Well,
given how all I’ve been covering this Halloween have been imported eroge and
the sadly limited amount of horror themed eroge available in English, this
review was probably to be expected. Seeing as how mediocre Insai no Shima was
it just wouldn’t do to end this year’s Halloween on a low note and so for that
we’ll be taking a look at Nitro+’s classic horror romance eroge, released by
JAST USA on May 6, 2013, Saya no Uta.
Pros: Overall excellent horror story, characters are
interesting, good artwork, great voice acting, excellent music.
Cons: A couple pacing issues.
WTF?!: From Fuminori’s perspective, every weapon looks like
the Soul Edge.
Saya no
Uta tells the story of Fuminori Sakisaka, an unfortunate young man who is the
only survivor of a car crash that claims the lives of his parents. Yet that is
the least Fuminori has lost as the injuries he suffered were so severe one of
the treatments he had to undergo was brain surgery and the aftermath has left
him with a warped view of the world around him. To Fuminori his surroundings
appear to be mounds of twisted flesh, people appear as completely repulsive
monsters, and everything that he can touch or taste comes across as equally
disgusting. It’s so bad that Fuminori can’t even stand to interact with those
who he once considered his closest friends. What keeps Fuminori going though is
a mysterious girl he met and befriended while at the hospital named Saya, the
only one who appears human to him now. It’s through Saya that Fuminori now has
the companionship he needs, but questions remain. Who is Saya’s father and why
is he missing? And just who or what is Saya?
I have
to say in all my years of playing visual novels I have yet to encounter one as
dark, disturbing, creepy, and somehow beautiful as Saya no Uta. If you ever
wanted to see if a serious romance and horror (especially the kind reminiscent
of the Cthulhu mythos( could be blended, then this could very well be worth a
look. I know that sounds ridiculous if not impossible, but trust me when I say
the game succeeds to being an interesting romance and a good horror story.
Regarding
the romance, note how I call it interesting because that’s really the best way
to describe our central pair of Fuminori and Saya. The writer, Gen Urobuchi (who some of you may know as the
writer for Fate/Zero and Puella Madoka Magica), does a good job in establishing
these two as a couple by showing how not only are they together just because of
Fuminori’s condition but also because of how they complete each other. You get
a good feel of how they’re two people alone in the world under extraordinary
circumstances and they give each other the companionship they both desperately
need. This is also supported by their interactions that do a good job in making
it believable that these two genuinely care for each other. All of these things
are not only good elements, but also very necessary…to show that there is no
atrocity or depravity too horrible for these two to commit all so they can
remain together.
This is
where the romance leads into one of the major parts of the horror aspect of the
story. At a certain point in the story Fuminori has to choose between staying
together with Saya or have his senses returned to normal. Choosing the former,
which is the canon choice (the other choice leads to a premature, but still
well written in its own way, ending), leads the pair down a path where they go
to all manner of lengths to insure they remain together and happy. When I say
“all manner of lengths” I really mean it as the murder of even a possible
threat to their happiness is the least of what they’re willing to and do. These
two go to very disturbing lengths for each other’s sake with very little regard
for who they harm in the process (and boy does one character get the worst of
it) and yet somehow you can’t entirely hate them because the story does a good
job presenting why they’re doing these things and they do make sense from their
point of view. It also helps that this pair is able to command your attention
from there as the story kind of gives the Fuminori and Saya a larger than life
air in their crusade for their happiness together; they’re almost like an
Eldritch Bonnie and Clyde.
Of
course the horror element of this game isn’t just composed of the disturbing;
at times it can evoke a good scary atmosphere. All of these moments involve the
mystery behind Saya and her missing father, and they all serve to evoke that
sense of foreboding in investigating something that one would probably be
better off not. These range from minor moments such as descriptions of how what
went on in the hospital while Saya was secretly living there which serve to
build up the mystery behind her (even if it is pretty easy to figure out) to
strong moments of fear of what the dark conceals such as when Yoh investigates
Fuminori’s house. That’s one scene that’ll have you at least mentally shouting
at the screen “Don’t go into the house, you fool!!”
As for
the characters (click here for
profiles) they’re all well written, even though Fuminori and Saya get the
focus, and you get a feel for their situations when you play from their POV. As
a result you do care enough about the other characters besides our two mains
that you do feel bad when bad stuff happens to them, which also helps on the
horror front. Aside from the aforementioned scene with Yoh, the best example
can be seen in Koji, who depending on perspective can be considered a hero or a
villain. You really feel for this guy as he gets drawn into the mystery surrounding
Saya without even knowing about her and when that mystery takes him down a path
of vengeance you may even end up rooting for him. Even a character like Ryoko,
whose main involvement isn’t until late in the story manages to leave a good impression.
If
there are any flaws to this game’s story I’d say, and this is nitpicking mind
you, that there are a couple of pacing issues. Mainly I think a few story
elements could have been looked at a little longer such as maybe a little more
of either Fuminori or Saya interacting with the world outside or maybe a little
more screen time for Ryoko. I’ll admit that maybe once or twice it seems the
game may be trying a little too hard to be disturbing, but that’s really just
because maybe the events happen a little too close together. Then again one
other good thing about Saya no Uta is its short length (it'll take you 5-10 hours to complete) means no filler and I
wouldn’t want to risk ruining that.
In the
area of presentation Saya no Uta does phenomenally. The artwork is good even
though it doesn’t have the polish a lot of VNs typically have. I’d say that
works to the game’s advantage in a couple ways: first, it gives everything a
good hand drawn feel that actually helps in giving the characters a little
extra in their expressions and posture than if they had been your typical anime
artwork, and second, when it comes to the more horrific or supernatural looking
artwork the artist succeeds not only in creating imagery meant to be strange
and horrifying but also in somehow managing to put in an element of beauty to
some of the images that doesn’t stand out. The music track for this game is
also excellent with each track capturing and conveying the right mood for their
respective scenes perfectly, be it the searching feeling you get from “Seek”,
the lurking feeling from “Scare Shadow”, or the chaotic yet badass feeling
fight music of “Savage”. Yet perhaps out of all the tunes, the most memorable
to me is the theme song titled “Saya no Uta” as it really succeeds in bringing
about the right feel for the third ending, evoking a mixture or triumph,
soothing, and mourning. Equally amazing is the voice acting; every character is
perfectly voiced, but the standout performances are without a doubt that of
Hikaru Midorikawa as Fuminori, followed close behind by Yasunori Matsumoto as
Koji. And to any otakus from my generation who recognize both names from The
Slayers, enjoy watching Zelgadiss and Gourry kill each other.
