Pretentious ultranationalist fanfiction that pretends to have a deep plot and meaning while shamelessly engaging in some of the worst excesses of the visual novel medium.
This is NOT about courage or overcoming hardships or conquering insurmountable odds, and definitely NOT about love.
This is a sick man's hideous fantasy, featuring a contemptible protagonist, ridiculous piloting outfits that look like slutty cosplay versions of the Personal Armor from OG X-COM and gratuitous physical and sexual degradation of female characters. WHY DO ALIEN MINING DRONES NEED RAPE-MURDER TENTACLES, KOUKI?!
A stain on visual novels and the mecha genre as a whole.
The ending sucks, too.
Muv-Luv Extra and Muv-Luv Unlimited were distributed in a single package titled simply Muv-Luv. If you look on vndb.org you will see that at the time of writing this article Muv-Luv Alternative is in the top 5 of the most beloved visual novels of all time, while in order to find Muv-Luv you will have to flip over a lot of pages until you’ll be able to find it. Actually, when people say “Muv-Luv” what they usually mean is Alternative because this is the franchise’s crowning achievement and the source of obsession for so many fans. Initially the entire trilogy was to be released as a single visual novel, however since Alternative turned out to be almost as long as the other two combined the devs decided to launch it as a separate title.
I don’t wish to reveal to much because I don’t want to spoil anything, but suffice to say Alternative continues where Unlimited left off, expands the universe, and covers more themes than its predecesor did. I think now would be a good time to say a couple of words about the author himself. The novel is the work of Kouki Yoshimune (real name Yoshida Hirohiko), who a year earlier also worked as a writer on another âge hit called Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, which was adapted as an anime in 2003 under the name of Rumbling Hearts. As an aside note, all âge titles belong to the same shared “universe” and even share certain characters! In one of his interviews he stated that he created Muv-Luv as a source of inspiration for future generations, his message being the classic japanese one about work, duty, and stoicism in face of adversity.
Apart from that, one of his other messages is telling the youth about the precarity of Japan’s situation, whose relative safety is due in large part to the protective american shield. As such Alternative also explores themes such as geopolitics, and the first half of this volume is dedicated to inter-human conflict. In the Muv-Luv universe North America is least affected by the alien invasion and the defense of the planet rests in large part in the hands of the United Nations and the United States. This creates a friction between the USA and the rest of the countries that are left still standing, since they find themselves in a status of inferiority to the americans. Added on top of all this are the internal conflict and power struggles within Japan itself which puts under question many other aspects of the future. If humanity does indeed manage to win the war will everyone be willing to accept american hegemony? At the end of the day mankind’s greates threat is man himself.
The action scenes in Alternative are absolutely insane! The fights between the robots and the aliens represent one of the greatest moments in the series. Not only are the scenes drawn and narrated with great talent, but they also always come with high stakes since death can come at any moment and no character (save perhaps for the protagonist, obviously) is immune against doom. During my life time I’ve watched a few mecha anime myself (or action anime in general), and it’s impressive how a “meager” visual novel can kick the ass of so many anime when it comes to the intensity of the action scenes. Maybe the readers imagination plays a part in this too since, due to the nature of the medium, he is forced to internally visualize a good portion of the ongoing action.
You’ve probably noticed that up til now I haven’t uttered a single word about the main antagonists of this novel, namely the aliens, and I have a good reason for this. The story is told through the eyes of Takeru, so a good chunk of the novel he doesn’t interact with them in any form save for some presentations during classes and debriefings. I won’t say to much as not to spoil the reader’s fun in discovering more about them himself, but the main points to remember is that they are more technologically advanced and more numerous than humans, and worst of all they are extremely mysterious. Although the conflict has been raging on for decades, scientists haven’t been able to find out too much about them, the lack of information with the regards to their biology and society being a huge handicap.
Although Unlimited featured a darker tone than Extra, Alternative dials things up to eleven. The aliens make their appearance very late, about half-way through this last volume, and this constitutes the most harrowing moment yet. Takeru realizes for the first time the brutality and the danger of the reality that he is part of. This represents hisgreatest turning point, basically defining his entire future character building. Takeru is in no way shape or form the perfect hero. Far from it. He makes mistakes, he falls, he struggles, and in the end he gets up back again, always with a scar and always with a harsh lesson learned. I have read opinions of people who dislike Takeru because he makes so many mistakes, but it is precisely because of this very fact that I find him a much more human and relatable character and he has quickly become one of my favorite protagonists in any work of fiction.
