Visual Novel Review: Nijiko -First Act-

12/09/2013

Nijiko: First Act is a demo of the visual novel Nijiko, which is currently still in progress. It tells the story of a college dropout named Kenta Kobayashi who works part-time in a bookstore with his friend Ren, and lives in a complex with his neighbor, bubbly teacher Mizuki. One day, Kenta sees a child outside the store who runs away when he talks to her. After a series of events, the girl, whose name is Alice, and Kenta meet again. What will happen now?

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The first thing that struck me in this game is the cute visual theme. Oooooh, pink. Haha. And the GUI is perfectly kawaii as well. I just love the programming of the interface here.

Just take a look at this cool save screen. And, yep, before you ask, I first played this in May, but I kinda lost time and forgot about it, and I replayed it again today. Which turns out to be an awesome decision.

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Stock art was used, although it appears that the maker has plans to create original drawings for this VN. I think that would be a great idea, because this game certainly deserves its own art. The story is beautiful like that.

And that's what I like the most about this visual novel. The story. It's really quite nice. It's not that heavy and it's actually quite lighthearted, but it's deep enough to be felt. There are some underlying issues with Kenta and his relationships with others, and I'm really intrigued to find out what those are. I sort of... connected to Kenta and his friends, in a way. To me, it's really important to let the player relate to the character to gain sympathy for them. Without that, players wouldn't care about what happens to the character or who she falls in love with or who he he settles with. It just wouldn't matter. So connection is definitely important.

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By the way, at some point of the VN, Kenta played an RPG in his computer, and I liked the small inclusion of the new art. Hahaha. I dunno, I guess sometimes slice-of-life can be so... exciting to me. But then again, I do believe that the most interesting story of them all is the story of life, so...

Lookie! It's a videogame character.

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One gripe I had with this VN is the tiny resolution. I'm not sure what exactly the numbers are though. I think 640x480? Something like that. It's really small! And if you try to make it big, it just won't look the same. *sigh* 800x600 resolution is a lot better than this I believe.

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Also, the textbox is a little too bright for my taste, but... like I said, it's just my taste. Haha. 

Anyway, give this a try you guys. It's just a demo though, and I'm still waiting for the full game to come out. I think it's a cool story, and I'd love to find out what happens next. 8/10 strawberries. :) Download it here

P.S. Here's an extra! The Nijiko opening theme. Kawaii! The song is just so adorable. Haha.


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