Tester's Corner: Kara no Shoujo Ed. Vol 2

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 sceneΒ  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 theΒ  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.

P.S.: Yukari is arguably the best 'younger sister' character ever.

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8 Comments

  1. A little over 3 weeks of waiting for this game. Boy am I going to enjoy this when it comes out since we’re finally getting a new mystery eroge in english after so many years

  2. Okay, now THIS has me more interested than the last one.

  3. I’m looking forward to the release of Kara no Shoujo. Good to hear it’s not OTT on Guro or the main focus. I recently watched the OVAs which finished with little resolve. Now I can play the game and find an actual ending.

  4. Also on the subject of the game’s music, the theme song Ruri no Tori (Azure Bird), which you can listen to in Kouryuu’s original announcement about KnS, is sung by Shimotsuki Haruka, who fans of the Ar Tonelico series will recognize as the singing voice of Aurica and Luca. She also did the ending songs for Rozen Maiden and is just plain awesome. I’ve been severely hooked on the song every since I first heard it. As RS said, the entire soundtrack is fantastic. I’ll have to go hunting for it on my next trip to Japan.

    • agreed πŸ™‚

      manyo really makes a good ost for this XD

      also, you need to hear Caucasus soundtrack or traumerai if you just wanted to hear all of shimotsuki haruka’s in innoncent grey πŸ˜€

      ruri no tori will makes you shed a tears evenmore when you already ended the game, trust me πŸ˜€

      • Indeed. Manly tears were shed at the end. I went the whole game wondering, “When’s the damn theme song gonna play?” And when it did…my body was not ready.

        • lol, too bad you need to reach true end to hear it again with that epic scene πŸ™‚

          ah btw, have you heard the epilogue in ruri no yume? It’s epicly awesome πŸ™‚

  5. im still iffy, i shall wait and see

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