Muv Luv Alternative Review

[Chocolatemilkgod 16]

(A note on spoilers: these should be clearly marked (if not, please tell me). Anything marked with "End Game Spoiler" should not be read unless you have completed the game. You have been warned).

 

Preamble

The thought of writing this review came me rather spontaneously as I sat in an economy seat on a plane (I suppose having someone else's elbow in my ribs spurred my mind on a little). While I've written amateur game reviews before, I've never attempted any sort of review involving a visual novel, so this is a first for me, and a rather ambitious one at that considering the sheer length of the Muv Luv trilogy. This will be a fairly long review about various aspects of said trilogy, so you may want to hold off reading this until you're in the mood to tackle a bit of a word wall.

 

Before beginning, let me say that this review was originally just going to be about Muv Luv Alternative. However, because Muv Luv Alternative is part of a trilogy of games, I thought it would be apt to provide a brusque overview of the other two games so people who have never read anything Muv Luv related wouldn't be completely lost.

 

Brief Synopsis

The Muv Luv trilogy consists of two games made by âge, which are split into three parts. The first game, 'Muv Luv', includes the first two parts called Muv Luv Extra (MLE) and Muv Luv Unlimted (MLU); the second game is the third part and is called Muv Luv Alternative (MLA).

 

MLE is a rather pedestrian and cliché romantic comedy/slice of life/Moe-harem concoction where Takeru, the main character, spends his school days playing Valgeron (some ESport involving people piloting giant robots in a video game) and hanging out with his harem at high school.

 

MLU is unlocked after completing the two main routes in MLE. The game plunges our protagonist into war-torn, near apocalyptic hell-hole where a bunch of aliens called BETA have invaded and humanity's only effective way to fight them is to use giant robotic killing machines called TSFs. What? Yeah, a bit of a change of pace from MLE. Almost all the characters from MLE make a return appearance, and a couple of new characters are introduced to the story.

 

MLA is the final part of the story; the longest and of a significantly higher calibre than the other two games. Now onto the MLA review...

 

Graphics

Character Art

The style of the art used in the whole Muv Luv series includes having extremely brightly coloured hair, ranging from shades of green to purple, all of which are pragmatic and realistic. The characters also boast heightened unarmed combat techniques when fighting BETA on account of the fact that many of their hairstyles are angular to the extent they can be weaponised.

 

Joking aside, despite the potentially humorous and overly colourful hairstyles, the character art is nicely done. Some people will like it more than others, but I had no quips with it (I actually quite liked it), and I doubt anyone can dislike it to the degree of hating it.

 

TSF/Mech Design

I have to admit, I've never been into anything mecha related. However, the TSF designs are visually appealing, helping to build onto the action scenes (of which there are plenty in MLA). There are a range of designs including the Imperial Guard's Takemikazuchi, the Imperial Army's Shiranui and the American F-22 Raptor and, while the designs share a lot of similarities, I was able to distinguish between them after a while. The little bit of sci-fi background information as to how they work was a nice touch, and helped to add to the overall atmosphere of the game.

 

Event CGs

Let's keep this simple: in MLA, there are a very large number of CGs and they greatly help to encapsulate what is happening in the visual novel, particularly in the action orientated scenes. There are a few CGs that are unforgettable; some exude raw visceral carnage and others evoke strong emotional responses. I won't say anymore; I'll let the art speak for itself in game.

 

Effects, Video and System

Despite MLA being a visual novel, a combination of its long production period (~3 years) and colossal budget have resulted in graphics that are more suited for something like an anime. This really shows in the effects for the sprites; having them dance around the screen during a fight helps to immerse the reader in the action. The game also uses several fully animated short movies during the game to great effect. It's also worth mentioning that the game screen is also slightly stretched, making it widescreen. I don't know how large of an effect this actually had to my experience, but it's a cool addition nonetheless.

 

Really, my only biggest gripe is that âge goes to all the trouble creating among the best graphics ever to have graced a visual novel, only to have it so that there's no CG or BGM playback after you complete the game...Hang on, what? This is a giant non sequitur to me. My only advice is to save quite regularly, and to keep a backlog of previous save files so you can quickly go back to certain scenes to replay easily - pretty daft, in my opinion.

