Played Version: Ep. 2, Part 1
Summary: I’ll try to make this a short one and maybe fail as usual. The AVN sphere houses a number of AVN’s that follows very similar formulas, one of these being the “Comedic Harem in a semi-fantastical/sci-fi setting at the college age”, in which Realm Invader belongs. The newer titles within any such formula tends to imitate and draw inspiration from an older respected title, sometimes to the point that it may seem like plagiarizing. Realm Invader does indeed have strong similarities on the surface level, but as I was reading, it increasingly built up its own unique identity.
The MC in Realm Invader is a rather unassuming character, and his genericness is a running joke in its own right. Unlike other similar AVN’s, MC doesn’t move to a new city, but instead gets isekai’ed, supposedly without dying, to an identical parallel world, save for the existence of magic and new non-human races. His family (mom, older, twin and younger sister) are unchanged. It is evident that his travelling between worlds is related to him gaining a talent for magic way above the average level of people in the parallel world. This in turn leads to his eventual enrollment in a college/university where magic is one of the main faculties. We follow MC as he learns magic from the bottom-up and become acquainted with 2 handfuls of other characters, half LI's, half side/supporting. By the time the story ends (Episode 2 part 1) we haven’t learnt too much about the world or where the story seems to go, but I think the foundation is pretty solid.
Pros: Different LI haircuts for different scenes.
- Animations. Holy shit. Smooth and natural looking, frequently combined and coordinated with camera movements that are also smooth and perfectly creates the desired impact of a scene.
- Beyond just the animations, H-scenes also use changing depth of field, etc.
- It felt like the character intro sequences was more about showcasing the personality and “style” of the characters and not just their physical features. For the time being I can say that the siblings and mom are all endearing and decently nuanced as characters, despite being based on archetypes.
- There seems to be a fair amount of lore to be explored, but Realm Invader doesn’t bombard you with information. Some is shown or told immediately. More details are slowly added on top of the most basic info. And you have a small codex to use at your own discretion. Still basic for the time being.
- Soundtrack is solid so far. Yes, calm intimate H scene music that even has lyrics. But there are also high intensity pieces of music too for the 2 more raw h-scenes that we get.
- Kinda related to the great animations, but Realm Invader often builds up scenes by using animations, like when Chloe and MC plays a fighting game. Helps flesh out the world and make I come alive.
- Theres a lot of AVN-protagonist or Honey Select engine based jokes.
- Good male side characters. Some are just joke characters. Others are great beyond just featuring in comedic situations and several are actually competent in various ways and has a role in the actual plot.
- Many small cute sound effects.
- The Mudasir meme.
- Realm Invader actually does a decent job at acknowledging that MC’s relationship with Grace and Miya are taboo and they all act like it’s actually wrong. They clearly have qualms with it, giving in because that’s just how AVN’s work, but in a sufficiently realistic manner. The comedic situations also plays into the way things progress.
- I liked how the swimming competition was set up in terms of having plenty of decisions. It was a bit like navigating a choose-your-own-adventure-style narrative tree. Or maybe web is a more fitting term here.
- Speaking of the swim meet, Realm Invader has so many likable female side characters. I wonder which ones are planned LI’s. But for the sake of Realm Invader to one day be finished, I actually hope most won’t be LI’s.
- Humor is perhaps a little too frequent for my own tastes, but most jokes do stick the landing and the comedic style at large is good.
Mehs and hit/miss: What’s with the child hating? (Sure, the throat singing makes for a good joke vibe, but really?) There’s a few other jokes that don’t work, one of them being the recurring situations where MC isn't paying attention to people around him.
- This might go into a con if handled badly, but the overall scenario where MC is gifted with immensely rare powers and being naturally talented, is a bit of an overused trope. For now, it’s being handled decently, but I’m still wary of it.
- Slightly too shaky camera in some H scenes.
- The MC’s family inherit a truck load of money as part of their backstory. Feels like a fast way to put them in a nice big house. Rather convenient, but then again, having an ample supply of money don’t feel too important for the plot, so I wouldn’t classify it as a Deus Ex machina intended to instantly solve problems as they appear. Something other AVN’s do, especially the sex focused ones.
Cons: Looks like we got us a morning boner scene. A classic porn trope that I am not fond of.
- The whole spiel with MC’s changing opinion on slavery was not handled well. At least it didn’t last long.
- The gallery system was a little awkward to use. Seemed a bit primitive and slow in its setup, but aesthetically pleasing at least.
