Review of Rebellions: Secret Game 2nd Stage
| Subject | Rebellions: Secret Game 2nd Stage Rebellions Secret Game 2nd Stage Boosted Edition |
| By | Helpfulness: 1 Vote: 7.5PhantomSonzai on 2022-03-20 |
| Review | As someone who hated the original Killer Queen and thought that Secret Game was mostly mediocre, I'm pleased to say that Rebellions is one of the most underrated VNs I have ever experienced, and its a terrible shame that it isn't more popular. (Note that I have not read Code Revise (which this is a remake of), so unlike my Secret Game review I won't be judging it as a remake, but as an entirely original work.) I've always found the premise of these games to have a lot of potential that unfortunately never gets fully utilized. Rebellions is the first game in the series that has managed to utilize that potential to it's fullest extent. Every route feels distinct from the last (well, almost. More on that later), and the scenarios presented in said routes are far more varied than in the other games. This is in part thanks to the setting. Unlike KQ/SG, which took place in an enclosed building, Rebellions takes place outside and as such - has far more varied visuals than just grey hallways. Pretty much my only complaint with the setting is that, despite a map existing in-game, I never knew exactly where certain locations were in relation to others. This isn't really a huge issue though (and it's something KQ/SG suffered from too, albeit to a lesser extent). Something this game deserves praise for is it's pacing. One of my biggest problems with Secret Game (one that I didn't even realize I had until long after finishing it) was that every time you started a new route, you needed to go through 2-3 hours of setup again before the main portion of it started. While this made each route feel like a complete story on it's own, I can't help but think that it would have worked better if those 2-3 hours functioned as a "common route" of sorts, and then a choice determined what route you played (funny enough, Code Revise apparently does this). Rebellions eliminates this issue by having the start of each route feel very distinct and showcasing different perspectives. That leads me into discussing the routes individually. Back in Secret Game, the routes were similar enough to the point where I didn't feel the need to discuss them individually, but in this case each route has it's own strengths and weaknesses, so I'll go over each individually. Route A is probably my favourite part if the whole game. From the very beginning it had me engaged. The setup manages to establish the rules, the stakes, and intrigues you enough to drive you to keep going without getting bored. Pretty much the entirety of the first half of this route is setup now that I think about it. It focuses heavily on establishing the characters, their relationships and dynamics with each other, and the actual game itself. This is the weakest part of the route, but I think the decision to put it all here was a very wise one. Putting this right at the start of the game, when I'm most tolerant of slow pacing, made it so I was never really bored by any of these parts. Once you reach the halfway point though, this route does a complete 180 and becomes very fast paced. The contrast between the first and second halves of this route is one of my favourite things about it. Overall, this route certainly has issues but it was the most consistently engaging part of the story in my opinion. Route B has higher highs and lower lows. The first third of this route feels like they were trying to cram too much content into such a short span of time. It runs into the issue Killer Queen Route 1 had where so much was happening in such a short timespan before I even had time to get invested. The remainder of this route is fortunately much higher in quality though. It focuses on a group of character that didn't get a huge amount of screentime in Route A, and I think that's part of the reason why every route feels so different from one another. B is where the game goes completely off the walls in terms of the action. To put it bluntly, a large chunk of the fights as pretty ridiculous. But this isn't a bad thing, contrary to what you might be thinking. In fact, it's one of the biggest reasons why the fights don't get stale after a few hours like in Secret Game (where basically every fight was "hide behind cover and shoot until someone gets hit). It's not as good as A, but B was still a great time, the first third aside. Route C is very different, going for a far more slow pace than the others, [Route C Kinda Spoiler] it's also where the story sort of stops focusing on the actual death game itself, instead mainly focusing on the characters with the game being more of a backdrop (at least that's how I felt about it). Route C builds up an amazing sense of tension throughout it's runtime. The best part of this route was easily the characters though, especially one who's development completely caught me off guard. They went from being a character I cared about ironically to one of the best characters in the series. It's very difficult to discuss this route without completely spoiling the appeal of it, so you'll just have to trust me when I say that it's really good. Route D is the most different of all the routes, it's also my least favourite of them all (7/10 instead of 8-8.5/10). That's not to say it's bad though, just the weakest part of the game in my opinion. Similarly to Route C, it's pretty much impossible to discuss without completely spoiling the entire thing. My biggest complaint with Route D, and probably the game as a whole, would have to be the ending. [Major Spoilers for both Secret Game and Rebellions] the climax of the game is absolutely brutal, I was expecting pretty much the entire cast to survive like in Secret Game Route 4 (needless to say, my hopes were fucking annihilated). The final battle is pretty good too, though weirdly I found Secret Game's more satisfying (maybe just because I was glad it was finally over). My issues come with what happens after the final fight. The survivors escape the island, and then the narration tells us that they joined Ace. We then cut to ten years later, where the cast reunite and discuss their final operation to destroy the organization. It's a great scene, don't get me wrong, my issue is that it's the last scene in the entire game. There's very little sense of closure, it just cuts to the credits (which show Fumika talking to Soichi, that's pretty great) and then TO BE CONTINUED IN SECRET GAME: KILLER QUEEN. It makes the whole game seem like nothing but a buildup to this other game that I really don't care about. I understand why the ending is the way it is but I wish there was something