Can you tell I’m behind on reviews if I’m talking about festive games during summer, haha. Anyways, this is a shorter installment of the mini-review series featuring only three titles – one good, two kinda okay. Without further delay let’s get into it!
Amazing Grace -What color is your attribute?-
Official Website / VNDB
My Score: 7.5/10
Amazing Grace is the first title I have read from Fuyuakane Tom (冬茜 トム) – perhaps one of the most hyped eroge authors of the past few years. He’s more known for his other games with Cabbage Soft but it was Winter when I played this and I figured this game was thematically appropriate.
Since this game was technically a collaborative effort between Tom and Shigeta, I can’t really comment on their individual writing styles but I liked the game’s poignant use of emphasis. The sections where the game showcases and discusses classic artwork was also one of the highlights.
Amazing Grace is somewhat of an odd game – it is at it’s core a mystery which the game makes clear quite early. However, the atmosphere for most of it is very light-hearted and almost moege like. I guess to make the reader interested in the heroines?
The mystery itself was good. The game struggles with pacing due to the fact the main plot involves a time loop, which automatically makes it hard to keep engaging. Add to the fact that the game is divided into character-specific “Chapters” and it does slow down significantly in the mid-game. The ending and resolution were also fine but there was a tendency to info dump at the end. There were a couple of well-written twists (one that really caught me off guard) and overall the plot was engaging enough to enjoy this game.
The fact thet much of the romance in the game was sectioned off into afterstories for each heroine was a pretty clever idea, especially for the routes at the end. I wish these were a little longer though.
Unsurprisingly for this moe mystery, the characters were for the most part pretty memorable. Ironically the “main heroine” Yune probably stands out the least. Most surprising for me was probably Kirie, who kinda seemed like she’d be the annoying mascot character in the beginning but was pretty badass in her route. Sakuya and Kotoha were also very cute. There’s not many side characters in this game but they’re fairly memorable.
This Kirie scene was particularly good ///////
Whilst I normally enjoy Korie Riko’s artwork, and it is still cute in style, whomever was in charge of art/CG direction in this title really dropped the ball. The CGs are generally just super boring/bland and really close up. I counted 12 CGs of the girls just standing in front of a background that is mainly sky. Like it’s kinda funny how many CGs look similar to each other. It’s a real shame because I know from other Cabbage Soft games that their artwork is normally a selling point.
The BGM is fairly pleasant, if broadly not memorable. There are some instrumentals of classic Christmas Carols in there though to get you in that festive mood which was a nice touch. The opening song from Saori Sakura is very catchy but it also doesn’t give the ~vibes~ of a mystery game imo.
Overall, Amazing Grace is a good mystery title with a relatively engaging plot and lovable characters but struggles with pacing and boring CGs. I personally enjoyed my time playing it and think the game is worth a read, especially as the download release does go on sale for 2-3k yen fairly often. It is also the perfect game to play around the Christmas season so if you find yourself bored in December you know where to look!
D.C.II Fall in Love
Official Website / VNDB
My Score: 6/10
DCII Fall in Love is fandisc of DCII that focuses on the heroines from the Plus Communication release, that is – Akane, Maya, Aisia, Erika, Mayuki & Mahiru. It has the same content distribution as spring celebration (after stories, movie club, group side stories) thus all of the same problems. Essentially, you don’t get enough icha icha time with the heroines. It especially sucks because Mahiru and Aisia don’t have movies that they star in (which makes sense but I digress).
I fully admit that I gave up on this game after reading most afterstories and one movie scenario because I just didn’t care anymore. Therefore my scoring is based on what I did read, which was fine. I was mainly here for Aisia and Mahiru and they got less content than everyone else so that sucked. Aisia’s afterstory was okay, if a little dull considering wha a great heroine she is. Mahiru’s finally gives somewhat of a conclusion to her story. It wasn’t the happy magical bs that Da Capo likes to pull sometimes but it was a different play on “Da Capo” and I was satisfied with it in the end.
A small aside but the game does have one of the best opening songs in the franchise:
Overall, unless you’re as down bad for your favouite heroine(s) as I am then this is a fandisc you can probably skip. Not the best way to end my time (for now) with the DCII games but hopefully the latter games improve a little.
Maid-San no Iru Kurashi
Official Website / VNDB
My Score: 5.5/10
Maid-san no Iru Kurashi is one of Azarashi Soft’s earlier low-price titles and it really shows. The game lacks the polish and production values of their more recent games, which is a shame.
It’s a single heroine game and Eve is cute, if a little bland as she lacks much depth outside of her caring maid personality. There is a plot reason for this but the game’s attempt at a plot was so half-assed that they honestly shouldn’t have bothered. The protagonist is so ridiculously donkan though that it makes the game painful to read at times – like I get he’s meant to be a lonely salaryman with little experience with women but he was so clueless it went beyond funny into annoying territory.
On the plus side, when there is fluff it is actually pretty sweet/adorable, and the ending was cute. The artwork from Yaman was also quite nice.
Unless you really like maids (hey no judgements here), I wouldn’t recommend this game. It’s one of Azarashi Soft’s weaker titles and, despite the occasional bit of tasty fluff, ends up as being only a passable moege.
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