NowItsAngeTime
2024
It's a fun idea, but all I'll say I'm glad I got it when it was 100% free on April 1, 2024, cuz this is NOT worth $8. I like to call this game "Lethal Company at home".
The idea of filming scary stuff, and getting views and using that as a benchmark to constantly reach new view counts until you eventually not make enough sounds fun in theory.
However... At least on Day/Week 1, the game is simply too jank, barebones, repetitive, and not deep and varied than to play more than an hour or 2.
The jumpscares of scary monsters and re-watching people die on "Spooktube" is fun the first few times, but once you get past the shock value/new and exciting gameplay it gets dull extremely quickly.
What doesn't help is money you get is 100% tied to filming things, and the stuff you can buy... isn't mostly worth.
As someone who has played this game using in-game voice chat, as of Day 1, there were some annoying Voice Chat bugs/Features.
Mainly, right when you get back to the home base, you can potentially suddenly NOT talk to/hear your teammates until you go back into a dungeon.
This is a weird bug that I'm surprised made it to the final game.
If this were a 100% free game or extremely cheap, I'd be more forgiving, but overall this game is NOT worth $8.
The idea of filming scary stuff, and getting views and using that as a benchmark to constantly reach new view counts until you eventually not make enough sounds fun in theory.
However... At least on Day/Week 1, the game is simply too jank, barebones, repetitive, and not deep and varied than to play more than an hour or 2.
The jumpscares of scary monsters and re-watching people die on "Spooktube" is fun the first few times, but once you get past the shock value/new and exciting gameplay it gets dull extremely quickly.
What doesn't help is money you get is 100% tied to filming things, and the stuff you can buy... isn't mostly worth.
As someone who has played this game using in-game voice chat, as of Day 1, there were some annoying Voice Chat bugs/Features.
Mainly, right when you get back to the home base, you can potentially suddenly NOT talk to/hear your teammates until you go back into a dungeon.
This is a weird bug that I'm surprised made it to the final game.
If this were a 100% free game or extremely cheap, I'd be more forgiving, but overall this game is NOT worth $8.
2023
Updated review since I first reviewed around when the game first released. Since then I've played with a bunch of fan-mods including Advanced Company, More Company, and various additions like new maps and items.
...I'd say the game is still a definitive 7/10 multiplayer indie co-op game I've played.
It's a fun idea and the gameplay loop is fun enough... however, even with mods like being able to choose stat upgrades on a personal level, it gets a tad stale over time.
Especially when you get good enough to be able to breach 10,000 Quotas with 5-6 parties, you start to feel how inevitable every run truly is.
There are a lot of unfortunately useless items, with or without mods on.
Still the game is fun enough to play on occassion. If the dev eventually makes a better version of the game with a different setting it could be pretty great. As of now, it's a perfectly 'fine' indie game with interesting ideas and a kinda fun survival loot collecting gameplay loop.
...I'd say the game is still a definitive 7/10 multiplayer indie co-op game I've played.
It's a fun idea and the gameplay loop is fun enough... however, even with mods like being able to choose stat upgrades on a personal level, it gets a tad stale over time.
Especially when you get good enough to be able to breach 10,000 Quotas with 5-6 parties, you start to feel how inevitable every run truly is.
There are a lot of unfortunately useless items, with or without mods on.
Still the game is fun enough to play on occassion. If the dev eventually makes a better version of the game with a different setting it could be pretty great. As of now, it's a perfectly 'fine' indie game with interesting ideas and a kinda fun survival loot collecting gameplay loop.
I was admittedly not expecting much, but it ended up being my 2nd favorite visual novel release in 2023. Basically, I love that this is a gritty psychological thriller. It hooked me within the first 10 to 15 minutes and didn't let up within the whole 14 hours on full auto read.
The name Criminal border makes sense as most of the main characters do things that are heavily immoral but technically not crimes. That made a lot of the character interactions and motivations quite interesting.
Despite the psychological thriller aspect, there is a surprising amount of great wholesome slice of life. Mostly used for breaks in the drama, but a few of the relationships are surprisingly heartwarming, despite the deep shit some of the characters are in.
I thought the main character was going to be a useless "hetare" but he turned out to have quite the really interesting character arc relative to the tone of the series.
Even though this visual novel is definitely dark and gritty, it did not resort to stupid shock value H scenes (like NitroPlus, Subahibi, Clockup, etc) In fact, basically all of the H scenes are surprisingly relatively vanilla (most of which are actually plot relevant for once!). At worst, some things are fetishy but many of those are shown through surprising comedy SDs.
Honestly, any flaws I have are due to the structure and some minor things. More specifically, while I do quite like the title heroine "Hina" there were a few aspects of her that were a little too good to be true. While I quite liked the unique art style, I wasn't a fan of making almost all the major girls' boobs way too big. While the visual novel had a very clear character and story arc that was definitely completed and very well done... at the end of the day, this is still episode 1, so there's still a larger scope plot cliffhangered at the end.
I pretty much can't give it any higher than a 9/10 and that's purely because it's just episode 1. But I loved just about everything about it. I will be sad if nothing past episode 1 gets translated just because it doesn't seem to be taking off that well.
The name Criminal border makes sense as most of the main characters do things that are heavily immoral but technically not crimes. That made a lot of the character interactions and motivations quite interesting.
Despite the psychological thriller aspect, there is a surprising amount of great wholesome slice of life. Mostly used for breaks in the drama, but a few of the relationships are surprisingly heartwarming, despite the deep shit some of the characters are in.
I thought the main character was going to be a useless "hetare" but he turned out to have quite the really interesting character arc relative to the tone of the series.
