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| More like Lunar Legend infodumpTM. |
Genre: VN.
Unfortunately due to Arqueid and/or Ciel being the way she is the writer tends to get away with a lot
There's only has two routes Arcueid and Ciel, the latter is second play only
Developer/publisher: Typemoon.
Platform: PS4,switch.
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v17909
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v17909
Release date: 27-6-2024
I decided Tsukihime remake would be my next game as I wanted to try it... since I liked MahoYo.
This version of tsukihime is a remake of the original, I am well aware that it is
a partial remake but nevertheless I decided to buy and play it now.
Sadly I didn't really like this game as much as I would have liked
but it is definitely not the worst urban fantasy VN i've laid my eyes upon.
Rather it feels like this game just wants you to be upset or get angry with its MC.
Pro's
- Interesting setting and complex characters.
- For a story that includes the supernatural, its solid.
- High production values but the quality of CG's varied.
Grey area
- MC is difficult to like yet by the end of the 2nd route he had a full stamp card of pity points.
Con's
- Strong violence and horror. Did I mention gore? (Could be a grey area but yea...)
- Comparing the scene presentation to MahoYo, same style yet Tsukihime at times felt basic.
- Some CG's never get added to the gallery, I couldn't find Ciel's umbrella CG.
The opening doesn't play till you land on a character route
which isn't till 5 hours depending on your reading speed.
Both routes have their own opening but I will only link Arc's.
I wasn't as hooked to this unlike MahoYo and thus didn't enjoy it as much
but what I won't deny is that it was for the most part pretty well written
its just overstayed its welcome for me, I am really sorry! it ain't for me.
Not much of note happened till Arqueid shows up something
happened that made me do a record scratch *freeze* frame moment.
At that point the game utterly disgusted me because of what happened.
That aside everything else was interesting enough I pressed on, I have to say
from then on I started to feel constantly on edge and didn't like Shiki as much as before.
The MC Shiki is a broken guy who just tries to live but despite the advice he got from
his master, he just barely seem to hold himself to it almost as if its a silver lining.
Sure he has regrets of something really bad he did, you're given that choice
but the rest of the game just made me nervous because he's quite unstable mentally.
Shiki gets what he deserves when he gets roped into the stuff surrounding Arqueid
and there were some bad ends where I was like yea he had it coming.
It isn't like till later on in Ciel's route that I understood why the heck Shiki did what he did
and I just started to really get as to what was going on. Honestly I didn't think the plot
was badly written and for a story about vampires its not bad just... once again not my thing.
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| Had this been any other VN it would probably be romantic but this is Tsukihime... |
In terms of other characters; I didn't care much for his sister Akiha, she looked too much
like an Aoko clone but not as snarky. It wasn't untill later I saw her as her own character.
I found Akiha to be too much like a girlboss which would make Arcueid the gatekeeper.
Arihiko was funny at times but he looked too much
like Shirou from Fate except he's like a delinquent version...
I liked Kohaku but Hisui was a bit too stoic and/or deadpan to me but she gets better
its just I could never get too invested in them in this game which like Akiha is probably intended.
Arcueid would be fine she's fun, For Ciel it felt like there was more to her than meets the eye but
she is definitely best girl. I disliked Noel though as much as most of the girls at Shiki's school.😅
Noel also got worse as Ciel's route progressed which did not help... at all.
I loved Mario and his potty mouth though, easily the best side character.
The rest? too much of makes an appearance thus I forgot them because of infodumps.
Honestly I kept playing mostly for Arcueid and I didn't really care for Shiki as much.
Because I didn't do any of Ciel's events in the common route on my first play
she was also sort of just there, later on she becomes a bit more interesting
but when I started her route, I couldn't help but think she's a bit too perfect...
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| Me when I think about the story in this game. |
I did start to wonder why was this game even popular? because its violence? unhinged mc?
shock value? or because it was typemoon's first ever work before they got big from fate.
I mean Tsukihime started out as an unprofessional doujin, not many would probably try nowadays
unless you're super invested in nasu's works. Now what would happen if you turn that doujin
into a professional work? while fleshing out all the added lore it got via a fighting game no less.
