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YU-NO - The Girl that Chants Love at the Edge of the World review by Harlequin


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YU-NO - The Girl that Chants Love at the Edge of the World (VNDB)

 

 

12469.jpg

 

 

Opening movie:

 

[video=youtube;fSji0-Al9zc]

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

(Wall of text detected!)

 

 

"Have you ever pondered the very definition of history?"

 

 

Wowwwwww...

 

I am surprised. This VN surprised me. Yes, I went into YU-NO thinking that it was going to be something very good since many seem to think highly of it. And indeed that is how it ended up for me as well. So that's not what surprised me - it's the strange and mindboggling directions that the story decided to take at certain points that really surprised me. However, we must not talk about that here, because it would be spoilery stuff that you definitely don't want to hear about if you haven't already completed it.

 

But alright, let's try to describe what YU-NO is all about then without any of those spoilers involved. YU-NO is a big mystery drama visual novel with science fiction elements as well as point-and-click adventure gameplay. Being a fan of mysteries myself (which I always seem to mention), I appreciated it a whole lot. It's important to point out though that this is an older VN, which means that it may not be to everyone's taste. I'm personally not used to reading old VNs, so this was a new and different experience for me, that ultimately ended up being seriously good. But in any case, it being old does not change the fact that it's something fantastic in general. It has such great overall writing to it. The story slowly builds up over time with its mysteries, getting bigger and bigger, and that of course is a great thing. It starts up being very small, but ends up huge (...) Heh, it feels almost ridiculous now thinking back on it. You just don't know squat about anything early on in the story. It reminds me of certain other VNs a little bit that way... And I'm just going to leave it at that.

 

Before we move on though, I'd like to first draw your attention to the PC-98 FM music pack - found on the TLWiki page. Basically it's higher quality music. Instructions on how to use the pack are in the .txt file. As far as I know, it's not available for download on this site, so I thought I should inform you of its existence.

 

But now! The specifics for this grand old school visual novel...

 

 

 


Gameplay - Point-and-click interaction with the environment, the majority of the time. Yes, the system is actually different sometimes. But for the most part you click on the background to move around, to get details on stuff, or to directly interact with something. Sometimes those details/interactions are very important, while at other times they're just there for fun. Quite often you need to do specific things in a given situation in order to proceed. Usually it involves clicking on the mouth of characters several times in order to talk with them, but also other kinds of interactions as well. I really liked this system. Because you can very often decide for yourself what you want to know more about. There could be something specific, even if it's small, that you want some extra details on. Or you might just want to use the occasional... actually no, the almost ever-present opportunity to do something perverted and/or silly.

 

There's an inventory for items, but there's not too much to say about it. Yes, the items that you find/receive are extremely important. Because you can't progress the story without them. That's pretty much all that needs to be said though. You won't be getting items all the time, but you definitely need all the ones that you do get.

 

One more "gameplay" element is present in YU-NO. However, I don't really think I should talk about it here. It would be better if you see it for yourself. Let's just say that it involves a form of travelling. Actually you can probably guess exactly what it is, if you've read the description of YU-NO on VNDB... and yes, it's quite an interesting thing. We'll leave it at that.

 

 

Visuals/Art - At first I wasn't sure what to say here exactly. Should I compare it to the visuals found in fairly recent titles which I have some experience with, or should I not? I mean, it definitely does not look quite as good as other newer VNs, for the most part. It's an old title, so that's what you would expect, right? Sure, it'll come down to taste as well - that's crucial to remember. Because some people will love the kind of art style that YU-NO has, while others will not. I wouldn't say it looks bad though, no, not at all. It looks good enough to me. But in any case, even if it may look too outdated for some, the art in this VN can make the reading experience a lot more atmospheric. Because it simply complements the other parts such as the music and the storytelling really well. They fit together. So I'd say that the art definitely does the job well despite its age, and that's probably what's most important in the end. Certainly the background art is nicely detailed and good looking, so that's a strength for sure.

 

Blinking eyes! Everytime a VN has these kinds of visual effects, I have to mention it. Now, there are some other animations/effects as well, but they're sort of rare. More of this stuff, please! It makes the experience cooler in general. The characters feel more alive when they have blinking eyes/moving mouths/whatever.

 

System menus and such work well enough and look good. The map screen is simple but interesting. That said, there is one thing that is missing here... A backlog. Yes, that's right. There's no backlog in YU-NO. That's pretty bad. I mean sure, you can manage without it. But if you happen to accidently click past some important piece of text, then you can't check what it was unless you reload to a previous state in some manner. It's not a major problem, but it's still a weakness that the VN has nonetheless.

 

 

Sound/VA/Music - Oh yes, YU-NO has really awesome retro music. I love it! Some tracks in particular are sweet listening to after finishing the VN as well. When it comes to ingame though, this music flawlessly sets the tone and mood of each location and moment. It sounds just right. Especially the songs with a bit of a mystery vibe to them. Personally, I especially like the music that plays during the later parts of the story, although to be fair the ones that play early on are solid as well.

