Forest review by Harlequin

[Harlequin 17]

Forest (VNDB)

 

 

 

 

Opening movie:

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Spoilers are all inside the spoiler box down at the bottom.)

 

 

"Today is a day of sun, a day of fun, a day of glad and a day of mad. Enjoy it to the fullest!"

 

 

Well, I don't know what to say. Yet there are a lot of things to say. So, what? What do I say about this uniquely surreal experience? I suppose we should just start from the beginning (as a story would...). Forest is a visual novel unlike any other. It is completely original. I will not experience anything like it ever again, there's just no doubt about that. And for that reason alone it deserves some praise. But no, that's obviously not everything that needs to be said about it. This is a complex, highly surreal and beautiful fantasy VN that I will remember for quite some time.

 

It was hard to read and comprehend, but not impossibly so. In fact, I only see that as a strength anyway. It is a good thing that it is hard to fully understand, because that gives you more reason to think and wonder about it, right? Well I've been doing that for a while now after finishing it. Thinking. Pondering. Wondering. Figuring certain things out based on the last chapters of the VN. And after all of that, let me tell you something: This is both insane and brilliant at the same time. This VN, Forest, is crazy. Were the writers on drugs while making it? Well good! Because it worked. This is the ultimate fairy tale. A story about stories.

 

Just for fun, here's an approximation of my experience with this VN, expressed in gifs, six stages:

 

1. Start

2. Early parts

3. Midway point

4. Last parts

5. End

6. Aftermath, after some rereading of routes and moments

 

Makes sense? Maybe not, but that's totally fine.

 

So, let's go to the specifics for this one of a kind VN.

 

 

 

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Visuals/Art - Oh this is good, although I will have to complain about the lackluster amount of CG art. You see, Forest has plenty of small sex scenes in it, but the thing is, that's almost all the CG art you'll get in this VN. CG for sex scenes, yes. Unfortunate, but true. It could've had much more of it for other important events... and this is one of the reasons why your imagination will be tested while reading Forest. Since there's no art showing you what some weird event looks like, you'll just have to imagine it yourself, with the help of the text of course.

 

Overall, the art is very unique. The combination of photorealistic backgrounds and the surrealistic sprites (some of them are like that) is quite odd, but it works well. It's different. It fits the mood of this VN perfectly. As a random sidenote, some of the sprites for Nagatsuki disturbs me greatly.

 

If you like weird things and strange fantasy, then yes, you will most likely appreciate the art style found in Forest a whole lot. I know I did. This is the exact kind of imaginative stuff that I like.

 

 

Sound/VA/Music - Phenomenal, no complaints at all, 10/10. Sound effects, voice acting and music, all great.

 

Now, no particular voice was memorable for me, but rather, all the voice actors did a skillful job here. Because there are many points in this VN where the text is just insane, and yet these voice actors managed to pull it off brilliantly. They are able to convey exactly the emotions and meaning of all the poetic and crazy dialogue that takes place in Forest. Friggin' well done.

 

As for the soundtrack, it's really good. Most of it sounds like some celtic fantasy music or something, and it fits perfectly. You very much get a magical fairy tale-like feeling from it, both in and out of the VN. I think this might be my favourite song:

Well, there's plenty of other great songs too (ex.

, and

). Ah what the heck, here's the

also. To sum it up, I love this music. I'm going to listen to it later on to remind myself of this bizarre VN.

 

Mmmm, yes. You know the music of a game/VN is good when you just want to keep listening to it even though you're done with the game/VN itself. That's very much the case when it comes to Forest for me. And of course there's a good chance it'll be the same for you.

 

 

Characters - There are two different types of characters to be found in Forest. "Normal" characters, and fairy tale characters. The fairy tale characters are the type of characters you will find in fairy tales (obviously), children's books, legends, and other assorted fantasy stories. You will most likely recognize many of them and be quite happy about that. It's a cool feature of this VN, I liked it alot, but I won't go into too much detail about it though. Suffice it to say, there are some distinct personalities here and you'll see some fun combinations with them.

 

Now, the normal characters started out as being quite ordinary and not all that interesting. But after while you'll learn a bit more about them and specifically their backstories. And once you do, these characters turn out to be pretty great. Confusing sometimes, just like the fairy tale characters can be, but still great.

 

From all these characters you will at certain times get lines and dialogue full of complete nonsense, such as "BIBIBIBIBIBIIBIBIBIBIBIBIBIBIBIBIBI!" and "Gimyuragugyuragerageragigogoojapabushagigagigagong ugagaagagebagibagobagobazupyurapishu!" (there's more). Yes this happens. Does it have any relevance? Is it part of some known fairy tale? Probably. In any case, all that is great fun for everyone! More things to make you wonder what the hell is going on in Forest.

