disclaimer: English isn't my main language so probably my grammar is all over the place and I wrote all of this on a whim and I don't want to read it.

Edit: Read it again and added sentences in brackets for my thoughts about this vn after half a year.

I think this review is gonna be a long one because I want to explain why I'm feeling so mixed about rating this game and why I can't rate it lower than 4 stars [I in fact did].

First of all Muvluv Alternative starts as a military coming of age story just like unlimited [Which is a pretty bad way to start a sequel when you read exactly the same thing for I can't remember how many hours]. We see our boy [No] takeru for the third time but this time not as that stupid high schooler but more of a soldier [Not exactly he had potential at the beginning, but in the end was the same. And I'm pretty sure that no one can handle this much trauma and then be like "Yeah we can fix kill those beta woohoo"] . Well this was the case up until chapter 6 when takeru started thinking like a fucking high schooler AGAIN. Chapter 1-6 were really entertaining to read [Compared to rest] I was okay with this Scifi Politimilitary story and it didn't bother me at all because everybody said It will get better after chapter 7 [Lol]. Chapter 7 was quite good It wasn't dramatical or shocking as I've imagined it to be [About this tbh I had seen chomp scene before reading the vn and always thought it like "This should be the harshest thing ever" and it was pretty meh tbh.] but Ptsd induced Takeru (Whom we really don't get to see a lot) was quite interesting to read [For like 10 minutes and then he returned back to his normal self] and I was okay with this Sumika drama [No again she was okay to read at the time compared to other girls but she's as stupid as every other character in this vn]. Scifi scenes were still shitty infodumps trying too hard to make sense even though they were based on total bullshit but it was okay. Chapter 8 did all the explaining game didn't bother to do in first 7 chapters and to be honest I've loved muvluv alternative's universe, I really want to read Schwarzesmarken after this.

Oh, and before starting to shittalk, production wise this game is amazing. Borderline animated cgs, lip sync, good voice acting and perfect translation. I know this is because I've played the version with newer engine but still this game can compete with most of the low budget OVA's. And because of this reason I think MLA deserves #1 spot on Vndb, only vn I can think of to compete in terms of production is Mahoyo and it's far away [Read more mahoyo after writing this and NO FUCKING WAY for nothing except tsukire can compete with mahoyo in terms of pure production value] from getting at MLA level.

And now here comes the only reason why I have mixed feelings about this game, Chapter 9. Up until 9 MLA had really bad pacing problems [I have fucking ADHD and It was painful to finish all of these without enjoying a single second of it] but they didn't bother me because I was thinking they will be solved in 9. I was really really wrong. I think MLA is written by a shounen anime writer [Lol I really need to learn how to write reviews] because no one can fit this many fillers in their work. Every fucking time I get hyped about something MLA says "okay dude you've seen good parts now it's time to read an 1 hour long nonsense dialog which is full of exposition about this character you're talking to whose about to die in a hour because we didn't give them enough screentime until then." yeah this happens like 583939 times and in 9 just gets worser.
MLA is unnecessarly long that I can cut 1/3 of the game and only thing I will lose will be characters from some other shitty Age eroge nobody gives a fuck about because it's not translated.
I don't want to shit talk about the story itself because I don't give a single fuck about Sumika but I've slept in all of the 00 scenes (I guess I did the same thing in every single romance this game) but for me it's pretty lame and predictable.
I've really wanted to love Muvluv Alternative. And to be honest I really think it deserves to #1 spot on Vndb but if we put all of the production aside this is just a cheap hollywood scifi movie which tries to take itself very seriously but ends up being a total shitshow. Really, please read more books If you want to see some "Peak fiction" or smthng because this vn really has nothing to offer other than really good animated scenes and some okay world building.