Bay 12 Games Forum

Fuck yeah eat my turn 2 double yakuman Issei!!!

Anyway first thing first.  Alternative is a time loop.  The game starts where Unlimited started...however, Takeru remembers all of Unlimited still and how Alternative V got through and how humanity was wiped off of Earth by the BETA.  What happened in the last two years of Unlimited's timeline is a bit foggy for him however.

Nevertheless, the already technically impressive engine shines more...except for going into fullscreen.  Oh well it's not a big deal.  The font can be hard to read now but that's not a big deal either.  It's now widescreen and character's mouths flap and they blink their eyes it's very nice.  Sure that was true in Chaos;Head and Remember11 too but it feels so neat to have it now after Extra and Unlimited's stiffness (though still very dynamic).

And no, Takeru isn't fully voiced in Alternative.  ;_;  At least the main menu actually looks and sounds good.

Anyway onto the game:


TIME LOOP


It's cool how they give these guys more sprites even though they're so insignificant.  I could never forget them though.

Oh as a trivial note this is the first Muv-Luv game I'm playing without a walkthrough, so if something odd happens that's why.


They try to explain a lot of how Shirogane can move around worlds so easily, and I have to say it's because HE'S A SLIDER.

PS I always wanted a Slider MC, he's even voiced by Sōichirō Hoshi...sometimes.


Idealistic protagonists?!


Introducing the first big new character...Mikoto's Dad.  Ministry of Information's Spy and what not.  Pretty much a quintuple agent.  I like him, his scenes are always intriguing.


Schrodinger's Cat.


...Yes Alternative still does slice of life romance harem bullshit.  I don't know why.  I really don't know why.  Age you obviously have talent as writers stop killing your character's personalities...


They obviously seem to adore Kasumi too.  She's okay.  Although she feels basically just like Len from Nasuverse.


Episode 1 to 4 were pretty much Unlimited HD.  It was cool to see Takeru swerving around fate to change the future but at the same time you will not believe how many times they ripped lines straight from Unlimited.  I have a memory so I can prove it.  I'm sure other people do too.  It's slightly bothersome.

Episode 5 started doing some Back to the Future Slider shit.


...Wait...why is there another Takeru in the Extra universe?  Uh oooooh

I absolutely love that this scene is actually in Extra and the shoe really does mysteriously shoot back at Takeru back then.  It's so perfect Age you geniuses.

(and yes that's Leafsnail messaging me, must be his Slider senses tingling)


I thought these were cute.


Episode 5 had a lot of Kasumi shenanigans because she was a vital part of Takeru's slider powers.  He even manages to stay in Extra for three hours...we were suppose to go back in three days but Episode 6 happened.


Anyway I guess it's time for that--

Episode 6 starts with some Ayamine bullshit that I felt was handled really poorly.  I was getting slightly annoyed when....BWWWOOOOOO

BWWWOOOOOO

BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO



Oh shit we're actually starting to change this world!!  Thanks to not going to the Volcano Rescue Arc ourselves and a few other things we managed to get Captain Sagiri to rebel and attack the capital!!

Chizuru's Father is even killed and the Shogun becomes in danger.  I felt how Chizuru and Meiya reacted to be handled okay.


Tension and political shit starts to build up and we get showcased even more of Alternative's new BGMs.  Which are really good, shocker.

I took this to show off Tsukumiyo's Eishi suit.


Takeru shares his grievances with this quite frequently, also cool maps.


...And we're in our first real mission...ever.

It took me over 10 days to get to this point.  That means playing all of Extra, all of Unlimited, and now getting here in Alternative.  And well...it's pretty good!!

From here on out the tension and drama somehow manages to remain well thought-out.  It's also very complex and huge and everything.

Age did a good job again technically.  The mecha shake so much though I start to feel nauseated.


This is probably my favorite Yoroi sprite.


My commentary is probably going to die down at this point.


Most of the American Eishi speak in absolutely wonderfully terrible English.  The very first scene in Alternative was the same...and from my guess since the date said 1999 it was when the American Army cleared the Yokohama area two years before now...and that brain they saw is now the room Kasumi lives in.

Oh speaking of which Episode 5 explained Alternative I, II, and III in depth.  Kasumi was part of III and has ESP, no surprise there.


Did I say my commentary would die down?  I'm a liar.

Major Walken was very cool.  He looks like a competent asshole but he was handled very well I felt.  Takeru's reactions to how he acted felt real and human.  I liked Walken too.  :[


Just more showing off.  It looks great.