 

 

Plot/Story - In case it hasn't been obvious enough already, the story in Forest is something extremely complex that starts out being quite confusing. Truth of the matter is, I got two headaches from reading this VN. I don't get headaches. Let me say it again, I DON'T GET HEADACHES. Yet Forest managed to give me that. Twice. How? I don't know! But it sure happened, twice!

 

It's madness. It really is. You have to have a different mindset while reading this VN. First of all, there's no room for normal logic here, so just forget about that. Accept what you see. Your imagination and the limits of it is what matters the most. Second of all, mental preparation is needed, aswell as mental rest. It's exhausting to read this, which is probably the reason why I got those two headaches. The way the text presents itself in Forest is so incredibly different, that if you focus on it in order to understand all of it, you will get tired eventually. Sometimes the characters talk like they would in a strange fairy tale, while other times they talk in a very poetic way, and you've gotta make sense of it all. Or at least much of it.

 

Still, in the end, if you can make sense of certain things in it... It's really quite a great story. I still don't understand all of it, no way no how, not even close. But some very important things "make sense" now at least, which is what really matters. There's a ton of small details that you can look into in Forest. Details that ultimately, aren't that crucial... but it's still nice to have them there. It gives you even more reason to revisit the VN and do some chapters again.

 

 

Screenshots (click the thumbnails) -

 

 

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Final words - So, this was quite a special VN, a memorable one at that. The overall experience for me was not as amazing as it was in, say, Muv-Luv Alternative, Fate/stay night or Sharin no Kuni. Those stories are easier to understand, and as such, much easier to appreciate and have fun with. But even so, this is an incredibly beautiful fantasy VN with an original story that makes you go insane from thinking about it, which is a good thing!

 

When you put all of it together (sound, art, story, etc.), Forest becomes something surprisingly great. I say surprisingly because I personally didn't expect it to be as nice as it was when I first started reading it. But by the end of the whole strange journey, it became something very impressive that I've got to give a whole lot of praise to.

 

Is Forest a must read? Only if it looks/sounds intriguing to you. Why? Because this is a really unusual and complex VN and as such it simply can't be for everyone. You should very much consider trying it though, because it's extremely different from everything else. It toys with your mind to a great extent. Some will love it, some will hate it. Much will depend on how much patience you have for the bizarre way the story presents itself. But if you try hard enough to understand at least some of it, then it can be something great and special indeed. That's how it worked for me.

 

A bizarre, beautiful and hard to grasp story - Forest - Read it, if you think you can handle it. I hope you can!

 

 

 

 

Pros: Artistic, beautiful, memorable, weird (+/-), unique, imaginative, deep and original story, special art style, fantastic soundtrack, skillful voice acting, fairy tale characters and familiarity with said characters, interesting backstories.

 

Cons: Almost no CG art for non-H scenes whatsoever, too confusing during the early parts.

 

 

 

Harlequin gives Forest a rating of...

 

9.3/10

(Follows the rating scale on VNDB)

 

 

Remember, this is only my opinion and experience with this visual novel.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the spoiler box with some spoilerish thoughts and impressions I got from reading this VN.

 

Do not touch it if you have not fully read this VN already:

 

 

 

So...

 

According to the VN, Amenomori is the mother of Kako, the child of the forest (which makes Akeru the father). That's what she says herself after the last sex scene when Kako is "born". She says it as if it's not strange at all. But the VN also mentions that Amenomori (the "female office worker") had a miscarriage. Kako/Alice is a character who is present from the early parts of the VN. So, who is this Kako that we've seen from the beginning? A girl who was never actually born, that's who. The potential daughter that Akeru and Amenomori could have had if Amenomori's pregnancy did not fail. An imagination, made possible by the magical Forest, I THINK. And near the end, Kako speaks of death being the truth... which it definitely is for her then, because she wasn't actually supposed to be living at that point, since Amenomori couldn't bring her to life. It does make sense. It's weird, true, but it works this way... probably...

 

Kako and Alice are the same person, somewhat at least. Agreed? That's pretty much stated directly by the VN. Alice is the version of Kako who resides in the Forest, and in there she has a lot of power, because it's all imaginary like herself. Well, during several parts of the riddles, it seems like Akeru and Amenomori in particular are quite worried about Alice. Well that's only natural if they are her parents, or her would be parents, rather. However, I don't know how or when they realised that Kako/Alice is their child who was never born. But in any case, this works together with the things I mentioned above. This is more proof that they are her (potential) parents.

