I went into Mahoyo with pretty tempered expectations and I found it met those expectations well enough. It shares the same immaculate presentation style as the Tsukihime remake with beautiful art, dynamic sprite placement and a very pleasant soundtrack that all come together to convey that soulful homey atmosphere found in Nasu's other classic works. I particularly want to praise that one Shizuki sprite where he's just kind of looking forward like a dope. It's a work of art.

I initially went in expecting Aoko and Alice to be the stars of the show while Shizuki would be the obligatory self-insert guy who needed everything explained to him. My expectations were unexpectedly completely flipped around as I realized Shizuki was not only far and away the best character in the story, but one of my favorite VN main characters in general. His lack of experience with modern civilization is presented in a refreshingly realistic way that feels endearing and gives him an interesting view of the world where it could've easily been played up for gags instead.

Unfortunately, I couldn't really say the same for Aoko and Alice. Aoko spends far too much time flaunting her hostile attitude which feels completely unwarranted when directed at the down-to-earth Shizuki compared to other MCs with more exaggerated personalities that end up having to deal with the tsundere menace. I didn't really have an issue with Alice but I never found myself particularly liking her beyond the extent of "Well at least you're not choking Shizuki for no good reason". That's not to say the two didn't have their moments, but generally I felt the conversations between Shizuki and the girls lacked energy and typically centered around uninteresting topics. I enjoyed the scenes where Shizuki hung out with his bros quite a bit more, especially the talk between him and Tobimaru regarding the old lady that wanted him to be her grandson which ended up being one of my favorite scenes despite basically being a footnote to a generally uninteresting side story. The side characters felt underutilized but I guess it makes sense considering there was/are some sequels planned.

I was surprised to find the story was mostly slice-of-life with a handful of action chapters, which might have ended up being a notable issue for me considering my aforementioned feelings on the girls, but the short length kept it from severely harming my overall impression. I felt the action scenes were largely carried by the high quality presentation with the house of mirrors and amusement park fights lacking the creative abilities and twists that form the highlights of Nasu's other works. They were enjoyable to read, but just didn't end up feeling very memorable to me. The Alice fight for example is pretty much just an hour of Aoko running around shooting beams and ends with her shooting a really big beam. The killer egg seemed to offer a unique nuance to the situation but it was more or less ignored until Shizuki hopped on it near the end. I did greatly enjoy the final showdown with Touko however, and the ending in general left a very positive impression on me since they managed to do quite a lot with Shizuki's character and the way he contrasted with Aoko despite the short length.

Shizuki blowing up a werewolf heart out of absolutely nowhere did add at least half a star to this review.