Even though this visual novel is definitely dark and gritty, it did not resort to stupid shock value H scenes (like NitroPlus, Subahibi, Clockup, etc) In fact, basically all of the H scenes are surprisingly relatively vanilla (most of which are actually plot relevant for once!). At worst, some things are fetishy but many of those are shown through surprising comedy SDs.
Honestly, any flaws I have are due to the structure and some minor things. More specifically, while I do quite like the title heroine "Hina" there were a few aspects of her that were a little too good to be true. While I quite liked the unique art style, I wasn't a fan of making almost all the major girls' boobs way too big. While the visual novel had a very clear character and story arc that was definitely completed and very well done... at the end of the day, this is still episode 1, so there's still a larger scope plot cliffhangered at the end.
I pretty much can't give it any higher than a 9/10 and that's purely because it's just episode 1. But I loved just about everything about it. I will be sad if nothing past episode 1 gets translated just because it doesn't seem to be taking off that well.
I already thought Episode 1 was great on its own but held reservations as it was only 1/4 the story. However, Ep 2 confirmed this is likely to be one of my new favorite visual novel series.
In case you don't know Criminal Border starts off with a goofy eroge plot device of an accidental "digital drug that causes intense horniness". However things get EXTREMELY serious after with psychological thriller story with quite possibly the best pacing I've seen in a visual novel story.
The story and characters embraces the "potentially good people have to do fucked up things" theme super well. At least based on Ep 1 and 2 usually the main character plus the main heroine of that story have to go through an intense character arc, and I loved all of them so far.
Themes like attempted rape, drug dealing, attempted murder, Yakuza, deception, sex business, etc are treated as serious parts of the worldbuilding of the story. I'm surprised this is by the same writer as the 9-nine series, Kimagure Temptation, and part of Cafe Stella.
The art style isn't my personal favorite (especially some girls' boobs being bigger than my head) but the style fits the story well, and I'm sad the art style is a likely a huge reason why people aren't checking out the series.
I'll hold of an a definitive final rating for now but at least based on eps 1 and 2 it's likely at minimum gonna be a top 10 visual novel.
In case you don't know Criminal Border starts off with a goofy eroge plot device of an accidental "digital drug that causes intense horniness". However things get EXTREMELY serious after with psychological thriller story with quite possibly the best pacing I've seen in a visual novel story.
The story and characters embraces the "potentially good people have to do fucked up things" theme super well. At least based on Ep 1 and 2 usually the main character plus the main heroine of that story have to go through an intense character arc, and I loved all of them so far.
Themes like attempted rape, drug dealing, attempted murder, Yakuza, deception, sex business, etc are treated as serious parts of the worldbuilding of the story. I'm surprised this is by the same writer as the 9-nine series, Kimagure Temptation, and part of Cafe Stella.
The art style isn't my personal favorite (especially some girls' boobs being bigger than my head) but the style fits the story well, and I'm sad the art style is a likely a huge reason why people aren't checking out the series.
I'll hold of an a definitive final rating for now but at least based on eps 1 and 2 it's likely at minimum gonna be a top 10 visual novel.
Just in terms of pure comedy, Renai x Royale is in the top 5 funniest visual novels I've ever read.
As Asa Project tends to do, (like in Sankaku Ren'ai and Koikari Love For Hire), they pride themselves on making the heroines as savage, stupid, and goofy as hell. Asa Project has a very distinct over the top comedy style that goes well beyond the typical anime harem comedy. If you like Asa Project's style, you'll love this game, but if you don't I'd recommend staying away. They made a "harem already super thirsty" gimmick work pretty well here.
The one flaw is that for a moege, the actual Romance in Renai Royale is.... OK at best. Outside the side route with his ex, the romantic development was kinda shallow. Doesn't help the heroines mostly have little depth on WHY they like the MC.
NOTE: Did not do Renna or Nonoka routes because I did not like them.
As Asa Project tends to do, (like in Sankaku Ren'ai and Koikari Love For Hire), they pride themselves on making the heroines as savage, stupid, and goofy as hell. Asa Project has a very distinct over the top comedy style that goes well beyond the typical anime harem comedy. If you like Asa Project's style, you'll love this game, but if you don't I'd recommend staying away. They made a "harem already super thirsty" gimmick work pretty well here.
The one flaw is that for a moege, the actual Romance in Renai Royale is.... OK at best. Outside the side route with his ex, the romantic development was kinda shallow. Doesn't help the heroines mostly have little depth on WHY they like the MC.
NOTE: Did not do Renna or Nonoka routes because I did not like them.
2024
Barebones board party game but at least it has content for a free to play game out of the box. I don't mind the free to play aspect since there's not much need to min-max characters.
If they eventually add more/better maps and more spice, it could potentially be something great, but right now it's... a mindless game that at best you should only play a few games in a row before taking a break.
If they eventually add more/better maps and more spice, it could potentially be something great, but right now it's... a mindless game that at best you should only play a few games in a row before taking a break.
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.
2024
Do I think Nukitashi 2 is good? Definitely. Do I think it's really good? Yes, potentially a top 10 VN. Do I think it's better than the original? Not quite, but I can absolutely see the hype though.
When NUKITASHI 2 is at It's best I would say definitely has a case of being better than the original in certain aspects.
The main positive I would give of Nukitashi 2 over 1 is that the comedy as a whole is somehow even funnier. Since there's a lot more slice of life, they just focus more on the jokes and they are even more over the top with more specific unique memorable moments than even the original which i already thought was really funny.
Pretty much anything related to NLNS (characters AND the routes) were consistently great for me. To me these characters and their interactions are the life blood and why I love the original so much. The personalities are as great as ever and a few even get more development than I expected.
