G-senjou no Maou - about Kanon route: when love becomes egoism

WARNING: it will contain spoilers on the VN's plot, so if you hasn't played it yet, continue reading at your own risk! :P

I already talked about this Visual Novel in an old post (Tsubaki route), but I'll tell what this game is about once again for anyone new here.

In G-senjou you play the role of Kyosuke, the adoptive son of a ferocious yakuza boss (he's scary as hell, I assure you @@) whose only interest in life is making money: his life has a dramatical change when a strange and mysterious man whose name is only "Maou" (Devil) starts to  challenge Kyosuke's "father" rule over the city, dragging into his machinations also Kyosuke himself and his classmates. To make things even more complicated, in Kyosuke's class transfers a strange girl who seems to hold a personal grudge against Maou...

In this Visual Novel, in addition to follow Maou's plot and discovers what links him to Kyosuke (no spoiler here but it's quite interesting), we have various girls among which to choose our partner, and this choise will change very much the Visual Novel's entire plot and ending.
This time, I decided to romance Kanon.

Kanon is Kyosuke's "sister" (she's Kyosuke's stepfather's daughter) and someone inbetween a childhood friend and a younger sibling - at least in our protagonist's mind. In fact, to me it's quite obvious her interest for Kyosuke is of a romantic nature, even if our protagonist treats her like an annoying little sister. Kanon is childish, spoiled and always cheerful, but she has also another side of her personality - more serious and focused - that she shows only when she skates. Getting to know her better, we discover she's actually very serious when something involves her career as professional skater.
Kanon route was a bit of a surprise. When you start romancing her, you quickly discover she's much more than what she seems - strong and determined, but also arrogant and demanding with Kyosuke. The reason for her often annoying attitude is the complicated relationship she has with her mother - an ex skater who practically lives only to see Kanon accomplishing what she could not. Their bond is strong, but also full of unsaid things and egoism - from both sides.
What I liked in this route was the deep realism of Kanon development till her beautiful happy ending. What I didn't like was the fact Kyosuke is just a bystander in Kanon's life here. Their "love" - on Kyosuke's part - seems mostly born out of pity and didn't evolve much during the route. He acts like her boyfriend but doesn't seem really into it. Being with her doesn't change him or push him towards a confrontation with his stepfather - like in Tsubaki's route - and you can almost forget he's even present most of the scenes. 
Kanon is a very interesting character, but I would have liked to see her interact more with the protagonist.


What do you think?
G-Senjou is definetely a Visual Novel that the more you play it the better it gets.


Where you can find G-Senjou no Maou: STEAM LINK

Azur Lane - School event SURPRISE

I didn't notice till the end of this event...............
I just gained the cute school uniform skin for one of the ships, so I decided to try and change my secretary for a while: not even I can resist to school uniforms charm! @@

Aaaaaaaaand... SURPRISE
The whole starting screen changed as well: sakura blossoms, autumn-like atmosphere and so on. Not sure if this works with anyone of the exlusive skins, but I bet it does.
I loved this new screen so much I think I'll keep it for a very long time - or till a new, super cute event!!

Azur Lane - School event: ships and school uniforms!

My current mobile obsession: Azur Lane!!
Battles with tons of cute battle ships-girls. You can even marry them: the only problem is which one - they're all adorable!! @@ Too many cute anime girls!
Did you ever try it?
If you don't, now it's the time.
I haven't played enoug missions to tell you if the plot it's good, but I'm really apreciating both the art and the drop rate of this game. Azur Lane is not going to drive you insane to build good ships: it's quite easy to find and evolve good - or pretty XD - one.
School event! Everyone loves anime school uniforms, right?

There also new special ships to build, such as Prince of Wales (love her boyish attitude)! Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ

G-senjou no Maou - about Tsubaki route: money can really buy everything?

WARNING: it will contain spoilers on the VN's plot, so if you hasn't played it yet, continue reading at your own risk! :P

I just finished my first route in the Visual Novel G-senjou no Maou (or The Devil on G-String, if you prefer the english name). It was really odd for me, because I ended up with the female character I liked the least - Tsubaki.
But first of all, a bit of explanation about the story behind this videogame. In G-senjou you play the role of Kyosuke, the adoptive son of a ferocious yakuza boss (he's scary as hell, I assure you @@) whose only interest in life is making money: his life has a dramatical change when a strange and mysterious man whose name is only "Maou" (Devil) starts to  challenge Kyosuke's "father" rule over the city, dragging into his machinations also Kyosuke himself and his classmates. To make things even more complicated, in Kyosuke's class transfers a strange girl who seems to hold a personal grudge against Maou...

