This is a great romhack for anyone who hates a good time. I genuinely would love to give this hack a high rating for its technical achievements and the seamless integration of those aspects, but as someone who actually tried to nuzlocke this game (basically meaning using suboptimal teams at all times, as pokemon should be played) I got my ass whooped and there was nothing I could do about it. And sure, you could scream "filtered!!!" as Showdown dwellers love to do, but seriously, this hack crumbles under the slightest bit of scrutiny even from a competitive perspective.

I'm gonna preface this by once again reiterating that I did nuzlocke the game, and so my pokemon choices were limited, but I even further handicapped myself by randomizing pokemon and their abilities. I didn't know the repercussions of this until much later into the game, at which point the ball was already rolling so there was no point in stopping. I have honestly no idea why the game refuses to let you randomize boss battles, but I digress. I will also mention that I had to lax the rules of nuzlocke quite a fair bit to prevent myself from constantly wiping and having to restart, though the spirit stayed up until the end of the game.

Even if you don't take into account my Obviously Wrong way to play this hack, the boss battles are way too unbalanced for what you're given, and they're also TOO DAMN FREQUENT. Trainers having items that you don't have access to was already a huge red flag, but it got worse once I actually realized how the AI functioned. Difficulty is a subjective type of thing, but I believe in a fair and balanced game. What you face as a player must play under the same rules as you do. In Pokemon, for example, the AI should only be aware of what I can see from their end: the Pokemon that they have shown to me, and the moves that they have used, as well as items that have triggered. Difficulty, in this case, would depend on how smart the AI is in predicting what I'm going to do next based on that info.

So explain to me why the AI changes and reacts to swapping pokemon (that haven't been displayed yet), items, and movesets? How does it know those things? I'm sorry but I think I missed out on this update to competitive! Sarcasm aside, this is just bullshit. If the creators were just trying to mimick predicting by making the AI know what you have, I'm sorry but it doesn't work. You've actively made the opposing agent stronger than the player by making them play under different rules. In the most succinct words, you've failed.

And the worst part is this isn't an infrequent occurance, because "boss" battles are EVERYWHERE. Regular trainers are changed into them. You run into them on accident all the time, because rivals have changed positions and have new positions. It gets tiring. Like, really tiring. I wanted this game to be over by the 5th gym. And then it makes you fight Giovanni 3 times. It makes you fight the Rocket duo 3 times. It FORCES you to rematch gym leaders before you can move on. You couldn't define padding better than this if you tried.

Oh yeah, before I forget, gyms? Do you remember how they're supposed to have themes with the typings? Just wanted to let you know that Sabrina has 3/6 Psychic types. Koga has 2/6 Poison types. Gyms having pokemon that are out of the typing theme is a regular occurance because "muh competitive team". Look, I just wanna know why Misty has a Ferrothorn. I really need someone to sit down and give me a good reason as to why this makes sense within the context of the game. Speaking of context, the champion? Like your rival, which has one of the starters you didn't pick? Not anymore. The starter turned into Koraidon or Miraidon, because that makes sense. And 4/6 of his pokemon are legendaries (some of which you don't even have access to, and two of which are some of the best pokemon in Ubers!).

"Just play on easy scrub" Yes actually! That sounds like a good idea. The game might be some fun then, but I doubt it. The meat is still there. It'll still be a slog.

Another review on here gave it a mention, but I'd just like to note that the Pokemon community is forever doomed to optimizing the fun out of their children's game. Being an adult means that your hobbies should be lifeless too. So why should Pokemon be enjoyable?

And it's funny too, because a lot of the decisions made to Pokemon seemed to somewhat steer that way. They turned Ledian into a decent pokemon that's actually pretty fun to use. But you can't, it's not optimal! Good summary for the experience really.

I finished it a couple days ago and have been gathering my thoughts + reading up more about the game's lore and the cut content, etc. Even now I'm still not entirely sure what I think about the game is truly correct in my own terms, but I can't get rid of it from my mind.

In many ways, Bloodborne is far from a perfect game. Entire areas seem like they weren't well-designed/needed more work. The Forbidden Woods, especially, is a great example of all the flaws of the game; overdrawn, confusing, and haphazard enemy placement. Other lesser examples would be the Nightmare Frontier, Yahar'gul and even DLC areas such as the Research Hall, and the Fishing Hamlet.

I won't get into the details of why Forbidden Woods just sucks, but boss pretty much says it all. Contextually, it shouldn't even be there. They are the Queen's retainers/bodyguards as proven later in the game. Why are they in the Forbidden Woods if she's not even close to there? I'm half-convinced they put them there 'cause their limbs are kinda "snake-like" and that's that.

It feels like Bloodborne was compensating for giving the player so much freedom of movement and control that they thought the best solution was to place as many lesser enemies as possible. Strength in numbers is boring. Design enemies that make me feel challenged. Unlike past Souls games, where the player's freedom is limited and the level/boss design has to work around that freedom, Bloodborne is a massive departure. The player is God, and God can hit, dash, then shoot in the time the Chosen Undead takes one sip of the Estus.

