#blreview

As far as I know there's no recommended route order, so I played the game in the following order: Ivan > Giulio > Luchino > Bernardo. This game has a lot of choices, so I used this guide which was created by the fan translator of the game who also got to translate the official version!

The story of this game takes place in the United States during the 1930s, which I know almost nothing about, but I thought it was an interesting setting! Gian is known for his great luck such as his many succesful prison escapes, which is also how he earned the nickname ''lucky dog''. However, because he is on friendly terms with the guards his life is pretty easy and he's not in a hurry to get out this time. This changes when he receives a letter ordering him to break the other CR:5 members out of prison.

I thought it was kind of funny that Gian's the uke in this game, yet while they're still in prison there's multiple scenes in which he tops, such as the visitor and also one of the prison guards. I think that's really something you only see in older BL games, but I can appreciate it. All four routes kind of follow a similar pattern, and after the prison break you end up in the city of Daivan where you'll choose which character you'll team up with. I also thought it was fun how the game shows which route you're on, as well as the status screen which you can see below, so you can kind of keep track which routes you finished and which ones still have endings you haven't played yet.

Characters The first route I played was Ivan's route who's easily my favorite character because he's just too funny. He's a total tsundere who also gets flustered when Gian acts flirty with Bernardo. He swears a lot and it was really amusing hearing the voice actor say stuff like ''fuck'' and ''shit'' in English. One of my favorite scenes is this conversation they have with the whole group shortly after his 18+ scene in which he kind of threatens Gian to ''fuck him again'' and everyone's looking at him like ''huh, again?'' and Ivan just looks so embarrassed... Their relationship is strangely cute because even though Ivan doesn't directly admit he likes Gian or anything, he kind of immediately acts like they're already in a relationship and suddenly kisses Gian. When Gian asks him why he did that, Ivan claims that's what ''pals do''. I need to play the fandisc Badegg after this because I want to see more interactions between these two...

After finishing Ivan's route I played Giulio's route. He's the quiet type who doesn't talk much, though he shouldn't be underestimated as he went to prison for murder and is also a skilled killer, which is why his nickname is ''mad dog''. He also has an obsession with dead bodies which, well... you'll see when you play his route. He's a sweet character but he does have some interesting hobbies. Even though Gian thinks it's the first time they met, Giulio sometimes acts like he has known him for even longer. His relationship with his grandfather also seems complicated as he easily gets ordered around and will not do anything against his wishes, although he could obviously beat him in a fight if he wanted to, so I was curious to learn more about that. I have played his route before years ago so I still remembered a few details of it, but still a very good route!

The third route I played was Luchino's route, which mostly focuses on his past and the death of his wife and daughter. He also doesn't seem to trust the boss of CR:5 whose whereabouts are currently unknown. Luchino is a playboy who loves women, but I was surprised how easily he ended up with Gian lol. This is something I like about this game because they don't really seem to be bothered by the fact that their partner is a man, so there's not a lot of dialogue that focuses on that kind of drama either. That one scene in which they dress up like police officers is probably one of the funniest scenes in the entire game because it's so dumb (in a good way). I really liked him together with Gian as a pairing and will definitely be checking out any extra content that focuses on them too.

The final route I played was Bernardo's route, who's someone Gian has known for a long time and they're pretty close to each other. They often jokingly flirt with each other and use nicknames such as ''darling'' and ''honey'', though they haven't done anything more than that (until you play his route of course). Bernardo takes care of all kinds of communications between the groups within the city so he's usually in his room answering phone calls and doesn't always tell Gian the truth about everything. Even though he isn't the type of character I would usually like, I enjoyed his interactions with Gian a lot.

Thoughts and impressions Luckydog1 is one of these games that always received positive reviews from Japanese fans and also always ranked high in BL magazine polls. It was originally released in 2009, but the game has gotten a number of spinoff games and a fandisc (Luckydog1+Badegg). I'm curious if they will also localize Badegg some day, but maybe I'll just play it in Japanese. Of course because this is an older game, the artstyle is also a bit different from games that would be released nowadays, but honestly I don't really mind and I think it has a certain kind of charm to it. Yura's artstyle has changed a lot throughout the years, so it is kind of fun to compare the CGs from this game to some of the more recent Luckydog1 art. I also really liked this game's humor and Gian often has the funniest lines imaginable. Of course it has serious scenes too, but combining humor with pretty dark elements such as non-con and murder seems to be a common theme in Yura's games. So I think that as long as you're okay with these kinds of themes, I recommend checking it out yourself!

The English localization also didn't disappoint, and the translation often matched the spoken dialogue in the game pretty well. I imagine some of the jokes in the game were a little difficult to translate (not to mention all of the unique insults...) as Japanese and English are very different languages, but I think it was handled well. I also like how they kept some of the the Italian terms, which I sometimes had to look up, but I had fun doing a little research as this wasn't a topic I ever learned much about before. I read the interview with the translator which MangaGamer published the other day which you can read here, which I recommend reading as there's a lot of interesting information. They also seem happy to answer any questions about translation choices, so if you have questions I think you can always just ask them. It also helps that they have been fan translating this game for many years and are obviously very passionate about it, and I think most people in the fandom have come across their translations at some point!

This version of the game focuses on three different routes, Ariake, Shimbashi and Aomi. Similar to previous Adelta games, you play all of the routes in a pre-decided route order, and with each route you finish, a new choice will show up allowing you to proceed to the next route. As I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, each character was assigned one earthly desire/mental factor that kind of describes the character, so I will also include this again below. Now I've played the game I know that these factors are definitely not their only personality trait, but some parts of it definitely show up in the story eventually.

