Sei’s VN Corner – Sex, drugs, and teachers
Posted by Seishi on February 10th, 2010
Yes, I am alive and well, though perhaps not so much the second part. I have decided to experiment with dump three brief visual novel reviews here. This post will most likely be edited and re-published at a later date, or at least the reviews expanded and placed in a much larger post where they will actually be reviews in a truer sense of the word. These tidbits are about as spoiler-free as one can make them. There are NO plot summaries to be found here as you can check out the Visual Novel Database if you wish to know more about each game.
Yukizakura (Snow Sakura)
She's your teacher
Critical Values
- Story: C+
- Art: C
- Audio: C+
- Enjoyment: B-
- Overall: C+
Routes
- Saki: B
- Misaki: C
- Kozue: C-
- Rei: B+
- Misato: B-
+Pros
- Appealing Female Lead – TITLESS, TWIN-TAILED TSUNDERE MONSTER
- Teacher Route – not the typical sultry, alluring teacher you’d find in a bishoujo game, either. She is, arguably, the cutest (and smallest) character in this game.
- Unique Setting – a snowy village in Hokkaido
- Smoking Girl – I’m not sure why this appeals to me, but it just does in these kinds of games
-Cons
- Lackluster artwork – the body proportions seem off
- Formulaic and forced drama – in almost every route
- Multiple unappealing characters – as with most games that have five choices, at least two of them were largely uninteresting in every way.
Yume Miru Kusuri (A Drug That Makes You Dream)
This pretty much sums up how I felt in the latter stages of each route.
Critical Values
- Story: A+
- Art: A
- Audio: A
- Enjoyment: A+
- Overall: A
Routes
- Aeka: A
- Mizuki: B+
- Nekoko: A+
+Pros
- Fantastic Artwork – with character designs by Kiyotaka Haimura (To Aru Majutsu no Index)
- Character Focus – the three-route system flourishes
- Excellent Writing – Romeo Tanaka (Cross Channel, Rewrite) manages to even nail the ero scenes well
- Ero Scenes – probably the best, permeated by the point above
- Satisfying Conclusions – oh yes…especially one particular route
- Supporting characters – mom and dad are ever-present in the MC’s life with his sister reminding us that an extra route would be nice
-Cons
- Crossing the Line (twice) – some people WILL be less-than-thrilled with the actions of at least two particular characters, one being a route girl.
- Atomic Rage – includes above, though this turns into a pro due to successful dramatic tension and satistfying conclusions
Wind: A Breath of Heart
Can you guess each character archetype?
Critical Values
- Story: B-
- Art: B-
- Audio: B
- Enjoyment: B-
- Overall: B-
Routes
- Hinata: B-
- Minamo: C+
- Nozomi: B
- Wakaba: C+
- Hikari: B
+Pros
- Nakige – as expected from minori (Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two), this game will evoke a lot of emotion
- “True” Ending – recommended to finish last, of course
- Surprising Cast – even with the standard five-girl character archetyping, each one manages to have her own charm
- Supernatural Aspects – plays a huge role in the the girls’ and overarching stories
-Cons
- Convoluted Story – provoked more than a few head-scratching moments
- Lack of Flow – weak transitioning from scene-to-scene
- Difficulty Spike – the game takes a long time to actually get anywhere, and when it does, you might wish it slowed down