Muv-Luv

Bear with me here. If I'm gonna claim in the title that this is an "awesome" game and then you click the link and are immediately presented with cute anime girls and hearts and more pink and purple than you can shake a unicorn at, obviously some eyebrows are gonna be raised. Unless of course you're the kind of person who thinks that sort of thing is awesome, in which case I still have to convince you, because you're probably the kind of person who thought Ma-Ti was the coolest Planeteer.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Still with me? Okay. Muv-Luv (god, what were they thinking? I know the Japanese have a poor grasp of using appropriate English words, but come on.) is a series of visual novels by developer âge. The first one, and the one I'm currently reviewing, came out in 2003 and is actually two games in one: Muv-Luv Extra and Muv-Luv Unlimited. I actually just blushed a little in shame and embarrassment typing that out twice. Anyways, there's a reason behind this double feature which I'll get to in a moment.

Now, because this review is a poorly-disguised attempt to either a) convince you to play it, or b) convince you to stop looking at me funny; I'm going to go with a large part of the "what I thought" section first, before you have a chance to escape lose interest, and then get around to filling in the review-related details.

Pushy? Who, me?

THIS IS THE PART WHERE I CONVINCE YOU OF ITS AWESOMENESS

Achievement unlocked: Portal 2 reference.

First of all: the double-feature game aspect. âge you sneaky bastards. The first game, Extra, is essentially a fluffy harem comedy with the wacky dial turned up to eleven. You clear this game by following the routes of the two competing lead girls, Sumika (red hair) and Meiya (purple hair). Funny stuff happens, cute stuff happens, you play a giant robot fighting video game; it's an entertaining brainless romp filled to the brim with anime cliches. Like doing rainbow-colored cocaine lines off of Sailor Moon's pert, underage ass. It gets a bit romance-drama-y towards the end, as it attempts to turn the traditional dense harem protagonist (Takeru) into a monogamous man. You win the girl, life is good. You live happily ever after...right?

Typical Extra screenshot. Note the copious amounts of boobs and happy people.

NOPE.

After completing the two main girls' routes, you unlock Unlimited; a game which promptly wipes the goofy grin off your face and kicks you in the face with awesomeness. It's a mild spoiler (of the "Darth Vader is Luke's father" kind of mild), but the game undergoes a massive genre shift. You wake up as Takeru a week or so before the end of Extra to find your house a wreck, the entire city in ruins, and Sumika's (your red-haired neighbour and childhood friend) house flattened by the wreckage of a giant robot. You head to school still believing this to be a dream, only to find the school is now a military HQ. What follows is a damned good military mecha yarn: Earth has been invaded by aliens known only as BETA, and we aren't winning. In an attempt to find out what's going on, Takeru manages to weasel his way into training with a squad...who happens to be made up of the entire cast of Extra. Minus Sumika, who is inexplicably missing from this world entirely.

Typical Unlimited Screenshot. Note the copious amounts of giant robots and HOLY SHIT!

Character development, giant robot fights, Full Metal Jacket-esque training and good lookin' privates ensue as Takeru, the thick-as-a-brick harem lead, is thrown into actual life-or-death situations. Let me just say that while his legendary stupidity in Extra had me grinding my teeth into a fine powdery mist, watching reality ruthlessly beat some sense into him is one of the most satisfying character developments I've ever seen. He's not the only one either. The entire cast of lovable color-coded girls are now hardened soldiers unwilling to put up with Takeru's spinelessness and unwilling to even acknowledge him as a man, let alone give him the time of day. The general consensus about this VN is that Extra is a time investment that pays off like whoa when Unlimited comes around, and that's not even getting into the sheer unleaded FUCK YEAH that is the legitimate sequel Alternative. But that's another review.

Also, they pilot giant robots. Convinced yet? Good, now I can actually talk about the game.

Sorry for drooling all over the last couple paragraphs.

THIS IS THE PART WHERE I ACTUALLY TALK ABOUT THE GAME

Achievement unlocked: Using the same joke twice!

This is that part.

If you've played a couple of visual novels before, the first thing you'll notice about Muv-Luv is that it's got some damned good production values. There's a significant amount of sprites, inventive and novel positioning, sounds, CGs, voices, and though Extra is lacking a little in the background variety department, that's just because Unlimited is picking up the slack. And the other 75% of the budget.

Pictured: Badass. I think the snake is actually still alive, that's how little Ayamine gives a fuck.

