This review contains spoilers
Typing out some quick initial thoughts after completing my first two routes today.
Playing this game on DS has a very tactile satisfaction to it. Reading ADV text on the top-screen and NVL text on the bottom has such a nice flow making everything a lot more fun to read. I really enjoyed how the game introduced it's FMVs through the first sequence of the game. The glass of the window shattering felt really exciting and grabbed my attention very well for the game's first escape room. There's a lot of instances of the game having more motion than I'd expect out of a visual novel, I adore how the sprites for the characters are animated and that really endeared me to all of them before I got to know much about them.
The main issue I was having with my first playthrough is that every time Santa or Lotus would monologue like "OoOoOoOOO~ Trust nobodyy!!" It felt like somewhat forced-tension. I never got the feeling that any of the characters had a motive to do anything but cooperate, doubly so because of the death of the 9th Player.
That is, until I reached my first ending.
Most of my choices thus far were motivated by trying to interact with as much of the characters as possible as safely as possible. Though, it seems Junpei had ended up with a bias for Clover by the end of my run. After exiting my final room, the rest of the characters were crowding around discussing their discovery of the 9th door. Up until this point I had assumed that each route would end with a different group of characters exiting through the 9th door and receiving a partial-answer to the game's unanswered questions. My expectations seemed to be adding up, seeing as 1 + 8 + 5 + 4 = Decimal Root 9 so I assumed things would wrap up rather smoothly and I'd get to move on to a new route.
Until Clover asked about the final room left unchecked. Room #2. As I got the dialogue option, I was thinking it'd just be another escape room to quickly knock out before finishing up the first route, so I absentmindedly went ahead with Clover's plan.
Four people, excluding Junpei, walk into an elevator, only one walks out.
Although I'd already been enjoying the game, this is where it started clicking. I had made the wrong assumptions about the game, expecting to be able to treat each individual route as a complete story, this ending punished me for that false assumption. Clover, who seemed to be no more than a side-character, an unremarkable one at that, murders Junpei and everyone else because I, as a player, didn't leave no stone unturned. On my 2nd run, I've been making choices I'd only make because of my knowledge of my first run, and I'm realizing the metanarrative the game is attempting to weave wherein the player is a stand-in for the "collective unconscious/crystalization of glycerin" themes it established in my first run.
Playing this game on DS has a very tactile satisfaction to it. Reading ADV text on the top-screen and NVL text on the bottom has such a nice flow making everything a lot more fun to read. I really enjoyed how the game introduced it's FMVs through the first sequence of the game. The glass of the window shattering felt really exciting and grabbed my attention very well for the game's first escape room. There's a lot of instances of the game having more motion than I'd expect out of a visual novel, I adore how the sprites for the characters are animated and that really endeared me to all of them before I got to know much about them.
The main issue I was having with my first playthrough is that every time Santa or Lotus would monologue like "OoOoOoOOO~ Trust nobodyy!!" It felt like somewhat forced-tension. I never got the feeling that any of the characters had a motive to do anything but cooperate, doubly so because of the death of the 9th Player.
That is, until I reached my first ending.
Most of my choices thus far were motivated by trying to interact with as much of the characters as possible as safely as possible. Though, it seems Junpei had ended up with a bias for Clover by the end of my run. After exiting my final room, the rest of the characters were crowding around discussing their discovery of the 9th door. Up until this point I had assumed that each route would end with a different group of characters exiting through the 9th door and receiving a partial-answer to the game's unanswered questions. My expectations seemed to be adding up, seeing as 1 + 8 + 5 + 4 = Decimal Root 9 so I assumed things would wrap up rather smoothly and I'd get to move on to a new route.
Until Clover asked about the final room left unchecked. Room #2. As I got the dialogue option, I was thinking it'd just be another escape room to quickly knock out before finishing up the first route, so I absentmindedly went ahead with Clover's plan.
Four people, excluding Junpei, walk into an elevator, only one walks out.
Although I'd already been enjoying the game, this is where it started clicking. I had made the wrong assumptions about the game, expecting to be able to treat each individual route as a complete story, this ending punished me for that false assumption. Clover, who seemed to be no more than a side-character, an unremarkable one at that, murders Junpei and everyone else because I, as a player, didn't leave no stone unturned. On my 2nd run, I've been making choices I'd only make because of my knowledge of my first run, and I'm realizing the metanarrative the game is attempting to weave wherein the player is a stand-in for the "collective unconscious/crystalization of glycerin" themes it established in my first run.
This review contains spoilers
akane kurashiki my favorite machiavellian i love you so much