Asaga Oakrun v2

https://mega.nz/#!wpBy3Ayb!joKPlV-z5CGIDvGAAHAslNnsklIMQn8nBvCZfBGPq-w

tl;dr: Hair changed. Sunrider still sucks. Details down below. 

Asaga has been improved by giving her actual pigtails instead of that weird hodge podge. Other slight adjustments have been made but a polished turd is still that, a turd. 

No seriously, under normal circumstances this would've been a note in the patch notes but not only was her hair awful, but people were still downloading the old one. So I'm giving this some limelight so that folks could get a decent card. I've considered trying to fit her more in line with the art style where she came from, but other than adjusting the eyes n' face a little, I didn't stick too closely with the source material. Usually I'm a stickler for that, but fuck, those CGs man. Especially Asaga's ending CG is just woof.  

And this isn't my bias speaking, I know, hard to believe but bear with me here, those faces look super off. What's supposed to be a joyous occasion (Asaga marries Kayto/the MC.) is ruined by how lifeless the two look. If you ever seen a dead fish, yeah, exactly that. Not even exaggerating. 

To be fair, for the most part, the art is...fine. The art style looks lifted right out of those "How to Draw Anime" books but otherwise passable. As per tradition, you don't see Kayto's face very often but when you do, it's quite distracting to say the least. The quality of faces is bizarrely inconsistent with Kayto and occasionally Asaga. The rest of the girls are okay at worst and I ain't saying that because I can't see past my huge hate boner for this gal. It's not like they don't have their own fair share of issues, it's just not as bad as her's. 

Like, I'd say Ava's the best based solely on the fact she's got the largest breasts, (Hey now, I'm only being as shallow as the game's plot.) but then there this plot point where she gets beaten by her dad. And not in the sense that she got blown up in Guilty Gear, but straight up clubbed with a blackjack. Depending on your view on corporal punishment, this is either extreme but necessary, or just plain child abuse. Her pop's then takes it a step further by tying her up like a turkey and puts a rag over her mouth as well. Now, you'd think this is the writer trying to (SUBTLY) telegraph to the reader that even if you think sparing the rod spoils the child, that this is a step too far. The MC is appalled by this and his reaction probably mirrors the audience's as well. Ava says that it's okay and Kayto's like "Nuh uh" and then...it's
never brought up again? 

You'd think this'd be integral to her character arc, but, no the story goes "Anyways, how's their sex life?" Then her ending has her become a successful politician, like how her strict father wanted her to be and everyone lived happily ever after.  

Moral of the story: Child abuse gets RESULTS! Hell yeah! 

The angle the writer seems to be going for is that you gotta be cruel to be kind as it'll do more good in the long run. However, considering how that lesson is conveyed, it reads more like you can harm someone as much as you'd like as long as it gets results. Admittedly, that is a philosophy quite a number of folks in the East subscribe to, but even then they'd probably raise an eyebrow over tying up their children to beat 'em like a pinata. You don't even really see her dad or her mentioning how proud he is of her. My memory's a bit foggy, but I think even in her ending her dad is at best apathetic to her success.  So, you only have her words to go on that he beats her because he cares. Which if you know anything about abuse and how it works, probably not as cut n' dry as she's making it. 

So yeah, Ava's an okay character I guess, doesn't piss me off, but her story either bungled it's message, or it's highly questionable. 

Chigara is one half of a Rei clone, (Blue hair, artificially created, is quiet, demure, loyal to parents, has a tiny Rei-quairum of her own.) the other one is Sola. (Red eyes, cold, emotionless, mysterious almost alien like nature.) In Chigara's route, her twin sister cucks you. Dictionary definition here. Worse is that Chigara was in on it as well, though it's less "Oh man I've always wanted to sit in a closet with a Superman cape around my neck watching my BF fuck a girl." but more that her sister is essentially Liquid Snake except not British or as hammy. Considering how much she keeps whining about how inferior she is, what with all her recessive genes n' shit, I suppose in an effort to get some goddamn peace and quiet, agrees to swap identities. The only way you can tell them apart is by a single hair ribbon and the fact that Liquid Chigara's garbage at everything. 

Kayto eventually drop kicks some sense into Liquid and also off of Metal Gear REX, it doesn't change the fact that Chigara's a total doormat. I think(?) she gets a bit more assertive, but I do recall the only reason why Liquid agrees to fuck off the edge of his dick is reminding of her inferior genes and how she'll never beat her superior clone. Not because Chigara tells her to get away from her man. So uh, what's exactly stopping Liquid from taking over again? It's not like Chigara will stop her from doing so and while in her ending, apparently that doesn't happen, how do you know they didn't just switch again? It's no SNATCHER, but it did lead me to view everything afterwards with much suspicion.  

