I admit it. I only finished yesterday but I find myself completely vexed I can't just start up MLA and continue playing today like any other day the past two weeks.
Yeah MLA took me about 14 days. MLU took 2-3 days and MLE took 5 days. So it easily doubled the original two games. Good one Age.
I decided on the 8 rating for a few reasons.
First the bad.
1. Takeru isn't fully voiced, a huge bummer. Fully voiced protagonist are one of my favorite trivial parts.
2. It's a harem. Age don't let go of this shit. The core harem manages to stick around all the way to the last episode. And frankly their amount of character development isn't too great. Ayamine, Tama, and Mikoto definitely get it half-assed. I mean they weren't amazing characters in the first place either.
3.
The pacing. Just like Fate/stay night MLA manages to be incredibly boring in hour long lectures. A few of the lectures are kind of interesting at best and only one I found truly exciting (and that was Isumi talking not fucking Yuuko). Yuuko is the lecturer in this and her voice isn't too great.
4. I thought the international political intrigue would begin increasing from Episode 6 onward...that's not really true. Episode 6 is the only chapter with a lot of IPI. Yoroi was great but we'll get into him more later...anyway the point is beyond a few very very "out there" political intrigues mentioned in the later chapters I felt absolutely
zero influence from that. What Age could have done is freakin' awesome Interludes like F/sn did except with you know...political powers. I could have easily given MLA a 9 at that rate. In fact just thinking about it is amazing. But no, let's focus on this core harem we all
love.
Second the ambivalent.
1. The art style. A very strange mix of things I like and don't like. Some character sprites look totally fine. Some look mindbogglingly stupid until I just assimilated my brain into accepting it. People should not have jet intakes for hair. Meiya is the worst example. The cadet armored suits also look pretty bad but the ones after it are decent. Beyond that the backgrounds range from great to cheap looking (I'm looking at you anime people!) and the TSFs/mecha generally look good.
2. The BETA. Truly terrifying beings. I liked how they functioned and how they all looked and such.
However, you can not just give us that insane spiel at the end of Episode 10 and proceed to completely ignore it. I don't see any thing I can afterwards that's in English too! So god damn you BETA!
3. The font was much harder to read than the original game. But at the same time the cinematic approach was much nicer.
Third the good.
1. The setting is fantastic. You might go "aliens invading Earth and humanity has to stop it with mecha" sounds incredibly ordinary but the fact this is the
only VN I have even played with mecha, let alone insane aliens is pretty great. It also makes me think of Evangelion which is a good thing.
2. The production values are insane. Age already spent too much effort with MLE and MLU but MLA blows it all out of the water. Idle sprites blink, their mouths flap when they talk, when it's cold you can see their breathe. The sheer amount of sprites in-game. I think the game is 4.5GB? Either way it's ridiculous...and we're not even at the--
3. Action scenes. I don't want to break it down here but the action scenes in MLA are insane. They're chock full of "autoread scenes" and animated videos. The sound effects are great too as well as--
4. The music is great. I'll want an OST later...three tracks I really enjoyed are
悔恨の果て (sadly only plays in Alternative twice, plays a much bigger role in Unlimited),
血を欲する戦場 (my favorite action scene song), and
オリジナルハイヴ (the end of it all holy shit song).
5. Takeru's character development through the series is amazing. It's quite a roller coaster ride and by the end he feels like a completely different person...until his existence is wiped out. ;_; A few other characters are quite good as well.
Plot breakdown.
Episodes 1-4 is mainly Unlimited HD. Not the most exciting things happen beyond I'M IN A TIME LOOP WOO
Episode 5 amplifies the slider shit...and then it's never really a big thing anymore. Age really needed to actually make use of their "international political intrigue" and "world dimensions". It never really hit Higurashi levels of amazing.
Episode 6 was a landmark for Age in it was the first chapter to actually be really good the entire time. It's also the whole of the Coup d'état Arc which was very good...except that almost every character introduced in it dies...and the IPI is then kind of ignored.
WHY DID IRMA TRY TO SHOOT SAGIRI. WHY WAS THIS NEVER FOLLOWED UP AT ALL? WHY DID SAGIRI AND WALKEN HAVE TO DIE?? HOW COME YOU DIDN'T USE YOUR TIME/WORLD/SLIDER SHIT FOR SOME AMAZING FINALE AGE?? HUH???
Episode 7 was probably the most emotionally moving chapter for me. The first half was simply amazing. I don't really know what to criticize. The translators called this the Early Sadogashima Arc so we'll go with that. Probably spent a little too long in twisted Extra world though and it makes you think all of this was cheap plot contrives.
Episode 8 was an intermission chapter...for the stupidly long next chapter. We get introduced to a lot of characters but at the same time...we're not getting any awesome Interludes or IPI which is exactly what I'm calling Age and the people who keep giving it 9s and 10s out for! I also kind of forgot Yoroi existed at this point...and no he never meets Mikoto. Great Dad.
Episode 9 was the bulk of the Sadogashima Arc. There were two big action scenes with a pretty long break in the middle. Invading Sadogashima was awesome...defending Yokohama base was also awesome. The problem is afterwards...the game is pretty much over at this point. I just kept feeling "it feels like this is ending yet there's still so much that needs to be done". I would have really enjoyed if a few things happened but I'll get to that.
Episode 10 was mainly the Operation Cherry Blossom Arc...and the epilogue. It was very short (completely jarring to the massive Episode 9) and pretty fun to read (everybody had awesome deaths) until...it just ended with everybody pretty much dead and Takeru gone and their future is still pretty vague given the BETA are still all over Earth, the Moon, Mars, billions of other places, and the true masterminds remain unseen. Now Age just need a sequel to MLA.