Ariake -  Disregard (Anapatrapya 無愧): A mortician who likes helping out those in need. After injuring his dominant hand, he has been receiving a lot of help from others. He's immediately very fond of Oosaki and wants to follow him everywhere. His mental factor pretty much indicates that he doesn't consider his own actions 'bad'.

Shimbashi -  Stinginess (Mātsarya 慳): A screenwriter who speakes in a rather strange way, combining overly-polite speach and insults. When he first meets Oosaki, he doesn't seem to trust him at all and doesn't want to tell him anything. His mental factor refers to him only wanting to satisfy his own desires, and doesn't intend to share anything with others.

Aomi -  Envy (Īrṣyā 嫉): A quiet music teacher who doesn’t talk a lot, and when he does speak, it’s limited to short sentences only. He doesn't like small talk and sometimes when Oosaki asks him something Aomi simply ignores him. His mental factor doesn't need much explanation, but even though it's envy I must say that he's not the overly-jealous type (?). It kind of refers to something more specific in his route which I can't really mention without spoiling.

I don't think you really need a guide for this game as it's pretty obvious when new choices unlock, just start a new game after finishing the first route and you'll see! Ariake does have an alternative ending scene, so during your second playthrough don’t immediately pick the choice that leads to Shimbashi’s route, and return to Ariake’s route one more time. Afterwards you can proceed as usual. Sometimes a few choices pop up, but selecting the wrong choice has no consequences and you’ll just be re-directed to the choice menu. The wind chime sound effect indicates which one is the correct choice, but I kind of enjoyed seeing everyone’s nervous reactions while falsely accusing them of something, so I recommend that too. By the way, important items are easy to notice because of their red color, like the record on the left side of the image below. Same goes for any text written in red, it might become relevant later (maybe even in part 2).

This game also has a status screen which you can find by selecting the small camera roll icon next to the 再開 text in the main menu, which is very useful when you're unsure if you missed any endings. I actually didn't know it was a button until I finished the game, so if you missed it... trust me you're not the only one. Once you finish part 1, a preview for part 2 will also unlock here.

Introduction to the story Oosaki lives in a boarding house in Suga, a short walk from Hiratsuka station near Kamakura. His boss Shinkiba, who runs the detective agency, informs him about a request he received from a client. The client, a man who calls himself Shizuma Daiba, asks Oosaki to attend the memorial service of actress An Ooe on his behalf. According to Daiba, it was his father who received the invitation, however he fell ill shortly afterwards. Oosaki assumes that the person who invited him is a relative of the actress. Even though Oosaki never met her, he remembers reading news about her death. which shocked him because she was quite young and died by setting herself on fire. Even though it's a rather strange request and Shinkiba warns Oosaki, he still decides to travel to Ooejima. The island belongs to the Izu Island group and is located near Hachijojima. Originally, it was used as a military base during the Second World War, however after this it became uninhabited. Even though he has never been there, Oosaki knows about the island because his grandma who raised him was originally from this island, and he always felt like he'd travel to the island some day.

On his way to the island, he meets one of the other main characters in this game, Ariake, who’s also travelling to Ooejima for the memorial service. He’s surprised to find out Ariake’s grandmother is also from the island. After arriving at the Mikazuki inn, he receives a warm welcome from a trembling man with a knife (??), who later introduces himself as Funeno. He also meets Shimbashi who's staying at the same inn. The other characters are all staying at a different inn, but Oosaki meets them pretty soon too (Takeshiba, Shijoumae, Hinode, Aomi and Shiodome). The final character, Toyosu, appears a bit later and mentions he's in charge of the memorial service because the individual who invited them all (who nobody seems to know) couldn't come after all, which leaves everyone confused.

Since this is mentioned in the promotional material and also happens in the trial version, I think it's not really a spoiler to mention that Funeno is the first character who gets killed shortly after this. They decide to perform a ritual to put his spirit to rest, which involves burning a straw figure, though when they finally burn it they discover someone swapped the straw figure with Funeno's body and they end up burning his body instead... Afterwards, Shiodome reveals that they didn't just receive invitation letters, but they also got a letter describing the crimes one of the other attendees committed. They were all swapped, so everyone has a letter that belongs to someone else and knows about their crimes. The orders is as follows: Funeno > Daiba > ??? > Shimbashi > Takeshiba > Aomi > Toyosu > Hinode > Shijoumae > Ariake > Shiodome > Funeno. I guess now we know why Funeno acted so nervous around Oosaki, as he introduced himself as ''Daiba'' and Funeno got Daiba's letter...

Oosaki didn't receive any of these letters from Daiba though, so after they all return the letters to each other, Shimbashi is the only one who doesn't get his own letter, and let's just say he's not too happy about that. This also means that characters who had each other's letters know about their crimes, which is why some of them seem to be rather uncomfortable around each other. Most of the routes branch off a little bit after the scene where the trial version ends, and then the real murder mystery story starts in which they try to figure out who killed Funeno. Someone also destroyed the phone, so now there's no way to contact anyone anymore. At this point Oosaki's of course also suspicious of his client Daiba, because it's clear he was hiding something from him and sent Oosaki to the island without telling him important information.

Personal thoughts Since it’s a murder mystery game you never know which characters to trust, and because characters do die and will be absent throughout the entire route, it was a really suspenseful experience. I was interested in the story from start to finish, which is why I finished it so fast... I can't explain the feeling of dread every time one of the characters announced that something bad had happened, and you're wondering how bad it could really be. Even though the game doesn't show any super gory CGs (the most they'll show is blood), the descriptions are very detailed, so I think even without that it's easy to understand what happened to them. I also liked how the characters who die and survive are different depending on which route you play, so the game really stays interesting in all three routes.