It needed more time in the oven to truly push all that is Bloodborne to its limit and perfect it. In the same way that Dark Souls 3 needed Dark Souls, and Dark Souls needed Demon's Souls, Bloodborne 2 needs Bloodborne.

But in spite of all its failures, I'm still in love with it.

Bloodborne is the most perfect imperfect Soulsgame. The game is aesthetically beautiful in the weirdest way. The story/lore is sprawling, brilliant, while also absolute nonsense, and nonexistent. The trick weapon system is fantastic, but ultimately plagued by its DS heritage. Some of the best enemy and boss designs but also some of the worst in the series. Best written NPCs with the most soulful voice acting, but not enough of them, and too many cut lines.

Despite its setting, this is the nerdiest, quirkiest, most manic pixie soulsgame. I'll never forget it.

good:
-music
-visuals

bad:
-controls
-camera
-enemies
-level design
-grafitti
-time limit
-health
-tricks (lack thereof)
-grinding
-the entire game really

While Kanon and the previous Key entries were more focused on the romance aspect of things first, Air takes things in a bit of a different direction. Intrinsically, it's still a romance: there are various routes for various girls, there were sex scenes on release, etc. But Air has the unique feature of having "Summer" and "Air," which are both unrelated to romancing a specific girl, but instead focusing on the plot/characterization. It's here where I see Air at its most interesting, when it leaves the romance to the wayside. But even then, it trips up and falls many, many times.

Misuzu's route: Common and Misuzu really set my expectations high for the game overall. Retrospectively, I should probably have toned them down a bit, but I was still on the Kanon high. It seemed that they had learned from Kanon greatly and introduced new elements, like humor. Okay, that's mean, but I cannot think of a single moment before this where I genuinely gave a hearty laugh. The comedy routine between the three characters and the gags are all hilarious in a way I don't think the company has tried before. Hisaya's games always opted for a more melancholic feel, where the humor was relatively light and amounted to chuckles at most. It fit the tone of the games it was for, but it almost felt like they were playing it safe. Air swaps between the two states without it ever feeling jarring, or without ruining the vibe of the game. This is in part due to the soundtrack, which from Kanon has far improved. While Kanon's soundtrack worked, it also felt too safe. Only a couple tracks were bombastic in terms of mood, most of them playing to the same school stuff we're used to. Air's leans itself into the setting more, providing a wide variety of mood tracks while still having some general ones.
But when Misuzu's route steps into its plot, it's clearly not going to go anywhere. It's quick and it ends, but it feels more like setup toward a bigger mystery rather than anything grand. It's far from self-contained, which wouldn't be a problem if the latter developments didn't make me feel so bitter. It would be an understatement to say that Misuzu's route is undermined by the others, not necessarily by their quality, but by their length, and my own boredom. 6.5/10.

Kano's route: I have no words. Misuzu's route gave me a lot of good will moving forward, but Kano's squandered it. It has none of the comedic beats that the original trio have, instead opting for more safe approaches to comedy that don't really work and end up being too repetitive. Not only that, but the dynamics are also far from fresh, and end up getting stale quickly. The route itself, too, gets stale quickly. It does nothing new from any angle, going for an extremely traditional anime romance with no depth or flavor. It comes and goes only to waste your time. The only plus I can see to Kano's route is that it was so short I could easily forget it as I played more of the game. 3/10.

Tohno's route: Actual abyss fiction like you've never seen, I can't believe this fucking exists. Can we just talk about this real quick? How the fuck did someone sit down and write this? Most of the fucking route is spamming through Tohno's ellipses, and not only that it's just the same boring ass slice of life scenes repeated over and over and over again. And then when it feels like it's ending, it ends at least four different times not including the, you know, real two endings. Both of which are just kind of there, and make me question why they didn't end it at any of those earlier points, since it wouldn't have made a difference. Like, an AI could have written better than this.
This route made me question my entire scoring system and all the scores I've given thus far. Hell, this makes Mizuka's route from One look good in comparison. A 1/10 for that is way too harsh. Lucid9 too is nowhere near this level of boring and offensive. The content itself isn't offensive, but I do feel the energy of a condescending writer behind the text laughing as I click away at his absolute dogshit mess. Actually, it isn't one writer, I'm pretty sure it's three of them. I'm giving this a 0. Fuck it, it deserves it, I don't know how it's not even quantifiable. There should be a public PSA on every download of this game to CTRL skip everything Tohno-related for the sake of entropy. You could burn many tonnes of carbon and it would not measure up to the damage Tohno has caused to the human race. I'm not even going to try to pretend I read all of it. Toward the end I was just clicking away like a mindless robot. 0/10.

