Review of Senren＊Banka

I knowing Yuzusoft as a popular galgame studio among fans, Senren＊Banka is actually I my first rendezvous with them. Though it is not so bad as "boring" (comment from my friend), I cannot give a appraisal higher than "a classic upper-middle level galgame".

Finding no important message worth spreading but having had many random thoughts, I schemed to write something comprehensive, put it to practice but soon gave it up. I still would rather discuss certain profound topic, treating the content of game as actually a material for my discussion, than itemize my perspectives from different angles. And... I promise to myself that I will never waste time like that again.

Admittedly, Senren＊Banka won many awards for a reason that its complex setting amazed me; its vivacious music impressed me (I would have downloaded it if I had not been that stubborn for non-Latin characters); its painting style was cute and acceptable; its script was full of linguistic jokes and cultural thoughts; its narration was well-decorated with dramatic confilcts. I, however, always put plot constrction and characterization above other evaluation dimensions.

It is a habit of mine to only do the mutiple-choice question once when enjoying a branched story like this and I intended to follow the given responsibility called "Yoshino Tomotake" this time. However, Yuzusoft taught me a lesson called "never let go of your girl for even a bit" that I found myself in the storyline with Miss Lena Liechtenauer when awared.

Thanks to Yuzusoft's capability of wielding branched story to fulfill the description, I made it to finish the stories with four heroines without being tired. I may sadly conclude these with a "Lena >= Yoshino > Murasame > Mako" order. Brisk and sly Miss Mako Hitachi did attract me and her discussion of "heroine, supporting role and machine" was almost profound. However, some ridiculously designed coincidences ruined it all, making the entire story branch a patchwork of logical development and absurd drama. Storyline with Miss Liechtenauer was with tauter storytelling, fuller background introduction and clearer message spreading while that with Tomotake-sama showed us an more attractive girl with struggle and her growth.

When I looked back after my 15-hour playtime, I could not help thinking about the key role of our hero in these stories. With Miss Liechtenauer's storyline being an only exception, Mr. Masaomi Arichi is always acting as an icebreaker of our heroines' life, a savior-like game changer. It seemed that he was the chosen one to save Tomotake-sama from self-doubting; to save Hitachi-san from being machine; to save Miss Murasame Tomotake from the thick loneliness of centuries. The choice of salvation is also the choice of damnation. It is painful to see other two girls trapped in their destiny in each of the branches, making me question myself about my competence of doing this mutiple-choice question.

I am not suggesting that this game should be adapted to a harem version, though it could be a solution under this framework, lol. I am asking question about what Arichi-san had done. Was his salving also kind of taking advantage? Was it a psychological trick, a scribble on an innocent piece of paper or a blasphemy? I do not know, and hope that such a sorrow will not choke my speaking.

by Syl & Sylvia @ 2023-01-16 19:17:25 @ Wuhan, Hanyang District
originally posted @ https://www.cnblogs.com @ 2023-01-07

Pic shot by Syl in Senren＊Banka