Starza's Fandom Blog (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
starzafandomblog) wrote2016-12-09 10:31 pm
starzafandomblog) wrote2016-12-09 10:31 pm
Entry tags:
Visual Novel, DRAMAtical: Murder
Okay, I'm going to actual put the review up that I kept going on about. Yes, DRAMAtical: Murder.
And I'm surprised that there's people who rank this game lower than Lamento and Togainu no Chi. Like wtf? Is it because the game has a more 'ligher' plot???? Or am I missing something???
Like, look, I get it, TnC had a dark plot. A lot of Nitro games in general lean more to dark plots. Chaos; Head was my first official Nitro game and I was not disappointed. I read summaries of Sweet Pool, and I will read it when it comes out (Though the meat monster thing is.. um, barf?). I also played Saya no Uta as well (I do NOT recommend it at all though, I can see some people liking it, it was not up my alley of dark stories). I love dark plots in my fiction, I mean fuck, I was part of Yami no Matsuei fandom for a long time. But the problem with TnC is that the routes themselves were terribly done and full of rape. Rape =! good dark story.
Anyways, enough with ranting and on to the review! Sadly, this review is full of damn spoilers. I tried hard to avoid spoilers for the main plotline, but I do somewhat spoil the other routes, so be warned.
Title: DRAMAtical: Murder
Company: Nitro+Chiral
Translation done by: Kick ass people from Aarinfantasy
Rating: E
Genre: Future Earth/Cyberpunk/Yaoi
Warnings: Violence, angst, dark themes, drug use, rape, gore, physical abuse, incest?, cannibalism, Amputation, beastility, sadism (Quite a few of these warnings only apply to the bad ends and a certain bad end)
Graphics: 10/10 - I absolutely love the artwork in this game. It's colorful and bright when it needs to be. And it can be dark and edgy too. I love all the character's art design. Aoba himself is cute to look at. All the love interests I liked their character design. I love the different expressions that Aoba makes and the other characters as well. And I love Ren to mother fucking pieces, that cute little puppy!
When you first start the game too, you'll notice a little 8 bit Aoba sprite walking across the game. As you finish people's paths, the sprites that come on the screen are 8 bit characters of the pathes you finished. I thought that was a small but really nice touch.
Also, don't rush the text. Because sometimes, the characters change their expressions while they're talking! Yeah, sometimes while you're reading, the face changes depending on the text. It's not totally important or mind blowing, but it does add some flavor to the story, like the characters are reacting to what they say.
Plot: 7.5/10 - Ho boy, I'm going to try my hardest to avoid major spoilers. And like the last VN, I'm going to cover the routes because the routes are so different from each other and one of them is VERY story heavy to the main overall plot. All together, there are 5 routes. Including a 'bad end', there's 6.
Basically, the game takes place WAY in the future. Our main protag, Aoba, lives on the island of Midorijima with his Grandmother and his cute All-Mate, Ren (machines that people own that act like a cellphone/laptop/GPS/anything you want. They come in many different shapes and models). He works in a 'Junk shop', just living his life the best he can. He seems to show no interest in 'Rib' (Basically street gangs) or 'Rhyme' (A virtual fighting game). It's more along the lines of pokemon since people use their All-Mates to do battle.
I just realized there's a ton of fucking jargon in this game, but Aoba does a damn well good job explaining in game.
Anyways, one day while working, he receives a weird email that downloads a game to his Coil system (Coils are sort of like portable laptops that fit on your wrist). The game is very Dragon Quest 8 bit style (In fact, the cave part I'm pretty sure is ripped right from DQ1, lmfao). The next day, he gets a headache while working, which apparently, he's had for most of his life. We also find out about people mysteriously disappearing (Rumor has it that Morphine, a legendary team, is behind it). Turns out that this isn't just a rumor and one day, Aoba finds out that Dry Juice is completely wiped out and Morphine's 'logo' is plastered all over their hideout. He's rightfully pissed and now he's out to find out the 'who, what, where, when, why' of what happened.
To sum it up, shit happens to Aoba's friend, and he decides to go find out why with his merry band of LIs. Honestly, I really can't say anymore because the game would be spoiled. Some people that show up:
Ren - Aoba's All-Mate, he's a cute blue puppy dog. Aoba deeply cares for him, despite him being a very out-dated model.
Koujaku - Aoba's childhood friend, he's a hairdresser and a huge Lady's man. He's really obsessed with Aoba's hair. He owns a red bird All-Mate named Beni.
Mizuki - A friend of Aoba's who is part of the Rib gang called Dry Juice. He's into tattoos.
Virus and Trip - The 'Not Twins' that work for the Yakuza that were aquainted with Aoba back in his 'teenage punk' stage. They call themselves Aoba's 'fans'. They also have their own All Mates but you don't see them until a certain point later on.
Tae - Aoba's Grandmother, who won't hesitate to lay the verbal and physical smackdown on people who deserve it. XD Aoba deeply cares for her.
Noiz - The 'Tsundere' teaser guy who is pretty obsessed with Rhyme. And Aoba for some reason. He has a shit ton of body piercngs and a cube rabbit-like All-Mate.
Clear - A very weird bubbly guy who is always wearing a gas mask and calling Aoba 'Master'. Like wtf, a gas mask!? He also likes Jellyfish (I don't get it but meh).
Mink - The Leader of a gang called 'Scratch' (Which consists of mostly criminals, joy), his first order of biz being his gang thugs to rape Aoba. ~_~ He throws off 'GOAWAYOMG!' vibes. His All-Mate is a pink Parrot. Like da fark?
There's more characters like Toue, a mysterious dark haired boy, the brat brigade, Aoba's boss, the crazy cop guy who abuses his powers, the big lady who has an all mate that has a crush on Ren, the crazy chick but actually a d00d all mate (Least his voice is) that looks over the Rhyme battles, and other characters that show up on other routes, but I'll try to cover them later on.
Holy shit, I realize there's a TON of characters in this story on top of a lot of Jargon. Like a lot to even keep track of. I don't think I can even name a game that has as many characters as this one has. It kind of blows my mind now that I think about it. Also, when the characters are introduced, the game says their name, gives their b-days, hobbies, positions, etc (I can't tell what else, because it flashes by so fucking fast). It's kind of funny how detailed this game is.
There's not much to say about the plot, because the plot is really this game's biggest weakness. The overall plot being who Aoba is and where he came from, isn't covered until Ren's route. The other routes focus on Aoba's Love interest rather than him. Which isn't a bad thing, but it does hurt the overall story itself.
I think one good thing about this game is that it's in First person PoV for the most part. Most VNs usually go the third person pov, so we can flipflip between the Main protag and the LI or other characters. Here though, we get in Aoba's head and we can get a clear feel on his thoughts and emotions. So we can connect to Aoba a lot better than we could with Akira and Konoe. The ONLY bad thing is we can't get into the minds of the LIs, and honestly, I don't even think that's a bad thing, because the focus of the routes is on the LIs from Aoba's PoV. It works really well here, believe it or not.
