation,
his character arcs and the passion formed by the composer, the artists, and writers of ELF help create
this cross between despair and reminiscence. YU-NO itself is considered a Sci-Fi visual novel but a
large portion of it takes place in a normal Japanese neighborhood and high school, with varying locales
throughout the nearby city. A lot could be said about its very vast world and science fiction elements
and absurdly unrealistic, crazy moments but this isn't about that. Despite this game's genre it actually
fixates on a lot of different ideas and the one that captured me was its portrayal of a charismatic teenage
boy. A lot of these Japanese high school centric scenarios tend to rely more on the goofy or fantasy side
of things but this game chooses to create a character who has a similar, enjoyable and funny personality
but tinged in a harsh reality that has wrought an almost perfect balance of youth.

The situations in this game can sometimes be erotic in nature and is definitely a product of its
time but with the way the wind blows in the game, it's almost necessary and in fact adds to the
emotions encapsulated within Takuya. His role as a teenager is crucial as it invites the player to share in
his angst and display the truth of how much an adolescent can really do in the complex, seedy relations
of adults. Unlike a lot of other works it doesn't completely downplay the adults and make a sort of
“Kids rule!” mentality. It establishes the importance between the both of them, creating a tug of war
between what's out of each other's control.

Certain scenes in this vein evoke a bygone sense of youth that some may have never even
experienced but solidifies itself as a part as one's memory. These moments develop more and more as
the story continues and even though later on the plot itself changes focus this underlying emotion
continues to emanate throughout each route and strengthens the bond of Takuya and the player. The
freedom he has and the choices he makes with only his raw, unadulterated passion and his own fiery
sense of justice brings him to the climax of what being a teenager should be about. It's almost a dream
to his live his kind of life yet at the same time the hammer of reality is brought down upon him time
and time again. There is no true answer to everything in this game's world, everything that is “perfect”
and “true” is only found with the player's decision to abuse save slots and fix these issues one step at a
time. All visual novels have these consequences with bad endings and whatnot but this game actually
makes you decide what to do for long periods of time due to the limit of your save slots in the
beginning and creates a sense of finality or anger to each route you complete. In a sense, even though
you're expected to do every little thing to fix the world, there is elegance in the many outcomes that
occur through the bare minimum and exposes the real world through the eyes of Takuya. Even if you
weren't to play YU-NO in this way its scenarios will still tug on you and keep you day dreaming, as if
you were stuck in class and thinking of another kind of life.

In your life have there been moments where you think back and feel like something was all a
dream but it really happened? Sometimes these moments can be good or bad but they all share in
common that strange form of existence. Could've been insignificant, could've been an extremely
important moment. All you know is that one way or another it happened and that's how YU-NO feels.
It's something that as you read and listen, it blossoms and creates a strange, comforting bubble of
feelings. It wells up inside you and when it's all over, it doesn't feel fictitious, neither does it come off
as real. YU-NO gives you a dreamy high of a look into a dirty, fun youth you've never had and brings
you back around and throws you back into your seat. It comes to show you that even if you haven't had
these experiences, maybe you can still make them. Maybe you can be the one to put things into motion
and create love. Not for others, but for yourself, create a passion of your own and wring yourself out of
whatever you're in. Simply dreaming of the future isn't enough, as much as you want to think that's
good enough. Live and let die, jump over the age, save the future.

Apesar dos pesares, o jogo tem uma história meio viajada e tals...mas é tanta coisa doida que esse jogo tem, q vale a pena dar uma chance e sim, EU FIZ TODOS OS FINAIS E O ÚLTIMO E BASICAMENTE OUTRO JOGO WTF.

This review contains spoilers

Time travel the point and click adventure game with h-scenes! Play the TLWiki verison on Windows/PC-98/Vita via fan translation only. Remake and either anime are bad.
Pros: Amazing soundtrack and art. Insane story that's hard to put into words. Bascially, you plays a pervert delinquent, who has to solve all these riddles that will lead him to his father who vanished. It may be an Eroge, but there's more mind fucking than actual fucking going on here. Each route has it's own "theme". Eriko/Mitsuki is "horror", Ayumi is "depression", Mio is "Archaelogy/adventure" Kanna/Kaori is "Mystery". The eiplogue cranks everything up to 11. Sayless is best waifu. Yu-no herself is also quite likable. Takuya doesn't really grow due to the gameplay mechanic of time resetting itself, but I liked his "chivalrous pervert" nature anyway. Time/dimensional travelling gameplay is very unique.
Cons: (minor) hard to complete without a guide, (minor) incest, though it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, (major) has a gratuitous BDSM scene and implied cannabalism, (major) the epilogue nerfs the point and click part, despite tying the narrative together.

This review contains spoilers

A few questionable sex scenes aside, this game's atmosphere (the PC-98 version) is spooky, a disturbing depiction of the time loop trope, and one of the most interesting visual novels I've played. Goes to typical ridiculous SF climaxes, but kind of works emotionally? idk. done by a brilliant and small team.

It was fun for 10 hours but got really repetitive by the last 7. Cool point and click. Fine story. Time travel mechanic is interesting. Sex scenes are ok. Pixel art is amazing. Music is amazing. Remember to only play this version and not the remake.

Edit: I now played the rest of the game. It was good except for the incest.

Technically and structurally fundamental for visual novels and puzzle games to come, but insanely difficult to complete without a guide and with a main character whose fundamental traits revolve around dealing with serious moments by acting like a lecher. Not even kidding, almost half of the game script is about sex jokes, and not even funny ones.
The pixel art, music and general ideas are stunning, but ultimately misused and relevant only as the solid foundation they represented for eroge to come.

very innovative and important vn. has a killer aesthetic, an intriguing story, overall likable cast, and a fantastic soundtrack. but it really could do without the constant tone-killing eroge sections especially towards the end