Muramasa: Masterpiece or Meretricious?

 Review of Full Metal Daemon Muramasa

Alternative Titles: Soukou Akki Muramasa

Rating: 8/10 (Good)

One-liner: A very solid steampunk-alternate history fantasy-mecha action. 

HOT

• A cast of colourful characters that stray beyond their established archetype
• A powerfully moving story
• Choices actually matter, and are not obvious. Some places may even require a walkthrough if you're not a fan of repeating events until you finally pick the right choice

NOT

• There is no romantic development. Zilch. Nada. Zero. End of Story.
• The H-scenes are all disturbing, even the "supposedly vanilla" pure love ones.
• There is just way too much self-pity

VERDICT: PLAY IT!

Synopsis

This is not a story of heroes.

Minato Kageaki is a musha, a warrior who wields a tsurugi - an enchanted, sentient armour that grants one supernatural powers. For centuries, mushas have ruled the battlefield, and they are known to crush armies and entire nation. Minato dons the legendary, crimson armour Muramasa, who plunged the world into ruin 500 years ago. Minato is driven only by one thing - to destroy the Ginseigo, the Silver Star, whose power is able to warp people's minds and leaves nothing but absolute destruction in its wake. But using Muramasa has a terrible cost, and Minato Kageaki is not prepared to shoulder the burden.

Review

Disclaimer: This is a review of the English version of Souki Akki Muramasa, localised by JAST as Full Metal Daemon Muramasa. Because of localisation, the Japanese text which was displayed vertically was replaced with regular horizontal English text and the fancy old Japanese has been translated into modern English. There may be other changes, so the experience playing the Japanese version and English version will vary.

Muramasa. Every review I've seen so far has either lauded it as one of the greatest literary masterpiece of its generation, or has dismissed it as too long and too meandering for its own good. My opinion, is that it is good, but nowhere as good as some people have made it out to be.

This may be in part due to the fact that the English version is markedly different that the Japanese version, but I have not played the Japanese version, and I believe that any literary work must be judged by its own merits.

The story general revolves around the Rokuhara, the ruling shogunate that sold out its country to curry favour with the western powers and retain control of the alternate-history Japan, named Yamato and the GHQ, which as basically the British Empire at its peak and also has annexed the United States. The GHQ wants to use Yamato as a bastion against the possible invasion of Russia, and the Rokuhara is biding its time to consolidate its power and eventually strike back at the GHQ. Therefore, an uneasy peace last between the Rokuhara and the GHQ, but war may spark out at any time. Meanwhile, the Rokuhara is tyrannically ruling the people under an iron fist, and massacring any disruptive elements. The plot is interesting and does feature various machinations but it does drag on at times. Nevertheless, the alternate-history fantasy world is well built and is a fascinating backdrop for the story. 

However, the characters are pretty hit and miss for me. Ayane Ichijo is the standard Justice-loving Shirou Emiya of this story. Otori Kanae is the seemingly airheaded GHQ officer that belies impressive abilities and a few tricks up her sleeve. and Chachamaru is a blonde loli who seems to do whatever she wants but hides a dark secret and may have a few skeletons in her closet. There is also a fourth heroine, who I won't spoil but her name is literally in the title, so its not really a spoiler.

Minato Kageaki is an interesting specimen. His backstory and motivations are fully fleshed out but his self-hate and self-pity is too much to read at times. Yes, he does have a reason to hate and wallow in his own pity, but when the story tells you in excruciating detail how much hate and pity he has on himself every single chance it gets - it gets old, repetitive and becomes downright obnoxious after a while. 

One interesting thing about this visual novel is the sheer number of choices. Most VNs give you an insignificant number of choices, make the choices to get into whichever girl you choose extremely obvious, ultimately making the "choose you own adventure" system pointless. Muramasa eschews that format and instead provides a multitudinous number of choices, and two gargantuan minigames along with one extremely difficult puzzle. Suffice it to say, if you are playing without a walkthrough, you are going to stumble into bad ends very often. The choices are also very opaque, so even through there is sort of an affection meter, the affection meter can get cancelled without warning, and sometimes they bait you by making you choose the obvious choice only to greet you with a bad end.