I also think the characters make up for the so-so plot. The characters are what really bring this game to life, and you feel drawn to them. They're all different and complex from one another. Aoba is probably the most likable main male lead for a BL game. And he's easily in my top 5 for most likable main protag of all VNs I read. For the others, I was drawn to Koujaku and Noiz pretty strongly. I was really curious about Clear as well (Mostly wondering how he knows Aoba. And why a gas mask!?). As for Mink, urgh. We'll get to this route.
Anyways, I would highly suggest you do the routes in the order I review them: Koujaku > Mink > Noiz > Clear > Ren. You can't do Ren's till the end regardless because he's the 'true route'. Yes, Aoba's All-Mate gets his own route too! I'd suggest doing Mink's route second because of all the routes, it's one of the more controversal routes (aka rapey and abusive route) and you should get it out of the way asap. I recommend doing it second though, because I feel doing Koujaku's route first is the better one to start out (It's not full of feels, but it's not controversal. It's the perfect 'in the middle' route). Also, take the warnings I give to that route seriously too.
Koujaku 9/10 - Childhood friend route! I don't know why I have a thing for them, but I really enjoy childhood friend routes. You can tell Koujaku really cares for Aoba in his own way, and you can also tell that he has this 'mysterious dark past' thing going on.
As for the route itself... It is not the strongest or the best route. I can 100% say that it's the 'down the middle road' route. Which is a big reason why I say do this route first, because it feels like a 'warm up' route for the others.
The biggest flaw in this route? Aoba does some really stupid shit. This is really the only route save Mink's where I was yelling at my monitor at Aoba being a fucking idiot. You can tell right away when Ryuuhou is on the screen that he is no good, something is up and it's BAD.
It doesn't help that it seems like Koujaku is hiding something from Aoba. Like those strange tattoos that cover his body. Maybe that's why Aoba is rebeling? Anyways, misunderstandings happen, we have an almost rape scene (The fact that Koujaku actually feels like a douchebag makes up for it, unlike a certain other fucking rapey game. ~_~), Aoba being stupid yet again (STRANGER DANGER YOU FOOL!), Koujaku coming to rescue our damsel and finally spilling his own backstory. Like seriously, this is the one route Aoba acts really stupid in. I guess you can say he's acting like that cause he's being emo and Koujaku not being honest isn't helping him either, but still... Anyways, they chase Ryuuhou to the Tower, confrontation happens, Koujaku goes cray cray, and Aoba has to use his 'Scrap' ability to enter his friend's mind to save him.
I'm going to say this, each route follows this basic formula. They go to Platinum Jail to confront the bad guy, they hang around a hotel and the town for plot reasons pretaining to the route, they enter Oval Tower, Aoba has to use his ability on every love interest in order to bring them back, and your decisions through the route decide if it works or not. If you pick good, bad guy goes boom, we run out of the tower, and you get your ending (Most endings leading up to kinky times). Choose poorly, you are greeted to some of the most fucked up endings I've seen in a VN. And one of them rivals the fucking 'I ripped out your guts while alive!' scene from TnC. I'll talk about the bad endings in it's own segment, because they really do deserve a mention.
It gets kind of predictable, but it's not all bad.
Also, small note, depending on the path you're on, the place in the Platinum where you end up is different. Like Koujaku's is a japanese-like themed town. It's small flavor things, but I think they're really nicely done touches.
Anyways, while this isn't my favorite route, I did like this route, save for the semi-rape scene. Wtf is with childhood routes doing this? The saving grace was Koujaku didn't go through with it and felt really guilty about it. You can also tell Koujaku cares for Aoba, so much that he's just happy being friends with Aoba. I have a feeling even if Aoba didn't like him, Koujaku would still be there for him as a friend and be happy with it. Also, the kinky love time they have was cute and one part was so funny, I had to grab a tissue to wipe my tears of laughter away. It all ends pretty damn happily ever after style.
Hence why I think this route is the perfect route to start with. These two are cute and akward together and while it doesn't have huge deep issues like other paths here, it's enough to put a grin on your face and say, 'yeah, they look good together'. There's some questionable things (Aoba not knowing what stranger danger is, Koujaku knowing Aoba being distrustful of him but still not saying anything), but not enough to destroy the appeal of the game. This is a great route to start the game with.
Mink 7/10 - My least favorite route and I'm really not in the minority on this. From the single moment you meet Mink, I already knew that this was going to be the 'rapey and abusive' route. It... really stands out from the other routes. I was really screaming at my monitor once again of 'Wtf is this, is this for real!?'
So yeah, at the beginning of the route, Mink and Aoba go to some club, somehow Aoba ends up getting high on the lights or some bullshit (Yeah, apparently in this world, lights can make you stoned as a kite, like how does that even make ANY sense!?), and starts clinging to Mink, begging to 'destroy him'. That was the moment I knew this route was going to spiral downhill from there, didn't even need Aoba acting like a slut shortly after to know that. ~_~ This route has a lot of physical abuse and rape and it's... just a real not good feelings route. There are 3 sex scenes in this and all 3 of them are rape, and yes, I'm counting the first one too, despite the drugs.
Later on though, you do find out why Mink is an abusive douchenozzle, he's trying to bring out Aoba's other dark persona (Which you can get hints of based on the drug club scene). And that he wants revenge against Toue because he wiped out his entire tribe. All because Toue wanted to get a drug. He basically dissected Mink's entire tribe to find the secret to it. Like da fuck, you sicko!?
Tower scene happens, Toue tries to make a bargain with Mink but Mink gives him the finger, so he uses some sort of song to mess up Aoba and Mink (Which you'll notice something in another route, which I'll cover). We are treated to a part of Aoba's past, Aoba breaks free, but Mink is still spazzed. So Aoba uses his ability, you view Mink's past and make choices, finding out when Mink kills Toue, he was going to commit suicide after that. Aoba tells him to live, blah blah blah. Mink wakes up okay, tells Aoba to gtfo, goes after Toue on his own, Aoba actually listens, shit hapens, I won't say for spoilers sake. Time passes and Aoba sets out to find Mink, because he believes he's still alive (Aoba, no, please don't...). Well, he finds him in the end and... scene goes to black?
Urgh, this path... I understand why Mink did what he did. But it doesn't excuse him at all. However, unlike Shiki's route from TnC, there is a reason behind it.
One positive thing I'll say, this route had the best getting into the Oval Tower scene of all the routes. That motocycle, god damn. XD Also, Mink does seem to care about his men to some degree?
This route is not meant for romance and hearts and shojo bubbles, unlike Koujaku's route and the other routes as well. And if you go in with that mind set, you may actually like this route. It's not a bad written route, and for some reason, it didn't make me enrage as much as I did during Shiki's route. I think it's because it's actually well written and the sex scenes in it aren't really made for fap material, but for reasons pertaining to the route itself. It also doesn't help that Aoba is so damn likable, so to see him go through this kind of abuse, it's hard to read.
It's a very very controversal route, and this is my least favorite route too. The only reason it doesn't score lower is because it's well written. I will say if you play the Reconnect sequel, the bond between Aoba and Mink is done rather well (Mink also tells him why he did what he did, and backstory, which actually should've been in the main game! ~_~) and Mink is much more likable (Doesn't make me like him at all, but I can accept the warped logic behind it). Just don't go in thinking you're going to get a 'kawaii desu-ne' experience.