One unique thing about NUKITASHI 2 is that it actually covered LGBT themes, all four letters, in a surprisingly kind of nuanced way, actually delving into the psychology of said characters, as opposed to just being lazy representation or Weeb pandering fetishism. The main issue that makes it just kind of nuanced is that all the deep dives into their personalities eventually devolves into eroge fan service. Still, it's the most that I got personally invested into fictional LGBT characters which is saying a lot.
I think the main thing people are hyped for is the main sequel portion. It's a kind of weird parallel world Isekai similar to Higurashi Rei, Steins Gate, ReZero, etc. This parallel world isekai takes place after the true route of NUKITASHI 1, with the possibility (so many potential alternate timelines now) that Junnosuke did NOT get with Fumino. I wasn't a fan of this Isekai being a bad excuse to almost overwrite the true end of the original. Many times throughout this route I just thought it was just a forced way to give the "Big Three" a reason to have routes. This sequel route isn't all bad though. In fact I would say "objectively" It's actually quite solid, having good buildup, serious themes, good comedy and fight scenes. I just think some of the enjoyment was brought down by the premise in how it relates to the first game as I just talked about.
Speaking of the big 3, I'm guessing another reason why people hype the sequel because they actually get routes. While I wasn't a fan of the Isekai premise, I do at least commend the effort of Junnosuke actually having camaraderie and interactions with these three in the sequel route so the big 3 routes could at least make sense.
Sadly, I was disappointed in the big three and their routes. Rei already had her backstory in the original so there's only so much they could do with her in the sequel. That said, Her route was certainly the best of the 3, with some very solid moments, but kinda felt like it won by default. Touka got a little more backstory and depth but they also added a few more comedy gimmicks to her which I thought were hit or miss, and I was kinda disappointed in how they developed her. I never liked Ikuko and outside of learning her backstory her and her route did not make me like her more. In fact My feelings on Ikuko are even more mixed after her route.
To go on a positive note, I will say that Junnosuke is at his absolute best in NUKITASHI 2. Since every timeline is after he gets major development he gets to have great influence in the main theme of "understanding", and can switch off between the humorous man and the straight man pretty well, and in general is much less of a douchebag than in the original.
But I also REALLY liked all the after story routes related to the NLNS girls. They were all really hilarious and/or wholesome and were easily the highlight of the VN for me. I also quite liked Asane's (unlockable) route since she's hilarious, probably my favorite little sister character in VNs now.
Overall I would say I still quite like NUKITASHI 2, but it has a bunch of inconsistent flaws that make me not like this much as the original. That said, I'd say it's definitely worth reading, especially if you like the comedy, want to see an alternate version on the original NUKITASHI's plot, want to see fandisc style after stories for the original 4 heroines, and/or you want to see routes for Touka, Rei, Ikuko, and/or Asane.
I would grade NUKITASHI 2 a 9/10, because it had wholesome and unique storytelling themes, fun action whenever it showed up, but most importantly might actually be the funniest visual novel I've read to date.
Especially Misaki, who might now be THE funniest character in visual novels for me, almost any time she was on screen I was guaranteed to be dying laughing.
Speaking of, Character Ranking:
Misaki >> Hinami > Asane > Fumino > Nanase >> Rei > Touka >> Ikuko
PS
I had the privilege of doing a full PAID software QA run of NUKITASHI 2. Heavily grateful I got to do it at least once for an official VN release, especially for the sequel to one of my top three favorite visual novels of all time.
When NUKITASHI 2 is at It's best I would say definitely has a case of being better than the original in certain aspects.
The main positive I would give of Nukitashi 2 over 1 is that the comedy as a whole is somehow even funnier. Since there's a lot more slice of life, they just focus more on the jokes and they are even more over the top with more specific unique memorable moments than even the original which i already thought was really funny.
Pretty much anything related to NLNS (characters AND the routes) were consistently great for me. To me these characters and their interactions are the life blood and why I love the original so much. The personalities are as great as ever and a few even get more development than I expected.
One unique thing about NUKITASHI 2 is that it actually covered LGBT themes, all four letters, in a surprisingly kind of nuanced way, actually delving into the psychology of said characters, as opposed to just being lazy representation or Weeb pandering fetishism. The main issue that makes it just kind of nuanced is that all the deep dives into their personalities eventually devolves into eroge fan service. Still, it's the most that I got personally invested into fictional LGBT characters which is saying a lot.
I think the main thing people are hyped for is the main sequel portion. It's a kind of weird parallel world Isekai similar to Higurashi Rei, Steins Gate, ReZero, etc. This parallel world isekai takes place after the true route of NUKITASHI 1, with the possibility (so many potential alternate timelines now) that Junnosuke did NOT get with Fumino. I wasn't a fan of this Isekai being a bad excuse to almost overwrite the true end of the original. Many times throughout this route I just thought it was just a forced way to give the "Big Three" a reason to have routes. This sequel route isn't all bad though. In fact I would say "objectively" It's actually quite solid, having good buildup, serious themes, good comedy and fight scenes. I just think some of the enjoyment was brought down by the premise in how it relates to the first game as I just talked about.
Speaking of the big 3, I'm guessing another reason why people hype the sequel because they actually get routes. While I wasn't a fan of the Isekai premise, I do at least commend the effort of Junnosuke actually having camaraderie and interactions with these three in the sequel route so the big 3 routes could at least make sense.
Sadly, I was disappointed in the big three and their routes. Rei already had her backstory in the original so there's only so much they could do with her in the sequel. That said, Her route was certainly the best of the 3, with some very solid moments, but kinda felt like it won by default. Touka got a little more backstory and depth but they also added a few more comedy gimmicks to her which I thought were hit or miss, and I was kinda disappointed in how they developed her. I never liked Ikuko and outside of learning her backstory her and her route did not make me like her more. In fact My feelings on Ikuko are even more mixed after her route.