Admittedly, the idea of a character having an inherently superior version of them is an interesting one. That being said, Liquid doesn't really grow as a person, like she's still butthurt over her inferior genes even decades later. She doesn't say something like how  maybe instead of trying to overcome her sister's shadow by  beating her at her own game, she should instead focus on her own strengths and carve her own identity that way. All she does is just get real pissy and say that she didn't even like the MC anyways so whatever. Chigara also doesn't change much either so this whole plot seems to exist only to have a surprise twist. And then do nothing with said twist. At least it didn't try to ask questions or have themes, unlike in Detroit (Spoilers) where the question is raised "Can an android learn to care for a human?" but after the twist, the question changes in favor of "Can an android learn to care for an android?" Hmm, I don't know guys, what do you think? 

I'd say Chigara's route is wasted potential, but then again, it didn't even really have any to begin with so there was nothing to waste. Sola's route, on the other hand, definitely is such a case. 

Sola (Or whatever the hell her name is.) is the best character in the game because she's the only serious person in the game. You'd think with the massive Redwood up her ass, Ava would be the most serious character, but in events where all the characters are together, she gets tied up in the shenanigans that ensue. Unlike Sola, who ignores all of that because the only thing she sells is merchandise. In the buildup to your choice of what route you'll go for, you basically get trailers for each girl so you know what you're getting into. Everyone's got some stupid  bullshit going on while Sola's chill n' down to earth. A refuge in the hurricane of tired anime tropes. 

Her arc starts off pretty grounded, nothing too crazy. Then there's this whole plot where I think it's like Looper? Time Cop? Whatever. Apparently she's not supposed to exist or her presence is seriously fucking with the time space continuum and so there's someone trying to hunt her down. I think she was like, Sola Prime, and the Sola you know is like a fake knock off or some sort of aberration. Anyways, there's this shot of SPACE and Sola Prime keeps shit talking to Kayto through these visions, so it seems like this is all buildup to a climatic showdown between the two. There's this even this intense battle music that plays during what might as well have been the promo for said battle and y'know shit's serious when a VN breaks out a a non royalty free track. 

Sola Prime eventually gets frustrated with Kayto's constant interventions stopping from erasing Sola once and for all and just teleports him to her space ship. Listen, I realize this is a VN so maybe I had way too high of an expectation from a Renpy made VN of all things, but this seriously seemed like the two were gonna cut all that stupid psychic crap and just fucking punch each other. Instead, Kayto just Talk no Jutsu's Sola Prime into going away just like his idol, Naruto. However, unlike Naruto, who eventually took his training seriously, Kayto didn't attend a single day of ninja academy and so his argument for not killing Sola is "Okay but don't tho." And Sola Prime just agrees for some reason and fucks off back to her home dimension. 

I realize I started this off by gushing about how mundane Sola was in comparison to everyone else,  but man this felt like this was actually going to go places. Fuck all this stupid school crap, space is where it's at! Then it just petered out and Kayto never actually got a cool hero moment. So all that hype was for nothing. At least Sola was the best solely because she wasn't a dumbass more often than not. I ain't saying stupid shit never happens with her, but she doesn't have those moments as often or as long as the rest of the cast.  They say wasted potential is better than no potential at all, 

Y'know what? That's a good summary of Sunrider Academy. A whole lot of nothing. It's like cotton candy, except that it's actually a bunch of fiber optics glued onto a cone. I'll admit there are some good ideas here n' there, okay one good IDEA, key word there. I'd say moment, but that would imply it wasn't something they'd just mumbled out while in a drunken stupor "wot if u was u but better." 

Honestly, generally speaking for most folk, this is such a nothing burger. It's mediocre through n' through, which is, come to think of it,  worse than saying that it's utterly terrible. I mean if it was totally garbage at least you can derive some enjoyment of how shit it is. Y'know what's the worst thing you can get from someone for any creative endeavor? Complete and utter apathy. Some would say art is about invoking emotions, so what does it say when you fail to invoke any at all? 

Ugh, maybe I'm biased against this considering that I had to reset 20 hours of progress because I got fucking shanked by the little sister out of nowhere. Had it not been for that, maybe I wouldn't have such contempt for this game, VN, whatever. Is it even a game? The "gameplay" is just throwing dice. Seriously. you could just check out a Choose Your Own Adventure Book, throw some dice at it, and whatever number you get, that's the page you'll go to. Immediately, you have a much better experience. 

Man, fuck this VN.