Noiz 10/10 - Honestly, I did not expect to like this route nearly as much as I thought I would. I thought Clear was going to be my go to route or Ren, because I always go for the 'True' routes most of all. However, that did not end up being the case and Noiz actually stole the number 1 route from all the guys. Like why do I always seem to go for the 'Tsundere' guys!? Hell, even Noiz's design doesn't appeal to me all that much, I'm not into piercings at all.
I think Noiz is the character that changes the most throughout the routes. He starts off as a cocky little shit and while he does change, his cockiness is still rooted into him. <.< Wouldn't have it any other way though. Noiz does seem like a good person deep down. Like at the start, he's messing with Ren, but as it turns out, he was getting rid of a virus that was put in Ren (Which happens again in another route, but no Noiz to get rid of it!). And then he brushes it off with his cockiness. >.> It's tiny things like that that make me like him a lot compared to the other guys.
He also loves to tease Aoba and getting him flustered (Though there are times where Aoba teases him right back. >.>). He goes from not trusting anyone to trusting Aoba completely. He has no tact whatsoever, and just goes with the flow. There's a ton of chemistry from both Aoba and Noiz, they seem to flip flop from being rivals to friends. One minute, they're yelling at each other, and the next, they're giving each other a handjob. Like da fuck? It makes for some funny scenes. The food scene near the beginning had me in fits of giggles. XD
You find out later that Noiz is obsessed with Rhyme due to him not being able to feel any sort of pain (Save his tongue). You get hints of this early on, like the coffee incident. So remember how in Rhyme, you can experience pain if you're not careful? Yeah... Basically, he uses Rhyme to try to experience it? Masochist much? >.> He's also an outcast from his family too.
Noiz and Aoba have a lot of touching scenes, and it seems Aoba really cares about Noiz. He sort of plays the caretaker in this route while being in the uke role, and like Asato's route from Lamento, it works damn well here. Scenes move from being downright funny to touching and tender. There's a lot of fuzzy feelings with a nice side of goofiness. >.>
Also, there is one part in this route where the game... kind of bugs out. Trust me, it's supposed to be like that.
I think the one bad thing here is that you know, in the end, Aoba is going to use his ability on Noiz and he'll be able to feel again. Way too predictable end, but I can't really fault it, because I absolutely love these two characters together. >.> This is the one route that officially has two 'kinky time scenes' (Not counting Mink and his rapey scenes). One of them being in the damn hospital. SIGH! Luckily, it's not bad at all (In fact, of all the sex scens in the game, this is probably my favorite one, mostly because Aoba and Noiz come off as equals here and I love that shit in my yaoi stories). The good ending to this route was funny as hell and it wrapped up pretty much everything neatly. XD
This route also has my favorite Bad End too, not because of shock gore value, but because it's appeals to my gamer side. That's all I'll say about that.
Noiz's route is my absolute favorite, it's funny, it's cute, it's tender, it's sexy, it's everything that I could possibly want in a route and more. If you like a 'rivalmance' type of thing, this route will fit the bill, hands down.
Clear 10/10 - This route, holy shit. You better have that damn tissue ready, because of all the routes, this is going to be the route with the most feels for it. While this didn't end up being my favorite route, this was really well done and I can see why it would appeal to a lot of people. Also, there are massive spoilers ahead, so if you haven't played the route, you should before reading this.
Clear is your typical 'happy go lucky' character that you know has this 'deep dark angsty secret' behind it. Like Asato's route from Lamento, Clear's devotion to Aoba is exactly the same and shines in exactly the same way. I mean, when he first meets Aoba, he starts calling him Master (You find out later, that was more of a malfunction, but stilll...). He's very protective of Aoba and goes to many lengths to show that devotion. Wheither it's dressed in nothing but an apron making him breakfast (Best scene in the game imo. XD) or including beating the ever loving shit out of Yakuza thugs because they laid a finger on Aoba.
There are a TON of touching and tender scenes in this route. From Clear finally removing his mask, the 'life and death' conversation, Clear's 'Jellyfish' Song, the out in the rain scene, the confrontation in the tower... There's too many damn scenes that I ended up tearing up or going 'Awww! or 'holy shit, that took a 180'. I also like how Aoba isn't sure of his feelings till the very end, it made the bond between these two gentle, genuine, and sweet.
This is a very thought provoking route too, as it turns out, Clear isn't human, but a man made machine. You also find out he was a failed product, thrown away, but is picked up by an old guy, aka Clear's Grandpa. You also find out he wears that gas mask because his grandfather was protecting him from being taken away by Toue. Also, remember in Mink's route where these two guys came out and were singing to fuck with their Minds? Yep, turns out Toue made machines to control people, and those two in Mink's route were probably the same ones in this route.
There's other stuff that happens, but I honestly don't want to spoil any more than I have. It's really that well written.
This route does have a few issues. For one thing, it starts off really light and funny (Apron scene is probably the funniest scene in the entire game) and goes from that to angst land shortly after (Confrontation in the tower, holy fucking shit) and... doesn't let up till the end. I mean it, one minute, we have Clear being goofy with his masks, and 2 minutes later, we're having a deep conversation about what 'life and death' really mean. Da fuck man?
Also, the kinky scene at the end had me feeling kind of uncomfortable. I mean, it is Clear's 'last wish' (WAH!) and all, but it's still somewhat disturbing to have kinky times with him falling apart in front of Aoba. It made me uncomfortable and really sad (Especially when Aoba says he'd do anything to make Clear better. Holy shit, this route knows when to hit you and hit you hard). I have to comment on Aoba's VA here, he really brings the emotions in this scene. Even after that, this route has a happy end, and you really want it to have a happy end. You can also tell that Aoba really did return Clear's feelings of love, he was so determined to fix him on his own (He ended up getting help from his Grandma, bless her heart) and when Clear appears, he's like tearing up before we go fade to black, but you really don't need any more proof of how Aoba feels.
Though if you play Reconnect, it's more bitter sweet, because Aoba is human, and you can't stop time. :/
This route will probably end up being a lot of people's favorites. It's actually 2 on my list, Noiz only beats Clear out by a little bit, I'll explain why near the end. But if you're looking for an emotional roller coaster, this route will not disappoint. Clear's bad end is my favorite 'you done fucked up!' bad end too, mostly because it's so god damn painful compared to all the other routes. Clear is a character that knows how and when to hit you where it hurts most, but in a good way. In fact, I think Clear is almost the exact opposite of Mink here.
This route was excellently written and hits you when it needs to.Just be prepared when you read this and have a tissue ready.
Ren 9/10 - Believe it or not, Ren gets his own route! And no, the Beastility warning is for another bad end, sadly. ~_~;; Really, this route is more on Aoba rather than Ren, because the focus is on Aoba's past and who he is and where he came from. Ren is along for the ride because... yeah, this review is going to contain a shitton of spoilers, so if you don't want to be spoiled, go back now.
