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Review of Minikui Mojika no Ko

SubjectMinikui Mojika no Ko
ByHelpfulness: 13
Vote: 6
blaircatch22 on 2021-01-26 last updated on 2021-01-28
ReviewAn homage and love letter to Clockup's Euphoria.
A visual novel that I have mixed opinion of due to its story and mechanics.
Shimokura's writing style still hasn't improved btw. You have to put up with his awkward writing style that is made more annoying tenfold due to the repetition of the dialogue.

Mojika, just like Totono is "different" from other visual novels in the way that it tried to innovate. I find it that this game is worth playing just on that fact alone as it is something you should experience. Totono's strong point was its mechanic and wall breaking, pretty much an exceptionally well done shock for the reader who is used to the conventional VN. Mojika does have an interesting mechanic, but it is way more story focused, which usually tends to be something Shomokura isn't exactly strong at unless the setting is bizarrely interesting like Steins;Gate or Tokyo Necro. Well anyways, core mechanic of Mojiko is that instead of choosing a text bubble to start your journey, instead you look upwards in order to progress.

The whole mechanic is tied in with the story that the main character only has a viewing radius of 120cm due to god given ability to see people's minds. Why 120 cm? He only looks down towards his feet to not face others. There are three reasons for this. 1. His face is hideous. 2. Due to his hideousness, he is afraid of reading other people's minds. 3. Too much mind reading can causes him information overload resulting in nausea. Pretty much the entirety of the game is just the MC looking at his feet.

The MC is so hideous that everyone hates him and bullies him. It first starts out as a revenge story against the main perpetrator, but it later becomes something so much bigger. And of course, as an homage to Euphoria(Even the same artist), there is a lot of rape and disturbing scenes. As disturbing as some of the scenes were, you will be disappointed by if you were expecting a Euphoria 2.0. Its fetishes are more tamer and there is little to no gore. The story dynamic is indeed similar however, so if you liked the story in Euphoria, maybe(?) you'll like Mojika. The question mark in maybe is the reason why this game, although innovative, couldn't get a higher score from me.

Before the story analysis, let's talk about the mechanic of the game. The mechanic or gimmick that this game has is interesting, but unless you look at the manual included in the game or some trial&error, you wouldn't actually know that gazing up would've been a choice. Now, this mechanic itself is fine, but it was kind of a hassle considering that you would have to not gaze up in order to progress through the routes. I did not have much a problem with this mechanic, but the mechanic that I found annoying was the "Mojika' where a bunch of moving text surrounds the characters. Basically, the text being the 'mind' of the characters. The problem was that it moved around way too god damn much. It also sometimes disappears. When a lot of the crucial information is conveyed through 'Mojika', it was way too distracting. Another problem I have is that, other than the MC seeking the truths by reading Mojika, this ability was barely used in an interesting way.

Oh and the music is pretty good if you are into the shoegazing genre. Quite fitting for a game meant to disturb

Now if this was a shit game like Re;Lief, I would just write a summary of why I didn't like it and be done with it. This is not a bad game in the least and I liked it enough to complete this VN quite quickly. Until a replay(not likely), my opinions about this game will be mixed. This has major spoilers.

Mojika's routes unlike other games seems to be interconnected. The routes themselves aren't stand alone stories, but rather intentional hints to the true story and about inner desires of the heroines and ultimately the MC himself. The writing even points out that the other possibilities(routes) are things that could've happened if the MC took different choices.

Now why is it a problem that all of the routes are interconnected? This is related to the true route heroine that is Konomi Naruko(it is not Hana Tsubaki). Konomi is the student council president of the prestigious Kibou Academy and a cunning little bitch. As shown in Miyu's route, Konomi has an extreme lust for power and acknowledges the use of "Hashira." Students from poor backgrounds that were falsely accepted into the rigorous academy to serve as an outlet of anger and frustration for the students. And surprise surprise, our hideous orphan MC and Miyu with family troubles are the lucky "Hashira." They get bullied and live terrible lives in school, thus the revenge. Konomi Naruko is once seen again as a contradictory character after the MC hands over Kirara's Tamasa drugs to Naruko and she backstabs him by reporting it to Kirara almost killing the MC. In these routes, she is just seen as a power hungry and contradictory girl with not much importance to the story.

Why the importance on Konomi? Well if you played 1 or 2 routes, you would've had a hunch that Tsubaki would've been the True End heroine, but YOU ARE WRONG. It is actually Konomi. (It should've been Tsubaki).

It is later shown that Naruko is Emiko and Naruko actually has the power to read people's minds just like the MC, but even the power to conceal her mind just like Tsubaki. This is the reason why the MC could not figure out her true identity and was fooled by her in the end.

In the MC's flashbacks and in the OP where he tries to hold someone's hand, that someone is revealed at the end to be Konomi. Later shown in the True End's memories, Konomi and MC are actually orphaned twins that were meant to be sacrifices to the giant dick god Consei. They both somehow survived and the end result was that they both got powers from dik god to read others' minds. MC remained in the orphanage, while Konomi Naruko became the adopted daughter of Konomi Eigyo. Both of them lost their memories after being absorbed into dik god and Naruko never knew that she was adopted. Both of them ultimately forgot their love for eachother. The reason why they love eachother wasn't really explained other than that they were twins.

