Review of Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo
| Subject | Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo |
| By | Helpfulness: 0 Vote: 7shyshydou on 2024-11-11 last updated on 2024-11-20 |
| Review | I put off playing Sharin no Kuni for the longest time in favor of waiting for the official version (I am a lawful citizen if nothing else), but since that no longer seems likely, this review is just to say if you want to play Sharin no Kuni, play it. Pirate it. Pirate that shit. Yes, while a full translation of the fan disk would be nice, and I'm sure we would all like a professional localization of the main game, it's been 8 years since the project was announced and nothing has yet to manifest from it, infamous only for its sparse updates and its inability to communicate a proper release window. Which is an awful shame. The localization that we do have is… fine. It's not awful by any means but it's easily the worst part of the Sharin no Kuni experience, filled with awkward and rigid phrasing in quite a few places, struggling especially with descriptive prose. But everything else was serviceable. Thankfully, and most importantly, I never felt like the translation hindered me from engaging with the characters. Natsumi, Touka, Sachi, and Isono were all a joy to get to know and were what ultimately made the visual novel for me. They're endearing, likable, and complex characters that, while definitely eccentric, do behave like real people where it counts. Even the protagonist, Ken'ichi, was an interesting character to discover more about. He's far from you're average visual novel protagonist, in a way that almost made the game seem unapproachable at first, but once you get used to him, he's actually a lot of fun. I'm partial to Sachi, of course. Her route was probably my favorite, followed by Natsumi’s, Ririko’s, and Touka’s. I liked Touka a lot more than the secret heroine, and even Natsumi in some respects, but her route goes on for way too long with a pretty stinky resolution. Actually, I found that the resolutions in general were pretty crappy. The author likes to throw in a lot of eleventh-hour revelations at the expense of his characters, resulting in twists that feel unearned or confusing and characters that feel, well, out of character. But I wouldn’t necessarily say that the story in Sharin no Kuni is anything to write home about in general. It does its job, certainly. It helps the narrative flow smoothly from one character to the next, but it's underdeveloped and only one route ending follows through with the conceit of the story, and poorly at that. You're not going to find deep social commentary anywhere near here. And yet despite that, I never found myself disappointed with the story's resolution. I think as a small-scale story where character drama is the focus, Sharin no Kuni delivers a solid enough experience. Oh, and art and music were fine. The backgrounds look like they were made using MS Paint, though. |
| 0 points |