To go on a positive note, I will say that Junnosuke is at his absolute best in NUKITASHI 2. Since every timeline is after he gets major development he gets to have great influence in the main theme of "understanding", and can switch off between the humorous man and the straight man pretty well, and in general is much less of a douchebag than in the original.
But I also REALLY liked all the after story routes related to the NLNS girls. They were all really hilarious and/or wholesome and were easily the highlight of the VN for me. I also quite liked Asane's (unlockable) route since she's hilarious, probably my favorite little sister character in VNs now.
Overall I would say I still quite like NUKITASHI 2, but it has a bunch of inconsistent flaws that make me not like this much as the original. That said, I'd say it's definitely worth reading, especially if you like the comedy, want to see an alternate version on the original NUKITASHI's plot, want to see fandisc style after stories for the original 4 heroines, and/or you want to see routes for Touka, Rei, Ikuko, and/or Asane.
I would grade NUKITASHI 2 a 9/10, because it had wholesome and unique storytelling themes, fun action whenever it showed up, but most importantly might actually be the funniest visual novel I've read to date.
Especially Misaki, who might now be THE funniest character in visual novels for me, almost any time she was on screen I was guaranteed to be dying laughing.
Speaking of, Character Ranking:
Misaki >> Hinami > Asane > Fumino > Nanase >> Rei > Touka >> Ikuko
PS
I had the privilege of doing a full PAID software QA run of NUKITASHI 2. Heavily grateful I got to do it at least once for an official VN release, especially for the sequel to one of my top three favorite visual novels of all time.
Definitely an improvement over 1 in almost every way including having lots more single player modes, while having better overall gameplay. Shame they couldn't keep all the characters from 1.
With the helps of TheDexLogs YouTube Channel, I was finally able to figure out what the cheap strategy is to cheese this game. A Blastoise Rain Dance with some help of other cheap Basic Pokemon with Colorless attacks.
Old-school Pokemon TCG was fun to experience through this game but I prefer modern Pokemon TCG since it's WAY more balanced.
Old-school Pokemon TCG was fun to experience through this game but I prefer modern Pokemon TCG since it's WAY more balanced.
2014
Chaos;Child is a basically perfect mix of murder mystery, psychological drama, fun Sci-fi magic, and likable characters. I was honestly floored that outside maybe the first several hours, the visual novel was consistently quite interesting or entertaining.
Country to popular belief from the hardcore Sci;Adv fanboys, you do NOT need to read other Science;Adventure visual novels first. In fact, I think Chaos;Child is one of the better ones to start off with since it has a good balance of mixing slice of Life character development as well as introducing mystery plot elements. It can help you find out if you like the ideas of Sci;Adv before going into others. But if you’re sure you wanna read all the Sci;Adv VNs, then find one of those online guides to read from Chaos;Head Noah up to Anonymous;Code.
Many of the Science;Adventure series usually have like 1-3 good characters and the rest are boring, annoying, or nowhere near fleshed out as they should be. In my opinion I think all the major characters of Chaos;Child all eventually get enough depth to stick out. Sure there are still some that probably could have used a little more love like Uki, Hana, and Mio but even I thought they had just enough for me to have something of an emotional connection to them, which I can't say for 90% of the cast of Steins;Gate or Chaos;Head.
As said earlier, the mystery stuff is basically paced almost perfectly. You have a murder mystery scenario within the first chapter and every single chapter has some really interesting reveal, so you're never left hanging. This also extends to the heroine routes when you get on them.
While this visual novel has a lot of sci-fi magic that could’ve lead to dumb deus ex machinas, Chaos;Child does a surprisingly good job having a good balance of hopeful/positive twists but also not reversing any big negative twist (like KEY). In fact, you can make the argument that sometimes the way some routes end are probably a little too edgy at times. But once again I think Chaos;Child has a good balance of having hopeful things happen and negative things happen where the characters just have to live with the consequences.
Chaos;Child also has a very consistent theme of “be careful what you wish for”. It’s a theme I find is only used in certain occasion in other media. I like how this theme applies to many characters and works great with how the sci-fi magic works in Chaos;Child.
The story structure is definitely very weird and a carryover from Chaos;head. The vast majority of the story is in the common route which you are forced onto on your first read through. I could see how this could bother some people since the common route on its own could be somewhere between 20 to 40 hours depending on your reading speed since it has 11 chapters of variable lengths. However, I'm glad this visual novel at least did something relatively different because the common route is very much its own complete story with a very definitive end. And honestly, if the story ended there, it could have been a great story on its own.
I generally have positive things to say about every heroine route + true route. They are all on the short side being somewhere between two to five hours depending on your reading speed. They basically feel more like giving context to certain characters and world building that the common route couldn't quite tackle. I thought this route aspect worked surprisingly well simultaneously giving the other main heroines a different role while not taking away from the main story and especially the true route twists. A minor nitpick is I wish more of the side heroine twists were integrated in the main story.
However, one thing I don't have positive things to say about is the delusion choice system, another carryover from the spiritual prequel Chaos;Head. In Chaos;Head, the delusion trigger system made more sense for the main character as he was exceptionally paranoid. In Chaos;Child, the delusion trigger works exactly the same where you can choose positive or negative delusions based on certain slice of life scenarios. Unfortunately, all these just feel like dumb tacked-on anime fan service scenes. Since these all happen in the main character Takuru’s head, they can range from goofy references to other media, typical horny male fantasizing over females, or just super random mundane things. What doesn't help is that you have to watch a certain amount of positive or negative delusions to get onto the heroine routes. Thankfully, if you really don't like these scenes, you could probably just hold the Skip button during the scenes you don't like because none of them are plot relevant.
