The second otoge to be released in a short span of a few days after Code:Realize back in Nov. Impressive production values but shaky storytelling brings down the overall experience.

Platform: Vita

Release Date: 11/3/2015 (NA)

Playtime: 30+ hrs

Official Site:Aksys Games

Guide:Required

Main story: We’re introduced to one to the world of Norn9 via a young boy named Sorata as he finds himself on a strange spaceship with seemingly HS students. Later on we find out everyone had been summoned there on the request of The World as peacekeepers on a mission.

However instead of following one heroine we meet 3 different main characters with separate teams. Since there’s too many character routes to go over in the summary I’ll just stick with the main characters.

The game has a recommended order of playthrough and suggests starting with Koharu since she is the closest to a newcomer to the group.

Although, even when I started with a different person I didn’t find that it was a huge detrimental issue anyways.

The second youngest female member at 17 years old in the group with a happy-go-lucky personality. She grew up on her own and as a result is naive and overly trusting.

The oldest female member in the group at 18 years old with a slightly abrasive personality. Very opinionated and stubborn regarding her choices in the game. She lived a sheltered life as a noble but strives to be stronger to protect her friends.

Finally the youngest female member of the group at 16 years old with a calm and mature outlook. Formerly a ninja and has a stark view of life as result due to her past experiences. She is ambivalent towards her ability and skills.

I have mixed feelings with regards to the game’s setting and overarching plot line, a combination of science-fiction, high school, and war. Although I’ve read how the FD clarifies a lot of the plot holes I’m not certain if it’ll be localized overseas too.

The main problem I had were none of the themes were explored sufficiently in each of the route leaving me with an incomplete sense of the plot. I feel that if the main story had been written tighter I’d be able to relate to them better. For example, we find out about ongoing wars but we never find out the exact cause of it beyond technological advances which increased tension between countries.

Although, I don’t mind a character driven storyline but most of the time the romance felt somewhat arbitrary and progressed quickly in a few scenes. (I admit partly because HS students feel very young to me vs some love interests who ranged from 18 to 25 years old ¯_(ツ)_/¯). Keep in mind how the entire trip spans about 1-2 months on the spaceship too.

Teita’s character art and design is clean and efficient. Although not a huge fan of HS uniforms I admit they were very stylish and fit in the futuristic setting. Also, there’s a staggering amount of event CGs approx 100+ for each scene.

Originally released on PSP it’s been revamped and updated for the PSV back in 2014. Everything is streamlined and the environments from the gardens to the town have a nice watercolor-like painted appearance. There’s no real use for the touchscreen as there’s no minigames other than a few novelty options on the main menu.

The OST is pleasant, if not somewhat unmemorable, between calm quiet moments to action segments. I’d call it light and airy instrumental pieces.

Translation quality is on the lower end of the spectrum as they outsourced it to a third-party company so expect some odd word choices during climactic moments.

Despite some of the noticeable shortcomings I’d place this as a good example of otoge on the PSV after Code:Realize.