Magical Eyes-Red is for Anguish Review

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I know I am not the only one who is tired of romantic visual novels. The majority of the time they do not have a good story to tie it all together and are just about getting two people together. Once the two people get together then what? That’s where I get bored and lose interest. Most people on Steam want more than that from a visual novel. In Magical Eyes-Red is for Anguish you get a lot more than that. You get a thrilling mystery story revolving around a series of unfathomable incidents in a town.

The first incident revolves around a furniture shop owner and a doll. One night the owner of a furniture store was closing things up for the night when he gets attacked. Naturally the police are called and somehow the owner survives the attack. What they find out is that it wasn’t just an attack. The owner loses his arm in the attack and claims that a doll took it. This doll was a Japanese doll with black hair wearing a kimono. Regular cops won’t be enough to solve this case. They have to leave it in the hands of people who are used to dealing with supernatural occurrences.

This is where the main character comes in Yuu. He is part of an organization called the Disobeyers. The Disobeyers have skills beyond that of normal people even though they look normal. The story follows this organization as they try to solve this strange case. Many characters are introduced but Yuu and Chiharu are the characters we see the most. There is some romance between the two characters but the story doesn’t revolve around that. It’s more of a side story. What I really like is that there were no series of choices to make that would cause you to try to get on Chiharu’s route like in a romance visual novel. Yuu and Chiharu talk like normal people to each other and all you have to do is read their dialogue. You aren’t faced with a bunch of annoying choices that determine the level of their relationship. You get to just sit back and watch the story unfold.

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You also get to see the story from three different perspectives : Yuu’s, Chiharu’s, and a secret third one. I thought that was a refreshing twist especially for a visual novel. Usually you only see the main character’s point of view in the story. I think it adds to the mystery and drama of the story. It also keeps things interesting and not stale. I would rather see multiple perspectives than have to make a bunch of annoying choices.  The only place you have to make any choices is in Reasoning Mode. Yuu is one of the people working on the doll case. He gets bombarded with a lot of details about the case. Some of them don’t make any sense. To help him make sense of it all he goes into Reasoning Mode. Reasoning Mode is when you get asked questions about the case as they come up. You then have to select an answer from the available choices.

Then you submit your responses and get graded on them like a quiz. In the story when you do this you help Yuu figure out the case as it progresses. It is actually a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. As the reader/player it’s a great way to get engaged into the story. Your choices do matter. If you answer correctly you get an S rank. If you get an S rank bonus scenes are unlocked and material. During Reasoning Mode it is your job to help Yuu the best you can and figure out what’s going on.  I think if you are playing/reading a visual novel this is a great way to incorporate choices to the players.

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Magical Eyes-Red is for Anguish has more going for it besides a great story. The visuals are very high quality and are gorgeous.  The anime artwork is so well done that you almost forget that you are playing/reading a visual novel. The artwork doesn’t fall flat at all during the battle scenes.  You aren’t sitting there just reading a bunch of dialogue and not seeing what’s going on. The action comes alive in a great way that you don’t get from a regular novel. I think this visual novel also does a great job of holding back in certain areas such as with darker details of the story such as blood. I have always believed that leaving it up to the imagination in a thriller makes it more suspenseful and scarier than showing everything. That’s exactly what happens in Magical Eyes-Red is for Anguish.

I also loved the theme song. Despite that the story has dark parts to it the theme song was surprisingly light and lively. The lyrics to the theme song are also very positive and uplifting. I thought it was a great way to break up some of the drama and help make the novel lighter. I became very addicted and could not stop reading Magical Eyes-Red is for Anguish. It was a roller-coaster ride and wasn’t predictable. I loved that romance wasn’t all there was to it and had so much more. Even though there are some serious parts to it there also some lighter moments as well. I also loved that the romance that was in it wasn’t predictable and over the top. There is a great balance between the two. It is the best visual novel I have read in a long time. I can’t wait for Magical Eyes-Indigo Blue Heaven.

Rating 9

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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