I'm sure many people jumping into this review are previous readers of Hoshizora no Memoria (same developer) and want to know how similar Iroseka is. To briefly get it out of the way I would say the two are mostly not the same. There's definitely no Chinami equivalent in Iroseka so you won't be called Onii-chan 10,000 times before you're done with the story. And the drama style, setting, and themes are a lot different.
Pretty Interesting Setting
Despite most of the characters being high school age, which is kind of to be expected of most visual novels, this is NOT a slice of life high school story at all. In fact, I think it would be fair to say that at most the major characters are shown at school like 20% of the time. Iroseka mixes this minor high school aspect with a supernatural setting with parallel worlds. These parallel worlds specifically are a huge part of Iroseka's story as the main character will have many personal reasons for having to travel to or deal with these different areas. I'm not going to get into detail in order to not get into spoilers but I thought the way they integrated the supernatural stuff was quite well done. It helps give Iroseka a unique identity but while still having a huge focus on relatable psychological character drama. I also liked how they slowly built up the powers that Yuuma, the main character, and his ghost girl partner Shinku, are capable of as the story progresses.
Memorable Emotional/Depressing Moments
I am NOT exaggerating when I say depressing. Even as early as towards the end of the common route, you're going to see some stories that delve into pretty heavy subject matter, including but not limited to: lost memories, loneliness, depression, revenge, suicide, terminal diseases, extreme self-sacrifice, physical abuse, trafficking, the dark side of traditions, etc. If any of these sound like potential triggers for you, I would recommend not reading this visual novel. That said, I think the way that Iroseka delves into these subject matter is pretty tasteful. You are not going to see stupidly thrown in edgy H scenes for shock value like some eroge fall into. Quite the opposite. In fact, the visual novel goes heavily into the psychology of each character's mindset as the stuff they have gone through and I think the way that it's both presented and how the characters develop from these situations are quite good and what really got me to quite like a good amount of this visual novel.
Excellent Presentation (Art/Music)
I've always adored the art style of visual novels by developer “favorite” for their bright colors, very distinct character designs, and really good CGs. But I would say the absolute best thing about the presentation in Iroseka is actually the music. The composer Shinobu composes background music for basically every favorite visual novel including Hoshimemo, Iroseka and the currently untranslated Sakura Moyu. But the real stick outs are the emotional songs. As stated earlier, there are some moments in Iroseka that are quite emotional and the excellent background music helps the emotional scenes become even more enjoyable and immersive.
Heavy Use of Flashbacks / Exposition
As stated earlier, this is a visual novel with a pretty big emphasis on the supernatural and parallel world elements, so there's going to be a lot of stuff that needs to be explained. And the writer definitely wants to make sure to describe the many worlds and characters you will meet, including many minor characters’ backstories. To give an example in my favorite girl Kana's route, a good portion of the beginning of her route is giving a whole hour flashback of a side character that is only tangentially related to Kana. This flashback IS incredibly important for the themes of the story, so I definitely did not mind this as well as a lot of the exposition of the supernatural stuff by the dorm daddy, Shigure. They are definitely important to know and I was personally interested in what they had to say. But if you're not a fan of exposition and backstory heavy stories you could maybe think twice before picking up this title. But I thought the author did a good job of not getting too long-winded and a lot of these scenes actually really helped me get into the world and the characters and story even more than I already was.
Inconsistent Route Quality
Iroseka has a commonly used locked true route structure. Meaning you have to read the 4 ‘side’ heroine routes before you unlock the true route. Kana’s is generally considered the best side route and has become one of my personal favorite nakige style routes in isolation. The other side routes are much more hit or miss. Kyou’s has a big plot element that isn’t resolved, Tsukasa’s is way too short despite having an interesting concept, and Mio’s is decent, but just doesn’t hit as hard as I think it should. Basically, I think that the core message and themes of each route are actually pretty good, it's just the amount of care and time given to developing them varies.
As for the true route itself, many people cite it as THE reason to read the visual novel and I can certainly see why. It has very memorable emotional nakige moments and some crazy reveals that happen as early as 15 minutes into the route. However, I have much more mixed feelings about the true route than expected. Similar to the other four routes, I think the core message and themes are actually pretty good, but the issues I have with the true route can be boiled down to 3 things: 1)The plot trying too hard be a supernatural nakige that’s TOO creative 2) A few characters’ actions and stories not making much sense or are just flat out-stupid 3) Some reveals recontextualizing certain aspects of the side routes in a negative way, especially Kana’s where if you noticed I said her route is one my favorites “in insolation”.
Apparently a lot of the flaws I have with the Iroseka get fixed in the currently untranslated sequel, Irotoridoi no Hikari or The Colorful Light. People I’ve talked to cite this sequel as extremely important for filling in a lot of the gaps and details Sekai skipped in order to tell its relatively simpler emotional narrative. So if you are interested and like Iroseka and want to see more, be sure to monetarily support THIS original localization of The Colorful World.
Medicore to Bad Comedy
As I stated earlier, this visual novel has comedy that's very reminiscent of the mid to late 2000s anime harem style comedy. Expect a lot of pervert jokes including but not limited to accidentally walking into a girl changing, girls calling the main guy a pervert when he didn't do anything, or making fun of a supposed fetish that protagonist clearly does not have such as being a lolicon, being into femboys, etc. I've never liked this humor and there are many times where I had to take a break because I was getting really mad whenever these scenes popped up, especially when they happen after pretty important emotional scenes.
That said, the absolute worst offender is the protagonist's mentor “Suzu". The writer just tries to write her off as a “tease" character but The fact that she's a lazy immature person for much of the story is quite annoying. Anytime she makes a mistake, she always tries to dump the blame on the main character Yuuma, or worse try to do things that get him in a situation for the other girls to get unfairly angry at him.