For the uninitiated, what that means is that Muv-Luv is very easy on the eyes. Character designs are a little generic, but very well done in spite of that. As an aside, it's important to note they're supposed to be generic, so that the inevitable genre shift in Unlimited is an even more effective gutpunch. It's also probably the first time in a visual novel I've seen a character face a direction other than straight at you. I guess it kinda says something about the medium that that hardly ever happens...

The characters themselves are a bit of an oddity. At first glance they seem like walking cliches held together by some unholy combination of hairspray and the spunk of countless drooling otaku. Midway through Extra, hidden depths start coming out. Midway through Unlimited, these characters have ingrained themselves so thoroughly into the player that each one of them is unique, fleshed out, and damn near irreplaceable. By Alternative...well, I'll just save that for the next review.

You have Sumika, your pink-haired childhood friend and tsundere archetype who manages to be simultaneously annoying as hell and cute as hell. Also, her pointy idiot hair changes shape depending on her mood. Her counterpart main heroine is Meiya, resident purple-haired filthy rich girl with enough power and privileges to override her sheer lack of common sense. Rounding out the cast are Chizuru (glasses & braids), the anal-retentive class rep with a knack for lacrosse (!) of all things; Ayamine, the enigmatic tall, dark-haired and handsome girl with a penchant for yakisoba bread who speaks in broken sentences and loves to troll others; and Miki, that tiny pink catlike thing that turns out to be a peaceloving, non-confrontational girl with a surprising flair for archery. There's also a decent-sized cast of supporting characters such as Yuuko, physics teacher and shit-stirrer extraordinaire; Marimo, Yuuko's teacher friend and all-around nice, loving mother-figure - if a little unlucky in the guy department; and Tsukuyomi, Meiya's head maid and surprisingly badass caretaker.

You sure there's nothing you might've done to piss her off?

This budget boom also means that characters jump around, bounce off walls, kick, punch, bitchslap and otherwise move with some degree of believability. As for the giant robot fights themselves, if it weren't for the fact I had to press enter to scroll the text I'd have thought I was watching it fully animated. The battle scenes are a joy to behold, and I still haven't seen anything equaling that level of detail, fluidity and general jaw-dropping coolness in a visual novel before. Add in some actual FMV (full-motion video) sequences and you got yourself a stew, baby! some damn good action. There's a fair sprinkling of choices throughout and most of them are fairly obvious as to where they lead; some might require a little abuse of the ol' quicksave/quickload feature, but hey, that's what it's there for.

The music's nothing special, but nothing awful either. There's quite a few catchy little jingles, especially the happy-fun-time musics. A fun little thing I noticed is that the music to both Extra and Unlimited is recycled; you'll get little snippets of the truly badass music playing in comedic situations in Extra, then when Unlimited hits it becomes a combination of "I've heard this before!" and "OH GOD YES." Also, some of the vocal tracks are quite nice; the end song of Unlimited is particularly impressive. Unfortunately for you, I won't link it because it's also a spoiler for people who can read Japanese and are familiar with Arthur C. Clarke. So maybe 2 or 3 people, period. Still. Play the game, you'll see.

There's also a cover of it by Masaki Endoh, aka that guy from JAM PROJECT.

THIS IS THE PART WHERE I DISCUSS MY THOUGHTS

This is the most important part.

To put it bluntly, Muv-Luv is a warm-up. If you know a decent amount about the visual novel scene, you've perhaps heard of Muv-Luv Alternative, aka The Greatest Visual Novel Ever Made. I stand fully behind that statement. If you don't know anything about the visual novel scene, you do now. In any case, what generally happens is that people will play the original Muv-Luv just so they can breeze through on their way to Alternative. I confess that's exactly what I intended to do.

This is pretty much what kicks off the plot in Extra. Not that that's a bad thing.

What I didn't expect was for this supposed "warm-up" to be so damned enjoyable. The fluffy harem comedy of Extra was still very entertaining, and even after the drama set in and main character Takeru's stupidity made me want to tear his spleen out in rage, it was still a lot of fun. It's not something you should miss, even if you are just trying to plow through to get to Alternative. Little things like character interactions, dialogues, a few bizarrely specific physics questions that are totally not foreshadowing and overall getting to know people is not only essential to fully enjoy Alternative, but enjoyable on its own merits.