Thankfully the delusion trigger aspect is the only real flaw I have with Chaos;Child besides the occasional slow pacing issue which is just a common thing with visual novels in general.
The “best for last” aspect I want to talk about is the characters and as I basically implied earlier, they are what help carry this visual novel to now one of my new favorites.
Admittedly, almost none of them are in the running for my favorite character or anything. In fact, you could make the argument that a few of them are purposely unlikable at times, including our main character Takuru. Some people may be put off by him because of how low-key arrogant he is despite clearly being socially awkward. But he gets a surprising amount of depth, and while his development wasn't always great, the way he turned out by the end was satisfying.
All the major heroines are decently likable: Nono being an overprotective mom but for good reason, Hinae being a troll who has clear trust issues, Hana having a mystery of why she never talks, Uki’s desire to always want to be helpful to people, and even Mio who starts off as a bitch but gets more tolerable over time.
However, the true star of the show is easily Serika and is now in the running for one of my favorite visual novel heroines. I really like her base personality of just being a goofy ditzy weirdo. In every single scene she's in, she provides some fun commentary, jokes, or super interesting dialogue.. As you get farther in the game, she shows a lot more depth than you realize and the fact that they don't sugarcoat things about certain aspects about her was part of why I really like her even if she does some things that aren't really “waifu-like". But that's fine, not every visual novel girl has to specifically be a waifu target, we got plenty of childhood friend characters in weeb media.
The more I think about it, the more that chaos child was basically the perfect storm of what I want in a plot-heavy mystery focused visual novel. It’s just consistently entertaining and interesting, and despite all the sci-fi magic stuff and things getting a bit edgy at times, everything either has a proper explanation or has really good character growth and depth that generally made the storytelling understandable.
I'm still debating whether to give this a 9 or 10, but when I have almost nothing but positive things to say, I think that's a good sign that this is now one of my favorite visual novels.
I heavily recommend Chaos;Child if you want a mystery and/or psychological story and don't mind some sci-fi magic explanations.
Country to popular belief from the hardcore Sci;Adv fanboys, you do NOT need to read other Science;Adventure visual novels first. In fact, I think Chaos;Child is one of the better ones to start off with since it has a good balance of mixing slice of Life character development as well as introducing mystery plot elements. It can help you find out if you like the ideas of Sci;Adv before going into others. But if you’re sure you wanna read all the Sci;Adv VNs, then find one of those online guides to read from Chaos;Head Noah up to Anonymous;Code.
Many of the Science;Adventure series usually have like 1-3 good characters and the rest are boring, annoying, or nowhere near fleshed out as they should be. In my opinion I think all the major characters of Chaos;Child all eventually get enough depth to stick out. Sure there are still some that probably could have used a little more love like Uki, Hana, and Mio but even I thought they had just enough for me to have something of an emotional connection to them, which I can't say for 90% of the cast of Steins;Gate or Chaos;Head.
As said earlier, the mystery stuff is basically paced almost perfectly. You have a murder mystery scenario within the first chapter and every single chapter has some really interesting reveal, so you're never left hanging. This also extends to the heroine routes when you get on them.
While this visual novel has a lot of sci-fi magic that could’ve lead to dumb deus ex machinas, Chaos;Child does a surprisingly good job having a good balance of hopeful/positive twists but also not reversing any big negative twist (like KEY). In fact, you can make the argument that sometimes the way some routes end are probably a little too edgy at times. But once again I think Chaos;Child has a good balance of having hopeful things happen and negative things happen where the characters just have to live with the consequences.
Chaos;Child also has a very consistent theme of “be careful what you wish for”. It’s a theme I find is only used in certain occasion in other media. I like how this theme applies to many characters and works great with how the sci-fi magic works in Chaos;Child.
The story structure is definitely very weird and a carryover from Chaos;head. The vast majority of the story is in the common route which you are forced onto on your first read through. I could see how this could bother some people since the common route on its own could be somewhere between 20 to 40 hours depending on your reading speed since it has 11 chapters of variable lengths. However, I'm glad this visual novel at least did something relatively different because the common route is very much its own complete story with a very definitive end. And honestly, if the story ended there, it could have been a great story on its own.
I generally have positive things to say about every heroine route + true route. They are all on the short side being somewhere between two to five hours depending on your reading speed. They basically feel more like giving context to certain characters and world building that the common route couldn't quite tackle. I thought this route aspect worked surprisingly well simultaneously giving the other main heroines a different role while not taking away from the main story and especially the true route twists. A minor nitpick is I wish more of the side heroine twists were integrated in the main story.
However, one thing I don't have positive things to say about is the delusion choice system, another carryover from the spiritual prequel Chaos;Head. In Chaos;Head, the delusion trigger system made more sense for the main character as he was exceptionally paranoid. In Chaos;Child, the delusion trigger works exactly the same where you can choose positive or negative delusions based on certain slice of life scenarios. Unfortunately, all these just feel like dumb tacked-on anime fan service scenes. Since these all happen in the main character Takuru’s head, they can range from goofy references to other media, typical horny male fantasizing over females, or just super random mundane things. What doesn't help is that you have to watch a certain amount of positive or negative delusions to get onto the heroine routes. Thankfully, if you really don't like these scenes, you could probably just hold the Skip button during the scenes you don't like because none of them are plot relevant.
Thankfully the delusion trigger aspect is the only real flaw I have with Chaos;Child besides the occasional slow pacing issue which is just a common thing with visual novels in general.
The “best for last” aspect I want to talk about is the characters and as I basically implied earlier, they are what help carry this visual novel to now one of my new favorites.
