Harlequin

Cool, another dark VN from Nitroplus! It looks pretty good yes - as a short experience. Too bad about Petrushka though, haha... having so little screen time. Well, nice to hear that you liked it in any case.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Cute characters (Rika = Best). Lovely music. PS2 art is nice. NVL style is good. A very ominous moment occured not too long ago. Edit: Also, sound effects = incredible. The cry of the Higurashi...

It's sweet, yea. As for Vi's weapons of choice... APPROVED!

Yeeeeep that's right!

And so it ends! [spoiler=EP12]Not exactly a surprising finale, but one that felt good. I had such a big smile on my face during the last minutes of it... Chuunibyou is just a really beautiful anime overall, and that shows to a great extent in this final episode. Preeeetty! That last monologue about eight-grade syndrome was very nice and meaningful. Dekomori without her twin tails and outside her syndrome was pretty cool. Though she's still more awesome as the DES Saavanto equipped with the Mjolnir Hammer. Oh and, Kumin-senpai possessed by the Second Tyrant's Eye? YES PLEASE! Haha, well it was funny to see anyway. No Mori Summer, but oh well. Well, I feel happy now. Chuunibyou was really really great, enough said. From the (few) anime that I've seen so far, it ended up being one of my favourites. Indeed, everyone has eight-grade syndrome all their lives...

Another!

Dustmania Grotesque (VNDB) (Spoilers are all inside the spoiler box down at the bottom... Wait what?) "Manbo manbo!" Dustmania... Oh boy... Just... It's been a while since I read it. Well, a month or so probably. And this means that my impressions of it won't be very "fresh" per se. But we'll just have to go with it. Why am I writing this you ask? Because some members (iLT, Gerard...!!!) wanted me to, but also because it would indeed be funny to have a Dustmania Grotesque review among all these other proper reviews of amazing VNs with superb stories in them. But you must be wondering what the heck this "Dustmania" is all about then! Well, it is a 1-2 hour long nukige visual novel filled to the brim with guro, which translates to it being "highly disturbing and batshit insane". Yes, that's right. The purpose of Dustmania is guro. Nothing more, nothing less. Guro is the number one reason why it exists at all. It does not have some sort of epic narrative or amazing characters. Now, let me just make something clear here before we move on: I don't actually like seeing guro, other than for the occasional laugh or that rare disturbing feeling. Yet I'm still going to write this "review" now. I have experienced the VN, so it shouldn't be impossible for me to do it either way. When I read Dustmania, I did so in the complete dark at night, alone, with semi-loud volume on the headphones. You might ask, "what's the point of doing that?". Well that's a really good question. I don't know. All I can say is that at some point during my short reading session of Dustmania, my mind went blank, more or less. I'm gonna go ahead and guess that reading it with the above mentioned setup heightened that effect to a certain extent. But whatever. On to the details of this guro nukige! Visuals/Art - Effective CG art to say the least, for anyone who might read Dustmania. It's actually not of low quality or anything, but you most likely won't be able to appreciate it whatsoever if you don't like guro. In fact, there is a good chance that you will simply find it nauseating and horrendous. I can't pretend to like it myself. However, I'm someone who can at least laugh about it. Yes, laugh. Because it is so over the top and crazy that you just have to laugh. Perhaps I'm mad, but if so, I'm quite happy about that. Don't take this art so seriously when you see it. Now, I may say that, but I can sometimes (albeit rarely) feel quite sick in the stomach as well from seeing incredibly disturbing things... it all depends on ones current mentality! But yea, if you happen to love guro then this CG art is no doubt amazing for you. It's hard to imagine exactly how good it would be though. I'm not an expert on this stuff, so I couldn't say anything with 100% certainty. There aren't many times at all in the VN where you get to see sprite art. But who even cares. Sound/VA/Music - Voice acting-wise, I friggin' hated the voice of the protagonist, Chiharu. BLEH! But oh well, that might just be me though. On a more positive note, the voices of Kanae and Ako were... um, "better". But overall, the voice acting didn't sound good to me. The music isn't exactly memorable, but I don't think it's supposed to be either. It's probably very fitting for what Dustmania is all about. Freaky and weird music, for freaky and weird content. Good! But even if it is appropriate for this VN, I didn't really like it. That's actually how it goes for most things that Dustmania has to offer. Characters - Wow. What the hell. These characters are so bloody demented in general. Are they well-designed? Hm, for the situation presented in Dustmania they probably are. There are four in total and I despise two of them personally. Chiharu - The female protagonist who gets kidnapped and experimented on. *sigh* Annoying voice. Oshamanbe (MANBO MANBO) - A creepy and ugly scientist with a big nose (yes). I hate him. Everything about him is disgusting, including his name. At least his nickname is funny. Kanae - Crazy assistant girl with an eyepatch. Funny at times. Ako - ... Plot/Story - HAHA. No. I'm sorry, but I can't remember if there was anything good about this story. From VNDB: "A female scientist is kidnapped by her former collegue, who decides to carry out experiments related to immortality medicine on her." That's the gist of it right there. Suffice it to say, Dustmania and its story is all about guro. The end. It is indeed a nukige, so a poor story is kinda expected. Well, there are two routes in the VN. At some point in it, you get two choices. One choice for each route. That's it, nothing complicated about it or anything. I would recommend picking the top choice first though. Screenshots (click the thumbnails) - [spoiler=Screenshots (Guro included!)] Final words - Dustmania. What a freaky thing. I didn't like it. This kind of VN just isn't for me, plain and simple. But I still can't give it too low of a score. Why? Because I realise that it's no doubt very good for people who actually love guro. But also, we mustn't forget that the absurdity in it is something that you can laugh at. So if that is possible for you, as it is for me, then that's good too. The art, music, voice acting and story combines into something that is extremely bizarre and utterly insane. The story is garbage, though you would expect it to be anyway. And since it is a nukige, I could never really appreciate it much at all to begin with since the focus is completely on the H-scenes in general. Oh, one last thing: Don't expect the English translation to be great or anything. It's not. Dustmania Grotesque - You do not want to read this, unless you like guro. Pros: Great for guro lovers, length = very short (yes!) Cons: Terrible and sickening for anyone who doesn't like guro (most people), laughable story, nukige. Harlequin gives Dustmania Grotesque a rating of... 3.0/10 (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. (as if this one is going to contain anything important whatsoever...):

