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G-Senjou no Maou (Completed September 2015) (Review Score : 9/10)
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An incredible visual novel ! Its often said that it is the Death Note of visual novels, I suppose I can see that. It is a very psychological work, has some crazy twists and turns that mainly happen in the true route, and some of its finer moments are played out as a battle of wits. The vast majority of what I will talk about in this review will pertain to the common route since its the one most people play, widely considered to be the best route by far, and is considered the canonical route while the others are more like alternate side stories that aren't all that important. The plot is by and far great. I don't want to say too much about it to avoid spoilers. But like I said there are a good number of twists and turns, a number of intense situations, showdowns, battle of wits, physical battles, struggles for survival, heart-wrenching tragedies, and an awesome theme of forgiveness vs revenge. Once you learn the main backstory the VN truly becomes an epic. There's more of a balance with school scenes towards the beginning of the novel, but I thought these were pretty well done and were good as nice funny breaks between tense dramatic situations in the novel. But even in the beginning and middle you're always curious about "Maou" , about the truth behind everything, and there are always the intense situations usually either involving Maou or Gonzo. The music of this game is incredible, almost all the songs are remixes of famous classical music songs that most people would recognize, and they are all used wonderfully in the game. Add this music to what I thought were very nice crisp clear visuals throughout the game they make a great combo. This visual novel has some REALLY great characters. Not going to go through an exhaustive list but some notables: - Kyosuke the protagonist we get an interesting twist that we get a dude that is the cynical adopted son of a mob boss. His smart ass funny dialogues with friends were always entertaining to me. Can be playful and joking , but is also very serious , very intelligent and practical. May seem like a jerk at first but you get to see his backstory and how he changes throughout the novel its great. - Gonzo is the mob boss who absolutely draws you into every scene he is in and even you are scared of him as a reader. Despite his brutish appearance, by and far one of the smartest characters in the whole novel. - Maou is the mysterious evil mastermind who is always one step ahead and it is always riveting to see whichever scene he pops up in. He has an incredible voice actor who I also believe voiced Lelouch in Code Geass so that automatically increases his bad-assery. The aspect I liked most about him, was he's simply so good he just toys with his opponents . And his backstory was quite interesting. - Haru is the beautiful long haired, mysterious girl who may seem like a goofball nerd transfer student at first, but you learn she is incredibly intelligent and will stop at nothing to get her revenge And all the routes have excellent character development which I truly enjoyed. Even some of so called evil characters in this game are developed and fleshed out so well that you can really understand why they are the way they are. I also loved the fact that in this visual novel you see multiple main characters go through introspection and change, even when you would least expect it, and its done pretty tastefully .. This game is really good at making you feel its various atmospheres, whether that be very tense situations, light hearted school/friends hanging out, explanation of tragic backstories, in almost all the situations they are done so well.On a few occasions I was so immersed in the atmospheric moment, it almost seemed I was right there. I'd say that the visual novel is pretty good also having a nice balance of lighthearted situations, and tense/dramatic/tragic situations. I also feel like this game was crazy good at manipulating my emotions. Especially in the dramatic tense scenarios that were more prevalent later in the work. The final chapter, the finale, and the epilogue I believe are together an absolute masterpiece. Everything gets explained, my
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Fate Stay Night (Overall score: 8/10) (Completed : 8/17/14)
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Reviews of FSN Routes + Overall Opinion on FSN
- Completed "Fate" Route 7/26/14 (7/10) ~ My short review of "Fate" Route (no real spoilers for the game events):
( I give it 7/10. Solidly written, but nothing extraordinary though. Positives include: Action sequences very well done, dramatic/thriller moments REALLY well done, humor mostly well done, most characters likable to some degree, servants have interesting personalities and abilities, and after 1/2 point of route it doesn't slow down much which is good. Negatives include: Sometimes It could get very dry especially in the beginning with all the school/home cooking stuff. . Saber not the most interesting heroine IMO, although her interactions were cute sometimes and it was fun to learn more about the emblematic bad ass face of the fate franchise of course . Shirou is not the most interesting protagonist as well, is quite annoying in much of the route unfortunately, doesn't display much growth or development.. )
