Review for Muv-Luv Alternative. Game for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the video game was released on 24/02/2006 The version for PC came out on 30/09/2016
When we talk about Visual Novel in the West, everyone thinks of a lot of words and a lot of porn. And if you don't think about porn, you head towards typically slice of life contexts, with erogenous elements and many beautiful girls who revolve around the protagonist, from childhood friends to the mysterious aristocrat to end up in the "trap". Have you ever thought you could go, within the same title, from such an abused situation to a sci-fi dystopia with aliens, death and robots? No? Deluded.
Muv-Luv is a Japanese franchise born in the early 2000s with two Visual Novels, Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative, released three years after each other on PC, to then receive animated transpositions, manga and, only after some time, western localizations of the original titles. Only recently have the titles arrived on PlayStation Vita, which remains a great means of recovering this genre of titles.
To say that it is a successful series, at least in Japan, is an understatement and, despite the seniority it carries on its shoulders, it is still loved and appreciated by fans of the genre and is normally considered a "must-play" for those starting to play the Visual Novels. In the past few days we have dealt with the first two narrative arcs, Muv-Luv Extra and Unlimited. Here, however, we want to close the circle by telling you our on Alternative.
An alternative world
We find ourselves in the same historical context as the previous titles: Shirogane Takeru is a normal high school student who has suddenly found himself teleported into a world where the human race is in constant struggle with the aliens who have invaded the earth, called BETA. Takeru, after the initial loss, decides to serve as a soldier, along with his five comely teammates. At the end of Unlimited, following the official defeat of mankind, a plan of salvation of the species is put in place in which about one hundred thousand people are rescued on a spaceship, while the rest of humanity is left to die on earth.
About three years later, Takeru wakes up in his room and realizes he's gone back in time to the very beginning of Unlimited. Not wanting to accept what happened to Earth, he decides to use all his physical abilities and knowledge to try to change the fate of the human race. We stop here in telling you the plot, because continuing to deepen could be considered spoilers.
The narrative of Alternative is a bit slow to start, the first two chapters are slightly subdued and struggle to mesh. The initial part is for newcomers to the series to be introduced to a mass of notions and characters launched as quickly and accurately as possible, but it also serves veterans to re-enter the life context of our protagonists.
But when we reach the end of the second chapter, everything changes. A series of (almost all) literally disconcerting revelations come to slip one after the other. The tension that is felt from the beginning continues to grow in a whirlwind of intrigues, journeys between worlds, battles between mecha, death and desolation. Muv-Luv Alternative is the perfect climax of an intricate and complex story, at the end of which everything is explained and nothing is left to chance.
One last thing to underline is the greater linearity of the title. The choices to be made and the routes to be taken will be fewer than in the previous chapters, giving more space to the narrative of the real world and less to the characters. In this precise case, however, we don't feel like considering it a defect, but something necessary.
Back in time
As we already explained at the beginning of this review, the Muv-Luv franchise was not born today. The original titles date back to 2003 for the first two arches, while Alternative was released in 2006 in Japan. You will understand that on an artistic and technical level, the standards are from that period. Although not despicable, the settings and their backgrounds are repeated over and over and are sparse and bare. The sprites of the characters, on the other hand, while reflecting the standards of the time, are more detailed and captivating.
Animations are always “of the time”, or presumed such, while the sound sector sometimes manages to surprise, emphasizing with emphasis some distressing situations with a more than discreet dubbing and apt music. Despite everything, obviously on an artistic level it is definitely superior to the first two arches.
Muv-Luv Alternative therefore suffers from a western localization that has come too late, which makes it seem like something old and withered, when in reality it has a lot to offer. Appearances are deceiving and even too much at times.
Muv-Luv Alternative is the more than worthy conclusion of a story that, despite the purely slice of life beginning and devoid of actual content, has managed to reinvent itself and create a terribly captivating and distressing universe. Too bad for the terribly late arrival in western land, which does not make you appreciate what at the time was certainly an excellent technical sector, but which now tastes like an old man. It remains an excellent Visual Novel that fans of the genre must recover.
► Muv-Luv Alternative is an Adventure type game published by 5PB for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the video game was released on 24/02/2006 The version for PC came out on 30/09/2016
