【about VN with voice】
This VN is the first audio VN I have experienced, and I think it is a highlight. But in the subsequent experience, I found that it also has an obvious drawback, which is that for long conversations, I often finish reading but the other person hasn't finished speaking. As a result, I watched many conversations without waiting for the other person to finish speaking. But this seems a bit disrespectful to the character.
I think in order to reduce costs and improve the reader experience, it is better to only record the first few key sentences in the conversation and highlight exclamation , rather than recording all sentences. Otherwise, the quickly reading advantage of VN will be compromised.
【about Dialogue and Interaction】
The dialogue style between the MC(Delta) and other characters is not the same: others' sentences are with quotes, while MC's often in a third perspective like "I told the other person what I said", rather than directly using quotes to indicate what the MC said. Using this style of dialogue makes me detached to the MC, and I feel confused because it's hard to distinguish between my inner thoughts and the thoughts I have expressed. Also, the interaction between characters is often dominated by dialogue, lacking an appropriate portion of description of actions and events.
【About Character Shaping】--Spoiler--
Apart from the main six roles, the counselor and Argus leader, there are no other people's image displays. It seems that the life circle of the MC is so concentrated, and other roles have no image.
Among them, I am most satisfied with the counselor, and conversations with him always make me feel relaxed. But with others, I always feel that their lives seems to have nothing to do with me, except when they interact with me intimately.
Breaking down the plot into fragments of 'pivotal', 'heart to heart', and 'supplementary' seems odd to me. A good narrative should integrate the shaping of characters into whole events and discussions, and the fragmental dialogues all feel too short to have substantive results.
Also, many fragments are just showing how characters bicker with each other, and sometimes even accelerating to certain themes to help readers summarize. I think this weakens readers' freedom of interpretation.
【about Music and Illustrations】
Many scenes are obviously with serious discussions or urgent plots, but the use of inappropriate music, such as overly relaxed music right before the Day, hardly gives me the sense of urgency or the upcoming danger.
Though, the credits ending song "Flashback", created by Klace, is great and can make players feel like they have experienced a lot.
--Spoiler--
The entire game is a reflection of a "revolution" for future people. So, it seems that from this perspective, no matter how difficult and dangerous the past may have been, it will eventually become agreeble? But this makes me feel not right in those moments.
Many pivotal scenes lack CG, and as a high priced VN, I am disappointed with this: the background stories of the main characters do not have any CGs, and there is no CG before and after the success of the revolution. There are also no corresponding illustrations when describing and introducing the history of Argus, leaving all this to reader's imagination.
--Spoiler--
For example, to understand how Issac, as a revolutionary, has put in a lot of effort, but there has been none illustration showing how he specifically grew into a rebel. All his story simply relys on a few dialogues of his description. Perhaps this is due to the setting of the VN, as all of these are memories of MC, so there won't be any other background stories interspersed? And considering that the stories narrated by others may contain subjective concealment elements, the author hopes that we can remain vigilant?
Regardless of the author's considerations, the lack of key plot CG and illustrations of other timeline's background weakens the VN's sense of moment and empathy with the characters.
【about the storyline】-- Spoiler--
When faced with danger, I cannot understand why the main characters can still relax and have fun, parties, and drinks. Since they were a team, they could have done some division of labor of their mission, like information gathering. But in the end, Issac was able to easily topple Argus down alone, and the whole job was almost entirely operated by Issac, which seems way TOO EASY. I think others (including MC) were very passive in the final plot, and their roles were shown almost only after Issac was injured.
I do not reject stories of individual heroism, but I think the author didn't tell it well. The part of conflicts between Issac and Argus is too short, and I thought Argus would fight back more but there's almost none before the Day. It is obvious that Issac did not gather a group of "accomplice" with firm revolutionary beliefs. He had a wishful thinking - he wanted to maintain friendship outside the revolutionary circle and also wanted the revolution to succeed. His sudden idea of 'letting his friends in his rebel plan' may actually make him fail both wishes.
The final plot, discussing how to handle the stolen Argus confidential data, did not explain why there were no pursuers. And the key logical issue is that : Since they have already bluffed to Argus' people that 'they have already transmitted the data to Cipher's headquarters', which makes Argus have enough reason to pursue Isaac and others , why destroying the only hard drive? Wouldn't they lose the only bargaining chip should things go south?
Being afraid of data leak out of fear of possible future vision punishment is a lack of confidence in their sense of justice for their actions.
As Klace said, revealing secrets in Argus's data may even solve the Komorebi mystery! Moreover, these people have already exposed their identities and the hacking process has been live streamed. It's better to go all out to the end!
Perhaps this is the price that Issac needs to pay. Since he cares more about the sense of belonging of his friends around him THAN about the complete success of the revolution.
【 About Background Setting】-- Spoiler --
I have to admit, one big attraction of this work to me is that it doesn't require me to comply with monogamy.
The setting that most people have visions of their possible futures, but the MC doesn't have one.
But later on, it was mentioned that in order to control people's panic, The System that monitors and manages people's lives and the large group Argus that controls it emerged. I feel that this causality is weak! If there could be more explanation, the credibility may be higher.
Another theme worth reading is "equality": those who are not in cities managed by the Argus are called "Zeros", and they cannot enjoy the status treatment of residents in the city. The description of the change of the MCs' attitude towards them is good, which deserves credits.