Summer: Finally, something decent. It's genuinely impressive how this game can have two separate games within it and still work. That being said, the direct connections are still relatively slim. It's more narrative, and I think it works. But even then, while Summer could have just been used for the themes, they really tried to sell us on the characters. And it works. I mean, I prefer this cast over the original in some cases. The comedy is similarly entertaining, but the plot moves along with it. It doesn't have a clear bound of separation, making the experience seamless and flowing. I won't lie, the previous two routes were primers for this, but that shouldn't take away from the quality present here. They drew up brand new CGs and made pieces exclusively for this section. It's clear that they wanted to make Summer special, and they did. That isn't to say Summer does anything new. It blends the plot, slice of life, and romance well, but that's more so a blown expectation rather than anything revolutionary. In all, Summer is still a common romp, if not helped by the aesthetic, art, and setting.
If there's one mistake I think Summer does make is not being longer. It's fine when considering that it's a part of a larger game, but that larger game doesn't really connect with Summer in a way that's satisfying. That's a mistake committed in the last route of the game more than anything, and regardless this seems to have been an issue fixed in the Vita and Switch releases of the game, where they added an extra route focusing exclusively on the Summer characters. I trust that you believe me when I say that I was going to play the Switch version, but that version mixes the two existing translations, the first of which is not very good. Thus, I stayed away from it and played the PC version everyone knows. I'll play it sometime in the future, maybe soon if I find the time. 7.5/10.

Air: is... divisive. I went into it with high expectations, especially from hearing the opinions of others and from the quality of Summer, but I was thoroughly and fully disappointed. I seriously don't understand the hype for this. Even when it starts to get going, it stops completely and repeats the same mistakes the side heroine routes made. It throws a bunch of repetitive slice of life at you that doesn't further any sort of point, serve any sort of purpose. The relationships are deepened, sure, but it reaches a plateau. At some point you aren't making strides toward better chemistry and development, but only filling time and wasting the readers’. And it's a shame, too. Air has an amazing foundation, and they tried to touch on topics that I would have never expected from early 2000s visual novels, let alone Key. But that's all it was, an attempt. The topics aren't covered and only given the most passing glance.
Worse of all, though, is the ending. It just...ends. Much too unceremoniously, with just implications left. It's bittersweet, which is great, but far from satisfying. It might seem like I'm seetheposting here, but I felt like something was missing, some kind of key element. An ending like this may be beautiful to some, but it doesn't feel complete in the way most open endings do. It doesn't leave me wanting more. I mean, the implications are clear, and the game is sort of thematically, narratively finished. It's that the ending doesn't add to the experience. With open endings, the goal is to make the reader think about them in the context of the narrative long after they've finished. But with Air, the ending gives me nothing to think about, despite being as open as it is. Reflecting with the ending in mind, I find no deeper meaning, no grand solution. It's too expected even though I didn't expect it. 6/10.

Conclusion: Really, I think Air, as the name of the route and the game coincide, represent each other. They both have strong beginnings, middle sections that are absolutely awful, braindead boring abyss fiction and any other insult for time wasting you can think of, and endings that work but leave nothing to the mind. It's Key trying to keep itself alive after its main writer had left the company and left the side writer all on his lonesome. And while that side writer may have been able to write something competent on his own if they had given him just a bit more time, it had already been much too long. Maeda took years from Kanon to write Air, and it still felt rushed. He improved from his past ventures, but that wasn't enough. They weren't confident in their product, so they dumped writers onto the project, crunching them, hoping to live up to their first success. Most of them seemed like they were shooting an entirely different target than intended (while still missing that other target) but at least one was a dead-on hit. It was overall still decent by their own standards, but nowhere near the product it could have been, only living as a shell of its potential. Personally, this indecisive feeling from Air is what breaks it for me. It brings me back to the days of Moon. and One, where they didn't have a foot to stand on, instead of continuing where they left off from Kanon. But at least some things never change, like Maeda disappointing while another writer shines.

Originally published at Limbo Channel

Steins;Gate is a bit of a weird game to discuss. I expected it to be hard to talk about, but it ended up being pretty easy. It's not a very complicated story with not very complicated characters. It goes through most of the motions that I "expect" from lots of the top popular works across the weeb shit universe. In a lot of ways, Steins;Gate to me is Fullmetal Alchemist as Fullmetal Alchemist is Steins;Gate. They have similar "vibes" but I can't necessarily describe what makes them so similar despite being so clearly different. This isn't a bad thing, actually, I enjoy them both quite a bit.

My history with Steins;Gate is troubled, so my experience with the game would be surely biased. The memories of the original anime and the first couple chapters that I read with a friend have been permanently ingrained into my mind, so much so that almost a decade later they haven't left their place whatsoever. Going into this game, I expected to have forgotten a lot. I was both wrong and right. The specific details remained unknown, but the plot points and general motions were all expected. Most of the plot twists and developments were not surprising to me, though this gave me the unique ability of foresight. I could see the foreshadowing and how clean the beginning of the game was without any troubles, making me appreciate them a bit more than I normally would. Now, even despite this, I still consider the first three chapters to be quite slow. The game doesn't really start until chapter four. This may not seem like an issue at first glance, but what this means is that in the first three chapters you're dumped with tons of info not presented in an entertaining way. It chooses the path of least resistence, where the introductions are gotten out of the way first, and then it runs with the plot. It doesn't integrate them into the plot as that would be too complicated. It doesn't choose to leave people shrouded in mystery as that would be too complicated. This is a running theme throughout Steins;Gate: oversimplification.