- Completed "Unlimited Blade Works" route 8/6/14 (9/10)
~ My short review of UBW route:
Just an extremely fun route to play, all in all. First off you don't have to sit through really long winded explanations of holy grail war mechanics like in the "Fate" route..Also the pacing is done a good bit better than the "Fate" route(still a wee bit slow at the beginning, but you get to skip much of the slow content before the branch off point into UBW instead of Fate route). I had the general feeling that UBW was just one awesome roller coaster ride.. One of the greatest strengths of UBW are the number of "unexpected" events that happen , which greatly contribute to its ability to entertain you. Crazy shifting alliances included xD Unlimited Blade Works does an excellent job of keeping you attention with all these twists that happen. The action scenes in UBW are amazing for the most part. Well I liked all the scenes from the fate route as well, but in UBW there's at least two freaking crazy fight scenes that I absolutely loved, in addition to the others. In UBW I feel like you get to know about servants and their masters, its interesting to see how intimate some of their bonds are. Shirou himself was a much more interesting character than he was in the "Fate" route. Its a huge plus that you find out more about him, actually shows some growth and development, and that he can actually be useful on his own! Since this route focuses a bit more on Rin, Archer, and Shirou (instead of Fate's Shirou and Saber focus) it was much more interesting. Especially it was great to watch how Rin and Shrou's relationship changes and develop over time. Even though I found Unlimited Blade Works to be extremely entertaining and enjoyable, I wouldn't call it a masterpiece myself. Generally speaking, the plot is still somewhat basic overall, the game can still get pretty long winded/verbose at points, I wouldn't say there are any "deep" characters, and you get somewhat of a "been here done that" feeling after playing "Fate" route already, even though to be fair many events are different.
- Completed "Heaven's Feel" Route (8/17/14) (8/10)
~Short review of Heaven's Feel Route:
Sorry if this review seems a little haphazardly put together, I'm writing it directly after finishing Heaven's Feel really late at night, I may edit this review later. Well then.. the Heaven's Feel route definitely had darker and more gritty aspects as opposed to Fate and UBW routes, so that was a huge positive. I felt like Heaven's Feel was actually similar to Fate's route in a sence that it seemed to take a while for it to really get going and captivate you. Not to say these parts of the story were all boring, I mostly liked the slice of life stuff, and Sakura is just so freaking adorable and cute, even with her endless "SENPAI"s. Truth be told, the shit doesn't start to hit the fan until you play a good number of hours in Heaven's Feel, unlike in Unlimited Blade Works where you are immediately launched into a crazy-ass roller-coaster ride. But when you do get to that point where Heaven's Feel really starts to pick up the pace, oh man, was it a great ride!!! I give this part of Heaven's Feel a 9/10 , it had almost everything I needed in order to be entertained, had some amazing fights, disturbing/interesting story developments, and had some truly epic moments. Ah and I absolutely loved the "True End" of the route, just really well done and my favorite ending out of all the Route endings. I thought the real end to Fate Stay Night was quite well done.
Overall Opinion on Fate Stay Night:
Well all in all, Fate Stay Night was one hell of a ride. Even though I watched Fate Zero already before playing this game, I found it to be extremely enjoyable. Fate Stay Night takes what appears to be a simple concept of some people summoning heroic spirits to battle each-other, and for the most part gives us an enthralling narrative filled with many twists + turns, epics moments, heartbreaking tragedies, endearing romantic scenes, and hilarious humor as well. I also just love the special effects, fighting scenes, slick music tracks, and general "atmosphere" if FSN. I felt that Fate Stay Night was "amazing" in some parts of the game, but overall I would simply declare it a very good work of art that was consistently enjoyable if not consistently extraordinary though. The sheer variety in the Servants personalities was a joy to watch too. My favorite character from Fate Stay Night is Rin by a mile, I just loved the way she could be very snarky sarcastic character, but never truly bitchy or annoying, and she had a very affectionate caring side that I loved. I will also say Taiga brought in some very VERY good comedy to the game, and not just in Tiger Dojo's either.
