I bought Norn9: Var Commons during my Christmas shopping spree. I had read a little bit about the game online and even before that, what caught my attention was the cover art. I guess you can say I'm very materialistic in this manner. I like things that look good to me..... in the beginning anyway. I knew this game was an Otome game and when I hear that term, Hakuoki comes to mind. Otome games are mostly geared toward women and the player normally is surrounded by hot men who you have your pick of. Depending on your actions in the game, you become closer to one of the men from the group.
Norn9 takes this same formula and mixing things up. You have your pick of three different female characters and then you have your pick of three male characters associated with that character. You are not allowed to chose whatever male character you want right off the bat though. You have to play as whoever male characters are unlocked then when you play through their story, A new guy's story will be unlocked. I was very frustrated by this so I ended up playing as Kakeru with Seri being my leading man. The main goal of the game is to increase your affection meter toward your leading man. As the game progresses through its chapters you will be presented with various choices that will increase your affection meter if you choose the correct choice. Some choices are also timed to make the game a little more tricky so I suggest to be ready for these instances. If your affection meter is not high enough by the last chapter that will result in a bad ending. Getting a bad and good endings are ok because you want to experience both and it will unlock the screen shot in your gallery. I got the bad ending and was not happy but I see what I did wrong. This game is setup to be played many times but i'm interested in playing it a second time at this moment.
Norm9's plot seems like a simple one at first. A 12 year old boy is whisked away to another world where he is then taken aboard a ship that contains other people from different parts of the world with abilities. They're being commanded by a divine entity called THE WORLD, to be placed in different parts of the world with the sole purpose of stopping a war that is about to break out. This game is presented in novel like format where you just read and watch the action unfold until the choice option comes up. If your a reader like me then this will not be a problem for you. I know these types of games are not for everyone and that's fine by me. You also have the options to open your menu, save your game, re-listen to certain lines, and check your affection meter. Each character in the game has a voice actor but all the diolouge is in Japanese which is a love it or hate it for some people. Your opinion is your opinion and I'm not getting involved with that debate. I'm interested in the language so this was a neat experience for me. My displeasure for this fact comes in with the way some of the characters were voiced. More like the volume at which Seri would talk to be precise. There were times that I really had to strain myself to hear him. I also tried turning up the volume on my console and he still speaks like his voice was done in his throat. I learned after I completed his story that you can increase the volume of characters voices in the settings menu.(This must have been made with Seri in mind....)
The art and music of Norn9 is its best feature. Each landscape and character design was done with a fantasy feel. Be ready for the music to get stuck in your head as my mind keeps re-playing certain tracks. Everything from seeing the different places in the ship to the outside world looks like its contents could just suck you into their world. The colors used for the sky scene were just breathtaking as well as the cut scenes of romance with your guy. All of this was eye candy overloaded.
My biggest problem with this game is it takes along time to get anywhere. The character's are enjoyable but it feels like the game tries too hard to have just the right amount of romance with a very deep storyline. I actually started wondering at one point if the story would ever take my character off the ship. The storyline I played was a deep one and it had a good emotional value for my character and the leading man. It was just kinda of boring until your romance starts really blooming and the story gets to the main conflict. Lighthearted conversation is good too but don't depend on just that to progress a story such as this. Mind you, I haven't played all of the characters and Im sure there are more pieces to this story but like I stated above, I don't have the interest to play ALL of the characters at this moment. Maybe in the future. It is nice to know I have a game to come back to if I'm having a slow day.
If you want a novel in the form of a game with a little of your input added in, Norn9: Var Commons is for you. I feel like this game showed me that the choices I make in relationships can be selfish at times. That bad ending was a wake up call that I didn't need.
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| THANKS FOR READING!!!! (^.^) |
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