Not everything is constant doom and gloom however. There are moments when the pace of the action subsides and both the reader and the characters get a chance to catch their breath. One of the most important themes of this novel is love, and this romance story is the basis of the entire plot, which helps humanize the characters even further, with some of the most tragic and memorable moments involving love. Alternative is a perfect mix of mecha, sci-fi, horror, action, geopolitics, and love story, always managing to successfully combine all these genres. I am going to stop with the main review here, as I wish to leave everyone to discover for himself all that this masterpiece has to offer.
Did I say “masterpiece”? Well, yes and no. If I were to be perfectly frank and if I were to ignore its repetitive endings, Unlimited is a far more cohesive story, however the grandeur and intensity of Alternative’s scenes more than make up for its shortcomings. One of the main points of criticism would be the fact that the novel is sometimes way too dense. There are many scenes that will bore the reader with its exposition; the novel likes to take its sweet ass time describing in minute detail every attack plan or piece of military equipment. For example there is this really long scene where the characters are describing the attack plan of a training exercise, only for the reader to find out that the scene of the actual training to be briefly described in a few lines of dialogue. A bit more “show” and less “tell” would have been welcome. Also there are a few moments towards the end where the writing veers into “cringe” territory with some of the romantic moments, but these are not enough to take away from the overall exceptional quality of the story.
Unlike its two preceding volumes, Alternative is what it’s called a “kinetic novel”, that is you don’t get any dialogue choices; the story follows a linear path. Although there are some so called “choices” here and there these don’t affect the story in any way, except very discretely towards the end and so you can choose whichever option you like. The ending itself is perfect. It is here that all the themes and elements that have been touched upon throughout the series converge and we get answers to all the questions that were asked during the course of the story. Even more than that, the more you read Alternative, the more you realize that Extra and Unlimited were nothing more than 20 hour long “Chehov’s guns” and that all the events that preceded it had a role to play during the plot. It is everything I have ever wanted from a story. You also find out answers about the aliens, however these in turn give rise to new questions, which is a genius move on the part of the writer, since on the one hand the reader’s curiosity is finally sated, but it also leaves a door open for other mysteries, which keeps the aliens an enigma as they should be.
I said that the ending is perfect, however after the ending proper there is also the epilogue, namely a 30-45 minute segment which ties up the story. Opinions on these epilogues are divided, and I stand firmly in the camp that considers it to have been a mistake, but in a way I get why the author wanted to end the whole thing on the note that he did. I will not say anything more since that would be a spoiler and I like to keep my reviews as spoiler free as possible.
Now for the technical side of things. There’s not much more to say when compared to the previous two volumes. You can read my review of Muv-Luv if you want any more details. Suffice to say that this was a high budget visual novel and the devs spared no expenses when it comes to the audio visuals, which are simply perfect in my opinion. Art, voices, sounds, music, everything is superlative here. The controls are alright. I wish we could have been able to more finely tune the auto-read speed, but I managed to get by in the end.
One last thing before I wrap this whole thing up is to mention the H content. Guys, you’re not here to coom, you are here to cry, ok? Still, the Steam version is censored, so if you want the TWO ENTIRE H scenes then go right ahead and install the fan patch. One is a very vanilla sex scene so I won’t comment on it any further, however the other is a bit more “extreme”. I put it in quotation marks because this was the most vanilla tentacle raep scene I have ever seen in this medium. I kept reading how people were scarred but as for me, as a distinguished man of culture with many eroge, eroanime, and eromanga under his belt I found the reaction to it to be completely overblown. It just goes to show you that normies have no place in our hobby and that if they had their way they would sanitize our favorite things into oblivion. Stay strong and gatekeep harder, boys!
Verdict: five stars, no questions asked. A flawed masterpiece, but a masterpiece nonetheless. An ESSENTIAL addition to ANYONE’ collection. Seriously, if you have even the slightest interest in anime, or mecha, or sci-fi, or romance, then READ THIS RIGHT NOW! As for me, I don’t know if I’ll ever re-read it again. For one it’s reeeealy long, and I also don’t want to potentially ruin my first experience by finding any more flaws. At any rate this was an experience that I will never forget. I hasn’t dethroned White Album 2 as my top visual novel of all time, but it was damn near close.