 

Overall

The presentation of the graphics in the game is incredible, no doubt about it. It really pushes the boundaries about what you can do with two dimensional sprites, and the graphical prowess of the game exceed almost all other visual novels. I'd go as far to say that it makes something like Fate Stay Night's graphics look amateurish in comparison, especially in terms of sprite effects. That said at least you can replay the CGs easily in FSN...*grumble grumble*

 

Audio

Voices

The voices are generally well done in the game, and match the characters personalities quite well. I don't want to bore you with too much detail, but voices that I think are worth mentioning include Ayamine's and Hayase's voices. In addition, for me, Kasumi's 'Bye bye' will live on forever into time immemorial with Rika's "Nipah!".

 

A couple of the voices were a little lacklustre, such as Chizuru's (which I found a little irritating - not helped by the fact I just didn't like her character) and Meiya's, which lacked a large emotional range in some situations (like when she lectures you...which happens a lot). That said, Meiya is emotive enough when it really matters, so I'm willing to let that slide.

 

On a related note, I would like to pose a question: what were âge thinking when they made the audio for the first introductory video in MLA? I mean, it's supposed to be a really tense intro but it turns out being more hilarious than anything. This is a very minor point, but it would have been a lot better if they had just done it in Japanese. It's to the point that the translation patch for MLA adds English subtitles because some of what they're saying is just so difficult to comprehend. Just saying.

 

Music

Thankfully, MLA, unlike its counterparts, has a very good set of BGMs. The opening piece, Asu e no Houkou, is done by JAM project and, combined with the opening video, is really effective at presenting the overall tone of the game (the trilogy's way of saying 'Shit just got real'). Another highlight is Storm Vanguard (AKA Takeru's theme song), again really great for keeping the action scenes intense. The orchestral music is also very well done, although a lack of choirs goes against my personal taste, but whatever.

 

My only real problem with the music is that outside of the heart pounding, on-the-edge-of-your-seat action scenes...it's only so-so. That said, it's not like I expect Dies Irae to play while eating lunch in the PX, but perhaps a greater variety could have been used.

 

Sound Effects

I wouldn't bother with a SFX section for most visual novels, but considering this is a VN with a lot of action scenes it warrants a few words. As with most things about the game, the sound effects are of a good quality and are well placed. They range from TFSs landing and gunshots, to more mundane things such as background noises when you're eating . I don't think there's quite as many as say FSN (in which you can playback all 432 sound effects...for some reason) but there's plenty to help set the atmosphere effectually.

 

End Game Spoiler

On the subject of well placed sound effects, one particular crunch-like sound made the scene with Marimo-chan all the more gruesome and poignant

 

 

Overall

Not much more I can add without being repetitious: the audio is pretty awesome through and through, with only a few trivial grievances here and there.

 

Story

Characters and writing

Both the characters and writing sections in a review are usually independent; however, for the case of MLA, I felt that both sections could be combined as the main focus of the game is on its characters, with a heavy emphasis of the development of the protagonist. The series follows Takeru's journey from being a fairly weak-minded high school kid to someone that can accept the consequences of his actions and become the saviour of humanity. This transformation is only possible through hardship, loss and constant revaluation of who himself is: this is MLAs focus, and you see what happens at every step along the way.

 

The main character is not the only one who develops; almost all the side characters (of which there are a large amount) are interesting, and develop greatly throughout Muv Luv Alternative. From a morally bankrupt mad scientist (who you can't help but love) to an eccentric secret agent, the cast has a great deal of diversity, and you will no doubt form your own favourites and enjoy watching them develop and grow.

 

Keep in mind, as well, MLA is in no way a happy story; it's brutally realistic. There is no shonen manga style character shields here. In fact, one could liken the whole affair to a rather twisted and sadistic thought experiment when you take all of your friends' personalities and throw them into a theatre of war to see how they react; there is heartbreak, and there is death. On a side note, although MLA is undeniably centred on character development, there are a large mélange of themes and questions that are explored. Some examples include human greed (and, conversely, human heroism and self-sacrifice), nationalism, ethicality surrounding military structure and political power struggles; MLA is not a two dimensional storyline by any stretch of the imagination.

 

The sci-fi themes are also worth a mention; a lot of the themes revolved around the interplay between memory and personality, and others looked at the world of quantum mechanics (some ideas were a little far-fetched, mind you, but whatever). Some of it I felt was a little long winded in the delivery, though, and could have been summarised in fewer words (see the "Pacing" section...).

