VN - Others - Completed - Aiyoku no Eustia [Final] [AUGUST]

Aiyoku no Eustia (AnE) is my favorite, of the 3 VN's I read from August (dev), but if we are talking about 2024 standards, then this title doesn't make top tier (it did in 2010, though). Don't let this dissuade you from reading AnE however, because even if time took it's toll, this is a still a great VN, that has many things going for it.

Positive:
- Great voice acting (V.A) - In particular Eris gives a great performance, and the protagonist is voiced as well.
- Lots of interesting and contemporary themes - The main one is social inequality, and from that you have things like poverty, prostitution, drugs... It's different from the usual VN, and very welcome.
- Western setting - AnE is a VN that tries to recreate a medieval European setting (with fantasy), and stays away from Japanese idiosyncrasies. There are noticeable exceptions like using honorifics (the target audience was still Japanese), but it's remarkable how far they strayed, from the usual VN with high school girls.
- Good pacing (if you follow a guide) - Ladder structure is not ideal when a VN has a lot of options (you can get in the wrong route), but AnE is permanently engaging, and immersing yourself in its world is easy and enjoyable. Do the heroine routes in order, go back to the main story each time, and "profit".
- Very nice characters - I don't understand some complaints regarding characters. They are very good, have backstories, inner conflicts, jobs, persisting habits, number of traits is high, inner conflicts exist, group dynamics make them clash and bond (I could go on). And it's not just 1 or 2 of them, this is the rule.

Negative:
- The title's age is catching up to it, to a point where technically limited will be a reality very soon (compare it to Daitoshokan, from the same dev). The real negative however, is the ending of AnE not being in line, with the quality that came before it. You can see it coming a mile away (no surprises), but it's still underwhelming, and the ending of a VN WILL make its lasting impression.

Score: Aiyoku no Eustia is an 8/10, but a couple of years ago, I had it at a 9. In terms of production values, the V.A is the only thing that holds strong. If you don't put that much value in the "technical side" increase the score, and know that this is one of the best VN's you can read, and one deserving of its popularity.

(The H-scenes are just OK, not much of a reason to read this.)

There are a lot of one dimensional characters in this game. It also employs overused and bad writing techniques like shoehorned amnesia. This game has an interesting premise, but the story gets worse and worse as all the premises are trampled over because the writers feel the need to be as tropey as possible.

I loved Daitoshokan a lot. So hearing there's this translation for a game that's better revered and it's been 10 years in the making? Yeah I'm in.

And it's...fine? I feel like I've given worse "games" here higher scores, but ultimately I was left disappointed. And I think I can get away without spoiling, so wish me luck:

Ultimately, the world is bad and bad things are happening in mysterious ways. You're a lone wolf ex-assassin who doesn't like killing any more and is loved by every single woman who has a previously established relationship with you. A bit wanky, but whatever, we rolling.

You come across the GREAT MYSTERY GIRL who is the true heroine, likely due to the game being named after her. Plus she has a mysterious connection to the BIG BAD THING. This isn't that offensive, but this heroine is so utterly and obviously important it leads to my issue with the game that I'll elaborate on later.

She then kinda is tangentially involved in the plot a bit, before basically disappearing. Meanwhile, you run into separate chapters of female characters having issues that need to be solved. Then we have the ladder. Even the most vociferous defenders of the game say the ladder is weak. It's basically "ok you win, I'm on you're route. We fuck twice, lose all interest in the BIG BAD THING and the GIANT MYSTERY and then credits roll after five minutes". This happens multiple times. It's so egregious that the actual good ones end up being rolled into the main story anyway, and it's only a bit later that you just take the exit lane into the side character. There's one exception; I'll get to it.

So that's whatever. Honestly, this is still a 5/5 game if the true route is fantastic- it's basically just one good story with some side stories where you fuck the attractive side characters. Only upside!

Eeeeexcept the true route sorrrt of falls flat. It's climactic, to be sure. Everyone shows up. All the threads that were left untied by the fact that you didn't abandon everything to fuck a side character twice? Tied up nicely. Except the main character sort of meanders and barely is involved and then the ending happens and no spoilers.

And I think that's my problem. All the issues leading UP to the ending are of the "you know, the story is intriguing so far, so I'm fine" variety. Putting more and more pressure on the story being good. It being a project that's been in development for so long? Man that's a huge thing to live up to. Maybe so big it couldn't possibly be done; because it certainly doesn't. Even worse, the final side character's route had a much more satisfying conclusion.

So this was a disappointment to me. Again, worse games on here have gotten higher scores but I can't give a perfect score because:
* Heavy reliance on the true route
* Poor side character stories, which make for a heavier reliance on the true route.
* A pretty good final side character route, which would make a disappointing true route simply by comparison.
* And then the true route kinda falls flat, despite being pretty climactic, the buildup and payoff just don't line up.
* Which maybe sucks harder because I liked August's other work which was generally regarded more poorly.

This is, I think the best I can do without spoiling anything. The whysits and howsits are glossed over for my conclusion. It's ok, but I wish this was just Daitoshokan again.

this is one of the if not THE most sought out fan translation of any VN. when the patch got released the downloads were overloaded in the beginning. it's been over 10 years. do yourself a favor and play it blind. and play it NOW.