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. It looks pretty interesting actually, based on the screenshots and what you're saying. Seems to be something that I'd like. And I for one haven't heard of it until now, so thanks for posting this. And yes, it's probably quite a decent game when it comes to immersion. ... But... No time for it right now. There are just so many friggin' games and VNs that needs to be played/read as it is.

Yes, that's just how it goes. Been changing the other ones too sometimes. But in general, it's not ever going to change by a large amount. It'll be something around 5.0-5.5, basically. You can change your mind a little when you start comparing it to other VNs you might have read that has the same sort of rating. Just how it is.

^^... Maybe.

Moero Downhill Night Blaze (VNDB) Opening movie: (Spoilers are all inside the spoiler box down at the bottom.) "But if you go too far, it all becomes so meaningless..." This is going to be a shorter (perhaps... maybe...) "review" than usual from me. Why? Because I'm someone who has less to say about visual novels that weren't particularly good/great/amazing. And it just so happens to be that at the time of me writing this, I've only actually done reviews of *great* VNs around here, so this'll feel a bit different I think. The Moero VNs all have car racing as their main theme, with comedy+drama+romance revolving around it. And honestly, that theme is probably the main reason why one should look into these titles in the first place. You simply won't find it in many other VNs. That said, we'll be looking at the third and last one in the series now, Moero Downhill Night Blaze, which was recently released by JAST with English translation (in a not so perfect state, if I do say so myself...). What makes Moero 3 different from the previous two is that it has actual racing gameplay in it, instead of just timed choices during the races. But was this a good change, or not? We will find that out very soon. Having personally read all of the Moero VNs now, I can safely say that ultimately only of them is actually good (Moero 2), and that this third one is not truly worth the time spent on it... depending on something in particular, which I'll bring up later. But anyway, let's just get to some of the specifics now. Gameplay - Oh dear. We're starting with this part then? As I said earlier, Moero 3 has car racing gameplay. Steer, accelerate, brake and shift gears (if you play with manual transmission). I can assure you that this is not anything fancy whatsoever, but hey, you wouldn't really expect it to be anyway. There are a total of five different race tracks, and you'll do them several times over - especially so if you want to complete more than one route in the VN. You always go three laps on each track every time. Also, it is possible to play with a gamepad, not just the keyboard. I personally played it with a gamepad and quite honestly, it felt pretty good, so I can recommend that you try that out yourself if you happen to have a gamepad laying around somewhere. Now, with the general idea of how the gameplay works out of the way, I can say this: It's not good. For more than one reason. But first of all, I gotta say that I personally didn't mind it too much during my first playthrough. Indeed, it is something different from what you usually see in VNs, right? However that doesn't really mean much because if you decide to do more than just one route, you will come to despise this boring racing minigame no matter what. There is no challenge to it at all, and it just ends up being a big waste of time. But that's not the only problem, no... it's the fact that this gameplay is probably the "main thing" of Moero 3, and yet it actually sucks. It takes time and focus away from the storytelling and character development. Such a shame. I have seen worse gameplay, but this is still really bad, especially so since it does have the secondary effect of lessening the other parts of the VN. As a small sidenote, you can play the racing minigame outside the storymode as well. Just go to "Arcade" in the main menu. But... why would you ever want to do that? No, you wouldn't, so whatever. Go play some Need for Speed game instead. That's a lot more fun. Visuals/Art - Same kind of art style as in Moero 2. It's nothing too fancy, but not too bad either I think. It'll come down to personal taste most likely. The girls all have quite a specific look to their faces, and you might very well not like it. It's decent enough to me anyway. Most of the CG art belongs to the H-scenes. But to be honest, that's pretty much how it is for all of the Moero titles, not just this one. It didn't really bother me, though it's hardly a good thing. Moero 3 feels so short in general that it doesn't matter all that much. Movies aren't really worth talking about in this one. They exist. That is all. Sound/VA/Music - It was kinda nice to hear the voices from Moero 2 again. They aren't amazing though. My favourite voice would have to be Kei's, although to be fair, that's mostly based on what I heard in Moero 2 (how many times am I going to mention that VN in here?...) The music can be quite catchy at times. Again, this isn't anything amazing either, but there are a few good songs at least. It makes me remember Moero 2 (...), which is a good thing. Characters - Same characters as the ones in Moero 2, although not all of them are present in Moero 3. In general, I like the lot of 'em, though some more than others (as usual). Asahina Rinka - The assertive and energetic deredere *main* main heroine, in both Moero 2 and 3. My second favourite female character in this series. She's definitely better represented in Moero 2 though, mainly because the story in Moero 3 is shorter and less eventful. Komachi - ... Doesn't have a VNDB page. But anyway, she's