Muv-Luv Review

Muv-Luv is a visual novel that is based around the main character, Shirogane Takeru, who is a care free senior at Hakuryo Hiiragi academy. He is totally addicted to robot fighting games and lives next door to his childhood friend, Kagami Sumika, who is cheerful and clumsy, but has feelings that she keeps secret from her friend until a strange event happens at the beginning of the game, where she starts to want to be more than friends. There is also a range of other characters that you will meet throughout the game, such as Mitsurugi Meiya, a strong girl and a bit naive, as she is a new transfer to Hakuryo Hiiragi. There is also Tamase Miki, a friendly girl who tries to get everyone to act friendly together when they can. Next, is class representative Sakaki Chizuru, who excels in both academics and athletics, as she practices lacrosse before class each morning. The next student is the mysterious Ayamine Kei, who is agile and normally misses class, much to the class’ dismay

In this game there are many locations to experience while following the story. Some of these locations include the school, as this is where a student must go every day and one of the main places, the house, as this is where the main character will wake up and go to sleep and will sometimes talk with his childhood friend Kagami Sumika. There are also places such as cities, parks and some locations, such as a military facility that will add a sci-fi element to the game.

There will be choices to make during specific parts of the game, which will allow a player to select the next line of dialogue, and this will change how the character will respond to you. During these selected moments, the visual novel plays out as there are multiple moments during the game where the scene will switch to a setting that the game will show you. It may be funny or it may be romantic, but it will all depend on the moment in the game.

There is a game mode that is unlocked after completing both main characters love interests, or when these characters have fallen in love. Once this is unlocked, the unlimited, which is a more sci-fi element of muv-luv, as all the characters are no longer in high school and the world is no longer in Japan, but in a sci-fi era with battle mechs, the characters change, such as the main character, Shirogane Takeru, who is similar to his character in the normal game, but is better at piloting mechs, as this is all he does in his spare time. Then we have Mitsurugi Meiya, who is a cadet in the unit 207 and wants to join the fight as fast as possible. Lastly, there is Tamase Miki, a cadet who specialises in sniping, as well as many more to meet.

There is also a way to access the menu in the game, that will have multiple options to select from, such as the quicksave or save. There is also the backlog, where if you missed a part in the novel, you can go back and read it again without having to lose your place. There is also a button to allow the game to get the novel to auto scroll, so a user only has to read and not click to move on to the next part. There is also a way to change the language from English to Japanese and this can be done with the click of a button to make the game simpler and easier to use and follow the story.

Muv-Luv is a fun and enjoyable experience that can pass the time with its funny dialogue, its sci-fi element and the many moments you have with the main character and his friends. There is also the music in-game which can get overlapped by the dialogue, but that is how a novel is meant to be played. This is an enjoyable game and is a game that has two different ways to play, sci-fi and high school life; so there is something for everyone to enjoy in this game.

REVIEW CODE: A Playstation Vita code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk