Kinoku Nasu's Tsukihime is doubtlessly an ameteur work, but as his first outing, it is an impressive outing that is not only great in its own right, in many ways, but undeniably foundational to the visual novel medium as a whole.
I often begin stories with certain expectations for how they will turn out, and base my appreciation of them to whether or not those expectations are met or lived up to. TBF to myself, I do a fair amount of research before I invest my time into something, to hopefully get maximum joy from the experience. All that said, my expectations for Tsukihime were not met. at all. What i expected was something akin to Mahoyo. What I got was a far darker, more tragic, and disturbing story about a boy coming to terms with himself, his history, and learning to take responsibility for his own life.
Tsukihime as a visual novel is entirely rooted in the mystery regarding Shiki's identity. (As I would like to keep this review spoiler free, I will not be discussing the exact details, however I will be vaguely talking about major ideas.)
As I said, I expected a mostly more chill, slice of life-type atmosphere and story like Mahoyo. However, confronting Shiki's past and current dramas are anything but relaxing.
The limited sound design and visuals, whether forced or intended or not, do create this atmosphere of losing your mind. It's like a hot summer day. It's feverish. It's difficult to distinguish what is past and what is present, real or illusory. This atmosphere that Nasu creates crafts a really compelling experience overall as you gradually descend into madness along with Shiki as he grows more afraid, confused, and lost about himself.
Shiki's history includes a multitude of mental disorders, murders, betrayals, supernatural bs, and incest that I'm sure is familiar if you've read a visual novel. But what's so impactful about Tsukihime is that it WAS the visual novel to inspire these other visual novels. There's so many common themes of identity and loneliness, common ideas of disordered personalities and unescapable tragedies, and common character archetypes that it seems like a culmination of many other visual novels I've read before. That is- it feels like that until I realize this is indeed the grandfather of visual novels. Influencing a generation of my favorite Japanese storytellers.
And I certainly do have some problems with it. Despite it creating a moody atmosphere, I think its presentation is just lacking unfortunately. I think the pacing can be poor in some routes. I think there is not enough connective tissue between the Near Side and Far Side.
And still, despite all this, I just have this massive respect for Kinoko Nasu for trying to tell such a unique story that basically fathered a whole generation of some of my favorite stories. I'll be pondering it for a while, and I'll be impatiently waiting for that official TsukiRE release worldwide.
I often begin stories with certain expectations for how they will turn out, and base my appreciation of them to whether or not those expectations are met or lived up to. TBF to myself, I do a fair amount of research before I invest my time into something, to hopefully get maximum joy from the experience. All that said, my expectations for Tsukihime were not met. at all. What i expected was something akin to Mahoyo. What I got was a far darker, more tragic, and disturbing story about a boy coming to terms with himself, his history, and learning to take responsibility for his own life.
Tsukihime as a visual novel is entirely rooted in the mystery regarding Shiki's identity. (As I would like to keep this review spoiler free, I will not be discussing the exact details, however I will be vaguely talking about major ideas.)
As I said, I expected a mostly more chill, slice of life-type atmosphere and story like Mahoyo. However, confronting Shiki's past and current dramas are anything but relaxing.
The limited sound design and visuals, whether forced or intended or not, do create this atmosphere of losing your mind. It's like a hot summer day. It's feverish. It's difficult to distinguish what is past and what is present, real or illusory. This atmosphere that Nasu creates crafts a really compelling experience overall as you gradually descend into madness along with Shiki as he grows more afraid, confused, and lost about himself.
Shiki's history includes a multitude of mental disorders, murders, betrayals, supernatural bs, and incest that I'm sure is familiar if you've read a visual novel. But what's so impactful about Tsukihime is that it WAS the visual novel to inspire these other visual novels. There's so many common themes of identity and loneliness, common ideas of disordered personalities and unescapable tragedies, and common character archetypes that it seems like a culmination of many other visual novels I've read before. That is- it feels like that until I realize this is indeed the grandfather of visual novels. Influencing a generation of my favorite Japanese storytellers.
And I certainly do have some problems with it. Despite it creating a moody atmosphere, I think its presentation is just lacking unfortunately. I think the pacing can be poor in some routes. I think there is not enough connective tissue between the Near Side and Far Side.
And still, despite all this, I just have this massive respect for Kinoko Nasu for trying to tell such a unique story that basically fathered a whole generation of some of my favorite stories. I'll be pondering it for a while, and I'll be impatiently waiting for that official TsukiRE release worldwide.