set post SG Route 4 that gave the cast some closure. In the end, I would rate the routes as such: Episode A: 8.5/10 Episode B: 8/10 Episode C: 8/10 Episode D: 7/10 Moving on to the cast, Rebellions has by far the strongest cast in the series. I don't think there's a single character I can say I outright dislike (well, there is ONE...) I really enjoyed Shuuhei, who is a much more proactive protagonist than Soichi, and it feels like he's actually getting stuff done. He also doesn't feel like a character you're meant to self insert as, he has sprites, a voice, and his own personality and backstory. While I wouldn't call him an aggressive character, he's less of a pacifist than Soichi and actually decides to play the game. It's worth noting that Rebellions doesn't have one set protagonist, the perspective switches to various different members of the cast, so while Shuuhei is still technically "the protagonist", that doesn't mean you play as him for all, or even most of the game (in Episode B especially, he feels like an afterthought). Kotomi was fine, she's a typical childhood friend type character with not too much else to say about her. Her relationship with Shuuhei in Episode A is pretty nice, but after that it feels like she gets pushed to the side for the rest of the game. Yuuna is pretty good. I enjoyed her interactions with the rest of the cast (especially Shuuhei) a lot, I can't really think of much to say about her otherwise though. Tsukasa is another one of my favourite characters. He's smart, cunning, and I really enjoyed his interactions with Rei. Apparently there was a route focused on him in the original Code Revise that was cut from Rebellions, much to my dismay (though it was apparently terrible anyway so...). Hitomi is very good, it was interesting to see how her actions changed due to the different circumstances between Route A and B, though I can see why some people might think she gets a bit grating during Route B. Route C is where she gets most of her development, and I found it to be very interesting and enjoyable to watch. Haruna is a character I feel like I should love but...I just don't. I don't really know why considering I can plainly see that she's well written, it could have something to do with the fact that I completely forgot that she existed in both Route A and C. Kurokawa is a character that really surprised me. My first reaction to him was "okay, so he's just discount Tezuka", and that remained my impression of him for all of Route A. But in B, we start to see a different, more interesting side to him, which really comes to the forefront in Route C. Rei is really entertaining, I especially love her interactions with Tsukasa. She's used as a comic relief character a lot of the time, but the game still gives her a lot of serious moments. [Spoilers for Episode A] And finally, Daisuke. As much as I hate him, he is a very entertaining villain. That's all I'll say on him. I don't really have any strong thoughts on the rest of the cast (Mariko, Majima, Hatsune, Mitsuru, Yui), they were all collectively pretty good, but I don't have much to say about them. Presentation-wise Rebellions is quite good. The sprites all look nice (especially considering this is the same artist as Killer Queen, it's crazy how much they've improved). The only issue I have with the visuals is that some CGs are noticeably lower quality than the rest (these were apparently all carried over from Code Revise). Pretty much all of these were in Episodes A and C. The music is great, it's less atmospheric than Killer Queen/Secret Game, but it's far better overall and lends to the tone of the game very well. My favourite tracks were Phantom Limb, Rise of the Tyrant, and Last Runner. There are also three openings, all of which are excellent. To briefly touch of the different versions. Similarly to Secret Game, the PC version of Rebellions had some pretty big changes. Unlike Secret Game's PC port (which was significantly worse overall) most of the changes here are actually for the better. +A few of Tsukasa's sprites have been redrawn to be more consistent wit his overall design. At first I actually liked the look of his console sprites more, but as the game went on I realized how much better the PC version's ones looked. +Some of the music tracks now have remixed versions that play at certain key moments. Most of these are very good and I think this is a great addition. +A new route has been added. As of the time of writing this review, I have not completed it, though from the looks of things it probably won't improve my opinion of the game whatsoever. I'll update this part of the review when I get around to finishing it. +The scripting has seemingly been completely redone for some reason. As such, the placement of sprites and more importantly, music, is very different between the console and PC versions. This drastically changes the tone of certain scenes. In most instances I prefer the PC version in this regard, though there was one instance where it showed a morning variant of a CG, when the scene took place during the middle of the day. In 99% of cases though, the PC version is superior. Unfortunately the PC version also makes some truly infuriating decisions that make the console version the better option overall. -Environmental effects don't work half of the time. -The menus don't show special functions, only clear conditions. -The backlog is way worse. -Various CGs now have unnecessary pantyshots added to them, which completely kills the tension in a lot of scenes. -Worst of all though is the H-scenes. I initially wrote a long paragraph on why they ruin the game so much, but to summarize it, the placement is awful, some of the content itself is disgusting, and they actively take away from the rest of the game (for example [Vague Spoilers] there's a certain scene where a character dies, and there's a flashback to a fucking H scene that featured them. It's such a terrible change that completely kills the moment.) So yeah, while the PC version has huge benefits, unless someone makes a non-ero patch someday, don't even bother with it. Just play the console version. As I said at the start of the review, Rebellions is one of the most underrated VNs I have ever experienced, it's everything I wanted out of the other games and more. It's unfortunate that such a great VN remains so inaccessible, but I thank GundamAce for live-translating it anyway and giving me the chance to experience this story that I may never have otherwise. If you're someone who's interested in a battle royale VN with a good cast and an interesting premise, Rebellions has my highest recommendation. I can only hope it someday gets the recognition it deserves. |
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