Here is my review of Adastra from when I first played it:
Last week I finished reading Adastra, then re-read it this week, and I felt like it was a big letdown after being so hyped up to me: the greatest VN, the most popular, emotionally intense, heavy subjects, politics, inspired by Roman theater. So, yeah, it had some big boots to fill, which was too much for this project. As a consequence, this game didn’t live to expectations, which I think I shouldn’t have had in the first place. This game used the Roman culture of ages ago as a loose inspiration mostly for aesthetics and nothing else really, there is very little to nothing that is a good representation of their culture, again, a mistake of mine. Then, please, take into account that my opinion was affected so much by the high expectations people gave me, the description of the game and also my liking for Roman tragedies. With this said, let’s begin:
Art:
The best part of the game and that is not a good sign. Now, HAPS is a good artist, he really did a good job with the characters, they all look pretty good and they are very expressive and full of life. The problem is his art style doesn’t fit this story at all, unless I’m supposed to not take the story seriously, which I doubt. My issue with his art style comes from the cartoony look of everything, and especially the baby face that Amicus makes every time he gets angry, making him look like a huge baby about to start a tantrum than a grown-up man taking things seriously. Again, the art is good, especially when it comes to the backgrounds, but they end up being too cartoonish for me to take the characters of the story seriously, I don’t think this art style was a good fit for this VN.
Music and Sound:
I will be honest, I only remember one track, from the final fight, mostly because most of the game doesn’t really use music as much as it uses background noise to fill the scenes, which sometimes is used well, but most of the time it just comes off as a bit flat, and there are also those awkward long silences that I think are supposed to build tension, but kind of failed. The music is serviceable, but it needed a better use, but the game has enough tracks to fill the blanks. It’s ok overall.
The Universe:
I have to be honest about the fact that the sci-fi aspects and the Parent’s whole mythology exist only to facilitate the story since we never take a deep look at this. The technology is mostly used to make things much simpler like not having servant characters, having drones with cameras, using it as some kind of cellphone, and using it to travel across space. But, we never really get to understand the technology nor is it very well explained, using the excuse of being too advanced because those devices were made by the Parents. Also, the Parents, the “Gods” only have one reason to exist: to give the reader the perfect ending regardless of how undeserved it is. The Parents teach nothing, the Parents only talk once, and they reveal themselves to be the Master Minds behind everything. And, man, they ruined the story so much for me, especially because everything they do is so convenient, so convenient I know our protagonists cannot lose in any way, and Deus Ex Machina at the end just took any kind of tension for this story and any sequel. But, I will explain more of this later with the characters… speaking of which.
MC: Marco:
Boring and very annoying. He does nothing during most of the story other than be a pain in the ass for Amicus, then the Parents come and declare him “Jesus” (let’s be honest, Marcus is Jesus). The fact that he acted like an idiot most of the story and sat around doing nothing while the story plays off screen makes me wish we had another MC and not be anchored to this doormat. I honestly don’t get what Amicus sees in him. I know he is a blank slate so you can project yourself on him, but even other games with the same concept try to make you do stuff to get the romantic interest to like you, Marco does nothing but complain about the Wolven culture until the end of the story, when the Parents come into his mind and literally spell out for him what he has to do. He must be worst protagonist I’ve seen in all the VNs I've played.
Amicus:
Well, if I don’t get what he sees in Marco, I definitely don’t get what people see in him other than being cute and handsome. He is a huge man child who throws tantrums every time he doesn’t get his way, he never thinks things through and he is never shown to learn a single lesson (we are just told he matured). Then we have his conversations with Marco than can be summarized thusly:
“Your culture sucks”
“Yeah, but you shouldn’t say that, baka”
And the writing really did dirty to him, we never see how he falls in love with Marco, since it happens off screen and we only see the results of their falling in love; we never see him mature and being a good politician, we are told that happens off screen; and worst of all, he never learns to think things through, again, we are told that off screen, and we literally never see him take a decision while thinking things through, unless you consider his conversation with the Parents to be proof of that, despite the fact that the only options given to him were “Do you want a happy life or no?". Not only that, but Parents took all the merits away of him, him not thinking things through and him being immature was recompensed with a literal eternity of happiness with his one true love, making any progress he made invalid.
All of this as well as the fact of how useless Amicus is: he failed to get a good pet to impress, failed to take care of Marco, failed to properly teach him the dance, failed in the debate, failed in a fight with a literal blind grandpa and was held hostage by a puny human. Man, the fact that he is alive by end of the story, or even at the beginning, must be a huge miracle from the Parents.
He is just so average, even characters who are just fucktoys have better character development, a better dynamic with the MC and are more useful than him.
Cato:
Who is Cato? Really, who is he? The worst antagonist in a FVN I’ve seen, that's who. He's evil just because he can be. (Well, you could make the argument it is because of his old beliefs and his desire for revenge over the war against the Khemians, but the story never explores that front). He “manipulates” people, which, to be honest, tricking the cast of this game is not a great achievement, especially with how obvious it is from the beginning that he is the villain.
Then, he wants to marry Virginia… because evil dictators do that, mind you, I'm pretty sure an actual evil dictator would choose something better than Virginia. Speaking of which....