I'd play the shit out of that.
Final Episode was just MLE. The ED was nice though.
I think the Coup d'état Arc(ep6), the Sadogashima Arc(ep7+8+9), and the Operation Cherry Blossom Arc(ep10) are something every VN enthusiasts
has to see.
What I felt should have happened.
1. Stick in a bunch of interludes Episode 6 onward on IPI shit at the very least.
2. Make the story more grande. I know Takeru really really didn't want to loop again after suffering through all those loses but I think if something absolutely
insane happened in Episode 10 that would have been amazing. But maybe I'm goading Age too much here...but everybody says MLA is the best VN ever so at the very least it should be the best right? I suppose a sequel could at least solve some issues but all of the many fan discs are untranslated too.
3. Have a core harem actually die or do something interesting before the end of the damn game. I swear they were all glued together the entire time and due to not wanting to screw anything up they don't really do anything.
Sequel sequel sequel sequel
Characters.
Shirogane Takeru - Good god this guy, a complete jerk becomes a battle hardened soldier. A pretty good MC beyond looking generic. His reactions in Episode 7 were very moving.
Kagami Sumika - The main heroine and doesn't show up for real in MLA until Episode 8...so a lot of the later chapters is trying desperately to develop her character. They probably could have done more with her I think. Especially with all the effort they put into the ridiculously short Episode 10...and then she dies.
Mitsurugi Meiya - Secondary heroine and probably the most developed of the core harem. Went from terrible character in Extra to quite a role model in Unlimited and Alternative. Don't have any problems with that. A few of her quotes seem to stick into my head too.
Sakaki Chizuru - Your typical Class Rep. I feel like after the 12-5 incident she was a bit better and she probably looks the best out of the core harem cast in my opinion but otherwise...
Ayamine Kei - Urgh. Speaks few words but manages to still be really annoying. Generally worse than Chizuru in terms of character and I don't remember ever being moved by anything she said.
Tamase Miki - Cat girl. Sniper. That's her whole character. Good job Age.
Yoroi Mikoto - Is now and forever a girl. Since her kanji is different from the male version in MLE I have to assume in Unlimited and Alternative when she was born the genetic lottery struck female so her parents named her differently. I think Mikoto is fine but really she's not very developed either. Nice hair.
Yuuko-sensei - Maan. I said she was the worst character in Extra but she's pretty okay now. Can be aggravating but I don't notice it nearly as much. She also has done quite a lot of questionable things over the course of the game which Takeru shakes off as "this world's morals". She has a secretary named Lt. Piatif who was cool to see. Never talks to Takeru more than one line though.
Kasumi - Oh Kasumi Kasumi Kasumi. I thought you were so much more important than you actually are. Don't really care for cat girls
or bunny girls and the only thing special about you is your ESP and very timid nature (LIKE A RABBIT GET IT). Hrm.
General Radhabinod - Got an upgrade from Unlimited into a barely memorable character. He does get a few nice scenes though. His speeches stand out and he has the same VA as Lelouch's Father and Houzuki.
Jinguuji Marimo - Marimo-chaaan. Kind of ordinary character until the fantastic Episode 7. Wish she was my anime Mother. I think everybody does.
Tsukuyomi Mana - Pretty cool character. But is pretty much just a background character after her clashing with Walken in Episode 6. Not even going to comment on the three idiots.
Major Walken - This guy. ;_; True American Hero.
Captain Sagiri - I respect this guy for being the first one to actually go forth and change the plot. It doesn't help that he was being used as a political tool though.
Lt. Irma - Same for you Irma, same for you.
Yuuhi - About as much a role model as Meiya but not nearly as around as much.
Mikoto's Dad - This guy was pretty great the three times he showed up. Disappears after Episode 6 but was still actually alive, oh well.
Tama's Dad - Not very note-worthy. Had a ridiculous mustache in Extra.
Captain Isumi - I liked Isumi a lot. Wish MLA developed different during Episode 9...
Kashiwagi - Bitchin' Kashiwagi. She has her own fandisc game that's not translated.
Suzumiya Akane - Akane was in the stuff Age made before Muv-Luv, that seems to be the case a lot but I didn't realize until after looking at VNDB. Otherwise uuuh a character?
The Rest of A0-1 - A larger harem they just gets killed or hospitalized off. Although 1st Lt. Suzumiya's Death was pretty brutal.
Everybody else I forgot or are just NUMBERS - It's really too bad. Some characters looked interesting enough on their own but they never went beyond one scene. It's truly tragic and reminds me of F/sn A LOT. The biggest problem with massive VNs is definitely the inability to focus on everything and of course pissing some readers off.
Again, I really wouldn't mind trying one of those fan-discs...or a possible sequel Age?! Kind of scared to check out the Total Eclipse anime adaption because they made the art style look like Gundam Seed and the MC is totally Kira.
Final thoughts.
Muv-Luv Alternative has a lot of problems. You also have to play the original Muv-Luv first for a lot of things to matter. However, that doesn't make this a bad VN experience. I truly feel shitty that I can't load up MLA and play more today. The ending might seem disappointing but it might just be because I'm disappointed that
it ended.
I will eagerly await any new translations of stuff based on MLA...or a possible godlike sequel with actual IPI and use of slider powers? I can only
wait do other things and forget about it.
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Topic: I like anime, do you like anime? (Read 3146817 times)