Admittedly, almost none of them are in the running for my favorite character or anything. In fact, you could make the argument that a few of them are purposely unlikable at times, including our main character Takuru. Some people may be put off by him because of how low-key arrogant he is despite clearly being socially awkward. But he gets a surprising amount of depth, and while his development wasn't always great, the way he turned out by the end was satisfying.
All the major heroines are decently likable: Nono being an overprotective mom but for good reason, Hinae being a troll who has clear trust issues, Hana having a mystery of why she never talks, Uki’s desire to always want to be helpful to people, and even Mio who starts off as a bitch but gets more tolerable over time.
However, the true star of the show is easily Serika and is now in the running for one of my favorite visual novel heroines. I really like her base personality of just being a goofy ditzy weirdo. In every single scene she's in, she provides some fun commentary, jokes, or super interesting dialogue.. As you get farther in the game, she shows a lot more depth than you realize and the fact that they don't sugarcoat things about certain aspects about her was part of why I really like her even if she does some things that aren't really “waifu-like". But that's fine, not every visual novel girl has to specifically be a waifu target, we got plenty of childhood friend characters in weeb media.
The more I think about it, the more that chaos child was basically the perfect storm of what I want in a plot-heavy mystery focused visual novel. It’s just consistently entertaining and interesting, and despite all the sci-fi magic stuff and things getting a bit edgy at times, everything either has a proper explanation or has really good character growth and depth that generally made the storytelling understandable.
I'm still debating whether to give this a 9 or 10, but when I have almost nothing but positive things to say, I think that's a good sign that this is now one of my favorite visual novels.
I heavily recommend Chaos;Child if you want a mystery and/or psychological story and don't mind some sci-fi magic explanations.
I literally only read this because I'm a sucker for quirky nice weird girls like Maika (being a lewd Akiba nerd helps I guess?). Outside that this is just a shallow moe nukige with making up dumb quick reasons for characters to be close to each other and have sex a lot. Any melodrama is always put at the end and is over with within 20-30 lines. Also the plot twists related to Maika's mom/family were dumb.
Didn't bother finishing older sister's route cuz she's annoying and didn't care about her issues.
Didn't bother finishing older sister's route cuz she's annoying and didn't care about her issues.
Destiny Star girlfriend is a visual novel developed by mirai and translated by Shiravune. The original draw for me was the fact that we for once have a moege romcom around a magical girl universe especially since many times magical girls and visual novels are only used in nukige, especially dark ones. But the real thing that got me hooked into reading Destiny Star Girlfriend immediately was the fact that the developer mirai is apparently a sister company of Minatosoft aka the developer of my favorite visual novel Majikoi. To quote Sam Jackson from Pulp Fiction: “Sheeett (N-Word) that’s all you had to say!”
And in a way I suppose it is similar ish to Majikoi. Destiny Star Girlfriend is very much a light-hearted slice of life comedy first and a magical girl action story second. This is low-key an episodic series with this particular release starring a blonde egotistical magical girl: Yurii Kamiizumi. As in many magical girl anime and manga all the magical girls in this series have to keep the fact that they are magical girls a secret to the public. Though in Yuri's case she goes a step further and fabricates this super nice caring girl personality that ends up becoming quite popular in school.
This causes our protagonist Seiji Takasugi to develop a crush on her, but he considers this crush a lost cause as he considers himself just an average guy. But through an amusing set of circumstances, he creates a literal connection to Yuri. After an injury causes both him and Yuri to be wounded at the way beginning of the story, a magical girl society representative masquerading as a school nurse has to use a technique that sews a red thread between the two characters that slowly heals them over 3 months so they don't not die.
However, it turns out this red string connection if the two characters attempt to distance themselves over 1 meter from each other, they start to feel intense pain, which I assume is because of what should be fatal injuries still healing. This causes a situation where the two characters are forced to live together for the next 3 months until their wounds finally heal.
Throughout this 3-month ordeal, he finds out his supposed perfect ideal girl he had a crush on is nothing like how she acts at school. She is extremely full of herself, letting the fact that she's one of the top rated magical girls of the area get to her head to the point where she's even gotten a little sloppy which is what originally led to their injury.
Most of the first half of the visual novels is pure slice of life interactions between Seiji and Yuuri and how they have to pretend to be a couple since that's basically the only way they can hide their forced red string connection. The two are forced to figure out all the little things they have to deal with in terms of being forced to constantly be one meter from each other including wearing a helmet playing really loud music while the other is using the bathroom. And then of course there's the typical eroge shenanigans with the main guy finds the main girl changing with fanservice CGs multiple times.
So right off the bat a good amount of your enjoyment of Destiny star girlfriend is going to be how much you actually like Yuuri's incredibly arrogant personality. I had mixed feelings at first. On one hand, it is pretty refreshing to have a main girl who actually is legitimately confident and full of herself and not just a boring tsundere with fake confidence. On the other hand, it was getting kind of grating dealing with all of Yuuri's comments about how she's the best and how she was trying to originally force Seiji to become her servant of sorts.
Thankfully this egotistical personality trait of hers was balanced by three things. 1) Seiji The main protagonist is surprisingly not a pushover. He has a lot of snark and is definitely willing to roast Yuri when she's getting way too full herself, especially since she's incredibly simple-minded. 2) Yuri's occasional use of amusing Engrish. 3) Yuri actually does get character development which I was actually not expecting to see. I won't spoil how exactly she develops, but let's just say by the time she and Seiji develop their relationship she's become a far more likeable person with some occasional wholesome moments while still having the same core personality at heart.
I haven't touched too much on the magical girl stuff yet and that's mostly because besides the forced red string thing keeping Yuuri and Seiji together, I'd say the magical girl stuff maybe accounts for 1/3 of the story. I'll let the game itself go into more detail if you're really interested. But the general idea is the magical girls are called stars (kind of reminded me of resident evil when I first heard it), they are employed by a “Starry Sky Council” to defeat demons equivalent of the monster of the week premise usually seen in your average magical girl anime or manga.
