This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 10:18 pm and is filed under About Eroges, Ayyo Writings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Hey guys, long absence, no excuses, whatever.
Listen, the following contains MAJOR spoilers on G Senjou no Maou. Under no circumstances are you or anyone near you to read this unless you’ve completed the game. I don’t care if you’re poor or you don’t know Japanese or you have some genetic disease that causes you throw up a part of your smaller intestine each time you look at japanese; If you’re poor, do something about it, if you’re illiterate then read and learn, and if you think you have no chances of learning japanese ever, then pray for the day when someone translates G Senjou no Maou. Even if you can’t play it today, or tomorrow or the year after tomorrow, that chance is still not absolute zero and as long as it is not absolute zero, I don’t want you spoiling yourself some great stuff.
I warned.
First let’s get this out of the way: Wow, what an ending.
Second, wow, what a fucking ending.
Third, wow. What a fucking ending.
Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about one of the two ‘major’ flaws, major speaking in retrospect to the rest of game. One of them is the fact that everything not part of the main route lacked the brilliance and love and care of the main route. But who cares, the main game is only but a few hours short of the entirety of Sharin no Kuni and it’s just as good with better parts and worst parts. Instead, I want to talk about the one thing most people will complain about - the fact that Maou is none other than Kyousuke’s dead-come-back-to-life older brother who we only heard of a few times in passing, Kyouhei.
Oh you glorious monster you
Now for me, I was shocked as anyone at that time. Of course, I won’t denied I wasn’t disappointed just a little. Though I’m not sure why I should, is it because it’s a cliche? Or was because I was expecting something like Santa Claus or Saddam Hussein as Maou? Regardless, that little speckle of disappointment immediately shut itself up, packed his crap, got out the door, and never came back. It left so quietly that I didn’t even notice it. Why should I have? Immediately leading before it was Haru’s back story, an improperly placed Ronald McDonald meme out of fucking nowhere, the Beast King’s death, and a tensed ‘oh shit did Kyousuke snapped so much that he’s going to kill Haru’ chase scene. Right after it was the yeahyeah sex scene, Haru and Maou’s back story, and of course, the holy crap Hell on Earth 2008.
I know many felt it was a cheap out to make Maou Kyouhei but honestly, what else could’ve you filled in it? Kyousuke’s other half that wakes up when he sleeps? I personally originally thought it was something like in Death Note where Kyousuke is Light, Haru is L, and Maou is Kira. Kyousuke cooperates with Haru and Gonzai to catch Maou but in reality hinders them with false leads and evidence. In the beginning the evidences was piled up to the roof both from the reader’s viewpoint and others’. It also partially made sense when you think that ‘Kyousuke’’s objective is to get rid of the debt and in the process, he forms a darker self, ‘Maou’, that wants to ruin/kill Gonzou for he did and what he is in perfect crime style. Of course, the real objective of Maou is far from that as we learn.
The first thing that raised suspicion was the fact that when the scene shifts from Kyousuke or Maou for the first time in that time period they would both mention about headaches. Then when Mizuha calls Maou as Azai, it was like oh shit, now I’m 97% sure Kyousuke is Maou. The writer then further tricks you when the manager calls Maou as Azai too and the scene transition between Kyousuke and Maou become more and more obnixious. The high point would probably be when Kyousuke disappears during the whole bombing event. Now this is when I had my doubts and started wondering, hmmm, something isn’t right here, I can feel it; I think the writer is trying to pull a fast one here. Now here is when it got really fun trying to guess if Kyousuke was really Maou. Sure that was a lot of obvious evidence but at the same time there were many contradictions. Kyousuke spends a large chunk of time a day in school, even if he cuts regularly. The much time is not time someone can afford to waste if he is planning a perfect crime with lots of money rolling around and plans going on. And if not school, then there are all these jobs and orders Kyousuke has to do under Gonzai. Again, this not time that can be wasted, especially since Kyousuke stresses that time is money. And then there is Yuki and Haru. Yuki herself has met Maou in person, is the transformation between Kyousuke and Maou so perfect that Yuki can’t sense anything about Kyousuke, much less recognize similarities between their voices and body shape? And finally, Haru. We will have to assume Haru and Kyousuke is around the same age based on what little we know about them both. If Kyousuke is Maou and he wronged her in the past, wouldn’t he only be a little child himself? What evil can a kid do to another kid to deserve a demon hunt? What’s more, if it was Kyousuke, then Haru would’ve known that Maou would be around same age as her and would suspected Kyousuke. Of course, this is all assuming Kyousuke appeared in front of Haru and stuff. But if not then what else? If the Maou;s origins was Kyousuke being made into a slave of Gonzou, which would one can only assume recently. First he runs with his mother away from the debt collector as a child. Eventually they get caught, and Kyousuke swears himself under Gonzou. Now to get into the position of power to being to cause such an enmity to someone, he would have to work for a few years. But this time he is no longer a child. And finally the final nail on the coffin, Kyousuke is near at all times. Maybe we can excuse it is that he goes on a business trip and ruins Haru’s family with iunno, a huge debt loan or something. But regardless, the smart Haru should be able to trace Kyousuke back to where he always is, it wouldn’t have took this long to find Maou’s location, unless he was always moving about which is not Kyousuke’s case.
