Title: アンラベル・トリガー
Developer: Archive
Release Date: 29th March 2024
Age Rating: 18+
Length: ~30 Hours
Links: Official Website, VNDB
Just what are you willing to sacrifice for your ideals?
Sakaki Kai is a young man currently living in the Frost Neutral Zone, an area located between three countries in a constant power struggle involving three races – Humes, Anima & Vamps. Due to the visual and physical differences between the three, racism and classism is rampant, even in Frost where there are people of all races residing.
Kai is a jaded Hume who works at the Trigger Detective Agency as a Private Investigator and has been desperately searching for the whereabouts of his missing childhood friend Saina.
On one fateful day, he is given his newest job – to escort a young girl named Milly around the city. She almost reminds him of Saina with her belief and hope for a peaceful world. However, what he doesn’t yet know is that this meeting is the catalyst to his world changing forever…
Thoughts
Unravel Trigger was perhaps one of the most anticipated eroge titles released in 2024. Primarily due to it being made by a lot of the same staff as 2021’s breakout hit “Sousaku Kanojo no Renai Koushiki”. However, despite owning that game, I have yet to play it so I went into this with tempered expectations. Was this worth the hype?
I’m definitely not eloquent enough to discuss the writing styles of authors as well as I would like but I’ll give it a shot. Kudou Keisuke’s writing is accomplished in a really understated way – I wouldn’t say that his prose is particularly flowery or pretentious but he has real skill in writing scenes that both flow well and are really memorable. I know there’s some quotes and scenes that will stay with me for a while and that’s admirable in its own right. He also managed to keep the pacing of the game engaging despite its long length, with plenty of twists to the story.
The area where Unravel Trigger impresses the most is in its excellent world-building. The setting is pretty fleshed out with lots of neat little details. The three routes all focus on a different faction which works really well.
The overall plot of Unravel Trigger is something that is quite difficult to sum up – it is a mesh of mystery, drama, politics, and action with some comedy and slice-of-life for good measure. However, all of these genres work well together to create something rather special. As the author himself puts it, this is a story about overcoming your past and walking towards a brighter future.
I should probably say here though that despite there being characters with magical powers (Humes with thier Legacies, and Vamps with their blood-based Noble abilities), the battles aren’t the main focus of the game and the fight scenes themselves are fairly short and decisive. Depending on your preferences this could be seen as either a positive or negative, but I’m definitely the former.
Kai (wow he has a face)
Moving onto the characters and I first need to talk about Kai. He’s so cool goddamn it. He’s the exact kind of calm yet cynical badass that you want to lead this type of game and is genuinely pretty funny at parts too. His backstory and characterisation were also every bit as good as the heroines, thus making him a memorable character in his own right. He could only be improved by being voiced.
Reiri – because there had to be a student heroine somewhere
Reiri is the newest recruit at Trigger Detective Agency and thus becomes Kai’s partner on a lot of his cases. She also just so happens to move in next door. She only recently moved to Frost with her friend Wakaba. Her Legacy ability allows her to control and fire blasts of ice.
I actually feel kind of bad for Reiri. In a vacuum she’s not a bad character and provides some needed light-hearted moments early in the game. However, her competition for main heroines in Sophia and Milly are just so great that she pales in comparison. Her route was good, although definitely the weakest of the three in my opinion. I liked her friendship with Wakaba a lot though – they were so cute.
Sophia
Sophia is the chief of the Frost branch of
Sophia was my favourite heroine from this game, and just generally one of the more interesting characters I’ve come across recently. She is competent and calculated, using every advantage against you she can muster and is thus full of surprises and is just pretty badass in general. I enjoyed her banter with Kai a lot, and her softer side once you get further into her route is utterly adorable. Her route was also great.
Millicent (aka Milly)
Milly is not just a Vamp but a princess from the Vilcar Empire, and the newly appointed ambassador to the Frost Neutral Zone. Unlike most of her kin, she doesn’t look down on the other races and earnestly wishes for peace between all three nations. She is kind, if a little pure-hearted at times and thus Kai likes to tease her. Her assistant and childhood friend Silvia lives with her in the Frost Zone.
