To my Most Treasured: Review of [160826] Inochi no Spare

Foreword: Bloody hell this game. I swear this game. Holy crap this game. OMFGWTFBBQ THIS GAME

I made a good choice in picking this game to be the first one to play for the August releases. As you might have guessed from various sources, this game is very depressing, but very well worth your time. In fact, this game is pretty short, but contains various elements missing in other games from the July releases I was criticizing about, so that was a huge plus. Enough talking about the game for now because I’d hate to say everything here.

Goddamn, I fucking love kinetic novels for this reason. I just love them. If a big company is releasing a kinetic novel, I jump on it like a starved lion who found its prey. It works for me because of a lot of reasons, and I’m going to discuss most of that below.

I REALLY want to avoid spoilers for this review, but due to the nature of the game and how short it is, as well as its contents, I will have to include spoilers. I’ll make every effort to be conservative with them and avoid them at all possible (aka, restrict it to the “spoiler section”)! Please bear with me in this aspect!

Please be warned! This review will contain spoilers!

Title: 生命のスペア (Seimei “Inochi” no Spare) [Spare (Extra) Life]
Producers: Akabeisoft 3
Release Date: August 26, 2016
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v19513
Getchu Link: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=911027
Game Type: Nakige with Life and Death Themes

Summary: “Oumonbyou” (桜紋病) [Sakura-Pattern Disease] is a fearful disease with no known cure, and the victim’s life is filled with pain and despair until the last exacerbation, soon after which he dies. It is given this name due to the cherry-blossom patterns that appear on the victim’s left-side of the chest which spreads to the rest of the body, and this has caused the entire society to hate cherry blossoms; cutting down any and every one of them.

Ryuuji’s older brother died. Koutarou was always so nice to him, but Ryuuji couldn’t do anything for him in return. This caused the entire family to split apart and Ryuuji now spends his days alone. He thought this would be okay, but he meets a girl named Meguri who has the same disease that his older brother has.

Was this obligation to his dead older brother? Was this repentance for not being able to save his older brother and his family? The same questions surround Meguri as the two become much closer than before.

“I was born for you”. What does that mean?

Ryuuji’s brother; Koutarou. Really makes me wish I had an older sibling like him (I’m the eldest)

Story Length: Moderately Short (15 hours)
Complete Story Clearing Difficulty: N/A
Comments: A Kinetic Novel. I personally love Kinetic Novels for a lot of reasons, but the major one is that this forces the writers to focus every bit of the “quality” possible on this sole route. While others may disagree, I strongly believe many of the “Kamige” out there either have a “True Route” which greatly exceeds the quality of the other portions of the game, or is a kinetic novel with a stunningly good story.

The Incarnation of the Poem of Sakura [151023]Sakura no Uta

Foreword:

Okay DAMN. People said this game was good but I did NOT know it was going to be THIS good. Well, only parts of it.

This title’s definitely on kamige level, but it’s really unfortunate that I can’t really say it’s a kamige because of a couple of reasons. Despite this, I wouldn’t hesitate to call this one of the most impactful games out there and MAN it really left a big impression on me. More like, why didn’t I hear about this title before? The all ages trial was from 2008! Ya’ll need to make recommendations like this more often because I often find myself missing them. Though to be fair on the other hand, most of my bias for this game comes from the fact I love seeing philosophy in galge/eroge in general. It really gives me a lot of “shower thoughts” that I can ponder about for the next few days.

While I’m going to be praising this game for the most part, it isn’t without flaws. I’m going to point out some major kinks that this game had that makes it awfully awkward in some areas and may be more of a turnoff. I think Sakura no Uta would be a great example of how a lot of amateur players scream is the best game ever, and completely ignore said fatal flaws, lol.

This review will contain minor spoilers and analysis of the game! Please only consider reading this review if you didn’t really understand the game or have already played it!

Title: サクラノ詩－櫻の森の上を舞う－ Sakura no Uta -Sakura no morino uewomau- [Lit. Trans: The Poem of Sakura – Dancing above the Forest of Sakura-]
Producers: makura
Release Date: Trial released in 2008, Official Release in October 23, 2015
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v562
Getchu Link: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=44121
Game Type: Philosophical Poetic Novel with Slice of Life Themes

Summary: Naoya’s father died, who was his last blood relative. With no other family left on this planet, Naoya also refuses his father’s inheritance of 150 million en (Roughly 1.5 million USD) and now penniless, he somehow still finds the leisure to mess around with his friend Kei. However, as the funeral in the forest of cherry blossoms end, Kei’s older sister Ai invites Naoya to live with them in return for making meals at their house, which Naoya agrees to.

It’s been so long since that unfortunate accident 6 years ago that left Naoya, a world-famous artist himself, refusing to draw again. Now with the innocent childhood friends all grown up, Naoya must move on from the death of his relatives and live his own life with the relationships that he has. However, little will he know that he’ll be the center of even more; more pain and suffering for the people around him. He’ll never understand until much later how much of an influence he holds as the son of the World-Famous Artist.

What is mind? No matter
What is matter? Never Mind.

The Fate of the God-Murderer: Review of the Ikusa Megami Series

Foreword: When I first played the Memoria remake in 2014, I thought it was a very good game with amazing character design and a unique gameplay, and found it unfortunate that the story was not quite up to par. My review also revealed that I had only gone through what was the tip of the iceberg, with two prequels that I’ve completely neglected.

Ikusa Megami Zero

Ikusa Megami Verita

I’ve taken the time the past 2 weeks to actually go through every one of these games in its chronological order (with a maxed out savedata; grinding is so annoying), and found out that the story is indeed much better in the beginning games than the successive ones. In fact, I felt like a dumbass when I figured out that by playing the remake first, I’ve effectively spoiled the entire series for myself. Fuck you, me from 2014.

What I’d like to do to myself from 2014

This’ll be a fairly long review WITH SPOILERS discussing the main characters, story, and gameplay. I’ll try to go deep into what I found good about the series and what I didn’t. Now, please do keep in mind that I’ve only played the Ikusa Megami series from Zero -> Verita -> Memoria (remake). This may have biased my viewpoints onto Serika instead of Louie. In addition to this, I’ll be less descriptive about the Louie side of the story, because I have not yet played this “arc” of the series. One thing to note is that “Memoria” which is a remake, is pretty much the “Ikusa Megami 1” that was released waaaay back in 1999.

Also, you may notice that I use my own spelling instead of the Englishese that Eushully presents in the game. I personally think their “translations” are freaking retarded, so please forgive me in this aspect.

Please note that this game contains HEAVY spoilers! It contains a LOT of my personal analysis on the implications made within the game.

Title: 戦女神 (Ikusa Megami; Battle Goddess) Series.
Producers: Eushully
VNDB Link: Zero | Verita | Memoria (remake)
Game Type: Fantasy Novel with “Final Fantasy-Style” (SLG) Combat System

Summary: What do you do, when you lose your loved ones? How would you respond if the entire world hated you, and sought your death? What if your eternal, immortal life was filled with sleepless nights and silent anguish?

Don’t think society is the only thing that shuns your existence; gods will find your presence disgusting, monsters will haunt your back for as long as you breathe, and evil will always follow the path you walk.

At least for Serika, he didn’t know he would be walking this path as he returned from the Nohia Ruins after an expedition. As he is completely unaware of his eternal fate after returning to Markle, he meets a beautiful girl whose name was Satia.

Do you believe in Destiny? Serika replies with a strong “no”, but his own will drag him into the depths of Death and back.