November 27, 2010

Game review: Togainu no Chi

Made by: Nitro+
Genre: Yaoi, Violence, Action
Summary: Akira gets the choice between fighting in a competition called Igura, where the main purpose is killing other people and collecting tags to fight "The King", or going to jail for the rest of his life.


Akira
The main character of the game. He is the cool and quiet type, but he is still quiet fierce. Fights with a small dagger. Has secrets from his past. I liked Akira in general, he wasn't too cocky but still wild and stubborn. He didn't have many expressions though, and I don't think he ever blushed or even got sad.

Shiki
A man dressed in black with a katana. He have red dangerous eyes that only Akira dares to meet. Kind of the "bad guy" in the game (but obviously the hottest one)
Shiki is obviously the main guy in the game. The true ending was really sad, I knew the game wasn't going to give me a happily ever after ending, but when they were escaping a touching moment about how much they mean to each other took place and I actually hoped it would work out fine. They didn't even share a single kiss through the game. Hell, Shiki didn't even know Akiras name until the last hour of the game. I guess I just have to read some doujinshi to make me feel better...

Keisuke

The childhood friend that secretly follows Akira to fight in Igura.
Yes, I thought Keisuke was a huge pain in the a** in the beginning.
Scenes played out like:
A: Why did you come here?
K: I want to help you!
A: Can you fight?
K:......
A: Do you at least have a weapon?
K:...........
A:................*sigh*

But Akira gets tired from saving Keisuke all the time, and finally tell him that he is useless. Keisuke runs away, only to come back as a total yandere and crazy sickhead.
He tries to kill Akira and some of his endings are so f*cked up that I stopped playing his route. I know he was trying to be nice and all in the beginning, and you can totally see that he have been in love with Akira for a long time, but..sorry all Keisuke fans, I don't like getting raped with screwdrivers!


Rin
Annoying, happy-go-lucky shota character that is (surprisingly) a really good fighter. He uses double knives and is very acrobatic. It is revealed that he is somehow connected to Shiki (this did not happen in Shikis route) and in his ending CG we see a grown up Rin (why didn't he look like this through the whole game!?).

Motomi
A man who Akira and the gang meets at the club. He have alot of secrets and a tragic past. His route was surprisingly boring and I ended up skipping alot when they sat in a church all day talking about life. 

NA mysterious man with purple eyes who goes around talking about philosophical things. He is really weird and I haven't finished his route yet (I'm right at the ending) but he is definitely strange.


Gameplay:

It's a pretty long game but the story kept me interested. Just as I thought it was getting boring and considering shutting off, N comes and drags Akira away or Keisuke showed up trying to kill him. Since I'm super new to VNs in general it was nice to play one with a more serious tone, the dead city was really nice played out.
There are alot of bad endings where Akira is raped and killed by side characters that I haven't tried yet but I don't think I ever will.


Final Score:

Story 7/10

Great story over all. There were something I didn't really understand (like Shiki's true ending!?) but AGTH had problems translating so I guess it's my fault.

Music 7/10
The OST is a must!

Art 9/10
Nitro+ are famous for their artwork and in TNC it was just great. The poses, the anatomy, character design, everything

Voices 5/10

This is Togainu no Chi only bad point. The seiyuus are pretty bland and most of them bad. Still, it doesn't bring down the game in any way!

Total: 7/10
The art and the characters together with the angst about what is right and if it really is okay to kill other people in a game makes Togainu no Chi one of the "must play" visual novels of all time.

There is also a PS2 and PSP edition wihtout yaoi released for those who don't want to miss the story. An anime of the game is currently airing, but I would recommend to stay away from it! (bad animation, horrilbe voice acting and it's only 11 episodes)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You should try aggregator which is a better translator. Though I haven't used it.

I think the seiyuus did a good job voicing Togainu no Chi. I think it fits the character's personality and behavior very well. Though everyone's standards are different.

By the way if you're sensitive to gore then you shouldn't touch Sweet Pool. Out of all the Nitro+CHiRAL games that one's the most dark and gory.

ploppity said...

Keisuke's good route is the sweetest thing ever. In my opinion, it's more than worth it to get through the horrific stuff for that ending :P.

I thought the seiyuu were pretty decent and I think I liked Tomokazu Sugita's voice for the first time in his role as Keisuke, to be honest...I might be a bit biased, though, heh.

Renna said...

Well, Rin's seiyuu really is JunJun after all...

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