This whole magical girl employment thing gets surprisingly real where characters have salaries and contracts and have to negotiate based on How well they are doing in terms of doing their job. Whether it's defeating or capturing demons and making sure civilians are safe. While the magical girl stuff does seem to be more of an occasional backdrop for Yuuri to show at the beginning, there is a plot that eventually develops into something interesting enough to drive entertainment later on.
While Yuri is the main girl of this episode, we get introduced to a whole bunch of side characters, some who will be the stars of future sequels. For example, there's Maya (spelled Maja for some reason) the character that attacks Yuuri and Seiji at the way beginning of the game that will be the star of episode 2. And then there's Yuri's kouhai junior magical girl Kanoko, someone who incredibly idolizes Yuri and is low key yandere towards her making jokes about how she wants Yuri to be incredibly dependent on her good cooking skills. She will be the star of Episode 3. And then there's the teacher Fujiko who has a short fan disc, is a representative of the magical girl council as well as an acting school teacher and nurse. While these characters get less screentime than lead character Yuuri, they appear enough for their personalities and jokes to be pretty memorable.
That's about all I'll give about story details since there's a surprisingly decent amount of twists and developments that I think are better left experiencing for yourself.
I said towards the beginning that Destiny Star Girlfriend is a light-hearted over the top comedic style visual novel that basically sticks throughout the rest of the story, so if you like this style of storytelling I think that alone should make you interested in this visual novel. That said, one thing I was surprised by is how surprisingly good the romantic development was. I was first scared this story was going to be a sex heavy nukige given the box art and the whole main couple having to stick together for 3 months. The romance actually development in a slow and steady way including how it introduces sex into the relationship, which is a pleasant surprise given how many modern eroge has a couple get into the fucking almost immediately after confessing. That said this IS still an eroge and there will be many perverted jokes, including undressing Yuuri, and lots of fake out make out sessions that dont actually lead to an H-scenes.
The magical girl action scenes are passable. They are mostly done within like a few minutes, mostly just used as a way to pivot some plot and character developments but as said earlier eventually develop into something interesting enough to drive the plot and development forward. They are still fun to look at though, especially when Yuuri excitedly shouts her attack names.
Overall I had a fun time with Destiny Star Girlfriend. As said earlier, it did take a bit of time to get over Yuri's hit or miss attitude related to how overly arrogant and egotistical she was and the visual novels’ slight overuse on the ‘protgaonist being perverted’ humor.. But once the main couple really got together, Yuuri became more likeable and the humor became more diverse. So I enjoyed the visual novel more as time went on. I don't think Destiny Star Girlfriend is going to blow anyone's minds unless you have been dying for a magical girl romcom. I would only recommend this visual novel if you really want to see that or you just like over-the-top goofy comedic style visual novel writing. If you’re curious about the length of Destiny Star Girlfriend it has around 13 in-game chapters, and the average read length on VNDB is about 8-9 hours, though I took about 16 hours on full auto-read. Overall, I would give Destiny star girlfriend a 7.5 out of 10.
And in a way I suppose it is similar ish to Majikoi. Destiny Star Girlfriend is very much a light-hearted slice of life comedy first and a magical girl action story second. This is low-key an episodic series with this particular release starring a blonde egotistical magical girl: Yurii Kamiizumi. As in many magical girl anime and manga all the magical girls in this series have to keep the fact that they are magical girls a secret to the public. Though in Yuri's case she goes a step further and fabricates this super nice caring girl personality that ends up becoming quite popular in school.
This causes our protagonist Seiji Takasugi to develop a crush on her, but he considers this crush a lost cause as he considers himself just an average guy. But through an amusing set of circumstances, he creates a literal connection to Yuri. After an injury causes both him and Yuri to be wounded at the way beginning of the story, a magical girl society representative masquerading as a school nurse has to use a technique that sews a red thread between the two characters that slowly heals them over 3 months so they don't not die.
However, it turns out this red string connection if the two characters attempt to distance themselves over 1 meter from each other, they start to feel intense pain, which I assume is because of what should be fatal injuries still healing. This causes a situation where the two characters are forced to live together for the next 3 months until their wounds finally heal.
Throughout this 3-month ordeal, he finds out his supposed perfect ideal girl he had a crush on is nothing like how she acts at school. She is extremely full of herself, letting the fact that she's one of the top rated magical girls of the area get to her head to the point where she's even gotten a little sloppy which is what originally led to their injury.
Most of the first half of the visual novels is pure slice of life interactions between Seiji and Yuuri and how they have to pretend to be a couple since that's basically the only way they can hide their forced red string connection. The two are forced to figure out all the little things they have to deal with in terms of being forced to constantly be one meter from each other including wearing a helmet playing really loud music while the other is using the bathroom. And then of course there's the typical eroge shenanigans with the main guy finds the main girl changing with fanservice CGs multiple times.
So right off the bat a good amount of your enjoyment of Destiny star girlfriend is going to be how much you actually like Yuuri's incredibly arrogant personality. I had mixed feelings at first. On one hand, it is pretty refreshing to have a main girl who actually is legitimately confident and full of herself and not just a boring tsundere with fake confidence. On the other hand, it was getting kind of grating dealing with all of Yuuri's comments about how she's the best and how she was trying to originally force Seiji to become her servant of sorts.
