Reviewed by Geir Gunnarrson
First of all, I have to say I am not a fan of visual novels and do not even usually consider them worth “playing”.
I play games for the immersion and gameplay. The novel aspect of visual novels does not put me off since I am not against reading, I read quite a few books a year and really enjoy it.
It is mainly the lack of gameplay I don't enjoy and do not see the point of.
That being said I was pleasantly surprised that I was engaged and enjoying this story. I haven't played the first game and went in completely blind. Like any good story it starts off a bit confusing and gets more and more clear the further you progress. For someone who has not played the first game it was probably more confusing, and after a perfunctory search I learned that the game happens inside a virtual world.
You play as Mai, a poor teenager who was abused by her father until she snapped and killed him. The incident was deemed as self-defense and she was shipped off to an all-girl school/convent in a remote village, dedicated to a strange religion.
Mai requested this school because her little sister was supposed to be there but soon after Mai arrives, she finds out that her sister had apparantly never been there, what follows is Mai’s hunt for the truth.
In her search she stumbles upon many mysteries regarding missing people, murders and the supernatural. Things are not what they seem.
The game is split into 2 different sections, visual novel and then gameplay and is setup as days in game.
Each day starts with the visual novel part. You have a map of the school and the surrounding town where you can interact with characters.
Depending on who you do and don’t talk to affects the ending of the game (as it has multiple endings).
There are at certain points dialogue branches will affect the story and sometimes the choices will outright kill you. Some of the dialogues with different characters at the school can feel disjointed but I guess that is a pitfall of trying to write a completely open story with multiple choices and having it all tie up.
The main story is interesting, but where I feel the visual novel feels tiresome in parts, is with everyone constantly trying to date each other. But seeing as I am a male in my late 30’s and not Japanese I might not be their target demographic.
The anime style artwork is pretty decent throughout , the game even has a proper anime intro fully equipped with a theme song. There is voice acting for the most important dialogue and it's done well and fits the charters.
After talking to everyone you want to, you “End the day” and the story progresses to the gameplay part.
The gameplay is classic JRPG dungeon running and turn-based combat but with its own spin on the formula.
For your attack phase you choose up to 3 different attacks and then perform said attacks. There are different elements to the attacks which can be matched to mobs elemental weaknesses and it is your job to figure out the best attacks for each enemy.
You get new attack abilities from leveling up, also by comboing various attacks together you can discover new attacks. As soon you discover a new attack, you immediately perform that attack, which can give you an bonus attack in tough fights and be quite satisfying.
The combat system has a pinball mechanic built into it, some attacks have a knock back effect. If you end a combo with one of these attacks you will launch the enemy like a pinball and they will ricochet off the edges hitting and damaging other enemies. It can be quite fun to line up enemies and see them all take heavy damage, often ending a fight early.
Then there are the bugs and I do not mean the crawling kind, but the computer kind. These bugs are different coloured lights on the ground and each colour has a different effect. You can run over them when it is your turn to gain corruption. You also gain corruption when enemies hit you.
Each character has a corruption meter and when it reaches 80% the character will transform into their glitch mode which makes them stronger, hit harder and also unlocks an ultimate move that seriously damages a selected enemy or a group of enemies.
Depending on the character these ultimate attacks have different effects. One could be a devastating attack on a single target, another could be AOE and yet another will damage enemies but also heal all party members in range, whatever the attack is they are usually quite fun to witness.
The enemy designs are very good, if a little disturbing. This game is quite dark with plenty of blood, death and a hint of gore.
In conclusion if you like visual novels and JRPG's you will no doubt enjoy this game. If you’re like me and do not enjoy visual novels but do like JRPG's then you could get some fun out of it as I have but probably wait for a sale. All in all it has been interesting and fun.
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