VNs I played in 2018 part 1

This year has been pretty busy work-wise for me so both this site and my twitter account had been pretty unattended for a while (it’s 90% due to me being a lazy bum really)
But as a way to reacclimate myself to being social on internet and stuff I’m writing this post about VNs I did in 2018, this one is up to what I played in March since it got pretty long, I’ll post part 2 tomorrow if everything goes well

I won’t rate anything and obviously it’s just my opinion so mileage may varies but it was a very interesting year in retrospect.
Not all these VNs were released in 2018 but most were, the order is simply based on when I played them

Kin’iro Loveriche https://vndb.org/v21852

I always wanted to try a game by Sakaki Kasa due to the popularity of Hikoukigumo no Mukougawa so the new and shiny Kin’iro Loveriche was a good excuse

What I got was a decently fun game, with flaws of course but a final strong enough to give me a good after taste, and one particular nice route
Kinkoi is pretty popular already so I won’t write a synopsis but I’ll just say that while several routes were pretty boring (looking at you Heroina), the writer had the habit of hammering the themes far too much (how to kill yourself with a drinking game, take a shot everytime Golden Time is mentioned) and some of the jokes were of pretty bad taste (everything with the male classmates)…
I quite liked Reina’s route, the resident gal, it was a good mix of romance, comedy and pretty much the only route that develop the protagonist’s past and trauma.

The true route is also of course what everything build up to and is quite good, especially the “epilogue” was strong enough to elevate my final opinion of the game a bit higher
A fandisk will be released soon, I’m not completely sold on it considering what kinkoi ended up being about but at the very least the one heroine who-should-have-had-a-route-but-didn’t-for-some-reason-while-random-heroines-did will have one, more Reina should be good as well

Ore-tachi no Sekai wa Owatteiru. https://vndb.org/v21261

This game was actually released on vita in 2017 but I only finished it on 2018 and it’s obscure enough I feel like I should write something about it
Oreowa follows Reiji a young man in college who work part-time for a small game company called Judgement 7, a company who is of course filled with colorful characters

The team lead by the genius pervert programmer Owari Sekai (a character who can only be summarized by two words: Sugita Tomokazu, there is no need to say anything more after that, everything about him is just Sugita Tomokazu)
The team is currently working on a very ambitious project, a new game engine working on augmented reality using a headset.
The problems start after one of their test where they find themselves trapped in their town that was completely depopulated. Of course they quickly realize they are actually trapped in a virtual world and that it’s now a race against time to go back to the real world since their bodies are left completely unintended.

That’s the basis of the beginning but oreowa goes places, the characters go back and forth between the real world and the virtual world and encounter various AIs, mad scientists, conspiracies et cetera et cetera.
Now while the game has a lot of choices (including timed ones) there is no route per se, only a final epilogue for each character (the game actually pushes you toward a particular heroine very hard so even these choices felt pretty uneeded).

But despite that it’s a LONG game.
And honestly in this particular case it’s not a good thing.
To go in order with my impression of the game, for one while I did think the plot/setting were ambitious it just goes on and on for too long for its own good with twists for the sake of making twists.
The actual writing is unfortunately not strong enough to carry what could have been something cool and the characters are all extremely stereotyped.
For example, the only “gag” in the first few chapter is about Asano, the red hair in the above pic, and how she has a small chest. And it’s repeated again and again.
Reiji keeps being called a ranobe protagonist like it’s the cleverest thing and Owari as a character is just made from random lines by Gintoki pasted together.
Despite that there are some good scenes here and there but unfortunately the result is rather messy
The soundtrack is rather forgettable but the art is by Shirai Eiri who works on Grimgar so it’s cool

Anyways it’s not a game I can recommend but it looks like a sequel(?) is in production, hopefully it will be better.

Shinsetsu Mahou Shoujo https://vndb.org/v19011
A free doujin game made singelhandely by TS https://twitter.com/ts_tassan/

I actually wanted to write something about Mahosho, or rather TS’s works in general for years now but due to a few reasons that never materialized.
For one most of TS’ works are SRPGs made in SRPG Maker 95 that as its name indicate is a relic from the 90’s, his games at least before he started using SRPG Studio were therefore super GHETTO, though it’s my honest opinion that he did his best with what he had.

Anyways Shinsetsu Mahou Shoujo is the remake of his most famous game, the unfortunately named Mahou Shoujo, I personally played both versions of the game but obviously the remake is what I recommend, I loved the original back then but there is no reason to play it nowadays.

