Последние обзоры Dio

if you picked the guy who already messed up

Read the full review at https://j-addicts.de/master-magistrate/, with much better formatting, screenshots and whatnot. I'll do my best to summarize its contents.

Master Magistrate is the murder mystery detective visual novel set in the late years of Japan’s Edo Period. Developed by the indie studio Irodori and released in the year of 2017, it quickly attained popularity and became a hit amongst Japanese fans. They praised the great direction sense, well-crafted scenario, immersive atmosphere, and fascinating soundtrack, amongst other aspects.
The game is nearly forty hours long, making the current price feel like a steal. It consists of the main story (total of four chapters), in addition to branching character routes/endings. The character routes are expertly integrated as alternative epilogues (for the most part). It’s also worth mentioning that this is where you’ll find most of the H-scenes — they serve to reward your long and arduous journey, and I prefer this option to haphazardly throwing them in the common route. This way, there’ll be something nice to look forward to without disrupting the pace of the mystery plot. And if you’re not interested in 18+ content, that’s okay, just don't get the Adult DLC.

In this game, you play as Shimei Ooka, the newly appointed Magistrate of Nakamachi. Not only do you do detective work during the investigation phase, but you also play as this sort of “Judge, Jury and Executioner” figure inside the court. To assist you in your trials and tribulations are the Shinsengumi, the special police force assembled by the shogunate, and other members of your office.

There a total of five heroines, each one of them are extremely capable women, having an important role in the story. They actually feel like their own person, instead of being the mindless, soulless creatures who orbit around the protagonist that you usually find in plenty of visual novels. That being said, the "sim dating" aspect is far from the focus.

There was a lot of care put into accentuating the characters' individuality and personality, be it through the detailed character design, voice acting, or interactions with the protagonist and the other characters. Some sprites are more polished than others, and the difference is even all the more striking when certain side characters are standing next to the heroines. It feels like the different styles clash with one another.

Even from an objective standpoint, you can easily go from "okay" to "pretty good", depending on the character. Still, I'm glad they went through the effort to give every individual character the chance to shine.

Every single character is voiced as well (even males). Overall, I found the voice acting to be quite good, except for one or two side characters that had me looking for the mute button.

Art is one of the highlights. Certain backgrounds don't look as good, especially as certain objects don't blend in as naturally, as they are made to scream "click me!" during the investigation phase. Most event CGs look pretty good, including the chibi art, but especially the monochrome manga-styled CGs. I think they look pretty damn cool.

The pacing of the story is an important aspect to be addressed. The first chapter is rather slow. Not only do you (and the main character) have to get accustomed to the setting, but there are introduction scenes for each and every character of this expansive cast. The first trial is also quite short and exceedingly easy, as you’re being introduced to the game mechanics. I wouldn’t blame you if you felt disappointed, but trust me, it only gets better from now on.

The second chapter begins with slice-of-life scenes that felt a bit too long, but are important in the way that they give you a chance to interact with the characters outside the "action" scenes. One such interaction would be this section's fanservice scene, which is a tad long-winded and features some nice eye candy topped with slightly unsavory comments.

Anyway, at least, there isn't a myriad of H-scenes disrupting the flow.

The pace quickly picks up with the advent of the second case, revolving around the theme of "technology" or "man and machine". It is much more engaging as the involving plot ties nicely with the setting and the murder mystery itself. I would like to see these kind of technological advancements have more of an impact on the trials themselves, however. Just like in Great Ace Attorney, where you are introduced to the concepts of photographic evidence and luminol tests.

The third chapter is more of a character-driven story, nearly entirely focused on Sakura, in her own journey of self-growth. The character interactions are more meaningful, there are numerous twists and turns, the trials are more challenging, and the stakes are higher than ever before. Solve a mystery, only for others to take its place. What a ride. To be honest, I believe this to be most solid chapter of the game.

The fourth chapter completely surpassed my expectations. The plot is high-pace from beginning to end. A myriad of revelations, unsolved plot threads and mysteries, a barrage of twists — they all come together for an epic finale. Old scenes and evidence gain new meaning, and the characters’ convictions are pushed to their limits… If I had to criticize one thing, it’d be that there might be too much happening at the same time. It still feels pretty epic, but there’s times when a revelation hits you while you’re still recovering from a previous blow. The mastermind sure had me fooled, but I fought tooth and nail to get them convicted!

Now for what you've all been waiting for: the gameplay. You have the initial investigation phase where you move in between locations, collecting testimonies and clues. You can review these at any time by clicking the "CLUES" button (except when you can't).

During the trials, you must use LOGIC to point out CONTRADICTIONS. Sound familiar? But that's pretty much how it goes. Listen to everyone, press contradictory statement and present the appropriate piece of evidence. Towards the end, you'll be arguing down the culprit, Danganronpa style. Hope they get the death penalty!

In my review, I talk about the scoring system in length, but to put it simply, I don't like it. If you get an answer wrong the first time, you'll get never those points back. However, you don't lose points for wrong answers. This means that making a mistake once or 50 times is the same in terms of score.

Actually, I'd recommend not paying attention to the score at all—you'll have more fun that way.

Remember when you were playing Ace Attorney, sitting with one health point, and thinking to yourself "Oh crap, I gotta get this one right or I'm screwed!"? You'd proceed to review every single piece of evidence, desperately rebuilding your theories from scratch in a make-it-or-break-it situation. I just don't feel that same tension when I can just spam present evidence to move things along.

There is no Game Over screen to kick your butt and motivate you try harder next time.

Thankfully, the score has absolutely no bearing in the gameplay or story. To be honest, just save-scum for perfect score.

For the adult content, you won't be seeing most of it until after the common route. I'm rather pleased with this choice, as I find H-scenes to be disrupting elements during murder mystery detective type of games. The 18+ content is optional. I feel that this is the right way to go, keeping everyone happy without alienating potential customers.

To finish things off, I'd like to say that I was overall pleased with Master Magistrate[/b]. It's the type of game that starts rather slow, but gets increasingly better. I would say that the payoff is worth it. Just like me, I hope you can find yourself immersed in this world, enjoying the expansive cast of characters and gameplay mechanics.

Thanks for reading.

Nowadays, the market is saturated with an overabundance of low-quality, doujin/independent visual novels that ends up giving visual novels as a whole a bad name. As someone who has spent hundreds of hours with visual novels, I already did not have high expectations for Lucy, a korean doujin visual novel.

While it's not going to compare to the more famous titles such as Clannad, Fate/stay night, Umineko and others, it's its simplicity and genuine sincerity that give Lucy its charm. It's a comforting and heartwarming story on its own right, even if it's not going to be something that will turn your world upside down, it's definitely a pleasant experience. Long enough to leave a deep impression and short enough that you can enjoy it without spending too much time.

Despite my current playtime, I've already completed this game fully, vowing to one day purchase the VN on the day it went on sale, and that day was today. I feel that the developers more than deserve their game being bought for the care they've put into building this story, so if you've already played this game or would like to give it a try, I would say that as a sort of "veteran" when it comes to reading VNs that Lucy - The Eternity She Wished For- is worth your time.

While not the best doujin VN that I've read, it shines amongst the piles of subpar titles that plague Steam and the western VN market as a whole, so please give this Lucy a try. With this review, I hope I convinced at least one person to read it.