How will you Act when you Realize the Truth? Review of [161222] Shinsou Noise

Foreword: Without a doubt I’ve been slowing down. While there’s definitely my fault in this delay of finishing and writing reviews, I also want to place at least a portion of the blame on generic titles which I was simply not interested in or annoyed me to the point I put it off. Instead, I found myself going to doujin titles, games (admittedly, I played roughly 10-15 doujin titles between the last review and this one), and MMOs instead of galge, which is like one certain friend who went down this path (although for other platforms) much earlier than I.

For that reason, the bottom portion of this review (or where I place my “dropped games” explaining my reasoning) may be quite long. I still haven’t really figured out what I wanted to do with all these dropped titles because they’re now becoming rather increasing in number compared to actual review posts (wow much quality)

Let’s get to the review of the most recent game I played which left quite a bit of impression on me, I would first off say that as with a previous game I played, Senmomo, this game was actually rather fun. As that mystery game where you are required to use clues and various other hints to solve a crime or make various conclusions. It was almost like a puzzle game, which I really appreciated.

Obviously, however, this title wasn’t exactly the best ones out there, so I’ll be talking about the things that I found to be not-so-praiseworthy, which mind you, will take up quite a while. Let’s get started!

Please do note that this review may contain mild spoilers for this game! 

Title: シンソウノイズ (Shinsou Noise) [True Emotion Noise]
Producers: Azurite
Release Date: December 22, 2016
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v19684
Getchu Link: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=916833
Game Type: Mystery/Suspense Novel with themes of Social and Human Psychology

Summary: Since he was born, Kazuma had a strange ability to hear the “inner thoughts” of people around him. These inner thoughts would never lie and always tell the truth, and would sometimes overwhelm the poor boy.

After being abandoned by his parents and raised by his grandmother who also had this ability, Kazuma learned to live his daily life by shutting himself apart from all his peers and refusing to associate with anyone. Despite how he was able to see the “truth”, it’s this very truth which pushed the poor boy into depression and despair as he saw the evils and trickery that humans were capable of.

It was around this time he meets Yukimoto Sakura, a mysterious girl who would often go to the rooftop of the school and simply stare at the sky. When looking at her inner thoughts coincidentally, Kazuma saw violent and gorey images of her death which at first made him almost want to regurgitate his lunch. However, this event also lead him to wanting to know more about this girl, as he stops her from committing suicide one day.

It won’t be long however, that on another certain day, Kazuma would hear a loud thud, and witness the death of the same person who was his first love, and the inner thoughts of someone who whispers:

“I Killed Her”

Scary!

Once More… We Try Again: Review of [161028]Re:LieF

Foreword: And finished! I really think I was burnt out with the crappy games that I’m not giving the “good” ones a fair shot, which is the absolute saddest thing you can do as a eroge veteran/review writer. I’ll be focusing on VNs and eroge a bit more than my MMO hobbies because in my opinion, the former is more important to me.

Immediately hooked on due to the opening movie, this title was first on my priority list (along with Giniro Haruka which is now getting pretty damn painful to play), though as with any game where one has more impact overall, Re:Lief was finished first.

Overall what I could call a “decent” game, I’d conclude that this game is graphically and poetically stunningly beautiful. I love it when games include “morals” within them, which this game had, but as a critical review writer, I’m here to also point out the not-so-beautiful stuff which was really a turn-off and rant worthy in my opinion. For that reason, this review may sound generally negative, but I’d like to remind readers that I tend to exaggerate some of the negative features due to personal bias.

I DO want to mention with GREAT EMPHASIS that due to the nature of this game, as well as what my review needs to cover to properly convey my points, this review will contain spoilers. I hate to include spoilers in my reviews, but I really can’t control what NEEDS to be written in a good review, so I’m really at a loss. I mean I can write a shitty ass, vague review that you’d see on Getchu, but I’m sure no one (including myself) would want to read it.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN HEAVY SPOILERS! PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE READING FURTHER IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED!

Title: Re:LieF ～親愛なるあなたへ～ (To you, my most dearest)
Producers: RASK
Release Date: October 28, 2016
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v19587
Getchu Link: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=911416
Game Type: Slice of Life Novel with themes of sociology and life philosophy and sci-fi bullshit

Summary: Society can be such a harsh place. No matter how hard you try, an unfortunate accident, an abuse of authority, or just simply a series of unlucky encounters can crush a person’s efforts to no end. It’s even more unfair since those who are less worthy to succeed are often the ones who do, and the people who are working so diligently are kicked to the curb having to lick their own wounds.

Tryment Project is a plan for these individuals who were oppressed by the unfairness of society, and need a place to relearn and rejuvenate themselves with new knowledge. It is a place of new hope or new paths, or perhaps even new relationships. In the truest sense, the people who are accepted into this program receive a second chance. However, to the protagonist, Nitta Tsukasa, this wouldn’t be just a second chance…

Look up at the Sky; Your answer lies there… Review of [141128]Aokana

Foreword: Merry Christmas, everyone! I wanted to include that statement with my newest review, so here I am 3 days after starting this awesome game that I give credit to akerou for having me go through; I don’t regret my decision one bit, except that I’m kinda scared that future games won’t match up this one!

Hm, now that I think about it, that whole “Christmas” thing wasn’t really that important… Oh well

Let’s get right into the review. Aokana, which is the shortened acronym for “Ao no kanata no four rhythm” was a great game. It’s unique in the sense that while it doesn’t look like it, it contains a lot of battle scenes, and to the great pleasure of players like myself, lots of symbolism and moral lessons.

Almost on kamige-quality, this title really did throw me off guard and had my blood boiling during some of its battle scenes! Quite unfortunately, it also had its bad portions, and I’ll be going through all of it during the review.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas, and I wish you the very best for the New Year to come!
Thank you all!!

P.S. Holy crap, this game already has a translation project going?

Title: 青の彼方のフォーリズム (Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm) [Lit. Trans: The Four Rhythm of the Blue Other Side]

Producers: sprite
Release Date: November 28, 2014
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v12849
Getchu Link: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=810210
Game Type: Futuristic fantasy novel with themes of flying

Summary: Masaya was one of the best Sky Walkers of his era and age. He was known to be invincible with his Grashoes (Anti-gravity Shoes) when performing a sport called Flying Circus (FC), and everyone was calling him a “genius”.

However, this same praise had been crushing the protagonist for years and years, until finally, a certain event made the poor boy snap and destroy everything that he was living his life for.

Now, he is just a normal student with a few friends in school with no hobbies and nothing special. It is on one of these days when he meets a cute girl named “Asuka” who lost her keys on her way to school. Even though Masaya is able to quickly find the keys for the girl, they end up being even more delayed on their first day of school… Until Masaya breaks out his Grashoes and to Asuka’s surprise, they arrive at school in time.

The stunned Asuka turns out to be a transfer student who has never heard of these “Anti-gravity shoes”, and her interest inflates to the point she pulls Masaya into the thing he hated most with all his heart.

Masaya is reluctantly dragged back into being the coach for the thing he had long given up on; FC. However, to his fear, he finds himself enjoying himself as a coach, and perhaps with the help of the team and the people around him, he can get back on his feet and soar through the skies again.

Not gonna lie: this looks exactly like me running away from my huge, growing backlog.