GOD DAMMIT MIKOTO DON'T SAY THAT


We get a nice break after all that adrenaline filled action and get to see that the writers are even courageous enough to give the American Eishi helping us sympathetic scenes.  Even with all the political shit underneath...The Insatiable Underworld indeed.


Around this point Takeru starts to refer to himself as someone from "all three Japans" since he is from Extra's Japan, Unlimited's Japan, and now Alternative's Japan.  It's quite neat.  If he could control his power he could really be a God...


...But he can't.  So much remorse and regret.


And we reach the climax.


...


Episode 6 actually ends with a cinematic that was quite neat...and sad.  It was a video so I didn't really have time to be picky with what images I took.

And now we're back to present for me.

Episode 7 is titled The Unforgiven Ones, sounds great.  Holy shit actually feeling anticipation for Muv-Luv?!

The Coup d'état arc is definitely my favorite arc so far.  It's the first major major difference between Alternative and Unlimited (besides the slider shenanigans in episode 5).

Everything about it was great.  The most well executed and actually dramatic scenes in Muv-Luv so far, by far.  And beyond the beginning (in other words after Captain Sagiri's televised speech) it manages to keep the atmosphere and mood.  The setting was finally used as it was suppose to be.  And Takeru gets into his first real battle...and it doesn't go too hot.  I really like how pissed he gets and how he wants them to FIGHT THE BETA instead of infighting but it also manages to keep all the character sympathetic.

Major Walken was a likable character.  Captain Sagiri was a likable character.  I really hope the explanation for Lt. Irma disobeying Walken's orders is explained though... :[

...Oh...and this is embarrassing to say but I cried when "Takeru" bumped into Sumika while he was in Extra...that music box version of the original game's main theme hurts my soul.  ;_;

I'm just going to post images until my thoughts are arranged.


Many events in Extra are connected again.  It really shows why playing the original Muv-Luv is so necessary beyond simple "backstory" since you get to remember the events along with Takeru.



Takeru and everybody manages to get commissioned as Second Lieutenants too.  They get much better looking black and purple Eishi suits that aren't too too terrible.

Also the Base CO (General Rabihodhands? it's hard to remember) definitely has the same VA as Houzuki from Sharin no Kuni.  It's a pretty good voice but it just makes the Base CO sound like a total villain.



Daaw bashful Mikoto is best Mikoto.


:O

Uh oh this is when a bunch of veterans beat up the newbie right...


Nope they're actually cool people.  I was pretty glad when Age averted that disgusting scenario.  They still don't get names but at least they care.


Anyway this has been much too peaceful don't you think so?

It's only been about five days since the Coup d'état why not have the BETA attack us during afternoon training?!!?


Takeru has never actually seen the BETA yet...neither have the players.


Hypnotic suggestion on soldiers?  Perfectly ethical, let's pump them full of stimulants too that won't cause any problems with fragile young minds--


And make them forget that their mecha are still only armed with training paintball rounds.

I really enjoyed this scene.  Not only is it the first BETA appearance but Takeru really does lose his shit.  You can't put full blame on the hypnosis and drugs...he really hates the BETA I'll get into this more later...


This scene also makes me want to dub Alternative a silly name.  Evangelion the VN would work quite well I think.  Alien invasions?  Apocalyptic setting?  Time shenanigans?  To be fair only the core cast of mecha pilots are truly young but they are the core cast.


FILL THEM FULL OF PAINT SHIROGAAANEEEEE

This is when I wish he was fully voiced.  :[


This scene was autoread so I couldn't get the full text, damn cinematic...


Well that sucked...and was awesome too.

Takeru was happy.  He managed to graduate all of his squadmates much earlier this timeline.  He was doing everything possible that he could think of.  Sure the events in Episode 6 weren't planned but that wasn't the BETA, his true enemy.  His entire goal has been to eliminate the BETA from this world and save humanity, but that wasn't what happened when the BETA finally showed up.

(their appearance is still a mystery to me, but I'm sure it's part of some conspiracy with Yokohama base)

He lost his shit.  It was pretty amazing to see the usually composed and levelheaded Takeru (just the fact I can say that shows the amount of character development since Extra and Unlimited) in absolute hysteria.  After wasting all his paintball rounds he loses monitor visual and the BETA he was dueling where bashing the shit out of him.  It was amazing to see him weeping in a emotional frenzy of fear and rage.  Even if he was being suggested and drugged this was not how he predicted he would be acting.

Although as Marimo points out later the fact he faced off against a few BETA with dummy weapons is badass enough.  Also some UN Captain saves him obviously.  It was really done well.


Hehehe.