 

Again, get that patch I mentioned before. It makes the music sound better in general.

 

Now, as for the voice acting.... Well, they did a really great job all around I thought. The voices of Ryuuzouji, Eriko and Kanna were my favourites. "Konbanwa, Arima-san." But yes, the others were good too. Remember that you need to get the voice patch, which can be found here, in order to have voices at all.

 

 

Characters - A bunch of good characters, for sure. Some being more interesting than others, of course. There's a lot of things that you'll find out about these characters, one way or another, as the story progresses.

 

The protagonist, Takuya, is... well... he can be really funny at times. He enjoys teasing women by being perverted in some manner. A simple guy, but one that can be surprisingly clever and intelligent sometimes. No doubt he picked these traits up (including the "perverted comedian" part) from his father, Koudai Arima. Overall, he's pretty good I think. Certainly not the best protagonist I've seen, but good enough.

 

Kanna is awesome. She's a silent and enigmatic girl. You just want to know more about her everytime you see her.

 

Mio is a nice classic tsundere of the rich girl variant. Expect a lot of "Hmph!" and "Baka." from her. I quite liked her, at least during her own route.

 

Eriko, the school nurse but also Takuya's homeroom teacher... yes, she has a badass attitude (and voice). My gut feeling tells me that most people think she's great, for several reasons.

 

As for every other character... Well, I can't be bothered to write about all of them. It's not worth it. Seriously. But if you want the general idea of who they are, you could always check out the character section for this VN on VNDB.

 

 

Plot/Story - Easily the strongest point of YU-NO. Its story is a magnificent and lengthy one that is focused on mysteries and drama, with science fiction elements to it. Make no mistake, it matters not how old this VN is - the story in it is still amazing either way. This is ultimately the main reason why one should pay attention to YU-NO and read it, even today.

 

It starts out as something quite simple indeed. A whole lot of character introductions as well as comedy, with much of that comedy being of the perverted/ecchi kind. You might just hate it. I liked it though, to a certain extent. But as you progress, the story gets more and more serious, with the mystery and investigation portion starting to pick it up. At times it almost feels like you're playing as some sort of private detective in this VN. You end up listening in on conversations between other characters, finding clues in the environment, and witnessing some rather strange events that you have to try and make sense of. There's also quite a bit of drama involved in the story. It's not only about the mystery solving. But it does depend a lot on which route you happen to be on.

 

There are a total of 6 routes in YU-NO, with the last one being the true route. Some routes are more about the serious drama between characters, while others are more focused on mysteries and investigation. Suffice it to say, the mystery focused routes were the ones that interested me the most. But in general, they were all good I think. As for the true route... holy shit. That was something else alright - something amazing. It felt a bit rushed at the very end though, which is unfortunate, but it was still really great overall.

 

... I feel the need to say this: This story is damn impressive and grand in scope. But I can't actually explain why that is in detail here, because it's spoilery stuff. I just can't do it, sorry to say. There's one thing in particular that is just ridiculous and awesome that I want to share... but I can't.

 

Now then, let me share two things with you, in case you're going to read YU-NO at some point in the near future: A flowchart map, as well as a detailed text walkthrough with a good route order. I would recommend that you use these. Now, I can't actually speak for what the experience would be like to not use a walkthrough of any kind whatsoever. Perhaps it's far better and more fun, or perhaps it's not. You can decide for yourself what to do. Still, I definitely think you should go for this route order at least:

 

[spoiler=YU-NO route order](1.) Ayumi

(2.) Mizuki

(3.) Mio

(4.) Kaori

(5.) Kanna

(6.) True

 

Screenshots (click the thumbnails) -

 

YU-NO-1.jpg YU-NO-2.jpg YU-NO-3.jpg YU-NO-4.jpg

YU-NO-5.jpg YU-NO-6.jpg YU-NO-7.jpg YU-NO-8.jpg

 


 

 

 

Final words - Wow. I said earlier that I was surprised by the directions that YU-NO decided to take at certain points, but that's not all. I'm also surprised by just how good this turned out to be overall for me even though this is an old school VN, which is something that I'm not at all used to reading. That said, even though it was fantastic for me, your mileage may vary if you decide to go through YU-NO. There is no question however that the storyline in this VN is something exceptional and major. But not only that, the music is really great and the point-and-click interactions with the environment can be very interesting indeed. It's even better if you also happen to like the art style in it.

 

So who should read YU-NO? Anyone who's interested in VNs. It's one of those titles that must be seen, at some point. You would almost certainly end up loving the story if you gave it a shot. Great friggin' writing. It's borderline ridiculous, in a good way. I'm very glad that I got to experience it myself.

 

YU-NO - The Girl that Chants Love at the Edge of the World - Read it. ESPECIALLY if you love the old school stuff.

 

 

 

 

Pros: Lengthy, nice background art and visual effects (blinking eyes), phenomenal story that is grand in scope, nice characters, sweet science fiction elements, great voice acting, awesome music, some rather disturbing/rare things in it (+/-, do NOT look into this matter unless you want spoilers), special/different ending, very good point-and-click gameplay that adds plenty of small details to the story.

