Critical Point review by IllyrioM

[IllyrioM 11]

Ok, since interactivity is paramount to me, in addition to the generally used/accepted criteria of story, characters, art, etc, i'll be considering Interactivity/Replayability as well, as one of the main (if not the main) criteria used to evaluate, or more honestly perhaps, give my opinion, about certain eroge/vn i've played, starting with this one for the moment and perhaps some others later on.

 

So, Critical Point:

 

Interactivity/replayability: 25 different endings... need i say more?

Ok, i'll expand a little bit: the game's a 'pure' VN type, meaning there's no gameplay, and no point and click or roaming around adventure style, the choices are all in-dialog and text choices, but the fact there's such a variety of outcomes more than makes up for interaction and replayability. While the outcomes of a series of choices may turn out unexpectedly, the branching choices presented make sense and the ease by which the player may backtrack or re-play to take a different path and obtain a different outcome is made so by providing a large number of available save slots, quick skip, and more importantly, a relatively short path to each outcome.

 

Most outcomes/endings are of the bad-ending types of course since the game doesn't have game over screens instead offering short, nice (well, probably not so nice, ouch!) result of your poor/unfortunate choices, but the good endings, while still rather short, are of a proper length and pace (to the game's general pace and feel) and give a nice sense of closure to that particular story path, especially the 'True Ending' one.

 

(Though i have to admit one little detail bothered me a lot about that True Ending, but i suppose it's really a matter of taste):

 

 

Reiko's inevitable death at CIC...

 

 

One last thing, when i mentioned above 'particular story path', what i meant is that the story actually changes depending on the path of choices you take, the 'ultimate bad guy' could be a different person, or it's motivations could be different, or it's methods... and while there's an obvious main plot that has the greater amount of presence and outcomes, these 'alternate' ones are also pretty sensible and well plotted. So, in conclusion, there's a very good variety of paths, endings and even plots to experience here.

 

Characters: while there's not a whole lot of character development to be seen here (which makes sense since the story takes place in a very short period of time), there is indeed some to be encountered in the 2 major characters of the true ending. Not so much among the rest; the characters mostly have established personalities and react accordingly to the actions taking place. Some can be very minor and have little impact, like Maretta, and others yet have very 'bad luck' all around, like the reporter Monica (damn...)

 

Story: a sci-fi story, nothing really elaborate but a rather simple yet nice 'adventure' story, and in the 'truer' paths with some good and straight 'ghost in the machine' reflexions.

 

Music/Art: while the music is apropiate to the moods and circumstances, it is not really something to write about. As for the Art; a somewhat colorful style, very nice to look at despite it's age, though perhaps not as overly detailed/dramatic, it gives a nice personality to the game and blends in with the themes, stories and characters very well.

 

Ero stuff: there's a good amount of it, which may appear even greater considering the relative shortness of each ending paths. The majority of it is justifiable given the setting and actually a part of the plot (both the true and alternate ones), though how much that particular plot device may appear unnecessary to some is a matter of opinion/taste i suppose. In my opinion, it does not come as redundant or extraneous but rather well put, then again, i like ero in my eroge/vn, and the scenes in this one i find rather apropiate and nice.

 

While tastes and preferences may vary from person to person, this game had all the right ingredients and in the right measure for me: it had a nice sci-fi story (with shorter alternate/changed versions at that!), a lot of interactivity/replayability, convincing and entertaining (yet not overly dramatic) situations that derive from the action taking place, some 'tensely' good action scenes and relatively nice art for it's age.

 

Overall, a very entertaining and good one that i'd recommend to anyone regardless of their preferences but especially to those that look for similar criteria in their eroge/vn's.

[renvateru 10]

lol my first vn. the story not to complex but to much choice, it's really hard to get all CG's,