I am not an art connoisseur so I can't comment about the art, but its is very beautiful to look at. There are some limited animation and they generally do a good job in the battles between the mushas, giving it a sense of momentum and movement with the limited animation and movement they have.

Overall, Muramasa is definitely a visual novel worth reading. Is it overhyped? Maybe. Is it still a fantastic read and well worth your time. Yes. 

9-nine- Tetralogy + Shinsou: Birth of a new fantasy classic

 9-nine- Tetralogy + Shinsou Review

Produced by Palette

 

9-nine- is a visual novel split into 4 different episodes (with potentially a fifth in production), which form a complete story when read in order:

Episode 1: Kokonotsu Kokonoka Kokonoiro (Miyako Kujou)

Episode 2: Sorairo Sorauta Soranooto (Sora Niimi)

Episode 3: Haruiro Harukoi Harunokaze (Haruka Kousaka)

Episode 4: Yukiiro Yukihana Yukinoato (Noa Yuki)

There is also Shinsou, which is basically a standalone epilogue that ties up all loose ends a well as short after stories for each character.

Rating: 8.5/10 (Sublime)

HOT

• Detailed fantasy story with rich character development
• A very capable and proactive protagonist
• Heroines are charming and are very likable
• Prose flows very well and plotline is extremely well developed
• An impressive meta-element that blends in seamlessly with the plot.

NOT

• Must be read in order
• If you don't like the heroine, you are stuck with her for the entire episode
• Romantic development is hit or miss; some relationships happens too fast, some just drag on for ages

One-liner: One of the best fantasy visual novel series in recent memory, and Episode 4 is probably one of the best visual novels released in 2021. 

Synopsis:

― Shiromitsukawa
A city that other than being a academic town, doesn't have any special characteristic.

There has been some attempts at revitalization in order to attract tourists, but it achieved no success. However, for an unexpected reason the city began to gather the people's attention.

Niimi Kakeru is a boy that despite the hasty attitude, has a strong sense of responsibility. He seems to be an ordinary student with a kind personality, but after a sacred treasure of a certain temple was damaged, an unusual power woke up on some people including him.

These people with powers all possess an Artifact, and are called Users. Joining others who share the same ideals, Kakeru and his friends are embroiled in a battle of fate against those who attempt to use their powers for their own nefarious ends, and eventually find themselves caught in the crossfire of a war then ends up being bigger than they could ever have imagined.

Review (Minor spoilers, read at your own risk)

I would like to preface this review by saying that if you decide to play this series (and you should DEFINITELY play it), you MUST play the visual novels in order, regardless on whether you like the main heroine or not. 

9-nine- is basically a fantasy story with superpowers. Each episode focuses on a main heroine and it is a linear route, which means there are no real branching points, and there is only a singular route. That means that if you don't fancy the particular heroine in a certain episode, unfortunately you are stuck with her for the entire episode. That said, the series takes pains to make sure each heroine is likable, and by the end of it, I liked each character, even the ones whose character I initially despised. 

Each episode takes around ~10 hours to complete, depending on reading speed which clocks in at a total of ~40 hours, which is pretty standard for a full-length visual novel, if you complete all available routes.

Shinsou is the final part of the series, and it acts as an epilogue to the series. It is not necessary, but I highly recommend it if you even remotely enjoyed the game. It is an extremely short game, with a runtime of ~2 hours, and it ties up all the loose ends for the previous series, and provides short and sweet after stories for each of the heroines without overstaying its welcome. It's a fantastic addition and definitely worth reading, especially if you would like a last hurrah with your favourite heroines.  

The series starts of being quite generic and spends the first few entries building the world and the characters, as well as the rules that govern the conflicts in the world. Therefore, the first few entries may be a little slow and end quite abruptly, but the story really picks up during the third entry, and the fourth entry is the true climax of the story - and let me tell you, it is a sight to behold.

