If you're like me, you think you have a decent handle on guessing whether a VN on this site is worth your time or not based on various prejudices you have looking over reviews and previews. Oversized tits, fanatical reviews and a distaste for the MC's design were my personal marks for skipping this game until recently. But like all prejudices in the face of reality, they ended up being some bullshit.
This game is absolutely fantastic. It's a game I'd love to explore in a 1000+ word essay about why I like every little detail about it, but I think there's enough of that in the other reviews, so I want to approach writing about this game from a purely entertainment perspective, which is the area this game ranks as my number 1 favorite among all the VN's I've played.
This game is an Anime that plays in your head as you read it
That's gonna be the main idea I want to convey to you. Let's begin with the backbone: the writing.
Vivid and descriptive enough to quite literally play out in your head. An early fight scene, where half the images on screen were merely abstractions of a strike, would clearly guide your mind though each and every move made. Every impact and anticipation is described just enough to make your mind's eye see but not bore you with any kind of faux shakespearean floweriness that's so typical of amateur writing. It's writing with a clear purpose, from well defined perspectives (be that of a character or a narrator), and paced such that you have to have some kind of neurodivergence to consider it boring. Just being honest.
Speaking of, the pacing follows discrete tension/release cycles. A battle is going overwhelmingly in the favor of one side, then abruptly switches. An issue is made apparent to the player and let to fester, then is confronted by the characters. This kind of thing is a tried and true, hallmark pattern when it comes to storytelling and the writer absolutely uses it to its fullest to both excite and subvert expectations in very, very entertaining ways.
Even the transitions are part of this! Referring to literally the way the images change from one to another in the game. A woefully underappreciated and under-utilized aspect of VNs that are a unique part of the medium. Fade ins, fade outs, sound effects, shake effects.. all of these are used, honestly masterfully, to convey exactly what the writer wants to convey and give the game its distinct atmosphere.
A game's atmosphere is what separates a good game from a great game. This is true for every game out there. Makes the experience feel as though it's a living, breathing thing. The main way this characteristic (or lack there of) is achieved is with its soundtrack. You remember dmc 4 because the time has come and so have I. You remember gwyn because that piano was fucking killer. You'll remember superhuman because it's a VN with its own distinct soundtrack. I'm not saying it's anything close to the level as those other games, I'm saying that the OST will imprint this story on you with the weight that it gives to the scenes and events in this game.
Wrapping up I'll write about the most unique thing this game has. It's art. In a vacuum, I'm not getting my rocks off on this art style. In the game, I absolutely am. Besides the fact that, because the characters are from a story you're invested in, the scenes are inherently more attractive than just a random piece done by your favorite H artist. There's something about the art in this game that is just abstract enough to imprint a little more of what's in your own head onto what you see, that adds just a little extra everywhere. I'm afraid I'm not that capable of a writer to describe it as well as that, but I know that if you play this game, you'll get it. Needless to say, you're only getting this experience here on this game and that's one of the things that make this game worth your while.
With all that said, I hope you now realize that almost everything I covered can be applied to a great shonen anime. It’s abundantly clear that the dev is a real fan of anime and not just of any particular show, but of the medium itself, apparent from the way they use all the storytelling devices of writing and of the VN medium itself to maximise the entertainment value.
TL;DR this game is the sasuke/deidara fight from shippuden
5/5: Enjoyable experience from start to end, very little flaws, very many nuts busted