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Review of Adabana Itan

SubjectAdabana Itan
ByHelpfulness: 4
Vote: 9
swordfish96 on 2020-12-05
ReviewThis is certainly an odd story. A girl and a boy traveling through Japanese folktales fixing literal plot holes certainly doesn’t sound like the usual VN plot.

It’s an interesting take on folktales, having us empathize with the characters in them when they’re originally fairly impersonal. In addition the tales are interpreted in a very personal way by the protagonist Shirohime and with a very specific message (that becomes clearer in retrospect) differing from the classical message. There’s emphasis on how stories, especially folk tales can be interpreted in many different ways by different people. I would say it was beneficial to have a cursory knowledge (i.e. a Wikipedia browse) of the folktales it portrays to see which details are emphasized.

The story’s recognizably Liar-Soft; episodic and poetic and dream-like. Props to the translation for managing to get that poetic descriptive writing across. Each episode corresponds to a different folk tale with a good and bad ending depending on choices made and while normally this episodic format gets repetitive, here each episode is different and short enough not to outstay its welcome and each one is necessary for the emotional finale.

The arts style is uniquely beautiful; reminiscent of classical Japanese art with the backgrounds seeming like woodblock prints and the sprites and CGs like paintings. The illustrated books unlocked when you get the good endings to each chapter are a nice touch.

It does feel like this VN managed to condense what I love about Liar-Soft VNs into a short but very high quality package and I’d definitely recommend it, especially to someone who wants something outside the norm.

Originally posted on Reddit WAYR
4 points