Tsukihime Review
Well, it’s
time for another new type of review, where I essentially look at games not
licensed for English release but fans have made a patch that will translate all
the text into English. For our first game of this type and second in our
Halloween 2011 reviews we’re taking a look at the classic game that started
quite possibly the biggest of eroge fandoms and made the company Type Moon, and
its writer and co-founder Kinoko Nasu, a legend among eroge game companies,
Tsukihime. Released in Japan on August 11, 2000, Tsukihime gained quite the
cult following in the west as a result of its immense popularity in Japan and
anime adaptation and six years later, even after the game had gone out of print,
a fan made English patch was made (followed a few years later by one in Spanish
and Vietnamese) opening the door for new fans of the game and its two fan disks
( Plus Disc and Kagetsu Toya which we’ll get to another time) almost coinciding
with the growth of the fighting game semi sequels, the Melty Blood series (also
coincidentally this year also happens to be the year of Type Moon’s tenth
anniversary as an official company). This game is considered a quintessential
experience for those entering the VN community and many don’t consider you a
true vet of the genre until you’ve experienced it and Fate/Stay Night (another
game we’ll get to in the future), and it’s also the standard by which many
measure new additions to the dark supernatural genre. I’ll come right out and
say that Tsukihime is, for the most part, truly deserving of its fame and
praise in how it tells a series of stories so good the 30-50 hours it takes to
complete this game are barely noticeable. Now let me explain why…
Pros: Excellent story, well written and memorable
characters, diverse plot, game still looks good after 11 years, excellent
music.
Cons: The ero scenes, game is out of print, “isn’t it sad,
Sacchin?”
WTF?!: When the hell is that remake finally going to come
out?
In
Tsukihime, you play as Shiki Tohno, a pretty much normal seeming bespectacled
youth attending school with his circle of friends. There is something different
about Shiki though as he sees a series of lines known as “death lines”, which
are the lines by which things break when they eventually die. In order to live
a normal life, Shiki received a pair of glasses that blocks the sight of these
lines as long as he wears them from a wandering sorceress he befriended as a
child. His otherwise normal life changes after he’s called back to live with
his younger sister, Akiha, now the head of the Tohno family after the death of
their father, the man who banished Shiki to a branch of the family eight years
prior after he was injured in an accident he can’t even remember. However, that
proves to be only the tip of the iceberg, as an encounter with a mysterious
blonde haired girl will lead him down a mysterious and dangerous road that will
have him encounter some of the most renowned and feared members of the undead.
Tsukihime
does a lot right in telling its story, having each heroine’s route be its own
unique tale (though Arcueid and Ciel’s routes are fairly close) that each has
something new to reveal, be it about Shiki, one of the heroines, or a plot
twist. There’s also an interesting way the routes are sorted according to the
moon with Arcueid and Ciel’s routes falling under the “Near Side” routes and
Akiha, Hisui, and Kohaku’s routes falling under the “Far Side” routes as they
reveal more background information concerning Shiki and the Tohno family, Only
through playing through each heroine’s route will you learn everything, and I
have to say that never does this feel like a chore. The characters that feature
prominently in each scenario are all likable, have interesting personalities
and backstory. A good example would be with our main character, Shiki himself,
who I have to say would be among my top five favorite main characters out of
all the VNs I’ve ever played. Aside from being likable and downright awesome
when the situation calls for it, one of the things I like about Shiki is how
believably normal he is despite his power and the situations he finds himself
in over the course of the games routes. All of his responses to this do feel
like how a normal person would react and his down to earth viewpoints do make
for interesting interactions with the heroines such as Arcueid’s almost child
like regard of the modern world which she has only basic knowledge of and how
these lead to scenes between them that can be funny, interesting, and even cute
at times with how it contributes to the growth of their relationship. This
normalcy about him also helps in making Shiki a pretty awesome character in two
ways: first, it makes the scenes where he has to fight using his power all the
more interesting because despite the ability at the start he’s still vulnerable
especially when the fight doesn’t go as planned and he has to learn to
improvise in some way as the only aspect that could guarantee him a victory
can’t be relied upon completely. Secondly, the normal aspect also makes for a
firm base to build up from concerning Shiki’s character as the story goes on
and we see how his powers tie not only into his backstory, but also affect his
viewpoints, and even give him an interesting connection the main villain of the
game considering how both of them have a supernatural connection of sorts
relating to death and their differing regards to it are almost reminiscent of
story elements from the Harry Potter series, especially those of the connection
between Harry and Voldemort. I should point out that these similarities are
more theme based than anything else since these two series could not be more
different in several other aspects; a good example would be that in Tsukihime
there is this one scene in Ciel’s Good Ending between Shiki and Roa that
reminds me of that train station scene in the near end of “Deathly Hallows”.
