One of the best Visual Novels out there for the past several years has finally been localized on Steam by Sekai Project and AKABEiSOFT2. For their first localization, AKABEiSOFT2 fails to disappoint in bringing us the same intense experience of the original novel in addition to new high-definition graphics. Although it’s currently priced at $19.99 on Steam for the voiceless version and $39.99 for the voiced version (in Japanese), don’t let the high price dissuade you. G-senjou no Maou is one of the most widely regarded Visual Novels for a reason.
Our protagonist, Azai Kyousuke, is a man of mystery himself. At home, he’s a relentless businessman who doubles as the son of a very infamous gangster. Through Kyousuke’s monetary status and his preference to classical music like Bach, he aims to keep himself at a distance from his classmates. That is, until one day, a mysterious girl named Usami Haru transfers to his school. Following her is a notorious international criminal that moves into town, only known as “Maou.” A clash quickly ensues as the protagonist is forced to take on Maou with Haru in a clash of wits in order to maintain his comfortable life.
Make no mistake, every character in this Visual Novel each have their own personalities and are each interesting and keep you wanting to know more about them. One of the first characters we meet, Aizawa Eiichi, is the very definition of a womanizer. Hiding behind a persona of innocence, he uses his cunning and slyness to seduce his preference of older women. Underneath the facade is his deviant, incredibly angry side.
Usami Haru is a character of cunning and is easily able to detect a lie as Kyousuke quickly finds out, as well as being very socially awkward. Shiratori Misuha is a massive threat to our protagonist, as she is quickly able to figure out Kyousuke’s double-life and is now able to ruin his comfortable life by simply saying something. Miwa Tsubaki, the class president, has the interesting quirk of writing anything and everything that happens down in her notebook. Last is Azai Kanon, our protagonist’s adopted sister. Kanon is a professional ice skater who, while still in school, is already seeking to make her way into the olympics.
As our protagonist is a huge fan of classical music, you can expect to hear some variation of classical music as the background for the game. The tracks themselves were fantastic, and I have zero complaints with them. The same can be said for the art as well. The introduction of the high-definition version of the art really adds to the game in its clarity. Unfortunately, the voice acting does cost almost double what the base game is, however. If you don’t like Japanese voice acting and are fine with just reading, then the unvoiced version will be for you. However, all characters except Kyousuke are voiced, so if you are a big fan of Japanese voice-overs then you should definitely pick the voiced version up.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, this Visual Novel is definitely highly regarded for many reasons as pointed out above. With the localization’s improved graphics, this Visual Novel is a must play for enthusiasts as well as people who might be wanting to get into the Visual Novel genre. The game itself is fairly linear, however there are still choices to be made by the player and five different routes for the player to take. This straightforwardness keeps the player from having to spend hours upon hours building up relationships before selecting a route like in many longer Visual Novels which can be fairly intimidating to newcomers.
Ultimately, regardless of where you stand, this game is a definite buy even if you are new to the Visual Novel genre. You’ll get about 10-15 hours out of the novel before completion, so it’s a medium-sized novel if you’re looking for something a bit shorter than the novels that reach into the 40s or 50s. For $19.99, however, this game is a definite buy.
REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.
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