During Naruko and MC's time in Kibou Academy, Naruko later tried to destroy dik god to go against her father who also had the same power of Mojika and Kanzuki(hiding Mojika). Naruko did cruelty beyond imagining to MC in order for the MC to gain Kanzuki to go against her father. After burning down the forest which contained dik god, Naruko became absorbed by dik god and MC tries to save her. They go against dik god and win while destroying dik god in the progress. Their first love was remembered again. But at the same time, Naruko becomes guilt ridden after realizing what she did to her love. They reunited with the end result being Naruko and MC being able to fulfill their true wish. Basically another Japanese incest love story and a problematic one at that, but that is not the main issue.

After playing all those routes and finally getting to the mystery behind it all. This raises some big ass questions as the routes are connected. The most important condition of all the routes was that Naruko had no memory of both of their past, but this does not seem to be case in multiple occasions. Their memories were returned AFTER dik god died, but the description and progress of saving Naruko in dik god seems like they already knew that they loved each other before.

Konomi Eigyo also has the power of Mojika and Eigyo says, "I know Naruko's first love through reading her mojika." when confronting MC. Faces can not be perceived through mojika, so only means that Naruko had a previous lover after MC or Naruko already had those memories. If the latter is true, it means that Naruko knowingly did every terrible thing to MC on purpose, which just destroys the catharsis of the VN. What is terrifying about Naruko if she indeed had no memories is that she masturbated to her father who she falsely knows to be blood related.

The story is even more fucked up the more you think about it and only makes the reader question more that Naruko had those memories in the first place. Yes I know MC had fragments of memories of the past, but after killing dik god, he had no idea who the girl was. He even thought that the girl in the memories was Tsubaki in Tsubaki's route. So this logic doesn't work to Naruko. Naruko did TERRIBLE things and just because they love eachother doesn't excuse her. Not to mention that the romance itself is pretty weak. I get that the writer tried to smooth this over by making the characters accept eachother's ugliness, but come on. It just gets fucked up the more you think about it.

They also have incest babies and the story ends with them holding hands while looking at the stars just like the MC's fake planetarium, but not in a concealed room but up in the real sky no longer being restrained by his 120cm vision. Of course, all of the other heroines' lives are ruined beyond repair and the whole town is fucked as they lost their source of power(dik god), but happily ever after?

Also what kind of even strengthens the theory that Naruko had her past memories is that except for Tsubaki's route, Emiko(Naruko) willingly killed or ordered others to kill MC. Probably for the MC cheating with another girl? What a despicable true heroine.

Tsubaki was a better heroine by leagues and it is unfortunate how she was pushed aside in order to make Naruko have more shock value. I mean Tsubaki was saved by MC mentally and physically. Despite Tsubaki regaining her ability to feel, it seemed like she still loved Tsubaki despite his hideousness by rejecting his money and trying to save him from being absorbed by dik god while also dying in the progress.

The whole memory contradiction I wrote above is indeed the biggest problem of the story, but another reason why the true route was unfulfilling was that the romance is weak and it was hard to like the main heroine or the MC. Of course, you can make a good story while making the characters as detestable as possible, but there needs to be proper and somewhat clear steps in order to satisfy those conditions. The true end didn't have much of that at all and it seems like Tsubaki's route was pretty much the only route that at least tried that. A disappointment for a game that interested me so much in the beginning.

Another tripe I have is that despite this game basically being a story nukige, many of the heroines were quite bland or even ugly. To each their own, I guess.


Is this game a game worthy of Euphoria as an homage? In terms of story and gore, not exactly.
Does it hit similar notes to Euphoria? Yes.
Should you play it? Yeah probably.
Is the writing good? Naw.

Should play/10

I really do hope that Nitro+ keeps on creating games like these though.
13 points
#1 by lexaed
2023-06-22 at 09:10
< report >Hey, can you help me, I am stuck at this visual novel.
I have completed 3 routes in Mojika no ko such as 双葉 みゆ route, 四月一日 胡頽子 route and 九鬼 綺羅々 route, right now I am playing the 花 椿 route. But there is a problem.

I follow this guide link, and after I completed all the choices till the ━ mark, I can't really continue from now on. The game just sends me to main menu and that it, I have tried to find some info but my japanese is not the great so even though I have read all the guide, there were nothing about what this ━ means. Like what should I do next, how to continue?

Basically I have completed all this choices

★視線移動:九鬼│スルー
★視線移動:みゆ│クリック
★視線移動:四月一日│クリック
★視線移動:九鬼│クリック
★視線移動:??(集団)│クリック
★視線移動:??(集団)│スルー
★視線移動:許斐│クリック
★視線移動:??(集団)│クリック
★視線移動:椿(巫女服)│クリック
★視線移動:椿(巫女服)│クリック, but after this ━ I cannot really do anything, the game just sends me to the main menu, what to do, please help.
#2 by gabro
2023-12-04 at 20:29
< report >Nice review, I read right after finishing the game and it helped me sort my thoughts about it. I think you missed that Naruko and Suteru are not related and they even confirmed that with a genetic test.
「遺伝子は一致しなかった」
「僕たちは、他人だ」​
「赤の、他人」​​

Leaving that aside I agree that Tsubaki's​​ route had the most potential, the true ending was riddled with too much unbelievable bs to be taken seriously.
#3 by askdeo
2024-01-20 at 21:58
< report >Agree 100% Like new mechanics seem interesting, settings of the game are not bad. But no route has a good realization of what it could potentially be. So yeah. Nice try but fucked up in the end.Last modified on 2024-01-20 at 21:58