As for
the ero scenes…well, I’m not entirely sure what to say about the ero scenes.
They’re not meant to get a rise out of you as their purpose is to disturb
and/or horrify. Even the more innocent seeming scenes have a pretty disturbing
context to them once you’re aware of certain plot elements, not to mention the
music that plays during those scenes give you a feeling that something isn’t
quite right with what’s happening.
In Conclusion:
Saya no
Uta is an excellent horror eroge and certainly one of the best of the few
horror visual novels officially available in English. I will warn you that this
game is not a happy story and can get downright disturbing, but if you can take
that then you can enjoy a horror story that has good characters, suspense
abound, and two main endings that will both leave quite the impression on you.
I highly recommend this to you, especially
considering you can get it at Rightstuf for about twenty bucks, so price
shouldn’t be much of an issue.
Final Score: 8/10 Awesome
Author Recommendation: Buy it now.
And
before anyone asks, no I haven’t read the infamously bad comic book adaptation.
The copies are rare and I’m not really interested in scouring the internet for
scans.
So with
that this year’s Halloween reviews have come to an end. Hope you all enjoyed
the string of reviews I posted and hopefully at least one of those reviews has
gotten you interested in trying out one of them. A Happy Halloween to you all
and I hope we get to do this again next year.
Having
covered zombies, psychotic killers, and aliens this Halloween how about a look
at something featuring some of the more classic monsters? Our next review hails
from Hourglass, released on December 12, 2010: Insai no Shima ~Chi to Hakudaku
no Nie~. Featuring in this game are vampires, a werewolf, a giant ape (King
Kong or Big Foot take your pick), and…a giant multi-tentacled pink worm…okay,
three out of four isn’t bad.
Pros: Interesting premise for the story, core characters are
alright, Shinobu’s story is pretty good, good artwork and voice acting, decent
music, interesting use of CGI.
Cons: Story seems indecisive about itself, only Shinobu’s
route matters storywise, unsatisfying conclusion, weak villain, weak sub
characters, overuse of CGI.
WTF?!: Who knew after Gilligan and co. left the island
monsters would move in?
Insai
no Shima tells the story of a small group of friends who decide to visit the
island of Karasujima, a small island long since deserted after a devastating
earthquake many years ago. Among them is our main character, Shinji Takeda, a boy
with the ability to see glimpses of the future in his dreams. Lately Shinji has
been having a series of nightmares in which some unknown horror attacks his friends
and a woman in red seems to call out to him. The trip to the island is mainly
for Shinji and his friends to relax and unwind at a largely unused beach and
possibly look into some of the strange legends about the island’s history.
Things take a strange turn when an earthquake hits and Shinji and co. find
themselves on what seems to be a completely different island and the boat they
took to get there and its boatman are gone. As the group explores the island to
find shelter and possibly help it soon becomes clear that this island seems to
have people living there, but its inhabitants are not entirely human…
In the
area of story, Insai no Shima has a lot of good story elements. The premise of
a group of friends unwittingly going to a haunted island, discovering and
struggling to survive against the monsters that inhabit it, and how the romance
plots with the heroines would fit into all this are all the making of a good
horror themed eroge. This was a game that I was really looking forward to
playing and reviewing for this October since it seemed to be perfect for
Halloween, but sadly this game somehow ended up being okay at best.
Before
I start discussing what’s wrong with InS, there’s something about it I think
needs mentioning: it looks and feels a lot like a game from the Kansen series.
The game even seems to use the same program as Kansen 5. I did a bit of
checking around and it looks like some of the people who worked on the Kansen
series worked on this, though I guess that’s to be expected because it and
Speed share the same parent company, Janis. The reason I’m bringing this up is
because InS has quite a few things in common with its more renowned cousin,
though it seems to have inherited the flaws of the series more than the better
parts and isn’t helped that it also has flaws of its own.
To its
credit, InS does have a decent start with it taking time to introduce the
characters while slowly building up into the main story. Thanks to that we get
a good enough impression of our main characters so we’ll remember them and also
actually care about their survival in the main part of the story. Of the main
characters I’d say Shinji and Shinobu are the best introduced with the former
being a decent MC and his ability to see the future is pretty well presented
and does a good job setting the ground for what’s to be an overarching mystery
(more on Shinobu later). The beginning part of the story also succeeds in getting
the player interested in the island that’s going to be the main setting and
wonder just what is it that’s going to make it such a dangerous place. Sadly
the game isn’t really able to deliver much when it gets to that point in the
story.
Perhaps
the biggest story flaw InS has, and this one being wholly its own, is how
indecisive its story comes across as. When it comes to the horror area it seems
like the writer wasn’t sure if he wanted the story to be mysterious or scary which
results in it being neither and leaves you with many overall bland scenes. A
good example would be this one scene where the characters are exploring the
island and come across an impaled corpse: the music and imagery clearly indicate
this is supposed to be a scary scene but the writing for the scene doesn’t do a
good job conveying a feeling of dread because it’s too short and really just
comes off as pointless overall. I could see this scene used for a
mystery/horror effect if it took place earlier in the game, before it was
revealed that the island was inhabited so as to build up the mystery of who or
what is on the island with the characters, but since at that point we already
know all that and already seen how the island’s inhabitants are that dangerous
so the scene doesn’t really have any effect at all.