Even though we know a second part of the game is coming, part 1 doesn't feel incomplete at all and the routes work very well on their own! So if you can read Japanese or want to use translation tools, I highly recommend playing this. It took me over 30 hours to finish the game, including the common route which is about 5 hours long, but I do play pretty fast and am already replaying some scenes, so it might be even longer. Also according to a message that came with the game, part 2's data will be free for everyone who buys part 1, so you don't need to buy them separately. I do want the physical version of the game, but I don't mind spending a bit more because the game's only 4400 yen (unlike most VNs which are about 8000-9000 yen).

My personal favorite character is Shimbashi because of his cat-like characteristics and short temper, I guess he's a bit of a tsundere now I think about it, but I also really like the abnormal way he speaks... he's super polite and extremely rude at the same time and I am curious how this would get translated in the English version. My second favorite is probably Ariake, and because he was the first route, I expected his route to be good too, since it's the first experience anyone will have with this game after all. The final route is Aomi, who I was pretty neutral about at first, but I also ended up really liking him. I shouldn't underestimate any character in this game because they will prove me wrong... so far I really like everyone. I suddenly remember when the game was announced they said all the characters are ''straight'' lol, but as expected, so far it just means they haven't been together with another man before. They do not seem to care about Oosaki's gender at all and don't make it a big deal (I also like how there's multiple lines in this game acknowledging other gender identities btw... it's mentioned out of nowhere but I love to see it). If you didn't know btw, the protag of this game is a top, all of the previous Adelta game protagonists were bottoms.

I've always liked the Adelta's artstyle and character designs, but I was really impressed by the art in this game. Every CG in Ooe just looks so beautiful and I can't stop opening the CG gallery to look at it over and over again. As for the eye color... I also have my theories because in previous games this was an important plot element, and even by just looking at the promotional material, it's clear that those with ties to Ooejima are the only characters who have red eyes, so maybe that will be mentioned in the next part? Also every character has their own ending song, similar to what they did with Uuultra C.

The references to existing literature in this game are also comparible to the older Adelta titles, for example the caves on the island kind of remind me of the novel "Kotou no Oni" and the game sometimes references Agatha Christie’s "And Then There Were None" too, with Oosaki even owning a copy of the book, and eventually comparing the people on the island to characters in the book. As I mentioned in my first blog post about this game, some of the characters' first names also reference other novel characters. For example, Shiodome’s name is Michio, which is also an important character in "Kotou no Oni", Daiba’s name is Shizuma, which seems to be referencing a character in "Inugami-ke no Ichizoku" or "The Inugami Family" (this applies to the names of his brother and father too), and Funeno’s first name is Kureichirou, which is the name of one of the main characters in "Dogra Magra". In part 1, we learn the first names of a couple of other characters too for the first time, and I do have some theories what these could be referencing, especially Takeshiba's... I also want to know more about Shiodome because I mean, from the beginning it's clear the way he behaves isn't exactly what one would consider "normal", so I wonder how he would interact with Oosaki... Cool-B did preview one of his 18+ scenes and I have many questions. Then of course there's Daiba... he's so suspicious and the promotional material keeps referring to him as a ''side character'' even though he was literally on the cover of Cool-B magazine combined with Oosaki and Ariake, so I have my doubts about that.

Honestly there's so many things I could write about but at this point I might be theorizing too much and not actually reviewing the game, but I really don't want to spoil, so I think that's it for now! Part 2 is scheduled to be released in winter, though I'm not sure if that means December, January or later. You can buy part 1 here though! Please support them. It was mentioned that they are planning to release an English and Chinese version, though any information about that will have to wait until the release of part 2. When part 2 is released I'll write a review about that too! <- you can check that out here now!

The school doesn’t allow students to have a cellphone or any form of entertainment, and going home, even during summer vacation, is prohibited. This means that the students have to stay there until they graduate (...or until they get kicked out). Tamaki was recommended to go to this school by his uncle, Sekai, who works at the school as a physician. Trusting his advice, Tamaki is excited to start his new life there.

This game has 3 main routes and one secret route I won’t say too much about, each character has a good and a bad end. As usual you can also get a bad end in the common route when you hang out with too many different characters. I’m not sure if there’s a guide yet but it was not super difficult to figure out how to get each ending. The recommended route order is Rio > Seri > Kouichi according to the official account, and I agree that it’s probably the best order to play in.

The first character our protagonist meets is Rio, who’s a second-year student and also in the same class as him. He’s also the student council president. After giving him a short tour of the dorm, they meet again at school the next day. This is where the game introduces the second love interest, a boy with a beautiful face called Seri. Tamaki thinks he’s a bit strange, but because they both like basketball, they get along. One day later while trying to find a classroom to hand in his homework, Tamaki stumbles upon a fight in the school’s garden and attempts to stop them. This is where he meets the third character who has his own route, Kouichi. He’s a third-year student with quite a bad reputation, as it seems like he’s often involved in fights. Other people warn Tamaki to not get too close to him, but Tamaki thinks Kouichi isn’t a bad person and wants to learn more about him.

Seri and Rio don’t really like each other because they have such different personalities, but still... hang out with each other for some reason lol? Even when Tamaki isn't there. Rio’s pretty serious and wants everyone to take their studies seriously, while Seri is carefree and sometimes doesn’t prioritize studying. Luckily for him though, Seri’s pretty smart so even with that attitude he seems to be doing fine. Both of them don't really interact with Kouichi because they're in a different class and don't really have a reason for talking to him, so they're surprised that Tamaki does talk to him.