a friendly and proactive journalist girl. In Moero 2, her situation was a bit different to say the least. Narukami Kei - My number one favourite character in the Moero VNs. She's a funny and cute girl with a coodere sort of personality. However, I think she was even better and more true to that personality of hers in Moero 2, for various reasons. But she's still awesome in any case. *jiiiiiiiiiiiii* Asagiri Tomomi - A shy and awkward girl who can be surprisingly funny at times. Not bad! Toudouin Reiko - Least favourite character of mine, although I still don't think she's bad or anything. The typical rich and refined girl, although a very kind one at that - not stuck up. That's a good thing to me at least. These VNDB pages are based on the Moero 2 character representations. It's just that Moero 3 uses them as well for now. So some of the things that you see on those pages may or may not be true in Moero 3. Well, as for the protagonist, Tsuchida Akito, there's absolutely nothing special that I have to say about him. He's an average and normal protagonist. Plain, but not exactly bad or anything. I guess having a simple protagonist can be a nice thing sometimes. Special mentioning goes to Suzukaze Yuu. He's cool and pretty interesting, but mostly so in Moero 2. Oh and Reika's butler, Sendou, is also great... although he's barely in Moero 3 at all unfortunately. Plot/Story - A story about cars, racing and girls, pretty much. It's a "what if?" version of the story in Moero 2. "What if Akuto had a driver's license?" Now that probably sounds pretty cool, at least if you've read Moero 2 before. But it's not. It's simply not as entertaining, nor does it contain as many events or special moments that you might even remember after you're done with the VN. Which by the way, the gameplay is most likely at fault for to a quite large degree. To be honest, it makes Moero 3 almost look like a silly fandisc or somethng, even though it's not officially labelled as such. The story is definitely mediocre, although if Moero 3 is the first one in the series that you try, maybe it would actually be a little bit better. But I'm not so sure about that. I can only speak as someone who has read the previous titles before this one after all. There are a total of five routes in Moero 3, each one being pretty short. Now, let me point out a mistake that I made reading/playing this VN: 100%'ing it. Yes, that's right. You should not bother doing all of the routes in Moero 3. Just complete the ones that interest you the absolute most, and skip the others. Because as you know by now, the racing minigame sucks, so it's good if you can avoid playing it as much as possible. But also, the story really doesn't differ much between the routes. Basically the main story (which isn't very good) stays mostly the same in all the routes, while you get the occasional side events with the girl whose route you happen to be on. So if you have a favourite girl or two, go for them. But also, you should at least do Rinka's/Komachi's route, because they have more to do with the main plot of the VN than the others. Of course, none of what I've said really matters if you're a completionist at heart who absolutely must 100% it. It's your decision in the end. I regret doing all of it though. Now I did mention early on that Moero 3 isn't worth the time spent on it, but that it depended on something in particular. Well that something is simply whether you decide to do all the routes or not. It'll be worth the time if you don't, but it won't be worth the time if you do. Going through one route in this VN is really not so bad, even with the racing gameplay. But all five? You'll probably regret it if you decide to do that, and it'll indeed be a waste of time. And no, you won't get anything "extra" for going through all those boring as hell repetitions of races and completing all five routes. Nothing. At all. So... still thinking about 100%'ing it?... I hope not. Screenshots (click the thumbnails) - Final words - Disappointing. I personally expected Moero 3 to be pretty much as good as the second one, but it clearly isn't. The new racing gameplay ended up being a bad change from the previous titles. It just takes up time and wasn't good for the overall experience of the VN. The "what if?" story suffers from being much smaller in scope than the one in Moero 2. And while the characters are still nice (to me), even they didn't get such a good treatment in Moero 3. But what needs to be said now, is this: If you're going to read any of the Moero VNs at all, then go for Moero 2. That is the good one. Moero 3 is not good, even though there are worse VNs out there. Moero 1 isn't very good either, although there are some references and such to it in Moero 2, so it could still be worth reading. So who should try Moero 3? Anyone who might like the theme of it, but don't expect to have a great experience or anything either way. Also, if you've already finished Moero 2, then there is a good chance that Moero 3 is going to disappoint you in the end. And again, I highly recommend that you don't do all of the routes, because it'll probably be better that way and actually worth the time. Moero Downhill Night Blaze - Read Moero 2 instead if you haven't already. Unless you absolutely feel like you must try the friggin' gameplay for some bizarre reason. And no, doesn't seem like this "review" turned out to be that short in the end after all. Shame on me! Pros: Great main theme, some nice characters from Moero 2, familiarity with it (if you've read the previous ones in the series). Cons: Repetitive and boring gameplay that is too easy and takes up too much space, below average main story, barely any memorable moments. Harlequin gives Moero Downhill Night Blaze a rating of... 5.0/10 (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:

