Super quick review today as I’m on the road. And because I am on the road, I am amusing myself with listening to Drama CDs and playing games, because I left my library book on the plane. ^_^;;

So, while I was in transit, the Revue Starlight RE Live game dropped in English. And here I am, pushing buttons almost completely randomly and have gotten all the characters I want, killed a lot of faceless baddies, watched the new characters interact, increased their skills and bonded with the characters, gotten a bunch of original characters, increased skills, developed bonds, bought items, decorated my theater (by adding a tea service), collected Memories,  and a host of other shit I that I’m doing because the game tells me to. ^_^

I only recently attempted to play a game similar to the level of complexity to all the stuff here and gave up as I do when it added one too many thing to do, so I got bored doing the same thing repatedly for very little dopamine. As you know, I’m not the audience for this kind of thing. But…I was trying to give this game a fair chance. After three days, I’m still pushing buttons mostly randomly, but since one of the things you can collect is music, I’m still playing.

Visually, this game is very appealing. I was able to draw most of the characters I care about almost immediately from the gatcha. The fight scenes, which can be played automatically, aren’t engaging – but as I don’t care about the fighting and only do it progress in the main game, that’s fine with me. I enjoy watching the characters fighting techniques and the “revue climax” attacks.  I also like the moments spent with the characters in the “school” tab. I’m less interested in the three new schools that have been added, but as the story develops we find that the Seisho girls have ties to the other schools, which makes the inter-school battles more fraught.

You know me well enough to know that I wouldn’t bother with reviewing this if there was no Yuri and there actually kinda is. Tucked here and there in the conversations, there are tidbits. Because the game allows you to focus on various characters of your choosing, I’ve happily prioritized Junna and Banana and Claudine and Maya over Karen and Hikari, which has lead me to see some interesting conversations, including one where Mahiru tells Maya that she feels about Hikari the same way Maya feels about Claudine, at which point, I shouted “Gotcha!” And while I don’t care about the game, particularly, I know in my heart – and in the doujinshi I bought in February at Melonbooks – that Junna and Banana are a couple. A bunch of us also noted that Junna also has tendency to quote Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman in the middle of her dialogue. If she adds a Sappho quote, I will be so happy. ^_^

There are a few other one-sided romances at the other schools too, Mei Fan is in love with Akira, at Siegfeld, and Rui has a crush on Tamao at Rinmeikan.

The game being fully voiced – including the new characters – is a big draw for me. The attacks are awesome and I’m holding out for the final theme. But I don’t know how long I’ll last. I’ve manged level 5 in 3 days, but as soon as I start losing, I’ll give up. I know me. If I do, I’ll just go back to the other book I brought – Yoshiya Nobuko’s Ban-sensei (伴先生).

In the meantime here’s the official game trailer. If you decide to play, look me up at ID: 6783247580, I can use the Friend Points…I think.

Ratings:

Visuals – 9
Characters – 9
Gameplay – 5 It doesn’t need us
Raddom buton-clicking – 10 The menu helpfully tells you to click things, so you don’t miss something important, like getting a gift of Umeboshi that has no purpose. Oh, look at that, it has a purpose. Who knew the girls liked Umeboshi so much.

Overall – 8

Revue Starlight RE Live has held my attention for 3 days! That may be a record.

I loathe Kaoruko even more now. Ugggghhh.