Remember in Noiz's route, Aoba ends up in a random fight and during that, Ren picks up a virus? Well, it happens again, cept there's no Noiz to remove it! No~! It's funny how what happens in the other routes kind of intertwine with each other. The virus being one thing. The songs that play in the Old District during the Toue event, which remember in Clear's route, played a huge role. It's like the game was giving you hints and pieces from the other routes and it all comes together in this one. Also, I find it amusing that this is the ONLY route where Aoba uses the stun gun that Haga gave him before the paths split off. >.>
You find out that Virus and Trip are the masterminds behind Morphine and know all about Aoba. Like, I always knew these two were kinda... off. And they're the reason that Aoba doesn't remember what he did in Rhyme in the past, insert bullshit reason here. SIGH. Oh, and caution, while you might be pissed about that, whatever you do, do NOT give in to using your power on them and resist to the very end. If you don't, you will be extremely sorry. Fair warning. >.>
It seems like I don't have a lot to say about Ren, even though it's his route. >.> Like I said, this route focuses more on Aoba than Ren, it just feels like Ren was thrown in as an after thought. :/ That would be the one weakness of this route.
Well, anyways, it turns out Ren was actually part of Aoba that somehow got into the doggie All-Mate's body. Yeah, Ren is a persona of Aoba, who was keeping watch over Aoba and his conflicting personality. Yep, Aoba actually has 3 personalities: 1. Ren, 2. Present Aoba, and 3. Scrape Aoba. But because his voice wasn't reaching him from his body, somehow, Ren ended up in the All Mate puppy, so that he'd have more control to influence him. It's weird. Because of that worm that Ren caught, he remembers what his purpose was, and I guess flipped his lid and wanted to emotionally distance himself, because he didn't want to be abandoned. It's very weird.
Anyways because Ren and Aoba recognized himself as his own entity, he somehow ended up having his own identity (He used to be, well, the best way to put it, Aoba's imaginary self playmate). We also have the other 'persona' of Aoba, his scrape side that wants to destory that he refused to accept. You can tell where this is going. This entire storyplot gave me a lot of Persona 4 flashbacks. In fact, Ren reminded me of Persona 4's Teddie, who started off as a Shadow, but became a person when he conquered his own Shadow.
We also learn who the boy with the black hair who is wearing a hat is. Playing the other routes, you'll see him flash up on a monitor when the Oval Tower goes boom. Well, it turns out to be Sei, Aoba's twin brother, who were connected to each other by their hair, which apparently has nerves in it (This also explains why Aoba can 'feel' through his hair).
Anyways, Aoba defeats Toue, we get lots of story dumps with Sei, Aoba accepts his 'Persona', Ren and Aoba have a touching moment, then we're reminded that, yes, this is a 18+ BL game. >.> Yeah, Kinky times really feels forced in my opinion here.
Anyways, I spoiled this route enough, let's actually talk about the relationship. It's... well, sort of weird. I mean, on one hand, Aoba has always shown he cares greatly about Ren in pretty much every damn route, despite Ren being a very outdated All-Mate model. Most people usually just go for the upgrade and trash the previous model. Not Aoba. Ren obviously cares for him too, we see it through the routes, so the build up of their relationship isn't really shocking or needed too much.
Also, Ren is basically a Persona of Aoba. So the fact that they love each other is... kind of weird. It also doesn't help that at the end of the route, that Ren ends up in Sei's body (Which was really predictable with the game being sent). So now it goes from selfcest to incest, how the fuck did that happen!? In fact, during kinky times, Aoba makes a comment about it being weird! Also, I think Aoba only says 'I love you' to Ren, he says it to no other love interest (Displeased I am!). Which brings back the fact that Ren was a part of him, so he's saying he loves himself... Okay, I'm just going in circles now.
This route is really hard for me to comment on, because the whole relationship is weird. It's not badly written and if you go into it looking at it from more of a story point of view, it's good. It's just the fact that Aoba and Ren together, with Ren being in Sei's body... it's just... weird. It also answers a lot of questions that the player had by doing the previous routes, it incooperates all the routes, all the guys are involved in it (Best CGI is when they're wishing Aoba luck with the final confrontation), and pretty much ends the game nicely.
Bad Ends - NA - I'm not going to score the bad ends, because save for one, most of them are there for shock value in the disturbing way. Also, remember the Beastility and sadism warnings I gave? They mostly pertain to the Trip and Virus ending (I'm not counting them as a route, mostly because it's the same with TnC's bad ends, just there for rapey torture). The only way to get their ending is during Ren's route. They show up and if you make a mistake... You will regret it. This ending is probably the most disturbing end I've ever seen to a VN.
One word to describe these two: Monsters. They don't give a shit about what they're doing, as long as they get their cheap thrills. And remember when I said they have All-Mates? They have a Lion and Snake. Which they use on Aoba to abuse physically and sexually. Gag. Not to mention, they try to buttrape Aoba at the same time. Is that even possible without ALL parties feeling some pain??? This is just... horrible. What's worse? Reconnect EXPANDS on this ending.
In all my times of playing just about any game, I have never been physically ill playing. Playing Trip's in Reconnect, I almost vomited while reading, I actually had to take a break and leave the room to clear my head. That's how bad it is, trust me.
As for the other ends, most are predictable and not really worth mentioning. I'll mention Clear's Bad end, because it's really heartbreakingly sad (Imo, of all the bad ends, this one is the best). And Noiz's 'second' bad end, mostly because it appeals to my gamer side, and is funny as shit (Which means you don't need emo shit happening to have a good bad end).
Overall 8.8/10 - Cept for one route, every route was solid and kept my interest to the very end. The story itself was so-so, but the characters FAR make up for it and Aoba is super likable.
Of all the routes, Noiz's is my favorite. I really thought Clear would grab me, but the big problem was the tone of the route took a 180 just randomly. Noiz's route could get angsty at points, but it was balanced, while with Clear's, I felt it went down a slope more and didn't go back to being fluffy till the end. In the end, it comes down to my personal taste. Though to be really honest, it's sort of hard for me to choose. >.> But if you're not a completionist, those are the two routes that MUST be played.
Music/sound 9/10 - Again, I loved every track in this game and all the characters have their own theme songs when you finish their routes. I think if I had to pick one, Clear's song would be the best. And a certain 8 bit song to a certain 8 bit ending. >.> Actually, I liked most of the tunes and I kept humming the main theme to myself a lot.
Gameplay NA - Again, visual novel. You have choices to get to people's routes, you have choices along the way that decide what ends you get. Again, warning, choose wisely, the Bad Ends are seriously no fucking joke.
Overall 9.3/10 - A VN that needs to be played. It has a couple of kinks in it, but it's a must play, moreso if you're looking for a BL game with an above average plot and complex characters. It's a little bit lighter compared to Lamento and Togainu, but it's much more polished and well written.
Also, I'm not going to review Re: Connect, there's no point to, because if you enjoyed the original and want an 'epilogue' to all the routes, you should go pick up Re: Connect. Yes, Dramatical spawned a sequel, but it's really just expands on the endings, and adds in a side story to Mizuki and Aoba's parents. The bad ends are expanded on and like I said in the review, the only one worth reading of that mess is Clear's, the others are there for shock/gore/rape torture. The good endings for the others are just pure kinky fap material. Even with that in mind, if you wanna see what Aoba and whatever LI is doing post game, it's a must read.
As for the anime, I didn't finish it, but really, pick up the VN before the anime, regardless. 99% of all animes based on VNs, the VN is almost always the better choice. Seriously, go read this!
