This review contains spoilers
I really hate Madoka Magica. I think it's insanely gratuitously miserable, has no real substance, and is an overall motherfuck of a chore to reminisce on. It feels like there's no progression, no buildup, just an oddly static hodgepodge of misery and misanthropy. Oftentimes when something starts reminding me of that, generally through being similarly miserable and misanthropic, I'm very quick to dismiss it. In the case of Hello Charlotte EP3: Childhood's End, however, I find myself a lot more conflicted.
The overarching narrative is mostly very solid, I don't mind much the sharp turns and twists in the story and I think it sticks the landing pretty well. The cast of this episode in particular, though, truthfully irks me at times (Anri is fun though, especially compared to her EP2 counterpart). I really don't like Charlotte Q84 (or V19) in particular, and while I can imagine she's deliberately designed to be unlikable it made the first half of this one a pretty rough experience to get through. V19 rants about this rather agonizing view of how entertainment is dead and content pours out people's assholes rather than their minds. I don't know if this is a view shared by the developer or what but it's just insanely lame and sours a climactic moment that had lots of buildup prior.
Vincent and Charles' scene where the former kills himself is probably the low point. I think it's portrayed a bit questionably at best and it really struggles to allow me to sympathize with Charles when he makes an absurdly minimal effort to save his friend. From that point onwards I just found him groan-inducing despite it feeling like the game was trying to tell me otherwise.
I think Hello Charlotte is a damn solid story all in all, but it starts off fumbling around a bit too much and ends with striking a bit too many personal pet peeves to get the most enjoyment out of it. Definitely hits its stride in EP2 for my money.
I will say though, I highly recommend it if the things here that bother me DON'T bother you, and I'm pretty sure a sizable amount of RPG Maker nerds would love it too. I've started fixating on that type of stuff recently, and this is definitely still in the upper half.
The overarching narrative is mostly very solid, I don't mind much the sharp turns and twists in the story and I think it sticks the landing pretty well. The cast of this episode in particular, though, truthfully irks me at times (Anri is fun though, especially compared to her EP2 counterpart). I really don't like Charlotte Q84 (or V19) in particular, and while I can imagine she's deliberately designed to be unlikable it made the first half of this one a pretty rough experience to get through. V19 rants about this rather agonizing view of how entertainment is dead and content pours out people's assholes rather than their minds. I don't know if this is a view shared by the developer or what but it's just insanely lame and sours a climactic moment that had lots of buildup prior.
Vincent and Charles' scene where the former kills himself is probably the low point. I think it's portrayed a bit questionably at best and it really struggles to allow me to sympathize with Charles when he makes an absurdly minimal effort to save his friend. From that point onwards I just found him groan-inducing despite it feeling like the game was trying to tell me otherwise.
I think Hello Charlotte is a damn solid story all in all, but it starts off fumbling around a bit too much and ends with striking a bit too many personal pet peeves to get the most enjoyment out of it. Definitely hits its stride in EP2 for my money.
I will say though, I highly recommend it if the things here that bother me DON'T bother you, and I'm pretty sure a sizable amount of RPG Maker nerds would love it too. I've started fixating on that type of stuff recently, and this is definitely still in the upper half.