I think the latter is why Tsukihime got popular, its Arcueid that carries it hard. Tsukihime is
likely aimed at people who tolerate these themes, I find it hard to get into it because sure
there's a good plot here but its buried beneath layers of lore which gets dumped on you in parts.
Anyways what I really liked about Tsukihime was Arcueid as a character and Ciel.
I didn't really care as much with the protagonist but I could sympathize with him a little.
Tsukihime looked like a normal visual novel and for the most part it just loves gore&blood
about as much as Virche evermore. Maybe I should have done more
research before I started this but that wasn't the worst of it.
While the beginning hours gave time for the reader to settle in and get familiar
with most characters while exploring the setting in great detail. If not for that i'd
probably have dropped it. In chapter 3 it took its first nose dive. It reminded me of when
I tried to watch Elfen Lied and then suddenly things get super gory like with cut-off body parts.
I know this game warns the player about disturbing content
when booting it up but I didn't expect it to be like that.
Gonna say I can stomach some violence now, I didn't even mind what happened to Shinji
in the second heaven's feel movie but Tsukihime takes everything to another level.
Now this wasn't actually what bothered me, I can get past the violence and gorewhat I didn't like was the dragged out battles and infodumps. There was almost an hour
of vampire lore for dummies moment nvm the fight against the guy itself. 💀💀💀
Which was just so drawn out and felt like some stuff from dragon ball like it
kept going and going. You know what's funny about the early infodumping? not even
Shiki understood all of it so I guess I could relate to his single working braincell.
Okay you beat this vampire guy but here comes shota saber and dumps his church lore
right before the chapter ends while I was already tired from everything beforehand
and that is just an example of how this game does things especially in Ciel's route.
Like in Arc's route Shiki would just sleep but in Ciel's he fucking wakes up and goes to read
which leads to a convenient infodump and thinking about it just makes me hysteric.😂
It was important later but god damn this game is so messy...
Despite that there was some hilarity amidst it all to be found, not on the same level as MahoYo
but I generally did like most Shiki and Arqueid scenes despite the former being a dick.
That's putting it nicely, like Shiki can be sensible but more often than not he's just an idiot.
Like he doesn't need to be a Shirou, that's not the point I have to try really hard to find
good points about Shiki and when I think he's okay the guy ruins it yet again. SIGH.
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| Yea fuck you Shiki. |
because it doesn't matter how much they gets hurt. If Shiki was a LI in an otome game
he's a failure of a man. Sorry but imma roast this guy like Aoko would.
---
System wise it is pretty much a straight-forward VN with some choices that could
lead to a bad end of which there are 21 in total. There's a hint corner as well
so you pretty much won't need a guide if you follow the advice.
The flowchart was good but you couldn't use it to quickly get bad ends
as there would be no choices so best advice I can give is manually save a lot
especially at the start of a chapter. So if you get hit with a delayed bad end
you can easily get back to somewhere to fix that.
so basically you will have to play it twice but Ciel's route felt more like it was some
alternative route going deeper. Also I thought I was tripping but i'm pretty sure some
early scenes ch5/6 stayed the same with some slight differences here or there because
you were with Ciel instead of Arc. There was definitely some copypasta because
there were numerous occasions where I saw dialogue I knew I read before but couldn't
skip cuz the scene was a tad different which is nothing unusual it just got on my nerves in
Ciel's extra end since they also would love to show the same scene prior
from another perspective which changed nothing.😑
Also I didn't really play this game till I was sure I have atleast two hours I could
spend on it as I don't like leaving the scenario hanging in some awkward spot
like in the middle of a infodump or epic fight scene and this game had a few of those.
Chapter length was quite inconsistent, Arc's route was relatively short overall but
it got worse in Ciel's route due to being full of infodumps and just longer in general.
Ciel's ch13/14 took me three sesssions to get through it was insanely long...
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| Glad I took this screenshot while playing cuz this shot was not in the gallery. |
TL;DR: Tsukihime was a solid urban fantasy with high production values
but if you can't stand strong violence,gore, vampire themes, horror and a lot of infodumping
I don't recommend it. I loved some of the characters and the setting was interesting
but it was simply too long for its own good. Plus some of the material at times
just did not make me feel good, so while I kept in mind what I liked
that honestly won't matter if the material just makes me uncomfortable.
