After seeing Tim’s bravery, RS has decided to offer us up a few brief words on his experience. Since I’m a very orderly fella, I’ll take care of different aspects of the game one at a time.

Gameplay

I don’t think there’s much use for this, but Kara no Shoujo is basically a mystery novel. You point and click on options when you’re reading the story itself, which breaks for Investigation parts when analyzing the crime scene in search of clues, Inference parts where you check your clues and reach conclusions regarding the mysteries, and a map which allows the player to investigate freely almost every day. Easy to play, indeed. Art

When I was offered Kara no Shoujo, the art impressed me quite a bit. It’s very detailed and nice to the eye, be it sprites, backgrounds or CGs. But it is also somehow sober, without the usual fancy, intensely colorful designs one can expect from an eroge. Yet it works. For example, the characters’ hair colors make perfect sense for a Japanese setting, as almost all of them have different shades of dark hair. Moreover, the art also manages to create a very vivid, yet strangely dream-like setting of 1950s post-war Japan.

BGM

After doing a little investigation to learn about the game, I learned that it actually won a BGM award in 2008. Obviously this is not for the sake of promotion, but I must say that the soundtrack is amazing. It fits the mood of the scenes perfectly, is able to cause different emotions, etc. You know what a good soundtrack can do so I’m not saying more. Here’s one of my favorite pieces:

Ero

If anyone is worried about how the erotic part of the game is, I’ll explain it from a general view point. Bluntly speaking, the main character of the game can get laid practically with the entirety of the female cast. To the point of, and I’m strangely embarrassed of saying so, not being sure myself if he double-plays in some routes or not. The erotic CGs are very good, and I bet the uncensored versions are bound to be even more… inspiring (the beta still had the censored ones). Kara no Shoujo has not much to offer in the ‘fetish’ department… Except for one thing or two that I hope you receive with a smile, like I did. Guro

Part of the adult content is, inevitably, the violent bits of the game. Not only is the viewer shocked by the nature of the modus operandi, showing bizarrely disfigured corpses, but the killings themselves are explained in part in the shape of intermissions. Mutilations, organ-gouging, and other beauties are in store for all of you. The beta version of the game had the original, censored CGs, so I can’t say with exactitude how much the uncensored cross-sections will gross you out if you’re sensitive. The gory scenes are descriptive, but brief, so please don’t stop from getting this because of the guro, it accomplishes its mission of being creepy and engrossing, but that’s it. It doesn’t go overboard.

There are a bunch of scenes of this nature throughout the game, but they’re not much beyond simple transitions which mostly provide data to the player in order to – in a way – help them solve the mystery.

Conclusion

Kara no Shoujo is, overall, a really enjoyable experience. I can say that without the smallest amount of doubt. Mixing the visual novel, erotic game, and mystery genres, it offers the reader a good bunch of hours of entertainment in more than one sense, being able to satisfy fans of any of those genres. Being a fan of those three myself, I can say this was one hell of a ride.

Share this: Facebook

Twitter

Like this: Like Loading... Related