VN - Others - Completed - Riddle Joker [Final] [Yuzusoft]

Riddle Joker had tremendous potential, and threatened to break "Yuzusoft prejudice", while reading it. Sadly, it didn't take long to understand that the interesting parts were gonna stay superficial, but the premise, setting, supernatural, and worldbuilding, are still defined by the use of common sense, coherence, and relevance to storytelling. It's not really a question of concept or execution, at some point they forgot about it, and this became more of the same.

Positive:
- The world - Spies, factions, technology, special abilities, discrimination, and more. The first hours of Riddle Joker are good at building-up interest, with facts alone (storytelling is a different matter). In short, the problem rises from where (if anywhere) they went with all of the compelling material.

- Production values, and technical side of things - When in doubt, praise Yuzusoft on these. You know how it goes, looking and sounding good is important. Quality of life and accessibility make things more enjoyable. Here's something: The guitar version of "astral ability" is lovely.

- Moege goodness - This is another mention of a adequate implementation. There's funny bits, the girls are cute, highschool exists... What else is there to say, there's value in these things, and not everyone has seen them dozens of times before.

Negative:
- I'd be criticizing the formula, and mindset, not the title itself - Since that seems less than relevant (others can follow that route), what's holding Riddle Joker back is a simple "nowhere to go". Great base idea? Check. Initial development and interest? Check. After that there are no more "checks". It's not even disappointing, it's a waste of potential, and the seeds of greatness were most certainly here.

Score: 6/10, and more Yuzusoft for people who want it. Combining the best parts of all the Yuzusoft tiles, would be a sight for sore eyes. In any case, this is recommended because there's nothing really wrong with it objectively (meaning personal reticence is the issue).

Sadly this game doesn't have much going for it, the common route is honestly pretty boring, they don't do anything of any note and if you don't pick a girl it ends with no story, its really just a dull way to introduce a guy to girls, which should mean the main game is in the love routes.

I played two romance routes and they were as standard as they come, no major story or anything that feels romantic its as basic as they both realize they like each other romantically at exactly the same time, have one date, sex x3 and ends with nothing changing in there lives at all.

Art is good but nothing special, same with the sex scenes which are super basic.

I cant really think of a good reason to play this game.

Story 1/5 (very weak)
Art 3/5 (good quality but not hot)
Sex 1/5 (none of the scenes were great)
Fetishes 0/5 (none)
Choices 1/5 (pick girl only)
Characters 2/5 (forgetful)

Another Standard Yuzusoft title that doesn't particularly stand out among the others (both in a good way and a bad way). The art, UI and voice acting are all top-notch however beyond that things are pretty... meh.

The story in this one was really subpar and uninteresting. I won't spoil anything but the main "conflict," leaves much to be desired. This is mostly due to how little time is actually spent on it and also it's absence in almost all routes besides one. It feels extremely underwhelming additonally because of how little time was actually spent building it up and actually executing it. It gets resvolved and brought up so fast that it doesn't even feel like an actual problem. I also didn't enjoy the heroines in this game as much as other Yuzusoft VNs, they aren't "bad," but aren't very memorable either (Besides Ayase). The h-scenes are plentiful and the art/ voice acting is great but their placements in the route is just terrible. Having 3 h-scenes play one after another with nothing else happening in the story is simply bad placement. The MC of this game is a typical dense, no personality, kind self-insert. This makes him feel particularly incompetent even though he is supposed to be a "secret agent," it's yet another idea that Yuzusoft manages to do so terribly.

Play this game if you like drawn-out moeges without regard for story.

I highly recommend this game. I haven't finished all routes, so maybe I'll change my opinion later on. But the amount of small setup done, the amount of solid characters, and the way the story utilizes it's world to build great moments that do not rely on spectacle, just character motivations and issues has me in awe.

I figured out most of the twists early on, or at least suspected them. But not (just) because of chlichés and tropes, but because of solid and subtle foreshadowing and hints.

It is just a solid story, which I did not expect at all.

Edit: After finishing a second route, I have to say, the routes vary wildly in quality. Second route was still good, but nowhere near as good as the first.

Final edit: I have now finished the game as a whole and sadly take back some of the praise I have given the game. Out of the 5 routes

• Story 1
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  is excellent, with just an overall strong story, an the great setups and pay-offs i have described earlier.
• Story 2
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  is great, with less off a payoff and some significant flaws, but stronger emotional moments.
• Story 3 and 4
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  are significantly weaker, but still good, tying less into the "main plot" and feel more like sidestories, which are still worth playing for the excellent character moments, as well as good moral dilemmas, of the MC's position, that other routes only slightly explore.
• The last
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  is absolute garbage. It adds nothing to the overall story, it has by far the weakest character in the entire game, and for some forsaken reason needs to be unlocked by finishing any other route. Don't play.

I still highly recommend this game. A lot less than after my first route though.