This is also one of the few VN's where I didn't like the protagonist much which didn't help.
Half of it was due to the Roa BS but even then he only turns out OK thanks to one of the girls.
Looking back at MahoYo, this VN didn't have as good as a scene direction except for fight scenes
and the art/cg varied greatly in quality. While MahoYo would put characters to the side or use
half a sprite, Tsukihime still did this but mostly I was looking at full sprites or zoomed in sprites.
In the average scenes more often than not I thought it would be better with text boxes
than text over busy backgrounds. Much like FF7 remake it ends up being longer than
the original some of it could be in a good way but 60 hours for only 2 routes?
while the original was 40h average with all routes? yea they padded this one out.
By the time it was over it felt like a relief... cuz at times it seemed like to never end.
Though if you like Nasu's work and don't mind the above or my complaints then sure
Tsukihime might be another cake for you to dig into! but it may not be for everyone
so don't feel bad if you cannot get into this game, there's an audience but its not for all.
To me however Tsukihime a piece of blue glass moon is a FINE dumpster fire. A solid 6.3/10
its just a classic that I personally, while I tried just couldn't enjoy as much.
More rambles after the jump but there's not much to write about honestly.
I did try to write out my thoughts about both routes, so if you don't
want spoilers just stop reading here. I probably wrote too much but this
game also had a whole lot of stuff to unpack so it kind of checks out.
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There aren't really any guides outside of one for the ps4 version, Ive played blind
till I hit my first bad end which wasn't till chapter 9. You don't really need a guide
as it has a really good flow chart so you can easily go back to where you were. I will say
there are some moments that could trick the player so if you want to avoid all bad ends
r get them later, I recommend the psnprofiles guide.
Playing blind will make it much more suspenseful so pick your poison I guess.
---
So about the bad ends I managed to avoid except two in chapter 9...😅
I think if you make reasonable choices and not reckless ones it should be okay.😌
There is a trick choice in chapter 4 I believe where you have to be a bit ballsy.
Anyway my first bad end was only because curiosity got the better of me, I started getting this
was a bad choice feelings almost immediately after the choice. upon getting bad end they try to
close them off with a lighthearted bonus episode, little miss ciel that act like tips. They're
are actually tied to the bad end you just got. I liked how it assumed this wasn't my first
but there were a bunch that said this is likely your first so it depends on how you play really.
-
In Ciel's route I just decided to the bad ends except if they were delayed and used the guide.
I did have to replay a bit of Arc's route to get missing ones. Most of them are fitting
like you actually just made some poor decicions but there were a few dumb ones
like in the battle with Vlov. I actually picked the right option there the first time
so it was even worse to sit through the two bad choices. The game does
at times trick you so don't feel bad if you actually got one or two bad ends
the way the game tried to help the player + lift the mood was well done.
Honestly when I actually wanted to get bad ends I was more in the mood
for the funny Ciel episodes than the actual landmines.😄
Arcueid.
I thought Shiki was okay at the start but that sorta changed from Ch3 onwards.
It seems he's sensible and I understand he's also a teenager but man I had trouble
liking Shiki, still by the end of chapter 11 actually shipped them. Oops!
that scene terrible to sit through. Afterwards they parted and made up
but then it just wrecked itself like a train. The villain/final boss was
an absolute cockroach which didn't help and made everything worse.
Romance wise Arc remind me of myself; liking some 2d dude who's obviously no angel
but still loving them anyway. Storywise they made it so clear it can never be but atleast
she's alive and so is Shiki who's content with that(no he isn't) but what can he do about it?
absolutely nothing, it felt like this route lacked a proper epilogue and instead got
a rushed 20 minute scene that acted like a bandaid to make it bittersweet.
but it wouldn't have worked out either way! so whatever. Sadly I found out
that in the original there's another ending and even the manga
managed to add to it somehow so I don't understand why they couldn't
give Arc an alternative end here. Why give her the short end of the stick?!
