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Review of Gore Screaming Show

SubjectGore Screaming Show
ByHelpfulness: 7
Vote: 6
parfait on 2022-12-07
ReviewI'd heard a lot of praise for this one, so I went into it expecting a gorey plotge, which unfortunately didn't turn out to be the case, but I still ended up finding it a decent read.

I cleared the routes in the order of Kiika > Aoi > Akane > Yamiko > Yuka, and I'll put my thoughts on each of them below.

Kiika's route borders on nukige territory, and I honestly found it just awful and immediately regretted playing it first. It felt like an endless stream of H-scenes with Kiika being unable to resist touching herself because of Yuka/Gore's influence and her turning into a "bad" girl. The backstory with the iron bar stuff and her mother getting mad at her for discovering sexual pleasure too early was kind of stupid and not very believeable and felt like they only put that there so she had a reason to call herself sinful or whatever. I don't remember much else happening in terms of plot apart from the scene with Yoshiki burning himself and Yuka alive with the mansion to stop her once and for all. The only part I really liked was the bit where Kyouji told Kiika about how it's perfectly normal to have sexual feelings and feel turned on by stuff. Kiika as a character was very likeable and it was a shame she didn't really appear in any of the other routes at all (though neither did Aoi.)

Aoi's route was decent, with some interesting hints at the overarching mystery sprinkled throughout. This one had some actually scary horror parts, e.g. the city-turned-crazy scenes, and even that jumpscare with Gore suddenly appearing on the TV, which genuinely made me jump. I also enjoyed reading the few slice-of-life bits at the start of the route that showed off Aoi's more talkative/outgoing side. Akane feeling jealous of Aoi and Kyouji and as a result accepting to go to Sadashima's party thingy felt like a very human reaction and was very well written.

Akane's, no question, wins the spot for the best of all the three cover heroine routes. Lots of tension, action, mystery and foreshadowing for the unlockable routes here with good pacing. Romance-wise, it was a nice touch that Kyouji and Akane kept playfully bickering even after they became a couple rather than going full dere dere for each other, as is often the case in VNs. The part where Akane became slutty after returning from the mansion felt more like an excuse to shoehorn more H into the route than anything, and Yuka suddenly being able to possess Akane (?) seemed a bit random, but I didn't mind it too much as the rest of the route was great, no other complains from me here. Glad I ended up doing this right before Yamiko's route, as it flowed seamlessly into it with all the reveals.

Yamiko's route finally gives us answers to most of the questions we get reading the three girls', and wastes no time doing so. It sucked that they killed off Yoshiki so fast in this one, but then again this gave Yamiko more time to shine seeing how she's the heroine of the route. Albeit a bit on the shorter side, this route is well-paced and as well written as Akane's. The romance, however, was very poor and again felt like an excuse to throw in a H scene with Yamiko. I loved the emotional ending where Yamiko used the stone on Yuka while hugging her, and Yuka(ri) actually surviving.

Yuka, the "true" heroine's route, unfortunately didn't live up to my expectations. It had me going "Wait, that's it?" numerous times. I expected deeper plot twists and bigger reveals, but nope, Yamiko's route basically did it all already. The reason behind Yuka's insanity and her turning into a villain was the biggest offender. I thought Yamiko's route only scratched the surface and that there was going to be more behind it, but no. Seriously, what the hell? I get that Yukari was a bullied kid and horribly scared when they left her in the well because it was dark and there were creepy crawlys all around AND she had her first period to top it all of and it deeply traumatised her, but she was there for what, a few hours? I just don't think that was bad enough to turn her into an uncaring homicidal maniac that only cares about Kyouji and absolutely nothing and nobody else and has no qualms about having her minion literally devour people alive after raping them...? I guess maybe the stone that she absorbed had some sort of power to turn people evil or something, but they should've at least expanded on that a bit if that was the case... Either way, it wasn't nearly enough to make me feel bad for Yuka or think she deserved forgiveness for what she'd done to everyone across the routes and endings. That said, Kyouji and Yuka's romance was sweet and they had quite a few cute moments together.

The secret end is more of an omake thing IMO, as it contains a H-scene with Mashiro and a 4p with the cover heroines and not much else apart from some cryptic ramblings about the eyeball world.

Overall a decent read, but in my opinion Gore Screaming Show is aimed at players who prefer lots of gorey H-scenes with plot on a backseat, and people who expect an intricate horror/mystery story should look elsewhere.
7 points
#1 by Ninius
2022-12-07 at 02:48
< report >
Overall a decent read, but in my opinion Gore Screaming Show is aimed at players who prefer lots of gorey H-scenes with plot on a backseat, and people who expect an intricate horror/mystery story should look elsewhere.
Exactly my thoughts too. This might be a good vn for those who just want guro and don't care to think too much about the plot details around the mysteries. I was really let down by the "reveals" which were full of boring tropes.