Oh yeah, I should probably also mention it's 18+, which means there's some sex. There's an all-ages version, but poop on you if you go for it. People who are in love generally have sex and no matter how weird Japan gets with the writing, it's still nice to see the culmination of a healthy relationship. Too bad no one told âge that; the sex (in Extra) is completely wtf out of left field and pretty awkward on top of that. Unlimited is a fair bit better, but still nothing to write home about. On second thought, either 18+ or all ages is fine. Your call, you know what you like better than I do.

Put as negatively as possible, it's a decent meet & greet setup for the events of Alternative. Put more positively, it's a fun ride with cute girls, great characters (for once those two are the same thing), a decent story - that Unlimited vastly improves on -, more than its fair share of absurdly over-the-top humor, and a good bit of heart mixed in. Plus there's giant robots in Unlimited, but I think I might've mentioned those already.

Takeru, in a surprising turn of events, brings up a valid point.

To sum up: Play it. It's good fun and what parts are lacking in Extra are more than made up for in the second half, Unlimited. Then once you're done you can move on to Muv-Luv Alternative and have your mind blown clear across the room from the sheer unbridled glory of its shining perfection.

This has been your host Deskimus Prime with a special edition of his usual visual novel reviews: Awesome Games with Stupid Names. Stay tuned next week for Part 2: Electic Boogaloo Muv-Luv Alternative! I can promise you it'll be the closest thing a review can get to sloppy oral sex without actually being paid to write it!

Oh, and if you liked that review, you might also like summa deese bad boys:

...well, you already know I'm going to play this at some point, so I just have one thing to say: you make me look bad.

Curse you for shocking me out of my complacency!

*redoubles own reviewing efforts*

You have just convinced me bigtime to move this up my playing list. I just need to finish the Sharin fandisk.

And it really looks interesting.

Doesn't really sound like my sort of thing at all but I feel compelled to tell you that that was an excellent read, I look forward to more in the future.

Excellent review.

...though I'm still mostly looking forward to the Alternative one, and perhaps finding out more about how this succeed in not merely being a solid offering in its genre, but somehow the most acclaimed VN series around (assuming it can be explained). Not that you don't do a great job explaining what it's about and why it works out well - that screenshot from Unlimited sure helped quite a bit - but the notion that any upcoming transcending brilliance above even the likes of Saya or Sharin could be based on it still elude me completely.

AbyssalSanhedrin:
Doesn't really sound like my sort of thing at all but I feel compelled to tell you that that was an excellent read, I look forward to more in the future.

Thanks a lot, man! As weird as it may sound this is probably the highest form of praise I can think of; you don't really care about the subject but read it anyway. Gives me hope, at least.

Imperator_DK:
...though I'm still mostly looking forward to the Alternative one, and perhaps finding out more about how this succeed in not merely being a solid offering in its genre, but somehow the most acclaimed VN series around (assuming it can be explained). Not that you don't do a great job explaining what it's about and why it works out well - that screenshot from Unlimited sure helped quite a bit - but the notion that any upcoming transcending brilliance above even the likes of Saya or Sharin could be based on it still elude me completely.

Oh, don't you worry about a thing. If I can't convince people to play Alternative after I review it, I may as well just give up on reviewing altogether. It's far too good for me to pass up the opportunity to spread the love. Kinda like how Jehovah's Witnesses feel about religion, only much more awesome and hopefully less annoyingly persistent.

Also, the more amazing parts of Unlimited are in FMV sequences, which are hard as hell to get proper screencaps for. So that might be why the images are a little weak.

NeutralDrow:
Curse you for shocking me out of my complacency!

*redoubles own reviewing efforts*

It'd better! Hopefully if I worry you enough, you'll start cranking out your reviews faster.

After reading this review and your review of Chaos;Head (which I'm currently reading/playing), I think I'm a new fan of yours. I'm going to pick up... this badly named game, because I just love the gap between Extra and Unlimited as demonstrated here:

Deskimus Prime:

NO GIANT POSTS 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

Not to mention I enjoy both copious amounts of boobs AND giant robots so this should work out nicely.

Also, I was a bit amused when I saw this pop up at the bottom when I was reading your Chaos;Head review:

Easily Forgotten:
After reading this review and your review of Chaos;Head (which I'm currently reading/playing), I think I'm a new fan of yours. I'm going to pick up... this badly named game, because I just love the gap between Extra and Unlimited as demonstrated here:

Deskimus Prime:

THIS DEFINITELY ISN'T A GIANT 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

Not to mention I enjoy both copious amounts of boobs AND giant robots so this should work out nicely.