 

I don't know what the Forest really is, or how it came to be. Was it made by the "fake" Kako/Alice? Could be that way, since Kako/Alice probably wanted a place of power, something unreal, like herself. Something she could control. She acts in a playful and dominant way with the riddles, while being Alice. This was her way to pretend that she's real, alive and in power, I think.

 

Or did the Forest make it so that the unborn child of Akeru and Amenomori could "appear", since it's all magic/imagination and bullshit? In that case, where did the Forest come from? The Story of the Beginning? How and for what reason would it? I don't know. Does the VN itself represent the magical Forest that appears in the... um... VN? The name of the VN is "Forest" after all. Perhaps the reader reading the VN is the cause for the appearance of the Forest. Near the end, the Alice of Death and Akeru talks about stories, realities and whatnot. And at some point, they say this:

 

[Akeru]: There's a world "outside" us. We're someone's dream. And the asshole who's dreaming us-------That's right, he's no different! There are "tellers" and "listeners". And "readers, "dancers" and "retellers". Have you enjoyed dreaming this dream? Whoever you are out there?

 

[Alice]: Do you know what that person is doing? Right next to him is a tissue box-------

 

[Akeru]: Probably. So what? I don't care what anyone does out there. They can look at whatever they want. I welcome it. But Kako! We've gone off course, haven't we? We're not living up to a certain someone's expectations. We ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and tripped and fell over. This is what we get for ignoring the rules. We betrayed and ignored and destroyed the semblance of order that the "outside rules" try to create, and thus this happened to Amenomori.

 

[Akeru]: We're incomplete. We're not satisfying their needs. The "storyteller" (either the creator of this VN, or the reader of it, I think) on the "outside" is in trouble. The riddles-------Whether they were puzzles with answers, or competitions with winners and losers, they all had some kind of goal, right? I thought they were controlled by "coincidense". But I've changed my mind. We're being chased into "necessity" (one, true end). There was plenty of variation in the journeys. As long as we didn't miss the goal by much, the "teller" and the "listeners" could accept it.

 

[Akeru]: Our "world" is being controlled by the "will" of someone on the "outside". Maybe I should say the "plan". And that's why there must be an "answer". And an "ending". And there's probably a "complete ending" too. Do you understand, Kako? Can you tell what I'm saying? I want to reclaim it. I want to repair the "incomplete ending".

 

The incomplete ending, which he fixed by getting back Amenomori.

 

Well, to be honest, I still don't know what the birth of Kako at the very end is supposed to represent. Simply the end of the story? The thing is, you don't get to see her in the epilogue, unless I forgot about that. So was she not truly born then, for real this time, even after that last sex scene and such?

 

Then there's the Story of the Beginning, a story told between Akeru and Amenomori (when she was a pupil under him). This story never got an end, so that might be related to the ending that Akeru sought in the last parts of the VN. The ending he at first rejected. but the ending that he was supposed to have with Amenomori. Perhaps this is the ending that the magical Forest sought aswell, since the Forest was "completed" and disappeared (I think?) after that ending was achieved.

 

Now, the characters in that Story of the Beginning - Torunga, Padua, Peccólia and Helmia... Well, Padua was that dead world tree seed. As the VN seemingly says, a world tree is like a "fulfilled" person or something, with endless dreams, hopes and stories, represented as branches on that tree. That's how I interpreted it anyway. Mayuzumi turns into a tree in The Game. When she eventually comes back to the group, she's a better and happier person, a singer at that, which she wasn't before. So perhaps she was a "seed" aswell before The Game. But I'm not sure about all that. Still, I believe that Kako actually represents Padua. She was a "world tree" that never came to be, and so she remained a dead seed of one, just like Padua.

 

As for the other characters, perhaps Torunga = Akeru, Peccólia = Amenomori? I don't really know though. No clue what Helmia is supposed to represent, if anything at all.

 

The fact that Kako was not born due to the failed pregnancy, might've scarred Akeru and made him act the way he does for the majority of the VN. He rejected "eternity", calling it "the hell of infinity". Is this him rejecting the idea of making life? The VN mentions Amenomori having an "egg" inside of her, representing the potential for a "world" (person - Kako), and she wants to know if it's a world without sadness. Akeru sees it as a dream, a bad one, probably because of the miscarriage that happened before. But at this point, Amenomori still wanted to know if it could all work out in the end... I think.

 

Well whatever, the complete ending was achieved eventually.

 

However, that was only the end of this story, one of many, many stories... as the VN pretty much alludes to right before the credits roll. NICE!

 

Edited April 9, 2013 by Harlequin

[Stàr 10]

Wait, I didn't read so excuse me if I'm wrong but haven't you posted your opinion/review in a few other threads as well?

Edited November 7, 2012 by Stàr

[desi 53]

Wait I didn't read so excuse me if I'm wrong haven't you posted your opinion/review in a few other threads as well?