Anyways, I think I'm going to take a long deserved break from VNs, replaying this one took a lot out of me. Maybe back to fanfiction. And holy shit, this review is long as hell. X_X
And I'm surprised that there's people who rank this game lower than Lamento and Togainu no Chi. Like wtf? Is it because the game has a more 'ligher' plot???? Or am I missing something???
Like, look, I get it, TnC had a dark plot. A lot of Nitro games in general lean more to dark plots. Chaos; Head was my first official Nitro game and I was not disappointed. I read summaries of Sweet Pool, and I will read it when it comes out (Though the meat monster thing is.. um, barf?). I also played Saya no Uta as well (I do NOT recommend it at all though, I can see some people liking it, it was not up my alley of dark stories). I love dark plots in my fiction, I mean fuck, I was part of Yami no Matsuei fandom for a long time. But the problem with TnC is that the routes themselves were terribly done and full of rape. Rape =! good dark story.
Anyways, enough with ranting and on to the review! Sadly, this review is full of damn spoilers. I tried hard to avoid spoilers for the main plotline, but I do somewhat spoil the other routes, so be warned.
Title: DRAMAtical: Murder
Company: Nitro+Chiral
Translation done by: Kick ass people from Aarinfantasy
Rating: E
Genre: Future Earth/Cyberpunk/Yaoi
Warnings: Violence, angst, dark themes, drug use, rape, gore, physical abuse, incest?, cannibalism, Amputation, beastility, sadism (Quite a few of these warnings only apply to the bad ends and a certain bad end)
Graphics: 10/10 - I absolutely love the artwork in this game. It's colorful and bright when it needs to be. And it can be dark and edgy too. I love all the character's art design. Aoba himself is cute to look at. All the love interests I liked their character design. I love the different expressions that Aoba makes and the other characters as well. And I love Ren to mother fucking pieces, that cute little puppy!
When you first start the game too, you'll notice a little 8 bit Aoba sprite walking across the game. As you finish people's paths, the sprites that come on the screen are 8 bit characters of the pathes you finished. I thought that was a small but really nice touch.
Also, don't rush the text. Because sometimes, the characters change their expressions while they're talking! Yeah, sometimes while you're reading, the face changes depending on the text. It's not totally important or mind blowing, but it does add some flavor to the story, like the characters are reacting to what they say.
Plot: 7.5/10 - Ho boy, I'm going to try my hardest to avoid major spoilers. And like the last VN, I'm going to cover the routes because the routes are so different from each other and one of them is VERY story heavy to the main overall plot. All together, there are 5 routes. Including a 'bad end', there's 6.
Basically, the game takes place WAY in the future. Our main protag, Aoba, lives on the island of Midorijima with his Grandmother and his cute All-Mate, Ren (machines that people own that act like a cellphone/laptop/GPS/anything you want. They come in many different shapes and models). He works in a 'Junk shop', just living his life the best he can. He seems to show no interest in 'Rib' (Basically street gangs) or 'Rhyme' (A virtual fighting game). It's more along the lines of pokemon since people use their All-Mates to do battle.
I just realized there's a ton of fucking jargon in this game, but Aoba does a damn well good job explaining in game.
Anyways, one day while working, he receives a weird email that downloads a game to his Coil system (Coils are sort of like portable laptops that fit on your wrist). The game is very Dragon Quest 8 bit style (In fact, the cave part I'm pretty sure is ripped right from DQ1, lmfao). The next day, he gets a headache while working, which apparently, he's had for most of his life. We also find out about people mysteriously disappearing (Rumor has it that Morphine, a legendary team, is behind it). Turns out that this isn't just a rumor and one day, Aoba finds out that Dry Juice is completely wiped out and Morphine's 'logo' is plastered all over their hideout. He's rightfully pissed and now he's out to find out the 'who, what, where, when, why' of what happened.
To sum it up, shit happens to Aoba's friend, and he decides to go find out why with his merry band of LIs. Honestly, I really can't say anymore because the game would be spoiled. Some people that show up:
Ren - Aoba's All-Mate, he's a cute blue puppy dog. Aoba deeply cares for him, despite him being a very out-dated model.
Koujaku - Aoba's childhood friend, he's a hairdresser and a huge Lady's man. He's really obsessed with Aoba's hair. He owns a red bird All-Mate named Beni.
Mizuki - A friend of Aoba's who is part of the Rib gang called Dry Juice. He's into tattoos.
Virus and Trip - The 'Not Twins' that work for the Yakuza that were aquainted with Aoba back in his 'teenage punk' stage. They call themselves Aoba's 'fans'. They also have their own All Mates but you don't see them until a certain point later on.
Tae - Aoba's Grandmother, who won't hesitate to lay the verbal and physical smackdown on people who deserve it. XD Aoba deeply cares for her.
Noiz - The 'Tsundere' teaser guy who is pretty obsessed with Rhyme. And Aoba for some reason. He has a shit ton of body piercngs and a cube rabbit-like All-Mate.
Clear - A very weird bubbly guy who is always wearing a gas mask and calling Aoba 'Master'. Like wtf, a gas mask!? He also likes Jellyfish (I don't get it but meh).
Mink - The Leader of a gang called 'Scratch' (Which consists of mostly criminals, joy), his first order of biz being his gang thugs to rape Aoba. ~_~ He throws off 'GOAWAYOMG!' vibes. His All-Mate is a pink Parrot. Like da fark?
There's more characters like Toue, a mysterious dark haired boy, the brat brigade, Aoba's boss, the crazy cop guy who abuses his powers, the big lady who has an all mate that has a crush on Ren, the crazy chick but actually a d00d all mate (Least his voice is) that looks over the Rhyme battles, and other characters that show up on other routes, but I'll try to cover them later on.
Holy shit, I realize there's a TON of characters in this story on top of a lot of Jargon. Like a lot to even keep track of. I don't think I can even name a game that has as many characters as this one has. It kind of blows my mind now that I think about it. Also, when the characters are introduced, the game says their name, gives their b-days, hobbies, positions, etc (I can't tell what else, because it flashes by so fucking fast). It's kind of funny how detailed this game is.
There's not much to say about the plot, because the plot is really this game's biggest weakness. The overall plot being who Aoba is and where he came from, isn't covered until Ren's route. The other routes focus on Aoba's Love interest rather than him. Which isn't a bad thing, but it does hurt the overall story itself.
I think one good thing about this game is that it's in First person PoV for the most part. Most VNs usually go the third person pov, so we can flipflip between the Main protag and the LI or other characters. Here though, we get in Aoba's head and we can get a clear feel on his thoughts and emotions. So we can connect to Aoba a lot better than we could with Akira and Konoe. The ONLY bad thing is we can't get into the minds of the LIs, and honestly, I don't even think that's a bad thing, because the focus of the routes is on the LIs from Aoba's PoV. It works really well here, believe it or not.
I also think the characters make up for the so-so plot. The characters are what really bring this game to life, and you feel drawn to them. They're all different and complex from one another. Aoba is probably the most likable main male lead for a BL game. And he's easily in my top 5 for most likable main protag of all VNs I read. For the others, I was drawn to Koujaku and Noiz pretty strongly. I was really curious about Clear as well (Mostly wondering how he knows Aoba. And why a gas mask!?). As for Mink, urgh. We'll get to this route.