That may not seem like a particularly bad thing, and in the grand scheme of things if you're trying to capture a more mainstream audience, it's exactly what you want. Complication is but a filter to the minds of the populace. The simpler it is, the better; the more depth, the less entertaining. Frankly, I don't buy this, but it's an almost proven formula. If depth has to be introduced, then let it be completely optional; something that the average reader shouldn't touch, and only the dedicated readers must. So all of the in-between parts, and the general intrigue left out of the game is left to the side material. The side material is fucking amazing, I think most Steins;Gate fans will testify for this fact; but I don't think it's fair to leave almost crucial elements out of the game, especially when the content that was left out is better than some that was left in.

Take, for example, the Gamma worldline Drama CD. Contained within is a story about Moeka, one that develops her character further, and to the reader makes her even more sympathetic. Now consider chapters seven, eight, and nine. The former two focus on the other side heroines, and they even have their own routes to boot. But chapter nine is conveniently missing that. While Moeka is present, she's mostly left to the side; the reader isn't let in into most of her inner workings, and her backstory is still blank, except for bits and pieces. Without Gamma, Moeka is much too one-dimensional. She's used as a plot device and left to the side. It's almost as if, when the writer reached that point in the game, he decided that he had had enough of the side heroines, and cast them to the side in favor of finishing the main plot once and for all.

But it's not only Moeka: Kurisu, Mr. Braun, and Suzuha all seemingly get left out. I wasn't even properly sold on the former two until I read the side material. They gave a more introspective outlook on the both of them, giving me the depth of character that I needed. It's criminal. A lot of this, of course, has to do with the game sticking to a first-person narrative through the eyes of Okabe only. The side material changes the perspective to the respective characters, so it's expected that they would get more than from the eyes of someone else. At the same time, though, I see no reason why some of the slice of life scenes present throughout the game couldn't have held at least part of this introspection. Make the characters open up more, let them be more vulnerable. I feel like I could count the amount of times the characters opened up to Okabe in my hand; it isn't enough, clearly. Steins;Gate plays it too safe; the game is afraid that the reader would get bored by these scenes, and instead throws pillows of comfort over and over again. Comfortable, and enjoyable, but not substancial. That's not to say that the slice of life is exactly dominant.

At any point, which is a majority of the game, in which Steins;Gate has its focus on the plot, it's fantastic. I'd even say it reaches some of the peaks of the medium, especially toward the end. But Steins;Gate gives far too much fan-service to itself, and to, to put it bluntly, pointless bullshit. I refer back to chapters seven through nine. While chapter nine is more than serviceable, chapters seven and eight are downright offensive. They are a slog, a black hole in the story. I wouldn't even say they accomplish their job. Instead of developing the side heroines, they instead only made me feel more hate for them and the writers. Taking the routes into account, suddenly I feel violent and outraged.

I don't mind the development of side heroines. In fact, when done well, I prefer it. Take a look at it's predecessor: Chaos;Head NoAH. Each route serves to develop a heroine where the main plot, the common route, couldn't. And it does it well, with an exception which I won't get into. It uses the ladder structure in a way to benefit itself, without causing harm or blatant plotholes. Steins;Gate clearly took none of this advice and messed up on both. Unlike NoAH, Steins;Gate's routes are barely routes at all, and more like small alternate endings. Chapters seven and eight are routes themselves. The fact that it forces you to experience them even when aiming for the true end is a mistake, one born from using the ladder structure without thinking about the consequences.

My opinions on Steins;Gate as a whole are divided. I can't help but compare it to Chaos;Head NoAH and how consistently good and well-paced it was, how cleverly divided the routes were. But at the same time, Chaos;Head never reaches Steins;Gate's peaks. When Steins;Gate is at its best, it truly deserves one of the top spots in the visual novel space, if not the top spot (almost certainly above Muv-Luv Alternative, but then again it's hard to name a game that doesn't surpass it). But at its worse, it doesn't even deserve to be in the top 100. For this reason, I find Chaos;Head NoAH to be the slightly superior game, even if I look at Steins;Gate more fondly.

Does it deserve the number two spot? Personally, no, probably not. But I understand why it's there. And I think that it's important that Steins;Gate stays up there. It's a pillar of quality, judging all those below it. It's a produced game in every sense of the word. It screams quality. Without Steins;Gate, the visual novel space would not be where it is, and I don't want to imagine a world without it, a future without it.

Originally published at Limbo Channel

Experiencing Hisaya's and Maeda's writing journeys through Moon. and One hasn't been pleasant from a traditional point of view, but from an analytical one, it has pleased me beyond belief. Seeing the mixture of styles in Moon. and their separation in One has proved to me which of the two is more worthy, and Kanon further emphasizes that preference. Maeda has yet to take the reins in this project, being left with only 2.1 of the routes, while Hisaya takes the planning credit, most of the routes, and the "main" route of the package.

Nayuki's route: While in likely every visual novel that allows it, I'd rather do the true route first, or at least the route of the titular heroine, in this case I'd argue that is far from a good decision. The common route in almost every corner pushes you to do Nayuki's route first, even so far as giving her the opening scene. The common route naturally flows into her route in a way that most visual novels don't try to accomplish, instead opting to throw heroines at you without clear direction, hoping you pick the correct route order or at least read your favorite one of the selection and move on to another game.