Like mentioned in the short introduction, after a while Tamaki starts noticing some things about the school that seem weird and unnatural to him. One of the main themes that frequently returns in the story is that students suddenly become violent. According to the teachers, this is because of "stress" and the lack of distraction within the school, but even so, Tamaki wonders why such a thing is so normalized. He tries talking to Sekai about maybe improving the club activities and class schedules, but he isn't sure if he's taken seriously. It seems like nobody else is really concerned about these issues. At first Tamaki tries to ignore it and assumes the teachers are doing their bests, but later he realizes that something is seriously wrong with the school.

But I had a lot of fun playing this game! There wasn't a love interest I disliked. I must say that all of their personalities were... the complete opposite of what I expected, and I can't really mention details without spoiling lol, but it was interesting. It's always fun to play VNs in which you slowly unravel all kinds of secrets. I just wish there was more...!! Maybe they could continue it with a fandisc or drama CDs or something because I think there's definitely potential. Tamaki is such a cute protagonist I love him.

Impressions

Before the game's release, I was curious what kind of genre this game was. Of course it's a school setting game, but after watching the opening it looks like there's some darker themes as well. Without spoiling... I can definitely confirm that's true, though I wouldn't call it a horror game or anything! The bad endings do get really dark, especially Seri's ending kind of shocked me (in a good way because I like bad endings), so I definitely recommend that if you're looking for dark content! Some of the story in the main game gets quite dark as well (noncon scenes, some of the backstories etc.) so if you're sensitive to that, play with caution.

And by the way, according to Peaky's staff during one of the pre-release livestreams, they are currently working on a trial version, so if you're unsure if you want to buy the game or not, I recommend waiting a little bit longer until that's available! Picture below is from Mashima Shima's Twitter account, there's a lot of nice extra art there, so definitely check it out!

Hamashima Shima's account: X

If you're here for the guide I recommend scrolling down a little bit! I'll start with a short summary of what the game is about and how to play it. This game was originally released as a mobile game in 2022 and I played a little bit of it, but I didn't reach any endings, so this was my first time completing the game. The gameplay of both versions is almost identical, but this time there are no in-game purchases and ads, which is nice! As the game's description mentions, you have to conduct experiments on the test subjects, Nishi (West) and Higashi (East), and observe how they react to them. Both of them don't remember how they got there and also don't remember much of their past lives, so it's up to you to slowly make them remember. This game is unvoiced and there's also no background music, so it immediately makes the player feel a bit uneasy. The only sound you hear is the sound of the clock ticking.

Gameplay and story

As the researcher, you can use 10 different sub-menus to interact with Nishi and Higashi: Spying, Meals, Special Items, Incident, Entertainment, a safe which becomes the Cultivation Room later, Questions, Paper and Pen, Bathing and Bedtime. At first the game does seem a bit confusing because you have to figure out which items trigger a reaction and it's a bit slow at first, but I did have fun slowly learning more about the characters! The goal is to gather as many keywords as possible, but you only have a limited numbers of actions each day, so use them wisely.

Both characters have completely different personalities. They don't remember their real names so they use the Japanese words for East and West (Higashi and Nishi). Nishi knows a lot about many topics, such as plants, medicine, animals and likes sharing fun facts about items shown to him. Higashi on the other hand, seems to be struggling with a lot of things, slowly remembering his dark past when certain items are presented to him. Throughout the story, Nishi helps him to slowly regain memories of his past, which sometimes get rather dark.

Almost the entire plot of the game takes place in a single room, so the characters and their stories are the most important part of this game. Through their interactions, you learn what happened to them, allowing you to theorize how they could have possibly ended up in a situation like this. Because of this, the gameplay sometimes feels a bit slow, but I recommend taking your time so you can learn more about the characters. The game auto-saves the current experiment so you can close the game whenever you want. It takes a while to replay the game a few times too to unlock every ending, but I had a lot of fun testing each option to see what would happen next. The only downside is that you can't really save, so if the experiment fails it's over and you have to restart.

A few more tips to get all endings ↓

Spoiler-free guide

I'm pretty sure the game always gives you a game-over during your first playthrough on day 10, so the choices don't matter, but I recommend using the cultivation room which unlocks on day 2. When you ask the characters questions, a pop-up will show up that you obtained either 10, 15, 20 or 50 ml of cultivation water, which you can use in the cultivation room. Make sure to complete the experiment, as it carries over to your next playthrough. After the first round, start a new game and follow the "route 3 hint" card, it will show a little light bulb symbol next to the options you should pick. You can skip experiments you've done before by double clicking it, it's faster than pressing the skip button.

Don't use all your daily turns immediately as some options only show up throughout the day and some are only available for a limited amount of time. I recommend using the on/off button next to the eye symbol to only display experiments you haven't done yet. You can still get the endings if you miss some of experiments, but make sure to not miss too many.

The bathing scene choices usually don't matter, so just pick the character you want. You have to replay the game at least 10 times to get all the endings, so you'll have plenty of time to pick each option.

The choices with the pink handshake symbol next to them increase the affinity between both characters, which is necessary to unlock some CGs, so make sure to select a lot of these.

I think there's still an unpatched bug that makes the game freeze on day 10 of your first playthrough no matter how many times you restart. It's a bit unfortunate, but when this happens you have to go to the main menu and terminate your current playthrough. This happened to me in both the Japanese and English version but after starting a new game it never happened again,

Ending 3 and 2: Follow the "ending 3" hints which will show up after your first playthrough and select the choices with the lightbulb icon. Prioritize the "Spying" option and occasionally check if any new options unlock throughout the day as it is possible to miss them and then the game ends on day 10 again. At the end of the game you're presented with a choice, pick the option to not tell the truth for ending 3. Afterwards start a new game, follow the "ending 3" hints again and this time pick the other choice for ending 2. In my case the skip button somehow skipped the entire choice, so if you replay to get ending 2, be careful to not use this too much near the end of the final day.