 

One part of the story that also bugged me was one of the H-scenes in the game. The scene was overly gratuitous and pretty dumb, to be honest; it was a major turn-off of an otherwise important scene in the game*. The other H content is, at least, fairly non-intrusive, which is a positive in my books. It makes me wonder if any H-scenes in the game are even necessary (well, obviously the fact that there is an all-age version of MLA proves that they aren't, but the English patch (to the best of my knowledge) doesn't work with it).

 

*End Game Spoiler

I think the scene would have been far better if the suffering and pain was focused on - turning it into a Japanese style tentacle porn scene made the story significantly less believable

 

 

Pacing

I'll try to be concise as possible, something which the Muv Luv trilogy, unfortunately, has major issues with. The problem with MLA is that in order to experience it fully, you have to play through hours upon hours of amateurish content, namely MLE and to some degree MLU. While they're not bad games, I definitely would not have played them if not for the fact I knew that MLA existed.

 

In addition, while MLA has a plethora of really interesting themes and characters, for me a many of the scenes in between the action were tediously lengthy. Introducing a large amount of characters halfway through the story didn't help either, and you had to sit through several scenes of 'catch me up', and some of the characters** had little character development, despite it being the main theme of the visual novel. Finally, I found the protagonist's weak mindedness at the beginning of the visual novel really trying in a lot scenes, making parts almost painful to read through.

 

**End Game Spoiler

One example is Sumika whose entire character oscillated between 'Kill, kill, kill' and 'I love Takeru'. I know she is supposed to have a mentally conflicted personality due to probable PTSD and memory overlap, but I just wish she had more development after she had become more mentally stable. A pity too because I really liked her. Another of example of poorer character development is Touko, whose name I had to look up because she was so unremarkable. Fortunately, the other characters don't really have this problem.

 

 

Overall

The story is axiomatically enjoyable once you get far enough into MLA. While there is no complex wordplay, nor any particularly witty writing, there doesn't need to be; the story is that of exploring how humans survive in desperate circumstances, and seeing how the characters learn to grapple the harsh realities that they live in. It really is the light at the end of the tunnel after MLE and MLU, and, despite its flaws, a very compelling and captivating story. I could have written significantly more on the story, but I think part of the fun is reading the story and forming your own opinions on it, so I'll refrain from clouding your judgement until you've at least read the visual novel (if you have, feel free to discuss below).

 

Conclusion

The Muv Luv trilogy is truly deserving of the word 'epic', as it is not so much a single story, but a long journey that follows the protagonist through hell and high water. The graphics and audio of MLA are top notch, and the action is thoroughly engrossing. The game has its faults, yes, but the story and characters are such that even with the problems, MLA is still an amazing read. Highly recommended to any visual novel reader. I implore you to at least attempt to read both MLE and MLU before playing MLA, however, as the build-up makes the experience you have with MLA considerably more enjoyable and fulfilling.

 

+:

• Interesting sci-fi

• Engaging story that discusses a range of topics

• Has a nice cast of characters

• High graphical fidelity = amazing action scenes

• Pilot suits are translucent

 

-:

• Takeru's character at the beginning can be a little irritating

• Some potentially off putting gore

• Some parts in between actions scenes are prolix, and sci-fi might bore some people

• Chizuru

• You have to play MLE/U first, and MLA can start out a little slow

 

±

• Sexual content. For some this is good, others bad. I still maintain one of the scenes is incredibly off-putting, but I digress.

 

Overall rating: 94/100

 

W⁵

 

TL;DR: Muv luv is an awesome, albeit badly paced trilogy. Go read it. Now.

Edited April 1, 2013 by Chocolatemilkgod

[pramit 22]

thank you for putting time to make this review MLA is a favorite of mine

[Seraphic 13]

I really wouldn't call Yuuko "morally bankrupt", she's more of a pragmatist and

 

It's shown that she actually did care about Marimo in the opening animation for Operation Cherry Blossom, she just couldn't say that to Takeru because she had to ensure that Takeru was able to do his job.

 

But I digress. Anyway, yeah, MLA's a great story, and reading Muv-Luv beforehand really does make the reveal all the more shocking. Incidentally, I just found a VN reader who, through some miracle, doesn't know anything about the plot of MLU and MLA, so I'm getting them to read it and see what their reaction is when they transition from MLE to the main plot.

