Review of Grisaia no Kajitsu -LE FRUIT DE LA GRISAIA-
| Subject | Grisaia no Kajitsu -LE FRUIT DE LA GRISAIA- Grisaia no Kajitsu - Le Fruit de la Grisaia |
| By | Helpfulness: 0 Vote: 7.5aji-fiblu on 2023-06-06 |
| Review | These are my initial thoughts of the game as I played through each route. This is not necessarily a review or a recommendation, but can be taken as such with the volume of text and minor spoiler nature of my thoughts. They are not polished or edited like an essay, and it may read rough because of that. Also, this is my first review so the reading could be rough because of that too. Starting with general info like UI/UX, movies, cg/bg work, music, and character art. Then in order are my thoughts on the common, mitcher, yumiko, sachi, amane, and makina routes. After that is a reflection of the overall game, and my rating of each route/heroine. Menus are all working and good, no extra content is hidden behind some obscure menu trick. Normally I complain about save space in plot heavy games while moe games have way too much, grisaia is the latter case though more is always better than less (why does MOON have 30 save slots despite having like 70 choices?). The opening theme was unwatchable? Audio replays random segments of the ending song on repeat, and the video plays a frame once every few seconds. This also happens for amane’s credits and makina’s bad end, either an issue with my copy or the actual release. Though makina’s normal end credits work normally, despite being the exact same credits. Some save names/choice names have snake case naming while others have normal spacing, whats the deal? If parsing spaces on strings was an issue, then all choices should be in snake case. Also the final choice in amane’s route doesn’t have a text box, just plain text on the cg with screen detection where the text box would be. Kind of stingy with cg's but sprite work is good, somewhat making up for this. Makina and mitcher being favorites of mine with how their sprites are manipulated. Mosaics are poorly done; literally look like they were done with a magic marker or equivalent care, probably standard for moe games? It’s not too important. H-scenes are inconsistent on occasion, some talk about moving a right hand when the left one is moved, and other times its anatomically correct. Music is pretty good, above average for the type of game grisaia is going for. In the air, code: xxxx, and scab being the most memorable of the bunch. Worth noting is the games “intended” route order being yumiko -> amane -> mitcher -> makina -> sachi; I did not play in this order and overall it doesn’t matter the actual order, though some specific scenes have more weight to them assuming the “intended” order is played. SoL is absolutely hilarious while also being well written, having both is a rare positive. Kind of reminds me of the SoL from higurashi. There’s just so many scenes that are really funny, the cast ping-pong off each other really well and every character with a sprite, excluding heroine route specific sprites, pulls their weight here. If you make the mc a cool, not generic self-insert, he really should be voiced. This serves as a detriment in some routes. I know he has a backstory fully revealed in sequels, but in this game he is mysterious to a detriment unfortunately. The heroine routes for the most part focus on how yuuji gripes with the heroine’s inner turmoil despite his own circumstances. The drama unlike a yuzusoft game is very real and quite grim at times, happy endings not guaranteed but are rewarding once obtained. Yuuji’s quotes are pretty funny, he’s either the second or third funniest character in the game. ROUTE: 8.5/10. Mitcher route was good, but has a few plotholes/weak writing im not a fan of. The alternate personality, unlike mitcher, is a genuine brat. Her circumstances are rough, but she got a second lease on life (somehow, despite this being a grounded game with yuuji of all protags) and uses it to ponder the nature of death, something she already experienced. I cannot for the life of me figure out why she got to tie up loose ends of her former life, and why its shoehorned at the very end of the route. Her simply disappearing would have made a more conclusive ending, honestly would have been more in line with a makina ending rather than a sachi ending. Pushing out every character of the story for yuuji/mitcher to get intimate is really lazy, every other route explains pushing out characters in detail and even then doesn’t completely remove them until the very end. Outside of these gripes, the romance is quite good. Its puppy love befitting what you’d expect from mitcher, thinly veiled pretend dates and pretend dressing up for dates because tsundere. Once the twist reveals itself, it’s very believable but plays on your expectations nicely. Mitcher as a heroine is surprisingly good as well, really makes the route more enjoyable than the synopsis would make you expect. ROTUE: 7/10 HEROINE: 7/10. Yumiko route was also good, high highs and low lows writing wise. Yumiko herself reeks of a main heroine and their unfortunate negative traits, kind of like a shirasaki from daito or a rin from lil' bussers. As such her route is more about the overarching setting rather than her character for the beginning third. While this is usually not damning, yumiko in this route is vastly different here than in every other route. Her being a useless, emotional damsel in distress could have been pulled off better. While the character shift is not a complete 