I’m a big fan of Saya no Uta, and of Gen Urobuchi in general, so I was quite excited when I discovered that another of his short visual novels had been translated. Like Saya, Kikokugai is about a man living in a world a world that has betrayed him and the one girl in the world he truly cares about. It’s just as dark as Saya is, and even more depressing. But for all of its similarities, this is a very different game. Kikokugai is about revenge, and is more of an action story than any of Nitroplus’s (translated) games. It feels somewhat similar to Kill Bill in that it’s a former assassin’s quest to kill the five colleagues who betrayed him one by one, and is just as action-packed.
The action scenes themselves will likely remind readers of Phantom of Inferno, but again, there’s more to them than that. The biggest similarity is that the game spends are very long time describing all of the weapons and techniques the various characters use. This does help to understand the fighting a little better, but is also kind of boring. Phantom had its incredible narrator to make the gun descriptions enjoyable, but here it’s just text. Other than that, the action scenes are competently written and are interesting enough, but they never blew me away.
The story and characters are profoundly unpleasant. Most of the villains are insane sadistic psychopaths, and while I have nothing against this type of villain, it becomes less interesting when you see the same character again and again and again. The main character is not at all intelligent except when it comes to fighting, and I didn’t find him to be sympathetic due to his lack of understanding and the way he caused most of his own problems. The cast does have a highlight in Ruili, whose development is the best part of the game, but even she has her weaknesses. Still, these characters due work in a revenge story, and it’s easy to cheer when the villains die.
Technically, the game is excellent. Some of the sprites look a little weird, but each character has a lot of them to allow for changes in physical condition, and the CGs are all well done. The soundtrack is also very good, especially during the action scenes. It’s not as beautifully atmospheric as Saya, but I can’t complain. The translation is also nearly flawless (so far as I can tell without playing the original), other than the very occasional typo. Unfortunately, the translators had to port it to the Saya engine, so the title screen doesn’t work and the text boxes are slightly out of place. This means that you can’t access the CG Library, which doesn’t really matter in a game like this. Actually playing the game still works perfectly, and that’s what’s most important.
As for the h-scenes, they’re well drawn, but all of them are rape scenes, and not the kind of rape you see in most hentai. The pain of the rape is emphasized to a great degree, and while I suppose some people like that sort of thing, it’s clearly not meant to be erotic. I didn’t feel that any of the h-scenes were really out of place, either. Like in Saya, they’re well integrated into the rest of the game, and aren’t overly long.
Overall, Kikokugai is mostly a pretty good game that should appeal to those who like a lot of action and dark stories. But there’s one thing that elevates it beyond just pretty good, and that’s the ending. Throughout the game, I was skeptical about how it would all come together, but the truth was unexpected despite fitting the game so naturally, and I really liked the way everything concluded. I can see some people really disliking the ending though, so it may be a bit love/hate. Regardless, it’s a unique and well-done game, and at less than 5 hours long, there’s no excuse not to play it, especially if you’re a Nitroplus fan.
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