[Chocolatemilkgod 16]

I really wouldn't call Yuuko "morally bankrupt", she's more of a pragmatist and

 

It's shown that she actually did care about Marimo in the opening animation for Operation Cherry Blossom, she just couldn't say that to Takeru because she had to ensure that Takeru was able to do his job.

 

I'm willing to agree with that. I suppose a better way of putting it is

 

She puts on a facade of near moral bankrupcy on the outside, but personally she still has things she can't let go of (like Marimo) and she knows what she has to do to get the job done, even if it's bloody.

 

[iLoveTsundere 10]

YUUKO-SENSEI IS FUCKING BADASS.

 

FIN.

 

caps.

[radiantmadness 11]

YUUKO-SENSEI IS FUCKING BADASS.

 

FIN.

 

caps.

 

this

[desi 53]

Chizuru is indeed a negative. Had some tsundere class rep trauma after her. Thank god Kyou (Clannad) and Lucia (Rewrite) cured me!

[Chocolatemilkgod 16]

Loved Lucia and her route in rewrite. Definitely Lucia >>> Chizuru. And seriously, how the hell did Chizuru keep getting positions of command when she was so indecisive >.> . Meiya would have been a significantly better choice in almost all circumstances...

[desi 53]

True, but I guess it does help

 

 

[flesh out the conflict more between her and Ayamine. A tension between a leader and subordinate is more effective. Although the scene near the end where they go in the main hive and fight together was really awesome. She did get a bit better later on.]

 

[Chocolatemilkgod 16]

True, but I guess it does help

 

 

[flesh out the conflict more between her and Ayamine. A tension between a leader and subordinate is more effective. Although the scene near the end where they go in the main hive and fight together was really awesome. She did get a bit better later on.]

 

 

As character development is one of the strongest concepts in MLA, I suppose it was necessary to have Chizuru weak at first so that she can grow during the course of the game (very much like Takeru's character grows). That said, I think it could have been toned down a bit.

 

The feud between creativity and rigid military doctrine has, and always will be, an interesting argument, with no right or wrong answer. However, Chizuru didn't have to be so indecisive to maintain the tension between herself and Ayamine; personally, I find that her character detracted from the theme because I had trouble seeing things from her point of view. That said, this is nitpicking since Chizuru doesn't get a huge amount of screen time due to the sheer volume of other characters there are. And, as you said, end-game chizuru was all right. Still, Ayamine > Chizuru. Ayamine = the MLA troll queen.

 

[desi 53]

Yeah, I agree with you. I liked Ayamine as a character. Dat Yakisoba bread.

[killerinsidee 14]

Yeah, I agree with you. I liked Ayamine as a character. Dat Yakisoba bread.

 

She's funny as hell, especially in Extra

[spoiler=Muv Luv Extra]When Takeru tells her not to appear so suddenly...then her sprite appears slowly, so much win lol. Also when they go search for Chizuru and she gets forgotten, haha. Let's not forget the panties color change in every roof scene.

 

Edited April 11, 2013 by killerinsidee

[OneManArmy 82]

Yakisoba bread.

http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/5805/secretissafe.jpg

[Mishagal 19]

Good that I didn't bother writing too much about my opinions of the game in that other thread, pretty much all my thoughts are written here way better than I could have ever done

[Chocolatemilkgod 16]

Good that I didn't bother writing too much about my opinions of the game in that other thread, pretty much all my thoughts are written here way better than I could have ever done

 

It was the product of a 9 hour flight with an elbow in my side. Who knew that could be so effective at getting you to write? I'm also tempted to write another review on the flight back since there's a lot I learnt while doing this review.

[iLoveTsundere 10]

MLA is the best VN ever.

 

Thats my official review.

[boukyaku 10]

I've actually been replaying MLA cause there were a bunch of holes I found in the story and was hoping it was because I couldn't remember all the details of this long VN.

