I'M FREE. I didn't let the torture of 4/4.1/4.2 and this stop me. I know that the series is capable of something special, 03 showed me that.

I'M CRYING TEARS OF JOY, I'M IN THE GOOD GAME ZONE NOW

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

If you'd read my recent Rance reviews back to back, you may have noticed that over the course of playing 4, its sequels and this, I've started to make less and less sense. And that's because I've decided to binge all of those to get them out of the way as soon as possible, at the cost of my sanity. I've decided to get over with this one before playing Kichikuou and VI, since I hated the idea of having yet another (allegedly, at the time, because this really is unbearable) near-unbearable game right after the acclaimed Kichikuou, and so that I'd have only good (allegedly) remaining Rance games left, all of the ones from VI to X, as well as Kichikuou, are highly acclaimed, and I am excited to play them. Finally.

But yeah, this might genuinely, without any exaggeration, be the worst JRPG gameplay I've ever experienced. Why is everything a roulette and time based???? Holy shit. Huge respect for people who somehow survived until now without having played 03. I consider myself a patient person, but if I hadn't already experienced 03, which was a great game, I would've possibly given up on getting to the better Rance titles. I don't know how they thought this would function as a soft reboot to get new people into the series.

At least it's not as long as IV (though still longer than 4.1/4.2 and 02, ugh), and there are some decent funny moments, along with some decent tracks in the OST (i like All Your Power), but overall it was, once again, pure physical torture to play. At least now I have only good games to look forward to

i cannot imagine anyone greatly enjoying this unless they were already a big Rance fan before playing this

good god, playing this after 03 is a massive downgrade, not sure how people who also played in the correct order from 1 to 10 who played III instead of 03 survive until at least Kichikuou or VI for the series to get good. At least 02 was really short, but this sure isn't. Unless you played 03, how many hours does this make until a good game like Kichikuou or VI? 30? 40? That's insane

The gameplay is whatever, the dungeons were nearly unbearable, the story is alright, the character interactions and humor are cool if you enjoyed the III/03, but overall it is torture to play

A gimmick without much of a plot that has negatively affected the perception of VNs amongst the general audience, with questionable depictions of some serious topics.

It doesn't have some kind of theme or message it wants to convey, or an ambitious central narrative, it's literally all just DDLC patting itself on its own back for "le subversion" or "VNs are... le bad".

While it is a fun short little experience in a vacuum (hence why I'm not gonna hop on the hater train and give it 0.5 stars or something, few things are that bad), it makes you wonder who or what this is trying to "subvert". It feels like it "subverts" the stereotype of what a VN (except DDLC, Danganronpa, VA-11 HALL-A and Ace Attorney, of course!) is, rather than what VNs actually are about. It feels like it was basically made to be one of the only popular VNs in the West. It's in its DNA since it kind of feels ashamed of the usual VN tropes.

I know that Dan Salvato has played various visual novels, such as Nasu stuff, Steins;Gate, Umineko, 999, Clannad and G-Senjou no Maou (example source 1, example source 2), but does DDLC resemble any of these? Where in Tsukihime or Umineko does the protagonist literally just go to school and have romantic tension with girls and then nothing happens? Say what you want about Umineko, Tsukihime, or whichever highly rated VNs, but they generally are so focused on themes and characterisation to the point of repeating the same stuff ad nauseum sometimes. And then we look at DDLC it is literally just the trope until more than halfway, and after that point it doesn't suddenly become character focused, it becomes focused on the gimmick that everyone who's played it knows. All of the ones Salvato has been confirmed to actually have read don't resemble the idea of a simple romcom/romdrama "dating sim" that is what people think VNs generally are. It feels like it's "subverting" the stereotype of VNs being "dating sims" (which are kind of different from even romance VNs but whatever). All of these popular acclaimed VNs have complex, usually ambitious plots that try to experiment with the VN medium and aren't just subversion for subversion's sake. I don't really see much depth to DDLC aside from the alleged commentary on the medium and highly questionable depictions of mental health issues.

I don't doubt that Salvato has a passion for VNs. I just wish he attempted to write one that is more plot-centric, to use the lessons he learned from the VNs he's read. Something like Katawa Shoujo. But instead of getting more Katawa Shoujos, Western VNs nowadays have a lot of attempts at trying to capture the same kind of success of "not being like other VNs" (which they haven't read probably, but that's just the cynic in me talking) and having extreme humor or fourth wall breaks or something. As a result, with it already being hard enough to find people who read anything except Nasu, Ryukishi and maybe a one-off like a SCA-DI work or a NITROPLUS or something, or SciAdv stuff, as a regular VN reader, you will now have to have the exact same conversation with the exact same kinds of people who say every VN except DDLC and maybe Danganronpa is garbage. Wonderful.

Is there any other medium that has this many creators trying to separate themselves from it and act like their product is the only unique one? Sure, there's a few that Western-original VNs that don't do this, like Our Life or the Sekimeiya, and the aforementioned Katawa Shoujo, but for every Sekimeiya there are dozens of VNs that take pride in being superior to whatever the perception of VNs is for people who don't read them. Instead of doing this, people could be spreading their love for VNs, like Fate (when they're not busy feeling superior to people who just like the Fate anime just because they read their first VN) and Umineko (when they're not busy feeling superior to other VNs' fanbases for whatever reason. Not that there are any good VN fanbases) fans do.

I won't name anything to not spoil anyone, but the subversion of visual novels as a medium and their tropes, as well as "visual novels are unhealthy, actually" has been done many times in the medium without making vague mockery of the medium without truly understanding it.

I don't really know where I'm going with this anymore. I suppose I'm disappointed that a medium with so many good stories, a medium that experiments and takes risks much more often than the overwhelming majority of videogames, and especially the overwhelming majority of anime, that already had to fight an uphill battle against the stereotypes and stigma, now gets more added to the fire. I suppose I will need to accept that it will be niche outside of some circles in Japan forever. Maybe this was where I wanted to put it into words.