Knowing that it kinda leaves me unsatisfied since i'm going to have to look
elsewhere, also for some reason they gave manga Shiki more depth as well??!!
Ya gotta say 30 hours of reading a VN for an ending like that? smh.
Its like they gave Arc the saber fate/stay night experience.
I wasn't sure what was up with Arc occasionally having cat/fox ears but it was likely
for comedic effect, I wouldn't call her a tsundere but she did have potential.
doesn't even full show all there is to her character, what I saw here I liked
but there's much more layers to Arcueid. You could say in her own route she felt flat.
I didn't feel particularly sad at the ending maybe I was just numb from it all
after sitting through the game for 30 hours already so I was perhaps relieved it was over.
5/10
~
Ciel.
She appears to be just a third year but then just kinda disappears only to reappear later in
Arcueid's route to infodump and disapearing again without much to elaborate.
Most of Ciel's common route events were pretty fun, I didn't see them the first time I played
which actually made it kinda boring. I liked her personality but she did seem kind of too perfect?
she's kind and forgiving which makes sense considering she is a secret agent/nun of the church.
Sadly this route had a capture restriction so I couldn't take many screenshots
after Ciel's route OP played, yea she gets her own anime OP.
I liked the scenes after the events in ch3 a lot more in Ciel's route than in Arc's
because we already know someones not dead and... there's more to it.
To get on Ciel's route you must accept that it happened which added to Shiki's self-loathing.
Ciel doesn't know what happened but believes he will be able to atone if he wants
cuz all humans sin, its up to the individual to decide how to live/deal with that.
All in all, the common route events with Ciel were pretty fun but I found
her to be written too much like she was the perfect girl... with a hidden side.
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| For some reason this CG didn't appear in the gallery for me... thank god I could screenshot. |
as I don't like her and found most of the scenes she had with Shiki terrible.
Even after her backstory I couldn't care cuz she simple got worse as the route went on.💀
Other than that it felt like an alternative take for when you don't stay with Arcueid.
Shiki already feels indebted to Ciel due to her lending him a hand while he was
a sack of potatoes,so romance wise I could see it a little better than with Arc.
In Ciel's route the infodumping was at its worst, first time I felt this
was the fight with Vlov. Ciel had to fight him because this route
is an alternative path and he was still running amok. Now this isn't the issue
but Ciel apparently had a suit of armor so the 3rd person narration goes into
great detail as to what it is. Why thank you... due to this I sometimes lost track
if it was Shiki who was saying this or an invisible force explaining stuff.
Its like Nasu didn't have a word count as every ending ended up being longer than the other.💀
Some other things I disliked from Ciel's route would be early scenes here or there
would be eerily similar to Arc's route with some differences because of Ciel that changed
the narrative a little. Some scenes like this would be Mario infodump at the end of ch5 and
early ch6 are the biggest offenders but it doesn't stop there. Of course there are significant
changes between both routes and Ciel turns into a new path but I couldn't help but notice
that no matter what, Akiha will drop her tea cup on purpose.
Ch9 was the straw that broke the camel's back, not only is there infodumping
it did so thrice so it seemed like it would never end... which later on did not get better.
Shiki had to choose between them. Arc's more on Shiki's mind is fitting cuz of
the repeated flashback, he likes her but he also likes Ciel. Sadly Arc hates Ciel...
and they can't stand eachother so it really set itself up for a rivalry. Shiki seemed
to be fond of both and couldn't choose so it was like one or the other
and Shiki tried to make them work together like the idiot he is, Noel just made it worse
cuz the shit with Roa wasn't enough and turned it into a total dumpster fire. 💀💀💀
So while the romance was better a lot of it was lost between infodumping and bitch fighting.
I know Shiki has it rough but man... truly the worst protagonist i've recently laid my eyes upon.
His personality could be better and the situation he is in is absolutely awful
and everything that happened in the ending(s) was his own fault.
Honestly I couldn't even tell whether Arc or Ciel was better or worse than the other
why not both? both is good? that's probably what Shiki thinks so I guess we share braincells!
but honestly I will take Ciel in this route cuz Arc lost her chill.💀(not her fault)
Overall Ciel's route was much more fleshed out and made more sense of the overall story!
