togainu no chi starts off really strong, with an interesting and gritty premise that you rarely see in bl visual novels. but then the game keeps going, and i really wish it had ended after the first hour. that premise is completely butchered and just becomes an excuse to have constant rape and meaningless violence on screen. it creates a cycle of just escape, hide, fight, get an injury, escape, hide, fight that is so repetitive and mind-numbing. all the routes lack an ounce of chemistry and are incredibly boring. im well aware that theres an audience for this sort of "romance" but it was so poorly executed that even they were probably disappointed. its only saving grace is its protagonist, akira, that i wish couldve been part of a better game.

(completed just rin's route for this replay)

tnc is fundamentally, in my opinion, the weakest of the n+c games (i vastly prefer dmmd and sweet pool), but i think the games writing really and some very strong characters (motomi is great, rin is best boy + akira is a fun protagonist) makes up for a very weak story. weirdly enough, i still like it. reading the liner notes from kabura really drive home why i like it still: it's a story about passion. and that passion is felt through every once of this game, even if its story kind of sucks.

keisuke and shiki still suck tho

edit: decided to 100% it achievement-wise on a whim. thank god for the nitro skip i did not want to slog through the routes that arent rin or motomi

giving an extra half-star for the concept of mega crack existing bc it's funny af! EDIT: taking the half star off because shiki becoming unironically no doubt about it "his followers believe they are the superior race" yaoi hitler at the end of his route made me choke on my coffee this morning

im three games into the five game library of nitro+chiral and i am just convinced these mfs cannot write an all-around solid plot to save their lives. cool premise that then immediately gets thrown to the side so we can do "character going here and wasting time and then going here and wasting time and the cycle goes on and on" and an overall lack of focus, similar to dmmd. interesting ideas are never carried out to their peak or have truly satisfying conclusions.

dmmd is worse by far with its overbloated use of repeated writing throughout its individual character routes/god awful pacing but togainu no chi just does not know what the fuck it wants to be honestly and i can't tell if that's worse. a gritty drama? commentary on war and society? fucked up sex show? it's so caught up in trying to have crazy rape fantasies and guys on mega crack that it's forgetting it's also supposed to be telling a story around 60% of the time.

at least dmmd was pretty creative in its worldbuilding and the way it presented gameplay to the audience and sweet pool is constantly off the goop. togainu no chi's interesting moments are strung loosely together and every scene of sexual assault that pops up in between them feels both like it's trying to stir something deeper in your mind (not inherently bad if the subject is handled with decorum, something like fatamoru exploring how it messes with the victim) while also being there for sexy shock value. you cannot do both at once because these two things are total opposites. pick a side man.

admittedly i do think the character of akira is very fun and is basically the only reason i stuck to playing this game (that and i spent like 8 dollars on it). he's a great character to explore and relate to and that's why i give this game two stars, if he was boring i would give this game no stars. overall though it was not worth sitting through numerous sexual assault scenes just to get some fun glimpses at akira's mind but whatever.

tldr: booooo im throwing tomatoes.... i need to play lamento next

This is the perfect visual novel for straight men who want to explore the BL genre. Don't trust me? Well, Gen Urobuchi kinda helped on it, isn't that enough?

While not my first visual novel that I played, this was the first visual novel that I finished the WHOLE. It's a damn good BL game. Yeah, it's pretty edgy and gory (which makes sense because of the world building), so it's not for everyone. But I definitely suggest this if you are into darker BL.

Also, fuck you Shiki. I was really looking forward to your route because your design is so fucking good, but all I got is trauma.
You deserve to burn in the hell, 10/10 would still play your route tho.