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Grisaia no Kajitsu--just finished my first readthrough (except for some of the bad endings). Here's my full review of the game. Be warned, it's a bit long.

Common route [ ](#s "I'm one of those who thinks the common route was too long. I don't mind a long common route on principal, but I didn't like how it felt like almost nothing happened in this one. It was mostly just episodic comedy stuff.

If it was going to be so long I wish they would have used it to do more foreshadowing of stuff about the characters. There are a lot of big revelations that just come out of nowhere with each of the girls, and they could easily have been built up to better, earlier on.

I mean, I enjoy silly gags as much as the next guy, but if the common route is going to be longer than the average published novel, I'd like there to be more depth to it than this.")

Sachi (best girl) [ ](#s "Sachi's route touched me the most emotionally, and in the end I also found her character the most interesting. I don't think I have seen something like her "rules" explored before, and I thought it was a great dynamic.

Having her be the childhood friend was also a plus and a nice twist that I only wish got a bit more foreshadowing. Between her importance to his survival and identity, her basic good nature, her intelligence, and her secretly sly sense of humor, I can easily see her as a great fit for Yuuji romantically.

The story covers a lot of ground and the good ending hits at the perfect time instead of dragging on.

The only major negative I would mention is that blowing up the school felt way too forced, especially them immediately having sex afterward. I think Yuuji could have pushed her to see the problems with her rules without it being so contrived. It's really hard to believe that Chizuru and JB would agree to such a plan, let alone that Yuuji would get away with it scot-free.")

Yumiko [ ](#s "Yumiko was my favorite part of the common route, even though I know a lot of people think she just acted like an asshole.  I just liked that her relationship with Yuuji developed so much from box cutter foe to friend and potential love interest. Most of the other girls don't develop very much in the common route.

Too bad so much of Yumiko's route itself felt so ridiculous and contrived. The repeated attacks by mercs, her father's scatterbrained approach and motives, that helicopter chase scene. All very over the top and ridiculous.

I did like her flashback; I thought it fit into the route very nicely. And everything after Yuuji and Yumiko ran away together was very sweet. The ending was solid, although a bit predictable. I think my favorite part was Yumiko fixing the relationship with her dad and kind of showing how he got to be such a jerk, instead of making him just a one-sided villain. I also enjoyed watching her find her strength and break out of her shell, and I thought her and Yuuji seemed like a good fit romantically.")

*Michiru * [ ](#s "I hated Mitcher in the common route. Just thought she was grating as hell. But as she dropped the tsundere act with Yuuji I started liking her a lot more in a Forrest Gump kind of way. Meowmel's death was absolutely heartbreaking, and Michiru's clumsy insecurity was adorable.

I did feel like the “I share bodies with a dead girl” thing was both a serious misstep and a missed opportunity. Why turn her split personality into a weird fantasy scenario? It really took me out of the story bringing that in so late. It also missed the opportunity to re-integrate her personalities and make her become more intelligent after all.

I didn't really buy into Yuuji falling in love with Michiru, honestly. He barely tolerated her the rest of the game, and it's hard for me to believe a relationship could be successful where one person thinks of the other as a complete idiot. Reintegrating her two personalities could have solved this problem, but that's not the path the writers chose.

Definitely a much better experience than I thought it would be, but still flawed IMO.")

Makina [ ](#s "The loli shit here just grossed me out way too much for me to get over it. The spy thriller stuff was OK and Yuuji's arc was very interesting, but I can't get over their weird, awkward relationship. This route would have worked a lot better for me without the sexual/romantic elements.

I also felt like the company sending the hounds of hell after Makina just because of a cashed check was rather contrived as an impetus for the story, but I guess that's more a nitpick than anything.

Too bad Yuuji killing dear old mom wasn't the good ending. That bitch needs to die.

Side note: The identity of the “criminal in the basement” is so blatantly obvious that I don't even know why they bother trying to hide it.")

Amane [ ](#s "Frankly I think Amane is a pretty boring character. Her trauma is a simple case of survivor's guilt and other than that she's just a motherly horndog. This is why I found it kind of weird that normally-reticent Yuuji jumped right into saying 'I love you' after one damn kiss. It seemed like he just liked her because she was a 'convenient woman', which is incredibly shallow, demeaning to Amane, and not an attitude that seems consistent with Yuuji's character.

It's not that she's a bad person or anything, I just don't think he would be able to fall in love with her before finding out more about her past. He's just too suspicious and prickly. And vice-versa—she never really gives any reasoning for why she fell in love with him. I can understand her feelings of guilt and responsibility, but falling for him anyway was never explained. On the other hand, Amane's route easily has the most interesting flashback, what with Kazuki and all. But at the same time the flashback is so damn long that it really robs the main story of any strength or the opportunity to expound on Amane and Yuuji's relationship. The climactic action scene at the end also feels tacked on, and it's a hugely frustrating tease how they handle Kazuki's buried cache. Then there's the epilogue which goes insanely far into the future and unnecessarily leaves nothing to the imagination.

Considering it seems like they invested by far the most money/time into this route (the most sprites, voice actors, backgrounds, etc), it's disappointing that it ended up being such a mixed bag, with a great flashback and everything else kinda meh.")

Art/music/voice acting The art wasn't bad at all, but I do feel like the sprites were kind of generic and stiff. You could basically cobble together the sprites by copy-pasting elements from a bunch of different modern period anime and it would look about the same. Hell, Kazuki looks almost copy pasted with some minor changes from Tachibana in Angel Beats. I prefer character art with a little more personality and life. It didn't turn me off, but wasn't a big selling point either. Some of the CG pieces were really well done though, although others were unintentionally hilarious (Yuuji = smooth criminal). The backgrounds were just OK, nothing too interesting, but not ugly either.

The music was good, with some great individual pieces to highlight emotional moments. Not a soundtrack I'm going to play outside the game, but it definitely added to the experience.

I liked the voice acting, except for Michiru's shouting, which got on my last nerve.

Miscellaneous Thoughts [ ](#s "The whole “harem of girls fawning over the protagonist” thing will never not bother me. Was there any reason besides fan service to have so many hot women all crushing on or at least flirting with Yuuji, and so few male characters? I know this is a common thing with bishojo games, but it simply bugs me how transparent it is.

As a coherent story, I don't feel like the game does a very good job of pacing overall. The common route is so slow, goofy, and episodic, then the girls' routes are so much more serious and fast-paced. Except there's a huge flashback in each one slowing things down. If you take each route as its own story and more or less ignore the common route, I think the game works better that way, but the flashbacks are still a bit jarring to the pacing, especially in Amane's route.

Yuuji, I'll admit, is a pretty great protagonist. He has a lot of depth and is funny, proactive, and usually pretty competent. However, I didn't really like how much of his past they left a mystery. Felt like they were just trying to make us come back for the sequel.")

Conclusion An enjoyable game, but not as good as I expected based on the reviews. The characters were lovable, the production values were good, and there were lots of laughs to be had, but the routes were kind of a mixed bag and the overall pacing was uneven. Still, Sachi's route alone was well worth the price of admission, and there was plenty of good stuff to be had in the rest of the game as well, despite the flaws.

/r/visualnovels Thread