Ending 4: Automatically unlocks at the same time as ending 3 if you've completed the cultivation room in your first playthrough. It's not really an ''ending'' but more like an extra scene you'll get immediately after finishing ending 3.

Ending 7: Follow the "ending 3" hints and give the characters the "happiness gas" (or bliss gas in the English version) 8 times. With this item you unlock some of the only 18+ content in the game. You can obtain this item by selecting question cards, and sometimes the characters hint that they want to do something specific (eating, entertainment etc.) and one of the sub-menu buttons will light up, hinting that you should pick one of these options next. A choice to use the gas will pop up at night. Just use this every night and you'll get ending 7.

Ending 1: This one is a bit tricky because the game doesn't really give you any in-game hints for this one, but I eventually got it by following the "ending 3" hints again. On the final day after watching the "Cow Backpack" experiment, don't select the experiment after that which should be called something like "Letter from Nishi/West". You can get this ending in one of your first playthroughs too.

Ending 10: I accidentally got this ending when I was trying to get another ending, but you can get this one by picking as many choices as you can with a ★ symbol. I tried using all of the options like Spying, Meals, Special Items etc. This ending should also unlock the ending 5 hint if you start a new game after finishing it.

Ending 5: Follow the "ending 5" hints card. If this doesn't show up for some reason you might have to try playing ending 8 and 9 first. While following the ending 5 hints, make sure to avoid question cards as much as possible. Pick the experiment which looks like ""■□ヌ"■■_リ" in the "Incident" menu every time it shows up (in the English version it also looks like that). There's multiple parts and it seems to show up randomly throughout the day sometimes.

Ending 6: Exactly the same as ending 5 but this time, make sure to use all of your question cards every day, the game ends after playing the final "■□ヌ"■■_リ" event.

Ending 8 and 9: Follow the ending 3 or ending 5 hints again, but make sure to use happiness café au lait (or bliss coffee in the English version) 8 times. You unlock this the same way as the happiness gas mentioned above, though the coffee will show up directly in the "Special Items" menu. Also make sure to play the "lump of ???" (mystery lump in the English version) event, which is an experiment that also sometimes shows up in "Special Items" during the first days. Avoid the final "■□ヌ"■■_リ" event because that might trigger ending 5 or 6 instead. You can't always use the café au lait immediately, but just check the special menu item every now and then to see if it's there. After using this item 8 times, you can choose to give it to Nishi (West) which unlocks ending 8, or Higashi (East) which unlocks ending 9.

I recently started playing the app version of the game too because it still gets regular updates and some additional content, which is also pretty interesting. I do consider both versions two completely different games though, because the PC version feels more like a serious, linear story, while the app version has so many options I sometimes don't know what to do. In the app version of the game you can purchase all kinds of items to dress the characters up, and there's also a third (and later even a fourth) character you can summon to interact with, though the main pairing of the game of course stays the same. This version also has no 18+ content, but it does have some different romance scenes instead (another kiss scene for example). I recommend playing the PC version first but if you're looking for additional content you can always download it and check it out yourself.

Final impressions

The gameplay of this game is something totally different from what I'm used to, but I had fun! It takes a while to complete so I recommend just taking it slowly. The artstyle was a bit different than Yura's usual style, but I think it really suits the game's setting. I will of course not spoil the plot of the game but I think it was really good! The game gives you all these little hints and slowly but surely, you learn their backstories and what happened to them to end up in such a place. It's called ''friendly'' lab and while the experiments themselves don't directly harm them, I will say that some of the endings are anything but "friendly", so mentally prepare yourself for that.

Anyway, I recommend playing the game without reading spoilers, because the whole point of the game is that you're slowly learning more about these characters. Despite the dark plot, of course there are a lot of funny interactions between the characters too like any other Tennenouji game. At some point you can also ask the characters if they know Giancarlo for example, a reference to Luckydog1, which was funny because it seemingly came out of nowhere.

This game also got a PS2 remake in 2008 with almost all CGs and spritework re-drawn called ''Gin no Eclipse'' which also features a new character (Feilong), who's Liwen's brother. I also played this version, but I liked the original a lot more because they changed a lot and all BL elements were removed (not just the 18+ content). So in this review, I'll mostly focus on the original 18+ PC version of the game.

First of all, the official website mentions that the protagonist of this game is Arshile, but his love interest Cartis plays a huge role in the story too and the dialogue often switches to his narrative. I have to say that CORE's games are a bit different than most other BL visual novels and usually, the main character only has two love interests who he can have a good ending with. Even though you can choose between these two, one of them usually has a lot more CGs and endings than the other (I think those who played Messiah are familiar with this). In Fanatica the main pairing is Cartis/Arshile, though Arshile can get an ending together with Calme too.

Another thing I don't see often in new visual novels anymore is that the other characters can be paired up too. Souha/Liwen is one of the side pairings that have quite a lot of scenes together, although it is not the happiest 'romance' (if you can even call it that). Cartis and Souha also have an ending together, and in one of the other endings, you also get Souha/Arshile, Cartis/Liwen and Rodney/Calme. Even though the game doesn't call these endings ''bad'' ends, they definitely feel like bad ends.

Game mechanics Instead of choices, this game uses a completely different system I haven't seen before. There's a button in the corner of the screen which displays a butterfly icon, but when you click it, it transforms into a spider icon. During certain scenes, you need to change it to the spider icon, or else certain endings won't unlock. Also, sometimes the icon starts glowing, which gives you the opportunity to view flashbacks. The protagonist has a split personality, so the butterfly represents his current self while the spider represents his other personality (who has white hair and red eyes). Only white haired Arshile can end up together with Calme by the way, original Arshile only has a good ending together with Cartis.

