- Oct 4, 2015
- 686
- 201
This thread is very quiet lately, so I'll allow myself a double post. Plus, new page and all that...
As stated before, I started あけいろ怪奇譚 over the course of last week-end and just finished it late last night. Before going into too much details, I'll just say that I found the game excellent, overall better than the previous Silky's Plus Wasabi release なないろリンカネーション, though parts of the latter were standing out more.
The game continues the previous setting of spirits and demons in modern times, but shifts it to a high-school environment. Much of the game is spent investigating the school's seven mysteries and the ghost of the ancient building. Personally, I really like this kind of setting and have read quite a lot of manga with similar setups (and still do, lately カラダ探し and 死人の声を聞くがよい). As far as mysteries go it's pretty good, but the main plot's revelations are diluted over the various routes and repeated quite a few times, so by the time the true end literally unlocks, most of the elements are already figured out and what remains is more a confirmation than anything else. なないろリンカネーション also suffered from this problem, since there was basically only one plot which made subsequent playthrough have much less impact. Still, the first time around was nicely handled even if the hints were a little too generous for me. This time around I think the game suffers from a lack of any impact at all, there's little to no shocking reveals, no 'Wow!' moments, all the way until everything is explained in painful and graphic details. Some scenes did made me uncomfortable even though most of the game's atmosphere is pretty light, there's a pretty dark story underneath it all.
The game is not 100% focused on investigation and there are some pretty funny and relaxing school life slice-of-life moments with the MC and his group of friends. In particular, the MC's best friend Shuuji is a welcome addition, the previous game really lacked a male best friend character for the MC to talk to. I really liked the little lunch sequences with Yashiro, Shuuji, Kana and sometimes Velvet, they make a nice break from the evening investigations. The occasional and route-dependent visits to the Kagami family are also pretty nice, Makoto is barely present in any of them but it's always nice to see more of the group of Onis. Iris and Aoi even sometimes got to help a little bit during the investigations, which is a nice touch but I found Makoto & Co a bit too almighty. It does feel like they could solve the whole problem in a single night while the MC's group struggles for a month while sometimes risking their lives. Why they don't act is kinda explained in the game but I find it hard to believe Makoto would let a murdering ghost roam around unattended, school authorization or not.
As far as character routes, I found them really nice, though I definitely liked some better than others. They all share a specific problem in my eyes : they leave the mystery of the old school building's ghost solved in an half-assed or incomplete way and all share a pretty bitter aftertaste of failure. I was pretty happy to see that the previous game's strong harem vibes didn't make a comeback, that was my main complaint about なないろリンカネーション. This time around there's less if none of it which was most welcome. Without going into much spoilery details, my favorite was Kana's route which stays closest to the main plot but branches out from the true route near the end. I really liked Kana's character, somehow she felt more 'real' than many a stereotypical heroine from the average eroge. Her route's ending was also very nice. I also liked the second half of Ruri&Ruka's route which didn't turn into loliconia as I would have expected, and its ending was one of the few scenes in the game to genuinely bring tears to my eyes. Velvet's route was as can be expected from a vampire route, for better or worse. Not bad but not great either. Misato's route has little spirit/horror element in it so it does feel disconnected from the rest of the game, but pretty good for the nee-san lovers I guess. Finally, Youko's route had a really good start but started turning chuuni by the second half, I tend to not like chuuni protagonists too much and this time was no exception.
Art-wise, I have to admit it took me a little time to get used to Sumeragi Kohaku's way of drawing female adults. Youko and Misato's character sprites and CGs made and still make me quite uncomfortable. Maybe it's the over the top huge breasts, maybe it's the weird way the characters smile or something, but that didn't work for me. The rest of the cast didn't bother me as much, but some of the H-scenes CG I also had a bit of a problem with. Music-wise it was pretty good, a few memorable tunes and an opening I wish I had the full version of. System-wise it wasn't too bad, I liked the flowchart and for once it's actually useful since there's quite few branches. Still, due to said various branches some parts are sometimes repeated with slight variations in completely different scenes (with no already-read flag...) which can be quite time consuming. The few non-subtitled lines were also a bit of a problem, since clicking doesn't skip to the next line and they are spoken very slowly. I can understand hiding the line when Ayako says things that can have very different meanings depending on how it's written, but for the slow and lengthy zombie groans, I don't think that was necessary. I did eventually find out that briefly pressing control skipped them, but a long way into the game.
If mysteries and ghosts are your cup of tea, it's certainly one the best title I've read in the genre in quite a while. I'll definitely watch what Silky's Plus Wasabi does from now on. Next game I'll play will probably be まいてつ.
