Subarashiki Hibi ~Wonderful Everyday~ – Review
This summer, something unbelievably amazing has happened! Christmas arrived early and our lords and saviours from Frontwing blessed us all with the most amazing gift possible: An English translation of Subarashiki Hibi! I honestly couldn’t believe it at first. After all these years of waiting where every single fan translation has either been dropped or stalled eventually, as if that game was doomed to never see the light of the day on the western market, an unbelievable miracle happened and the world suddenly has become a much better place!
So, since you are reading this review here right now instead of already playing it, you’re probably still on the fence if Subahibi is truly fitting for your tastes. Well, personally I think that all doubt is misplaced here and you should just go ahead without hesitation and just read it, but if you are still curious as for why Subahibi is as famously highly acclaimed as it is, then simply continue reading this review here and I hope you will soon discover that very reason!
Subarashiki Hibi (generally abbreviated as “Subahibi”) is told throughout several chapters of varying lengths, structure, and different point of views. For the most part, they all cover the events that unfold in Tokyo during July 2012.
The first chapter, “Down the Rabit-Hole”, follows the point of view of the energetic and frivolous high school girl named Minakami Yuki,- a person of sarcastic nature that lives her everyday life without any doubt and hesitation. She is famous in school for doing whatever the hell she wants and spends most of her time in school skipping classes by spending her time reading literature on the rooftop. Yuki’s life is rather peaceful, until one day, she has a fateful encounter with a mysterious girl called Takashima Zakuro, a girl in another class in Yuki’s school that seems to have met Yuki before since she apparently knows Yuki very well, but Yuki herself is not able to remember if they ever even spoke before. The very next day, the news spread that Zakuro killed herself, and Yuki’s life is suddenly shattered into pieces.
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Steins;Gate 0 – Review
WARNING!: This review contains spoilers for the original Steins;Gate game. Please be cautious to continue reading if you haven’t experienced Steins;Gate yet.
“It can be said that this is a final ultimatum from the god to the people who can still fight.“
Steins;Gate 0 takes place near the end of the original Steins;Gate, set in the beta world line. It showcases an alternative ending where the self proclaimed mad scientist, Okabe Rintaro, was unable to prevent Makisu Kurisu’s death after inadvertently killing her himself. Having failed his mission, Okabe decides to not tangle with the callous strings of fate any longer and thus refuses to travel into the past once again for any further attempts to save Kurisu and to prevent World War 3 from occurring. After having to experience the desperate deaths of his friends in the alpha world line repeatedly over and over again, crumbled Okabe Rintarou’s spirit by the regret and misery of being incapable of saving everyone. Consequently, he blames himself and falls into a deep state of depression. Okabe decides to abandon his eccentric mad scientist alter ego “Houin Kyouma” and persuits the life of a normal university student, all in order to forget his past,-and his love.
Several months later, his life is about to change once again when he comes across the neuroscientist Hiyajo Maho, one of Kurisu’s former co-workers and friend from her university in America. After she hears that Okabe was allegedly friends with Kurisu in the past, she and her professor tell him about an artificial intelligence program they have created called “Amadeus”, which is based on the original’s Kurisu’s memories, shortly before her trip to Japan. They invite him to be one of their testers for this program and Okabe reluctantly accepts. While he interacts with this Amadeus Kurisu, he can once again feel the world lines changing, uncertain of the cause…
Narcissu – Review
Windows that only open 15cm, walls painted in white , sterile cleanness and an air of hopelessness. This describes 7F, the monotonous place where Narcissu’s story begins. Shortly after receiving his driver license, the 20 year old anonymous protagonist has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and thus has been hospitalized. In a terrible roundabout way, he has been told by the doctors that he will die in the near future and that he will have to live in the hospital from now on, in 7F to be precise. There he meets Setsumi, a girl only a few years older than him, who has been doomed with the same fate as himself. She asks him desolately, if he already decided where he will end his life
One day, the protagonist’s father came to visit. While talking to a doctor about something, he left his car keys in the protagonist’s hospital room. Rejecting the idea of dying either in this hospital or at home, the protagonist grabs the keys and decides to run away together with Setsumi from this place, and their lives. And so, their final journey to the end begins.
“Oh, which one you have decided on? Where you’re going to die.”
The House in Fata Morgana – Review
The House in Fata Morgana begins with the protagonist waking up in front of a fireplace in a remote old mansion. Before him stands a Maid who, with great affection, calls him „Master“. The protagonist has no memories of his past, no concept of self – or, actually, not even any certainty of being alive. His body has no shape and resembles solely a mere shadow. At the Maid’s insistence, they travel through the mansion’s dark halls, bearing witness to the numerous tragedies that once took place here. Lurking in the history of this mansion, there may be hidden traces of his former self, waiting to be remembered yet again. Each chapter they travel through another door, each containing the despair and tragedy that unfolded here in this place in the past.
The first door brings them to the year 1603, a period of time where roses all across the world bloom abundantly in the mansion’s garden. Inside the mansion live the two Rhodes siblings, Mell and Nellie, who, being born into a noble family, both have been blessed with a life full of luxury and happiness. From the outside, it would seem like that they have a bright future ahead of them, but fate had other plans.
The second door contains the events that unfolded in 1707. It was a state of perpetual decline – the grandeur of the mansion was lost to the ages and not a soul resided within these halls. One day, a ferocious beast appeared in the cellar of the mansion, all ravenous and alone. He tells the maid that he only wishes to attain peace, but before long, his innate savagery takes control over him, and one massacre after the other ensues. What is the beast’s true nature?
“WANT LIVE, PEACE”- The Beast’s Desires
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