What ends up happening is Nayuki's route leaves a larger impression on the reader than it should, but it's well-deserved. Once her route starts, the development and chemistry between the two is already far established, so it can transition to its drip-feeding of hints and dreams, building up the eventual climax without much trouble or without wasting too much of your time. It's this kind of style that Hisaya is known for throughout his minor visual novel career, and one that he perfects in Kanon. Rather than opting for big reveals, or development through light-hearted slice of life sequences, Hisaya prefers mellow, almost bittersweet though certainly leaning sweet, moments of melancholy. Once coupled with the overall aesthetic and atmosphere of the game, one of shallow blues lit by bright snow, it comes together beautifully, with the soundtrack lending a more than appreciated helping hand. Nayuki herself, through her colors and demeanor, embody the game, even if she clearly isn't its focus.

Nayuki's relationship with Yuuchi is one more of memories than natural connection. They get along well, there's no doubt about that, but in a lot of ways they remind me of marriages in the past, where people simply got together for matters of convenience and growing up together rather than genuine connection. Even after they experience hardship I still find myself wanting to go deeper into each other's troubles, rather than repeatedly say they would protect/be beside each other for all time. There's sweetness in that for sure, but that's all it is. There's no particularly interesting flavors except a decent balance of sugar.

It's here where I find the game differentiating itself from One the most. While One feels like a rushed doujin game, with barely any thought put into its setting, character designs, and almost every aspect of it oozing with money-grab, its relationships lacking in everything chemistry, Kanon is filled with, dare I say, soul. But, in a lot of ways, Kanon shares One's DNA. It feels like a soft reboot of One, with many of its elements swapped around, exchanged between the characters, put in other places, or swapped altogether. This is Nayuki's route in particular, since unlike Mizuka's route in One, them both being childhood friend routes, Nayuki's route is actually good.

Alright, that's obviously a little blunt, but it gets the point across for the experience. Obviously, it must be said for fairness's sake that Mizuka's route was written by a young Maeda, while Nayuki's was written by the main writer and planner of the game. The difference in styles is one thing, but the contents is what I want the focus to be here. To be the starting route of the game, and I hate to say this, but Mizuka's is ambitious, but falls extremely flat on its face, while Nayuki's is more traditional but offers a well-rounded, well-executed experience. Rather than swinging hard on every ball, and ultimately striking out its first runner, Kanon makes a steady swing, not hoping for a homerun but instead a decent hit to the outfield.

So, while at the end of the experience a reader's memory of Nayuki's route may end up foggy, as a short and sweet experience, I wouldn't dare describe it as forgettable. Instead, I'd say it's close to one of the most perfect and seamless usages of the common route, as if to compensate for its rather bland premise. While the other routes may trump Nayuki's in many ways, either through intrigue or emotion, its impression as the common route is everlasting. 7/10.

Shiori's route: From common and Nayuki's to Shiori's, my expectations were high. With the background knowledge that this was another of Hisaya's routes, I knew that those expectations could be surpassed, and they were. Shiori's route from the outset is full of intrigue, although their interactions are not interesting. However, if you stick through it, you can see their relationship steadily improving. Throughout the visual novel, this remains my favorite relationship, and my favorite progression. By the end of the route, there remains none of the awkwardness that was present initially, they constantly joke around and are serious with each other while implicitly knowing which statement is and isn't a joke. Every part of their relationship brims with realism, even if their circumstances seem outlandish.

But even in the emotional parts of their relationship, they absolutely nail it. The depth that was lacking in Nayuki's route comes here in Shiori's, where we can see Yuuichi getting at his most introspective. Shiori herself comes to question Yuuichi's resolve many times, and through his interactions with the side character we come to understand Yuuichi internally much more than any other route. While Nayuki's route was mostly centered around her, Shiori's develops both characters at the same time. It's this that most makes me believe in the realism. Even here, they can joke with each other, while still coming to understand each other internally, unlike Nayuki's route. Their relationship isn't one brought by circumstance, but because they make up for each others faults, they understand themselves on a deeper level, and all of this happens through their natural chemistry with each other. As Yuuichi, the reader has to find Shiori, unlike Nayuki, which is available right at the start of the game. That in itself perfectly describes their relationship.

This route, and another later, is hard to speak of without spoiling. Just the reveal of the plot itself is something I would consider to be a spoiler, so I'll refrain from speaking of it. Although, I will say it's handled very well, with an appropriate amount of buildup and pay off. In a lot of ways, Shiori's route resembles what I would say is the "the world is ending" mentality, where the characters see no future in their actions, so they act each day to their best, even if there's a darkness present within them. It's this depiction that makes their actions, while relatively simple and standard in the visual novel space, gripping. And even then, the reader is given bits of backstory and development, with their own reveals, that make the eventual ending destroy them much harder. It hurts. A lot.

Shiori's route is, in many ways, the most that feels like a reboot of One. But it reuses those elements to a better fashion, without any of the fluff or bad execution. These elements stay exclusive to Shiori's route, without being present in any other, unlike One, where they are beat to death. Their chemistry, in the most surface level way, resembles One's Misaki route. They play off each other extremely well, their personalities matching the most out of the cast. They are on an equal playing field, with no one side teasing more than the other, where both get equal enjoyment. Out of all routes, Shiori's is the only one where I can see this being fully true.