... ... ... What? Really? I mean, I haven't read it so I wouldn't truly know, but that still sounds crazy. I've never heard anyone else say something along those lines until now. The first part of Princess Waltz is THAT good?

... Damn... it's THAT song again... ... Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!

Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross Final Fantasy 6 Donkey Kong Country 2 Zombies Ate My Neighbors The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Lost Vikings Secret of Mana & Seiken Densetsu 3 Super Mario World & Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island & Super Mario RPG Quake 1 & 2 Doom 1 & 2 Heretic & Hexen games Raptor - Call of the Shadows Total Annihilation Red Alert Age of Empires 1 & 2 Dungeon Keeper 1 & 2 Theme Hospital Rollercoaster Tycoon Warcraft 2 Commandos Unreal & Unreal Tournament Heroes of Might and Magic 2 & 3 Lords of Magic Age of Wonders Starcraft (+ Brood War) Myth: The Fallen Lords & Myth 2: Soulblighter Silver Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 Diablo 1 & 2 Fallout 2 Sacrifice Mechwarrior 4 Descent 1 & 2 Nox Worms Jazz Jackrabbit 1 & 2 One Must Fall 2097 Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee & Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus Carmageddon 2 Yes, that's a lot of games. But I'm sure there are some more that just haven't popped up in my mind yet.

