This review contains spoilers

RGD has a very interesting premise and setting with its post-war Japan being encroached upon by America and China. The cast is generally likable with good designs, especially Leo and Caleb who are exceedingly charismatic. The story never reaches the heights of Higurashi or Umineko, but it's solid with at least one very cool moment per season like the final showdowns with Alfred and Caleb. RGD also unfortunately displays Ryukishi's bad writing habits that I first noticed in Ciconia. He has a tendency to get laser-focused on a concept and repeat it ad-nauseam. This is especially apparent with the Soy Sauce War and job trucks in season 3. Season 3 in general was a massive dip in enjoyment for me with Leo and Caleb being replaced by the much less charismatic Wang and Wandering Dogs, the focus on the aforementioned Soy Sauce War/job trucks, and the slow pacing with it being the longest of the 4 seasons. The focus on Primavera trying to win the cultural and economical wars of post-war japan is a perfectly understandable concept, but unfortunately it's just not fun to read about and the focus on soy sauce in particular just feels juvenile and petty. Overall though it's nice seeing the characters from Primavera grow and follow different paths, ultimately leading to the conflicts in season 4. Season 4 (and the ending of season 3 leading into it) is where RGD finally becomes consistently engaging with notable deaths raising the stakes, good new additions to the cast in Keith, Alan and Yuki, and well-paced doses of the action, betrayal and tragedy that suit a mafia story. It's just a shame it took until the last season for it to reach that level of quality. The music is good enough, there's a few standout tracks but it's generally much weaker than the stellar set that is the umineko soundtrack or the atmospheric and heartbreaking higurashi soundtrack. The art was nice and an interesting switchup from the usual silly yet charming ryukishi portraits. The cut-ins for the fights were especially cool and really added to the impact. Overall, RGD has its ups and downs like any VN but it never really justifies the time investment until the last 10 hours or so. It's solid and I wouldn't tell someone not to read it, but it probably wouldn't come up if I was giving out recommendations.

Reviewed on Sep 08, 2021


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