Final Thoughts
Great emotional moments, interesting setting, solid psychological drama, hit or miss route execution and bad comedy.
8/10.
Pretty Interesting Setting
Despite most of the characters being high school age, which is kind of to be expected of most visual novels, this is NOT a slice of life high school story at all. In fact, I think it would be fair to say that at most the major characters are shown at school like 20% of the time. Iroseka mixes this minor high school aspect with a supernatural setting with parallel worlds. These parallel worlds specifically are a huge part of Iroseka's story as the main character will have many personal reasons for having to travel to or deal with these different areas. I'm not going to get into detail in order to not get into spoilers but I thought the way they integrated the supernatural stuff was quite well done. It helps give Iroseka a unique identity but while still having a huge focus on relatable psychological character drama. I also liked how they slowly built up the powers that Yuuma, the main character, and his ghost girl partner Shinku, are capable of as the story progresses.
Memorable Emotional/Depressing Moments
I am NOT exaggerating when I say depressing. Even as early as towards the end of the common route, you're going to see some stories that delve into pretty heavy subject matter, including but not limited to: lost memories, loneliness, depression, revenge, suicide, terminal diseases, extreme self-sacrifice, physical abuse, trafficking, the dark side of traditions, etc. If any of these sound like potential triggers for you, I would recommend not reading this visual novel. That said, I think the way that Iroseka delves into these subject matter is pretty tasteful. You are not going to see stupidly thrown in edgy H scenes for shock value like some eroge fall into. Quite the opposite. In fact, the visual novel goes heavily into the psychology of each character's mindset as the stuff they have gone through and I think the way that it's both presented and how the characters develop from these situations are quite good and what really got me to quite like a good amount of this visual novel.
Excellent Presentation (Art/Music)
I've always adored the art style of visual novels by developer “favorite” for their bright colors, very distinct character designs, and really good CGs. But I would say the absolute best thing about the presentation in Iroseka is actually the music. The composer Shinobu composes background music for basically every favorite visual novel including Hoshimemo, Iroseka and the currently untranslated Sakura Moyu. But the real stick outs are the emotional songs. As stated earlier, there are some moments in Iroseka that are quite emotional and the excellent background music helps the emotional scenes become even more enjoyable and immersive.
Heavy Use of Flashbacks / Exposition
As stated earlier, this is a visual novel with a pretty big emphasis on the supernatural and parallel world elements, so there's going to be a lot of stuff that needs to be explained. And the writer definitely wants to make sure to describe the many worlds and characters you will meet, including many minor characters’ backstories. To give an example in my favorite girl Kana's route, a good portion of the beginning of her route is giving a whole hour flashback of a side character that is only tangentially related to Kana. This flashback IS incredibly important for the themes of the story, so I definitely did not mind this as well as a lot of the exposition of the supernatural stuff by the dorm daddy, Shigure. They are definitely important to know and I was personally interested in what they had to say. But if you're not a fan of exposition and backstory heavy stories you could maybe think twice before picking up this title. But I thought the author did a good job of not getting too long-winded and a lot of these scenes actually really helped me get into the world and the characters and story even more than I already was.
Inconsistent Route Quality
Iroseka has a commonly used locked true route structure. Meaning you have to read the 4 ‘side’ heroine routes before you unlock the true route. Kana’s is generally considered the best side route and has become one of my personal favorite nakige style routes in isolation. The other side routes are much more hit or miss. Kyou’s has a big plot element that isn’t resolved, Tsukasa’s is way too short despite having an interesting concept, and Mio’s is decent, but just doesn’t hit as hard as I think it should. Basically, I think that the core message and themes of each route are actually pretty good, it's just the amount of care and time given to developing them varies.
As for the true route itself, many people cite it as THE reason to read the visual novel and I can certainly see why. It has very memorable emotional nakige moments and some crazy reveals that happen as early as 15 minutes into the route. However, I have much more mixed feelings about the true route than expected. Similar to the other four routes, I think the core message and themes are actually pretty good, but the issues I have with the true route can be boiled down to 3 things: 1)The plot trying too hard be a supernatural nakige that’s TOO creative 2) A few characters’ actions and stories not making much sense or are just flat out-stupid 3) Some reveals recontextualizing certain aspects of the side routes in a negative way, especially Kana’s where if you noticed I said her route is one my favorites “in insolation”.
Apparently a lot of the flaws I have with the Iroseka get fixed in the currently untranslated sequel, Irotoridoi no Hikari or The Colorful Light. People I’ve talked to cite this sequel as extremely important for filling in a lot of the gaps and details Sekai skipped in order to tell its relatively simpler emotional narrative. So if you are interested and like Iroseka and want to see more, be sure to monetarily support THIS original localization of The Colorful World.
Medicore to Bad Comedy
As I stated earlier, this visual novel has comedy that's very reminiscent of the mid to late 2000s anime harem style comedy. Expect a lot of pervert jokes including but not limited to accidentally walking into a girl changing, girls calling the main guy a pervert when he didn't do anything, or making fun of a supposed fetish that protagonist clearly does not have such as being a lolicon, being into femboys, etc. I've never liked this humor and there are many times where I had to take a break because I was getting really mad whenever these scenes popped up, especially when they happen after pretty important emotional scenes.
That said, the absolute worst offender is the protagonist's mentor “Suzu". The writer just tries to write her off as a “tease" character but The fact that she's a lazy immature person for much of the story is quite annoying. Anytime she makes a mistake, she always tries to dump the blame on the main character Yuuma, or worse try to do things that get him in a situation for the other girls to get unfairly angry at him.
Final Thoughts
Great emotional moments, interesting setting, solid psychological drama, hit or miss route execution and bad comedy.
8/10.