There's also the side character that gets development in the route, alongside Yuuichi. I obviously can't mention who they are, but I just want to say it's something I didn't expect, that regular side characters would be used to a route's benefit, and not as simple gag characters. It's fun when the entire cast is involved in something.

And while Shiori's route may be clouded by a future route that plays at similar heart strings, it still deserves its place at the top. In terms of relationship development, emotional payoff, and chemistry, this is where Hisaya reached his peak. The plot may not be as strong as one of the later routes, but it still more than holds its own weight. And while I may prefer that route ultimately, Shiori remains best girl. 8/10.

Makoto's route: Being Maeda's first route, I expected nothing, hoping he would improve from his past ventures in One. Sadly, while it's an improvement, a lot of the mistakes that One commits are still present. Inherently, it shares his style, in a way that doesn't benefit the experience. And once again, Maeda looks at the planning board and misinterprets Yuuichi's personality, turning him into what he ultimately isn't in Hisaya's vision, changing his personality entirely.

I haven't spoken much about Yuuichi's character for this reason. Makoto is the perfect space to get into why he's inconsistent throughout the visual novel. It is entirely because Maeda looked at Ayu saying "Yuuichi is mean" and took that to heart. Maeda's interpretation makes Yuuichi into an asshole, plain and simple. Throughout Makoto's route he sexually harasses her (in ways that happen the same in another route, except Yuuichi acts the complete opposite way), instead of teasing her is outright vile towards her, and ignores her every innocent advance even if he has nothing to do (without any tact as is usually present in Hisaya's routes). Maeda once again, like One, decides the protagonist must be a horny eroge protagonist who is selfish and wants nothing to do with the heroine, until he does, at the very end. The protagonist is no man, but instead a little boy, who plays off his impulses and thinks not through his actions. The consequences for his doings are either not present at all or are immediate unearned forgiveness. Maeda gives me no reason to like his depiction of Yuuichi whatsoever.

And it doesn't stop there. The formula he establishes in One of mostly having the route be boring and with tons of backloaded content, is thoroughly here. Though slightly blemished by the plot, as to keep the reader engaged, there still isn't much development emotionally until the very end. What this ends with is an ending that, while genuinely good, doesn't feel earned, and the route overall is hurt. Hisaya prefers the slow drip of information, while Maeda prefers to instant injection. Makoto's isn't the worst offender, however, so I somewhat forgive the route in retrospect.

Although, with Makoto's route the game introduces magic into the mix. I don't mind this, to be clear. If it fits, and is used well, a softer kind of magic certainly has its place. Makoto's route uses these elements only in her route, and in no one elses. Instead, they introduce other magic. It's very strange, but it services the plot, so I can't complain.

Makoto's route ends unmemorable, and even more so after you finish the whole package. Her addition isn't necessary and feels inserted, and Yuuichi acts off his rocker, but it at least isn't offensive. 5/10.

Mai/Sayuri's route: Oh boy, if you thought Makoto's route was mid, get ready for worse. Frankly, Mai is a repeat of Makoto's, except most mistakes are expounded upon, some are fixed, and new ones are added (or more aptly, taken from One). Yuuichi is not nearly as much of an asshole, and doesn't share those traits specified before, except certain scenes where he is, once again, reverted to an eroge protagonist for no reason.

Mai's route starts off innocently enough... except it doesn't really start. Throughout most of the route all the characters do is have slice of life scenes that provide no fulfillment or development, and there is drip-feed of mystery. Instead, it's eating, eating, killing demons, sleeping, and the cycle repeats until the ending, once again backloaded, but to an even larger degree. Every single reveal is backloaded, with no plot present throughout the route whatsoever. There is no feeling of satisfaction in the ending, no feeling of a mystery being solved. Instead, it feels like an overtly emotional infodump that doesn't want to end, and when it does, you're dumped into Sayuri's route, which is basically content that should have been in Mai's route anyway. It's a bundle of messy and weird decisions that make no sense.

And throughout it all there's a very strange air of sexism, borrowed 1:1 from Rumi's route in One. "Mai must become girly" is there up until the ending and after the ending. "Mai must appear a certain way to her pears" is present there too, just like Rumi. It's a mess of bad ideas brought about by its time and not made better by its writer. What makes it even worse is the fact that these themes are only present in this route. There is no overarching narrative here, it is just Mai's route that wants these things to be true.

The magic, as well, is exactly like Makoto's, except circumstances make it even more inserted.

So, no. Just no. On a first read I had forgiven this route a bit, and may have even been positive, but after the next route I could not forgive any part of it. 3/10.

Ayu's route: was one I had been excited for since seeing the opening. The imagery of her in wings and the subtle hints of something missing dropped in every route helped that build throughout the game. It did not disappoint.

