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Shikkoku no Sharnoth Review by OneManArmy


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This review doesn't contain any spoilers, so feel free to read.

 

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc486/OneManArmy369/title_zpsfkkqi5hw.jpg

 

Description

The year is 1905 in the capital of the British Empire, the Engine City London, where the air is so thick with smoke that a mere glimpse of the blue sky is considered a miracle. The protagonist, Mary Clarissa Christie, is a girl living by herself while her mother works abroad. She attends university with her friends, Angelica Derleth and Charlotte Bronte, and lives a peaceful life.

 

However, through a chance encounter, she finds herself drawn into another side of London- spoken of only as rumors of "Metacreatures" who roam the night and attack people. She forms a contract with a strange man in a black suit, known as 'M', and begins to help him hunt these creatures...

 

 

Art

Just one word, glorious. You don't believe me? Then please take a look at the character sprites and especially at the clothes. What's up with that insane amount of little details? And even the backgrounds are more than well done. I mean holy crap, who was drawing that stuff? That probably took longer than writing the whole story lol. Anyway, I adore the art of this game and it's actually the best art I've ever seen. There was one weird looking CG though but I can't remember it anymore.

 

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Music

And again high quality stuff from heaven. Each track perfectly fits the current atmosphere and improves it around 1259713256128586,1%. Although most of them are calm or sad so don't expect any awesome battle tracks. There was one great battle theme (iirc) but you won't hear it very often which's obviously a shame. Oh and don't forget dat epic ending song.

 

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Voices feat. Fullvoice ReBORN

Please be sure to play the remake because the normal version, so the one I played, was only partially voiced. And seriously, that's bullshit. Also, that newer version has more CGs and other stuff.

 

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Characters

There's a shitload of characters in this game but here are the most important ones, at least in my opinion.

 

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc486/OneManArmy369/Mary_Clarissa_Christie_zpsffd2obkx.jpg

 

Kitty Mary's the female protagonist of the visual novel and my inofficial second waifu.

She's kind, cute, honest, intelligent, has heterochromia and tries to solve problems on her own.

I can't remember that she had a significant personality development but whatever.

So Mary-chan, do you love me?

 

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc486/OneManArmy369/secret_zpspb0mfjzi.jpg

 

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http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc486/OneManArmy369/Charlotte_Bronte_zps4b8nyfna.jpg

 

Charlotte is Mary's best friend since childhood and behaves like an older sister.

I actually can't say anything about her because of spoiler reasons.

 

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http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc486/OneManArmy369/Angelica_Derleth_zpssujl5akp.jpg

 

She's Mary's second best friend since...someday.

Angelica's personality is a combination of tsundere and a careful person.

I didn't even know that something like this works but what the heck.

She doesn't play a big role in the game but her conversations are cute and fun.

 

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http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc486/OneManArmy369/The_M_zpsbcncbgjt.jpg

 

The Masochist is something like the main villian of the game but he's not as bad as he seems to be.

Let's say he's a man who knows what he wants and doesn't care how he reaches his goal.

He was definitely the most interesting character of the whole game and never stopped to surprise me.

 

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http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc486/OneManArmy369/Sebastian_Moran_zps7u4qrzf8.jpg

 

Moran is the personal guard of M and at the end pretty awesome.

In most parts of the game she's just a simple guard though.

 

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Story

The story has many chapters and each of them deals with a different problem and different main characters. It's not very surprising that some chapters are inferior to others but none of them was really bad. The problem, the game will become a little bit boring because you want to know more about Mary's problem. Her story starts in chapter 1 and will be continued in chapter 9, or something like this.

 

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Minigame

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc486/OneManArmy369/Shikko_zpsf7s1hkr3.jpg

 

Honestly, the minigame was shit.

It's fun the first time and it's fun the second time but you'll grow tired of it pretty fast. I personally downloaded a savegame so that I was able to skip the minigame. You basically have to find stuff which's hidden in each level. There are of course monsters which can kill you.

 

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Score

Honestly, I was a little bit doubtful after playing Sekien no Inganock because I didn't like that game at all but Shikkoku no Sharnoth was way better. Great art and music, a mostly dark and sad story and a lot of magic feat. an awesome protagonist. The story was all in all pretty interesting but the ending, oh man, it seems that Liar-soft loves weird endings. It was not as complicated as Sekien's but still hard to get. Oh and the battles are shitty. Anyway, check this game out if you're looking for a visual novel with a lot of magic and superior atmosphere.

 

 

 

And now go and download the Fullvoice ReBORN of this game!

 

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc486/OneManArmy369/yesmaster_zpslnlohk9a.jpg

 

 

7,8/10

Edited by OneManArmy
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Liar-soft art... yes... it is in fact glorious. Uniquely so. And the music as well. Also, can't forget the nice looking female protagonist (which is rather rare) here... quite a major reason why I wanna read this one actually, other than the fact that it's Liar-soft.

 

By the way, have you read Forest yet OMA? Can't remember if you've mentioned that already or not.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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and I'm actually done now.... still stayed 8/10 for me (will possibly get higher not lower), very amusing VN! The beggining was nice, got a little slow in the middle then, but the final chapters were awesome again! And will say this again.... the Mini-game wasn't anything special, yet it didn't annoy me! Some repitions did, althrough they set the mood I guess.

I like the mentions of the 'true death' of Moriarty and the rise of Hitler... kinda made fantasy and reality (althrough Sherlock Holmes is fictional of course, but you probably get my point) overlap... I had liked to see more of some characters like Zach and Keynes/Henry.... but oh well... I shouldn't complain because I don't mind the open ending! some things stayed unclear, but most of those weren't things I really needed answers for.

Edited by radiantmadness
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