That
said, the faults of this game’s story structure are best seen in our main
villain, and vampire, Kasumi. While the beginning of the game does a good job
building her up, one she actually shows up and takes an active role in the
story prepare to be about as confounded as the writer seems to be as to what
sort of villain she’s supposed to be. The game tries to present her as a
villain that’s supposed to be mysterious, intimidating/scary, and sympathetic
but fails on all three counts. It fails on the mysterious end because the
revelations about Kasumi are all conveniently revealed through Shinji’s dream
sight ability which gives that series of story segments a very railroaded feel
that isn’t helped by the fact that these segments tell more than show and once
you’ve seen it in one route you won’t see anything new until you play the true
route so that also hurts the replay value of there.
As a
villain that’s supposed to be intimidating and/or scary villain Kasumi fails
for a two reasons. First, her barely showing any emotions was obviously there
to portray her as this cold monster that doesn’t care who she hurts or kills to
get her way, but it more results in her having almost no personality instead.
Second, for a vampire her powers are surprisingly ineffectual: her flame
abilities most of the time barely hurt (let alone kill) anything, her power to
control her minions sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t for barely any
reason, and the only supernatural ability she has that causes Shinji and co.
trouble is how hard she is to kill. As a result we have a villain that’s a
threat but the story does little to back that up. Seriously, if your vampire
villain in your serious horror story is less scary than Marceline from
Adventure Time you might want to consider a rewrite.
Finally,
Kasumi fails at being a sympathetic villain because that almost wholly depends
on the dream sequences Shinji sees. While this could have made for a good plot
element in us seeing two completely different side to our villain and wondering
what the difference could be, that’s prevented by the main plot barely
acknowledging the reveals from the dream sequences so it comes across as our
villain just coming off as evil but the story wants us to feel some sympathy
for her just because it says so. While the writer tries addressing this in the
true route, one of the main problems of that route brings that down.
Before
I get to the true route though, I feel I should discuss the other routes first.
I’d give you a ranking, but that’s kind of pointless because the only route
that really matters is Shinobu’s. Like with some of the Kansen games, the story
is pretty much written with one heroine in mind and in InS’ case it’s Shinobu.
This is kind of a double edged sword since Shinobu’s role in the story is
really the best written (the only problem being her route’s ending comes across
as faker than even the cheapest Halloween costume). I’ll even go so far as to
say her story’s probably the best part of the game. She has a nice little
subplot of dealing with her own personal problems throughout the course of the
story, the relationship she has with Shinji feels like a natural progression
from close friends to lovers, and she even manages to have moments where she
outdoes Saori in the badass front.
The
obvious problem that arises though is Saori and Rin’s routes (which I like
about equally) don’t really have as much impact as Shinobu’s. While both
characters are likable, have their moments of coolness (between Saori’s sword
skills and Rin’s bomb making what’s not to like?), and form a believable enough
relationship with Shinji in their routes (I’ll even admit Saori’s good ending
ends on an interesting note) it still feels weird playing the scenes not unique
to their route since like I said before the main story is written Shinobu in
mind as the heroine. It also doesn’t help that their personal problems are
really minor and forgettable in the grand scheme of things. As for anyone whose
taken a look at any Japanese walkthroughs and seen Kasumi has a route, then
you’ve mislead as that is just a short bad ending with Kasumi that has no real
bearing to the plot yet for some reason requires you to see the bad endings for
each of the three heroines to unlock it.
Back to
the true route, which is basically Shinobu’s true ending, while it does answer
the hanging questions the non-canon endings leave and does its best to try and
validate Kasumi’s sympathetic moments one glaring problem really curtails both.
The true ending is probably one of the best examples of why we have the
storytelling rule “Show, don’t tell”. The moment things move on in a different
direction from where Shinobu’s non-canon route ended and Shinji and co. are
back at the original island, a certain character shows up and for several
minutes said character starts explaining everything so as to answer the
aforementioned questions. This scene just comes off as boring since it’s just a
long infodump with very little input or reaction from the main characters at
this new information and there isn’t anything to spice it up like some unique
imagery to go along with the explanation. After that we get a hastily put in
final enemy for our heroes to defeat (though I will admit it is hinted at early
in the game so it’s not a plot element that comes out of nowhere), it’s
defeated almost as quickly as it shows up, and we get a short epilogue that
ends on a weird note. This ending just leaves you feeling drained after all
this so whatever impressions it’s trying to make on the player fall flat since
you won’t really care by then. It also doesn’t help that even though this is
the true ending for Shinobu there isn’t really any unique moment between her
and Shinji in the epilogue for them to appreciate making it out alive and
together. Once again, we’re only told that.
The
final problem Insai no Shima has in the writing area concerns its two sub
characters, Hiroshi and Nao. They’re basically supposed to be a sub pairing
similar to Kansen 1, 3, and 4 but I think the writer forgot a major part of
what made those memorable was there was something about them that was
interesting. These two are often just dull, having very little to say or
contribute to the plot for a good portion of the game. Their only real plot
significance is a sub plot where Hiroshi secretly has a thing for Shinobu even
though he’s with Nao and is holding a mixture of jealousy at her closeness to
Shinji and frustration at his friend’s not seeing it. This could have been an
interesting story bit, but it fails at that because aside from its introduction
in the prologue (which you actually have to replay to see because Hiroshi’s POVs
are locked until you clear a route) it’s pretty much pushed to the side until
really late in the game. It also doesn’t help that at that point in the game
where it’s used as a conflict between Shinji and Hiroshi, the latter doesn’t
come off as sympathetic as the writer probably intended which makes it harder
to sympathize when the consequences of that conflict happen to him.
Concerning
the system, Insai no Shima uses about the same program that would later be used
in Kansen 5. They even share the same POV switching that the fifth game
introduced to its series. While not as glitch plagued as Kansen 5 was, InS has
the habit of crashing if you’re not running it as an administrator and there
are the occasional text spacing glitches (sorry no pictures this time since
they occur during the ero scenes). There are timed choices, but they're not as annoying as in the Kansen series because you have a couple seconds to read the choices before the countdown starts.