Virginia:
Why do you exist other than being a plot device? She does nothing of value in the story other than being a convenient extra character. She is there to bring Neferu, an actually good character, and… I guess she helps taking down Cato, mind you, the human could have used Neferu’s help since all sapients have the same machine. Also, I guess we can add that we learn about the triumvirates because Cassius talks to her, but consider that she does nothing with that info. I really find no justification for her existing in the story other than being a token female character to have the token gender inequality and men are stupid lines.
Alexios:
He is interesting even if the plot twist of him being a spy is kind obvious from the beginning. It is obvious he gave the info the Triumvirates, and he is the first example of this game not having the guts put a finger on the characters. His story is good until we reach the end when we learn that he truly loves Cassius and gets no punishment for his actions, which is essentially the story telling to your face that "Consequences don’t exist". The worst part is that him loving Cassius for real makes him look like an idiot, there is no way he didn’t know about Cato killing Cassius, and the story really makes sure to show that Cassius was more important to him than the mission.
Oh, Alexios, you were so close to being good.
Neferu:
The second best character of this game not only because he moves the plot, not only because he is active in the storyline, not only because he points out Amicus's behavior, not only because is he so damn hot, not only because he has to put up with Amicus and Marco’s dysfunctional relationship and fix it like a pro, but we also see different sides of him and he is the second closest the game comes to a tragedy. We see how he struggles with his mission, being so close to suffer consequences and actually having to suffering some of them and we see him at a very low point in the story. He is a very well rounded character and while he doesn’t develop throughout the story, we explore him as a character and what is said is set in stone with him, we see him taking action and we see him having to deal with his decisions. He really deserved much better than being in this game surrounded by the bunch of idiots. I guess his family really did give him a proper punishment.
Cassius:
My favorite character in the entire game by a long shot and that is just in concept. Cassius is truly the most interesting character in the game. He is the runt of the family, he is ill making him much weaker than everyone else, his siblings don’t support him, his father neglected him, his mother (the only person who seemed to care about him) is dead, he has to hide or reject his love for Alexios because of the social stigma, he is a joke to the empire, and even the Gods of his world reject him and yet he gives a good fight for the throne. He has empathy for his people, having them as a priority, understanding how lucky he is to be born with privileges (unlike his sister), and he loves his family and Alexios and he did want the best for the moon and its people. But then he was killed by Cato, someone I think he really trusted, and is betrayed by his lover, dying alone and being remembered a mere joke of an emperor in the annuls of time.
Or I would say that if the story didn’t spend most of the time showing how he is emotionally unstable, a big manchild like his brother, and taking away of his merits and giving them to Cato at the last minute. He didn’t even rule, he just warmed up the chair for Amicus. And, as if that wasn’t enough, he didn’t die and Alexios did love him.
This was the biggest let down of the entire game for me. This was such a great character, a well-written morally grey villain to defeat, which was hard because he is straight up a better ruler than Amicus. He thinks things through, he planned, he manipulated, and he took advantage of the culture of the Adastra. The story needed two ass pulls to defeat him: Alexios starting the rumor about him dismantling the triumvirates (which would have made much more sense if Virginia did that) and then the Parents rejecting him. And the story, in yet another example of how it didn’t have the balls to tell this story, made him survive the poison and even get his own political role, which again, undermines his whole conflict with Amicus. The whole competition could have been solved with Cassius asking for a position to take care of social health. The entire part with the trials was waste of time and energy.
And I think this leads perfectly into my biggest issue with this game:
The Shocking Lack of Balls:
This game pulls so many punches, and decides to do nothing interesting with the plot at all.
We have a whole new universe to explore and a whole new mythology, but instead we are trapped in a palace with the most unrepresentative population of the moon. We learn little to nothing of how the technology works or how the Parents work beyond surface level. We learn little to nothing of Adastra’s culture (even though they say wolves are very emotional and like to make a show they really have flat dialogue most of the time and that's not even mentioning how most of the debate is skipped), we never learn anything about the politics at a deep level, and instead everything is reduced to “I’m betraying you” and “I’m a spy”. It’s so boring, and that’s just the worldbuilding.
The characters get an even shorter end of the stick, no one suffers consequences, in fact, Amicus is recompensed for his bad behavior, no one that we care about dies, and most of the character exploration is done through exposition instead of looking at it. And man, this could have been one of the greatest stories in the VN field if only the writing dared to put a finger on the characters for more than just shock value.
No, I don’t this game handles any heavy topic right. Marco dies, but no consequences comes from this. Amicus mixes alcohol and pills, no consequences. Amicus makes stupid decisions and he is granted the love of his life. Alexios betrays everyone but gets to keep his boyfriend and not suffer at all. And the only one that dies is the flat 1 dimensional evil villain. This is not a VN for adults, this a Disney Channel show with sex, but Disney shows at least have good comedy, fuck, Disney shows kill characters that the people love.
Conclusion:
A total letdown. I liked little to nothing of this game and I would never regard this as a top FVN in any way, it’s so completely average. And I would really like to know why people put this game in such a high regard since I don’t see it. The art is good, but doesn’t fit, the writing is decent but wastes a lot of potential, the music is ok but not that good either. And, yes, I have to admit I was expecting too much from this, I had the quality bar set too high for a project like Adastra to meet, and that’s my fault, not because it can’t but because it didn’t want to.