Milly may not have the tactical prowess of Sophia or the magic ability of Reiri but Milly somehow manages to stand out as a heroine who is strong – primarily emotionally. Her route is considered the game’s true route due to it needing to be unlocked (mainly due to it having spoilers for the other two) and is definitely the best and most complete in the game. It ties everything from the past two routes together and gives a satisfying (yet pretty open) conclusion to the world.
The theme of this route is about Milly’s character growth and coming to realise that sacrifices must be made to achieve what you want – 感情だけでは理想も恋も叶えられない. Watching her character arc from a pure-hearted princess into a strong-willed and wise leader was one of the best parts of the game imo.
Silvia – why are you not a heroine #1
Being a game spanning multiple races and countries, it should be no real surprise that there’s a lot of side characters to populate the world and make it feel more alive. The game does an amazing job of making all of the characters interesting – they all have backstories and reasons for their current actions. Surprisingly for eroge authors, the male side characters (while fewer in number) were also fleshed out.
I’d go as far as to say that this game’s only real fault is that there’s only 3 main heroines. There’s so many side characters that I wanted to spend more time with and learn even more about. The most obvious are the three who got omake H scenes (Silvia, Wakaba + Alisha) but I’d argue that both of Kai’s childhood friends Natore + Saina were also in desperate need of a route.
Interestingly Henrietta was the character the author most wanted to write a route for (her design was cute tbf)
The artwork for this game was handled by a combination of Alpha (better know for their work on Akabeisoft titles) & Saiki Rider (who worked on Red:Cherish and some of Giga’s games). Despite their two styles being quite distinct, the game still looks coherent. I really need to mention the art director Shimizu Masatoshi as he obviously did a great job putting everything together. Most of the CGs are at least good, with one or two particular standouts (Saina’s introductory CG is probably my favourite from the whole game). There were also a small amount of SD CGs done by Kujou Danbo – these were cute and offered some fluffy comedy.
The music is another area where Unravel Trigger excels – the BGM is all good but (as per usual) it’s the vocal songs that really stand out. The opening is particularly gorgeous but all of the route/chapter ending songs are also great. I’m very glad that I own the OST.
I suppose I will take a moment to talk about the game’s Deluxe Edition since I spent almost 18k yen on it (RIP wallet). It came with a drama CD, Soundtrack (including all vocal songs), booklet & bonus H scene patch.
The H scene patch is just that – it adds three scenes to the “Special” menu in the game and features sub characters Alisha, Silvia & Wakaba. These scenes take place in a world where the heroine and Kai are already dating/lovers and is very short. There is some icha icha but no plot or anything. It was fun to see a different side of these characters (Wakaba for instance is a filthy pervert lmao) but I wish the episodes were a little longer.
The CDs are all good – obviously getting the full OST + vocal album is one of the main draws of the deluxe edition imo.
Finally we have the bonus booklet – it’s just under 40 pages and features staff interviews and character pages. There’s some nice bonus material like sketches and early character designs but the best part of the book was the staff interviews for me. You get comments from Kudou Keisuke, Shimizu Masatoshi, Alpha & Saiki Rider. It honestly made me appreciate the effort put into even the small details of the game as clearly the staff really cared about the product they released. Some of the interviews were quite fun too – I was not expecting Henrietta to be so popular with everyone, haha.
I won’t show the whole image but I really liked this sketch of Sophia and Kai in particular.
Conclusion
My Score: 9/10
With an engaging and well-paced story, incredible worldbuilding, developed characters, good artwork, and a solid OST Unravel Trigger stands head and shoulders above the average eroge. It’s clearly a work with a lot of love and effort put into it and tells a story that deserves to be read. I may only be halfway through 2024 but I feel pretty confident in saying that this is probably going to be the best game released this year.
I would genuinely recommend everyone to give this game a try – even if you’re not normally a fan of more action-based titles.
My genuine only complaint is that I wanted more routes. I believe this title sold quite well so my only hope is that the staff decide to revisit this setting once more. I’d 100% be up for a sequel or spin-off.
This has definitely made me want to play more of Kudou Keisuke’s works. I have been trying to get through Campus’ Uso series which he directed/wrote but I can’t really say the first game was that amazing. I’ll get around to them all eventually though!
Thanks for reading~
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