This was a good scene.  I started tearing up here.


:\

Marimo's speech here was really good too.  Takeru was depressed but with Marimo's help he was definitely going to regroup and--


I'm not sharing the clean version.

...there was still a few BETA left.  The report was false.

The sound that played was sickening.  Reminds me of the end of Chapter 4 in Chaos;Head...but let's not go there.

Also again, Takeru having full voice acting would have been amazing.



Think Shirogane Takeru has hit rock bottom at this point?  Hardly.


We also get the very very late introduction of the Captain who saved us...their text changed colors so they're probably important.  But because their appearance is vastly overshadowed by everything before it they feel...ignored?


Also I thought it was neat the Orderly got a sprite...but it hardly matters after what just happened, again.


GET THE HELL OUT


Suddenly getting Tsukihime vibes from this.  TAKERU CALM DOWN DON'T MAKE THIS ANY WORSE THAN IT HAS TO BEEEE


I was imagining him sounding so so desperate and scared and lonely and hurt during these scenes.

He also starts getting a half-crazy laughing tic, we'll get more of that later...

...And well.  Takeru runs away.  Which I felt was done really well.  After the failure of the BETA attacking and Marimo-chan's very shocking death Takeru put himself into such an emotional rut that he just can't take saving this world anymore and...leaves.

I liked Kasumi's "...weakling" as Yuuko warps him back.  Weakling indeed...

You wouldn't think it'd be that easy though right?


YES.  Shirogane has definitely become ridiculously different.  The fact he's back in Extra makes it even more painfully obvious.  He's become much more quiet, focused, and determined...although after the events earlier it's more depressed and solemn.

I just can't even imagine him being the type to whack Sumika over the head for mocking him anymore.  It's unthinkable and would feel OOC even.


Also yep, this is the scene where I wrote "I'm bawling so hard right now ;_; ;_; ;_;" in.  I bawled so hard.

See...Marimo is alive in this world still.  And I don't know...combining the fact I'm suddenly deeply invested in this series and the music box version theme started playing it was tough to play...Marimo...Marimo...UWAAAAAH SHE HAD NO FACE



...And then the final destination shit starts.  And they had to fucking have the corpses match in both worlds.  Fuck.


Just to show how ridiculous in quality Extra and Alternative are.  I said Yuuko was the absolutely worst character in Extra.  During Unlimited she got better but now in Alternative I wouldn't even say 'mediocre'.  It's like...Age...you guys...you could have done this from the start.  This is going to make recommendations tough when there's such a harsh prerequisite.

To be fair Extra is the only really tough one to chew.  Unlimited was decent in its own rights...it was also shorter than Extra.

Speaking of length.  Alternative suppose to be longer than Extra and Unlimited combined, that seems to be the case so far.  Extra took 5 days, Unlimited took 2, and this is my...5th day of Alternative?  Either way it's definitely out placing Extra already.  And I'm sure it can last two more days.

That's nice...rewards need pass the difficulty reaching them.


From then on it starts becoming more and more obvious that Takeru is a very strange existence that would make any VN proud.  He's a full fledged slider.  Not only time travel but world traveling is possible too.

...In fact.

After Marimo died and Takeru started running all over the base trying to go back to his home world...his vision was warping I seem to recall.  And it wasn't just tears or anything.  I think he held such a strong conviction to 'go home' that it could have happened if Yuuko didn't use the device for him...anyway...

Yuuko starts calling him a Causality Conductor which sounds pretty cool.  CCs man.


Still, for the second half of Episode 7 it's mostly Takeru angst-ing the shit out in the messed up Extra branch world.  It was still really well done I think and a very strange pace than what I was expecting.  All the tears.  ;_;


Fuuuuuck

I see a yellow ribbon.

YOU MUSTN'T LOOK, STAY AWWWAAAAAY



;_;

Those diary entries in Extra managed to come back and bite Takeru hard.  They're also really neat to see as a legitimate reason for why Sumika was able to remember him...since his coming back to this world was fucking things up as a Causality Conductor.




Hohohohohoho this sounds so familiar to another VN I really love...good work Age.


Episode 7 ends with Takeru getting even more resolve and Yuuko managing to send him back to Alternative while yet another cinematic song played.  Awesome.

Episode 8 is called "After The Tears Fall" and it's really the perfect title.  ...And that's where I am presently.

I don't know.  I just really felt this whole Episode was done really well.  And while I did expect a BETA attack eventually the events afterwards truly left me stunned and amazed.  I applaud you.

For a future rating I can't see anything below an 8/10.  It's just...so good.