In the
area of presentation, InS does good for the most part. The voice acting is good
for all the heroines and the music is pretty good. One thing that the game does
that is interesting is how it uses CGI. Being an eroge company there’s
obviously going to be budget limits, so the CGI would obviously be cheap
looking. This is actually used to an advantage by using the dark to mostly
obscure that, but shows enough so that enough of that uncanny valley look can be
used to create a creepy looking image. Sadly the people at Hourglass didn’t
seem to know when to show restraint as they decide to use of those sequences as
Kasumi’s attack animation and it is used so often you get sick of seeing it. As
for the artwork, it’s all good for the most part be it the character artwork or
the CG, though I should point out there is one odd hiccup where the werewolf
design in the CG looks awesome, almost Jon Talbain-ish, while the character
portrait looks cartoony.
As for
the ero scenes, they’re good, though like with Kansen 2 there’s a bit of an
unusual placement for some of them. All of Saori’s “good” ero scenes only occur
in her normal ending and not in her good ending. Plus it’s weird that out of
all three heroines Shinobu, our main heroine, only has only three ero scenes
(only one of them “good”) compared to Saori who has seven and Rin who has six.
Character Profiles:
Shinji Takeda:
Main character of the game. Shinji is usually the quieter
member of the group, usually preferring to stay in the background socially.
Shinobu Ichinomiya:
Shinji’s class mate and childhood friend. Shinobu is
generally the more positive and upbeat member of the group. She used to be in
the school’s archery club, but quit after an incident she doesn’t like talking
about.
Saori Kyogoku:
Half French on her father’s side, Saori , despite her looks,
has a fluent command of the Japanese language and has a pretty dignified air
about her most of the time. Learned swordsmanship from her father, but due to
her father’s strict upbringing has a difficulty expressing some of her emotions
to others.
Rin Igasaki:
Shinji’s classmate and the group’s mischief maker. Rin is
definitely the cleverer of her circle of friends, though she uses most of her
intellect to come up with pranks and make fireworks. Is very sensitive about
her height.
Nao Kobayakawa:
Shinji and co.’s homeroom teacher. Is secretly going out
with Hiroshi.
Kasumi Izumo:
The master of Karasujima, this mysterious woman appears
before Shinji soon after the group arrives on the changed island. Seems to be
drawn to him out of curiosity, but her intentions are shrouded in mystery.
Hiroshi Uesugi:
A friend of Shinji and Shinobu’s since childhood and one of
the more outgoing members of the group. Is secretly dating Nao.
In Conclusion:
Insai
no Shima is a horror eroge that had so much potential; so many of its story
elements sound great individually, leaving you with expectations of a good
horror story. Sadly the writing that ties all those together really bring it
down. Thankfully there are some good story elements that save it from being a
bad game, but I only recommend getting it if you can get it at a low price.
Final Score: 5/10 Average
Author Recommendation:Try it out.
Also
yes, I am aware of there being a “Motion Plus” version of this game coming out
in December. Not interested.
In
other Janis related news, the anime OVA for Kansen Ball Buster has screenshots
on getchu and it looks
terrible (warning NSFW images if you follow the hyperlink). You know
considering most of what I’ve gotten from Janis’ companies this year have not
been what I’d call treats I think I owe them a trick or two. I’ve got the
toilet paper necessary, but now that leaves getting all the way over to Japan
and finding their office…
For our
next review for Halloween we’ll be moving on from our little planet and turn to
the stars for our setting and the extraterrestrial for our monsters. The game
we’ll be looking at will be the first (and at this moment only) eroge to be
released by doujinshi circle EROQUIS! on August 18, 2011: Injuu Kangoku ~Dirty
Prison Ship~ …Please try not to click the back button just because of the name…
Pros: Decent story for this genre, Liz, core cast of
characters are interesting and likable.
Cons: Aoi’s route has a terrible set of endings, the game’s
shortness limits the game’s story potential, a couple instances of
unintentional humor with the alien designs, skip function has problems.
WTF?!: Believe it or not that guy on the right hasn’t been
taken over by the alien…yet.
Injuu
Kangoku has you playing primarily from the point of view of Jonathan Hopkins
(called John by his friends), the vice-captain of the exploration vessel
“Settler”. With the exploration mission nearly over, the ship is on its way
back to Earth when a derelict research vessel is found. Exploring the ship
yields a few usable supplies but no survivors, but unbeknownst to John and the
rest of the crew, one of their number secretly knew about this ship and what
its crew had been researching: an alien life form. Having been assigned to
retrieve a sample of the life form, the crewman does so and brings it aboard
only for it to break loose and unleash a parasitic horror that one by one
begins to take members of the crew.
Okay,
before I discuss the story any further I have to make a confession: this was
kind of a last minute addition to this year’s Halloween reviews. I basically
came across this by accident on VNDB on the last week of September and from the
look of things I thought it was an eroge ripoff of Alien (and yes, it’s a
really weird coincidence that the week I post this review James Rolfe covers the
Alien series on this year’s Monster Madness) with tentacle/monster ero
scenes replacing character death. Since it was marked as short and I could find
it for a decent price online, I got it figuring I could make a short review
making fun of it. The thing is… the story was actually not what I expected… in
other words I think Injuu Kangoku’s story is pretty good, especially
considering its genre. No, I have not taken leave of my senses and you should probably
look outside to see if the moon’s turned blue because Injuu Kangoku is one of
the rare tentacle eroge that not only tries to have a story but it’s of the
even rarer kind that, for the most part, succeeds.