 

Cons: No backlog (!), felt a bit rushed at the very end of the true route.

 

 

 

Harlequin gives YU-NO - The Girl that Chants Love at the Edge of the World a rating of:

 

9.4/10

(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:

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Edited by Harlequin
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Now thats a review. Why cant I be that good lol.

 

Also I don't know maybe its just me but people debating art in a novel that is very old such as this or Tsukihime seems very extreme as they were made many years ago as opposed to novels now. I mean it is much easier to have better art now then during 1996 or 2000, so that to me is going a little to extreme. If not for Yu-No or Tsukihime who knows what novels would be here today (Higurashi wouldnt exist which in turn Umineko wouldnt exist). Sorry just had to rant about that lol.

 

[spoiler=Ending] I really think people dont like the you know what because they felt that it should have been more conclusive rather than seem like a start of a new adventure. Have to add I was 100% fine with it.

 

Edited by battlerrules
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  battlerrules said:
Also I don't know maybe its just me but people debating art in a novel that is very old such as this or Tsukihime seems very extreme as they were made many years ago as opposed to novels now. I mean it is much easier to have better art now then during 1996 or 2000, so that to me is going a little to extreme. If not for Yu-No or Tsukihime who knows what novels would be here today (Higurashi wouldnt exist which in turn Umineko wouldnt exist). Sorry just had to rant about that lol.

 

Oh it's true... Well it's not like I didn't like the visuals of YU-NO myself, despite its age, and despite the fact that I have no experience with other similarly old titles. I thought it looked good enough (especially the backgrounds). But yes, some people will not like this kind of old school art style one bit, which is unfortunate of course. It's just how it is, you know that.

 

  Quote
[spoiler=Ending] I really think people dont like the you know what because they felt that it should have been more conclusive rather than seem like a start of a new adventure. Have to add I was 100% fine with it.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Edited by Harlequin
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  battlerrules said:
Also I don't know maybe its just me but people debating art in a novel that is very old such as this or Tsukihime seems very extreme as they were made many years ago as opposed to novels now.

 

Indeed, its like comparing old movies/anime with the recent one, and then ask why didn't the old one use CGI/better art and animation. Or worse, asking why the recent one seems more advanced. -.-"

 

 

(and you forgot that they're not just people, they're retarded people.)

Edited by Gerard the Lone Wolf
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Also forgot to add THANK YOU FOR ADDING THE FLOWCHART!!! Hopefully someone will use it lol.

 

  Harlequin said:
Oh it's true... Well it's not like I didn't like the visuals of YU-NO myself, despite its age, and despite the fact that I have no experience with other similarly old titles. I thought it looked good enough (especially the backgrounds). But yes, some people will not like this kind of old school art style one bit, which is unfortunate of course. It's just how it is, you know that.

 

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Ya not you in particular of course but I just mean in general, people should be more opened minded or they will miss out on some amazing things. You shouldn't even worry about it and just review the art as you would review it. I personally don't even know if I want to listen to someone's arguments if they say they wont play one of these games just because of the artwork.

 

 

Exactly, I feel kinda the same way. I thought it was fine and was something different which I actually like, I can think of way too many cliche's that would have just been terrible.

 

  Gerard the Lone Wolf said:
Indeed, its like comparing old movies/anime with the recent one, and then ask why didn't the old one use CGI/better art and animation. Or worse, asking why the recent one seems more advanced. -.-"

 

 

(and you forgot that they're not just people, they're retarded people.)

 

Gerard I

 

 

Rant Over dont want to turn Harle's AMAZING REVIEW Into a rant fest about dumb people.

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Very nice review, and spoiler free (no small feat with this VN i believe) but now i'm gonna bugger you with spoiler spoilery discussion, heh.

 

About the ending:

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

I can think of a few more things to say on this but this post maybe getting too wall-o-texty already. Later.

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Thank you all very much! Glad you seemed to like my wall of text ^^;

 

 

  IllyrioM said:
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Edited by Harlequin
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  Harlequin said:

 

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  Harlequin said:

 

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  Harlequin said:

 

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  Harlequin said:

 

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  IllyrioM said:
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Ah, well, that does make sense.

 

 

As for Divi-Dead... Mmm yes, someday (like everything else!). Since it's a mystery VN, it'll happen at some point for sure.

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  Harlequin said:
Ah, well, that does make sense.

 

 

As for Divi-Dead... Mmm yes, someday (like everything else!). Since it's a mystery VN, it'll happen at some point for sure.

 

talking bout that..

harl..i kinda forgetfull

have you or have you not read Nocturnal Illusion???

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  • 1 year later...

does anybody have the music patch to upload?the link at tlwiki is corrupted.I re-downloaded it many times and it still gives an error message when I try to extract the files,I tried the torrent link aaaand it's also corrupted and can't extract it either,making it virtually impossible to find the patch unless somebody else uploads it...

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