While these two scenes are very different in terms of what happens in them, the
overall feel of them is similar. I recommend playing the game yourself and
you’ll see since I don’t want to spoil anything and I don’t want to ramble too
much (and considering a friend of mine who also loves Type Moon’s stuff and I
talked about these similarities for hours imagine how long that would make this
review). My final point concerning Shiki is this: as a result of all these
character aspects, his likability, believability, awesomeness, and character
depth Shiki Tohno has managed to become one of, if not the most, memorable of
eroge protagonists and may in fact be the closest that this genre may have to
the equivalent of Tenchi Masaki…except Shiki is much more awesome (the Muyo’s
not there for nothing, lol--- ducks to avoid rotten fruit and vegetable barrage
from fellow Tenchi fans).
Anyway
there is one more aspect of Tsukihime’s story that I like and that’s the
setting for this game. Now this is different from my reason for liking the
setting of Edelweiss and Da Capo due to the fact that the setting is
essentially in a city and world that really doesn’t seem all that different
from ours. Kinoko Nasu really did a good job not only in presenting the setting
in a way that it feels normal, but also in balancing the contrast between the
normalcy and the supernatural once the latter is revealed. The two are kept
separate from one another at first by the obvious day and night difference,
considering vampires only come out at night, but as the game goes on you start
to see that the two start to have moments where they cross over and in the case
of Akiha, Hisui, and Kohaku’s routes end up blending together in a way. I do
realize that the Type Moon universe has gotten more complex over the years with
all the new additions, which has essentially made the hidden supernatural
aspect of the world now greatly overshadowing the normal world (which I admit
isn’t really a bad thing), so what I’m saying just applies to this game itself.
Here’s how
the heroine routes rank in my opinion (click here for character profiles):
1)
Tie between Arcueid and Ciel
2)
Akiha
3)
Kohaku
4)
Hisui
Now the reason Arcueid and Ciel tie
for first place in my book is for a few reasons, for starters I find that out
of all the heroines Arcueid and Ciel form the most memorable relationships with
Shiki. As I said before with Arcueid, her only basic knowledge of the modern
world makes for some very interesting interactions between her and Shiki and it
actually really helps in building up their relationship as the route
progresses. In Ciel’s case, it’s the dual nature of her lifestyle and how it
figures in with Shiki’s day to day life that makes it interesting to see how
their relationship evolves over the course of this route. I will admit that
Ciel’s route has an overall better story than Arcueid’s with it having more
reveals and in my opinion, the best portrayal of Roa as the game’s main villain,
however I still like these routes equally because of how well they go together
storywise. A lot of the good story elements of Ciel’s route are best
appreciated after playing Arcueid’s making the two lead into each other really
well; it’s almost like how if you asked me what my favorite movie of the Friday the 13th series was it
would be a tie between the first and second movies for that exact reason. My
final reason is simply because I really like both characters; they’re both
awesome in their own way when it comes to being badass, their backstories are
well crafted and interesting, their quirks are genuinely appealing, and I have
to admit their rivalry over Shiki is quite amusing. I know that last part is
pretty much a cliché amongst anime these days, but Nasu did a really good job
in presenting these two characters in that area of romantic comedy. It’s
actually very funny in future installments to see just how these two can
irritate one another so much. I’d confidently say that if Shiki is the eroge
equivalent of Tenchi then Arcueid and Ciel are Ryoko and Ayeka.
Don’t think I’ve forgotten the
other heroines, though. Akiha’s route is certainly a very good one too. For one
it makes an excellent start to the “Far Side” routes being quite different from
Arcueid and Ciel’s, the relationship she has with Shiki is interesting to see
develop and has touching moments, also her power is probably the most
interesting of the heroines’; the main aspect that keeps it from tying with
Arcueid and Ciel’s routes is that the true ending leaves you with a pretty big
unanswered question and the way it’s later resolved in the Kagetsu Toya FD is a
bit vague. Hisui’s route is quite possibly the darkest of the routes and I have
so say its story shows how well Nasu is able to set an atmosphere about his
stories and in this case it evokes a very convincing air of confusion around
Shiki that makes for an interesting mystery around the story. What puts the
route at the bottom though is that it feels more like a setup to Kohaku’s
route, which comes off as truer than hers due to some major story aspects first
presented her route. I can’t say much about Kohaku’s route without spoiling
things, but I will say that it does a very good job in utilizing plot elements
from Akiha and Hisui’s routes to tell its own story with a pretty satisfying
resolution. Perhaps the only reason Akiha’s route wins out is because in the
many spinoffs that follow, Kohaku ends up being given the role of a comic
relief character with very little follow up or regard to the plot of her route.