Anyways, I would highly suggest you do the routes in the order I review them: Koujaku > Mink > Noiz > Clear > Ren. You can't do Ren's till the end regardless because he's the 'true route'. Yes, Aoba's All-Mate gets his own route too! I'd suggest doing Mink's route second because of all the routes, it's one of the more controversal routes (aka rapey and abusive route) and you should get it out of the way asap. I recommend doing it second though, because I feel doing Koujaku's route first is the better one to start out (It's not full of feels, but it's not controversal. It's the perfect 'in the middle' route). Also, take the warnings I give to that route seriously too.
Koujaku 9/10 - Childhood friend route! I don't know why I have a thing for them, but I really enjoy childhood friend routes. You can tell Koujaku really cares for Aoba in his own way, and you can also tell that he has this 'mysterious dark past' thing going on.
As for the route itself... It is not the strongest or the best route. I can 100% say that it's the 'down the middle road' route. Which is a big reason why I say do this route first, because it feels like a 'warm up' route for the others.
The biggest flaw in this route? Aoba does some really stupid shit. This is really the only route save Mink's where I was yelling at my monitor at Aoba being a fucking idiot. You can tell right away when Ryuuhou is on the screen that he is no good, something is up and it's BAD.
It doesn't help that it seems like Koujaku is hiding something from Aoba. Like those strange tattoos that cover his body. Maybe that's why Aoba is rebeling? Anyways, misunderstandings happen, we have an almost rape scene (The fact that Koujaku actually feels like a douchebag makes up for it, unlike a certain other fucking rapey game. ~_~), Aoba being stupid yet again (STRANGER DANGER YOU FOOL!), Koujaku coming to rescue our damsel and finally spilling his own backstory. Like seriously, this is the one route Aoba acts really stupid in. I guess you can say he's acting like that cause he's being emo and Koujaku not being honest isn't helping him either, but still... Anyways, they chase Ryuuhou to the Tower, confrontation happens, Koujaku goes cray cray, and Aoba has to use his 'Scrap' ability to enter his friend's mind to save him.
I'm going to say this, each route follows this basic formula. They go to Platinum Jail to confront the bad guy, they hang around a hotel and the town for plot reasons pretaining to the route, they enter Oval Tower, Aoba has to use his ability on every love interest in order to bring them back, and your decisions through the route decide if it works or not. If you pick good, bad guy goes boom, we run out of the tower, and you get your ending (Most endings leading up to kinky times). Choose poorly, you are greeted to some of the most fucked up endings I've seen in a VN. And one of them rivals the fucking 'I ripped out your guts while alive!' scene from TnC. I'll talk about the bad endings in it's own segment, because they really do deserve a mention.
It gets kind of predictable, but it's not all bad.
Also, small note, depending on the path you're on, the place in the Platinum where you end up is different. Like Koujaku's is a japanese-like themed town. It's small flavor things, but I think they're really nicely done touches.
Anyways, while this isn't my favorite route, I did like this route, save for the semi-rape scene. Wtf is with childhood routes doing this? The saving grace was Koujaku didn't go through with it and felt really guilty about it. You can also tell Koujaku cares for Aoba, so much that he's just happy being friends with Aoba. I have a feeling even if Aoba didn't like him, Koujaku would still be there for him as a friend and be happy with it. Also, the kinky love time they have was cute and one part was so funny, I had to grab a tissue to wipe my tears of laughter away. It all ends pretty damn happily ever after style.
Hence why I think this route is the perfect route to start with. These two are cute and akward together and while it doesn't have huge deep issues like other paths here, it's enough to put a grin on your face and say, 'yeah, they look good together'. There's some questionable things (Aoba not knowing what stranger danger is, Koujaku knowing Aoba being distrustful of him but still not saying anything), but not enough to destroy the appeal of the game. This is a great route to start the game with.
Mink 7/10 - My least favorite route and I'm really not in the minority on this. From the single moment you meet Mink, I already knew that this was going to be the 'rapey and abusive' route. It... really stands out from the other routes. I was really screaming at my monitor once again of 'Wtf is this, is this for real!?'
So yeah, at the beginning of the route, Mink and Aoba go to some club, somehow Aoba ends up getting high on the lights or some bullshit (Yeah, apparently in this world, lights can make you stoned as a kite, like how does that even make ANY sense!?), and starts clinging to Mink, begging to 'destroy him'. That was the moment I knew this route was going to spiral downhill from there, didn't even need Aoba acting like a slut shortly after to know that. ~_~ This route has a lot of physical abuse and rape and it's... just a real not good feelings route. There are 3 sex scenes in this and all 3 of them are rape, and yes, I'm counting the first one too, despite the drugs.
Later on though, you do find out why Mink is an abusive douchenozzle, he's trying to bring out Aoba's other dark persona (Which you can get hints of based on the drug club scene). And that he wants revenge against Toue because he wiped out his entire tribe. All because Toue wanted to get a drug. He basically dissected Mink's entire tribe to find the secret to it. Like da fuck, you sicko!?
Tower scene happens, Toue tries to make a bargain with Mink but Mink gives him the finger, so he uses some sort of song to mess up Aoba and Mink (Which you'll notice something in another route, which I'll cover). We are treated to a part of Aoba's past, Aoba breaks free, but Mink is still spazzed. So Aoba uses his ability, you view Mink's past and make choices, finding out when Mink kills Toue, he was going to commit suicide after that. Aoba tells him to live, blah blah blah. Mink wakes up okay, tells Aoba to gtfo, goes after Toue on his own, Aoba actually listens, shit hapens, I won't say for spoilers sake. Time passes and Aoba sets out to find Mink, because he believes he's still alive (Aoba, no, please don't...). Well, he finds him in the end and... scene goes to black?
Urgh, this path... I understand why Mink did what he did. But it doesn't excuse him at all. However, unlike Shiki's route from TnC, there is a reason behind it.
One positive thing I'll say, this route had the best getting into the Oval Tower scene of all the routes. That motocycle, god damn. XD Also, Mink does seem to care about his men to some degree?
This route is not meant for romance and hearts and shojo bubbles, unlike Koujaku's route and the other routes as well. And if you go in with that mind set, you may actually like this route. It's not a bad written route, and for some reason, it didn't make me enrage as much as I did during Shiki's route. I think it's because it's actually well written and the sex scenes in it aren't really made for fap material, but for reasons pertaining to the route itself. It also doesn't help that Aoba is so damn likable, so to see him go through this kind of abuse, it's hard to read.
It's a very very controversal route, and this is my least favorite route too. The only reason it doesn't score lower is because it's well written. I will say if you play the Reconnect sequel, the bond between Aoba and Mink is done rather well (Mink also tells him why he did what he did, and backstory, which actually should've been in the main game! ~_~) and Mink is much more likable (Doesn't make me like him at all, but I can accept the warped logic behind it). Just don't go in thinking you're going to get a 'kawaii desu-ne' experience.