But enough with the summary and back to the Tsubaki route.

As I already said, initially Tsubaki was the character I liked the least. She's one of Kyosuke's classmates, and obviosuly in love with him from the very beginning. Tsubaki is in many ways the opposite of the protagonist: she'a altruistic at a fault, absolutely not interested in money and material goods and coming from a very united family (Kyosuke's one... well... is very different). The main character notices Tsubaki's interest for him almost immediately (forget about the usual Visual Novel protagonist: he's socially quite skilled XD), but he finds her a little annoying. In his way of thinking, her life doesn't make any sense at all: he doesn't comprehend how someone could be so selfless and he sees this trait as a weakness awaiting only to be exploited.
Obviously Kyosuke has a very distorted notion of life, but I found some fo his criticisms about Tsubaki very deep and painfully true. Refusing to see the evil in others, no matter what they do to you, is more refusing to face the truth of life than being kind - on that I agree with Kyosuke.
That being said, I found myself enjoying this route more that I thought I would.
Tsubaki and Kyosuke made a surprisingly good couple in the long run: they both started their relationship for the wrong reasons (Tsubaki in love with Kyosuke's mask and Kyosuke with the intention of using her to achieve one of his goal - stealing her family's land on his stepfather's behalf), but they change very much in the process - and for the best.
Tsubaki finally realizes that she actually never tried to understand the man she said to love and Kyosuke on his part finds a different way to live - the one of Tsubaki's family - where people matter more than money.

The story is disappointing on plot's side, because you finish the game with the strong feeling you missed out important details about the story. Maou accident hasn't a real closure, but maybe it's right in this route: once Kyosuke realizes he doesn't really need money or to obey to his stepfather's orders, all the rest become irrelevant too. The only thing important is family, like Tsubaki kept telling him from the start.

Did you try her route too? What are your ideas about? I want to know!! ^_^


Where you can find G-Senjou no Maou: STEAM

Notch: The Innocent LunA: Eclipsed SinnerS - REVIEW

PLOT (spoiler free)

In Notch, you play a normal student living with his family in an isolated village near the woods. The main character (you choose his name) spends his daily life peacefully with his childhood friend Nanami, whom he - not so secretly - is in love with until the day he starts to have weird nightmares: in these dreams, he finds himself in a strange villa, where appaerently girls are being killed.
He don't know that yet, but his peaceful life is about to end...


NOTCH IN A NUTSHELL

An old style horror VN. Not dubbed.

WHAT AKIYAMI CHAN THINKS

Notch has a lot of good ideas, but very few of them are actually well developed. The classical horror plot could have been entertaining enough to play, but the poor characters' development and the almost nonexistent setting don't exactly help players to get hooked on the story.
Maybe the wost part of all this is realizing that much of the mistery sorrounding the main characters is not mistery at all - it's simply bad writing and lack of any logic explanation for things happening in the game's world.
There's no form of law or police - not even a doctor! - in the whole town because - or so it seems - the authors think that if your town is small enough it doesn't really need any of these things................. And this is only one example of the rather absurd things you're going to find in Notch!
I can't say too much in case you wanted to try it, but characters aren't any better than the setting. They lack personality and background. Nanami - our love interest - is as interesting as a stone: we know nothing about her or her family - she just seems some sort of stalker of our protagonist XD Seriously, we learn only that she enjoys wandering the woods and watching flowers. Period. End of her characterization.
Playing the game, I felt like they wanted to create something similar to Umineko, but lacking the courage to REALLY delve into the abyss of human evil like Umineko's author tends to do. It's horror but not so horror. The villains are evil but not so evil.
A story with good potential that maybe deserved a better writing.
It's not terribile, mind you, but I can't really recommend it with so many Visual Novels available on steam.


WHERE YOU CAN FIND IT:

 steam link

Sepia Tears - easter eggs

Greetings, fellow nerds and Visual Novels lovers!
How were your vacations? Did you play some interesting videogames?
I gave a try to various VNs - and I'll tell you everything about it in the following days.
Today though I want to share with you some funny things I find playing the free Visual Novel "Sepia Tears" on steam.

If you try this bittersweet romantic videogame, you could happen to see some very well known faces...

Does she look familiar?
Well, no surprise........ Even her name suggests an other, famous in VNs world, Rin.
Tosaka Rin from Fate Stay Night!
Well, I admit this pic doesn't do her justice.... XD

But we have another case of unexpected visitors XD

Do you recognize them?
They are Rika from the horror Visual Novel Higurashi.

And Beatrice, from the horror VN Umineko

If you found any other reference in Sepia Tears, let me know!! ^_^