Despite my gushing over the game in the paragraph above, it was definitely not a "masterpiece" visual novel in my opinion; I would often-times find the main character to be quite annoying (especially in fate route), sometimes the game near the beginning of routes would be almost unbearably slow and hard to get through (ex. most meal time skits were wayyy to long and drawn out =.='), some of the explanations of things I honestly could not wrap my head around, and I felt like sometimes I could see that the author seemed to offer characters all too convenient ways to get out of hairy situations...
Averaging my 3 scores from Fate (7) , UBW (9) , and Heaven's Feel (8) averages to my overall rating of FSN as an 8.0/10. I think that score describes my overall experience of the Visual Novel quite well, in that I thought it was "Very Good," and I thought the last part of Heaven's Feel and all of Unlimited Blade Works were "Amazing (9/10)."
I thought about not giving an overall score since the 3 routes are separate from eachother. But the fact that you have to play Fate to unlock Unlimited Blade Works, and the fact that you have to complete UBW to unlock Heaven's Feel means I think they deserve to be rated as a total ...if you really want to get the full experience out of this VN you'd have to play at least 2 routes anyway (Fate [important intro into fate universe, explanations of holy grail war] and UBW [best route by far]). If you just play the fate route you really have not completed this VN at all ! The only route that is kinda optional is Heaven's Feel , which I think has a extremely strong argument for being needed to play as well for its very dark twisted stuff and just an epic epic final act that should not be missed.
Oh and I should add that the most unforgettable thing about Fate Stay Night would probably be that church and the music that goes along with it. Just a perfectly conveyed creepy atmosphere-vibe that made me break out in goosebumps every time I hear it.
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An incredible visual novel ! Its often said that it is the Death Note of visual novels, I suppose I can see that. It is a very psychological work, has some crazy twists and turns that mainly happen in the true route, and some of its finer moments are played out as a battle of wits. The vast majority of what I will talk about in this review will pertain to the common route since its the one most people play, widely considered to be the best route by far, and is considered the canonical route while the others are more like alternate side stories that aren't all that important. The plot is by and far great. I don't want to say too much about it to avoid spoilers. But like I said there are a good number of twists and turns, a number of intense situations, showdowns, battle of wits, physical battles, struggles for survival, heart-wrenching tragedies, and an awesome theme of forgiveness vs revenge. Once you learn the main backstory the VN truly becomes an epic. There's more of a balance with school scenes towards the beginning of the novel, but I thought these were pretty well done and were good as nice funny breaks between tense dramatic situations in the novel. But even in the beginning and middle you're always curious about "Maou" , about the truth behind everything, and there are always the intense situations usually either involving Maou or Gonzo. The music of this game is incredible, almost all the songs are remixes of famous classical music songs that most people would recognize, and they are all used wonderfully in the game. Add this music to what I thought were very nice crisp clear visuals throughout the game they make a great combo. This visual novel has some REALLY great characters. Not going to go through an exhaustive list but some notables: - Kyosuke the protagonist we get an interesting twist that we get a dude that is the cynical adopted son of a mob boss. His smart ass funny dialogues with friends were always entertaining to me. Can be playful and joking , but is also very serious , very intelligent and practical. May seem like a jerk at first but you get to see his backstory and how he changes throughout the novel its great. - Gonzo is the mob boss who absolutely draws you into every scene he is in and even you are scared of him as a reader. Despite his brutish appearance, by and far one of the smartest characters in the whole novel. - Maou is the mysterious evil mastermind who is always one step ahead and it is always riveting to see whichever scene he pops up in. He has an incredible voice actor who I also believe voiced Lelouch in Code Geass so that automatically increases his bad-assery. The aspect I liked most about him, was he's simply so good he just toys with his opponents . And his backstory was quite interesting. - Haru is the beautiful long haired, mysterious girl who may seem like a goofball nerd transfer student at first, but you learn she is incredibly intelligent and will stop at nothing to get her revenge And all the routes have excellent character development which I truly enjoyed. Even some of so called evil characters in this game are developed and fleshed out so well that you can really understand why they are the way they are. I also loved the