As stated before, I started あけいろ怪奇譚 over the course of last week-end and just finished it late last night. Before going into too much details, I'll just say that I found the game excellent, overall better than the previous Silky's Plus Wasabi release なないろリンカネーション, though parts of the latter were standing out more.
The game continues the previous setting of spirits and demons in modern times, but shifts it to a high-school environment. Much of the game is spent investigating the school's seven mysteries and the ghost of the ancient building. Personally, I really like this kind of setting and have read quite a lot of manga with similar setups (and still do, lately カラダ探し and 死人の声を聞くがよい). As far as mysteries go it's pretty good, but the main plot's revelations are diluted over the various routes and repeated quite a few times, so by the time the true end literally unlocks, most of the elements are already figured out and what remains is more a confirmation than anything else. なないろリンカネーション also suffered from this problem, since there was basically only one plot which made subsequent playthrough have much less impact. Still, the first time around was nicely handled even if the hints were a little too generous for me. This time around I think the game suffers from a lack of any impact at all, there's little to no shocking reveals, no 'Wow!' moments, all the way until everything is explained in painful and graphic details. Some scenes did made me uncomfortable even though most of the game's atmosphere is pretty light, there's a pretty dark story underneath it all.
The game is not 100% focused on investigation and there are some pretty funny and relaxing school life slice-of-life moments with the MC and his group of friends. In particular, the MC's best friend Shuuji is a welcome addition, the previous game really lacked a male best friend character for the MC to talk to. I really liked the little lunch sequences with Yashiro, Shuuji, Kana and sometimes Velvet, they make a nice break from the evening investigations. The occasional and route-dependent visits to the Kagami family are also pretty nice, Makoto is barely present in any of them but it's always nice to see more of the group of Onis. Iris and Aoi even sometimes got to help a little bit during the investigations, which is a nice touch but I found Makoto & Co a bit too almighty. It does feel like they could solve the whole problem in a single night while the MC's group struggles for a month while sometimes risking their lives. Why they don't act is kinda explained in the game but I find it hard to believe Makoto would let a murdering ghost roam around unattended, school authorization or not.
As far as character routes, I found them really nice, though I definitely liked some better than others. They all share a specific problem in my eyes : they leave the mystery of the old school building's ghost solved in an half-assed or incomplete way and all share a pretty bitter aftertaste of failure. I was pretty happy to see that the previous game's strong harem vibes didn't make a comeback, that was my main complaint about なないろリンカネーション. This time around there's less if none of it which was most welcome. Without going into much spoilery details, my favorite was Kana's route which stays closest to the main plot but branches out from the true route near the end. I really liked Kana's character, somehow she felt more 'real' than many a stereotypical heroine from the average eroge. Her route's ending was also very nice. I also liked the second half of Ruri&Ruka's route which didn't turn into loliconia as I would have expected, and its ending was one of the few scenes in the game to genuinely bring tears to my eyes. Velvet's route was as can be expected from a vampire route, for better or worse. Not bad but not great either. Misato's route has little spirit/horror element in it so it does feel disconnected from the rest of the game, but pretty good for the nee-san lovers I guess. Finally, Youko's route had a really good start but started turning chuuni by the second half, I tend to not like chuuni protagonists too much and this time was no exception.
Art-wise, I have to admit it took me a little time to get used to Sumeragi Kohaku's way of drawing female adults. Youko and Misato's character sprites and CGs made and still make me quite uncomfortable. Maybe it's the over the top huge breasts, maybe it's the weird way the characters smile or something, but that didn't work for me. The rest of the cast didn't bother me as much, but some of the H-scenes CG I also had a bit of a problem with. Music-wise it was pretty good, a few memorable tunes and an opening I wish I had the full version of. System-wise it wasn't too bad, I liked the flowchart and for once it's actually useful since there's quite few branches. Still, due to said various branches some parts are sometimes repeated with slight variations in completely different scenes (with no already-read flag...) which can be quite time consuming. The few non-subtitled lines were also a bit of a problem, since clicking doesn't skip to the next line and they are spoken very slowly. I can understand hiding the line when Ayako says things that can have very different meanings depending on how it's written, but for the slow and lengthy zombie groans, I don't think that was necessary. I did eventually find out that briefly pressing control skipped them, but a long way into the game.
If mysteries and ghosts are your cup of tea, it's certainly one the best title I've read in the genre in quite a while. I'll definitely watch what Silky's Plus Wasabi does from now on. Next game I'll play will probably be まいてつ.