It is worth noting that there is a meta element in the plot - it is nowhere as deep,  nor as screwed up as in Totono, but it is beautifully interwoven in the story. It is not intrusive and does not break the suspension of disbelief (no mean feat), which is critical in a story such as this.

There are absolutely no complaints with the art. It is gorgeous and the characters look fantastic, especially the heroines. Most of the action scenes feature static images with limited animation, but they convey the detail of the fights really well, with the prose and the music supporting the art, and they are really a treat to behold.

The music is also noteworthy. There are two different vocal tracks for the opening and ending theme of each episode, and each episode feature a different opening and ending theme for the respective heroine, and every theme is catchy and worth listening to. The background music isn't really anything to write home about, but its unobtrusive and mostly fits the scenario well. The battle scenes, especially has some fantastic music that really hypes up the scenes. 

If this review seems a bit lacking in detail, it's because you should experience it for yourself. I would say that this game joins the ranks of games such as Fate/Stay Night and Muv-Luv as some of the best fantasy visual novels available in English.

Verdict: PLAY IT  

P.S. I never really understood where the 9-nine- name came from, apart from a EXTREMELY vague hint from the lore of the game, but I just realised that there are only 9 characters (with sprites) in the entire game that actually matter, so I guess that's where the name comes from.

End of an Era - Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel Trilogy Review

 

Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel Trilogy Review

One liner: Possibly one of the best film trilogy to be released in recent memory - a classic in the making.

By this point, the fact that Fate has a gazillion different adaptations and is probably one of the hardest franchises to get into has become a meme. I am not even going to attempt to explain the Fate series timeline, because frankly, even though I have been there since the beginning, even I don't know which world each series begin and which timeline each series ends. 

But let's start from the beginning - once there was a visual novel. An incredibly ambitious 100+ hours long visual novel that told the same story - but in three different ways, focusing on three different heroines. The three 'routes' - 'Fate', 'Unlimited Blade Works' and 'Heaven's Feel' - make up the main timeline of the Fate series. And that is the core of Fate - everything else is just extra.

But this is not a post about deciphering what the convoluted conglomeration known as Fate is - this is a review about one of the best anime trilogy that has been released in recent memory. So let's begin.

Heaven's Feel has been adapted into a film trilogy, titled 'presage flower', 'lost butterfly' and 'spring song' respectively. In this review, I will review the trilogy as a whole. In this review, I will attempt to omit all spoilers, however there may be minor spoilers involved.

Art and Animation

The studio responsible for majority of the Fate series - ufotable - has been known to create visually stunning masterpieces. Their Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night [UBW] production was already heads and shoulders above any of the competition, and despite being almost a decade old, remains the industry standard that has yet to be surpassed - earning them the title 'Unlimited Budget Works'. With a increased budget for a full movie production, ufotable has really outdone itself. The art and animation is immaculately beautiful and absolutely glorious. There are insufficient adjectives in English to describe the sheer beauty of the animation. Suffice it to say that it is the best looking work the industry has to offer - at least until their next production.

Plot

Considering it is an adaptation of the Heaven's Feel's route from the original visual novel, I would say that while it is mostly faithful to the original visual novel, it completely missed a couple of essential story beats. Although it is inevitable that they would to shave some elements off the narrative, some of the things they cut was central to the narrative. Some of the best scenes of the visual novel emanated from Shirou's monologue and his state of mind, as well as the explanations for some of the weapons and abilities - and while those are hard to animate - there is no excuse for omitting those things completely. Many of the scenes that were epic in the visual novel felt very lacking in comparison in the movie.

That said, the additions that they made - the movements, sparks and attack animations - more than made up for the shortfall in some of the scenes. And while non-visual novel readers may have absolutely no idea what was happening on screen, they would appreciate the pretty lights that blossomed on the screen, especially during the fight scenes.

Sound/Music

The movie trilogy hit it out of the park. Aimer's three theme songs for the three movies are perfectly fitting and are simply a joy to listen to. The music, directed by Yuki Kaijura, is epic and fits every scene impeccably. I have absolutely no complaints.

