So I beat the normal endings back when the CoZ patch came out but I just went back and finished all the bonus routes and got the true end so I feel better equipped to do a real review.
This game is an absolute mess, a weird and wild patchwork of edgelord horror tropes, evangelion-level psychobabble, bishoujo stereotypes, and straight up magical girl anime nonsense. It's excessive, and it's kind of embarrassing, like peeking into someone's journal of half finished fanfics. And yeah, I love it to pieces.
What I love about the VN space is that I just can't think of any other genre that could get away with something like this. It is, straight up, a psychological horror game, but it's also a game where a bunch of anime girls are inexplicably drawn to just some fuckin' dude and wield psychic swords borne of their own traumas. For all intents and purposes, this shouldn't work.
But it really, really does, and I think that speaks to level of craft on display here. This game has an impeccable sense of mood and atmosphere, masterfully wielding sound design, tricks of prose, and sudden edits to make the fairly rudimentary silicon graphics presentation utterly envelop the reader. When the game had me, it really fuckin' had me, in a way that few other horror VNs manage as well.
I also think that focusing the story on Takumi allows the story to both comment on its own excesses while giving us the insight to empathize with a genuinely awful dude who, if we're being honest, we at one point had more in common with than we'd like to admit. The fact that most of the early delusions come from a wastoid otaku has the neat effect of making the later story developments actually feel grounded by comparison, and the delusion concept itself allows the story to play with fire without (usually) burning itself.
And the way the game has empathy, but not sympathy, for Takumi is genuinely compelling. He's an awful, selfish, shallow guy, who is also deeply traumatized and dealing with a severe and debilitating anxiety disorder, and the game allows both to exist simultaneously without one overwhelming the other. People are complicated, and you really never know what they're going through, for good and for ill.
That's not to say this game always succeeds. This is the first of the SciADV games and it gives the impression that the writers were afraid they'd never get to do another, because it throws everything at the wall. And, especially with 6 routes added by Noah, not all of it sticks. Sena's route is dull and of interest only for the lore-heads; Nanami's is a complete waste of time; and there are several chapters that, upon revisiting, have that Kojima monologue feeling of "hey, wanna hear something cool I read on wikipedia?"
But that all said, I'm glad I came back and fully finished the game—the extra character development really does add some depth and edge to the game's bishoujo critiques, and Rimi's route is genuinely some of the best written material in the game. The impression I've gotten from the community is that this is thought of as the worst of the series—if so, i'm stoked to see what's next.
This game is an absolute mess, a weird and wild patchwork of edgelord horror tropes, evangelion-level psychobabble, bishoujo stereotypes, and straight up magical girl anime nonsense. It's excessive, and it's kind of embarrassing, like peeking into someone's journal of half finished fanfics. And yeah, I love it to pieces.
What I love about the VN space is that I just can't think of any other genre that could get away with something like this. It is, straight up, a psychological horror game, but it's also a game where a bunch of anime girls are inexplicably drawn to just some fuckin' dude and wield psychic swords borne of their own traumas. For all intents and purposes, this shouldn't work.
But it really, really does, and I think that speaks to level of craft on display here. This game has an impeccable sense of mood and atmosphere, masterfully wielding sound design, tricks of prose, and sudden edits to make the fairly rudimentary silicon graphics presentation utterly envelop the reader. When the game had me, it really fuckin' had me, in a way that few other horror VNs manage as well.
I also think that focusing the story on Takumi allows the story to both comment on its own excesses while giving us the insight to empathize with a genuinely awful dude who, if we're being honest, we at one point had more in common with than we'd like to admit. The fact that most of the early delusions come from a wastoid otaku has the neat effect of making the later story developments actually feel grounded by comparison, and the delusion concept itself allows the story to play with fire without (usually) burning itself.
And the way the game has empathy, but not sympathy, for Takumi is genuinely compelling. He's an awful, selfish, shallow guy, who is also deeply traumatized and dealing with a severe and debilitating anxiety disorder, and the game allows both to exist simultaneously without one overwhelming the other. People are complicated, and you really never know what they're going through, for good and for ill.
That's not to say this game always succeeds. This is the first of the SciADV games and it gives the impression that the writers were afraid they'd never get to do another, because it throws everything at the wall. And, especially with 6 routes added by Noah, not all of it sticks. Sena's route is dull and of interest only for the lore-heads; Nanami's is a complete waste of time; and there are several chapters that, upon revisiting, have that Kojima monologue feeling of "hey, wanna hear something cool I read on wikipedia?"
But that all said, I'm glad I came back and fully finished the game—the extra character development really does add some depth and edge to the game's bishoujo critiques, and Rimi's route is genuinely some of the best written material in the game. The impression I've gotten from the community is that this is thought of as the worst of the series—if so, i'm stoked to see what's next.