Before I looked up a guide, I completely missed that you can even view the flashbacks when the icon is glowing, so I had a bit of trouble unlocking the final ending. After that, I did quite enjoy this game! I liked slowly discovering what had happened in the past and the reason why some people on the cruise ship seemed hostile towards the main characters. Also the game sometimes breaks the fourth wall and the character who initially just seemed to be a mascot (Arya) tells you which endings you still haven't unlocked yet. He also teases the player for getting an ending you already saw before lol.

Similar to Messiah, the game does have a status menu which shows what route you're on and how close you are to an ending, but because of the game's unique mechanics it was still a bit difficult to understand. Luckily it only has 6 different endings, but I definitely recommed using a guide at some point to avoid any frustrations!

In the final ending you unlock it's implied that Liwen, Souha, and side character Arya will return in their next game, Torus Zero, which was unfortunately never released. I did find some magazine pictures in which both of them have different names and it mentions that they've forgotten about their past lives in Fanatica and were reborn into the world of Torus Zero. However, instead of releasing Torus Zero, the company created Messiah next, which doesn't seem to have any connections to Fanatica. I do want to write a separate blog post about this cancelled game project, as the info they have revealed is pretty interesting.

To be honest I think that even without the lore of Torus Zero, most of the plot does get explained in Fanatica. The final ending also hints that the other characters somehow survived the incidents that happened on the ship and that they are still alive in the modern world, where Arshile and Cartis also live. The extra scenes in the remake (Gin no Eclipse) also support this theory.

The plot can sometimes get a little confusing because there are some pretty... strange fantasy elements, like half of the main characters being descendants of some kind of spider god (???), but despite that I still thought it was a pretty interesting visual novel to play. I liked the soundtrack and the cast was also good, featuring some well-knowns voice actors like Suwabe Junichi and Sugita Tomokazu.

Characters

Hajima Sora  SI Skill: Artist | Age: 20 | The main character of this game. He doesn’t go outside much and tries to express his view of the world through his oil paintings. In contrary to his serious appearance, he’s not very good at studying or getting any work done.

Kondo Yuki  SI Skill: Social worker | Age: 21 | Sora's childhood friend who cares a lot about him. After his parents died in a fire when he was young, he decided to become a firefighter. He cares a lot about others and will try to save anyone in danger.

Motogi Gin SI Skill: Engineer | Age: 26 | A music producer who likes sharing his creations with everyone online. He’s also a big fan of Sora. He has been trying to meet Sora for a while now after seeing one of his paintings. Incredibly easy-going and optimistic.

Shio (CO) SI Skill: None | Age: 20 | A foul-mouthed young man who often pushes himself to achieve his own goals. He is one of the people the Sky Implant was tested on many years ago, but escaped the facility together with an engineer. Multiple personalities reside inside his body. He returned to Tokyo to take his revenge on the company that created the Sky Implants (Mother). He has the ability to read people’s minds.

Kagami Motogikyō SI Skill: Engineer | Age: 27 | An employee of Mother, the company that created the Sky Implants. A very intelligent and serious man who is strict with himself and others. He’s Gin’s half-brother. A side character in the first game, but has his own route in Black Noise.

Yashiro SI Skill: None | Age: 20 | A tall, intimidating looking man. People around him often don't understand what he's thinking. Similar to Shio, he was part of Mother’s Sky Implant experiments, but he didn't develop multiple personalities. He’s a side character in the first game, but has his own route in Black Noise.

Tsukishiro Ayato SI Skill: None | Age 24 | A mysterious side character who Sora keeps running into. His hobbies include visiting art museums and watching Kabuki. Doesn’t have his own route but he does have some bad endings in both games.

Tsukishiro Yoshimasa SI Skill: None | Age: ??? | A mysterious young boy who looks like Ayato. Although he looks like a child, his way of speaking is similar to an adult. Also a side character.

Takamiya Kaname SI Skill: None | Age: 20 | A young photographer who’s originally from Hokkaido. He’s very soft-spoken and uses polite language when when he’s talking to children and animals. He is currently undergoing a rehabilitation project in Tokyo. He only appears in Black Noise and also has his own route. 

If you’re just here for the guide, scroll down to ‘’Recommended play order & Guide!’’. The summary includes some spoilers.

The story of Cocoon and Cocoon Black Noise is pretty much the same, but each game has different routes. Yuki, Gin and Shio only have routes in the first game, but Kagami’s and Yashiro's routes are only in Black Noise. The second game also adds a new character called Takamiya who also has his own route. I have to say that the quality of Black Noise is definitely better and it also has a lot of new scenes, but I also feel like it's better to play both games because they're short anyway. The only game I can kind of compare it to is CAGE, which is also split into two different versions (CAGE -OPEN- and CAGE-CLOSE-). 

By the way I’ll be calling CO ‘Shio’ in this review because that’s how they pronounce his name (and I don’t want to keep writing CO to be honest...)

Immediately after starting my first route (Yuki) it becomes clear that this futuristic society deals with a lot of problems. There’s a new kind of computer virus which has been infecting Sky Implants and violent arson attacks and bombings are becoming more frequent. Sora and Yuki witness this almost immediately after their trip to the museum. Normally the Sky Implants prevent people from committing any crimes or hurting themselves, so they suspect this series of strange events is caused by someone else’s actions. 

