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.

Is the Future Pre-Determined, or Do We Create It? Review of [110128] AQUA

Foreword: As mentioned previously with this game, the one thing that disappoints me more than a shitty game is a game that COULD have become good, but the writers just fucked up something and made it bad instead. As a game that I procrastinated for about 7 months after taking out of my backlog (holy shit). AQUA was that game that fit perfectly into this description.

I can actually do a tl;dr version of this review right now: AQUA is a very deep, meaningful, and philosophical game. The HUGE CRITICAL OMGWTFBBQ problem was that character development (which includes the romance; I’ll get to it soon) was absolute shit and some of said philosophical components had a bad design (again, will be explained later). Simply put, the game does have a good content overall, but failed in the transition, delivery, and introduction of that content to the point the value and significance of said content plummeted.

I was extremely disappointed with this one for that reason, and now cautiously getting back to Irotoridori Sekai that I’ve been procrastinating for a while as well. I need to finish both games before September, even if I have to CTRL-skip the scenes (God please forbid this to happen).

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS REVIEW CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR THIS GAME! PLEASE DO NOT READ IT IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO HAVE THE TITLE SPOILED

P.S. Also, please let me know if I should pursue other Sorahane titles. This title was quite decent, but the elements I found to be critically terribad is really preventing me from wanting to experience the other games from this company. I would sincerely appreciate all the input!

Title: AQUA
Producers: Sorahane
Release Date: January 28, 2011
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v5502
Getchu Link: www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=683999
Game Type: Futuristic Sci-Fi Fantasy Novel

Summary: AQUA is a computerized device that people use in lieu of various things, such as furniture. In a way, it’s like the smartphones we have today except a lot more versatile. At least for Souta, it has been his lifestyle for as long as he can remember.

His dear childhood friend, Chisa, was killed in an accident 7 years ago. This event was devastating for the young boy who didn’t even know the concept of death, and after having moved away from this town for a while, he returns today with his mother, Tomoe, to this beautiful area where the mesmerizing Luka overlooks its population.

As he is transferred to the school after a little mishap with a crazy young woman (…), he is extremely startled to find out that Chisa, who he was sure was killed, arrives late to school. It’s the same old Chisa who greeted him with a shy smile and the nickname “Sou-chan”, the clumsy girl who has now all grown up and become beautiful.

…What happened?

The Philosophy of Human Life and its Proposition: Review of [160527] Seiken Tsukai no Proposition

Foreword: Hmmmmmm… Well, I finished this game itself. I’ll say right now that this game wasn’t exactly omgwtfbbq terrible, but it was pretty dumb. It was also shitty when it came to story elements, too, but I’m not sure if I can immediately tag this game as “bad” because it does have some good parts as well.

Yeah, as with always, I absolutely suck at summarizing and I’m not going to be able to explain everything within just the Foreword. Let’s get on with the review like a good person, shall we?

P.S. I’m going through a lot of titles I’ve played in the past, so I’m not expecting to write a review for a bit longer. I think the lack of titles I wanted to play from June titles resulted in this instead of me actually working on my backlog like I’m supposed to…

WARNING: PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS REVIEW CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR THIS GAME. PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK OF BEING SPOILED

Title: 聖鍵遣いの命題 (Seiken Tsukai no Proposition) [Lit. Trans: The Proposition of the Holy Key User]
Producers: UnicoЯn (Why the fuck did they decide on a backwards “R”?)
Release Date: May 27th, 2016
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v18681
Getchu Link: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=880913
Game Type: Fantasy Action Novel with themes of human philosophy

Summary: Haruto is quite good looking, but extremely unfortunate in the sense that he’s enslaved by his past actions in failing pretty much everything; schoolwork, part-time jobs, and much more. This has caused him to accumulate a huge amount of debt to the School Headmaster, Spiano, who pretty much forces him to take part in this strange program that certain students are chosen to participate in.

This is where Haruto meets people like Akina, who unfortunately do not have good grades in the academy, and is also forced to participate in this program. From the very first moments, Haruto and Akina do not get along, but as they widen their circle of friends, they soon find each one of them irreplaceable.