Thanks! Fans are good, always nice to be appreciated despite talking about extremely niche weird stuff like visual novels. You'd think the magic combination of boobs and giant robots would attract more people, but I guess not...

Easily Forgotten:
Also, I was a bit amused when I saw this pop up at the bottom when I was reading your Chaos;Head review:

Hah! That's pretty damn spot on; sums up the entire plot right there. How far along are you in it?

Deskimus Prime:

Easily Forgotten:
Also, I was a bit amused when I saw this pop up at the bottom when I was reading your Chaos;Head review:

Hah! That's pretty damn spot on; sums up the entire plot right there. How far along are you in it?

Sadly, my progress was corrupted when I found out the hard way about Chapter 7's problem with saving. I haven't gotten back into it fully yet, but this time around I've got a better English patch, one that includes the CGs as well. I actually forgot I had it on here until yesterday. I watched the anime, but according to the unanimous outcry from the fan threads I've read across the web, it was horribly done, which I'm starting to agree with. Very well-done game, though, I love it.

Easily Forgotten:
Sadly, my progress was corrupted when I found out the hard way about Chapter 7's problem with saving. I haven't gotten back into it fully yet, but this time around I've got a better English patch, one that includes the CGs as well. I actually forgot I had it on here until yesterday. I watched the anime, but according to the unanimous outcry from the fan threads I've read across the web, it was horribly done, which I'm starting to agree with. Very well-done game, though, I love it.

Ouch, that's rough. I must've gotten the proper patch the first time around, it had all the CGs in all their bloody glory, though it was a major pain in the ass installing. Great ending though, well worth your time if you decide to finish the job. There's always the crtl button for fast-forwarding the stuff you've already covered.

And yeah, the anime adaptation was a schizophrenic mess. Normally for Chaos;Head that'd mean it was a faithful adaptation, but it was the wrong kind of schizo... I got about 3 or four episodes in before sheer disappointment made me stop. :(

Deskimus Prime:
Ouch, that's rough. I must've gotten the proper patch the first time around, it had all the CGs in all their bloody glory, though it was a major pain in the ass installing. Great ending though, well worth your time if you decide to finish the job. There's always the crtl button for fast-forwarding the stuff you've already covered.

And yeah, the anime adaptation was a schizophrenic mess. Normally for Chaos;Head that'd mean it was a faithful adaptation, but it was the wrong kind of schizo... I got about 3 or four episodes in before sheer disappointment made me stop. :(

The anime is what made me want to read though the V-novel, just because the anime was available, and the disconnect between the main character (and his mental state) and the New Gen incidents interested me. After seeing the anime and saying "Well, that was an interesting concept but they could've done it far better" and reading all the people essentially saying what you've said, it drove me to find it so I could experience it for myself in its natural environment.

And really, the general vibe of the anime just does not fit with the story at all. Especially when they cut out a bunch of stuff (the scene where Takumi goes up onto the roof of the building, the bit with the... Darth Spider mask?) and tried to make it more standard anime fare (what with sticking to mostly "good" scenes).

I have yet to play the spiritual successor, Steins;Gate, due to a severe lack of English patching, but there's an anime version that's ongoing that I'm keeping up with, and it's pretty damn good. Different production company, though, so that's probably why.

Deskimus Prime:
Oh, don't you worry about a thing. If I can't convince people to play Alternative after I review it, I may as well just give up on reviewing altogether. It's far too good for me to pass up the opportunity to spread the love. Kinda like how Jehovah's Witnesses feel about religion, only much more awesome and hopefully less annoyingly persistent.

For once, I'm looking forward to a sermon then.

Easily Forgotten:
I have yet to play the spiritual successor, Steins;Gate, due to a severe lack of English patching, but there's an anime version that's ongoing that I'm keeping up with, and it's pretty damn good. Different production company, though, so that's probably why.

The Steins;Gate anime is indeed a whole other story from the Chaos;Head one. Apparently it'll be 24 episodes, so there'll be more time to go into detail (which is kind of necessary in this genre).

Maybe the story is better too. Objectively, I weren't that impressed with the Chaos;Head one (too much big bad company and techno-bable around), but I found that the game - through time for detail, good writing, interactivity, and magic Nitro+ pixie dust - succeeds in really putting you in head of the protagonist, immersing you in it despite its flaws that way around, thereby making for a solid experience anyway.