I recommend playing Yuki’s route first and Gin’s route after that. After finishing both of these you unlock Shio’s route, which feels more like the ‘’true route’’. Shio's route reveals a lot more information about Mother and the individuals who work for this company. Yuki’s a bit of a possessive childhood friend character which I’m not always the biggest fan of, but his route wasn’t too bad, it just doesn’t really explain much. Gin is a funny character, I like how he basically lured Sora into his house by...pretending to be a girl online. However, I liked Shio’s route the most because it’s a lot longer than the others and we finally learn what is up with him and Yashiro. 

Some Shio route spoilers >>>> It turns that that whatever has been ‘infecting’ people wasn’t a virus after all, but a person called ‘Shou’’. Shou was accidentally created by Mother (the company that created Sky Implants and the network) and has no physical form, so he can only posess others. He’s one of Shio’s other personalities, but Shio doesn’t always seem to agree with the damage Shou causes. Yoshimasa (the purple haired young boy who looks like Ayato) is actually the founder of Mother. He must be almost 90 years old but I think he has the ability to shift his consciousness to his family members or change his physical form? Though he also used a hologram in another scene. What surprised me the most is that Ayato (the guy with the long purple hair) is his.... son.

After finishing the main game I immediately played Black Noise afterwards and decided to play Takamiya’s route next because he doesn’t appear in the main game. Sora meets him during the park scene after they visit the museum, but he doesn’t like talking to him. His voice is ‘jet black’ and it makes Sora feel somewhat uneasy. They also added a new side character, a detective who’s investigating the recent incidents. Takamiya seems to have a difficult time understanding other people’s emotions and his bad endings are pretty brutal. He spent six years in a youth detention center because of his psychopathic tendencies. I did think he was an interesting character but oh man did I have trust issues every time he showed up.

After that I played Kagami’s route who appears a lot in the first game too. It was interesting to see everything from his perspective. In this route they chase Yuki, who has been posessed by ‘Shou’. I had no idea Kagami used to have a wife and children?? They all passed away in an accident, but the Sky Implant limits his emotions which is why he’s able to act pretty normal. Eventually he disables this and he starts showing strong emotions again. Kagami turns against Mother and in the good end he purchases a solar power business in Austria and they move far away from Mother’s network and influences. By the way, he looks good without the glasses too! A pretty solid route.

Yashiro’s route is the last one I played and it’s not the most ‘happy’ route. Sora follows him because he wants to meet Shio again, but nobody knows where he went. Shio’s... unfortunately killed by Yashiro later in this route because Yashiro still follows Mother’s orders, and Yuki has been permanently posessed by Shou, so Yashiro kills him too. Surprisingly he doesn’t betray Sora and decides to run away together with him. In this ending they move to Osaka, but Mother is rapidly expanding their network to new cities, so they probably have to move again in the near future. The ending is kind of bittersweet, but I’m honestly surprised he got a good ending at all after everything that happened in this route omg.

Recommended play order & Guide Cocoon Yuki good end: 拒絶できない > ありがとう > 自分を信じる Yuki bad end: 拒絶できない > ･･････ごめん > シオを信じる Ayato bad end: 拒絶できない > ･･････ごめん > もう少し時間がほしい

Gin good end: これ以上だませない >  ･･････ 頼る >  ･･････  Gin bad end: これ以上だませない > 信用できない Kagami bad end: これ以上だませない > ･･････頼る > いい加減にしろ

Shio good end: Select ‘CO’ in main menu > 自制だ > 取る Ayato bad end 2: Select ‘CO’ in main menu > 自制だ > ‘‘拒む’‘ Yashiro bad end: Select ‘CO’ in main menu > 怒りだ > ‘‘払う’‘

Black Noise Takamiya good end: 眠って忘れる > やり直さないか > 鴇色だ Takamiya bad end 1: 眠って忘れる > なかったことにできないか……？ Takamiya bad end 2: 眠って忘れる > やり直さないか >  漆黒だ 

Kagami good end : 気晴らしに外へ出る > 誰かに会いたい > 鏡を信じる  >ついていきます Yoshimasa bad end: 気晴らしに外へ出る > 誰かに会いたい > 鏡を信じる  >待ってます Ayato bad end 3: 気晴らしに外へ出る > 誰かに会いたい > 雪信じる

Yashiro good end: 気晴らしに外に出る > 頭を冷やしたい > 引き離す Yashiro bad end: 気晴らしに外に出る > 頭を冷やしたい  > 見守る > このままでいい Ayato bad end 4: 気晴らしに外に出る > 頭を冷やしたい > 引き離す > 目覚めて欲しい　

There aren’t that many choices so luckily it wasn’t that hard to figure out! Some of the bad endings have a CG and some don’t, also Ayato has so many bad endings... The ‘full completion’ CGs should also show up immediately after you play the final ending.

Final thoughts Cocoon Black Noise was released some months after the first game and you can really see the improvement. I remember when I played Cocoon for the first time I wasn’t really sure what to think after playing Yuki’s and Gin’s routes, but the other routes do a much better job at explaining the plot. I really liked Shio’s and Kagami’s routes. Takamiya’s route was pretty interesting, but I kept fearing something horrible was going to happen, so I had some trust issues while playing through some of the wholesome scenes LOL. Yashiro’s route was...an experience, I do like the ending but it was pretty painful to see Shio die after he became one of my favorite characters.

It took me about 8 hours to finish the first game, Black Noise's length was similar, so if you want to play a short visual novel and see how Kurosawa Rinko's writing and art has changed throughout the years, I do recommend playing this one (just don’t expect anything as polished as Hashihime). It’s only available in Japanese you can just use Textractor to translate the dialogue, if you don’t mind machine translations. Both of these games have a lot of CGs and they look pretty good! The only thing that could be better is the music I guess? There’s not a lot of different tracks and the game is unvoiced, so I often muted the game while listening to different music.