While the
influence of the much beloved sci-fi horror classic Alien is obvious at first
glance, one would actually be only three quarters of the way right in that
assumption. Injuu Kangoku’s story borrows not only from that movie but also
from another much beloved sci-fi horror movie: John Carpenter’s The Thing. Story
structure wise IK does borrow quite a bit from Alien, a couple things from
Aliens, and from The Thing there’s obvious influence for the concept of the
alien’s base form (and if you can read the above picture I know it sounds
ridiculous but the writer actually managed a good monster based off that
concept) and the use of a blood test to see who’s infected by that form. What
prevents IK from being a ripoff, at least in my view, is it does its own thing
with the elements that it borrows from said movies. For example, things go
differently with the aforementioned blood test than in The Thing depending on
which route you’re on, and the shadowy organization’s plan for recovering a
sample of the alien makes more sense than in Alien. Basically the plan comes
off as sensibly prepared and the only reason it goes wrong is because they
assigned it to someone who didn’t know what they were doing. Seriously, I get
why you’d have to move the sample to another container seeing as the old one is
damaged and it’ll die otherwise but why would you
handle it (something you know is dangerous to kill an entire ship’s crew) with
your bare hands?!?!
Another
thing that helps Injuu Kangoku is it has a good cast of core characters. For
starters, our main character John is a good lead, being a good and likable character
that also benefits from being different from your typical eroge protagonist by
being an older and more mature man. The writing does a good at portraying him
as someone dedicated to protecting his colleagues when the aliens attack and
you actually do feel for the guy when he loses so many friends over the course
of this game. Of course being the vice-captain of the ship he gets his awesome
moments, the best of them being in Liz’s route where he battles the alien’s
main body in a final battle that I know from the below CG looks familiar but
manages to be epic in its own way.
Speaking
of the routes, I guess we should start with my route preference:
1)Liz
2)Rail
3)Aoi
Out of all the three possible
routes I’d say Liz’s is the best of the bunch as she’s the one who gets the
best writing. A good example would be how well she’s involved in the route as
she fights right alongside John when the time comes for the few surviving crew
to find a way to either escape or kill the aliens and is a more than reliable
partner in that role, which we see especially in the final battle of that
route. It also helps that when it comes to romantic development between her and
John it’s written pretty well starting with the two having a platonic history
together that’s supported by a convincing combination of writing and acting
that helps make their friendship believable (which in itself is pretty
impressive considering this is a short game) and the progress of their
relationship from there is just as convincing. The writing in her route also
does a good job at driving home the feeling of loss on both her and John’s end
for their crewmates, which, along with the romance plot, help in giving this
route’s story some heart that doesn’t feel out of place, an even bigger rarity
for this genre. It also has two endings I found satisfying in their own way
(plus a bad ending that’s basically what you’d expect of this genre): a normal
ending that ends on an ambiguous note reminiscent of your typical horror movie
and a happier ending that still ends on open note similar to Alien and Aliens.
Rail’s
route is a decent route overall; it does have its strong points like doing a good
job establishing her relationship with John and it has a satisfying but open
conclusion. Its final strength is sadly also its greatest weakness: Liz.
Basically in this route she’s just as, if not in some ways more, awesome of a
character, especially at the near end of the story (wish I could give
specifics, but I don’t want to spoil this route). In comparison, Rail doesn’t
really do much, though I will say to the writer’s credit they didn’t make her
come off as a dead weight type of character, it’s just that Liz contributes a
lot more to the plot of this route than Rail does which is a problem considering
this is supposed to be her route and also be the route that results in what’s
considered the canon ending. It also doesn’t help that Liz’s extensive plot
involvement means significantly less interaction between Rail and John over the
course of the route compared to Liz or even Aoi and such limited interaction
between the route’s two romantic leads means that while the pairing is well
established at the start there isn’t very much interaction between the two to
support it.
Aoi’s
route is a route I really wish I could praise because if not for one big
problem this route might have tied with or beaten Rail’s route in my ranking.
To begin with starting the route has John make an interesting alteration to the
start of the game’s story post prologue, which really helps in grabbing your
attention so as to see what other directions the story can go now. This route
also has some good character moments from some good interactions between Aoi
and John to a scene that shows even John is capable of making mistakes with
dire consequences, but portrayed in a way that’s understandable and doesn’t
make him look like a complete idiot. There’s also a pretty good final battle with
the main alien that may not be as awesome as the one in Liz’s route but still a
good fight scene to read through, especially considering Aoi contributes to the fight to the best of her abilities which gives her a brief moment of awesomeness. So what undermines all these good story
elements? The endings. There are three possible conclusions to this route and
all three of them are generic to this genre. The worst offender would be one
particular ending that would have been a good tragic conclusion, but that gets
screwed up by an unnecessary epilogue/ero scene. Considering how much Aoi gets
screwed over throughout this entire game I almost wonder if the writer simply
hated the character.
Aside
from the aforementioned flaws of Aoi and Rail’s routes, the remaining weakness
Injuu Kangoku has concerning its story is the game’s shortness. Basically while
this game is good, there is definite potential for it to have been better, but
that would have required a longer game. For example the side characters all get
taken out by the alien in about the same way and same point in the story
regardless of the route you choose. Another example would be there’s not really
enough time given to establish an atmosphere of dread at being trapped of a
space ship with an alien creature that has more of an advantage in that setting
than the crew like in Alien and the paranoia of who could be infected by the
alien is only given the minimal amount of attention storywise. These
shortcomings are understandable though considering this is the first game by a
doujinshi circle so there would obviously be budget constraints that would
prevent them. To have more scenes with the side characters would mean paying
more for the voice acting and probably even on the art front. Then of course
there’s time constraints so all in all I wouldn’t consider this too big a flaw,
and who knows? Maybe we’ll get a fandisk with routes for the unwinnable side
heroines (and maybe a better Aoi route).
In the
system area at certain points in the story you can switch character views,
which does offer a couple interesting character perspectives and can lead to
different scenes in a couple cases. Don’t expect this to be like with the
Kansen games though as for the most part it’s just used to unlock ero scenes.
The only problem IK has system wise is that it’s skip function has a weird
problem of stopping to let the sound effects play which gets a bit irritating
when you’re skipping over scenes you’ve read and want to see the new ones.