 

For example:

If it's true that the existence of Takeru in the BETA world is some sort of convolution of Takeru(s) from parallel worlds except the world where he becomes one with Sumika, then how the devil does he have memories of becoming one with her in the first place? 0.o

 

 

Another interesting thing I noticed is

Sumika was taken prisoner by the BETA for two years, and then was discovered in 1999. This means her nightmare started in 1997. Takeru then finds out about her in 2001. In 2001 they're both seniors in high school. Doesn't this mean Sumika was 12-14 years old during that projection event with Takeru? HMMMMMMMM... . Considering that at least 4 years of time is missing from Sumika in the BETA world, I guess we can assume that we may never find out what type of person she really was. I found this rather annoying as we never got to see the situation between Takeru and Sumika in the BETA world.

 

 

I more or less agree with the review, and also provided my mini-review on that "last played VN" thread. I just didn't like

the ending. Not only did it not fit with the game, but it was quite obvious that the company ran out of time and budget and had to put that together in a hurry. I was pretty sure Takeru would've stayed in the BETA world because he's not the original Takeru from MLE but something Sumika created by pulling elements out of parallel worlds. Was kind of hoping Kasumi would've become the Sumika replacement .

 

[iLoveTsundere 10]

As for your first question ,

[he doesnt have memories just of having sex with sumika. He will have memories of having sex with each and every heroine. I've been told it only happens if you go for all endings on Extra / Unlimited. I went with all of them at first for curiosity sake so thats probably why i had Takeru having flashbacks about having sex with each of them. The Takeru of Alternative has an amalgamation of memories from every possible branches of reality (a fancy word for every routes in Extra / Unlimited) and that includes Sumika on Extra since she is mandatory to unlock Unlimited in the first place.]

 

 

As for your second spoiler , i must admit im not entirely sure of

[the exact years she was abducted/experimented on. However like you said , its never made clear what her personality was on her Alternative version prior to the abduction. At best you can assume she was every bit like the Sumika in Extra in terms of personality (deredere for Takeru) even before Takeru made the ultimate sacrifice in vain to try to rescue her.]

 

 

As for your third spoiler ,

[i too frowned of it because it felt anti-climatic in mood swing. But in retrospect you have to think of it this way : it was Takeru's reward. He went through a grueling army training for years on the Unlimited/Alternative universe , he was basically in the middle of a war against overwhelming odds , he saw a BETA chomp Marimo's head , his mentor , right in front of him , causing PTSD. He went back to the Extra world in a fit of cowardice not knowing that he was a causality conductor , ergo bringing all the negativity of the Alternative world into Extra (Marimo dies again , Sumika almost dies ,etc , all because of his selfish decision.) In the end of the day , the original Extra world was flawed (Yuuhi is dead for example). His reward for all of this + having to bear with having his own platoon being wiped out on the suicide mission + having to mercy kill Meiya was returning back to a different version of Extra (now that Sumika was dead in Alternative) but much more positive than his own Extra world. (Yuuhi is alive , Kasumi is there as well , etc , although i suspect thats Alternative's Kasumi because she cried over Takeru not recognizing her.) WHOA! TL;DR : The ending fit in this line of thought - it was Takeru's reward for all the shit he went through. A better world.]

 

Edited April 22, 2013 by iLoveTsundere

[boukyaku 10]

I know why Takeru

has memories of being with every heroine from MLU because he looped multiple times. He also has memories of being with every heroine in MLE because his existence makes up parts of the Takeru(s) from parallel worlds where he chose them. However, the Sumika in the BETA world specifically left the Takeru who chose Sumika in MLE alone, which means the made up existence of Takeru in the BETA world composes of all Takeru(s) except the one who became one with Sumika in MLE. So my question is, why does he have memories of choosing Sumika in MLE if his existence is not part of that MLE universe.

 

I also thought he had PTSD long before what happened to Marimo since he's somehow affected by the Takeru who got ripped to shreds by the BETA. Anyway, he clearly freaks out beyond normal in MLU and MLA when dealing with the BETA before the Marimo incident. The hypnosis/stims also sent him into a relapse (and more stims from Meiya was the last nail in the coffin) which as Yuuko suggested, means he got PTSD from somehwere. I also don't get that part seeing that if his existence is also part of the existence in the BETA world, then he should have memories of the BETA world Sumika.

 

The ending was annoying as the way Takeru was shoved into an imaginery paradise created by Sumika with no memories what so ever of the BETA world, it's like everything that happened to him and matured him into what he was never happened -_-.

 

 

So, gentlemen, are we starting to have headaches? ^_^

 

Anyway, that's what I meant by holes in the story that I've noticed. I guess it's useless to ask "what if" questions in the end unless these holes were introduced by mistranslations.