Verdict: 9/10 

DEFINITELY WATCH IT.

If you consider yourself, even by the slimmest of definitions, to enjoy anime at any level, you owe it to yourself to watch this movie trilogy.

Bokuten Review - The Fallacy of Love

Bokuten - Why I Became an Angel

Alternative Titles: Boku ga Tenshi ni Natta Wake

Rating: 7/10 (Good)

One-liner: Melancholy, served on a bed of despair and sadness, garnished with depression with a side of sorrow - and maybe, just maybe a tinge of salvation in between.

HOT

• Different from the deluge of sappy, happy and saccharine school-life VNs.
• A powerfully emotional final route.
• Realistic depiction of love and the potential pitfalls of love.

NOT

• Romantic development is just subpar.
• There are heavy themes that are uncomfortable to read.
• Too many characters.

Synopsis:

Kirinokojima Tomoe suffered a devastating event that obliterated his psyche, making him into a jaded, oblivious person who eschews the concept of love, and of happiness. He lives his life aimlessly, rejecting human interaction and continually torturing himself with the memory of his past.

Then he meets an angel, Aine, whose entire purpose is to fill the world with love and happiness - a purpose that is the ultimate antithesis of Tomoe's lifestyle. Tomoe is unwillingly roped in into acting as the angel's proxy, forced to intervene in the romantic lives of others.

And thus the journey begins. A journey to find the meaning of love. A journey to recover what he lost. A journey to discover the meaning of living on.

Review:

Let's get this out of the way: Don't expect happy endings. There are no happy endings in this game. All the endings, save for the true ending, are bittersweet at best. There is no Deus Ex Machina where everybody finds happiness, and no silver bullet that solves all the problems the characters are facing. There is only one ending which I would consider a 'bad' ending, but none of the endings are completely happy.

Now, if I haven't turned you off with the first paragraph, let's continue. 

Even with all the sadness and depression, Bokuten is worth playing. It offers - dare I say it - a more realistic view on love. Love is often accompanied by heartbreak, and more often that not, first loves seldom succeed. Yet, because it doesn't succeed, do people stop seeking love?  

Bokuten consists of six chapters, each focusing on a relationship between a couple. Obviously there are problems between the couple, ranging from as simple as being unable to confess one's feelings to choosing between your dreams or your relationship (and one simply ridiculous one of being too sexually frustrated for your partner to pleasure you - I wish I was making that up). Some stories are quite interesting, but some stories might seriously be hard to read - either because the content is dark and disturbing or you don't care for the characters or their problems. And when they tie back to the main group of friends and Tomoe, you finally get a choice, and suffice it to say, the choices you make in this VN aren't easy. 

The choices you make also determines which girl you get in a relationship with. The three initial heroines are the air-headed senpai Yuri, the tsundere secret-idol-but-geek-in-school Minamo, the genki osananajimi (childhood friend) Naruko. Once you complete these 3 routes, you unlock the final true route that features the titular love-obsessed angel, Aine. The final true ending is not a perfect happy ending, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on whether you think a happy ending would cheapen the experience), but it is powerfully emotional and provides a glimmer of hope after all is said and done.

The recommended route order is

Minamo/Yuri --> Naruko --> Aine (true)

If you are tired of the same old sappy, unrealistic and diabetes-inducing stories of other school-life VNs, this is the VN for you. If you can't stand depressing stories and need emotional cartharsis in all your VNs (no judging here - we all need a palate cleanser that's just happy and fluffy once in a while), you might want to give this a hard pass. 

Verdict: PLAY IT

Reinventing the Wheel - Totono

Review of You and Me and Her (Totono)

Alternative Titles:
Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi
lit. The Love of You and Girlfriend and Girlfriend

Rating: 9/10 (Excellent)
One-liner: Possibly one of the most meta VNs in existence

Synopsis:

Shinichi is a regular high-school student with a bit of an inferiority complex. He is childhood friends with Miyuki, the school's idol, but wants to keep a low profile so as to not attract too much attention. Miyuki, on her part, 'not-so-secretly' harbours feelings for him.