In the
area of presentation I’d say Injuu Kangoku does pretty well for the most part. The
voice acting and music are both good, and speaking of which the menu’s little
tune should sound familiar. The artwork’s pretty good for most of the
characters and some of the monster designs are pretty nice. There are some
hiccups though in that area as the male red shirt characters obviously didn’t
receive quite as much attention in the art department (I’ll even admit the few
times you see John from another character’s POV his portrait looks a little
stiff) and there are some alien designs that I’m pretty sure are
unintentionally funny. Best example would be in a couple ero scene CG where one
of the aliens is obviously designed to look similar to a xenomorph. Let’s just
say adding a certain…”attachment” to the xenomorph design that would put The
Penetrator from the Saints Row games to shame is probably going to bring about
laughter more than anything else.
As for
the ero scenes, they’re alright. I’ll admit I like the happier ero scenes more
than the darker ones only because the latter kind of gets repetitive. Speaking
of which, to any who want to try this for the good endings only I should point
out even if you go that path you’re still going to have to wade through a good
number of unavoidable tentacle ero scenes with the unwinnable side heroines.
Character Profiles (note: I’m only going over the three main
heroines, if you want to see the rest of the characters go here):
One of the Settler’s exterior technicians. Liz has known
John since they were children and the two often share drinks and conversation
together when off duty.
One of the Settler’s communication officers. Aoi is a good
friend of Liz’s and gets on well with John the few times they’re able to talk.
In Conclusion:
Injuu
Kangoku is a very good debut title for EROQUIS! and an example of the rare few
tentacle eroge that has a story and a good one. While it does borrow quite a
bit from Alien, Aliens, and The Thing, I’d hesitate to call this game a ripoff
of those movies and be more inclined to consider it a clone similar to Roger
Corman’s Forbidden World or Galaxy of Terror (believe it or not I actually like
both of those), but with a better written plot. Kind of funny that this game is
in many ways closer to John Carpenter’s The Thing than its prequel movie and most
of the
comics Linkara’s been reviewing and a better Aliens game than the
infamous Aliens: Colonial Marines (though that probably isn’t a very
difficult accomplishment).
In
light of how my look at the latest entry into the Kansen series turned out
I think that’s enough for zombies for this Halloween. Let’s move on to a genre
I sadly neglected last year, that of the good old fashioned murder mystery (the
Kara no Shoujo review I wrote and posted to a now dead blog the year before that so
it doesn’t count). For that we return once
more to Caligula Soft and the sequel to Shinsetsu Ryouki no Ori (which
I reviewed previously): Shinsetsu Ryouki no Ori Dai 2 Shou, released in
Japan on May 1, 2009 and like its predecessor is a remake of a game from Nihon
Plantech, Ryouki no Ori Dai 2 Shou, that was released back in January 1997.
While I found SRO to be a decent (though kinda disappointing) game, its sequel
shows definite signs of the creators doing everything they could to make
improvements. Overall, I can say their efforts succeeded as Shinsetsu Ryouki no
Ori Dai 2 Shou is superior to the first game in almost every way.
Pros:Good story, the
setting and characters are built up well, good artwork, good music and voice
acting.
Cons: Playthroughs can get tedious after a while, after three
routes there’s nothing new to add to the mystery, some heroines routes are too
short, some character portraits could have used variation.
WTF?!: Joji Nakata, are you and Norio Wakamoto having some
kind of competition to see who can play the most bizarre characters?
Set
many years before the events of the first game, SRO2 has you play as a younger Takeshi Saito, the
security guard who helped the MC of the first game (sorry, he’s not voiced by
Norio Wakamoto this time).Takeshi has
just taken a job as a security guard at the amusement park, Fantasien. It’s not
long until he becomes well acquainted with the many employees of the park, and
with so many of them being beautiful women the job seems perfect. However, all
that changes with the sudden death of one his coworkers and the incidents that
follow make it obvious that there’s a killer at work somewhere in the park who
is more than ready to kill again.Can
Takeshi unmask the killer and prevent more deaths? Could the killer’s motives
be tied to the suicide of an employee years ago, or could there be more to the
park’s past than some of the other employees are letting on?
Improvements
from the first game can be seen soon after you begin the main story of SRO2.
For starters, the story pacing is more relaxed so as to get you familiar with
the amusement park setting and so you can get acquainted with the large and
diverse cast of characters. I know I praised the first game on similar lines,
but in this case you interact with the employees of the park a great deal more
than you did the employees of Zeroshiki giving them more fleshed out
personalities and the interactions Takeshi has with them help in creating a
more genuine feeling of these people being his friends and coworkers than with
the MC of the first game. This also helps in strengthening the effects of major
story events that occur later such as the first murder, with the shock and loss
felt by everyone who knew the victim even a little.
I would
also say that I found Fantasien to be a better setting than the Zeroshiki
Department Store for three main reasons. The first reason ties in with the
characters being so well established because through getting to know them you
also remember where they work and since in some cases the characters have an
affinity with the theme of the area they’re assigned to or the costumed
character that they’re acting as which helps on both fronts memorability and
giving insight into the characters. Second the park’s layout is simpler than
the store was, not having multiple floors to it and having less locations, but
comes off as an improvement because not only are the locations used more in
being the settings for plot related scenes but also in giving you a sense of
familiarity with the park and through that when the time comes for Takeshi to
investigate you feel like you’re in his shoes using his familiarity with the
park to look for clues to solve the mystery. Finally, the setting has a more
open feel to it being a park rather than a large building and it gives a better
feel for the passage of time in the story with its shifts from morning to
afternoon to evening to night being visible while in the first game your only
real indication was your in game clock.
Another
improvement is that I think the mystery is better written into the plot. While
there are some similarities in terms of how they fit into the plot structure,
such as the mystery being kept in the background until late in the game, it
works better in SRO2 for a couple reasons. To begin with there’s more than one
mystery that Takeshi investigates and over the course of the game where you go
and who you talk to help to slowly reveal whether they’re connected or not.
Also considering Takeshi actually knows the murder victims, there’s more of a
sense of personal obligation to solve the mystery, whereas in the first game
the MC was only trying to solve the mystery because it was his job. It also
helps that there isn’t a true end route so the game’s story doesn’t have to
hold very much back in terms of plot reveals, plus there’s an actual presence
to the culprit this time. In the first game the culprits didn’t give much of a
sense of their involvement until the end when they’re revealed, while in this
game a combination of scenes that seem to give glimpses of the culprit and
looking into the mystery behind a character who seems to be the most likely
suspect give you a sense that Takeshi actually has a suspect to pursue.
