So recently I have been very lazy with my updates on the anime I am currently watching and it is all because of one thing; Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai S which is the sequel to the previous visual novel game made by Minatosoft. This game takes place directly after the previous installment and continues the story with the choice to pick up right off with some of the cast from the previous game or try your luck with some of the new characters. Right off the bat I will tell you that this is an adult game but I really do not play it for those intentions. Believe me or not the real gold in this game is how great the story is crafted and the sheer amount of content for each route. I can guarantee you that you will spend way more than fifty hours if you try to play all the routes. Please keep in mind that I have not played every single route in the game.
So positives first starting with the huge amount of content. The amount of content is just mind boggling because each route takes quite a long time to complete if you are not skipping a lot of the text. The routes I have played so far are all so well done that I can honestly say that your enjoyment will be entirely up to how much you like the heroin you are seeking. Next on the list of positives are the well written characters. We have the returning cast from the previous plus some new additions that help keep things fresh. Out of the new characters my favorites were Tsubame Matsunaga due to her mischievous attitude and Benkei Musashiou because she was so laid back and by far the most fun to converse with. The routes that I have completed so far are Kokoro’s, Kazuko’s (my favorite character from the previous game), Iyo’s (side route), Monshiro’s, and Tsubame’s. Besides a couple quirks in some of the stories I really enjoyed each one. The character development was very well done and I enjoy seeing how different characters lives played out if I took a different route with one of the other characters. The only character I had an issue with was Monshiro’s route because she is well…a lolicon’s delight and well…I am not at all into that stuff. I liked the interactions with her but when it came to the adult stuff it was quite awkward. Another small issue I had was that Benkei did not have a dedicate route to follow. I was honestly quite surprised that nothing was unlocked to do some story line with her.
Next positive is the amazing visuals of the game. This time around Minatosoft included a number of CG scenes that help show some of the action stuff going on in the beginning of the game. The overall quality of the CG scenes is pretty good but do not last more than 20 seconds each. It is overall a nice addition but by no means necessary. The artwork is where this game really shines. Everything is drawn so well and the transitions between scenes flow quite nicely. Compared to the previous game it is a slight improvement which is hard to believe due to the fact that both games are by far the prettiest visual novels I have ever seen. Overall, a very beautiful game.
Sound is also a huge plus because the entire returning cast has their original voice actors so the continuity stays intact. It might just be because I love the way Japanese sounds but all the voices match their character fairly well. Each scene is enjoying and soothing to listen to. Great sounding game in my honest opinion.
So now on to the negatives that I have encountered so far (which is not that many). I already touched upon that Benkei does not have a dedicated route. I was pretty pissed off when I went through so many times picking different options to conversations hoping that some side route would at least unlock. Alas despite my efforts, I was able to get past this because all of the routes were enjoyable. One small complaint I have with the game is that although there still is a ton of content, when playing it might feel less than the previous game. My reasoning behind this is that where this game has more characters than the previous, the previous game feels longer because each route in that game had much more content than a route in this game. I felt that in this game some of the routes almost felt rushed towards the end. It was like “Ok you have gotten to know your character time to **** and oh game is over thanks for playing!” What I am trying to get at is that each route is set up well and you get plenty of character development but once you get to a certain point in the story, there seems to be a mad dash to the finish.
Despite these issues however I fully enjoyed the routes that I played through. I cannot really give it a grade or score since I have not fully completed the game but what I can do is recommend it to anyone that plays these types of games. Like I stated before I am not a huge fan of the adult material but the character development is just so well done all across the board that it is still worth playing the game even if you are new to visual novels.
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