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.
After reading through Nekopara Vol. 1, Vol. 2, and Vol. 3 in past years (not to mention the otome spin-off Catboys Paradise), this year I moved on to Nekopara Vol. 4 anticipating another story of Kashou starting a relationship with more catgirls.
So it’s quite a surprise that I’m mainly counting this as a “Celebrating All Things Romantic” review by virtue of the series itself fitting in the theme.
The past entries featured Kashou getting to know the catgirls who help him manage the patisserie La Soleil, helping them through their problems and conflicts at the same time. In the fourth volume, however, it’s the protagonist himself who takes the center stage.
An encounter with his father, who disapproves of his work in the patisserie and tells him his cooking is still lacking, leads Kashou to question himself and what it is that he’s missing. This entry largely focuses on his conflict with his father and his personal journey to overcome his doubts. It’s quite heartfelt, and its messages are surprisingly wholesome.
It’s still filled with catgirl antics and funny moments, but the focus was much more on Kashou’s character development.
Of course, this is Nekopara, so the lack of romance is mitigated if you get the 18+ version (or the 18+ patch). While this entry might not include any new relationships, the main character still has six catgirls to spend time with. What’s more, I learned that the 18+ content of Nekopara Vol. 4 actually contains alternate scenes as well, where if you say you’re in the company of other people, you’ll be presented with a different intimate/romantic scene instead of a sex scene.
I also learned that the console versions of the Nekopara games are not the same as the all-ages Steam version after all, but replace the sex scenes with different scenes.
That’s more complicated than I expected from Nekopara, but then again, it’s a series full of surprises. In short, Nekopara Vol. 4 does not focus on romance as much as the others, but will still have its share of romantic scenes and/or related activities depending on the version you play. Meanwhile, the core story is a surprisingly wholesome tale about fulfilling your dreams and seeing what drives you.
Volume 4 is currently the last game in the Nekopara series, although a new game called Nekopara After La Vraie Famille was announced in 2021. And don’t forget, you could win a Steam collection of the Nekopara series by participating in this year’s contest!
Over the weekend, our cluster of game showcases concluded with the panels at Anime Expo 2022.
Bandai Namco’s contained nothing new beyond the announcement that Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher, which we discussed last week, will get an official release in the west.
That left Aksys and Spike Chunsoft, and both turned out to be well worth watching.
Aksys Games
Aksys Games did not stream their showcase, but a fan in attendance streamed it, so I was able to tune in and see the announcements live. I didn’t expect much to be announced, but I hoped we’d get either a new otome announcement or Shibito Magire localization news.
They began with an overview of their upcoming games (including the release date of Piofiore: Episodio 1926 being moved up from September 22 to September 8) and soundtrack CDs available with some of them.
Update: the September 8 release date was a mistake; it’s still set for September 22.
Then they got into the announcements. The first game shown was Pups & Purrs Pet Shop, which I thought had been already announced, but apparently this is a series and I was probably thinking of the previous Pups & Purrs game.
The second game announced was Inescapable, a “social thriller” coming to all major platforms next year. It seems to have a death game sort of premise, and I’ve seen it described as Danganronpa-inspired. So that’s definitely something I’m interested in.
Then it was otome time!
Norn9 is coming west for the Switch. I played Norn9 on the Vita and found it to be enjoyable, though I disliked the incomplete feel of the story and said I’d pick up its fandisc Last Era if it was ever released in English, since Last Era is supposed to fix a lot of those issues.
…and sure enough, yes, they followed the Norn9 trailer with a trailer for Norn9: Last Era, which is being translated at last.
Yes, they’re separate releases instead of a dual pack, but I’m just happy that we’re getting Last Era.
Then they showed another trailer, for another otome, Radiant Tale. This one is about a girl becoming the producer for a circus troupe in a fantasy world, and what stands out to me the most is how beautiful and colorful it looks.
The next game was also otome, one I’ve seen a lot of people hoping would be localized, Shuuen no Virche ~Error:Salvation, which is on the other end of the spectrum in that it appears to be about death and darkness and despair.
(I’m intrigued.)
Then the final trailer began, and when I saw “Shibito Magire” appear on the screen, I nearly screamed.
Yes, the third Spirit Hunter game is being localized under the title Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II. …Which I’m sure will cause no confusion whatsoever with the second game in the series, NG.
That was the last of the announcements, and they spent the rest of the showcase providing more details about the announced games. I went into it hoping for at least one otome or Shibito Magire, and I got four otome announcements AND Shibito Magire.
In short, 2023 is already packed for me with games to look forward to, and I’ll play NG soon.
Spike Chunsoft
Spike Chunsoft also didn’t stream their showcase, and again it was streamed by a fan who was there.
Their showcase also had one other announcement: Anonymous;Code localization. Yes, the newest entry in the Science Adventure series is coming west in 2023 for Switch, PS4, and PC.
I’m excited to play Chaos;Head Noah and Chaos; Child, and I’m looking forward to Anonymous;Code as well… although I still need to get Robotics;Notes in the meantime!
Miscellaneous
Apparently Sekai Project had a ton of visual novel announcements at Anime Expo, including Nekopara After and the Nekopara spin-off Inapura: Dog’s Paradise. Type-Moon was also there and confirmed that Witch on the Holy Night is not only getting an English translation (which we discussed) but also a western release on December 8.
And there were plenty of other announcements of visual novels I’m less familiar with. In short, as a visual novel fan, this was a crazy weekend for announcements. The upcoming lineup from Aksys alone already has my backlog crying out in pain.
What do you think of the games that were announced at Anime Expo 2022?
Today I’d like to talk about eden*.