Now don’t get the wrong idea, in those she makes a very hilarious character,
but considering how dramatic her route turned out to be…
Perhaps the only real flaw this
game’s plot has in my book is the lack of a route for sub heroine Satsuki
Yumizuka, as her relation towards Shiki and a role she ends up having in one of
the routes is more than enough grounds for her to have one. There really isn’t
any mystery as to why she doesn’t have on though, originally there were plans
to give her a route, in fact in the Plus Disc there’s a little extra that
explains it, but the route never made it due to time constraints. This has
resulted in Satsuki becoming a bit of a joke character somewhat similar to
Asagi from the Disgaea series, giving rise to the famous meme “Isn’t it sad,
Sacchin?” in relation to her not being a true heroine. She has gotten quite a
fanbase though, enough that it seems to have been confirmed that she’ll have a
route in the planned remake of the game. The joke seems to be on poor Sacchin
still though as that remake was announced back in 2008, but aside from that and
a few rumors there does not seem to be any indication that much, if any, work
has been done on it. Also the next planned game for the Type Moon universe,
Mahou Tsukai no Yoru, also announced in 2008, was planned to be released in
2009 and came out im April 2012.
In the area of presentation, this
game is truly remarkable as it still looks good after 11 years. The artwork, be
it for the CG or character portraits, has this hand drawn feel about it that
gives it a classy sort of charm. The music has got to be one of the best scores
I have ever heard in a VN game as not only does each piece set the mood for
their respective scenes perfectly, but it also seems to match perfectly with
the writing, helping to make so much of this game’s story even more memorable
and it makes for a shining example of how one can present a great story without
voice acting. I can guarantee you’ll remember at least one of these tracks
after experiencing this game; for me it’s “Ever After” and the third track
(only a few tracks were given names), the former because of how well it fits in
the big dramatic scenes its used for as well as how it doubles as the song for
the game menu and how well it fits with the image of the game and the latter
because of how well it captures the regular day atmosphere of the scenes in
which Shiki’s basically going around the town.
As for the ero scenes…they suck.
No, I’m not kidding they are not very good scenes at all, be it for the artwork
or writing. Amongst Type Moon fans, it’s freely admitted that Kinoko Nasu,
talented writer as he is, probably couldn’t write a good ero scene to save his
life. There’s a reason Mirror Moon’s translation patch offers the option to remove
the ero scenes.
On a side note, the only other real
flaw is that the game is out of print and importing an actual copy is going to
be pretty expensive. Why this classic has remained out of print, I have no
idea, and no it’s not because of the remake, the game was out of print way
before that. Fortunately, this game is easy to find and download or you could
always youtube it (if you do so, go in the order of Arcueid, Ciel, Akiha,
Hisui, and Kohaku)
In Conclusion:
Tsukihime
is a classic of the eroge genre that has managed live on in significance even
after ten years. Its fantastic story, memorable characters, and memorable
soundtrack make this a game you must experience. While I admit it would be
perfect if it had a Sacchin route and better ero scenes, this is still a game
that should not be missed considering how rare games with this kind of staying
power are. If you want to see just how good a dark eroge can be, want a good
story, or just want to know what the story that started the Melty Blood series
is all about, then Tsukihime is a must play.
Final Score: 9/10 Must Own
Author Recommendation: Legendary
Now I know
some fans are waiting for me to give my thoughts on the Tsukihime anime, a
series so reviled by fans of the game they deny its existence. Well, if you
haven’t read my Da Capo 2 review, I’ll say it again: I kinda like the anime
series. Now don’t get the wrong idea (and please put down your torches, rocks
and rotten fruits and veggies for a moment), this adaptation is far from
perfect, there’s a lot missing or changed from the original game and I can
understand why it’s disliked for that. For me however, I have to say that if I
hadn’t seen that anime I may not have even heard of Tsukihime for a while as it
told enough of the game’s story to catch my interest. Also the animation’s very
good, the opening for the series is excellent in terms of imagery and music,
and the dubbing for it is so spot on those are the voices I actually imagine
when reading anything Tsukihime related. If you haven’t played the game then it
may be worth checking out.
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