Noiz 10/10 - Honestly, I did not expect to like this route nearly as much as I thought I would. I thought Clear was going to be my go to route or Ren, because I always go for the 'True' routes most of all. However, that did not end up being the case and Noiz actually stole the number 1 route from all the guys. Like why do I always seem to go for the 'Tsundere' guys!? Hell, even Noiz's design doesn't appeal to me all that much, I'm not into piercings at all.
I think Noiz is the character that changes the most throughout the routes. He starts off as a cocky little shit and while he does change, his cockiness is still rooted into him. <.< Wouldn't have it any other way though. Noiz does seem like a good person deep down. Like at the start, he's messing with Ren, but as it turns out, he was getting rid of a virus that was put in Ren (Which happens again in another route, but no Noiz to get rid of it!). And then he brushes it off with his cockiness. >.> It's tiny things like that that make me like him a lot compared to the other guys.
He also loves to tease Aoba and getting him flustered (Though there are times where Aoba teases him right back. >.>). He goes from not trusting anyone to trusting Aoba completely. He has no tact whatsoever, and just goes with the flow. There's a ton of chemistry from both Aoba and Noiz, they seem to flip flop from being rivals to friends. One minute, they're yelling at each other, and the next, they're giving each other a handjob. Like da fuck? It makes for some funny scenes. The food scene near the beginning had me in fits of giggles. XD
You find out later that Noiz is obsessed with Rhyme due to him not being able to feel any sort of pain (Save his tongue). You get hints of this early on, like the coffee incident. So remember how in Rhyme, you can experience pain if you're not careful? Yeah... Basically, he uses Rhyme to try to experience it? Masochist much? >.> He's also an outcast from his family too.
Noiz and Aoba have a lot of touching scenes, and it seems Aoba really cares about Noiz. He sort of plays the caretaker in this route while being in the uke role, and like Asato's route from Lamento, it works damn well here. Scenes move from being downright funny to touching and tender. There's a lot of fuzzy feelings with a nice side of goofiness. >.>
Also, there is one part in this route where the game... kind of bugs out. Trust me, it's supposed to be like that.
I think the one bad thing here is that you know, in the end, Aoba is going to use his ability on Noiz and he'll be able to feel again. Way too predictable end, but I can't really fault it, because I absolutely love these two characters together. >.> This is the one route that officially has two 'kinky time scenes' (Not counting Mink and his rapey scenes). One of them being in the damn hospital. SIGH! Luckily, it's not bad at all (In fact, of all the sex scens in the game, this is probably my favorite one, mostly because Aoba and Noiz come off as equals here and I love that shit in my yaoi stories). The good ending to this route was funny as hell and it wrapped up pretty much everything neatly. XD
This route also has my favorite Bad End too, not because of shock gore value, but because it's appeals to my gamer side. That's all I'll say about that.
Noiz's route is my absolute favorite, it's funny, it's cute, it's tender, it's sexy, it's everything that I could possibly want in a route and more. If you like a 'rivalmance' type of thing, this route will fit the bill, hands down.
Clear 10/10 - This route, holy shit. You better have that damn tissue ready, because of all the routes, this is going to be the route with the most feels for it. While this didn't end up being my favorite route, this was really well done and I can see why it would appeal to a lot of people. Also, there are massive spoilers ahead, so if you haven't played the route, you should before reading this.
Clear is your typical 'happy go lucky' character that you know has this 'deep dark angsty secret' behind it. Like Asato's route from Lamento, Clear's devotion to Aoba is exactly the same and shines in exactly the same way. I mean, when he first meets Aoba, he starts calling him Master (You find out later, that was more of a malfunction, but stilll...). He's very protective of Aoba and goes to many lengths to show that devotion. Wheither it's dressed in nothing but an apron making him breakfast (Best scene in the game imo. XD) or including beating the ever loving shit out of Yakuza thugs because they laid a finger on Aoba.
There are a TON of touching and tender scenes in this route. From Clear finally removing his mask, the 'life and death' conversation, Clear's 'Jellyfish' Song, the out in the rain scene, the confrontation in the tower... There's too many damn scenes that I ended up tearing up or going 'Awww! or 'holy shit, that took a 180'. I also like how Aoba isn't sure of his feelings till the very end, it made the bond between these two gentle, genuine, and sweet.
This is a very thought provoking route too, as it turns out, Clear isn't human, but a man made machine. You also find out he was a failed product, thrown away, but is picked up by an old guy, aka Clear's Grandpa. You also find out he wears that gas mask because his grandfather was protecting him from being taken away by Toue. Also, remember in Mink's route where these two guys came out and were singing to fuck with their Minds? Yep, turns out Toue made machines to control people, and those two in Mink's route were probably the same ones in this route.
There's other stuff that happens, but I honestly don't want to spoil any more than I have. It's really that well written.
This route does have a few issues. For one thing, it starts off really light and funny (Apron scene is probably the funniest scene in the entire game) and goes from that to angst land shortly after (Confrontation in the tower, holy fucking shit) and... doesn't let up till the end. I mean it, one minute, we have Clear being goofy with his masks, and 2 minutes later, we're having a deep conversation about what 'life and death' really mean. Da fuck man?
Also, the kinky scene at the end had me feeling kind of uncomfortable. I mean, it is Clear's 'last wish' (WAH!) and all, but it's still somewhat disturbing to have kinky times with him falling apart in front of Aoba. It made me uncomfortable and really sad (Especially when Aoba says he'd do anything to make Clear better. Holy shit, this route knows when to hit you and hit you hard). I have to comment on Aoba's VA here, he really brings the emotions in this scene. Even after that, this route has a happy end, and you really want it to have a happy end. You can also tell that Aoba really did return Clear's feelings of love, he was so determined to fix him on his own (He ended up getting help from his Grandma, bless her heart) and when Clear appears, he's like tearing up before we go fade to black, but you really don't need any more proof of how Aoba feels.
Though if you play Reconnect, it's more bitter sweet, because Aoba is human, and you can't stop time. :/
This route will probably end up being a lot of people's favorites. It's actually 2 on my list, Noiz only beats Clear out by a little bit, I'll explain why near the end. But if you're looking for an emotional roller coaster, this route will not disappoint. Clear's bad end is my favorite 'you done fucked up!' bad end too, mostly because it's so god damn painful compared to all the other routes. Clear is a character that knows how and when to hit you where it hurts most, but in a good way. In fact, I think Clear is almost the exact opposite of Mink here.
This route was excellently written and hits you when it needs to.Just be prepared when you read this and have a tissue ready.
Ren 9/10 - Believe it or not, Ren gets his own route! And no, the Beastility warning is for another bad end, sadly. ~_~;; Really, this route is more on Aoba rather than Ren, because the focus is on Aoba's past and who he is and where he came from. Ren is along for the ride because... yeah, this review is going to contain a shitton of spoilers, so if you don't want to be spoiled, go back now.
