Morenatsu
released on May 03, 2007
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This review contains spoilers
One of my favorite Furry VN's of all time. This game is one of the first Furry VN's to gain a cult following not only in Japan but also in The U.S as well. While there are some bad aspects to this game like the entirety of Shun Kodori's route and the bad endings of Juuichi Mikazuki and Shin Kuroi's route, the good definitely outweighs the bad. This game has many fun and well written slice of life scenes that are some of my favorite and many of the routes deal with serious realistic themes like Juuichi's route for example and how he comes to terms with his sexuality and himself or Kouya's route and how he learns to be independent in a way that helps him and the people around him. Or Torahiko's route and if he wants to leave his town and his friends in order to make it big in swimming or stay in Minasato. Even though the soundtrack is entirely made up of Royalty free songs composed by Dova Syndrome or SENTIVE, the music is absolutely amazing and will always sound high quality to me. Every time I think about this VN I always get a feeling of nostalgia and nostalgia is a large theme in this VN, Spending the summer carefree with your friends, Falling in Love for the first time, Discovering your sexuality and making precious memories. This VN is a excellent example on what a slice of life furry visual novel is and without it, the furry VN scene may have never taken off in the west. If this was a number rating I would give Morenatsu a 9.6 out of 10. It gets so close to being a 10 out of 10 but there are a handful of questionable decisions that the writers made as I mentioned above.
Tatsuki >>>>
Oh no…
one of the first gay furry visual novels that managed to popularize the genre was morenatsu, the project was formed by a small group, but for reasons it was cancelled, fans took matters into their own hands by playing it, the game passed from person to person. person forming this beast of what we have now. Several furries grew up with this game and that is why I played it, the truth is that I only played 2 routes that interested me the most, Juuichi san's and the purple cat's, they were quite strange experiences that I don't know what I became to be able to enjoy the story, there was a point where I cried in Juuichi san's route because of how relatable the situation was, I hate Juuchi and never want to see him, it was the first time I cried in a video game, very strange experience. ..On the other hand, Shin's route Yes, the ending was softer and more satisfying, forced? Yes. This is a fan game for fans who tried their best to tell a good story without getting anything in return, the moments when they nail the pool make it worth watching it play, I don't recommend it, but its existence is respect a little, in short, I wish the characters the best.
one of the first gay furry visual novels that managed to popularize the genre was morenatsu, the project was formed by a small group, but for reasons it was cancelled, fans took matters into their own hands by playing it, the game passed from person to person. person forming this beast of what we have now. Several furries grew up with this game and that is why I played it, the truth is that I only played 2 routes that interested me the most, Juuichi san's and the purple cat's, they were quite strange experiences that I don't know what I became to be able to enjoy the story, there was a point where I cried in Juuichi san's route because of how relatable the situation was, I hate Juuchi and never want to see him, it was the first time I cried in a video game, very strange experience. ..On the other hand, Shin's route Yes, the ending was softer and more satisfying, forced? Yes. This is a fan game for fans who tried their best to tell a good story without getting anything in return, the moments when they nail the pool make it worth watching it play, I don't recommend it, but its existence is respect a little, in short, I wish the characters the best.
A few years back, I was made aware of a Ren'Py remake of this game which was functionally complete if equally unfinished. So why not check out the ur-text of the furry visual novel?
For all of the brief praising air that's made over works like Katawa Shoujo and The Death of Pablo, this is closer to the average chanboard project, be it image or text-based or western or non-western. But it's still on the more 'successful' half, because they managed to get past the "We'll start with the logo!"-Idea Guy stage.
What was originally concieved of as a gay parody of some popular eroge at the time or whatever. Standard japanese vacation to rural village, but this time everyone but the player is a homosexual beastman. The player is just gay, no anthro element there.
The writing is more miss than hit, in that any competent route or plot point feels accidental. Even if the last anime I watched was in 2010, many of the same archetypes are all here, with unique characterization fitting more as window dressing. Characters like Kouya and Shin have serviceable plot beats and pacing, with unique CG. And I do not have the time or patience to get into just how messy the other 6-7 characters are. Kind of like how the volunteer developers got tired of creating 8(-9?) different character routes, including the allegedly canon path. But that Morenatsu was able to be more than half complete before being dropped is something I must give credit to all of those involved. Because I doubt anybody was getting paid to create this. There were even pre-rendered FMVs for some of the endings! And the characters are public domain, so stuff like unofficial comics and the full-blown remake by western devs are fully viable.
Beyond influencing a handful of non-western and western developers to make their own work, the character artist and project lead also went on to do more in standalone art and another game. Another game that I'm also not too fond of.
For what is such an unstable foundation, it's impressive to see this inspire the amount of people it has. Still wouldn't recommend it, just not good.
For all of the brief praising air that's made over works like Katawa Shoujo and The Death of Pablo, this is closer to the average chanboard project, be it image or text-based or western or non-western. But it's still on the more 'successful' half, because they managed to get past the "We'll start with the logo!"-Idea Guy stage.
What was originally concieved of as a gay parody of some popular eroge at the time or whatever. Standard japanese vacation to rural village, but this time everyone but the player is a homosexual beastman. The player is just gay, no anthro element there.
The writing is more miss than hit, in that any competent route or plot point feels accidental. Even if the last anime I watched was in 2010, many of the same archetypes are all here, with unique characterization fitting more as window dressing. Characters like Kouya and Shin have serviceable plot beats and pacing, with unique CG. And I do not have the time or patience to get into just how messy the other 6-7 characters are. Kind of like how the volunteer developers got tired of creating 8(-9?) different character routes, including the allegedly canon path. But that Morenatsu was able to be more than half complete before being dropped is something I must give credit to all of those involved. Because I doubt anybody was getting paid to create this. There were even pre-rendered FMVs for some of the endings! And the characters are public domain, so stuff like unofficial comics and the full-blown remake by western devs are fully viable.
Beyond influencing a handful of non-western and western developers to make their own work, the character artist and project lead also went on to do more in standalone art and another game. Another game that I'm also not too fond of.
For what is such an unstable foundation, it's impressive to see this inspire the amount of people it has. Still wouldn't recommend it, just not good.
Has aged like a banana that was left in the kitchen window for four years. The sloppy writing is only partially saved by decent characters. There are so many problematic aspects that they're impossible to ignore.
As much as I will always have a certain affection for the characters, I just can't tell you that this well written. Like, at all. Also I cried for six hours after accidentally choosing the rape option on the character I like the most, so... thanks.