I don't have much to say on Ayu's route, but this doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, far from it. It's the one that I enjoyed the most. Out of routes (I went and looked at the times) it nears one of the shortest, but that's exactly what makes it so special. It's so well-paced it impressed me. It doesn't try wasting your time whatsoever, and it doesn't hold the relatively lazy pacing of the rest of the game (which, isn't an insult, and for emotional romance games like these is usually a boon). And while the routes build themselves up within themselves, Ayu's route is special because it uses the whole game to build tension. Also, part of the reason it's so short, it doesn't need to waste time doing that either. It runs with the plot and that's great. It doesn't reach Shiori's depth, but that's because it doesn't need to. If it did, then the rest of the routes in the game would feel worthless in comparison. If Ayu's route had everything the game had to offer, it would be the only route you needed to play.

But yes. If, in some other universe, where visual novels weren't so established as "every girl needs to have a route," then maybe Ayu's route could have been a perfect mix of elements from the whole game, culminating in a masterpiece. That isn't the case, though I'm still more than glad that we live in a universe where it's genuinely great. 8.5/10.

Conclusion: Hisaya's writing journey ends here, largely because he decided to leave the company and produce many doujins for his games without company legislature, all of which have been lost to time. Maybe I'll get my hands on some of those someday. Anyway, his next project was a wash produced by many random writers, and then his next one is a relatively recent game, one that I have no interest in. From now onwards, Key's writing is headed by Maeda, and later down the line by other writers as well. Air will be his first foray as a main writer, and his sections are extremely well-received, while the other ones... not so much. We'll see how that goes.

Kanon, like One, is another mixed bag from the same team. Though, this bag is heftier, and contains more presents, better presents, than just load of coal with some rough diamonds mixed in. Happy holidays everyone.


Originally published at Limbo Channel

Coming off of Moon., my expectations were fairly low. Looking at One from the outset, there wasn't much that interested me. The setting fit more with the Key staff's usual romps, sure, but it was that exact fact that turned me off so much. Moon. showed me that they could have done more, but reverting to what sold at the time is disappointing to my own tastes. But, keeping an open mind, I dived headfirst into solid fucking concrete.

Mizuka's route is offensively bad. I can't even begin to describe how many boxes it ticks off on person-to-person emotion-to-emotion crimes it commits. The entire route is centered around the protagonist abusing the girlfriend he confessed to on a game that the boys had played on him. In every single way she is emotionally battered throughout the events of the game, and this escalates to her being physically and sexually abused. And even despite that, she still comes back to him, like a stockholm'd animal. It's disgusting from every level. It falls below anything Moon. had to offer, even if I didn't actually see any of that described or shown in One (might have been my version of the game). And then, on top of that, the plot centering the game feels the most wrong here. It's just there because it has to be, and for no other reason. It doesn't serve the relationship whatsoever. There are no reedeming qualities here. I don't know what Maeda was thinking when he wrote any of this. If this was standalone, it'd be an easy 1/10.

Rumi's route is a standard fair. Almost too standard, it comes off as trite, and just there for the sake of it. And it's funny, too, because the chemistry they have in the common route completely disappears due to her becoming more "girly." There's lots of elements here that are problematic in that regard too, but I'd rather not dive into it. The protagonist actually acts like a normal human being and isn't outright an irreedemable assholely cartoony villain, so I guess that's good. The plot, again, is present here, but at least it's placed in a way that doesn't feel awkward. Though, as is a running theme with this game, the ending is good, but the post-credits scene ruins it. This is the best of Maeda's routes in this game by a mile, but it still isn't good by any means. 4.5/10.

Akane's route is good. And it surprised me, too. Coming off of the previous two routes I fully expected absolutely nothing. Another game with some interesting characters squandered by the structure, plot, and terrible writers. But, no. Hisaya showed me that at least he could pour heart into this soulless piece of garbage. Although, I say only "good." Because Akane herself isn't that much of an interesting character, it's more the events surrounding her, and how it ties to the plot emotionally. It was more scraping the surface for the other two Hisaya routes rather than actually bringing things out of me. Weirdly enough, however, is that this is the only route where I can actually accept the post-credits scene. Both elements work, and only here. 6/10.

Misaki is easily where the game peaks. It isn't a particularly high peak, because as is a running theme with both Moon. and One everything is underdeveloped, but it's enjoyable nonetheless. Off the bat in the common route Misaki's interactions were my favorite, but them showing a different more emotional side to her was something I didn't expect, and then using that to wring a couple tears out of me was more than enough to sell me. It taking place mostly on the rooftop, helping the atmosphere, and the descriptiveness of the text feeling slightly heightened really elevates it from the rest of the game. Her development is short, but it's sweet. But once again, good ending, and the worst post-credits scene. Not that it's any different than the others, but that taking in the context that it happens, and the development of Misaki, it doesn't make sense. Thank you, Hisaya, for saving this shit. 7/10.

I expected a lot from Mio's route, and sadly those expectations weren't met. This route didn't play as much into the emotional factor that she couldn't speak, instead going into past meetings as children, and mementos from that as is common in romance games. It was underwhelming only for the reason that the previous route was great. Same post-credits ending problem. 5.5/10.

Shiina's route. Oh boy. There's no way to sugarcoat this, it's grooming. Child porn. She's a fucking middle schooler, canonically underdeveloped, and acts half her age. Jesus Christ. Maeda, what the fuck. 1/10.