 

Ivan is moving the reviews in this newly created section.

[Stàr 10]

ah, I see. That explains everything

[Ivan 148]

I gotta buy me some of that

Is there any reason you're quoting spambot? as you might've noticed - posts like that are filtered really quickly by automated system and users deleted, but if you quote them like that, you're doing them a favour, letting more people as well as search engines to see their links, since regular members aren't checked for spam content due to performance issues..

[Harlequin 17]

I played a bit of forest, maybe 30 or so minutes? It just confused me, and i couldn't get into it.

 

Not that surprising, hehe... It's the most confusing early on after all.

[someguy withaname 10]

As for the soundtrack, it's really good. Most of it sounds like some celtic fantasy music or something, and it fits perfectly. You very much get a magical fairy tale-like feeling from it, both in and out of the VN. I think this might be my favourite song:

Well, there's plenty of other great songs too (ex.

, and

). Ah what the heck, here's the

also. To sum it up, I love this music. I'm going to listen to it later on to remind myself of this bizarre VN.

 

Mmmm, yes. You know the music of a game/VN is good when you just want to keep listening to it even though you're done with the game/VN itself. That's very much the case when it comes to Forest for me. And of course there's a good chance it'll be the same for you.

 

I just clicked the music links and my conclusion is......I MUST DOWNLOAD THESE TRACKS!!!

 

And your experiences through gifs part was hilarious! I really wonder if my expressions will be similar when I read this one hmm....... who knows but I know what I'm reading after I finish Saya's song now. lol

Edited December 27, 2012 by someguy withaname

[Harlequin 17]

I just clicked the music links and my conclusion is......I MUST DOWNLOAD THESE TRACKS!!!

 

And your experiences through gifs part was hilarious! I really wonder if my expressions will be similar when I read this one hmm....... who knows but I know what I'm reading after I finish Saya's song now. lol

 

Oh yea, there's some really great and fitting songs in there... aaaaaah, brings back memories... memories of having my mind slowly melt away due to overheating from visualizing everything in Forest.

 

... Your experience might very well end up being similar, yes. Whooo knooows!

[someguy withaname 10]

Just to add a few theories to make this even more interesting!

For the first of my theories I'll try and mention the Beginning Story. More specifically, the part were Torunga is in the underworld and he encounters a girl who appears to be Kako/Alice. This made me think a lot about the Greek underworld actually and since they made mention of Atlas at one point, there may have been more but i can't remember right now, it really made me curious as to whether that was the "underground kingdom/country" he was visiting in his travels. If he met Kako/Alice here she would already be dead because she was aborted, like Padua she was a seed that never got a chance to grow and bloom. This would obviously be pretty sad for anyone and this moved Torunga greatly and he decided to give Kako/Alice a chance to live. How he got this power or whether he had it all along I can not say but a lot of weird stuff happens in Forest so it doesn't seem too weird that he as an immortal being could bestow that gift too others. This gave Kako/Alice the opportunity to leave the underworld and live the life she couldn't before but it left her isolated and alone from others, leading to her characters development throughout the story.

 

Also a quick theory on Helmai and his notable snake eyes as I thought he was pretty interesting. I would probably need some feedback on this, as I don't know about religous stories very much, but Helmai seemed to be a lot like the snake from the story about Adam and Eve. The snake tempted Eve to eat the apple much in the same way Helmai tempted Torunga with the Golden watchahussit, bad memory showing up again. Torunga accepted it and ended up losing "paradise" and Peccolia and Padua both left that The Village of the End and he was alone yet again. This sort of makes sense if you think of Torunga in the same light as Adam and Peccolia as Eve and Helmai as the snake. This is still pretty convoluted though so I might need some back and forth on this one but I hope you see were I'm trying to go with this. Helmai is hard to figure out though to be honest just because of the fact that snakes can mean so many things in mythology.

 

This is more of a short side theory but it seemed to me that the Forest existed before Alice came into existence. This is because at one point just before The Game began Alice changed the rules and one of the inhabitants of the Forest said something about her not being allowed to do that because she was just a newcomer. This is only one point though if anyone has others please post as this VN was one confusing but awesome read.

 

Edited January 29, 2013 by someguy withaname

[Caelistas 12]

I give at a rating of 3/10, it was way to trippy for me, like someone wrote this while he was on LSD. Couldn't fully appreciate this "work of art", but that is just my opinion.

[switch 13]

I give at a rating of 3/10, it was way to trippy for me, like someone wrote this while he was on LSD. Couldn't fully appreciate this "work of art", but that is just my opinion.

 

^ you appreciate lolis and forbidden love..........i know you too well