Total read time: 72 hours. It was long but (almost) every second of it was worth it!
I am surprised to see this masterpiece here. This is the best visual novel on this site and probably the best visual novel ever made to be honest. No words one can say can ever do it justice. It's Legendary stuff that will stay with you all your life.
If you have a heart, prepare for it to be broken. It's been years but i still think about Takeru's and Sumika's story.
A true masterpiece.
Be warned - this is not a hentai game (even though it has some scenes).
Also: Do not play this one first
ML Alternative is the third (or 2nd, depending on the definition) game of the Muv Luv series. Its plotline starts directly after the events of ML Extra/Unlimited which you should play before giving this a try.
Gameplay: There is none, this is a VN. There also aren't any major routes.
Story: This is why you play the game. Where ML Extra was essentially all exposition to get to know the characters and what Takeru is fighting for and Unlimited introduced the world of Muv Luv, this game brings it all together in an amazingly written epos about responsibility, love and sacrifice.
If you have some (and by that I mean a lot of) time - play this. If you liked EVA, Gundam or any other show that deals with the politics behind war and the effects on the people fighting it - this is for you.
I don't engage much on this site. I have only posted once before, writing another overly serious review for MGQ, a visual novel that shocked me with how enjoyable the genre is. As such, I decided to look for highly rated visual novels to replicate that experience and inevitably stumbled across the #1 highest-rated visual novel on vndb, Muv-Luv Alternative. This game has motivated me to, once again, throw my opinions into the void. Because why the fuck not? This review will have a non-spoiler "How to play Muv-Luv" section and a brief non-spoiler review that will describe what Muv-Luv is, the genres it fits under, and generally what to expect. Next, I'm going to go into slight spoilers when talking about the criticisms MLA has been given. Lastly, I go over the story and characters, laying out my thoughts on everything, and ending with a non-spoiler “overall” section.
HOW TO PLAY MUV-LUV?
The Muv-Luv franchise is pretty straightforward. You play Muv-Luv then Muv-Luv Alternative then whatever you want (there are a bunch of other random side stories). Muv-Luv is a game composed of two stories, Extra and Unlimited. It is recommended to do everything in each game, but if you don't want to, it is recommended to at least do the Meiya and Sumika routes for Extra and whatever route you want in Unlimited, which is what I did (Meiya route). I also think it is worth mentioning that, when entering Muv-Luv, your expectations should not be through the roof. The beginning of Muv-Luv should be experienced as it is, a rom-com. To be honest, I did not do this because I had already known that MLA was apparently very adult and gritty, so I was non-stop looking for foreshadowing and hints as to what MLA would be about (and failed miserably at predicting anything). Try to immerse yourself in the world. Find characters you like and try to see things from the protagonist’s perspective. Muv-Luv (the first game) is meant to help you build an understanding of the characters. It has its good moments, but the peak is Alternative.
SPOILER FREE / TLDR REVIEW
MLA's story, I'd argue, is best described as a tragic sci-fi war epic. We follow a protagonist who gives everything he has to fight against impossible odds, and it is done to near perfection. It is extremely difficult to play through this game and not sympathize with the struggle the protagonist goes through. For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I will leave the overall story at that, but I would also like to mention that the world-building in this game was unreal. I can’t imagine the amount of thought it took to build a world such as this. Also, the realism in this game was incredible. The incorporation of real-life science was a welcome addition to the story (it's sci-fi so the science is iffy here and there, but clear effort was put into this to try and stay consistent with real fields of science), and the way this game handled national politics was *chef’s kiss.* For anyone who has played Muv-Luv but not Alternative: one of the most important things one needs to come into MLA is to be sympathetic to the protagonist's predicament and care about some of the characters. If at this point, you feel 0 attachment or sympathy to the protagonist or any of the characters around him, I am not sure how much you'd enjoy MLA. This story was such a roller coaster for me due to the fact that the first two games made me care about the main cast.