Easily Forgotten:
I have yet to play the spiritual successor, Steins;Gate, due to a severe lack of English patching, but there's an anime version that's ongoing that I'm keeping up with, and it's pretty damn good. Different production company, though, so that's probably why.

Imperator_DK:
The Steins;Gate anime is indeed a whole other story from the Chaos;Head one. Apparently it'll be 24 episodes, so there'll be more time to go into detail (which is kind of necessary in this genre).

I'm very much hoping someone picks up Steins;Gate to translate; from all accounts it's a much better game, and you mentioned the anime adaptation seems to be pretty damn good on its own merits. Hopefully the anime will make people interested enough to give it a fan-translation, or (best case scenario) Nitro+/5pb decide to cash in on it and do it themselves.

Unfortunately, because I'm neurotic like that, I don't want to watch it before playing the game on the off chance the adaptation is worse and spoils the plot without having any impact. Or maybe it'll be better and I'll end up slogging through the VN for a mediocre rendition.

Gah, I can't handle this kind of complicated decision!

Deskimus Prime:
Unfortunately, because I'm neurotic like that, I don't want to watch it before playing the game on the off chance the adaptation is worse and spoils the plot without having any impact. Or maybe it'll be better and I'll end up slogging through the VN for a mediocre rendition.

Gah, I can't handle this kind of complicated decision!

I'm suffering a bit of this indecisiveness already, having watched 8 of the 9 broadcasted episodes thus far. The problem for me is that Wikipedia lacks a spoiler tag, and the synopsis of the story gives away what's going to happen.

...So I'm stuck in a place where I don't want to spoil the game by watching the anime, and I can't look up when it starts getting into the really spoiler-heavy bits because the only place I know of to look it up is spoiling the game from the get-go.

The anime is definitely making me hope that it gets (officially or fan-, I don't care) translated soon so I can read it. I'm a bit of a time-travel fan, and I like the time-travel theory they're basing the story off of.

EDIT: Whoops, broke the quote tag. Fixed it.

Easily Forgotten:
I'm suffering a bit of this indecisiveness already, having watched 8 of the 9 broadcasted episodes thus far. The problem for me is that Wikipedia lacks a spoiler tag, and the synopsis of the story gives away what's going to happen.

...So I'm stuck in a place where I don't want to spoil the game by watching the anime, and I can't look up when it starts getting into the really spoiler-heavy bits because the only place I know of to look it up is spoiling the game from the get-go.

The anime is definitely making me hope that it gets (officially or fan-, I don't care) translated soon so I can read it. I'm a bit of a time-travel fan, and I like the time-travel theory they're basing the story off of.

Heh, I'm pretty bad for that. It's almost an instinctive reaction for me to look up whatever I'm playing/watching on TvTropes, which generally ends up spoiling the hell out of whatever it is. I managed to hold off when I was playing the Muv-Luv series - good thing too, the sequel gets really plot-intensive and even mentions of certain elements are themselves spoilers. Makes reviewing it a pain in the rectum if I can't even mention why it's so great...

Oh, and it features a fair bit of (involuntary) time travel, parallel universes and all that good stuff.

Deskimus Prime:
...
I'm very much hoping someone picks up Steins;Gate to translate; from all accounts it's a much better game, and you mentioned the anime adaptation seems to be pretty damn good on its own merits. Hopefully the anime will make people interested enough to give it a fan-translation, or (best case scenario) Nitro+/5pb decide to cash in on it and do it themselves.

Unfortunately, because I'm neurotic like that, I don't want to watch it before playing the game on the off chance the adaptation is worse and spoils the plot without having any impact. Or maybe it'll be better and I'll end up slogging through the VN for a mediocre rendition.

Gah, I can't handle this kind of complicated decision!

Even if a translation was announced - and there doesn't seem to be any indication of it, as few(er) fan translators will touch new Nitro+ titles now JAST has struck up a partnership with them, and JAST will probably take their sweet time getting to it acquiring it (now that I know Demonbane's age, I'm guessing Nitro+ is offloading their older titles first) - it'd still be 1-2 years before it came out. So I've taken my chances with the anime, and haven't been disappointed so far.

Though again, since what pulled me into Chaos;Head or Hanachirasu wasn't so much the story as how it was handled, I'll undoubtedly play the Stein;Gate VN regardless, should it ever arrive.