He also meets a strange, pink-haired girl named Aoi on the roof. They become friends, and he tries to make her more normal because she seems completely out-of-touch with reality. Miyuki eventually gets roped in and they become a trio.

And then it all comes crashing down.

Review:

This will be a bit of a different review, because you must go into this blind. Suffice to to say that this game blew apart every other VN I have ever played out of the water. The story isn't amazing per se, but what this VN set out to do is simply unmatched in anything else I have ever seen in this medium.

There are two heroines in the game, as shown in the cover, and you only get to choose one. I mean it. There are no do-overs.

That's really all I can share, because doing anything else would be spoiling the game, and I really don't want to do that because this game deserves every person who is remotely interested in VNs to try out. Try not to use a walkthrough unless you're really stuck, and after you past that point, close it down and resist the urge to touch it again.

Verdict: PLAY IT

P. S. Try not to get too attached to the save function.

VN Vistas 01: Why you should read visual novels

Some of the best anime comes from popular source material - mangas, light novels, video games among others. That makes sense. If there is a market for these genres, it makes commercial sense to make it more mainstream, in order to target newer audiences and fall back on established audiences in the event that it does not prove a popular as believed.

Anime, by definition, is given a far greater toolset to craft its narrative; it has the advantages of colour, sound and movement, just to name a few, to bring the beloved characters from the source material to life. It seems like making an anime adaptation of the source material is almost a sure way to make it better.

That is not a recipe for success, though. Many anime fall through the cracks, producing mediocre anime that is far inferior to the source material. The reasons for that are many - perhaps the storytelling of the source material does not translate well to anime, perhaps the screenwriter decides to cut essential parts of the source material, maybe the anime studio ran out of funds and resources to produce a satisfactory conclusion.

Unfortunately, for every brilliant anime adaptation that excels and surpasses its source material counterpart, there are dozen others that fail to live up to its lofty aspirations, or worse, completely does not do its source material justice. Any nowhere is this more apparent that in anime series that deals with visual novels as its source material.

Visual novels are curious things. Neither a novel nor a game, it straddles a fine line between reading and gameplay, without fully committing to either, creating an experience that no other medium can replicate. A visual novel is ultimately a text-based medium with anime-style graphics and voice-acting to supplement the story. Most visual novels have 'routes' which are branching storylines to romance different characters, and have multiple endings.

Some of the best anime of the era have source material based on visual novels - Fate/Stay Night, Steins;Gate, CLANNAD, just to name a few, but much more have terrible adaptations that simply tarnish the reputation of the original game, which are far more interesting. Of course, not all visual novels are of good quality, but the better ones are usually selected for adaptation, and most of them fail to live up to the source material. Visual novels such as the Grisaia Trilogy, Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm and Tsukihime which are pretty much universally praised in the visual novel community have horrifying poor adaptations that effectively decimates the number of people willing to check out the source material, which is a real shame.

There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, visual novels are fairly long, which means a studio has to made particularly egregious cuts to made the story fit a typically 12-13 episode format. Secondly, visual novels usually have branching routes, which means the visual novel has to favour a certain heroine, thereby alienating the audiences that prefer another heroine. But more importantly, they must twist the story to fit each heroine's main conflict and then move back to the narrative of the central heroine. Thirdly, visual novels usually have a lot of subtext and internal monologue of a character, which gives the reader a clear understanding of a character's thoughts, feelings and dilemmas, but these monologues are usually not feasible in an anime format.

There are many more reasons, but these are some reasons why I refuse to watch any anime adaptation of a visual novel if the visual novel has a chance of receiving an English translation, unless there is beyond a shadow of a doubt that it would ever receive one. There are exceptions, of course, but some narratives, when given the time to develop the characters and understand the motivations and mindsets of characters, can become incredible stories that transcend even the medium, and anime, with its 12-13 or even 24-26 episode constraints just cannot do justice.