ADDRESSING CRITICISMS OF MLA (SMALL SPOILERS)
Since I realize the Muv-Luv time investment is a lot (basically 100 hours of content), I thought I'd discuss the major criticisms this game gets. I try to avoid spoilers for the most part throughout each section, but anything I say will give away something about the trilogy. If you have not played Muv-Luv yet, I highly recommend not reading the “the ending sucked” section. It is filled with spoilers.
Muv-Luv Extra and Unlimited are too boring to make Alternative worth it
I've heard people say this a lot, and I won't deny Extra and Unlimited get slow at points (definitely Extra). But, I would like to emphasize this is subjective, as I enjoyed both Extra and Unlimited. My enjoyment of Alternative far surpassed Extra and Unlimited, but they were still enjoyable. Regardless, the point of these less action-packed parts (Extra and Unlimited) is to allow the reader to learn about all the characters: who they are, their motivations, their upbringing, what they struggle with in life, etc. And, by the end of Extra and Unlimited, the goal is to be attached to at least one of the main characters if not multiple. Do not go into Muv-Luv expecting 10/10 heart-breaking story-telling immediately. You need to build an attachment to the characters and world. Just keep in mind that Muv-Luv Alternative is the highest-rated VN for a reason, and there is a wide range of characters with different traits that make it very unlikely that you won't feel attached to at least one.
Takeru is an asshole, dumb, and a bad protagonist
I can see why people dislike Takeru in Extra sometimes. He can come off as arrogant and mean, especially to Sumika. In Unlimited, Takeru, in the beginning, is also somewhat annoying at times. However, nothing Takeru ever does jumps out at me for him being a terrible person (dick) or a bad protagonist. He has issues, but he rectifies those issues by the end of Unlimited and Alternative. In Alternative, Takeru goes through so many trials and tribulations, and yes, I realize he fails to fully act on many of the things he says he will improve upon, but I also don't think that it would be realistic if he did. For example, I would imagine if someone believed they did not exercise enough, they likely wouldn't immediately start jogging 3 hours a day 5 days a week. It'd almost certainly be a very gradual process, which is exactly what happens in Alternative. Takeru attempts to improve upon certain personality traits he has, and he improves. He does not instantly fix the issues, but he gets better, which is good enough for me at least. He also consciously realizes if he is ever doing something he said he wouldn't and gets mad at himself. Maybe I'm missing something when people say he's a dick, but by the end of Alternative, I thought he turned into a very respectable person.
The attacks on Takeru’s intelligence are stupid. He was a below-average high school student. I don’t get why people think he should know every field of science and politics like the back of his hand. He also acts as logically as I would hope any human would act. We literally see his thought process and rationale for all of his decisions. And, I would argue he never makes an outright unjustifiable decision in this entire game. He makes incorrect decisions when under stress that do harm to the people around him, but I always understand his reasoning for doing so. He is in a really fucked situation. I wouldn’t expect him to be making flawless decisions. If he was, this story would be boring as fuck.
The pacing is bad
I acknowledge that the game gets slow with the long info dumps, but I would argue the high points make the slow points worth it. And, these slow points in the story have a purpose. The info dumps seriously helped me fully understand the TSFs, BETA hives, hive infiltrations, and more. It’s just that some people believe these slow points in the story could have been done faster without being a detriment to the rest of the story, or they could be removed entirely, which I don’t entirely deny.
The ending sucked (SPOILERS)
There are a lot of people saying different things about the ending, so I’ll just go over all the ones I am aware of. In the final mission (operation cherry blossom), for people saying it was predictable, I suppose it was predictable what would happen to all the main characters as you moved through it, but it made sense that those things happened. That mission was rushed and ill-prepared for. I’m not sure what people want out of this mission. Would it have been better if it had all gone to shit and failed? Would it have been better if at least one of the heroines survived? For the epilogue, I suppose I can see why people are mad at what happened to Takeru since everything that had happened basically didn't happen. I know a lot of people, me included, tend to want a story ending that has a protagonist learn something important from the journey they have undergone which didn’t happen here due to memory loss. However, for me personally, I got the satisfaction of seeing the protagonist evolve from his journey in the form of the BETA world Takeru, who grew massively as a person from everything that happened. I get it sucks that once he was sent to the new world he turned back into the bratty high schooler again, but it is what it is. He wouldn’t have been able to assimilate into that world anyways if he retained all of his memories. Lastly, I have heard people complain that one of the best tragedies ever written ended with a harem ending. I can understand this complaint and honestly agree to some extent, but to be fair, this is honestly the only way to do a happy ending for a story like this, and I don’t see an issue with making a happy ending. Not all great stories need sad endings.