fact that in this visual novel you see multiple main characters go through introspection and change, even when you would least expect it, and its done pretty tastefully .. This game is really good at making you feel its various atmospheres, whether that be very tense situations, light hearted school/friends hanging out, explanation of tragic backstories, in almost all the situations they are done so well.On a few occasions I was so immersed in the atmospheric moment, it almost seemed I was right there. I'd say that the visual novel is pretty good also having a nice balance of lighthearted situations, and tense/dramatic/tragic situations. I also feel like this game was crazy good at manipulating my emotions. Especially in the dramatic tense scenarios that were more prevalent later in the work. The final chapter, the finale, and the epilogue I believe are together an absolute masterpiece. Everything gets explained, my
Reviews of FSN Routes + Overall Opinion on FSN
- Completed "Fate" Route 7/26/14 (7/10) ~ My short review of "Fate" Route (no real spoilers for the game events):
( I give it 7/10. Solidly written, but nothing extraordinary though. Positives include: Action sequences very well done, dramatic/thriller moments REALLY well done, humor mostly well done, most characters likable to some degree, servants have interesting personalities and abilities, and after 1/2 point of route it doesn't slow down much which is good. Negatives include: Sometimes It could get very dry especially in the beginning with all the school/home cooking stuff. . Saber not the most interesting heroine IMO, although her interactions were cute sometimes and it was fun to learn more about the emblematic bad ass face of the fate franchise of course . Shirou is not the most interesting protagonist as well, is quite annoying in much of the route unfortunately, doesn't display much growth or development.. )
Just an extremely fun route to play, all in all. First off you don't have to sit through really long winded explanations of holy grail war mechanics like in the "Fate" route..Also the pacing is done a good bit better than the "Fate" route(still a wee bit slow at the beginning, but you get to skip much of the slow content before the branch off point into UBW instead of Fate route). I had the general feeling that UBW was just one awesome roller coaster ride.. One of the greatest strengths of UBW are the number of "unexpected" events that happen , which greatly contribute to its ability to entertain you. Crazy shifting alliances included xD Unlimited Blade Works does an excellent job of keeping you attention with all these twists that happen. The action scenes in UBW are amazing for the most part. Well I liked all the scenes from the fate route as well, but in UBW there's at least two freaking crazy fight scenes that I absolutely loved, in addition to the others. In UBW I feel like you get to know about servants and their masters, its interesting to see how intimate some of their bonds are. Shirou himself was a much more interesting character than he was in the "Fate" route. Its a huge plus that you find out more about him, actually shows some growth and development, and that he can actually be useful on his own! Since this route focuses a bit more on Rin, Archer, and Shirou (instead of Fate's Shirou and Saber focus) it was much more interesting. Especially it was great to watch how Rin and Shrou's relationship changes and develop over time. Even though I found Unlimited Blade Works to be extremely entertaining and enjoyable, I wouldn't call it a masterpiece myself. Generally speaking, the plot is still somewhat basic overall, the game can still get pretty long winded/verbose at points, I wouldn't say there are any "deep" characters, and you get somewhat of a "been here done that" feeling after playing "Fate" route already, even though to be fair many events are different.
Sorry if this review seems a little haphazardly put together, I'm writing it directly after finishing Heaven's Feel really late at night, I may edit this review later. Well then.. the Heaven's Feel route definitely had darker and more gritty aspects as opposed to Fate and UBW routes, so that was a huge positive. I felt like Heaven's Feel was actually similar to Fate's route in a sence that it seemed to take a while for it to really get going and captivate you. Not to say these parts of the story were all boring, I mostly liked the slice of life stuff, and Sakura is just so freaking adorable and cute, even with her endless "SENPAI"s. Truth be told, the shit doesn't start to hit the fan until you play a good number of hours in Heaven's Feel, unlike in Unlimited Blade Works where you are immediately launched into a crazy-ass roller-coaster ride. But when you do get to that point where Heaven's Feel really starts to pick up the pace, oh man, was it a great ride!!! I give this part of Heaven's Feel a 9/10 , it had almost everything I needed in order to be entertained, had some amazing fights, disturbing/interesting story developments, and had some truly epic moments. Ah and I absolutely loved the "True End" of the route, just really well done and my favorite ending out of all the Route endings. I thought the real end to Fate Stay Night was quite well done.