My Title Can't Be This Generic

An everlasting instant. That is to say, I've finally had the chance to read 神咒神威神楽 and it was quite an entertaining journey despite being less adrenaline-inducing and refined than Dies Irae. Although to be fair, Dies Irae had a lot of time to grow into what it is today.

The art is downright gorgeous and fits the game perfectly. The style really gives Kajiri Kamui Kagura an air of uniqueness not seen in many other games. Although having played Dies Irae, it is quite strange to see familiar characters in traditional Japanese clothing sometimes. The character and costume designs are more elaborate and colourful than those in Dies Irae, but I've come to the conclusion that I'm more of a sucker for military uniforms than kimonos. It was a real shame that the Yatsukahagi wasn't the least bit menacing, but of course it was understandable given their origins and roles in the story.

I can't be the only one who thought Tokoyo was cuter than Rea

When bad guys aren't really bad guys. I had trouble taking Kei seriously thanks to Kamidori and Arterial, where her voice actress did Serawi and Narumi-senpai respectively...with exactly the same voice. I know it's pretty silly but now every time I hear Kei's voice, someone else pops up in my head. At least my mental image of Beatrice hasn't been ruined yet. Other than that though, the voice acting is very solid and I have always enjoyed Wilhelm/Keishirou's trash talk (can't say his VA did all that good as Gilbert in Baldr Sky though). Speaking of which, trash talk was all over the place back in Dies Irae, and though I enjoyed it I was glad that Masada decided to tone it down in Kajiri Kamui Kagura.

Sure brings back memories

I don't think I had ever felt so nostalgic while reading any visual novels before Kajiri Kamui Kagura. Indeed as someone who thoroughly enjoyed Dies Irae, going through this was like visiting old friends, which really added to the overall experience of the game. Well I'm sure that was the point anyway. It was certainly an interesting idea to set up a few of the antagonists from Dies Irae as protagonists, and meanwhile the good guys became the bad guys (before we found out their true motive anyway). Dies Irae really had an amazing cast of lovable heroes and crazy-yet-sympathetic villains. It's too much to go into details but Kajiri Kamui Kagura, being apparently an IF story of Dies Irae, is an ambitious tale of how (almost) every character, old and new, find their own peaceful end. Indeed perhaps a little too ambitious at times.

Sakuya is moe overload

...But I would have probably raged hard if these two didn't achieve some sort of happy end. The cursed siblings, who were finally able to live a peaceful life after going through so much. It's quite funny because the Kyougetsu siblings actually got weaker towards endgame (as a result of rejecting their curses), whereas everyone else got exponentially stronger. I liked how Keishirou struggled with his past as Wilhelm and how he was able to overcome his past and change for the better. The other protagonists were cool and fun but sadly I didn't find myself too drawn to any of them (Ryumei/Eleonore was pretty good). Habaki was perhaps a little too boisterous for me.

That would never happen Sakuya

I heard that Eleonore is Masada's waifu. So ultimately Kajiri Kamui Kagura was a lot of fun, but I would not recommend it to anyone who hadn't played Dies Irae. Seriously. It's like an extended fandisc. Throughout the game I was thinking to myself that the story would have been pretty confusing if I hadn't finished Dies Irae, not to mention the flashbacks and some dialogues would have had much less impact. A couple of the major flaws the game had compared to Dies Irae were that it lacked charismatic antagonists (the Yatsukahagi don't count) and several outcomes of the fights were not resolved very well (left me facedesking). All in all I enjoyed it and I am certainly looking forward (backward?) to Dies Irae ~Amantest amentes~.

A present from Present

Well Guilty Crown Lost Xmas was a really short but interesting read. With a main cast named after several central figures from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol just because (which turned out to be somewhat meaningful in the end), Lost Xmas takes the readers on a wild ride filled with intense albeit mindless actions. It ends up being a lot of fun because Lost Xmas is clearly all about Scrooge being Alex Mercer unapologetically awesome. It works because the story is short and very focused. The androgynous Present and seemingly insane Past play out their roles as antagonists well, especially Present who wants something more than just killing Scrooge. The interactions between Scrooge and the mischievous Carol are nothing new but entertaining enough to keep me interested. Their relationship is infinitely better and more plausible than Shu and Inori's, though that's probably not saying much. It would be a good idea to have at least some knowledge of Guilty Crown before playing this, since Lost Xmas doesn't bother with the exposition much at all. Redjuice's art has a nice feel to it (I'd let Present @#$% me), and yes I liked the soundtrack but that's a funny thing to say because it's almost made up entirely of tracks from the actual Guilty Crown anime. Good ol' Nitro+.

Time flies. It's been 10 years since EoSD came out, and Touhou has really become some kind of monster franchise since then. In the mean time I will be uploading stuff to my C82 folder, please wait warmly until it is ready.