STORY
I will summarize my opinions before going into an autism subsection where I just go over every arc and everything I liked/disliked about them.
The story of Muv-Luv Alternative is the trilogy's selling point. It is the accumulation of everything that had happened previously, and the payoff is incredible. One thought that always makes me truly appreciate this novel is the scale. It always blows my mind when I think about how much thought must have been put into every little detail in this story. The military strategies, the BETA hives, the TSFs, the politics, the technology, all of it was meticulously conceptualized. The characters are also nothing to skim over. The protagonist, the heroines, the mentors, all of the characters are carefully constructed. By the end of the game, you know every single character, what their motivations are, what they care about most, etc. It’s also worth mentioning how gray every character is. No one is objectively good or bad. There are no comically evil characters. The author spells it out for the viewer that even if the protagonist is fighting against some group of people like in the coup or against Alternative V, the people we’re fighting are not evil and have understandable motivations. But, the best part of this game is the tragedy. The sad moments in this game are so perfectly placed and almost impossible to predict.
In the story itself, we follow our protagonist trying to once again save the world, but this time, he knows what he wants. We watch as he succeeds and gains hope that his efforts won’t be in vain. We watch as events change and the hard choices he’s been making seem to be pushing the world in a direction where humanity will prevail. We watch as all of his efforts to save everyone falls apart, and that false sense of hope is ripped away. We watch as our protagonist tries to escape, dooming the world he once vowed to save in order to end his suffering in cowardice. We watch as the protagonist's attempt at escape only leads to even greater suffering. We watch as the protagonist picks himself up to continue the fight after nearly everything he loves is ripped away from him. And, we watch as he is forced to sacrifice everything left that he has for the singular goal of returning home. Muv-Luv Alternative was an unforgettable experience and one of the very few games to ever fully immerse me in its story and world.
Now onto my autism section where I wrote thousands of words about all the arcs and shit. I arbitrarily named the arcs but wrote which episodes I’m referring to. For anyone who hasn’t played MLA and is planning on reading my review of each arc, the episode lengths are NOT equal. I say the first arc is 5 episodes, but the length of later episodes get a lot longer.
Takeru Shirogane (Protagonist)
Takeru made a great protagonist in my opinion. We witness as this man goes through so many trials and tribulations and watches everything around him fall apart, yet he still fights. I really don’t care what people say about him. Takeru is one of the most human characters I have seen in fiction, and all of his actions make total sense. To be clear, I don’t condone everything he does, but I can understand, based on all the events prior, why he does things the things he does. Following his journey through Extra, Unlimited, and finally Alternative is a sight to behold, and he is one of the best protagonists I have ever seen in a story.
Sumika Kagami
Sumika is the main love interest of Takeru (in Alternative), and she was pretty good. She wasn't my favorite character, but far from the worst. The "twizzler" scene I think was great character development for her, and her sacrifice at the end of the series made me like her a lot. I highly recommend playing this game in the uncensored version. The “twizzler” scene is far more impactful that way.
Meiya Mitsurugi
Meiya is my favorite character in the entire game. Just an all-around amazing person. Extremely supportive, strong, and unafraid to confront Takeru when she disagreed with him or if he was depressed. Someone who is willing to go above and beyond for everyone around her. Just an outstanding character and person.
Yuuko Kouzuki
Yuuko was easily the most intelligent character in the series, being the one who created the 00-unit and headed the Alternative IV project. She was a top-notch politician, strategist, and leader. Almost anytime she was on screen, I was fully focused on the game.
AMOUNT OF CONTENT
This game clocks in at 56 hours and 30 minutes according to 233 votes from VNDB. I would say this is a pretty accurate estimation of how much time it takes to play this game. In other words, it’s long.
SOUND/MUSIC
The soundtrack and sounds in this game were great. Unfortunately, I think, for a game this size, there should have been more tracks, especially since most tracks are from the prequel (Muv-Luv), but of the tracks that were present, they were all pretty good with a few outstanding ones.