Thankfully this egotistical personality trait of hers was balanced by three things. 1) Seiji The main protagonist is surprisingly not a pushover. He has a lot of snark and is definitely willing to roast Yuri when she's getting way too full herself, especially since she's incredibly simple-minded. 2) Yuri's occasional use of amusing Engrish. 3) Yuri actually does get character development which I was actually not expecting to see. I won't spoil how exactly she develops, but let's just say by the time she and Seiji develop their relationship she's become a far more likeable person with some occasional wholesome moments while still having the same core personality at heart.
I haven't touched too much on the magical girl stuff yet and that's mostly because besides the forced red string thing keeping Yuuri and Seiji together, I'd say the magical girl stuff maybe accounts for 1/3 of the story. I'll let the game itself go into more detail if you're really interested. But the general idea is the magical girls are called stars (kind of reminded me of resident evil when I first heard it), they are employed by a “Starry Sky Council” to defeat demons equivalent of the monster of the week premise usually seen in your average magical girl anime or manga.
This whole magical girl employment thing gets surprisingly real where characters have salaries and contracts and have to negotiate based on How well they are doing in terms of doing their job. Whether it's defeating or capturing demons and making sure civilians are safe. While the magical girl stuff does seem to be more of an occasional backdrop for Yuuri to show at the beginning, there is a plot that eventually develops into something interesting enough to drive entertainment later on.
While Yuri is the main girl of this episode, we get introduced to a whole bunch of side characters, some who will be the stars of future sequels. For example, there's Maya (spelled Maja for some reason) the character that attacks Yuuri and Seiji at the way beginning of the game that will be the star of episode 2. And then there's Yuri's kouhai junior magical girl Kanoko, someone who incredibly idolizes Yuri and is low key yandere towards her making jokes about how she wants Yuri to be incredibly dependent on her good cooking skills. She will be the star of Episode 3. And then there's the teacher Fujiko who has a short fan disc, is a representative of the magical girl council as well as an acting school teacher and nurse. While these characters get less screentime than lead character Yuuri, they appear enough for their personalities and jokes to be pretty memorable.
That's about all I'll give about story details since there's a surprisingly decent amount of twists and developments that I think are better left experiencing for yourself.
I said towards the beginning that Destiny Star Girlfriend is a light-hearted over the top comedic style visual novel that basically sticks throughout the rest of the story, so if you like this style of storytelling I think that alone should make you interested in this visual novel. That said, one thing I was surprised by is how surprisingly good the romantic development was. I was first scared this story was going to be a sex heavy nukige given the box art and the whole main couple having to stick together for 3 months. The romance actually development in a slow and steady way including how it introduces sex into the relationship, which is a pleasant surprise given how many modern eroge has a couple get into the fucking almost immediately after confessing. That said this IS still an eroge and there will be many perverted jokes, including undressing Yuuri, and lots of fake out make out sessions that dont actually lead to an H-scenes.
The magical girl action scenes are passable. They are mostly done within like a few minutes, mostly just used as a way to pivot some plot and character developments but as said earlier eventually develop into something interesting enough to drive the plot and development forward. They are still fun to look at though, especially when Yuuri excitedly shouts her attack names.
Overall I had a fun time with Destiny Star Girlfriend. As said earlier, it did take a bit of time to get over Yuri's hit or miss attitude related to how overly arrogant and egotistical she was and the visual novels’ slight overuse on the ‘protgaonist being perverted’ humor.. But once the main couple really got together, Yuuri became more likeable and the humor became more diverse. So I enjoyed the visual novel more as time went on. I don't think Destiny Star Girlfriend is going to blow anyone's minds unless you have been dying for a magical girl romcom. I would only recommend this visual novel if you really want to see that or you just like over-the-top goofy comedic style visual novel writing. If you’re curious about the length of Destiny Star Girlfriend it has around 13 in-game chapters, and the average read length on VNDB is about 8-9 hours, though I took about 16 hours on full auto-read. Overall, I would give Destiny star girlfriend a 7.5 out of 10.
Barely readable shallow moe nukige as expected but it was unfortunate since there were genuine wholesome story beats that woulda worked well in a non-nukige setting. Yukana herself as a whole was barely tolerable. Best thing I can say about this VN is it hyped me up for the sequel since Maika 100% is the best girl so far.
I think the pros are obvious. Pretty much anything related to flying circus is quite solid, even great. Any development related to Misaki and FC was nice If kind of expected. I would say the better parts of the flying circus stuff was seeing other characters get the limelight that sorely needed some serious moments. And of course, the presentation by Sprite and filmic novel is top notch. I liked a bunch of the remixed tracks of original BGM.
Sadly the one thing that makes me not think extra two is nearly as hype as other people think... Is that Misaki unfortunately is still really annoying with her joking style in basically any slice of life or romance scene. While I enjoyed her flying circus stuff just fine, I pretty much dreaded anything where she's just let loose with her jokes cuz they are not my thing at all and I just every time she talks I always think " Man, I would much prefer going out with any of the three other main heroines: wholesome Mary Sue Asuka, the subdued but stable Rika, and even Mashiro (as long as shegets her development from her route and extra one)
That said, the flying circus stuff is definitely great enough to at least give this a low 8 out of 10. Just fix that overrated Misaki personality please!
Sadly the one thing that makes me not think extra two is nearly as hype as other people think... Is that Misaki unfortunately is still really annoying with her joking style in basically any slice of life or romance scene. While I enjoyed her flying circus stuff just fine, I pretty much dreaded anything where she's just let loose with her jokes cuz they are not my thing at all and I just every time she talks I always think " Man, I would much prefer going out with any of the three other main heroines: wholesome Mary Sue Asuka, the subdued but stable Rika, and even Mashiro (as long as shegets her development from her route and extra one)
That said, the flying circus stuff is definitely great enough to at least give this a low 8 out of 10. Just fix that overrated Misaki personality please!