Remember in Noiz's route, Aoba ends up in a random fight and during that, Ren picks up a virus? Well, it happens again, cept there's no Noiz to remove it! No~! It's funny how what happens in the other routes kind of intertwine with each other. The virus being one thing. The songs that play in the Old District during the Toue event, which remember in Clear's route, played a huge role. It's like the game was giving you hints and pieces from the other routes and it all comes together in this one. Also, I find it amusing that this is the ONLY route where Aoba uses the stun gun that Haga gave him before the paths split off. >.>
You find out that Virus and Trip are the masterminds behind Morphine and know all about Aoba. Like, I always knew these two were kinda... off. And they're the reason that Aoba doesn't remember what he did in Rhyme in the past, insert bullshit reason here. SIGH. Oh, and caution, while you might be pissed about that, whatever you do, do NOT give in to using your power on them and resist to the very end. If you don't, you will be extremely sorry. Fair warning. >.>
It seems like I don't have a lot to say about Ren, even though it's his route. >.> Like I said, this route focuses more on Aoba than Ren, it just feels like Ren was thrown in as an after thought. :/ That would be the one weakness of this route.
Well, anyways, it turns out Ren was actually part of Aoba that somehow got into the doggie All-Mate's body. Yeah, Ren is a persona of Aoba, who was keeping watch over Aoba and his conflicting personality. Yep, Aoba actually has 3 personalities: 1. Ren, 2. Present Aoba, and 3. Scrape Aoba. But because his voice wasn't reaching him from his body, somehow, Ren ended up in the All Mate puppy, so that he'd have more control to influence him. It's weird. Because of that worm that Ren caught, he remembers what his purpose was, and I guess flipped his lid and wanted to emotionally distance himself, because he didn't want to be abandoned. It's very weird.
Anyways because Ren and Aoba recognized himself as his own entity, he somehow ended up having his own identity (He used to be, well, the best way to put it, Aoba's imaginary self playmate). We also have the other 'persona' of Aoba, his scrape side that wants to destory that he refused to accept. You can tell where this is going. This entire storyplot gave me a lot of Persona 4 flashbacks. In fact, Ren reminded me of Persona 4's Teddie, who started off as a Shadow, but became a person when he conquered his own Shadow.
We also learn who the boy with the black hair who is wearing a hat is. Playing the other routes, you'll see him flash up on a monitor when the Oval Tower goes boom. Well, it turns out to be Sei, Aoba's twin brother, who were connected to each other by their hair, which apparently has nerves in it (This also explains why Aoba can 'feel' through his hair).
Anyways, Aoba defeats Toue, we get lots of story dumps with Sei, Aoba accepts his 'Persona', Ren and Aoba have a touching moment, then we're reminded that, yes, this is a 18+ BL game. >.> Yeah, Kinky times really feels forced in my opinion here.
Anyways, I spoiled this route enough, let's actually talk about the relationship. It's... well, sort of weird. I mean, on one hand, Aoba has always shown he cares greatly about Ren in pretty much every damn route, despite Ren being a very outdated All-Mate model. Most people usually just go for the upgrade and trash the previous model. Not Aoba. Ren obviously cares for him too, we see it through the routes, so the build up of their relationship isn't really shocking or needed too much.
Also, Ren is basically a Persona of Aoba. So the fact that they love each other is... kind of weird. It also doesn't help that at the end of the route, that Ren ends up in Sei's body (Which was really predictable with the game being sent). So now it goes from selfcest to incest, how the fuck did that happen!? In fact, during kinky times, Aoba makes a comment about it being weird! Also, I think Aoba only says 'I love you' to Ren, he says it to no other love interest (Displeased I am!). Which brings back the fact that Ren was a part of him, so he's saying he loves himself... Okay, I'm just going in circles now.
This route is really hard for me to comment on, because the whole relationship is weird. It's not badly written and if you go into it looking at it from more of a story point of view, it's good. It's just the fact that Aoba and Ren together, with Ren being in Sei's body... it's just... weird. It also answers a lot of questions that the player had by doing the previous routes, it incooperates all the routes, all the guys are involved in it (Best CGI is when they're wishing Aoba luck with the final confrontation), and pretty much ends the game nicely.
Bad Ends - NA - I'm not going to score the bad ends, because save for one, most of them are there for shock value in the disturbing way. Also, remember the Beastility and sadism warnings I gave? They mostly pertain to the Trip and Virus ending (I'm not counting them as a route, mostly because it's the same with TnC's bad ends, just there for rapey torture). The only way to get their ending is during Ren's route. They show up and if you make a mistake... You will regret it. This ending is probably the most disturbing end I've ever seen to a VN.
One word to describe these two: Monsters. They don't give a shit about what they're doing, as long as they get their cheap thrills. And remember when I said they have All-Mates? They have a Lion and Snake. Which they use on Aoba to abuse physically and sexually. Gag. Not to mention, they try to buttrape Aoba at the same time. Is that even possible without ALL parties feeling some pain??? This is just... horrible. What's worse? Reconnect EXPANDS on this ending.
In all my times of playing just about any game, I have never been physically ill playing. Playing Trip's in Reconnect, I almost vomited while reading, I actually had to take a break and leave the room to clear my head. That's how bad it is, trust me.
As for the other ends, most are predictable and not really worth mentioning. I'll mention Clear's Bad end, because it's really heartbreakingly sad (Imo, of all the bad ends, this one is the best). And Noiz's 'second' bad end, mostly because it appeals to my gamer side, and is funny as shit (Which means you don't need emo shit happening to have a good bad end).
Overall 8.8/10 - Cept for one route, every route was solid and kept my interest to the very end. The story itself was so-so, but the characters FAR make up for it and Aoba is super likable.
Of all the routes, Noiz's is my favorite. I really thought Clear would grab me, but the big problem was the tone of the route took a 180 just randomly. Noiz's route could get angsty at points, but it was balanced, while with Clear's, I felt it went down a slope more and didn't go back to being fluffy till the end. In the end, it comes down to my personal taste. Though to be really honest, it's sort of hard for me to choose. >.> But if you're not a completionist, those are the two routes that MUST be played.
Music/sound 9/10 - Again, I loved every track in this game and all the characters have their own theme songs when you finish their routes. I think if I had to pick one, Clear's song would be the best. And a certain 8 bit song to a certain 8 bit ending. >.> Actually, I liked most of the tunes and I kept humming the main theme to myself a lot.
Gameplay NA - Again, visual novel. You have choices to get to people's routes, you have choices along the way that decide what ends you get. Again, warning, choose wisely, the Bad Ends are seriously no fucking joke.
Overall 9.3/10 - A VN that needs to be played. It has a couple of kinks in it, but it's a must play, moreso if you're looking for a BL game with an above average plot and complex characters. It's a little bit lighter compared to Lamento and Togainu, but it's much more polished and well written.
Also, I'm not going to review Re: Connect, there's no point to, because if you enjoyed the original and want an 'epilogue' to all the routes, you should go pick up Re: Connect. Yes, Dramatical spawned a sequel, but it's really just expands on the endings, and adds in a side story to Mizuki and Aoba's parents. The bad ends are expanded on and like I said in the review, the only one worth reading of that mess is Clear's, the others are there for shock/gore/rape torture. The good endings for the others are just pure kinky fap material. Even with that in mind, if you wanna see what Aoba and whatever LI is doing post game, it's a must read.
As for the anime, I didn't finish it, but really, pick up the VN before the anime, regardless. 99% of all animes based on VNs, the VN is almost always the better choice. Seriously, go read this!
Anyways, I think I'm going to take a long deserved break from VNs, replaying this one took a lot out of me. Maybe back to fanfiction. And holy shit, this review is long as hell. X_X