Review of RIDDLE JOKER

Subject	RIDDLE JOKER
By	Helpfulness: 3 Vote: 8antherus on 2021-03-20
Review	Should you buy? Yes. This is a good VN with impressive art, production values, and a decent story. The characters are what make it, largely, and some routes are better than others. Ayase - best route, with the best story. Ayase as a heroine is hilarious. This route contains MASSIVE spoilers toward the end with startling revelations, so you may wish to leave this for the last. Nanami - decent route, and Nanami as a character is an absolute cutie. Has probably the biggest "tug at your heartstrings" scene in the VN, in a poignant flashback. Mayu - 2nd best route. Mayu is awesome, and this, combined with Ayase's route, are pretty much the main meat of the story. Hazuki - This route is cancer. Seriously, what the HELL where they thinking with this one?! Avoid reading, unless you want to waste time on a terribly written pile of crap. Chisaki - This one is just a relatively short unlockable. Nothing of major consequence happens, but it's a nice little addition and Chisaki is a likable character. All in all, a very good experience, with Ayase, Nanami, and Mayu's routes making it all worth it. Loses a point for the awful Hazuki route. (The character herself is okay as supporting cast and garbage as a main heroine) Overall score: 8/10
	3 points

#1 by alexfang452 2021-03-20 at 07:21	< report >Nice review. If you could, can you talk about what makes Hazuki's route horrible and why it has terrible writing without spoiling anything? This VN caught my eye, and I might purchase it in the near future. Thanks.Last modified on 2021-03-20 at 07:26
#2 by c2k 2021-03-20 at 07:35	< report >Hazuki is not really good tho because of her hobbies and other things which she is like an classic or old fashion type of person with her motto in life being justice and all of those things. She could been a good heroine if it was for that type of her hobbies tho, but her characteristic is somewhat funny tho because of her knowledge about other stuff like thinking about lewd things that end up digging up her own grave. It's such waste for hazuki's route.Last modified on 2021-03-20 at 07:35
#3 by antherus 2021-03-20 at 12:27	< report >Not to mention that the central conflict in Hazuki's route pales in comparison to the others, and feels like it should have been resolved in a single chapter, as opposed to drawn out over the course of the entire route. There's nothing offensive about the route, per se, other than it's poorly written, boring, and a waste of time. It feels like it doesn't belong with the rest. The ending sucks as well.
#4 by c2k 2021-03-21 at 06:34	< report >Sometimes its just a waste of a heroine when she's acting like an old person who like justice and fighting crimes with the motto of having peace and order in the society. It's literally too old and not much everybody like that kind of things
#5 by antherus 2021-03-21 at 07:06	< report >I get what they were going for. Hazuki's idea of justice was immature, and she needed to understand that sometimes things aren't as black and white as we'd like them to be. There was a redemption part to her arc. The problem is that it came so late in the story that it was rendered useless, and the resolution to an already lackluster story was one of the stupidest scenes in a VN I've seen in awhile. And yes, Hazuki isn't a terribly realistic character, which could be forgiven in a VN. Being boring, however, cannot.