Speaking
of Takeshi, he definitely makes for an improvement over the MC of the first
game in having an actual name that we can hear him be called by and more of a
personality.While he is a bit of a
goofball and pervert, the writers were able to pull that personality off
(unlike in Kansen Ball Buster) by balancing that out with good interactions and
scenes with the other characters and by showing when things get serious
storywise so does our hero and it feels both believable and in character.I should also point out that the decision to
tie the two games together by making Takeshi the main character of this game
was a good one. While he did feature prominently in the first game there wasn’t
much we knew about him personally, which not only gives room for backstory but
also making it that pretty much any heroine could be his love interest without
any danger of breaking canon. Unfortunately the one downside to this being a
prequel is this game seems to take place before the Cthulhu mythos themed
section of the park from the first game was built, so those awesome sounding
attractions mentioned but never shown in the first game are doomed to remain a
mystery.
Speaking
of the heroines, I guess I should list my route preferences, but I should point
out one big improvement on the subject of routes: there’s no true ending. As I
just mentioned with the tie in on Takeshi’s end having room for any route to
take place before the first game, SRO2 takes full advantage of that by allowing
each route to be their own story and essentially leave it up to the players to
decide for themselves which route they’d prefer and several of the endings drop
enough hints towards the first game that you can argue for the possibility of
the route leading into it. While some routes have different outcomes to the
case depending on your choices, there’s nothing that specifically denies any of
the other routes. Having said that, let’s talk about the routes and my
preferences for them:
1)Tie between Kazuko and Hikaru
2)Makiko
3)Shizuko
4)Tie between Kyo and Miyuki
5)Yukari
6)Yuko
7)Tamami
8)Sakura
9)Hiromi
(and before anyone asks about
Moemi’s route I can’t rank it because I couldn’t unlock it and both walkthroughs
I consulted did not help)
The
reason I like Kazuko and Hikaru’s routes the same is for two main reasons, the
first being they both have really good chemistry with Takeshi and the second
reason is that they both have a personal tie to the main story’s mystery in
their own unique way. To better explain the former, in Kazuko’s what really
helps is we get to see the relationship between her and Takeshi progress
differently in how the two become a couple fairly early in the game and the route
does a good job of portraying them as two people who just simply click together
well. The first murder and events that follow actually fit well with this
route’s story structure by using those story events to interrupt the
aforementioned romance plot and using that as a point to explore both the
mystery and a certain aspect of Kazuko’s backstory that ties in with it.
Concerning Hikaru’s route it follows the more traditional structure of her and
Takeshi not getting together till late, but does it well by not only building
up their relationship but also giving her a bit of involvement in the main
story that ends up leading into a reveal that ties her to a major part of the
mystery. It also helps that with the right choices she can help in dealing with
the villain in a very satisfying (and karmic) way.
Makiko’s
I rank second because it makes for a good follow up to Kazuko’s in how it
reveals something new behind the case (incidentally I recommend first playing
Kazuko’s route and then Makiko’s).The interactions that she and Takeshi share
are interesting and I wish I could discuss more specifics on that, but then I
would potentially spoil the route so all I can say is they’re good. I will say
that the route has an interesting look at Dracula to tie into its main story
theme (so there's another thing to link this to Halloween). Also the conclusion of the route is satisfying if somewhat bittersweet.
Shizuko’s
route is good mainly because the relationship between her and Takeshi is well
written with the two having some very amusing interactions. While you can get
her involved with the case at the end, it feels a little tacked on considering
its optional and the reason why she gets involved is a tad on the flimsy side.
Kyo and Miyuki tie for fourth place because they both develop an interesting
relationship with Takeshi, but they also share the same weakness of this
occurring a little too late in the game with only the bare minimum of scenes to
make the relationship believable. It’s a real shame considering that both
routes introduce some interesting ideas about the two heroines such as Kyo’s
picking the role of a Valkyrie at the park as a way to put up a front of inner
strength in the face of her own personal problems or Miyuki dealing with the
aftermath of a murder occurring in the park she was in charge of.
Yukari’s
route I found to be decent as it does a good job setting up the relationship
between her and Takeshi, but its problem is that it doesn’t do enough on that
front as their interactions while interesting are few and it seems odd that her
involvement in the murder case is so limited considering her job at the park.
Yuko’s route is similar in that regard, but it also suffers from starting too
late to actually give her route much story. Tamami and Sakura’s routes are
essentially joke routes, though Tamami’s is better mainly because she and
Takeshi interact more. Strangely you can get Tamami involved in the case at the
end if you make certain choices, but it feels really out of place as there
isn’t really much of a reason given for her involvement whereas at least a
somewhat plausible reason was given for Shizuko.
As for
Hiromi’s route…I have to say I’m not even sure if I should even call it a route.
Really it’s more of an ending than a route since the only interactions she has
with Takeshi are story related and don’t really help to establish any sort of
relationship between the two. It also doesn’t help that none of the scenes
portray her as a very likable character, especially when it comes to the ending
itself. The ending is literally a few sentences explaining that after the
mystery is solved she and Takeshi become a couple (simply because), an ero
scene, and that’s it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a “route” this lazily put
together before but the idea that anyone would let something like that pass in
this day and age is perhaps the scariest thing in this game.
Aside from
some of the routes suffering from being too short, the main story problem SRO2
suffers from is that after you’ve cleared 3-4 routes there isn’t anything new
to add to the mystery. From there the confrontation with the villain is the
same, there aren’t any new revelations, nor can you expect much contribution
from the remaining heroines to the main plot. With that all you’re really playing for are
the scenes unique to the remaining heroines for their routes and sadly they
aren’t very many in between all the stuff you’ve already read. This sadly makes
replays tedious after a while and for a game that features so many interesting
characters it’s too bad interactions with them are so limited.
