"Hakuno Kishinami was someone who treasured herself and the things she loved. The things I insist I want to protect are only those I see before me.
That's the sort of shallow, greedy person Hakuno Kishinami was."






The third game in the Niino psp trilogy, the most "beloved" one and by far the entry I have the most complex feelings towards.

I kinda went through a character arc with this game. Upon finishing it I was very lukewarm. Niino pulls a gimmicky true ending on 2nd playthrough schtick that he first tried with his Black Rock Shooter game and I am not a fan of that design choice in both cases. Unlike a Taro game where the story diverges during certain plot beats (which I also still really don't like), his method is essentially ripping out a chunk of the script, usually regarding a specific character (Nana and Sakura for BRS and CCC respectively) with a specific plot beat that revolves around them, saving that for the 2nd playthrough. It's a pretty lame thing to do because it lowkey robs the impact of the first go in both cases since you're essentially witnessing a purposefuly unsatisfying finale which is unnecessary and dumb and if both games didn't have that design choice I'd appreciate them WAAAY more than I already do.

With that out of the way tho, this is an amazing sequel.
It builds upon so many things from the original Extra while standing as its own beast.

If Extra is a tale of self discovery with Hakuno Kishinami learning who they are, CCC is a story about self acceptance where they learn WHY they are. In that same vein, Hakuno's journey in Extra revolves around the meaning of being human, while in CCC, Hakuno's new story revolves around the meaning of love. Much like each chapter in the original had an exploration on a particular aspect of humanity, each CCC chapters explores a form of expressing love, with its many twisted possibilities, culminating in a perfect synergy between the game's main theme and what Hakuno learns in it.

It is such a clever contrast that fully solidifies CCC as a fantastic sequel (The only Extra sequel that had the balls to actually be its own thing instead of lazily rehashing Hakuno's original character arc but that's a whole other can of worms I'm not opening rn).

So many of the side characters get much appreciated expansion, having them on your side consantly bantering is an absolute blast. Shinji is great, Julius is incredible, Gatou out of nowhere becomes one of the best characters ever, it's wild.

Every single new character is a banger which was amazing to see. BB easily the most relatable character in all of fiction (I too want to fuck the shit out of Hakuno Kishinami).

The OST is really really good, it doesn't have the jazz but the tunes still go off.

Gilgamesh is a welcome surprise, easily him at his best. Has an incredible chemistry with Hakuno while also sporting some shockingly touching character development.

The gameplay is p much unchanged outside of the fact it's REALLY easy now lmao. Like some of the fights can still be tough but the retry option in every single battle combined with fountains around the dungeons where you can save and other touches like that make this game a cakewalk overall. HAKUNO CAN JUMP NOW THO LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO

It looks great much like the original, has a lot of very striking imagery.

This game to me above all suffers from not being nearly as tied up and polished as Extra. I mentioned how none of the themes in that feel wasted with each chapter properly fleshing them out and well... CCC has a problem with that. Rin and Rani chapters are really weak thematically and they meander so much that they end up feeling meaningless with what they're exploring by the end, they're funny tho I guess. Passionlip's is also not nearly as strong as the ones that follow but it's still good.

Essentially my big problem is that this is the sequel to my favorite thing ever so the bar is on another dimension but even with all that hype to live up to it still manages to be a banger, fantastic game.