[Chocolatemilkgod 16]

I'm writing this waaaay too early in the morning, so pardon the terrible explanations. But, any-who here we go:

 

 

The first question might be explained by the idea that memories were leaking out anyway. If I recall correctly, memories from all the parallel universes began to leak out. I suppose you could explain it via that phenomena: even though the Takeru-who-chose-MLE-Sumika was never was transported to the alternative universe, the alternative-amalgamation-Takeru in MLA still had got his memories through spacey-timey-wimey memory diffusion (I highly doubt alternative sumika had that much control over her powers in order to stop every little bit of leakage from the universes). At least, that's my best explanation.

 

As for the other, again I think it's fairly open for the reader to interpret. For me, I think that because alternative-takeru died before Sumika ripped a hole through space-time, the actual memories themselves were never transported into amalgamation-takeru. Ergo, the only parts of BETA-eaten Takeru that were transferred were very basic emotions that affect the cerebellum, such as fear (more 'feelings' than actual memories).

 

Finally, the ending. I didn't actually mind it that much, but, I agree, it was a wee bit anticlimactic. The memories of MLA weren't forgotten though. Although I haven't played it, altered fable (which I think is a continuation of the ending-world) has at least one part when one of the characters remember the events of MLA, and I thought that Takeru remembered what happened as well (which is why he cried when he saw Marimo-chan etc.). To be honest, I'm not sure what other ending could have happened: the story was, I suppose, at its core, a romance between Takeru and Sumika. After Sumika kicked it, the main anchor holding him to the alternative universe disappeared. Plus also, it was discussed frequently that he just wanted to return home at the end. They could have made it a little more concrete, though.

 

Desi could probably explain that several orders of magnitude better.

[iLoveTsundere 10]

What bums me out the most is how awesome MLA is in comparison to altered fable , which ive been told feels more like an upbeat afterstory. Its like âge went from awesome to wtf-is-this-extra-again. This doesnt sit right with me , but alas i have no power over it. *battler's crying face* MLA is and probably will always be my favorite VN of all time. Its the only one i didnt hesitate one second to 10/10.

 

 

SUMIKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ultimecea 22]

What bums me out the most is how awesome MLA is in comparison to altered fable , which ive been told feels more like an upbeat afterstory. Its like âge went from awesome to wtf-is-this-extra-again. This doesnt sit right with me , but alas i have no power over it. *battler's crying face* MLA is and probably will always be my favorite VN of all time. Its the only one i didnt hesitate one second to 10/10.

 

 

SUMIKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

but aint MLAF were something more like a continuation of ML Supplement since both were fundisc??

[iLoveTsundere 10]

but aint MLAF were something more like a continuation of ML Supplement since both were fundisc??

 

Supposedly AF is right after MLA. I wouldnt know for sure never read it. But if the anon at /jp/ takes too long (probably will) i'll read it raw and see for myself.

[boukyaku 10]

I probably forced desi to replay MLA just to confirm the previous questions .

 

ML Supplement is a real continuation of the MLE Sumika route. It just shows what happens towards graduation, and also has a bunch of other unrelated short stories. I think there's also a parody-like continuation of Meiya's route.

 

MLAF is NOT a sequel to MLA in any way. Even before the title screen, there's an intro + voice over of that explains that MLAF is in no way a continuation of MLA, but just starts off where MLA last left. MLAF is one giant parody that makes fun of the ML series and a few RL issues. Everyones character (except Kasumi) is severely exaggerated. It contains a strategy game of TSFs vs BETA and a bunch of mini-games. It also has other fanservice goodies like all the promotion/misc videos of ML series, the soundtrack of ML + a few new pieces from MLAF, etc. If you're looking for something serious in MLAF, don't waste your time. The only serious things occur are related to Kasumi and how she views the world.

 

I didn't enjoy MLAF at all as I was expecting it to be a real sequel, but began enjoying it when I started treating it as one big comedy VN (I was skipping the intro explanation until then as I thought it was another caution warning that everything is fiction).

[iLoveTsundere 10]

Im sure i wont enjoy it as much as MLA with except of Kasumi , but its part of Muv Luv so i'll read it eventually regardless , and play "GET RAPED BY BETA : The game" as well of course.