NO SPOILERS
OVERALL (10/10)
Muv-Luv Alternative is the highest-rated visual novel on vndb (as of writing). It has over twice as many 10/10 ratings as 9/10 ratings. And, it has overwhelmingly positive reviews on steam. These facts exist for a reason. This is a great story. It's long, so don't expect anything mind-blowing until many hours into the experience, but this trilogy is truly unique in what it can offer from a story perspective. I can easily see myself saying this is my favorite story, right next to things like Berserk and Steins;Gate. Looking back on the experience now, only a few weeks after finishing the trilogy, it makes me sad that this experience ended so quickly, and I wish I had the ability to forget it all and go through those 100 hours again, 10/10.
This is the highest rated VN, a classic of the genre. I was skeptical but forced myself to give it a shot. I was grabbed by the world, the characters, the bonds between the characters, and kept on the edge of my seat on a rollercoaster of plot twists and developments. It's like a Sci-Fi Shingeki No Kyojin (Attack on Titan) with occasional nudity.
Muv-Luv Alternative is such a long gripping read I had to secretly read it at night when my girlfriend at the time was sleeping or out of the apartment. Unlike porn where I can be done with in less than 15 minutes, we're talking hours upon hours of reading here. Honestly, don't commit to this unless you have at least a week of spare time.
It's important to note Muv-Luv Alternative is not perfect. It reminds me of LotR or the Game of Throne books that could've benefited from an editor. It's a lengthy read full of exposition and boring moments you'll be speeding through eyes glazed over. I also skipped the Muv-Luv before this, which this VN references a ton, so technically you need another 50 hours to fully get all the references. Also, in this game you can only really do one romance option each run. Pick your path carefully!
In summary, this is more of a VN with some adult stuff and not really a porn game. The adult content is spaced out like a non-smutty fantasy novel series, maybe one scene every 300-500 pages. However, like great non-Adult books I've read, I do occasionally think and reflect on this VN and the characters, maybe once every two years. It's like how I'll occasionally think of Jon Snow or something. The characters are that great that they may stay with you forever.
Surprised I haven't reviewed this yet. Easily my favorite visual novel of all time. Including the prequels, there's probably about a bit less than 100 hours of game time, start to finish. The journey is a rollercoaster of emotions and will have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
This is the last of the trilogy and is widely considered the best of the three, and for good reason. Without getting into spoilers, this one will have you laughing, crying, and on the edge of your seat for a good portion of it. Be sure to play Muv-Luv: Extra and Muv-Luv: Unlimited prior or else you'll miss out on a lot of the characterization. They may seem weird but just go with it; it's worth it.
This is the highest rated visual novel on VNDB and it's really not surprising.
One of my favorite visual novel of all time, a true roller coaster of emotion, hype, drama, and much more.
No route, a linear story that never stray and knows exactly where it's going and what it wants to do, it can be very funny, sad, epic, and that's truly remarkable.
Great production value, the opening song is legendary, the music is great, the art is amazing, the writing/translation is also a real treat.
First of all, if you never played Muv-luv, get out of here as fast as you can and go play the first game. Muv Luv Alternative is the second game and third part of the series.
DO NOT play this before you play the first. It could be said that you can play Alternative as a stand-alone but it would go from a masterpiece of storytelling to a great visual novel. The first two, extra in particular, is too important.
Alternative is perfect. Even if you find something that bugs you about it, it's still perfect. This visual novel and a few others created such high standards that you can probably count the works on this level using one hand.
This VN will crush your soul with some scenes.
That's it, I refuse to go in to the content. With this being the top visual novel at VNDB you should dive without knowing much about it.
Favourite VN of all time by a massive margin. Absolutely amazing sci-fi/mecha story with amazingly fleshed out characters, maybe most notably the changes in the MC. NOT for the feint of heart! This VN legit traumatized me when I first played it. One scene in particular hit me so hard it made me put it down for 2 weeks. Absurdly long and contains a lot of info dump and pseudo science explanations but I would still recommend trudging through that if you want a truly amazing experience. Oh, the very very end kinda sucks and should have been cut right before it, as it undercuts the themes of the story IMO.