Some visual novels have some of the greatest stories I have ever read in fiction, with the Muv-Luv series, Fate/Stay Night and G-senjou no Maou (The Devil on G-string) being some of my absolute favourites. If you are a true anime fan, and want to experience some of the greatest stories that fiction has to offer with a Japanese anime twist, then I urge you to try visual novels.

I took the plunge 10 years ago and have never looked back. Will you?

THE BEST VN SERIES EVER - Muv-Luv

Hi all!

Its been a long while since my last post. I won't give excuses for my long hiatus, except that there's exams and projects... who am I kidding...?

I actually meant for this to be the Anime Festival Asia Singapore (AFASG) 2015 post, but after finishing Muv-Luv Alternative Chronicles 02(or at least the TDA01 portion), I just felt I needed to get some of my thoughts in. Don't worry though, the AFASG post will be up shortly.

If you're left wondering WTF is Muv-Luv, and why the heck I am reviewing a visual novel (henceforth VN), shame on you! Haven't you read my introductory post to VNs like a couple of months back? Of course you haven't! But I'm gonna be nice, and I'll link you to the post here. Please read it first, or else there's no reason for you to continue reading this post. Don't worry, this post won't be running off anywhere.

...Read it? Good, then let's continue.

Its probably time to address an anime you might have known that bears the same name as the title series - Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse (henceforth MLA: TE). If you've watched that, you might think you have a good grasp of what this series is about. WRONG!

First of all, let me clarify that MLA: TE is NOT an adaptation of the core Muv-Luv canon, although they may ultimately be linked. MLA: TE is set in the same world as the original Muv-Luv and it bears some similarities, but the general tone of the show is completely different from the original VN, not to mention with a completely different focus and story. Frankly, compared to the VN, it doesn't just pale in comparison. It completely fades out of comparison. Yes. Comparing the two is technically impossible. They simply exist on two separates planes of competency. It would be like comparing a one-dimensional dot to a five-dimensional multiverse - they are just too different in terms of scope and epicness such that they cannot be compared. That said, MLA: TE also has a visual novel format, and having not played that, I can't tell whether the entire story remains as lackluster as the anime implies. MLA: TE does not have a poor story. Its just that when compared to the sheer supremacy of the original VNs, MLA: TE just falls flat.

Muv-Luv is a series of visual novels that is hard to define. A number of them tell a happy-go-lucky, carefree, slice-of-life high school life, and the other depicts a post-apocalyptic world where mankind have been pushed to the brink of extinction by invasion by aliens dubbed BETA (Beings of Extra-Terrestrial origin and Adversaries to the human race). Two stories in which circumstances could not be more different eventually entwine themselves to the point they become interwoven and inextricable. Throw in quantum mechanics, multi-verse theory, mental trauma, inane emotional breakdowns, crazy mechas and deaths by the millions (including EVERY SINGLE MAIN CHARACTER), and you get Muv-Luv.


Is that a little hard to take in? Well, as convoluted as that sounds, Muv-Luv is incredibly deep, touching and heart-rending. It is undeniably one of the BEST Visual Novel available in English (fan-translated) that has ever been conceived. And it has received enough fanbase in the English speaking community to demand an official Emglish localisation. Don't just take my word for it. If you need any proof, the recently concluded Kickstarter to fund the English Localisation of the game achieved its goal of $250,000 in 7 hours. SEVEN FREAKIN' HOURS!

The Kickstarter then went on to reach EVERY SINGLE STRETCH GOAL, to the point that the team had to include two other stretch goals. And the fanbase continued to break stretch goal after stretch goal, ultimately reaching  $1,255,444 USD!!! Over 5 times the original goal of $250,000!

Why is Muv-Luv so beloved? I have already mentioned that it is THE BEST visual novel (at least in English) that has currently been ever been conceived. But why is that so? What kind of story can create such an impact of people? What kind of insanity can drive people to fund $1.2 million USD to a relatively unknown Japanese entertainment medium?