All that incoherent rambling above was just my thoughts of the plot twist with Kyouhei. And it’s not like it did any bad to the story. We get the whole brother versus genius bigger brother conflict going here. There is a certain something special about two people who are really close to each other fighting against each other as opposed to two complete strangers. It also allowed Maou to play that tricky brother card which I completely fell for, not that it was the first or last.
Speaking of that… let’s talk about those special last scenes. Action packed with hot manly courage overflowing scenes one after the another during the hell takeover. Kyouhei plays his last card, gets caught, goes all USAAAAAMIIIIIIIIIIII YOU CUNT and flies into a desperate rage. The police shots the crap out the bus and Maou dies a fiery death. A death befitting a master villain. The hero and the heroine gets their peace and are finally fully reunited with a kiss on a moon drop background. The end. Gonzou is dead, hell ravaged the city, his mum is dead, but all is still well as Maou is finally gone. Good ending - bittersweet ending, credit rolls. Epilogue oh hey it’s only a day later, I guess here is where they’ll throw some light hearted comedy-romance stuff. Awww Kyousuke is acting all tsundere about Haru making chocolate, awww Haru is acting all lovey-dopey and is makin-HOLY FUCK KYOUHEI.
Oh fuck.
Oh fuck.
Goddamnit fingerprints. Double fuck.
…No. You. Didn’t. (Here’s where I started tearing up)
Oh god, no. Stop this.
Jesus christ, please stop, stop it. Make it stop! STOP KYOUSUKE
…
…
…
bawling.
What a fucking ending.
June 10th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
I have to agree, that ending was fucking amazing.
Fucking Amazing.
June 10th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Yeah, the ending totally got me tearing up too. What a goddamn cool game.
For reference, I’m translating this thing. I hope to get the demo out of the way fairly soon - about halfway through translating the first chapter, and it shouldn’t be hard at all to adapt my patch back to the demo (especially since I started the patch with the first demo anyway =P)
Heaps of people were complaining about Maou being Kyohei, but I felt it was perfect for the story. Maou being Kyosuke, while it may have been interesting, was far too saw-it-coming to work, and would have made it impossible for the game to have as awesome an ending as it did.
First time I’ve cried in a visual novel _ever_, and I’ve played most of the more famous nakiges, so yeah… what a great game. I just felt stunned for ages after playing it. Couldn’t touch another visual novel.
June 11th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Well I’m refraining from looking at your review. But those character designs look kinda cool.
Wasn’t “Shunin no Kuni” by the same people?
I watched the demo movie. And I’m wondering what the hell this story is all about (protagonist looks nefarious….and I like protagonists that are nefarious/secretive but alsolikeable) .
Will you write up a plot summary…..sans major spoilers?
June 13th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
>>Avisch
I wrote a pretty intentionally vague plot summary here http://forums.novelnews.net/showpost.php?p=57492&postcount=1 when it was released.
Yes, Syarin no Kuni was by the same company, and more importantly, the same _scenario writer_, who happens to be awesome.
At the moment, it’s my favourite visual novel.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
>Asceai
Exactly
>Avisch
Probably not, I’m not sure how I would be able to angle the review beyond ‘this is awesome, get it because I said so’.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Couldn’t agree more - though IMHO they went a bit overboard implying Maou = Kyousuke.
re:epilogue: my reaction was along the lines of “Ending credits… that was beyond awesome… heh, nice, epilogue… Haru is cu…WHAT THE F*CK? This is the Epilogue! Epilogue! Holy fuck!”. Gensjou’s last chapter is so filled with moments like that (in the positive sense) that compared to it almost every other game seems pretty predictable, but expected them to have a normal epilogue… and then out of nowhere, bam.
Asceai: great to see a name associated with that project - this is really a game that deserves translation. keep up the good work
June 21st, 2008 at 4:07 pm
In that case I will wait years for it for be translated. But I thank you for pointing this visual out for us.
Asceai: Thanks.
June 24th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Will wait for the well deserved fandisk next year
June 26th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Someone on /jp/ is translating this quite quickly (10% I believe?). Only Haru’s route though, which I assume is all that’s necessary to enjoy the game. I am trying very hard to avoid spoilers (even as I write this I stare only at the keyboard).
June 29th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Maou’s last resort really makes me sad. The prison visit by the three heroines also further escalate my sadness. And the reunion finally made me into the verge of cries T_T.
Mizuha need more justice! XD