Edelweiss Eiden
Fantasia Review
Despite
Edelweiss’ sub par translation, the game’s good story managed to shine through
and create a significant enough fanbase that Mangagamer licensed its fandisc for
English release and released it on March 20, 2010. This release did come as a
bit of surprise to some considering this was the first fandisc to see English
release. For those of you who need a bit of explanation, a fandisc is something
like an expansion pack for a game except it’s released as it’s own game without
you needing to have the original game installed to access the content, but it’s
really best if you play the original game so as to enjoy this one. A good
example of an English equivalent would be Dragon Age: Awakening. Now with that
explained, let’s move on.
Pros: Everything good from Edelweiss is back.
Cons: You have to play Edelweiss in order to enjoy this,
you’re left wanting more when you finish each route.
WTF: Of all the places for a god to take up residence…
Edelweiss
Eiden Fantasia picks up after the end of the normal ending of the first game in
which Kazushi wasn’t able to romance any of the game’s heroines. All is not
lost for our hero though as circumstances arise that will open the path to
romance with Rin Fujisaki or Sakura Takase, two heroines from the original who
did not have their own routes.
Honestly,
this game has pretty much everything good about Edelweiss with all the bad
gone. There’s no slow beginning (in fact I found the prologue quite funny if
you choose to listen to the exploits of a particular sub pairing), the
characters are as entertaining as ever, the humor as bizarre and over the top
but somehow fitting with the story as ever, and the artwork is as good as ever
Now because
there are only two scenarios (plus a short one that’s unlocked upon completion
of both), I’ll give my opinions on both without spoiling too much because to be
honest I can’t pick which is better. In Sakura’s route, a joke on Kazushi’s
part ends up with Sakura making a bet with him as to whether she can make him
fall for her or not and subsequent romantic comedy chaos ensues as Sakura makes
her attempts to get Kazushi to fall in love with her and our hero does his best
to resist. Meanwhile, their friends start making bets on who’ll win and proceed
to take steps in order to better their chances. This route shows just how well
the writer for Edelweiss is able to write romance and comedy as comical scenes
are genuinely funny and when we do get to the romance it actually is pretty
effective, though I will admit they may have resolved the bit of romantic drama
that occurs late in the scenario a little quickly. In Rin’s route, both she and
Kazushi end up being picked to be their class representatives and as a result
of working together grow closer. Unfortunately for Kazushi, an accident occurs
in which he protects Rin but the end result is a sealed entity ends up taking
residence/possession of a certain area of his body. Hint: kind of the reverse
of this
or this
except Eiden Fantasia’s handling of it doesn’t suck. I know it’s hard to
believe, trust me, I had similar thoughts as I figured that the character
that’s the result of said…incident is neither annoying or obnoxious and is in
fact a pretty funny and likable character. To sum things up, Rin’s scenario
shows how good the writer is at writing the bizarre comedy Edelweiss is known
for. In this scenario the romance takes a bit of a back seat for the comedy,
but in my opinion the laughs that come from this scenario more than make up for
it not being as romantically driven as Sakura’s.
Now to
mention the flaws that this game has, I guess the simplest flaw would be that
the game leaves you wanting more at the end. Don’t get me wrong, the stories
for both scenarios are complete, but I have to say I would have liked to see a
little more stuff happen after Kazushi and Rin or Sakura start their
relationship. Also the unlocked extra route, I would have liked to see what
happens after its end since there’s quite a bit of story potential in it (I’d
especially like to see how the rest of the cast reacts, especially Appo and
co.). The only other flaw is that you really need to play Edelweiss to enjoy
this game otherwise you won’t have any idea who many of the characters are or
get some of the jokes made.
Presentation-wise,
there really isn’t much to talk about. Everything I’ve said about Edelweiss
applies to this game: good artwork, good acting, and the animated character
portraits are nice. I will say that this game has a better opening than the
original did.
Now as for
the ero content, again same as I said for Edelweiss: the scenes are fine but
don’t add or take anything away from the story. I will however say that you may
find a bit of a treat after you complete both scenarios though…
In Conclusion:
Edelweiss
Eiden Fantasia is a very worthy follow up to Edelweiss, bringing back
everything enjoyable about the first game while giving us two new stories that
in many ways are just as good as the original game’s heroines. You’ll probably
be wishing for more after you’ve completed the game, but that’s pretty much a
testament to how good the stories were. Because you really should play the
first game before this one, I recommend buying the two together as MG has the
two for sale as such if you haven’t gotten the first game.
Final Score: 8/10 Awesome
Recommendation: Buy it now
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