Some background information is required to understand the Muv-Luv Series. The Muv-Luv series primarily consists of three parts: Muv-Luv Extra, Muv-Luv Unlimited (which are packaged together in a single game) and Muv-Luv Alternative. There are also many spin-offs such as Muv-Luv: Altered Fable, semi-continuations like Muv-Luv Alternative Chronicles (the second of which I played) and also other stories set in the same universe, for example, Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse.

Muv-Luv Extra (henceforth MLE) is the carefree, high-school part of the story. It is trite, incredibly cheesy and completely excruciating to go through. The market for VNs is already flooded with high-school romance genres - and MLE breaks absolutely ZERO new ground, revels in anime tropes and falls squarely into every single overused textbook cliches and character archetypes. It would be one of the WORST VNs I have ever played, if not for its only saving grace: its presentation. The presentation of this VN is one of best I have ever seen in VNs, and it actually manages to save this game from being completely unplayable, but doesn't manage to carry the weight of this game. This game is undoubtedly the WEAKEST part of the Muv-Luv series, is a complete chore to go through, and yet is COMPULSORY to experience the full Muv-Luv experience. If you're wondering how a game I just lambasted so much can become the best VN series, bear with me. It gets better. A complete playthrough of Muv-Luv Extra will set you back about ~20 hours.

After completing the two main routes of Muv-Luv Extra, you unlock the second part of the series, Muv-Luv Unlimited (henceforth MLU). MLU turns the entire premise of MLE on its head, and instead begins anew in a post-apocalyptic world where the aforementioned aliens, BETA have pushed mankind to the brink of extinction. Our protagonist, Takeru, wakes up in his bedroom, and realises that his entire town and his house are dilapidated and in ruins. After a sequence of events, he enrolls into a military school which trains cadets to become Eishis, pilots of giant machines known as Tactical Surface Fighters (TSFs), which are the only machines capable of fighting the aliens. MLU begins the trip into the abyss of no return, where we begin to enter the world of the BETA. But MLU is just the beginning. MLU spends the majority of the time on the training arc, and there is no actual confrontation with the BETA. The ending would be a spoiler, and suffice it to say that the ending is a calamity. Thankfully, a continuation is provided in the spinoff Muv-Luv Alternative Chronicles. MLU provides us a good introduction into the post-apoclayptic world world of Muv-Luv, and sets the stage for Muv-Luv Alternative. As with MLE, it is also compulsory and a complete playthrough will set you back around ~15 hours.

Muv-Luv Alternative (MLA) is the true gem of the Muv-Luv series, and is the game that elevates the Muv-Luv series to MASTERPIECE status. Muv-Luv Alternative continues the story in MLU. Our protagonist Takeru wakes up again in his destroyed town, and quickly realises that he has somehow been transported back in time before the events of MLU. However, his memories and improved physique has remained intact. Takeru, armed with the knowledge of the future from MLU, seeks to avoid the disastrous future that he has seen, and decides to use his invaluable knowledge to prevent the calamity he has witnessed. In the beginning, his knowledge proves invaluable, and his efforts bear fruit. However, it soon becomes apparent that even knowledge of the future is but a tiny drop in the bucket towards winning the war against the BETA, and soon Takeru realises that his efforts are all for naught. A misstep causes a horrific event to happen, and Takeru succumbs to it. 

Faced with the realisation of his ultimate nightmare, Takeru rejects the world and denies everything about it, falling into absolute despair. It is only when even more terrible things happen that he finally embraces the brutality of truth and awakens as the true hero the world desperately needs.     

Calling Muv-Luv a masterpiece is an understatement. No other story radiates so much passion, power, emotion and sheer intellect into its writing. No other story establishes the perennial fear, desperation and absolute despair that permeates the atmosphere in Muv-Luv. Mere words cannot describe the incredible work of art that is Muv-Luv. It is more that just a story, it is a reflection of the human spirit. That is what makes it the best VN series ever. 

I should be coming out with a review of the game I just played soon, since there doesn't seem to be any out yet. But until then,

Happy Anime Watching!