Concerning
the system, SRO2 doesn’t have the same character movement exploration that the
first game did and instead uses a standard system of clicking a location on the
map to go to it and there you may meet certain characters or find a clue. A
certain amount of time passes for each location and some events are only
available during a certain time length. The removal of the old system might at
first seem like a step backwards, but honestly it helps to make replays less
tedious than they were in the first game where not only did you have to
repeatedly go to the same places at the right time but also move to and check
the right spots in those places. I’ll admit selecting places over and over just
to skip through several lines of text gets tedious too after a while, but at
least there’s less repeated busy work.
In the
area of presentation, SRO2 does well on almost every front. The music’s good
and the voice acting is great all around. Everyone but Takeshi is voiced and
their VAs performances all do a good job at bringing the characters to life
from Hikaru’s cheerful personality to the wackiness of Tamami and Han (and
speaking of which in the case of that pair we get top performances from Miru
and Joji Nakata). The artwork is just as good as if not at times better than in
the first game, though I should point out there is one hiccup in the art
department: some of the character portraits have very limited poses and/or
expressions. The character that gets this the worst is (ironically) Hiromi who
has only this one single character portrait throughout the entire game, and
through most of the game the only emotion she shows is anger.
As for
the ero scenes, they’re certainly a lot better than in the first game with them
being longer and some of them having more CG.
Character Profiles:
Makiko Kitazawa:
One of the main cast for the Dracul Castle attraction,
Makiko is quiet and introverted girl who mainly interacts with Shizuko. Has
recently begun dating one of the cast members in the Artemis Land section of
the park, Makoto Kajiwara.
Shizuko Kanzaki:
Another of the cast for the Dracul Castle and Makiko’s
friend, Shizuko is the daughter of a high standing family and graduate from a
top notch school. Began working at Fantasien out of a desire to experience more
varieties in society.
Kyo Sasazuka:
Cast member in charge of the Viking Ship attraction in the
Odin Land section of the park, Kyo is a very popular cast member mainly thanks
to fitting her Valkyrie costume and role so well. She and Inoue, Takeshi’s main
co-worker, appear to be dating.
Kazuko Shimamoto:
In charge of maintenance in the park, primarily the
electrical equipment and the vehicles for the park’s parade events, Kazuko is
basically a more behind the scenes member of the park’s cast. Currently single
and looking for a boyfriend, she takes an interest in Takeshi early on.
Hikaru Hizumi:
Cast member in charge of the Ghost Home attraction and a
dancing performer during the park’s parade events, Hikaru is a cheerful and
energetic young woman with dreams of performing in on stage musicals. While
usually a confidant person, Hikaru is actually plagued by self-doubt in regards
to her dancing talents and whether it’s enough to achieve her dream.
Tamami Miyashita:
Waitress for Fantasien’s Chinese restaurant and friend of its
chef, Han. Tamami is quite skilled in martial arts and usually practices her
newly learned techniques on Takeshi.
Sakura Midorikawa:
Saleswoman for the pastry shop Milky House in the World
Bazaar section of the park, Sakura’s looks and friendly personality have made
her very popular with the guests. Currently single though that may be due to
the fact that Sakura is infamous for her terrible cooking that is so bad it’s
considered a danger to all living things.
Yukari Sakuma:
The main operator for MAOS (Multiple Affairs Operating
System), a computer system that monitors and runs the major functions of
Fantasien, Yukari is now also in charge of monitoring Takeshias he’s new on the job.
Miyuki Amano:
Fantasien’s head manager, Miyuki has been an employee of the
park since the beginning and achieved her position through years of hard work.
While devoted to her work, she has started to question some of her superiors’
decisions especially in the aftermath of the first murder. Outside of work, her
main pastime is betting on horse races, with very little success.
Yuko Kurumizawa:
A rookie detective working on the murder investigation,
Yuko’s casual manner and dress don’t exactly fit the bill for a police officer,
which tends to annoy her superiors. Takes a liking to Takeshi soon after
meeting him and asks for his assistance in finding the culprit.
In Conclusion:
In Shinsetsu
Ryouki no Ori Dai 2 Shou we have another example of the original game being
surpassed by its successor. It has a more interesting mystery, a better written
cast of characters, the setting and exploring it is better, and best of all
there’s no true route that invalidates the other routes. It does have its
imperfections such as some routes getting more writing attention to it than the
others and replays can get tedious after you’ve cleared three or four routes,
but certainly not enough to ruin the experience. Even if you didn’t like or
play the first game, I’d still say it’s worth picking up considering its
aforementioned improvements and its being a prequel doesn’t spoil anything from
the first game.
Final Score: 7/10 Great
Author Recommendation:Try it out.
As for
the anime, it’s a good three episode adaptation, covering most of the key parts
of the original game’s story. If you haven’t seen it yet but want to check out
the game first then I recommend playing Kazuko and Makiko’s routes first since
the OVA is kind of a combination adaptation of both routes and will spoil
things revealed in said routes. I’m saying kind of because some things that
happen in the anime don’t happen in either route or in the game at all, but
fortunately these changes work. I will admit I do find it odd that they give Tamami more involvement in the story than she had in the game whereas Shizuko and Hikaru are barely in it. A difference between the anime and the game
that I find interesting has to do with the tone of the ending: the OVA’s tone
is one of tragedy at the community formed by the many employees of the park now
irreversibly broken by the deaths that occurred while the game’s endings (most
of them) end on a more hopeful note, acknowledging the tragedy of the events
but showing that Takeshi and the route’s heroine together have the strength to
move past it and hopefully to a better life.
Also,
just to mention it, there does exist a manga adaptation entitled “Remains of
the Darkness” but I haven’t been able to find any copies of it to say whether
it’s good or not. The few pictures I’ve been able to find seem to show that it
follows Shizuko’s route, but I can’t really say I’m that interested mainly
because if I want an abridged take on the game there’s the aforementioned OVA
and the manga’s artwork ranges from okay to bad fanart level.
