Subahibi is definitely a wild ride and I can't say I was disappointed with what I got from it. The first half of this visual novel easily fulfilled my expectations of this story.

However this story is undeniably broken. Not so much that it ruins my enjoyment of the VN, but I feel what holds Subahibi back the most is the fact that it ultimately tries to tell two different stories that aren't as connected as the narrative thinks they are.

I haven't played Tsui no Sora yet but it was very easy to tell what was apart of the original narrative and what wasn't. By the time I was reaching the end of IMOI I felt like the story was already reaching its conclusion despite having plenty of chapters left to go.

While I can't say that the writing within the second half is astoundingly terrible, it just feels like a completely different Visual Novel. The writing is decent but it just wasn't the kind of story I expected or was really interested in.

I feel if you're a fan of Denpa and psychological horror, you'll enjoy the first half very much as I did. If you're more into straightforward drama visual novels with slight psychological elements, you'll probably enjoy the second half more

F tier yakuza outside the ending and a few characters p much

i was so bored to tears that i practically just skipped a shitton of the dialogue that wasnt immediately story relevant at certain points because this game is hellbent on wasting your time for no reason with random events

all the akame network shit sucks, the agent style is jank and feels bad to use, and the game feels like its 50 hours long despite being the shortest in the series because of all the stupid shit it throws at you

i will say tho, that ending is peak and prolly some of the most emotional shit in the entire series, too bad its stuck in this game.

its kind of a shame because the final boss and the ending are both like genuinely peak shit in the franchise but you have to suffer through so much worthless meandering, bad combat changes and a new style that is not worth using whatsoever.

im also disappointed a setting as cool as the castle amounted to nothing more than just window dressing for like a single mini game essentially

tldr; this game is genuinely worthless outside a kson's fat tits and the ending

I played this game in Japanese with the PS3 HD Remaster and its pretty dang solid. Its got a great aesthetic and the story is tight, probably the easiest to follow in the series while still being interesting. The side content that this series is known for is only here in small servings, and the substories are few and tend to be pretty dramatic, which is both an upside and a downside. This is the Yakuza game with the worst combat, but Kiryu's moveset still feels pretty good and you can absolutely tear through enemies if you know what you're doing. Overall there are reasons to like the original more than its much meatier remake, but I think both have their advantages. Glad I played this, and I will be hopping on 2 at some point.