I also appreciated to little extras they added, like the full character profiles which you can unlock after finishing each route. Also, if you go to the gallery and look at the CGs there’s some fun extra commentary (though it’s Black Noise exclusive unfortunately). Some of these are really funny, especially Ayato and Yoshimasa’s... Ayato behaves like a pervert but Yoshimasa truly sounds like an old man lol.

The game’s story sometimes reminded me a little bit of Peter Pan, the children in this game can stay young forever and they don’t naturally age. Upon entering Laughter Land, Guillered implants a red gem into everyone’s bodies, which gives him the ability to make wishes. He however fails to explain that not everyone in this world stays young forever, the second they develop a more mature mindset their red gem turns into a blue gem and they’re not allowed to stay in Laughter Land anymore. Unfortunately for our protagonist, this also happens to him in the very first route you play, and guards surround his house. He is forcefully taken to the ‘Forbidden Zone’, which is a place where people who possess blue gems live. These gems aren’t able to grant any wishes anymore and basically serve no purpose. The Forbidden Zone is not a place most people want to live, rampant with criminal organizations and drug problems. However not everyone who lives there is bad, there are many people who were unfortunate enough to be born there or who ‘matured’ after being brought to Laughter Land.

Characters

Richard McBain (Dick) Our protagonist. Everyone in the game calls him Dick (...yeah that's something I had to get used to lol). He's a curious young boy, but a bit sceptical and questions the many rules of this new world he got transported to. Soon after his arrival, he starts regretting his decision of coming here.

Guillered The person who created Laughter Land and who is responsible for bringing all of the children there. He tells Dick that he just wants everyone in this world to be happy, but he seems to be hiding something. Throughout the story he often appears to give Dick advice.

Ioan A very intelligent boy who can often be found at the library. He is very shy and can often be found studying and reading. He can sometimes be a little bit clumsy, which often results into him making mistakes.

Roddy An enthusiastic boy who highly values his friends, always willing to help others in need. He is always looking for someone to accompany him during his daily adventures. He loves flying in the sky and going to various places to play.

Cornel A boy who helps patrolling Laughter Land, always looking for ‘blues’ (people with blue gems) who aren't allowed to stay there. He likes being the center of attention and has a hard time admitting any of his mistakes. Can often be found together with his brother Oswald.

Sergi One of the people with a blue gem who lives in the Forbidden Zone. He's very serious and calm. Likes bargaining with people. He seems to be looking for his family who also seem somewhere in Laughter Land, though he doesn’t know where they currently are.

Greg Also lives in the Forbidden Zone. He gambles a lot and then immediately spends all of his money. He can sometimes be a little bit strange, but he’s very protective of his friends and often takes care of stray animals and injured children. Has a good heart but very irresponsible...

Dag Another resident of the Forbidden Zone. A talented watchmaker who also seems to be working on several other projects. However, his laid-back behavior and love for alcohol prevent him from completing any of these projects. He is a very friendly and caring person who takes care of his friends.

The game uses an interesting mechanic which allows the main character to travel back in time, so the whole first route is one long common route which introduces the world and characters to you. After this I tried playing the routes of each character with a red gem first, because they’re the first ones you meet in the common route. I was also interested to learn why exactly these characters were able to stay ‘young’ forever, while others couldn’t. Many of them have been living there for years so their real ages remain unknown.

Even during these routes in which Dick’s gem doesn’t turn blue, not everything is as happy as Guillered claims. The second anyone is transported to Laughter Land they forget about people who they used to know in the real world. Furthermore, every time they make a wish, one person they know in the real world will forget about them. By doing so, children who travelled to this world have no reason to return to the real world anymore, as nobody will be waiting for them anymore at home. You can keep track of this in-game too which was quite interesting!

I played the game in the following order: Roddy > Ioan > Cornel > Sergi > Greg > Dag > Guillared > True route. However when I look back at it now it might be better to play Cornel's route a bit later because he returns in Guillered's route too. Sergi's story is also surprisingly relevant to the True route, so maybe that's also one better saved for last. I used half-a-net's guide for this one because the one posted on Aarinfantasy seemed to spoil some endings. Each route is not super long compared to most other visual novels, but I think it's just the right amount. Even though not every route has the most happy ending, the ‘true’ ending definitely makes up for that. 

By the way, I really like how the game’s user interface always displays the gem, so you can check if you’re aiming for the right route. When you make more ’mature’ decisions the red germs starts getting darker and eventually turns purple. If you keep making these decisions it will eventually turn blue. In Ioan’s route it’s mentioned that purple gems can still turn red again, but the second your gem has turned blue it’s too late and it won’t be able to turn red ever again. 

I think the only thing that didn't get explained much is whatever this side character called Zachariah’s purpose is. He is the leader of this kind of shady organization and the casino owner. I thought he was going to be the main villain but he wasn't really (?), but maybe he's just there to add some suspense to the blue gem routes. That's honestly the only thing I can think of that doesn't make much sense to me, but it’s probably also not that important. I think I do want to try getting a copy of the official setting book eventually, but because the game’s so old I’ll have to hunt down a second-hand copy.

I honestly had no idea this game even existed because Jast only localized Enzai and Absolute Obedience (Zettai Fukuyuu Meirei) a long time ago, which also means Laughter Land is only available in Japanese. It was released I'm 2006 but I still really liked the the art in this game, the CGs are really pretty and colorful. I also really liked the OST! I guess I will continue playing older BL visual novels because you never know when you’ll find something good nobody talks about. Definitely DM me if you have any more recommendations!