The chemistry between Ciel and Shiki made the romance much more believable than in
Arcueid's route. Still I think it did overstay its welcome and I got tired of the huge infodumps.
There's also two endings, the 1st is a tragic one and the other is a true end
but what really killed this route for me was Arcueid trying to hijack it
and Shiki not making up his mind. Like calm your tits this wasn't your route.
I hated how Fey's route was hijacked in Matsurika and I hate it here as well.
To add fuel to the fire Ciel doesn't even get a kiss CG..... (only in text) maybe I have been spoiled
by otome games but I really don't like it when in a romance game you leave one to bite the dust
especially after the other heroine takes up her screentime since Arc threw a hissy fit
cuz Shiki had to slice her throat. Holy shit absolute trainwreck.
6.5/10
~Final Thoughts?!
of tsukihime was still fun but it just turned into a trainwreck near the end.
The overall plot intrigue was good and its pretty much on the same level as MahoYo
or the fate series except I did not at all care for the horror/blood, gore elements or shock value.
A little blood because of fighting is honestly fine but this had stuff which was... not my thing.💀
It felt like they purposely write characters very OP so they can have them go through
more horrifying shit and at the same time also make them weak just so some antagonist
can stomp on them while also letting the hero chime in. I never watched the anime as I heard
it was bad, compared to god eater atleast this had volume so they probably rushed it.
You know this game was like diabolik lovers except instead of the LI being shit
it was the protagonist, worst of all he doesn't even know why he did what he did for
a good majority of the game. Most of it gets blamed on impulse OMG which is just lame as heck
and removes zero acountability. Shiki also almost rapes Arc which when I think back on it
killed any good vibes I previously had nvm how it just casually moves past that like
it didn't happen! I ended up liking Arqueid more than Shiki so idk what that says.
I finished Arc's route at 30 hours and looking back the only thing I liked was Arc's character
sure Shiki's backstory among other things was interesting but it was just not very
satisfying romance wise due to numerous factors.
Worst of all Arc doesn't have a best end in this game so you have to go read the manga.
Either way I pressed on, I landed on Ciel's route and I actually was able to enjoy
the romance better there, like right from the exclusive common route Ciel scenes
the chemistry between Shiki and her was good. I could see why
he fell for her which was not the case for me in Arc's route.
Arc also does get more screentime in Ciel's route to the point she stole the spotlight.........
more like she tried to hijack the route from Ciel which wasn't funny.
Tsukihime's overall length made MahoYo look modest, early on I couldn't tell if it was
any good and even then when I finished Arc's route I was so mixed like that's it?
atleast Ciel's route 2nd ending ended on a good enough note.
I also found out the original wasn't even that gory so I don't even understand the logic
to make it worse than it was. The MC Shiki has major issues and after CH3 I never really
vibed with him, the writing makes it look better cuz the victim wasn't human and Shiki
sort reaped what he sowed by being brought into Arc's mess. Next near the end
of Ciel's route it gets nasty and I just could barely give a shit anymore.
Shiki gets some meager pity points for even being in this situation
but for some of the bad ends I think he absolutely deserved the shit he gets
because all of the shit in the endings of Ciel is his fault anyways.
This game was so long, I realize I don't like it when routes are 30 hours, 60 if we count both.
It long overstayed its welcome for me... there's such a thing as too short but you don't have
to padd it out so much the reader could get tired and overloaded with information dumps.
When the credits rolled for the extra ending I felt nothing but relief that it was over, anything I
enjoyed had already passed anyways. Its also been a good while since this game came out in japan.
I know a sequel is teased but I feel like I have had my fill of Tsukihime with this game.
6.3/10
I wanted to like this game but Tsukihime just did a lot of things that put me off.
From the unhinged MC to the draggy fights & info dumps. I liked MahoYo much more than... this.
I'm sorry I can't be that positive about it. Anyway its good to try things to figure out
if you like it and sometimes you don't and it simply is not for you.
There's definitely an audience for Tsukihime but its not me.
What's next? atelier yumia! I saw the ancient magus bride will get a VN that's a
sidestory to the main series so there's that to look forward to as well!
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