For a quick synopsis, Mahosho takes place in a japanese city attacked by mysterious monsters, the heroines, Chiyoko a calm and reserved girl who is very scary when angry, and Haruka her childhood friend (very scary when angry too) are approached by a walking talking cat alien to become mahou shou… I mean Magicaloid, fighters powered by an alien technology who can use unique powers based on their cores, Chiyoko getting the power of darkness and Haruka the power of light.
Now Chiyoko and Haruka are tasked on protecting the town while finding new allies, there is still 23 transformation devices…

Now it may sound like your average mahou shoujo anime but there are several things to note there that turn it into a pretty unique game.

For one as mentioned above it’s a SRPG and the gameplay isn’t just for show, there are more than 50 unique maps, 30 playable characters all with their own unique skills, the maps are all well balanced with various objectives or things to be careful about.
The sprites were all designed and animated by TS himself and as someone who had been making games since the early 00’s he definitely has skills, some of the late game animations are ps1 SRW level, definitely not what you’d expect from a free game.

The other thing to note is that despite the skimpy suits that the heroines wear, the game is surprisingly “real”. The characters all have their own problems and react to getting super powers in their own way. The girls, and a few boys, all have worries and act their ages, they will talk about getting boyfriends, how hot a guy can be and face various difficulties in their daily lives.
The pov switches frequently between the characters and most end up being extremely memorable.

TS himself has a strong distaste for moe anime and what he calls bishoujo zoo and it definitely shows in mahosho, the characters don’t live in their “bubbles” so to speak.
Indeed the strongest influence for Mahosho’s creation wasn’t actually a mahou shoujo anime but Sentai shows like Kamen Rider, coupled with TS’ peculiar writing sense designed to flow in a concise realistic way, and Mahosho turns into something you don’t often see in japanese subculture.

I personally liked the original enough to go through all TS’ games which was a pretty satisfying experience overall especially due to the existence of a big crossover game https://vndb.org/v19030 that act as a sequel of sort to Mahosho while being a pretty damn strong game on its own.

Shinsetsu Mahou Shoujo is definitely one of my GOTY 2018 and something I would recommend to anyone (if you can get over the suits)
My good friend Kastel wrote a post about it in Hardcoregaming101 so check it out too, he is a much better writer than me
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/shinsetsu-mahou-shoujo/

 

Rance X https://vndb.org/v20802
I don’t think there is many things I can say about this that hasn’t been said in a better way by someone else, it’s a legendary game in about every ways and I loved all 350 hours I spent playing it.

I’ll just say something else, for me one of the most impressive thing about the Rance series in general was how it managed to “update” itself to keep with the time.
In the early Rance games, Rance himself was someone who didn’t hesitate to kill random people on the street if he felt the desire to, the world itself was a rawer more edgy yet light place similar to something like Bastard!!, this trend went on till Rance VI where Rance was a serious asshole.
For a more direct comparison Rance at the beginning of Kichikuou is a bandit and call himself as such, “updated” Rance would never lower himself to that, in the original 3 he also lets Kanami gets raped by the teleport demons which was obviously changed in the remake, the various shop keepers or passersby he kills for next to no reason, etc, etc…
But with Sengoku Rance’s huge success, I think Alicesoft felt the need the update the series and succeeded in a big way thanks to the inclusion of Dice Korogashi and Yoidore Dragon in the writing team.

What they did starting with Quest (mostly Magnum) up to X is seriously extremely impressive, characters who were introduced very late like Miracle or Crook ends up being very memorable, they also managed to turn that “update” around by simply making it seems Rance grew up.
The ero is better and longer since Rance learned that he should pleasure the girls too, he doesn’t immediately rape without a reason (or pretext) since he learned to be “patient”, etc…
This show real intelligence from Alice-soft as a game creator who understand what can fly and can’t fly with players nowadays and they did it without feeling like they became “sell-out”

To go back to Rance 10, I’ll give an extra thumb up to Shizuka’s story in general, the conclusion of her arc (that started 30 years ago!) is beautiful.
Rance 10 in general has one of the best script in gaming history while being a pretty cool game with a lot of replay value, if you didn’t play it already what are you waiting for?

Also for a final addendum
I am sorry for doubting you at the beginning of part 2 TADA, never again.