Hikami's route... is not even a route? It barely exists, barely anything happens. It provides clues on the plot of the game... but it isn't anything you couldn't figure out yourself at this point in the game anyway. There's hints that they wanted to actually go the romantic way for the route, but it doesn't happen. It also just ends. Abruptly. And nothing is really explained at the ending. I'm not even giving this a score, honestly.

Overall, you may have noticed I don't mention the protagonist much, and that's because he's basically just a self-insert. Maeda writes him as an outright asshole, Hisaya writes him as a more dense, confused, but when he realizes the fact, loving character. The common route depicts a mix of both, making me suspect different scenes were tackled by either writer.

On that note, the lack of cohesion is apparent even going to the route order. There is no true route, no ending. You end the game on whichever route you do last. So, I played based on order of appearance, and since Shiina and Hikami don't appear unless you look for them, that's how it ended for me. To prevent my mistake, I suggest:

Mizuka > Rumi > Shiina > Mio > Hikami > Akane/Misaki

Originally published at Limbo Channel as a double review with MOON.

For a team's first work and a company's second, it isn't as bad as you expect it to be... conceptually speaking, that is. Moon. starts off with exactly what you wouldn't expect from any of Maeda or Key's usual romps: a setting almost completely devoid of reality and school life, filled with mystery, and most of all, gloomy and bleak. It gives you only hints of whats to come, and it grips you with that alone. It's only then that things start to go downhill for the game, sadly.

The gameplay is introduced to you early on after some introductions for the main trio. No bullshit, it's terrible. I seriously don't even know why it's there, the only reason I can think of is for padding time, and a couple moments where you can get a bad end if you don't take certain actions. There's barely any room for exploration, because you aren't rewarded for exploration. You can walk into rooms and examine every tile if you'd like, though you'll find nothing 95% of the time. And so for a system basically intrisincally tied to exploration for there to be none, you expect unclear destinations, to sort of give a point to the system. But, no, not that too. Corridors are narrow, destinations are usually trivial and spoken by the main character right before you're thrown into the gameplay system. This, coupled with its day-by-day routine system, completely breaks the story, and any replayability it may have had. This, on its own, impeded me from even trying to get any other ending except the True End. So, sadly, this isn't going to be a super complete review, although from what I've read those endings aren't worth seeing anyway.

On that note, the story. Most of it is told in these destinations you're supposed to go, through your traditional sprite/CG and textbox system. You go through Ikumi's routine in the facility, which, as mentioned before, gets repetitive to the point of numbness. The pacing of the story is ruined. What I will say, though, is that the story itself, put in the toughest vacuum possible, isn't bad. It is backloaded to all hell, true, but it has a certain charm that can't be said to be present in the team's next work. But even then, it has issues. The Elpod sections, mainly, are absolutely awful. A great concept that could give way to great character development instead used to further push hentai scenes unto the player all of which are gratitious to the point of annoyance, a running theme with the game as a whole. It can be seen in the game's other hentai scenes, the ones that take place in Class B and C. They try to make this a part of the lore, but the intentions behind them are clear. Which, by the way, all have a weird air of scat and piss fetishes. Not my cup of tea.

So let's say you ignore all of that. There's plenty of characterization in the other sections and bits of the game, right? Well, that's correct... to a certain extent. While the characters are given a fair amount of time to interact and flesh themselves out, they end up with no depth anyway. They are far too simple and one-dimensional from start to finish. Ikumi and the Boy are the only ones I'd say that stray from this a tad, and have chemistry to boot, but what they do have feels cut short. For a visual novel of this size, with this many opportunities, most of their day-to-day lives are spent running through similar dialogue that has been run through a thesaurus, with barely any change.

It's only toward the end that this changes, because it has that "this episodic show is ending so here's your two episode plot finale" NG. Lots of things happen in that ending plot-wise that breaks from their routine. But since it's only "two episodes" you're left with wanting more, not in a "I want a sequel" way but in a "that felt rushed" way. And this extends to the plot as a whole, obviously. They introduce and reveal concepts that aren't really addressed in the best manner, and are ultimately rushed through as well. Good concepts, in fact, like most of the visual novel, that are squandered.

Just like the music and art, too. The music is surprisingly good and catchy even if the overall soundtrack is short and... repetitive. The CGs looks genuinely weird, but the sprite work is good, and it works with the 3D background well.

To conclude: it looks good, sounds good, but ultimately tastes okay, and some bites taste awful. A cake that I can't call average as a whole, but slightly below that.

If it had to be a numerical score: 4/10

Originally published at Limbo Channel as a double review with One ~To the Radiant Season~

2.0 seemed like an innocent update on the surface but ultimately the things it did add sucked all the fun out of the gameplay. Levels started being more about looks and less about gameplay, to a point where sometimes the gameplay would be hampered by the visuals and the moving objects. 1.9 had maintained a good balance, and that balance was completely broken by the new additions to the editor system in 2.0. Had Robtop held back on adding the moving objects or limited them, while delivering more on the gameplay perspective, perhaps this game would still have held its charm. It's no wonder that nostalgia pre-2.0 levels even exist now, let alone get popular enough to be featured. The only thing that remains the saving grace of this game is that the community keeps setting the bar of difficulty and skill higher and higher. That being said, this is something that can't be attributed to Robtop whatsoever.