180 and actually improves this route, it comes at the cost of her presence as a character in other routes. ROUTE: 6.5/10 HEROINE: 5/10. Both the mc and myself seem to enjoy sachi's route the best. Everything was well organized, she seems like the best fit for yuuji, and she is the most perceptive of yuuji's nuacnes, even more so than amane or yumiko. While predictable, the reasoning for her maid-like personality is still explained very nicely. Sachi herself is a gem of a heroine. Her romantic side is adorable, her random outburst into song got a wide variety of reaction out of me, her quotes and scenes in general are the funniest the game has to offer, and her drama resolution was by far the most “human” way to handle her problems. I can still remember the exact way she said “…Fuck Jap! Suck Jap!! Bitch Jap!!” (in full English), and “…Truly powerful words. I could almost feel my heart trembling in my chest and my genitals moistening in my groin. I very nearly took out my cell phone and tweeted ‘The rain in Spain falls mainly on my lady jane #wet.’” Probably a top 5 favorite of mine and a very good route as well. To me, sachi is the peak of this game. ROUTE: 9.5/10 HEROINE: 10/10. After finishing sachi's route, thought this game would be a 10, then played amane and the score went way down. Amane's route sucks. Up to her backstory, it is a vapid moenukige route that only has value when her backstory is revealed and in yuuji's inner monolouge. Former part of the positives are the same ones subahibi's 1st chapter had (only valuable after later plot points), so its garbage. Yuuji's inner thoughts are equally cool in every route so amane's route is far from unique. Amane's backstory to me feels exactly the same as the endless eight, for better or worse. Though this was more tedious than endless eight, tedious by design works far better here than the first part of the route and even mixed in some good moments unlike haruhi's laziness. Also like endless eight, it was too long on parts that ultimately weren't important and skimmed over massively important parts (in amane’s case, the consequences of her story). Every other character’s backstory is ~1/4 of the length yet did a better job of expressing relevant parts of the heroine’s current self, parts yuuji focuses the rest of the route on. Cg work also would have made the backstory less of a slog. It took me 4 days on and off for the whole thing, and there were 2 different cg’s, the backgrounds, sound design, and new sprites were quite good, making up for lack of cg. What the hell was that rushed ending? Very unsastifying, to the point where I question what the devs even wanted this route to look like. Compared to sachi's, mitcher's, and even yumiko's route, this one is really lacking. Amane isn’t the worst heroine ever though, really is a shame they made her route this jumbled. ROUTE: 6/10 HEROINE: 4/10. The setup for makina’s route is good. The conference scene is gold, even more enjoyable if this is the last route played. Probably the funniest route even outside of that scene, the other characters aren't shoved out the story early on like in mitchers route so they can bounce off of yuuji/makina's dynamic really well. Route can do serious moments effectively too, drama is excellent and the route becomes grim with each escalation of the stakes. Like yumiko’s route, this one is plot heavy but unlike that one, this one spends a lot of time bonding with makina. Yuuji teaches her how to ride a bike, having fun with various kinds of rough-housing, helps her get a part time baking job, teaches her self-defense, bonding more unique than the other heroines in this game let alone the moe genre. Until the twist its plain and simple; a fun route with the second and third funniest characters in the game leading it. On paper, this route isn’t too much better than mitcher’s route, but makina really is an endearing character and the twist is really good, best drama in the game. ROUTE: 8.5/10 HEROINE: 7/10. Upon giving this a rating, I was trying to compare this game to others of the same type (like moege, plotge, utsuge, etc.). Then I figured grisaia doesn’t really fit into either moe or plot mold too well, it’s both at the same time. My comparisons for relative enjoyment were between Aokana and Daitoshokan. Definitely had more fun playing this than any yuzusoft game, kinkoi, and koikari. If at gunpoint, I would play this over Aokana but it’s hard to say whether I enjoyed this one more than daito. Its close, yuuji is a better mc than kakei but for this kind of game theyre about even, the heroines in daito are more charming but “earning” a relationship with grisaia’s heroines is satisfying too. They even both have absolutely amazing underclassmen heroines in sachi and kana respectively. Grisaia has similar peaks to daito but the slow sections in grisaia are grating, even when theyre not intentional. The routes were a good amount better than the heroines whereas daito had both at a similar very high quality. Because of that, this game has a lower rating than 8.5 but higher than 7. Mathematically speaking, ROUTES: 47/60 (~7.8/10) + HEROINES: 33/50 (6.6/10) = 7.2/10. After this calculation, I had to completely reorganize my scores, since aokana was an 8 before this was published and I definitely enjoyed this more than aokana. I only do whole numbers and halfs, so this is a 7.5. I have heard the sequels gradually get worse, but I have high hopes since this one was pretty good. |
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