Update Two Hundred and Twenty-Four: 9 September 2018

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Well it’s about god damned time!

Muv-Luv is made up of two separate games, Extra and Unlimited. One is a sequel, of a sort, and I’ll be talking about them separately here. Some things both games share is, of course, the art style and formatting, which is very appealing. The art has a 90’s/early 00’s anime feel that I love, and its sumptuously colored to boot. The game does away with the standard text box, instead having narration and dialogue appear like subtitles, which works incredibly well. The anime-like feel of the VNs is pushed even further by just how kinetic all the sprites are. They move all over the place, and have tons of poses (front and back), and are all full-bodied, so they can appear ‘in’ the background. So if someone’s walking around, their sprite ‘turns’ around, and ‘walks’ into the background stage by stage. It works really well, and I like that aspect a lot. Goofier moments are illustrated in a chibi art style.

Extra is a pretty standard high school date-em-up, though it’s more charming than others because of the ridiculous levels it takes the standard genre tropes to. This game smashes the ‘goofy’ button HARD, and the first half of the game is pretty entertaining and endearing because of it. The highlight is Meiya, your ultra-super-mega-rich option that takes class difference to a whole new level. Her arrival is the inciting incident for the whole game, and she continues to be the driving force for most of the plot. This is good and bad - her arc is strong (if not the most original…) but when you’re not doing her route (or Sumika’s, your childhood best friend and Meiya’s ‘rival’ for your love) it’s very left hanging and is wimpily forgotten about.

The goofy trope-pushing extreme hilarity really ceases to be once you lock into your girl’s route, and they’re either aight, okay, or very weak (SAKAKI…). Extra is a decent second to CLANNAD, we’ll say.

Ultimate picks up from Extra right before you lock on to any one girl’s route… and jumps universes. Your MC awakes in a world ravaged by war, and everyone he knows is either dead or now cadets learning how to fight in mechs against an alien invasion. Oh, that is, except your childhood friend, Sumika, who is just missing outright. The tone jump is… interesting, and I’m a sucker for alternate universes, even if I could take or leave mech stuff. (Who builds a robot you can’t kiss?) The pilot suits are one of the STUPIDEST fucking things I’ve ever seen. Would you look at this? They’re ALL like that. Character design while horny is a fucking crime.

Your MC frantically tries to fit into this new world, and you never really find out what tf is up with how or why he left his old one. There’s some decently poignant moments, and it’s more interesting than Extra by far. Unfortunately, it never goes anywhere. The cadets never graduate - after a bunch of incidents growing bigger in scale and intensity… some actual good, poignant story happens, struggling valiantly not to be rendered ridiculous by everyone’s fucking tiddies hanging out in their mechs, your MC learns and grows and gets used to everything…. and then…. off-screen and with little context, everything changes. Then, all of the sudden, two years pass and only a handful of people can evacuate earth, and…

Oh, the ending’s a mess.

It’s virtually identical for all five girls - you get with them, you get a pass to be on the last shuttle, you give it to them. Either you let them refuse it and stay on earth together to die, or you convince them to take the pass and they leave on the last shuttle, unknowingly pregnant with your child. Each ‘true’ route’s last little scene is your chosen girl, speaking to her child in the same way, telling them the same story about how their dad is still on Earth fighting. Its sameness is so creepy, you guys.

There’s a big final showy showstopper capper - Alternative, where hopefully the crappy nothing endings are made up for and Sumika’s in it this time. I’ll probably end up picking it up. I appreciate a lot of what Muv-Luv does, even though right now I’m just glad that it’s over.

Next up: Oh thank god, a short VN. I need a couple palette cleansers.

See you soon!