Moero Downhill Night Blaze *sigh*... Not as good as I was hoping it to be. The story that is. The main story. Most of the things that happened in this VN just didn't interest me. A few things, sure, but most of it was just not that memorable. Moero 2 was better, enough said. The story in that one was actually pretty fun. But, at least Blaze had some of the characters that I liked from the second one. That was a good thing. It was nice to see them again. Although to be honest, they were better represented in Moero 2... I didn't really mind the racing minigame during the first playthrough. It felt nice with a gamepad at least. But after you've completed one route, that gameplay just becomes a waste of time, because you can't skip any of it. It's much too easy, and too much time is spent on it rather than actual storytelling. Moero 1 and 2 had timed choices during the races, which wasn't very good either, but it was still more entertaining than this stuff in my opinion. Oh well. I still like the themes (cars, racing) and the mood in this. But yea, could've been better alright. It's a shame. If you're going to try any Moero title at all yourself, go for the second one.

Moero 2 is definitely better and worth the time, so that's good. As for Moero Blaze... ... ... well, I can safely say that the racing is garbage at least. Yes, it is. It was a bit entertaining on the first playthrough, but now it's just a waste of time. So yes, it seems I was correct in my earlier post here. It's waaaaaaaaaaaaay too easy. And no, there is no difficulty setting. I can't really comment on the story until I've completed all the routes, although the two that I've done so far has been worse than what Moero 2 delivers for sure. The story in this is just not as interesting or as "meaty", even though Moero 2's story is not something amazing either. Too much time and focus is spent on the racing gameplay. But oh well, we'll see what the end result is after 100% completion. This is just my opinion though, so whatever.

Perhaps you already know this now, but for anyone else who might be curious: This is the DRM-free download edition of the game. After you have extracted the .rar files, you simply use Moero_3_Setup.exe to install the game.

Aye, it's always nice to see those effects in VNs. The characters definitely look more alive with them. Mmm, the tension. MLA does that very well indeed. But anyway, yes, you've still got plenty left to go of course. Prepare yourself...

Aye, what the others said. Started reading it yesterday, and... I'm really surprised by how good it was! I'm not much for reading manga myself, but this one was certainly very fun (and ecchi). Still got plenty of pages left to read on Chapter 3 though.

Moero Downhill Night Blaze (It'll be up on ED/EG soon enough. Just need Ivan to login now.) Finally back to some VN reading! From what I've done so far, I can say that it's pretty cool for those of us who have finished the previous titles in the series. The story in Blaze is something of a "what if?" scenario to the story in Moero 2. So having read Moero 2 before going into this one is definitely a plus if you ask me. And well, having read Moero 1 is a plus if you're going to read Moero 2... It's not majorly important, but still. Good to see the characters again, for sure. Kei is awesomesauce. But hey, I like the other ones too. The gameplay? Um... a racing minigame, basically. Don't expect something amazing (who would?). It's probably going to get really bad/boring later on after the first playthrough, though I can't say that with 100% certainty just yet. Playing with a gamepad is quite nice indeed, since you've got variable acceleration thanks to the analog stick.

Well, saving often sounds like a good enough solution then I guess. Thankfully it's a really short VN! Happy to hear that you got what you wanted in the end.

Reformatting is reeeeally annoying!... But oh well, at least it fixed the problem I was having. (DPC Latency spikes)

DAMN... [spoiler=EP11]Was that a great episode or what! Really interesting development from start to finish. EMOTIONS! I love it. Plenty of seriousness and sadness for everyone. Poor Dekomori, des. The scene that iLT mentioned was nice indeed. Tears That strangely long moment with the train in the background (15:15 - 15:42) felt very... good and appropriate, actually. Sad to see Touka leave. But hey, the hugs were really sweet and meaningful at least! Well, anyway, very much looking forward to the last episode of Chunnibyou. I'm sure it'll be fantastic, considering everything else so far.