Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Romantic: eden*

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Feb 242023
 

Today I’d like to talk about eden*.

With the subtitle “They were only two, on the planet” and a description of “the planet’s final love story,” it shouldn’t surprise you that this visual novel has a bit of a melancholy tone at times.

Set in a world where an approaching red star heralds the end of all life on Earth, eden* follows a soldier sent to guard the genetically modified superhuman girl called Sion, who has spent the past 100 years working on a plan to evacuate all of humanity and save them from the world’s destruction.

The importance of this plan means Sion has never gotten to see the outside world, and that is her sole wish.

Despite the bleak premise of the story, eden* actually has a bit of humor, especially early on. It also has some action in the early parts of the story, but its core is a slow-burn romance with slice-of-life scenes to build up the growing relationship between the characters.

It is a kinetic novel, without any choices. All you have to do is follow the story.

There is something bittersweet about its story, a story that can’t escape the shadow of the end, yet pushes a message of love and hope. The excellent art and music help build everything up.

Now, there’s also a version you can get with 18+ content, or 18+ DLC to add that content to the Steam game, but I didn’t play it. According to the reviews, it adds some blood/violence and nudity to certain parts of the main story, but the sex scenes are separate side stories rather than being integrated into the main visual novel. So you can decide if that sounds like something you want to pick up or not.

eden* is certainly not one to read if you’re looking for a lighthearted, feelgood story, but if you want a soft, melancholy romance told at the end of the world, then I definitely recommend it.

Celebrating All Things Romantic: Synergia

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games  5 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Feb 222023
 

Today let’s talk about Synergia, a visual novel described as a yuri thriller, with the tagline “At the end of the world, sometimes love is the ultimate crime.”

It’s set in a cyberpunk world and follow Cila, a woman whose job mainly involves dealing with hostile android situations.

Her life begins to change when she replaces her own android with a new android called Mara who is so advanced, she seems almost human, while at the same time a mysterious hacker starts trying to contact Cila.

At key points in the story, you have choices to make, which put you on track for one of two endings. While I say endings, they actually branch off a decent amount of time before the end and are pretty different from one another. Once you complete both endings, you unlock an epilogue that sheds further light on the story.

Synergia has a lot of detail to its world, enhanced by optional logs you can read at certain points, although there are parts I wish had been fleshed out further and big moments that feel anticlimactic. It’s a short visual novel, which is probably why the pacing feels a bit rushed.

So what about the romance? I actually hesitated over whether or not to include it as part of this romance celebration. Cila and Mara’s relationship is important, but not as much as you might expect from its tagline. Cila’s feelings for Mara mainly contribute to her changing views about androids and the decisions she makes, but the actual romantic aspect felt lacking to me.

(This is the second cyberpunk human-AI romance visual novel I thought to cover this month, but the first one had so little romance that I decided not to cover it. At least here, the romance is present.)

Despite my criticism of the romance and some rushed parts of the story, Synergia is an interesting visual novel to consider if you want a dystopian cyberpunk story in a rapidly changing world.

Celebrating All Things Romantic: Amnesia Later

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games  5 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Feb 202023
 

Two years ago (almost to the day), we discussed the otome visual novel Amnesia: Memories.

Now we’re going to talk about its first fandisc, Amnesia Later, released for the first time in English last year as part of the two-game collection Amnesia Later x Crowd.

(Once again, if you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a fandisc, think of it as a game-length epilogue or a sequel focused on the characters enjoying their happy ending.)

I had a lot to criticize about Amnesia: Memories, but when Later x Crowd was announced for localization, I said I’d pick it up for the two love interests I actually liked as well as for the side story featuring Waka.

And, now that I’ve played Amnesia Later… yes, my reasons for getting it remain intact.

Amnesia Later features a short story that lets you spend time with any of the game’s major characters, which unlocks their related content. The core of this fandisc are the after stories, one for each of the five love interests.

I adored the after stories for Kent and Ukyo, my two favorites. They were enjoyable enough that I’m happy with my purchase just for them. Of the other three, I found Ikki’s story to be sweet, but unfortunately Amnesia Later did nothing to make Toma and Shin rise in my estimation at all.

So if you enjoyed the love interests in the main game, you’ll probably like their after stories here.

You also unlock three girls’ night scenarios with the protagonist’s friends, although these are actually just a way to unlock the profile information for the guys. They have some funny moments, though.

Then there’s Waka’s World, one of the main draws for me. Waka is a side character in the game whom I liked more than Ikki, Toma, and Shin all put together. His personality is different in each of the worlds, and Waka’s World is a collection of four short scenarios to let you get to know each version of Waka. Every one of them is pure gold.

I need a Waka game now. I would gladly take each of those four scenarios expanded into a full route. I am begging for a Waka fandisc, Otomate!

Finally, you unlock one final route after completing everything else, featuring Orion, which wraps up the story in a really sweet way.

And what makes everything even better is that since the protagonist has her memories back, she’s no longer a silent protagonist like in the original game, but talks to other characters and has internal thoughts. She feels like a real character here, which is a vast improvement for me.

Even though I had to power through some of the routes because I didn’t care about the love interests, Amnesia Later was worth it for the characters I do like. It was sweet, funny, and a pleasant follow-up to the original game that made me appreciate it a bit more. Amnesia Later is only one of the two fandiscs included in Amnesia Later x Crowd, so we’ll see how things go in the second one in the future.

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